Apinsig
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Chapter 126 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2022-12-12 17:48:37 +0000 UTCMy eyes opened with a snap. My hand landed immediately on my assault rifle, but I didn’t hear anything. Looking at my wristwatch I seemed to have slept for only an hour. Something was wrong I shouldn’t have woken up like this. I listen to any noise that sounded familiar. That notified me of something wrong. It only took a few seconds for me to know what woke me up.
Somewhere east of the line a bombardment has begun, and it was getting closer. I could even pick up the telltale sound of missiles moving through the air. But something was missing. Why was there no air raid alarm?
“What the fuck are they doing. AIR ATTACK, AIR ATTACK, ALL TO SHELTERS.” My yelling started a domino effect as I could hear my words being repeated. Just in case I also flipped my radio onto the relevant frequency to inform anyone listening.
Just a few moments later I could hear the alarm. It’s kind of weird how comforting it can sound. I moved as fast as I could picking up the supplies needed and heading to the nearest shelter as fast as I could. Why the fuck didn’t they ever listen to me. No, we need to hold this line, there are already defences here, blah blah blah. Fucking idiots.
I kept yelling for all to hear to move to a nearby shelter and remind those idiots to bring supplies as well. There was too much young blood in this camp and they were all running around like headless chickens. I grabbed as many as I could and showed them where to go. They were still a part of my unit no matter how useless they currently might be.
The shelter was practically useless and the only protection it gave you was from shrapnel. If a missile hit near here most of us were going to die. Let’s hope for a direct hit at least the end will be fast.
When I finished setting up the explosions were already quite close. I looked around but I didn’t see Théo. Was the French bastard still outside?
Moving to the entrance that was way too wide for my liking took me a moment. It took another moment to see where he was. He was too far away. “Move Théo fucking move.” But they were already running.
All my yelling did was help calm my nerves. Théo had been a bit more diligent about helping the younger blood. I guess the real soldier training he has didn’t let him ignore them as much as I could.
When they were about halfway here explosions started and I had to take cover. I still periodically peeked outside to see if they were still alive and by some miracle, no explosions happened near them.
I already had the pattern of their weapon systems memorized so I know when the explosions are going to happen. They even survived another series of explosions, but I didn’t think they were going to make it inside before the next one. But they also might make it. It was going to be a close call that will depend on how far away we were being attacked from.
“Everyone get ready after the next explosion if they aren’t inside, we go out and try to get them if they need help.”
“What the fuck are you talking about. That’s suicide. Ain't no way I’m going outside. He has the highest rank. God, please protect us. Fucking, fucking shit.”
I didn’t let their words bother me as I have heard them all before. But I was surprised that no one was calling for their mother I guess the situation wasn't that bad but there was still someone sobbing in the corner. Why is there always someone sobbing in the corner?
As expected, they didn’t make it in time, but I guess I was also a little bit wrong as we didn't need to go outside as most of them were blasted either inside the trench or scattered around us.
“Move get everyone inside now,” I said that after I was already halfway over the trench. My only goal was pulling Théo back inside. I jumped back inside, and it was the first time I looked at him at head height.
He was completely limp and sideways on the edge of the trench. I noticed the glassy eyes. Fucking shit. Turning him to his stomach I noticed the wounds on his back. The shrapnel had shredded him quite severely and the few pieces seem to have hit the back of his head. I pulled him in so we would be protected from the next wave
Looking around everyone else had brought everyone to safety but most of them were dead. It seems only one of them might survive. Two more would most likely bleed out but I could already see people were trying to save them.
“Goodbye Théo,” almost four months. That’s the longest any of my battle brothers have survived. I hope the other ones will not last as long. I learned too much about him and ended up liking him too much.
“You were a magnificent soldier and an excellent brother. I wish you whatever afterlife you seek and hope you find whatever you’re looking for.” I closed his eyes for the final time and snapped off one of his tags. I placed that in the pouch made for them just in front of my heart. Next, I started to take everything necessary from his body starting with water.
“What the fuck are you doing commander. He’s doing what needs to be done and you guys should start doing that as well. But he just died a moment ago. Why would you need those things.”
I tuned them out I needed to think. Should I lie to them or tell them the truth? It can wait until I finish. I got all the water, food, any ammunition and everything else useful. I threw them all onto a table that was made out of an artillery ammo box. The last thing I waited a moment to check. I hope that there won’t be any but even my pouch contains the dreadful white rectangle.
To no one's surprise, there was a letter. There were 2 letters and I had to take a deep breath as I saw my name on one of them. I didn’t have time to deal with this currently, so I just put the letters where I kept mine. I did the last check of his body and then lifted it and placed it so it would cover a part of the roof and side to give us extra protection.
“What the fuck did he just do.” The comments came again but I didn’t mind and picked up the next person after I checked for anything useful and did what needed to be done. I saw some familiar faces that seemed to look similar to mine and saw them starting to do the same things as I did. I informed everyone of what was needed. “This is to protect us from the bombardment as it will most likely last for days. This is why everyone needs to turn over their water and food so we could divide them equally.”
“I will tell you the truth the bombardment might just last a few hours, but I will tell you it will more like be 3 days. Whenever it will end soon after will come an assault that we must either retreat from or try to defend this place, but that will be decided by the higher-ups. I recommend you all to try to get some sleep after all the preparations are done.”
I was already running quite low on sleep, but I did help everyone finish up. I was not happy because I ended up with less water and food than I came in here with, but fairness is fairness. I picked one of the sleeping spots that was longer than the others. I was glad I didn't have to curl up to sleep.
I only now noticed how wet my cheeks were. It seems the French bastard meant more to me than I first realized. This was a terrible day. Sleep came quite easily even amongst the constant bombardment.
I woke up from a nightmare or perhaps just a memory. Fucking hate when that happens but the sounds around me sounded awfully similar to the nightmare and that help me clear the sleep fog that I was in. The first thing I noticed was Goose and the two ghosts that were still around. Seemed like the battle was still going on but there were a lot fewer of the rock monsters around. So many of them must have died but why were they still going?
It seems that my kill hasn't come through as the system probably thinks I’m still in a fight and I’m guessing I actually still am. I don’t know how long I slept but it must have been a long time, but I had to wait even longer for the fighting to start to tie down.
At first, I thought perhaps there were clans, and they were fighting for supremacy of the mountain, but I couldn’t find any such behaviour and it seems everyone was fighting one on one until one of them was dead and then the winner just moved on to the next fight.
What surprised me the most was that creature from the hot springs was also here and he was seemingly doing quite well. I could see the difference in his thinking and overall intelligence.
It seemed to be very careful about its positioning so it would fight with someone that was extremely damaged but used to be strong so he could keep up with the levelling everyone else was doing. Perhaps levelling was the wrong word but there were only a few silvers left and only gold tiers seemed to dominate. It seems that all that killing got them to get past their silver tier.
Comments
Tiresome
Brutal!
