Battle Strong by Elizabeth McCready (the ebook reader txt) 📖

surveyed the rest of the passengers to see if they seemed to notice the smell, or if any of them were Ander. It was hard to tell with helmets and all, but she figured she'd know him if she saw him. The body armor and gear concealed just about every body part you could use to identify a person, Beth couldn't even tell who were boys and who were girls. She wondered if that was purposeful.

When Ander made his appearance on the bus, he hadn't yet put on his helmet, that was until he took the seat next to Beth. She hadn't seen him since that summer, and he was different. She couldn't tell what it was about him, all she could tell is that he wasn't the same. But then again, neither was she. They rode to their destination in silence, he had no idea who she was. As far as he knew Beth was at home, probably still asleep. But she wasn't, Beth was shoulder to shoulder with him. So close she could basically hear what he was thinking, which of course was not a hard task for someone going into battle being that the options are usually pretty pointed.

As soon as their feet hit the battle grounds, it was war. Literal war. However, it was not the type that comes to mind. It wasn’t the type of war where a line of soldiers charge their enemies willing to risk their lives for each other. No, this was a war where every man and woman took their own path. Which only called for certain disaster. Beth tried to keep an eye on Ander, tried to keep him within her reach in case something were to go wrong, but she quickly lost sight of him in the abounding chaos. She ran towards the area she had seen him last and heard his bellowing yell which would only indicate intense pain. She turned her head to see the tip of a sword fixed on Ander’s throat, his helmet lying several yards away. She wasted no time pulling two arrows and lodging them into the heart of the assailant. At that very moment, everything she had ever known changed. She fell to the ground, trembling as if she were the one being impaled. I just killed someone. I killed a person. Her thoughts screamed inside of her.

You never know the pain, the regret, of taking a life until you've made the mistake of stopping another's precious heartbeat yourself. Beth shouted, feet planted on the ground, slashing, stabbing, and maiming more and more people. She forced herself to snap out of her guilt, she forced herself to survive. It was what she had always done. She had slaughtered four men before she realized Ander had kept running. Sprinting in the direction she had last seen him, the dust and thick brush made it nearly impossible to find him. She stopped running, trying to gain a sense of where she was. She surveyed the area seeing only rocks, trees, and a nearly purple sky. She heard shuffling of leaves behind her, she turned to see what had made the noise, sword at the ready but was yanked down into a small opening hidden in the ground under some brush. She let out a small yelp and managed a glance at the captor who had a finger over the mouth of their helmet, she decided rather quickly to remain silent. Beth watched out of the opening as feet ran by. Her captor peaked out and tossed a small device that she didn't recognize. Killing all four pairs of feet that passed the small opening with a surprisingly large explosion. Her captor slowly stood to ensure there were no more dangerous beings outside, and waved a hand for Beth to follow. They crept out of the hole, and began to run. Weaving through trees and bushes, they were careful not to make much noise. The only noises you could hear from them were the sounds of knives, arrows, and explosions ending the lives of more people. The two ran for hours, killing person after person. It had been a two hour ride to the drop off location, and another hour trek to get to the battlegrounds. Above them, the two could see the sun beginning to set.

"It's almost time for us to head back. Follow me." 

Ander. Beth simply nodded, still hoping he wouldn't learn that she was in his presence. The last thing she wanted was to expose herself to him, especially not on a battlefield. She would let him know, but not until battle was over. The two of them switched pace, slaughtering one dangerous soldier after the next until finally reaching the bus. There were six people at the bus when Ander and Beth arrived. It was only when they boarded the bus and rode away did she realize that only eight out of twelve of them survived. It was only the first battle and they had already lost four people. Beth's mind had trouble wrapping around that idea. They were supposedly the best fighters in the country and yet four of them were now dead. Although, part of her was still hoping that one of them was Melina. Once they got back to the cabins, only three people still had their masked helmets on. She was sure that no one kept their mask for the same reason she did.

 Beth sulked back into the cabin to see Calvenne's bed and armory empty. She felt a rush of guilt race over her. I should've been there.. Beth started to speak, deciding she wouldn't let that happen again.

"I need you to listen to me for a minute, all of you."

"Why should we?" Melina asked with notable ignorance and anger.

"Not now Melina, you can be a psychotic prick some other time, but right now you need to listen."

Melina, cold with spite, raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms.  "Proceed."

