The cramped dark space, inside the back of the truck, kind of reminded Vega of basic training. Everywhere you went in basic was usually in the back of these tractor trailer rigs that were special made for the job. The soldiers all named them cattle cars and with good reason. They were usually shoved into them so tight that, one time, Vega fell asleep on her feet and never fell down. Of course, being stuck in one for an extended period of time usually led to other problems that the military was infinitely familiar with.

Vega verbalized this problem when she told the intelligence officer, “Patterson, stop grabbing my ass! How would you like it if I…”

Scott Reiner yelped, “that was my ass Vega!”

Sharon Patterson had a biting tone as she said into the dark, “I did not grab your ass Vega! Trust me, If I did this…”

Another voice, a very controlled and angry one, with an elven accent, now said, “I am not Vega, Captain.”

There was quite a bit of shifting around as Patterson tried to retreat and had nowhere to go. Finally Patterson was forced in to, “sorry Major Ceascu.”

Another voice, a young girls that was very squeaky and nervous came out of the dark, “is this how I have to spend my last hours? Would you people all just shut up already!”

Reiner asked the obvious question, “who said that?”

Vega replied, “I don’t have a fucking clue. Who is that?”

“It’s me,” replied the voice.

Patterson then told the disembodied sound, “we don’t know who me is.”

The voice of a young male responded next, “it’s Lieutenant Dixon.”

Vega became confused and asked, “who? You mean you’re Dixon?”

The scared voice of the girl returned, “I’m Dixon, he’s Shubert.”

“Oh that really clears things up,” Vega said in a way that made it clear exactly how unclear things were. If her sarcasm was missed then she had a back up plan, “who the fuck are Dixon and Shubert?” After thinking about it for a second, Vega quickly followed up, “oh wait a minute. Jack and Jill, right?”

Vega jumped when she felt the bite of a particularly hard pinch on her ass. If everyone could have been knocked down, they would have been. She then exclaimed, “goddamn it Scott! That shit hurt!”

The elf responded, “that was not Sergeant Reiner. I was just wondering if anything would ever make you shut up.”

Dixon’s voice came back in a frantic and frustrated way, “would you people please act professionally! We’re soldiers!”

“No kid,” Lolita replied. “We’re fucking soldiers, and that’s exactly how we’re acting. You‘re just an FNG.”

Now Scott weighed in, “lay off the kid Vega. She’s scared.”

“No shit Sherlock,” Vega snapped, “do you want it spreading to the whole goddamn truck?”

Taylya added, “she does not know any better Lieutenant.”

“Somebody needs to teach her,” Vega told the elf, “cause my ass just ain’t here to get pinched. It’s also on the line.” Then Lolita snarled, “ok Scott! I know that was you this time. You’re the only one with a big ass ugly ring!” Then Vega said, “hey Jill, or Dixon, or Dawn, or whatever your fucking name is. Know the difference between the boy scouts and the army? The boy scouts got adult supervision.”

The girl’s voice was still cracking as she seriously asked, “is that supposed to be funny?”

“No,” Vega never got to finish her sentence. The explosion that interrupted her sounded like it was just outside the walls of the truck. No one had much time to think about that because the truck had obviously flipped over on it’s side. Vega felt the weight of half the vehicles occupants bearing down on her as she yelled, “Scott! Get the goddamn door open!”

Reiner yelled back, “I can’t fucking move!”

Taylya’s voice was normally quite calm and even unemotional but, now she was squealing as she pointed out the obvious, “we have not moved! We are still at the temple!”

Vega yelled back, “I don’t care where the hell I am just so long as it’s out of this goddamn truck!” The next explosion only served to highlight Vega’s point. The sentiment was echoed by nearly thirty screams and any coherent communications ceased in favor of the sounds of panic. The next explosion sent the truck rolling again. When it finished, Lolita was not even sure which direction she was pointing.

All that Lolita knew for certain was that she was surrounded and pinned by bodies. Some of them were squirming while others were not. “Jesus Fucking Christ, what the fuck was that!? Did we just get nuked?”

Taylya was trying to break free but, it was no use. She kept right on though. She grunted out to Vega, “I think that was the armored car exploding. That was too close.”

“Smoke,” yelled Scott.

All Vega could do was yell back, “then get us the fuck out of here!”

The door slid partially opened and from Lolita’s vantage point she could see that it wasn’t going any further. The rails were both bent and jammed with people. Still, it was better than nothing. Then Vega heard a familiar voice and it was the most welcome that she had ever heard. Katie yelled in, “is anybody still alive in there?”

“Katie!” Vega began to yell along with several others. Vega began snapping at them till she got control, “we’re stuck! The door is jammed up here. You’re not going to move it. Do something else!”

