A second chance

Tristan launches an attack on Texas HQ, John is the first to his feet but is soon joined by the others as explosions erupt around the facility.

Alarms sound around the facility. John wakes up, with his eyes wide open. John throws the duvet off him and grabs his armor and his M24. His scar H is in the armoury being cleaned by one of the operatives the day before and has not had it back since. John does not keep any spare magazines for his rifle, so he just has the one. The armor swings itself around John and he runs out his room, sprinting past the others still grabbing their gear in the other rooms. The sound of engines and the smell of gasoline fills the air. John runs down the stairs to the main entrance of the facility with his rifle raised, he slowly lowers the rifle as he sees that armoured vehicles, helicopters, and soldiers surround the building.

“Son-of-a-b***h…” John mutters under his breath. The sound of rotors erupts from the airfield and several attack helicopters fly over the Salvation building spitting rockets and minigun fire into the small army that awaited outside the facility. The battle had begun…

Soldiers run past John and out of the building spraying machine guns and throwing grenades. Some even have rocket launchers, firing them fearlessly without a single care about their own lives. They all have one goal. To defend the facility and all they stand for. That one goal was enough for them to put their lives on the line. Military jeeps swing around the sides of the facility, fully equipped with .50 guns or grenade launchers, driving forward and backward spitting hellfire into the army. The others come up behind John with their gear, to bare witness to this war that followed them home… Emily nudges John and hands him his Scar H, M9 and his holsters. John passes his M24 to Emily and she swings it over he shoulder.

“What do you say John. We handle the infantry, the others handle the big stuff.” Kimberley says.

“Sounds good…” John replies. Kimberley flips her combat knives in the air, catches them then sprints out the entrance.

“I’ll get to the roof, make sure she doesn’t die, yeah?” Emily says to John pushing him towards the door before running up the stairs. Merik and Jason sprint towards the incoming jeeps.

“Taking out the vehicle's guys.” Merik says running past John and Kimberley. Merik activates the strength boost on his armor, jumps up, and hangs off the edge of one of the helicopters. Merik switches the staff to the cutlass and kills the pilot causing the helicopter to plummet to the ground as he jumped to the next helicopter.

Jason stands back to back with Nate. Jason equips his axe Nate equips his scythe. Five jeeps divert their path to knock over Jason, Jason swings his axe round knocking three of the  jeep into the trees and river at the side of the Salvation HQ Nate slices through the remaining two jeeps splitting them in two.

“Guy’s we’ve got a problem!” Merik says landing next to Jason and Nate after taking out the final helicopter before his strength boost ran out, “Explosive on-” a high explosive shell is fired at Merik, Nate, and Jason. Jason moves in front of Merik and holds his hands out. The shell collides with Jason's fist causing an explosion slightly smaller than a TOW missile. As the smoke clears Jason remains standing his armor hardly scratched a large trench is left mere feet from Jason. Merik uses the smoke to fall back to John and Kim.

“Tanks. With big booms.” Merik says almost out of breath. “Give me a minute.” Merik sits next to a wall and his helmet packs into his armor, he opens a grate in the parking lot and pulls out an energy drink. “Ahh. That’s better, want one?” Merik’s helmet forms around his head and flashes red.

“No! I don’t f*****g want one!” John screams kicking a soldier into a car and unloading three rounds into his chest. Kimberley throws a soldier over her shoulder and shoots one of the others in the head with her glock. Kimberley checks the magazine.

“Out of ammo here John.” Kimberley says. John unholsters his M9 and throws it towards her with three extra magazines.

“Here!” John shouts. John sees a gunner of an allied jeep get shot and thrown off the .50 gun. “Cover me!” John runs for the jeep dodging fire as he goes, he hops onto the back of the jeep and c***s the .50 and signals the driver to accelerate. Emily lays on top of the roof, with her sniper rifle in between sandbags, she keeps firing but no matter how many she kills, twenty more always seem to take it’s place, it was like the greek myth Hydra, with each head cut off, two more grew in its place.

