Noah finishes folding his parachute and loads it back into its pack while being fully alert to his surroundings. A single plane passes out of sight overhead as it begins its long flight back home.
A little nauseous from the long skydiving journey, Noah did his best to keep his lunch down while waiting to hear from Hector.
"Good luck down there, both of you." Damian says into the radio as the plane soon flies out of sight.
"Thank you Damian, I'll signal in advance when we need extraction." Hector's voice sounded on the radio, slightly choppy.
"Understood. Goodbye." Damian responded one last time before the frequency clicked signaling Damian's disconnection.
Noah gripped his carbine tightly as he began to move his way down the street he landed in. It was his first drop as a paratrooper and the long fall had made him a little queasy.
"Hector? W-What's your location?" Noah questioned into his radio, keeping his breathing steady.
"I'm on the front porch- parliament building. Where did- Noah?" Hector's voice came through, static breaking his words.
"Hector you're breaking up, say again."
"Noah-" Hector's voice called out once more before going to straight static.
Noah quickly figured that Hector was out of range and he needed to get closer. From where he landed to the parliament building was at least a few miles away and it would probably take him thirty minutes to jog the whole way there. Double checking his gear one last time, Noah began to walk down the empty streets of the great city.
Noah had landed just north of Lambeth on the east side of the River Thames, to get to Westminster where the palace stood, Noah would have to cross over the Westminster bridge which wouldn't be a problem aside from the fact that a few good parts of the bridge were blown out.
Naoh traversed the bridge carefully, being wary of the few craters and bloodied sandbag barriers, however oddly enough there were no bodies. That was odd as blood splatter stains were visible on the bridge, however there wasn't a single body in sight.
Noah pressed on as he finally made it to the other side, Big Ben still stood although the top of the clock tower was exposed as most of the covering material had been blown away. He walked up to the side of the great clock tower and reached to his ear piece.
"Hec', I'm at Big Ben and right around the corner from the parliament building. Where are you at?"
"Glad to hear you without the static. How was the fall?" Hector responds.
"If you wanna look around next time for a runway, that'd be great. I'm still a little nauseous."
Hector let's put on a smile as he wanted to laugh at Noah for his first drop nausea. Hector had been on countless air drops as he used to be a paratrooper when the war first started. The nickname for their unit originally came from other infantry and armored units who watched them fall from planes or high altitudes descending right into combat hot zones or behind enemy lines.
Sooner or later their reputation grew, bringing about the creation of their signature ballistic masks and eventually earning the nickname "High-Landers". Cole and Noah thought it was funny that the name sounded exactly like the Scottish myth, the requirement for that name was simply to be born and raised in the highland mountains. Or the old pop culture character of an immortal man who could never die unless he was beheaded. Hector wasn't even born in Scotland but the small joke still made him happy.
Hector's smile faded at the thought of the three of them together and the small happiness he felt immediately diminished.
"Hey you good?" Noah asked, derailing Hector's train of thought.
"Yeah, I'm good..." He replied shallowly.
"Something wrong?"
"No, no, nothing is wrong. Just let me know when you're close." Hector spoke once more before the radio went dark.
Noah walked his way around Big Ben, finally spotting Hector as he was leaning against a building smoking a cigarette. Noah approached steadily, being sure not to make too much noise.
"Hector."
"Noah, glad to see you made it." Hector smiled, swaying his head as if he were sick.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I swear the next time you jump out of a plane I'm taking your parachute." Noah threatened jokingly.
The pair high-fived and continued walking down the street.
"So what's the plan now?"
"Plan is to find anything with four wheels, a battery and enough gas to get us out of the city." Hector answered. "Get on that side of the street and start checking for something that'll hopefully run."
Noah nodded before turning to cross the road over to the other side.
"And please, don't set off any car alarms. We don't know if any anthros might be out here now."
Noah responded with a thumbs up above his head as he continued over.
The pair investigated each vehicle going up the street, Noah came across old vans and cars while also passing the occasional truck here and there. As he peeked into some of the cars he found himself peering into snippets of the people who drove them.
Old photos peering out from the visors, necklaces and jewelry hanging from rear view mirrors, car seats for young children, and the occasional book or two more likely photo albums or something of the sort.
After around thirty minutes of looking for a working car Hector managed to find an old pick up truck with the keys conveniently in the ignition. With a twist of the key the engine started up. Noah heard the truck and jogged back over to meet Hector.
