Scrunching up his nose at the disgusting smell of smoke around him. Stumbling through the little woods that were left. Thomas slowly approached his small "base" if you can call it that, it was just another word to calm down his unit from thinking that they won't die, this "base" is nothing, just a small camp hidden by some trees and a trench dug in the rotten soil. Jumping or more like falling down face first in one of the hidden trenches Thomas got up and started creeping towards his unit by memory. He'd be damned if his general found out he'd been in sight or didn't make any attempt to hide, or if he used some other way to get to the unit. There were two outcomes, he'd miss a bullet by his head or get actually shot if he used the wrong way, so that's why his general and other mates made sure to memorize what trenches and ways you were allowed to use on a specific day. Was it a pain in the ass and paranoiac? yes, but it was safe.
Wait, didn't his general die?-
Tom's mind got a static sound but he opted to ignore it.
His breaths came out raggedly and uneven, as Thomas was glaring at the muddy and bloody ground. But he pushed forward. The rotten smell of smoke and corpses filled the air, it was disgusting, Thomas wanted to puke but he grew used to the putrid smell and food was a rare thing at the moment in his unit. Supplies haven't been shipped out to them due to being so close to the red army main base and they would probably be easily detected by the red army. But now, that doesn't matter, Tord knows they are there, and oh, if he gets his hands on Thomas, fate won't be so sweet nor lenient.
Tom coughed out a dry cough. His throat really did start to ache for some unknown reason, it felt like he was inhaling fire, his lungs burned inside of him. They were so short on masks, Tom cursed as he remembered the time he declined a mask, thinking he'd be fine without it.
Finally, he reached his unit. He could care less that he looked like a zombie and a scared rabbit. Some of his unit-mates acknowledged his presence. Seemingly unsteady by his presence, one of the mates, "Dale" stood up and walked over to Tom.
Dale took in a breath as he looked behind and around Tom, then tilted his head. "Tom? Where's our general? General Jones?" Dale asked. Tom's mind went back to static before Dale gave Tom a little shock on the shoulder. Tom turned back, narrowed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "General Jones is dead," Tom answered. Dale took a step back as some other unit-mates turned their heads. "What?" "General Jones is dead, he was shot, near one of the trenched, we.." Tom felt so uneasy suddenly. All the eyes were on him, what if they don't believe him? He didn't have the best relationship with this unit nor the deceased general. But Tom gulped and sighed. "We have to leave, red army... they know we are here" This seemed to put everyone in the unit on edge. Panic was written all over their faces, dread, despair, and to think just moments before Tom arrived they had a relatively calm aura here but now. One man came forward "How? where? where will we go? where can we go? and how will we escape?" the man panicked, sweat rolled down his forehead. Another man started to let out distressed whimpers. But Dale, even though he was on edge, stepped forward. "Someone contact the nearest unit here and report for a saving mission immediately! Get the jeeps and guns, Tom is right, we have to leave right now!" "But what about the people on the front lines?!" "Not everyone is here!" "What are we supposed to do?!" Tom looked at Dale. "EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Tom yelled. "Do as Dale said! contact the nearest units, get them on a saving mission, get a location where we're supposed to be at, but now we need to get the jeeps" Tom said, then people started to finally move, the people that could go to the radios to contact the units, the others started to pack weapons and get ready for the jeeps. But there was a group that didn't do jackshit. Dale looked over at them in a questioning manner as one of them came closer. "We're not leaving! there are people out there!" "If we stay we will die!" "What about them?!" "They are better off dead!" Dale yelled.
"You wanna be a hero? Then stay and save them! but we're leaving" Tom said as he turned around, grabbed someone's rifle (sa80 rifle), and walked out of the tent. Dale followed Tom out but stopped to help one of his companions with the packing. Meanwhile, Tom went to one of the jeeps to get ready and leave. He was about to open the jeep door but a hand stopped him, it was a female soldier. "I'll drive sir" was all she said, Tom noticed when she went in the jeep that she was missing an ear. But he didn't question, only nodded and walked to the passenger seat, holding his rifle. The female started the jeep and they started to drive, though they drove very slowly, some soldiers jumped onto the jeep while others threw some packages onto the jeep. Tom looked back making sure of how many there were on the jeep. Everything seemed quite calm at the moment, well except for the panicking soldiers running around. Some even started to fight with each other, it was irritating, they were fighting over if they should escape or to stay and be a hero.