The jeep did multiple passes of infantry with John mowing them down like lambs to the slaughter. A tank aims it’s cannon towards the jeep and fires nailing the jeep in it’s engine, the jeep is flipped over and engulfed in flames and explosions. John’s vision is distorted and his armour with small cracks, he tears off his helmet and looks at his bloody hands, his face with cuts, blood running down his head. He reaches for his python, the driver was killed on impact. He struggles to his feet, he has his python in one hand and his knife in the other, he continues to fight.

“John! Stop! You must seek medical attention!” Allison screams at John.

“NO… I CAN STILL FIGHT!” John shouts diving over a car and shooting multiple soldiers. Allison is astonished, how such a man could even withstand the wounds and still get to his feet and carry on. It is unheard of. It was as if John was standing on pure willpower alone. Of course it would be John who has his armor on the brink of destruction but still fights the impossible.

“John. You are pushing yourself too far!” Allison screams again. John ignores her warnings. John looks over to Kimberley who is fighting off multiple soldiers in hand to hand combat after exhausting all her ammunition beforehand. John looks over to the ridge were another tank climbs over the hill and aims it’s cannon directly at Kimberley. John thrusts his knife into a soldier and breaks into a sprint.

“KIM!” John screams diving over sandbags. John runs and pushes Kimberley over a sandbag, but he didn’t give himself enough time to move out of the way of the tank shell.

“John! No!” Allison shouts. John is hit with the tank shell throwing him back into a wall. He lies there, leaning on a wall, motionless. Kimberley struggles to her feet and wonders what the hell just happened, she stabs a soldier in the chest and see’s bits of John’s armor scattered on the concrete and leading inside.

“J-J-John...? John!” Kimberley shouts running inside to him. Jumping over sandbags and corpses. “You stupid son-of-a-b***h...” Kimberley checks his breathing and sees that he is still alive. Octavia runs into the room, with two other soldiers and sees John laying there and Kimberley over him.

“Holy s**t…” Octavia says.

“He’s still breathing!” Kimberley shouts to her.

“Okay! I will take him down to medbay and get Bill on him immediately!” Octavia says while another soldier is picking up John. Outside Jason, Nate, and Merik are dealing with the waves of tanks and helicopters and standard infantry. They take cover behind some sandbags.

“Any ideas?” Merik says looking over to Jason.

“Erm... How many are left?” Jason says while Merik peers over the top of the bags.

“Three tanks, two choppers, ten men.” Nate says blinking over the sandbags.

“Ah. Erm…I am going to try pick up a tank and throw it at another tank, so I can kill a b***h with another b***h.” Jason says preparing to stand up.

“Right then I’ma go play leapfrog with the choppers. What about the last tank?”

“I’ll hit it with my axe you use it as a big metal landing pad while driving it through with your halberd. Nate you keep the men off us yeah?” Jason says running towards the closest tank.

“Got it!” Nate blinks out from behind the sandbags and throws his stars slicing the necks of three of the soldiers, he then uses the scythe to cut through another six before attempting to throw another star into the remaining soldier but a round pierces his skull and he falls. “Got ‘em, Thanks for the assist South.”

“Sounds like a plan! Armageddon. Enhance strength, Activate transparency.” Merik says becoming invisible and jumping up to the closest helicopter. Merik crashes through the window and crushes the pilot's neck with his knee. Merik moves over, opens the door and jumps over to the next helicopter. He hangs on to the door, rips it open and tears the pilot out of his seat. While all this is going on Jason jumps and grabs the barrel of the closest tank ripping the canon off of the tank.

“Heh, couldn’t get the whole thing but this will do.” Jason says using the now canon-less tank as a step up to smash the second tank with the canon of the first. “Get dunked!”

Jason equips his axe and Merik equips his halberd, Jason strikes the front of the tank and sends it soaring through the air while Merik drops from the helicopter using the tank as a ride to get to the ground safely. Just before the tank hit the ground Merik jumped off to not get damaged by the explosion. Jason, Nate, and Merik stand with their backs to the Salvation HQ looking out into the graveyard of helicopters, jeeps, tanks, and well people...