Katie began trying to pull at arms and legs but, it was useless. They were jammed in way too tight and she was not in such great shape herself. She looked down the line of what was their column and the truck was the only one that was not currently on fire. That was their second break. The first was that this truck was a special. It had a reinforced structure to make it air tight. It was the only way that everyone in the back had escaped being crushed when they rolled over a couple of times.

The bad news was an entirely different matter. Whatever had blasted the other vehicles was obviously big enough to penetrate the armor on the elf ACV. It wouldn’t have any problem turning this truck into a fireball, reinforced structure or not. It had done it to the other vehicles in the line, all of which were identical to this one. That was not the worst of it though and, as Katie saw it, that prize went to the fact that they were most obviously still in the line of fire.

There was a lot of shooting going on all around the complex. As Katie looked around for anything that might help her get the door open, she realized that, so far, she had not seen a single enemy combatant. She didn’t even know who they were! She only knew of the battle because of the sounds of small arms with the occasional sporadic explosion. Something didn’t sound right about those bangs either. Katie was not sure why but, it was something about the retort that just wasn’t right.

There was no time to worry about it. Katie knew she had to make a choice. There was nothing she could do here. There was no way to save the people in that truck. The logical choice would have been to run off, like Colonel Hogan had done right after the first explosion. They were both outside the cab of the truck, about fifty feet away, when the blast had knocked them both to the ground. Katie had felt lucky then, there were no seat belts in those trucks and she was pretty sure, had she been in the cab, that she’d be dead with a broken neck right now.

Katie could not make herself run. She listened to the cries of anguish, the pain, and the raw fear coming out of the back and, the sounds cut into her like no shrapnel ever could. If she left now, she could never live with herself. Katie decided right then that dying was preferable. She yelled back in to Vega, “I’m not going anywhere Lolita! Just wait, I’ll get you all out!” Katie knew that was a lie but, in this case, she figured it was better than the reality.

Katie dropped to her hands and knees. She tossed the British helmet aside and then tried to reach in to the truck as she yelled, “Lolita? Can you reach my hand.”

Vega yelled back, “I can reach a bunch of fucking hands, Which one is yours?!”

The vehicle that came speeding right at Katie made her think this was it. Then it spun out at the last second and slid to a stop with it’s rear bumper right next to the truck. Katie got up, stunned, as she watched Colonel Hogan get out of the vehicle and begin unsnapping the heavy tow cable from it’s storage clamps. He snapped at Katie, “don’t just stand there Major! Help me!” They took the cable off and Hogan clipped it to the rear loading clamp on the back of his stolen elf version of a hummer. Katie tried to clamp the other side to the sliding door handle but, it was too big. Hogan told her, “won’t work anyway. It’ll just pull that handle right off. We’ve got to get it inside, on the guide rails for the door.”

Katie got back down, this time on her belly. She could see Reiner and she told him, “Scott, you’ve got to get this on the rails.”

Reiner growled back in pain, “I can’t reach that far.”

Vega yelled down, “just pass it to me! Come on Sergeant Captain, I know we all know how to play Grab Fanny here!”

The cable eventually had to make it all the way up to Taylya, who then had to struggle to mover her arm in the right position. She still couldn’t reach the guide rail. It was not the distance but the angle. There was someone’s limb in the way and as Taylya tried to budge it out, she heard that young girl scream, “oh my god Steve! Steve! Oh my god he’s dead!”

“Shut up,” Vega snapped.

This time Dawn Dixon didn’t take it, “you shut you stupid bitch! He’s my best friend!”

Lolita just ignored the girl and grunted to Taylya, “come on Major, you’re going to have to do this. If you don’t we’re all dead and I don’t plan on going out like this.” Lolita heard something strange. It sounded like a snap or a crackle. She worried about it to start with but, then the elf grunted loudly. Finally, Taylya called back down, “tell them to do it! It’s attached.”

The colonel wasted no time jumping behind the wheel of his vehicle and gunning the accelerator pedal. At first the heavy steel cable began ripping into the sheet metal like a knife through butter. Then it built enough resistance and the door popped off of it’s rollers. The weight of bodies behind it did the rest of the work and an avalanche of humanity came pouring out of the back.

Lolita got right to her feet and began jumping around like a chicken as she exclaimed, “there is no way in hell I am ever getting in the back of one of those things again, ever!”

Reiner only got as far as his knees when he asked Lolita, “is this what happened to all your other sergeants?”

“Hear about that did you?” Vega laughed, “naaa, you got lucky bitch.”

Scott caught some very thankful breaths and referred to his British uniform, “why do you think I grabbed the captains jacket?” He then looked over and saw the elf, sitting with her back against the side of the truck. She was clutching her arm and, if she had been human, Scott would have sworn the woman was in severe pain. Scott asked her, “you all right Major?”