After a while they got out of the unit, everything seemed to be quite peaceful. The dirty snow on the ground, Tom looked to the distance where there used to be buildings, life, people, but now the only thing inhabiting the front line was broken down building masses with dead bodies and busted cars left behind. It was so quiet, it could make anyone go insane. At the moment the only sound Tom could hear however was the jeep engine. But he turned his head when the female let out a chuckle "Wow, you didn't even ask me" she said. Tom only looked at her and raised a brow. "Ask you what?" "About my ear and face, my scars' ' she answered. I've seen worse, Tom bitterly thought as he remembered a certain commie. "Well, where did you get them?" Tom asked, not because he necessarily cared but because he needed background noise. The female sighed "I worked for the red army" Now this made Tom look over, was she a spy?. "I was under his rule, it was horrible, the red leader is and will always be a monster" Yeah? try being his roommate then, Tom thought but didn't say anything, he doesn't want to start some debate of who had it worse with the commie. Tom only nodded to her. "You'll never know what it was like" Tom would have laughed, but only nodded. Probably due to a lack of response, she stopped talking, Tom was somewhat grateful for that blessing.
Tom jumped in his skin when the jeep bounced on the deserted and old path. A cold chill ran down his spine when he heard a high-pitched whine and worried curses from the soldiers in the back. Tom turned around to see a "sentiel". His eyes widened, he had to react fast, because the small red army robot was going for a dive at them. Tom didn't waste much time on opening the jeep window and fixing the rifle in his hands. On the moving vehicle, he aimed at the cursed red army robot. It took him around 3 shots till he actually hit the damn thing, but it wasn't over. When he looked up he saw almost a sky full of these sentiels. "oh fuck" was the only thing could manage to say at that moment. That damned commie bastard why couldn't he just die?.
Looking over at the others in the back, he had to get them to move too if they all wanted to get out alive. "HEY! don't just sit there and be worthless! grab your rifles and shoot damn it!!" This seemed to wake up some of the scared to death soldiers. They grabbed their rifles and aimed, so did Tom. Tom saw one of the far back jeeps explode, a sentiel got them, he saw the explosion become smaller and smaller, yet he could still see some soldiers trying to get out from the burning pile. This destruction, however, would cost Tom a lot, they were already near the area where they'd be picked up by helicopters, but a sentiel managed to go under the jeep they were in and the jeep exploded making Tom fall out of the now burning vehicle.
But due to the adrenalin rush that followed he managed to get up, the ringing in his ears was loud. He saw one of his unit-mates struggle so without thinking went to help, they'd have to run the rest of the way. The man accepted Tom's help and both started to run to the area. They didn't see anyone else from the jeep.
They reached the gates, where two jeeps were already standing, and around twenty men, Tom and the soldier joined in the group. Soon they heard a deafening sound, it was the helicopters.
Soldiers reaching up impatiently, scared for their lives, wanting so desperately wanting to be saved. Thomas clicked his tongue for himself in annoyance. As the helicopters threw down ropes they climbed up, Thomas was one of the last to be able to get up. All the other soldiers that arrived too late looked up. Eyes full of despair and pain, betrayal. Some still tried to reach up, still trying to cling onto hope, as if the helicopters can take more dead weight. Thomas looked down at them from the small windows, narrowing his eyes at them. "HEY! we have to go after them!" a soldier yelled. The young man had strawberry-blond hair and light gray eyes, almost like his. Tom tilted his head at the commotion happening. "We can't! this helicopter is already heavy and slowed down enough from the weight!" One of the pilots yelled back. "We're already more than the average amount!" the other one added. The young soldier acting on all his emotions tried to grab and attack one of the pilots. Now this made the nearest soldiers grab him and push him. Tom, thinking quickly, put his foot forward as if to stand up.