“So, how do you reckon everyone else did?” Merik says using the halberd to keep him standing.

“I don’t know...” Jason says falling to the ground, now gazing up to the sky.

“Stay here or try to get inside?” Merik says falling backwards.

“F**k that.” Nate says his legs collapsing from under him.

Jason’s, Nate’s, and Meriks armor fade from around them “Wow. First time that’s happened.” Merik says

“I'm  staying here for now. Can’t feel my legs.” Jason says patting his legs to make sure they are still there.

“I’m okay with that.” Merik says “I hope it doesn’t rain…”

Emily walks out the entrance and towards the other two, she has John’s M24 in her hands with a single bullet left in the chamber, her M40A3 slung over her shoulder.

“Hey guys. I counted 43 heads, I think that is a new record for me in a single combat situation.” Emily says showing them pen marks on her arm counting the heads that lie on the ground now. She looks around and sees Salvation recruits and soldiers alike, picking up corpses and distinguishing fires. “Where are the other two?” Emily spots John’s helmet on the floor next to a jeep that had just been on fire. “He really knows how to f**k himself up…” Emily says kneeling down and wiping blood from the visor.

“Hey Merik, Nate. Wanna go fishing?” Jason says sitting up

“Sure why not…” Merik replies.

“Never been actually. You sure I can tag along?” Nate says sitting up.

“Yeah sure. I’ll teach you.” Jason says slowly standing.

“So it’s a date” Merik says getting to his feet. They all decide it’s better to leave and give time for this to all blow over.

Bill throws John down onto a table and grabs tools to attempt to stabilise him.
“Take the goddamn armor off!” Kimberley shouts.

“I can’t! It’s in lock! This is what it is suppose to do if taking too much damage! Gimme a f*****g minute!” Bill shouts back. He slaps John’s face several times. “Allison! Allison! If you’re in there deactivate the goddamn armor!” With no prevail or sign of Allison or John responding. “F**k!” He takes a second to think. ”Kim! Grab me an EMP from my lab! Not the small one! The big green one!”

“Right!” Kimberley shouts running to his lab, she opens the doors and rushes around the room searching for the device. “Ugh! Where is it!?” Kimberley sees the device described in the corner of the room, she grabs it and sprints back throwing the device to Bill.

“Okay… Okay… John, don’t kill me after this please!” Bill activates the device and it sends a shockwave throughout the facility deactivating all technology within a mile radius. The armor collaps off of John’s chest and onto the floor. After roughly twenty minutes of stabilising John he is left in the medbay to recover, everyone is told to not visit the medical bay to avoid any further contact with him until the next day.

John wakes up in his room fully clothed and covered in sweat. He leans over his bed and pulls his hands over his face and runs his fingers down the bridge of his nose. He stands up and wanders out into the hallway, he leans off his door frame.

“Emily! Merik! Kim!” John shouts down the hall. Nothing but silence surrounds John. He crashes into the bathroom and runs some water and splashes his face, he wipes his face with a towel and goes back into the hall.

“Allison? You there?” John asks, while looking around him, then to his shoulder. Nothing replies. “What the hell is going on?” John walks aimlessly around the facility, nothing living is seen throughout the complex as if everyone on the planet had just vanished except for him. John hears gunfire from outside the building, a hole is blasted into the side of the building next to John, he walks over to the newly made hole and looks out it, seeing everyone fighting, it was the attack just before John got hit. He sees himself jumping over a barricade firing into a group of them, he runs towards Kimberley, a loud bang is heard and the newly formed hole and the battle disappears.

“No, no, no, no. Nah, this can’t be real. Bill I swear down if this is some prank I am gonna tear you a new one!” John screams through the halls. A flicker of light is seen behind John but disappears again, it was a silhouette of a woman.

