Ascension

Lorelei

Elijah took the bullets out of my gun. He promised he would give them back when we got to the camp. I do feel less anxious without them.

"Listen to me Lorelei, this camp isn't going to be like the other camp. This is a medical camp. They won't be as experienced fighters but don't be reckless like last time." Indiana whispered to her.

"How do you know this and not us?" I ask Indiana.

"I was talking to Silas last night when I was walking to my tent." Indiana told us.

"Gotcha." Elijah tells him.

As we walk towards the camp we walk in freaking mud again. I absolutely despise mud now. It feels horrible to walk in with our giant combat boots. The boots refuse to give up the mud that we are walking in and so when we are finally walking in a place that doesn't have any mud it still feels like we are stepping in mud.

"How are you holding up?" Elijah whispers to me.

"I'm holding up." I tell him.

He smiles a little at me.

"I wish you didn't have to do this." He whispers in a low voice.

"It's my job isn't it?" I counter.

"Well yes, but you didn't get to choose whether or not you wanted to be in the army. I had understood what I was going to be doing in the army and you didn't even get the chance to consider the consequences." Elijah explains to me.

"Well I can't do anything about that now."

Elijah nods slowly. I can't tell what he is thinking so we sit in silence for a while. Indiana had moved ahead in our march so it was just us in the back.

"When this is all over I'm taking you far away from all this trauma." Elijah whispers so only I can hear.

"You don't mean that." I call his bluff.

"I will. For as long as it takes for you to stop having nightmares every time you see a gun." Elijah assures me.

I know you aren't allowed to do PDA when in uniform but screw that rule. I leaned over and hugged his shoulders tightly. So tightly it takes him by surprise.

"Thank you." I leaned into his ear.

"You all know what to do." Silas tells us.

I scrape some mud from my combat boots and dump it on Elijah. He gives me a devilishly handsome smile.

"You shouldn't have done that Lore. You will pay." He smirks.

"And I'm supposed to be scared of you, Eli?" I taunt.

"Oh you're asking for it." He continues to smirk.

He throws a fistful of mud onto my face. I throw leaves next. This continues until we are almost unrecognizable however I can still see his white teeth smiling at me. Elijah reaches into his pocket and pulls out my rounds once again. I load them into my gun and get a silent scolding from Silas for not having my gun ready.

We hide behind giant trees. Silas, once again fires the first shot into the night. A few lights turn on at the camp. Scientists and Doctors stumble out of tents in lab coats and sleep clothes. We fire. Screams of agony are drowned out by our gunshots firing again and again upon the doctors that have tortured and killed our people again and again.

I don't hesitate for a second and that makes me very dangerous. I hit the Brights again and again making sure all my marks hit exactly where I want them to. I can't help but marvel at Elijah's accuracy.

He is scary good at shooting a gun. He's even better than me and I have been training for eight months now. I inch forward towards the camp. People are trying to get away from our fire but they can't seem to run fast enough.

Finally our guns fall silent once again. I breath deep breaths as if I had held my breath for our entire battle. Elijah is standing next to me and he is smiling.

I don't know how he is smiling at the atrocity we just committed but whatever.

"We get to go home now Lorelei!" He exclaims.

Oh that makes more sense.

"And none of us have died." I knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as it left my lips.

We fall into an uncomfortable silence. The word that I should have said hangs in the air like an object. Yet.

"Let's check out the camp!" Silas yells.

Lorelei grabs my hands and we follow Indiana into a big tent near the back of the group of tents. Indiana sort of stumbles along.

"Hey Indiana, you good?" I ask him as he almost falls over a rock.

"I'll be fine." He mumbles with a cough.

We enter the tent and the sight inside made me dry heave. Next to me Elijah went pale. All around us dead doctors lay on the ground but that isn't the disturbing part of all of this. The middle of the room is boxed by a wall of plastic. The wall of plastic doesn't mask the smell however.

Elijah went from pale to ghostly pale.

"Is that? No it can't be?" He mumbles through a bit of hysteria.

Indiana stares at the dead body behind the plastic. I stare at the biohazard sign on the plastic and the hazmat suits the doctors were wearing.

"Tomas?" Elijah whispers with his eyes wide.

Tomas? I had heard that name before but I couldn't place where. I racked my brain and then I remembered. Tomas. The soldier that was in Elijah's training squad who went missing before PT.

"Oh my god!" I gasp.

Elijah's knees buckled. He almost fell.

"I'm going to throw up." Elijah mumbled.

Indiana kicked him a trash can. Elijah retched and retched until his stomach had nothing in it. When he stopped leaning over the garbage can he grabbed my hand and held it tightly in his fingers.

"He was such a good kid." Elijah whispers shocked.

"I know." I whisper stroking his hand.

"He didn't deserve this." Elijah mumbles again.

"I know he didn't" I murmur to him.

I lead him out of the room. We sit behind a tree and I keep holding his hand. His forehead broke out into a sweat and I brushed his hair out of his face. His eyes look so haunted when he looks at me.

"I'm going to go get Indiana. Is that okay Elijah? Elijah, look at me, is that okay?" I ask him.

Elijah nods. I go to get Indiana and the stench of the room seemed to get worse. It was so bad I almost didn't see Indiana put his hand on the door to the plastic section.

When I noticed him I lunged for him. I knocked Indiana into a cabinet but he was trying to go into the Biohazard room without a mask much less a hazmat suit.

Indiana used a strength I had never seen from him before and held my arms tightly in his arms.

"Indiana stop. Indiana that's hurting me." I cringe.

Indiana's eyes don't look human anymore.