This made the young soldier fall and get dragged by the air from the still not closed door of the helicopter. The man didn't even have time to scream as he was momentarily thrown out of the helicopter. You could still hear his screams, but it was drowned out by the loud machinery of the flying vehicle. Everything went silent, the soldier that had acted in self-defense was pulled back by one of his companions to sit down so that he wouldn't also meet that fate. Tom turned to the pilots, though he did meet a 40-year-old soldier's look, the man was glaring at him in silence, he had seen it. "Close the damn door!" Tom yelled. One of the nearest soldiers to the bottom pushed it, but the soldier was still shaken up by what had just happened. Tom looked back out the window, seeing a mass of sentiels shooting down innocent soldiers. Soon all the mass of soldiers still left on the platform turned into just a spot, as the helicopter escaped the area. Tom looked away, still feeling the hard glare from the old soldier, but he opted to cross his arms and lean into the man he came with. This will be a long ride. The scar on Tom's neck throbbed, that damn bastard just you wait. Tom closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Slowly his consciousness went black and he fell asleep.
===========
The loud yells of commands and movement beside him made Tom wake up. They had finally arrived in France. Maybe a year back or so they would have landed somewhere in Germany or even Belgium, but the Red army has already taken over those places. But Tom knows one thing, that even if they are now relatively far away from Norway, there will be trouble here, big trouble. The armistice has been broken, he knows Tom is alive, France is close to Germany and Belgium. But Tom is too tired to think, he's only gotten around 2 hours of sleep in two days!. Suddenly Tom shivered, someone took a grip on him. Tom turned his head not wasting a second, only to see the soldier he saved. The man tugged on him as if to help him up. "T... Thanks" Tom thanked in a raspy voice, he usually doesn't talk a lot, the only time he uses his voice is to yell out commands. Tom got up and looked at the man. "No problem" The man answered. They both exit the helicopter, Tom took note of the fact that he was the last one to exit. Suddenly a yell came from their side. Tom looked over there he saw Dale and other soldiers from their unit. There stood general yelling commands at them as if they were worthless or brainless worms. Tom felt his irritation rise inside of him, Dale and Tom made eye contact. So did the general who started to yell at them. Tom wanted to bark back something to the self-centered man who thought he was above them, but Dale and the man by his side dragged him to the side. "Privates! I didn't allow you to walk off!" the general yelled. Tom grinned his teeth as Dale said he'd talk to the general. Tom felt so drained, it was so dim in the unit, the sky was dark and had a cold breeze, these things just lulled Tom to sleep but he tried to stay awake. Thus making him tired and easily irritated, but the man sat him down on one of the benches near their unit-mates. Tom didn't care who would let him sleep, he just needed it, so he leaned into the man and closed his eyes. But he was still very aware. "Hey..." the man started, Tom scrunched up his nose in discomfort but sighed. "Hey," Tom said. "I wanted to thank you, for saving me back there," the man said softly. Tom turned his head to the man but didn't open his eyes. ". . . No problem, I'm sure you'd do the same".
"What's your name?" Tom asked. "Chase, what's yours?" "Tom". After that, they didn't say much. A few minutes passed Dale came by and sat down beside the two. But the peaceful moment was ruined when the same smart-ass general came up and yelled. "WHERES private Thomas?!" The general yelled annoyingly. Tom only froze and turned around to the general, then got up from the bench. He walked over to the general sluggishly. He could give less than a fuck about his respect and posture right now. The general looked him up and down, made a weird grimace at him as if he looked like a dirt, self-centered bitch. "The higher up want to talk to you! you're a suspect," he said. Suspect? of what? Thomas thought. The general turned around and waved after him, for Tom to follow. They walked forward and passed some of the tents with dim lights.
Soon both reached an old building, its stairs had started to rust, it looked very unsteady.