“The hell.” John says running to the door and peering into the empty hall. “Hey! Anyone there?!” A sound is heard from the recreational room, it’s a flashback from the day they first got there. He sees himself jumping over the sofa and cracking open a beer. ‘I call the couch!’ John shouted. ‘Whatever, just hand me a beer.’ Emily says walking in, John threw her a beer and she sat down on a chair. The flashback vanishes. John is just as clueless as he was when he first awoken.

“Something tells me this really isn’t a prank.” John says to himself. John walks back to his room and grabs the M9 he keeps under his mattress. He checks the magazine and c***s it. John goes to holster it, but it vanishes from his hand mid air. “God damn it!” John shouts.

“John?” Allison says in the doorway, she is a little bit smaller than John but not as small as she usually is.

“Allison! Thank god. What the hell is going on?” John asks happily. Allison looks him up and down with a blank expressions.

“Why are you here? You haven’t been here before…” Allison says running her fingers across her lips in thought. “Is it possible that maybe… No… Wait, yes! That’s it!” Allison shouts.

“Care to fill me in?” John says with his arms up.

“Tell me, what do you remember?” Allison asks looking at John curiously.

“I was in a firefight with you guys outside. A loud bang and then I woke up here.” John replies.

“Then it is entirely possible… This explains a lot… Okay, long story short John; you’re in a coma in the medical bay. You got hit by a tank shell directly. You are slowly recovering. Though, ever since I haven’t been able to make contact with anyone, I think we’re cut off from the outside world.” Allison says.

“Okay. Okay. One question though, how do we get out?” John asks.

“I am not sure... Maybe if you find your body when the battle reloops back in your head, as soon as you are hit by the shell if you jump into your body, you might just wake up. But I don’t know. You put me on the spot, so I thought of a quick theory.” Allison replies.

“It’s a good enough start.” John says, he then looks her up and down. “So, in here you are basically human.”

“Basically.” Allison replies with a smile. “I must warn you though, the place we are located in your brain is the limbic system. This means we are stuck in a wasteland of your entire life, memories, and existence. Dumbed down, it is what makes you, you.” Allison explains.

“Great. I might have to relive my worst and embarrassing moments.” John says peering down the empty hall and back to Allison again.

“If it helps you feel any better, I have seen all of them.” Allison says with a blank expressions hoping to give John a little bit of happiness. She shuffles backwards and locks her hands together behind her back. John looks at her and sees she is nervous, this is the most human conversation she has ever had, this makes her feel at home almost, like she isn’t just a computer chip inside of John’s head but an actual person.

“Come on, let’s find a way out of here then.” John says smiling at her.

“Okay!” Allison responds with confidence.

After what seemed like hours of wandering the facility halls and discovering parts that he never even knew existed, they find the rear entrance to the facility, John had never used it till now. He opens it and walks into a memory. The day that their step father wanted to kick them out but didn’t do till two weeks later. John was eighteen at the time, Emily sixteen.

“You are failing your grades! You are skipping school for crying out loud! You are a pathetic excuse of a girl! Now I can see why your father never came back in the first place.” The step father says to Emily.

“You’re a pathetic excuse of a man! Sure you got good grades! Sure you came from a rich family! You will never know what it is like to grow up without your real father! To be stuck with a dick head of a stepfather who thinks he knows everything!” Emily screams back at the man. The man slaps Emily and points his finger at her backing her into the wall. John walks in through the front door and puts his jacket on the coat stand, he hears the commotion and walks into the kitchen to see him intimidating her with a bright red mark on her face.

“You f*****g dare!” John shouts tackling him into the counter punching mercilessly, breaking his nose, then his cheekbone. “You ever lay a finger on her again! I swear to f*****g god I will end you!” John screams in his face placing a kitchen knife to the man's cheek.

“Get out of my house!” The man screams.

