"You guys hurry up, you're the last ones. We're trying to decide what to do with this guy. We need your input as well because Monica is nowhere to be found."
Abby and Luna hurried their pace to the bottom of the hill, their glances tracing each of their friends beside them.
"Good to see you, sweet cheeks," Cody says, winking at her.
"I'm too tired to even respond," Abby moans, placing some ammo on the ground, looking at the man and the battered tan uniform. "What do we know about him?"
"Not much I'm afraid," Rebecca gauged, looking deep into the green pendant on her chest. "In war we often rely on the goddess's wisdom on what should we do with men. My human side says to torture him, while my faith-based side of my brain wants to wait till we get him to Monica."
"We don't know where Monica is at all, so all I did was dish out some street justice," Marcus states, putting his hands together. "I don't have any problem laying hands on this guy."
The man puckered his lips and tried to push some spit towards Marcus. The glob of saliva fell short of the boots of the musclebound dark-skinned man.
"See what I mean?" Marcus jeered, taking a toothpick. Running forward, he slammed his knee in the man's face.
"Just hold on a moment," Rosemary pleaded. "We need to be strategic about this. If we knock out all of his teeth, he won't be able to talk." She held her right ankle, the blood seeping out slowly. She walks over to the man and lifted him up. "Maybe we should try just a little bit of compassion."
"I would have expected that from you," Cody states, rubbing his hands together as if warming them up for unsanctioned brawl. "Go ahead and state your case man." Cody crossed his arms, his hair filled with grass, and his face scowling madly.
The man spoke in a foreign language unknown to the squad members standing above him.
"Does anybody know what he is speaking?" Abby inquired.
Ian walks forward, putting his arms out laughing for a moment. Nodding he spoke a few words and the man's eyes perked up.
"What did you tell him?" Rebecca inquired.
"Well I know a little bit of what he is saying because it's essentially broken northern language combined with a little bit of southern slang from Flora. I studied a little bit of foreign language during my time in college. I believe it was a most elegant experience," Ian snickered, taking his index finger and brushing it near his temple where his hair met his forehead. "He pretty much told us to go die."
"Sounds about right, especially with the tone he was portraying," Cody hisses, forming a fist in his right hand. "Now can I take out another tooth!?"
"Not yet," Rosemary snapped, swinging her arms wildly.
"You pigs understand me. Well, at least one of you does," the man uttered, spitting towards them. "What do you want with me? If you're going to kill me let me die with my brothers and return to the desert where God birthed me from the sand."
"Oh, I can make that reality real quick," Marcus taunted, his eyes asunder with rage.
"Who gave you the weapons?" Rosemary inquired, standing just far enough from the man so he wouldn't be able to lunge towards her.
"It was kind of you not to tie my feet up so tight. You want to know who gave us the weapons. We call them 'the shadows,' or the ones that corrupt from within. Your country is finished, and all of your crystals will be gone. You have no hope of redemption. You are a bunch of small, minded simpletons that will die without ever seeing your goddess. You are..."
Boom!
Rosemary stood there, her pistol smoking slightly after the bullet casing ejected. "He wasn't going to tell us anything. Speaking fairytales about the corruption of our government from the inside."
The man's body slumped over, a single bullet hole in the front of his skull. His eyes were wide open and then slowly closed. A pool of blood painted his upper body.
Silence fell over the seven squad members.
Rebecca paced in front of Rosemary and lowered the gun towards the ground. "You're okay," Rebecca states, wrapping her arms around Rosemary who leaned into her. "Sometimes we have to do things in war that we normally wouldn't do in our everyday lives. Remember the teachings of the goddess. Take life when one is in desperate need of saving their own. It's justified killing in the eyes of the sovereign goddess."
Rosemary put her gun back in her holster, wrapping her arms around Rebecca and sobbing uncontrollably. "This war is going to break all of us and we don't even know who the real enemy is. We are just pawns," she screamed. "I joined to pay off debt and I knew killing would be part of it. I don't like this! Life is precious and I remember the teachings of the goddess. I appear strong, and I'm probably the most scared of all of you."
"Maybe not as much as me," Luna squeaked. She put up her hand, a small smile gracing her face.
"Way to make me feel some kind of way," Rosemary sobs, letting go of embracing Rebecca and turning around towards Luna. She wiped her face of her tears and grinned slightly. "I think you will always be more afraid than me, even with that sniper rifle you hold."
"We all faced death today," Cody ranted, kneeling on the ground. "I think we'll do best to push forward and try to find what encampment Monica is at. We looked around. Her body isn't here, so she must be alive."
"She could have been blown to smithereens, the rocket hit the middle carriage in the convoy." Rosemary drew her attention to Cody, expecting some sort of quip from her response but received none.
"We should all shoulder the responsibility of carrying the ammo," Marcus spoke up. "Let's get a move on, shall we?" Shifting similar weight on each of his shoulders, he trotted onward, the rest of his six squad members in tow.
The group trudged through the Flora outlands, the relentless afternoon sun beating down on them without mercy. The vast expanse of sand seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions, and the hot winds kicked up small cyclones, casting a gritty haze over the landscape.
"Did Monica tell anyone where our next checkpoint would be?" Abby looks up towards Marcus, who was in the lead, followed by Rebecca holding a large brown bag on her shoulder which was slightly ripped at the seams.
"Well, the obvious town that would be closest to us should be Farrenbrook." Luna pulled a map from her pocket and followed the coordinates with her finger. "If they didn't takeoff at the forthcoming fork in the road, we should run right into them."
"Leave it up to Luna to come up with the best coordination. What an elegant find. Then it's off to Farrenbrook to find our leader," Ian blurted cheerfully, trying to lighten up the mood.
Rebecca started to stumble and wiped her head. "This heat is exhausting."
"I got you," Abby rushes up, removing two of the sacks Rebecca was carrying on her left shoulder.
Rebecca took a sip from Abby's little water bottle.
Abby poured some over Rebecca's head for good measure. Because of the humidity, her long brunette hair had become matted. "I'll take those back from you," Rebecca whispers, her brown eyes steely with resolve.
Abby shook her head. "I know you are trying to be a moral compass of all of us. As an envoy of the goddess, you also must be restored. I studied the text because my grandfather was a devout follower of the goddess, so now I recite many of the verses every night before bed."
"Devote all you have to your fellow man and to taking care of your own home." Rebecca stumbled a little but straightened herself up, pouring some more water on her head. "When I was in college they called me "Stubborn Queen," because I'd focus so much on others that I didn't take care of myself. It led to a lot of mental struggles during my four years of university. I..."
"Head's up you guys, we got a situation," Marcus bellowed.