The general stepped up and walked up the metal stairs. They reached the metal door and the general stepped aside after knocking loudly, making the old metal stairs shake. Tom could hear muffled yelling from the inside, the higher-ups seemed to be fighting over something, Tom didn't even think about the fact that they were here. Usually, they would be somewhere safe, where they wouldn't get their hands dirty by the war. When the door opened Tom saw at least four figures, only one of them was a woman and three men. Tom had seen the woman before she was a major, her name was Alexandra Bokayov. The woman had a strong accent, if Tom could guess she was somewhere from the eastern side of the map. When the higher-ups made eye contact with Tom, they eyed him curiously. "State your name private!" One of the men yelled, trying to show his authority. Tom rolled his black voids, straightened his back, and saluted. "Sir, Thomas Thompson, sir!". "Oh, it's you," One of the men said. Alexandra stepped closer, "Do you know why your presence was requested?". "No ma'am, I was not" Tom answered.
"You've been called here because you were the only soldier that knew about the attack that was going to happen on your unit and you were the last soldier seen with your general. We also noticed that the red leader mentioned the armistice being broken before the world leader meeting, we want explanations, we suspect you have some kind of answers, yes?" one of the generals questioned with a cold tone. Tom stayed quiet, then straightened his back and looked at them while thinking of an answer. "Sir, I was out on a patrol with my general sir, we were supposed to visit the unit near the front lines. But when we arrived... We saw that the unit had been attacked, supposedly by the red army-" "why wasn't there a report about this?" "-Because I was given the command to find injured soldiers, while that happened I left my general, and when I came back to my general he was with the red leader," Tom said now thinking carefully how to avoid suspicion from the closely listening higher-ups. "Were they doing anything? did you hear anything? what did they say?" The oldest general asked seriously. "They were on a standstill, my general noticed me, after that, I remember Red leader shooting general after he saw me," Tom said. "Red leader proceeded to attack me and I was forced to go against the peace contract, sir." Tom tried to show his face a little bit more in the dim light so the generals could see his injured face. "He held me at gunpoint after that and wanted me to make it out alive-" "why?" One of the generals asked rudely interrupted but still interested in the little story Tom was telling. ". . . To spread the word? something about spreading fear into the world" Tom finished, turning his gaze downwards. There was a long pause as everything went silent.
"That damn bastard" one of the generals swore under his breath. "That bastard broke the armistice!" "Obviously he never took it seriously! he even murdered our world leaders!" "This maniac clearly finds this entertaining, as if this is some sort of game!? He doesn't seem to care for all the lives he's taking!" All of the generals fumed. Alexandra shook her head and then turned to Tom. "Alright, Thanks for the report private, you can get out now". But Tom didn't turn nor walk away, instead he took a step closer, making Alexandra tilt her head and raise a brow. "Wait ma'am" Tom protested. "I'm not quite finished reporting" Tom lied, he just wanted to ask a question. "With all due respect-" which at the moment Tom didn't have at all. "We, my unit, sent out an S.O.S before the attack even started, and you knew how many we were, and yet you still only sent tree helicopters for around five-hundred men!" Tom raised his voice at the end. "And I can clearly see you have enough-" "We did all we could to help your unit!" The general in the middle said. "hah all? YOU did all? YOU did nothing! You sent out three helicopters for five hundred men?! SIR just HOW MUCH do you suck at math?! If we stayed any longer we would've died! hell! what was the point in saving us if you let the majority die?!"
"THAT'S enough from you private!" The old general snarled. "You may not agree with our decisions! I get that! but need I remind you that you and your unit aren't the only units we have to look after?!" The general continued. "How selfish can you be?" the first general scowled at Tom. "DID it even cross your mind that the other unit needs help? or that those units might be dying, starving? or maybe you forgot private, that we might not have enough airforce?!" The general shouted angrily. Alexandra stood up "Private, must I say this? we are devastated by every loss that is reported to us daily! so this means we can't possibly risk everything for you alone!!" she finished. Tom held his head down, biting his bottom lip while his hand dug into his palms.