“Oh? Your house? MY FATHER BUILT THIS HOUSE WITH HIS BARE HANDS, WITH NOTHING OTHER THAN THE TREES AND THE CLAY AROUND THE HOUSE! HE POURED HIS HEART AND SOUL INTO THIS HOUSE! You. You. Claim this is your house. I don’t know where my father went, if he is dead, alive or worse. But there is one thing I can guarantee. You will never own this house, not while me and Em live! I suggest you get your f*****g a*s out of here and find a motel, take it up with our mother.” John says, with his hand lifting him up by the shirt and throwing him back down. He throws him to the door with the keys to his car.

“F*****g punk, I will have you arrested!” The man shouts walking out the door, he slams the door behind him.

“Self defence jackass.” John mutters. He walks back to Emily who is crying at the table, John places his hand on her back.

“Come on. I am not going to let anyone touch you again, especially not him.” John says. Emily wraps her arms around John.

“Come on stop being so dramatic. How about I teach you to fight yeah? I just completed my military training.” John says looking down at her.

“O-Okay…” Emily says wiping the tears from her eyes. John lays his fist out to Emily and she throws her fist into his. The memory ends suddenly.

“God damn…” John mutters under his breath. The room dissolves around him and he is outside, behind him the rear entrance is open where he walked through just before.

“Are you alright?” Allison asks placing her hand on John’s shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. That just got the jump on me, that’s all.” John says with a disturbed look. “Right uh. Wrong memory.” John walks back inside.

“Hey, how is John doing?” Kimberley walks in where John is unconscious in a medical bed.

“They say he’s gonna be out for at least a week. Bill is doing what he can.” Emily says while looking at John. Kimberley’s phone begins to ring and she pats down her pockets to find it, she takes it out.

“The hell?” Kimberley says. “I’ll be right back ‘kay?” Kimberley walks out answering the call.

“James? The hell, thought you were on deployment.” Kimberley says with curiosity.

“Yeah, had some technicalities. Can we meet? Got into some trouble with the military, pretty sure some high up a*s hat is making my unit take the fall for something.” James says with panic in his voice.

“You serious? Alright yeah, let’s meet. I know a bar we can meet in.” Kimberley says texting him the address.

“Alright, the military might be monitoring this call, I will see you in two hours tops. Don’t try to call me again on this number, I gotta dispose of the phone. Cya soon sis.” James says hanging up. Kimberley throws her phone into her pocket and walks back into the medical bay where Emily is sat looking over John.

“Hey, I am gonna be gone for the night. Some personal stuff has cropped up, might need you at some point.” Kimberley says grabbing her jacket that was thrown over a chair when she first entered. “Hey, you should get some rest. He’s not going anywhere.”

“Yeah, I might do that. Hey, if you do need my help hit me up.” Emily says giving Kimberley a friendly look.

“Will do.” Kimberley walks out and makes her way to the bar. She enters the bar and flicks her head to Bennie (The bartender, former member of Salvation) who is cleaning a glass. Kimberley sits on a stool next to James. James looks her over and notices her twin glocks in holsters.

“Since when did you start packing sis?” James asks taking a swig from his scotch.

“That’s a long story, anyway, wanna explain the situation? I thought you wouldn’t be returning for a good six or seven months.” Kimberley says curiously.

“Yeah well, long story short, some high ranking f**k, General, Colonel, f**k if I know, has screwed my entire unit over, we were sent on this search and destroy mission which went sideways, the intel we received was false, we were ambushed, I barely got out alive, had some mercs on my back since.” James explains with an unsettled look. “You been home?”

“Not for a while no.” Kimberley says.

“Good, it’s gone, burned to the ground since this happened. Those b******s!” James shouts.

“You look like you’re gonna need another round son.” Bennie slides a bottle of scotch over to James. “Don’t worry about the payment, if you’re a friend of Kim then you’re a friend of mine.”

“Thanks Bennie.” Kimberley says tapping her fingernails on the bar. “It’s really gone huh?”

“Yeah, nothing left but ash.” James says taking another swig. “You got a place I can lay low for a while?”

