4. New

The next day I walked outside and saw Ty. He sat there with a remote in his hand, two land mines forty feet away. He was seemed zoned out. I sat next to him. “What are you doing?” I asked. He sat still. “I’m waiting,” He said. “Waiting for them.” I paused. “They’re not coming, we’re going to them.” It seemed to encourage him to fight. He got up and we both went back inside.
A lot of stuff has changed since Abe left. Me and Trent have become best friends. He draws pictures and stuff, and I write stories based on what I see. I’m okay I guess. Twitch acts more paranoid. I try to comfort him, but it usually doesn’t work. Still he has a reputation to be the best solider out of all of us. And Will has become the leader. We don’t know what happened, he just adopted it. I don’t like him. No one can replace Abe.
As soon as me and Ty walk in, Will gets up. “Alright, today we’re doing what we Adid a week ago: observing, taking pictures.” Now Trent, Andrew, Twitch, your team 1, Me and Ty are team two.
“What are you guys doing?” Twitch asked Will.
“You’ll see what we’re gonna be doing. Come on Ty.”
They headed out. We all looked at each other for a second. I shrugged and we left. We gad the camera, we took the pictures. It wasn’t hard, but the stealth would be a challenge.
“How far are we?” Trent asked tiredly. I looked at the watch. “About ten minutes away.” He seemed relieved. “You know the children of 2032 are supposed to be he ‘Generation of Regression’. Twitch randomly added, half- mocking the quote. We all knew it was true though. I still felt insulted though, all the fighting we do that could potentially change the world if we lose and they just spit in our faces.
I stared in the distance for a minute. “Is that…” I started. We hid from two enemy troopers. “What are we gonna do?” Twitch asked. Trent pulled his glock from his holster and dived sideways.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
I looked to where he dove. Trent wasn’t there. Did he die? I poked my head out to see Trent standing over two enemies. “Generation of Regression huh?”
We were quick to leave, knowing somebody would find those two. Trent and Twitch held their weapons up while I kept my pistol to the side. “Trent, I didn’t think you would do something like that. I said while we ran. He turned around, looking deep into my eyes. “War changes people.” I understood.
We finally stopped. We had an overview of a tiny village, constructed by dozens of green tents and small fires with pots and pans next to it. We could hear Trent zoom and snap the pictures as he lay down to get a better view. Twitch started to shake.
“Twitch, are you okay?” I asked.
“I can’t take this anymore.” He twitched.
“What?”
“I gotta do it for Abe.” He looked at me with guilt before he said…
“I’m sorry Andrew.” I was puzzled.
Within seconds, Twitch jumped onto the hill in front of us, and started scaling down to the enemy base. “Twitch!” I yelled. “Twitch!” The nervousness made me feel dizzy. “Damn!” I paused. I reached for my radio and called in. “Yes, I need an air strike in fifteen minutes at these coordinates…” Trent stared at me like I was crazy. I was. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.” I started climbing down. “Andrew!” Trent called. I turned around. He threw his glock 18 at me. I tossed my sniper rifle. A fair trade (and something he could bury me with if I die).
As soon as I got there, I could hear the burst of Twitch’s SMG. I stealthily weaved through the tents, trying to find him. Eventually, I did. He was surrounded by five soldiers in a line, playing with him as cats do with mice.
“Any last requests?”
One asked. I crept behind them and in front of Twitch. He saw me, but played cool. “Duck!” He did and I stood up. I gunned down the five soldiers. They all fell down and Twitch started spitting on them. “Twitch, we gotta go!” I said. “Why?” he asked. “Because I ordered an air strike!” His eyes grew wide open and we started running.
“Come on Twitch, we’re almost there!”
He started to moan. “Andrew I’m…”
Bang!
He was interrupted by a shot that pierced through his shoulder. He looks at it, but keeps running. “Twitch!” I tried stopping him. “I’m fine! Just keep run…keep” He fainted, but I grabbed him into a fireman’s carry before he even touched the floor. Rat Tat Tat! I blind fired behind me as I try to run with Twitch on my shoulders. “Where are you guys?” Ty asked on the radio. I responded, holding my walkie-talkie in one hand, just barely holding Twitch. “At the enemy base”
“WHAT!” I heard on the receiving end.
“It’s a long story.” I tried not to put the blame on my fallen comrade. Behind me I heard a group of enemies grouping. “Incoming.” Ty warned. Whoosh! I heard it was one of Ty’s rockets. I .The ground shook as the impact of an explosion and shrapnel hit our enemies. Twitch almost went into a seizure. I kept going. “Thanks.” I wish I knew where he was. Rat tat tattatattta tat! Twitch’s body stiffened as he fired his smg then went limp. I turned real quick and saw he picked off the rest of the surviving enemies. I admired his perseverance. I escaped the base twenty seconds later and witnessed the most incredible thing I ever saw- what Will and Ty set up.
“Turn around.” Ty instructed. I did to see an explosion make the ground shoot up look a geyser. Several more of them exploded, eventually causing the whole base to implode.
“Beautiful.” Ty did a fake cry through the radio. “Beautiful.”
“Damn straight.” I said. “Meet me at the base.”
When I got back, my shoulders were so sore that I couldn’t tend to Twitch’s wounds, but at least I could say I had taken out the bullet and stopped the bleeding.
Trent went into the base and got some spray paint cans to do a mural on the wall of the Barrack. An hour he had Battalion 5: The Base written and an outline of a gas mask. He also had a tall outline. We all knew who it was.
“You don’t belong here; you belong in an art gallery or something.” I told him. “I know.” He said depressed.