"Now get out, clearly you have no respect for us, and need we remind you of whos in charge?" One of the higher ups finished with a high and mighty tone as if Tom owed him anything. "Get out private." With that Tom just turned and left, too annoyed and tired to deal with these fuckwits who are in charge.
When he got out, the general who came after him was still there, he looked at Tom. They both went down the stairs. Tom was about to dismiss himself, but a rough hand grabbed his shoulder and painfully made him turn around. Tom yelped and his reflex made him grab the general by his arm, both stared at each other. "What the fuck do yo-" Tom retorted. "You killed one of your own men! I bet you killed the general too!" The general spat angrily. "I have no clue what you're talking about! I haven't done anything of sorts!" Tom yelled back and kicked the general in the knee
making the man let go. Tom took the chance and sprinted away to his unit's tent. He heard the general yell after him but he just hid in the crowd of his unit. Soon he reached his little unit group. His head was so dizzy. Tom looked around for Dale and Chase, well any of his unit mates will do at this point. He just needed to lean on someone or something. Soon Tom noticed a few men sleeping under dim light and there was Dale. Tom sat down near him, accidentally waking Dale in the process. But the older man didn't mind, he only lifted one of his arms for Tom to lean in. Tom pushed himself closer and not even a minute later fell asleep in Dale's lap, this was such a draining and stressful day Tom needed sleep. Who knows what tomorrow holds?
===========
Smoke filled the air. A constant rhythmic sound of boots was in the background. Somehow it had a constant beat to it, making it almost sound calming and therapeutic. Through all of this beat, there was only one person who dared to step out of the line, with a big grin. Tord calmly walked in his own pace forward, by his side were his most trusted soldiers and right-hand men, Paul and Patrik.
They were analyzing the areas and making sure there was no threat to their commander. Out of the whole red army, they were the only few higher up with sharp senses, which made Tord feel a tingle of pride, knowing they were by his side.
Tord lead the troops to the small field near a forest, where he had met his dear friend. Who would've thought that his friend was here? in Norway. While leading his troops he did stop near the area where he killed the useless general and was with his dear friend. He let out a quiet laugh at the memory, and then kept on leading the troops further in.
"RED leader!" One of his soldiers called out. Tord only turned as the soldier ran up to him. "Sir I think we found a tunnel! and uhm we also found this-" The soldier pulled out a dented flask, which got Tords attention almost eminently. Tord took the item presented to him while inspecting it further in his hands as he fondly thought to himself "It's his flask". Tord then looked up at the soldier.
"Search the tunnels, they might be leading somewhere," Tord said in a commanding and in a cold manner. "Sir yes sir!" the soldier responded. Tord pocketed the flask, patting the pocket afterward. "Sir? why would you need that old and already rusting flask?" a voice questioned, it was Paul who asked while giving the pocketed flask a look of disgust. Tord only kept his smile and made placating hand gestures at his righthand man. "That won't be necessary, Paul" Tord reassured and proceeded forward. Paul raised an eyebrow at his commander while following him. "I already know who owns this specific item," Tord said. Tord watched as his troops ripped through the clearly secret paths that have been dug in the ground. After a long and slow while they finally reached a left-down "unit" place. Tord looked around with a fond smile. There were broken down tents, left behind jeeps, there was a small broken down radio station, and old essential supplies. Tord walked further into the abandoned unit, there was just something so regal about Tord as he moved forward. His strides were long and graceful and gave off the feeling that he had a lot of power, which wasn't a false assumption. Somehow Tord just knew where to go, as he walked into a big yet teared down tent. As Tord stepped in he saw a few red soldiers searching and analyzing the area inside. "Is this where you were hiding, friend?" Tord thought to himself. Tord picked up one of the stools and sat down. He nodded to Paul and Patrik, and they left his side, in the meantime. But soon a new presence came near Tord, he turned to look behind him with a skeptical eye. It was one of the main generals, the man saluted to his commander. "Sir! after the armistice the drones- I mean the