“I might, I can call in a couple favors. Enough about that, tell me about these mercs. How many are there? Can we take em’?” Kimberley says with a confidence.

“Settle down there, we are outnumbered and outgunned, last I checked you haven’t seen a battlefield either.” James says with concern for Kimberley.

“A lot has changed since you left. Believe me, I can handle my own in the heat of the field.” Kimberley explains.

“You are serious. Alright you’re gonna have to explain that to me as soon as these a******s are off my back.” James says, almost proud of Kimberley.

“Alright, let me see about those favors.” Kimberley says pulling out her phone. “Gimme’ a sec.” She dials Octavia. “Yeah hey, I need a favour.”

“What kind of favour?” Octavia asks curiously.

“My older brother has been thrown into the s**t by some high ranking asshat, his words not mine, I need to help him but he needs a place to lay low.” Kimberley explains.

“Huh, James?” Octavia asks.

“Yeah, how did you kn- You know what nevermind. Can you help me out?” Kimberley asks, deciding not to question Octavia’s knowledge of her family.

“Bring him by Texas base, we can work something out.” Octavia says.

“Thank you, I owe you one.” Kimberley says happily.

“Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, does he know that you have joined Salvation?” Octavia asks with great concern.

“He doesn’t, I have a lot of things to catch him up on.” Kimberley says.

“Well, alright, see you soon.”

“Wait, one last thing. How is John? You been to see him?” Kimberley asks.

“Yeah I did. He is still out cold, he has had some reactions but nothing Bill can do until his wounds recover.” Octavia explains.

“Alright, gotta go, bye.” Kimberley hangs up, slides her phone into her pocket and walks back over to James.

“Alright, I got you a place to lay low, you might meet some interesting individuals.”

“Who’s that John guy you were asking about, he in trouble?” James asks.

“Some stupid f****r who risked his life to push me out the way of a tank shell.”

“F**k me! I owe him a drink then!” James says, grateful that this guy saved his sister’s life.

Kimberley picks up her jacket and takes out her bike keys. “You can follow me.”

“Alright, on you.” James says swinging his jacket on his back over his hoodie. They drove for half an hour to the HQ. They arrive and Kimberley hops off her bike.

“Hey sis, that was a pretty long drive, mind me asking where we are?” James asks, with one foot in the car and half his body out with his hand on the door.

“This has been my home for the past year. There’s Octavia now. Come on, hurry up, get formal will you?” Kimberley says. They walk over to Octavia waiting outside the front doors.

“Welcome James, we’re going to do everything in our power to help you.” Octavia explains.

“Thank you, Octavia right?” James asks.

“That’s right. Welcome to Salvation Texas headquarters.” Octavia says with a smile.

“Salvation huh? Never heard of you.” James says.

“Good, I would be more concerned if you had. Follow me.” Octavia says walking inside with them both following, they walk up to the dorms where they sleep.

“Okay, crash here, we will evaluate your position in the morning, you don’t have any concerns here, if anyone comes for you, they won’t get within 500 meters of this facility.” Octavia explains.

“Alright thanks.” James says as Octavia walks away. “Care to explain this Kim?” As he says this Emily walks out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in her mouth and looks at them both, she is wearing a white tank top and sport shorts.

“Hey Kim, who is this?” Emily asks curiously, taking out the toothbrush from her mouth.

“Yes, Kim, who is this doll face?” James says with a smug smile on his face looking towards Emily.

“Okay, first, don’t get any ideas, her brother, John, is in a coma right now in the med bay, when he wakes up and the first thing he finds out is that some guy has been hitting on his sister, you’re a dead man. Secondly, this is Emily Farsight, our expert marksman; otherwise known as my best friend.” Kimberley explains with an eyebrow raised at James. His smile suddenly drops as he learns his boundaries.

“Ahh, right. Hey, I am James. Kimberley’s brother.” James says with caution.

“Huh, nice to meet you.” Emily says, she walks back into the bathroom and spits out the paste and walks out again.. “Hey is this the personal matter you said you had to take care of? Must be bad if he has been brought here.” Emily says curiously.