Hector then checked the fuel monitor and was surprised to see a three quarter tank left inside.
"Poor bastard who owned this must've just filled up right before they got dragged out."
It was a decent truck although the tires looked worn but regardless it was what they needed. Noah smiled, giving a little laugh as he jumped into the passenger seat. Hector checked the bed of the truck to see it empty and then hopped into the driver seat on the right.
"Alright we got wheels, now what?" Noah asked.
"Now we get as far as it'll take us towards the next city and we keep doing this until we get to Canterbury, then we get a boat and get our ass over to Calais."
"Sounds good."
Putting the truck into gear Hector started down the main road leading east heading back to the bridge that Noah crossed an hour before. The city while it was in bad shape it still seemed like it was abandoned. It was odd and terrifying to see a city let alone a Capitol devoid of life.
The minutes drag on as Noah watches the empty streets. Noah's boredom had reached its limit time and time again, and giving in to his unease of the surrounding emptiness he decided to try the radio.
Most of the channels came up blank static but a few were only filled with automated voices in different languages. The voices were stuck on a loop giving out emergency evacuation plans and asking that people remained calm during the whole process.
"Nobody was. Were they...?" Noah asked, turning to Hector who faced him as well.
"Hard to stay silent and avoid going crazy when a massive fur covered freak is shooting down your friends right behind you."
The both kept silent while Noah kept trying to radio just hoping for something that would brighten the mood and get his mind off things.
"Noah."
"Yeah, Hec'?"
"I've known you for a long time boy, and I've never seen you this quiet. You okay lad?" Hector inquired.
Noah thought to himself briefly, he slowly came to the realization that he was oddly quiet the last little bit and ushered his brain to come up with an excuse to hopefully answer the question.
"Just got a lot on my mind."
"Like what?"
Noah couldn't answer, his mind was running blank and every subject that crossed his mind felt like a poor attempt at an explanation to his silence.
"It's Cole, isn't it?"
Noah froze, he couldn't speak from even the slightest mention from 'him'. When he first heard about what Cole had done and the resulting aftermath he had completely lost himself and broke down for hours blaming himself for his incompetence on that day.
Cole was always one to smile and tease with him as a brother should from time to time, along with cracking the occasional bad joke to allow a conversation topic to rise up afterwards.
He was exactly what an older brother should have been, always lending a hand when Noah needed it most and always the first one to volunteer for any task.
His humble yet playful personality and relaxed demeanor gave him a well known presence that anyone would enjoy being around when things got rough or the mood was sketchy.
He was a quick thinker too, any time he or Hector ran into trouble he was there ready to shift the situation around. Regardless of the risk.
And after when the bullets finally stopped the first concern on Cole's radar was him, every time. Noah at first felt sometimes that Cole was just doing it to make him discouraged enough to confess that he was under age to be sent back home, but he soon understood that Cole was just trying to look out for him.
Noah would be lying if he said he didn't miss the feeling of being around Cole but Noah couldn't bring himself to say anything. No words could describe the feeling of losing a sibling let alone the overbearing feeling of regret and guilt.
"It wasn't your fault No-"
"It damn well might as well have! If I didn't get knocked out, things would've been different!"
Hector nudged the truck over to the side of the road and slowed gently enough down to a silent stop.
"If I wasn't so useless for a soldier I could've done something! I would've... I could've.."
"Noah what he did was out of your control lad, his choice was his own and I honestly regret it too." Hector spoke softly yet just firm enough to get his point across.
"But if it weren't for him doing what he did, I doubt any one of us that day would still be around."
Noah was edging closer to bursting with tears, he refused to believe the words coming from Hector. True it was in Cole's nature to take big risks but on that bridge there wasn't anything to gain from taking one.
"He kept the wolves at bay so the rest of us could go... I'm sorry lad, but regardless of how angry or upset you get nothing is going to change what he did to protect us."
Noah's eyes burned as tears slowly slipped down his face, he wiped them away just as fast as they appeared and afterwards slid his mask over his face.
"To protect his little brother." Hector finished, taking his foot off the brake and pulling off the side of the road.
They had just exited the city and begun driving on the highway towards the next town over, neither person dared to speak until Hector decided to remind Noah why they were there.
"Listen Noah, I promised you revenge for your brother, I intend to deliver on that. Have I ever let you down?"
Noah didn't respond as his mind drifted off away from the conversation. Noah gripped his carbine and raised it off the floor laying the weapon against his body.
"Just point me in the direction."