sentiels they were quick to find an alarming amount of activity from this area, the activity was distress signals to another unit, we suspect it was to the main unit somewhere in Norway due to the quick respon-" "General?" Tord interrupted the blabbeling man. The general shut his mouth shut to show respect to his commander, an unsettling silence was set between them. Tord pulled out the tainted flask and fiddled with it in his hands, not paying much attention to the man beside him. "Tell me, how didn't the sentiels find this place sooner? I thought this was your job? to make sure to help the sentiels if needed, I feel uneased by the fact that these enemy soldiers were so close to my base, general" Tord mused and looked at the flasks reflection to see the man beside him, who had stiffened and seemed rigged. The man gulped "Well sir, you see uh," he started uneasily. "After the first attack, at the front lines, all of our attention and sentiels went to push back the enemies, we didn't notice-" "So your meaning to tell me you just ignored the area around the front lines?" Tord interrupted again and looked up with frowned brows at the general. "No! we just prioritized -" "Why did it take you so long to take care of the fight then? Shouldn't the sentiels be guarding the perimeter of my base?" Tords tone changed to a more cold and casual tone. "Yes sir, but our priority and attention were on the front line- and I think these men would be hardly threatening!-" "OH but general I beg to differ, these men were armed to their teeth, all of them have had at least some sort of training, and guess what? each and every one of them wants me desperately dead" Tord said as he finally got up to the general's level if not a bit higher thanks to his boots. He looked down at the man. "We, general, aren't gods. So take my belief into consideration when I say "we never underestimate the enemy, never", oh and for the future general, watch your tone with me, I don't like being disrespected." Tord said with a smile. "I'll have none of this happens again, is that clear to you?" "Sir yes sir!" the general responded quickly. "I won't disappoint you, sir! ill keep a close eye, sir, this will never happen again!" The general almost yelled out and saluted. Tord only smiled and waved him off, Typical. The general ran off barking orders upon order to the soldiers. Tord walked out of the big tent. Tord looked around and noticed Patrik, then waved at his right-hand man. Patrik noticed almost instantly and came over. "Yes sir? is something wrong?" he asked. Tord pointed at the general while the one wasn't looking, "He's becoming quite the trouble, he's careless and reckless" Tord said and Patrik nodded one hand flying up to his pocket gun. Tord shook his head "Not yet, but do keep him in your sight" "Yes sir". Tord then pulled out one of his cigars and Patryck pulled out a lighter for him, then Tord waved Patrik off. Soon Paul came to Tord. "Ah Paul, did you bring your monitor? I left mine at the office, id like to check the surveillance"
Paul only nodded at the request and pulled out a glass pad, that extended and resumed the form of a rectangle and handed it over. Tord thanked him as he walked off, Paul walked back to scan the area. Holding the monitor he walked up to one of the abandoned jeeps to check on in what shape it was. Holding up the monitor to help him scan he noted that almost all of the jeeps were in good condition. They might as well take the jeeps for themselves or at least use some parts from the vehicles.
Then Tord left the jeeps alone and decided to use the monitor for surveillance, he pushed some buttons on the monitor to get access to the sentiels camera. Soon small videos started to replay, some showed areas near the red army base, some were as far up in the sky among fluffy clouds, some were near the snowy ground. But one got Tord's attention, one of the first sentiels that was shut down and one of the first that attacked the enemy soldiers.
Among the white snow, near a forest was a jeep, full of soldiers in the back. The sentiel goes down for the kill, but it gets interrupted by a familiar figure that climes out of the front window and aims their rifle at the sentiel. Tord smiles, zooms in on the footage, his eyes glimmer with interest.
"There you are, Thomas" Tord mused. He stopped the footage, then decided to send it to himself, the footage might come in handy in the near future. Tord stood still blowing out puffs of smoke. He tried to find more sentiels with footage with Tom in them, one thing Tord learned about his friend is that he had gotten a good aim over the years and Tord was somewhat impressed by it.
Oh, he can't wait for his friend's next move, hell, he can't wait to see Tom again.