“Yeah, it’s a lot worse than I thought. Hey James, you can sleep on the sofa in the rec room.” Kimberley says. James walks in the room and throws his things over the couch.

“Gonna have to fill me in.” Emily says

“How are you holding up?” Kimberley asks with concern.

“About as well as you could expect. His suit is fixed, Bill is working on the coma situation.” Emily explains with a worrisome face.

“Hey, he’s gonna be alright. He is the toughest son-of-a-b***h I have ever met. Well, after me of course.” Kimberley says with a smile, she places her hand on her shoulder, they both share a laugh. “Hey I just thought, won’t Allison be in there with him? Maybe it isn’t too bad in there.” Kimberley says, reassuring her.

“Huh, I guess you’re right, we thought about it earlier too, Bill hasn’t even been able to make contact with her in there, I am sure they’re both fine though.” Emily says. “Hey, well, hit me up when you speak to Octavia about this tomorrow, I’m gonna want to hear this, besides I need to get my head away from John for a while.”

“Alright, seriously though, you have bags under your eyes. Get some rest.” Emily gives Kimberley a smile and returns to her room.

John enters the hallway and begins to walk towards the gym doors. He pushes both of the doors open.

A few years back John was placed in charge of a recon unit, they had been training a company of Kurdish soldiers. The leader of the Kurds had been getting heated, and uncontrollable to the point where John was reluctant to have a conversation with the man incase he got trigger happy. John had moved his unit into the hills roughly six kilometers away from where the Kurds were basing. His unit was on edge, knowing that a single heated argument with the leader would send him on a blood lust.

‘Lieutenant, sir.’ Kingston said walking into John’s tent.

‘Kingston. What is it?’ John asked while closing his laptop.

‘Your suspicions are correct. They have mobilized a technical, .50 on top, got a truck full of the b******s in behind it.’ Kingston explained. Sweat ran down his face, he had clearly huffed it back to the camp.

’Fuckers! We help them and the thanks we get is an assassination squad? Gather the other three, tell ‘em to meet us in here.’ John said. After roughly five minutes all of John’s unit was in his tent.

‘Alright. Kingston just informed me. They are coming to dispose of us, probably going to burn our bodies after. We need to cast a vote.’ John says.

‘A vote? For what?’ Stinson asked, the unit’s spotter.

‘A vote to determine one of the following. Fight or flight. What’s it gonna be?’ John looked around at the puzzled faces. ‘My vote, is that we get our asses out of here, have command deal with the rogue b******s. I got a sister to get back to, she would come to hell just to kick the s**t outta me if we fight and lose.’

‘I got a daughter. I am for flight.’ Kingston said looking about the others. The other four mutter to each other. Stinson comes forward.

‘We ain’t gonna be the ones to keep you from ‘em. I’ll load the truck.’ Stinson says walking out of the tent.

‘Kingston, you think you can set up a large fire a click north of here? Throw ‘em off our trail for a while.’ John asks.

‘Consider it done.’ Kingston responds, John gave him a nod and Kingston walked out of the tent.

The memory abruptly ends, John finds him switching from memory to memory, they vary from childhood to present.

“Allison, what is happening?” John asks looking around him, the terrain changing from iraqi sands to carpet, to grass, walls forming around them and disappearing again.

“I have no idea.” Allison responds staring aimlessly around. The room stops spinning and John stumbles trying to get his bearings, they all come to a halt and he stands in the open gym once more.

“F****n’ hell.” John says. “Right, onto the next.”

The next morning, John still is in a coma, trying to fight his way out of his own head and back to the land of the living, but to no avail yet. Kimberley is seen leaning on the door looking at him, the sound of beeping comes from the life support machine, most of the cuts and bruises on his face had healed from the fight at least there is that much to be thankful for.

“So this is the tough SOB.” James walks up behind her and looks at John. Kimberley doesn’t budge. “Yeah I can see it, he could take a tank shell.”