"Today, I was stupid. I killed someone for the first time in my life and I let the guilt and terror get inside my head. Now look, I haven't killed prior to this, but today I killed forty six people. I wasn't close to anyone but Noeh when I arrived this morning," Beth swallowed remembering why she killed that first person, for Ander, "I couldn't help but think that if it was me witnessing a friend being killed rather than me murdering a stranger, I wouldn't have been able to recover. In order for us to be strong, we have to refrain from losing our minds. I was guilty of it today but I can promise, it's not happening again. We are all needed out there. We need to be an actual team. We can’t do what we did today and assume a free for all will end a full-on-war." The room was silent for a few moments, the idea of what had happened sinking in.

"If we are split like we were today we can count on no one making it out tomorrow. You're right, we need to be a team." Noeh said moving to Beth’s side.

"Exactly, if you don't have unity, you won't have success. And frankly, success is what we need right now."

"I suppose that you have a point." Melina suggested with a shrug.

"Then that's what we'll do. When that alarm sounds tomorrow, it will be us on and off of that bus together."

"Okay, but what about the other cabin?" Chaess asked meekly as he shifted his eyes from Melina to Beth. "I mean they lost three guys this morning."

"I don't know guys, that's three more to add to us. There are five of us, that's enough. We can't move in that big of a group. It's too risky." Peitre answered.

"It's only three guys, Pietre, it's not like we are adding ten more. Haven’t you see how many people are in each group of the other bases? No less than 100, I’m betting. And aren't they supposed to be our team too? We were all selected together. Maybe we could use the extra help" Chaess asked with a look of sympathy for Ander's cabin.

"I know its just three guys, but do we even know they'll stick with us. I know we are in on this plan. but what if they aren't?" Peitre retorted.

"Fine, then it's just us. We are in this together now." Melina turned her attention to Beth and extended a hand to her. "We need a do-over, I'm Melina."

"Beth." The girls shook hands while the boys cheered and laughed at them.

"And the beasts have been tamed." Melina and Beth glared at Noeh as he spoke.

"Don't push it." The two said in unison, and couldn't help but laugh.

*~*

A few hours after everyone had gone to sleep, Beth was still wide awake. The image of forty six people falling to the ground due to the impact of a weapon that she was handling haunted her. Beth sat in that bunk, staring at the ceiling with a stone-cold expression for hours. She couldn't process that she had just killed real human beings. Beth's whole life had been spent hunting deer, elk, turkeys, and targets. Never a human being, it was hard on her. She lifted her body out of the bed as quietly as she could and trekked out to the lake. To her, that was the only thing that offered peace. She stayed for what seemed like the entire night, waiting for that guilt to stop controlling her. Tomorrow, she promised herself. You're not going to be like this, Beth. If you make it you are not going to do this again. She finally calmed herself enough to go back to the cabin where she finally got the sleep she deserved.

*~*

For the second morning in a row, the scream of that horrible siren woke Beth from her deep slumber. Just like trained soldiers, the five warriors sprung into action. They were gearing up as if they'd been awake for hours already. Together, they ran to the bus and sat in a group. When the bus had all eight passengers, it departed for uncertain death. 

Beth looked to the other portion of the bus, seeing him there with his helmet off, he was alone. She wanted to go over to him, to tell him it would all be okay, that she was here experiencing it all too. But, she couldn't. He was the only person in this world she was truly afraid of confronting, she knew he would never hurt her, but she also knew he would never love her. That thought scared her more than anything. Beth stared at him, thinking back to when he did love her, when things were okay between them. Unfortunately, that same part of her mind remembered it will never be like that again. She had finally started to live with that idea, that she was going to be without him, that she needed to move on with her life. But then, there he was. As if she was supposed to only think of him.

*~*

They launched out of the bus as soon as it's tires stopped moving, as they approached the battle field, Beth saw the enemies. They weren't running. They weren't even moving. They were just standing there.

"Stop!" Beth screamed, all but one of them stopped. An explosion sent dirt and dust soaring into the odd looking sky, and among the dirt and dust was Melina's broken and limp body. In the back of her mind, Beth figured it would be Melina that wouldn't listen.

"We have to keep moving, they're coming!" Peitre yelled, Beth looked ahead to see them running now. She ran directly over the spot where Melina's, now deformed, body was blown up to ensure that they would not set off other bombs. They ran to the enemy lines, and the chaos began. Above her, she saw a small circular object flying towards them.

"Get behind something and lay down quick! Cover your heads and stay down!" Beth yelled, the