“Eh, he’ll be fine, he always somehow is. I bet the second he wakes up he is gonna burst out laughing saying ‘That was a close one wasn’t it!?’... Stupid.” Kimberley says with her head tilted at the floor, she exits the room, James walks with her.

“The Shelby out front his?” James asks, he is a little bit of a car nut himself.

“Yeah, why?” Kimberley responds.

“It took a lot of damage from the battle, I could take a look at it, fix it up for him. Least I can do.” James says.

“Yeah, I am sure he would appreciate that, he’s got some tools and stuff in his room, here’s the key.” Kimberley says tossing the key to him. “Workshop is roundback of the building.”

“I’m not even going to question why you have a key to his room.” James says with a devious smile.

“We’re close. But not that close.” Kimberley says punching him in the shoulder releasing a smile from her face.

James rolls the car into the workshop and opens the door, he checks the gears and the pedals.

“Seems alright, this shouldn’t take more than a couple days.” He says to himself. As he is about to step out of the car to pop the hood open, a picture falls out from a pocket in the roof. He picks it up and sees it is a picture of John, Emily and their father on what looked like their first hunting trip. He puts it back where it fell and continues to look over the car. There is a covered car in the corner of the workshop but he doesn’t want to intrude on someone else's vehicle.

“James.” Octavia walks in and sees him tweaking something under the hood. He wipes his hands of grease and looks over to Octavia.

“Ya?” He responds.

“Those mercs, they have been taken care of, however the general that wants you to take the fall isn’t going to stop until you’re dead. We can’t get near him, but I can do this. Wipe all servers, data, files, of you and your unit, I can also run facial recognition to see if any of your comrades made it other than yourself.” Octavia says swiping on a holopad.

“Seriously? Wow that didn’t take long at all, yeah, if you could do that, it would be great.” James replies nodding his head with an eyebrow raised.

“I also, can offer you a place on our support team, you can work close to your sister, have all the perks of being a member of Salvation, free healthcare, years ahead of modern day technology, the works.” Octavia says lowering the pad and looking at him.

“Huh, tempting. How many are in this ‘support team’?”

“Just Titus and Sharon, I spoke to him about it the other night, going to get more members soon as we find them. All you will do is if any of our teams get in trouble and need an exfil or maybe some cover, you guys will be sent in.” Octavia explains.

“Alright, yeah. I’m in. Let me know if any of my guys are alive when you can. Thanks, you have saved my a*s, not sure how Kim came across you guys, but you’re good people, thanks for giving me a second chance.” James says flipping a wrench in the air.

“No problem, I’ll get our people on the facial recognition scanners now, we have your units files and everything.” Octavia leaves the workshop and James continues to repair John’s car. All of a sudden James begins to miss his old muscle car he had been repairing but had to stop halfway through due to his deployment. He slips a smile then shakes his head to gain back his concentration once more. Everything just seemed to piece together, for James. Almost as if it were fate. His unit were to take the fall for some high ranking a*****e, he escapes, heads home to find his reborn sister in some kind of top secret military program which changed her life and may even change his, it is a miracle something like this happened. If it hadn’t surely he would have been tracked and killed by the mercenaries on his tail days ago. John kept the V8 mostly clean, the silver glistened off the engine leading down to the depths of the inner mechanisms of such a beautiful creation...

“Allison, just had a thought. Anything in here seem weird to you?” John asks sat down leaning against a wall in the gym.

“What do you mean?” Allison asks curiously, sat down next to him.

“Like this is Salvation alright, no doubt about that, but it doesn’t seem like it is, like something is off about this place.” John says. Looking around the room.

“I haven’t noticed anything different…” Allison says placing her index finger on her lips, thinking whether she had seen something out of the ordinary. “Well, there is this door that isn’t there in the outside world.”

“Wait what? Allison you are a goddess. Take me to it.” John says standing up, he helps Allison to her feet and lets her lead on in front of him.