Taylya gritted her teeth and then said, “my arm is broken.”

“In the fall?” Scott asked in return.

“No,” Taylya was breathing shallow as she replied, “I had to break it in order to attach the clamp to the hook.”

Vega stopped bouncing around, “goddamn!” Vega suddenly felt sorry for her. That was something Vega would have never had the guts to do, so, the American Lieutenant knelt beside the elf and asked, “can you guys take morphine?”

“No,” Taylya replied. Then she nodded to her right vest pocket, “there is a tube in there. Can you get it for me please?”

The little tube looked unremarkable and it very much resembled tooth paste. That’s why Vega asked, “hope you don’t want to brush your teeth right now?”

“Squeeze some out on the skin, just above the break,” Taylya her head swayed and her voice became weaker.

“Uh,” Vega hesitated and then called Scot over to help hold the elf in place. Lolita then told Taylya, “I’m going to have get your shirt sleeve out of the way. I think I’m going to have to cut it.” Lolita pulled out her knife and before starting she said, “I may have to push a little so don’t move.” Scott tried to give some advice but Lolita snapped, “don’t try and tell me how do this shit, Scott, my granny was the best seamstress in the five bro’s!”

Vega’s prediction was on the money as Taylya nearly passed out after her first scream. When the sleeve was cleared enough to see the thick red line on the elf’s skin, Taylya weakly said, “don’t touch the paste. Use a som... Gently rub it in the skin.” There was an applicator swab taped to the side of the tube so Vega dabbed what looked like a thick red jell on the end and then touched Taylya’s skin with it. She screamed out, “GENTLY!”

“Sorry,” Vega had jumped back nearly a foot. This time she was a bit more careful but, still got the same results and Scott still had to hold the elf down. Slowly, Taylya started to look less and less like she was in pain and finally her eyes began to glaze over.

Reiner was amazed. He looked down at the tube and said, “what is that stuff?” He reached out and touched it before Vega could warn him not too. Nothing happened so he sniffed it. Then he just looked at Lolita and shrugged, “nothing.”

“You got shit for brains Scott,” Vega snapped back as she capped the tube and began to putting it back where she found it. Then Scott looked at her funny, and fell flat on his face. Vega nearly panicked and rolled him over, feeling for a pulse. She gave up when she saw the grin on his face and heard the incoherent laughter. Lolita slapped him and said, “you sorry cock sucker, you’re stoned!”

“This is good shit,” Reiner mumbled as he giggled.

“Yeah no kidding,” Vega quipped in great annoyance as she got back to her feet and made sure her weapon was charged and ready to fire. She had some payback to get, now, and it was obvious Scott was no longer going to be of any use. Lolita left him laying in the lap of the elf who was now asleep.

Vega found what was left of the unit. Katie was stripping off her British jacket and tunic so, Vega decided too do so as well. Colonel Hogan was too busy gathering up who was left. Vega watched him sending all five healthy body’s for the nearest cover when he stopped at the back of the truck and knelt down next to that little ‘Fucking New Girl.’ What was her name again? Vega could only remember ‘Jill’ and, right now, she was hunched over ‘Jack’ and crying her eyes out. Hogan actually didn’t yell at her. It didn’t even look like he was being mean. That actually made Lolita mad at the guy even more than usual.

Katie was about to strap her body armor back on while Lolita had not even begun to shed hers. The shooting from just over the rise picked up again and Lolita decided just to leave it all on at that point. Instead of grabbing her armor, Katie picked up her British infantry weapon and stepped away from the vehicle, pointing it towards the sound of the guns. Lolita joined her and noted, “might be nice to know who’s attacking us.”

“Has to be elf on elf,” Katie said as she flipped off the safety and began scanning for targets. She then commented, “I’d just like to know where they got anti armor rockets from. That’s the only thing that could have turned that armored car into scrap metal like that.” She then saw what she was sure was her first target.

It came over the rise and looked very odd, to Katie, right from the start. It was no elf and it certainly wasn’t human. It was pretty damn fast but, the way it ran looked almost like a top was twisting. It’s legs were huge but, they weren’t very long in comparison to it’s body. It’s arms flailed as it sped right at them and it had something big and bulky all over it’s body. Then it got close enough for Katie to make out it’s face. She gasped, “oh my god it’s an Orc.”

“Here?” Vega gulped. “How the fuck did an Orc get here?” Then Vega realized the weapon she was carrying might not even bring the thing down! “We better open up now!”

“No!” Katie snapped. “That thing has extra armor on it. We have to let it get closer. Hold you fire!” Katie kept examining it as her finger twitched on the trigger, screaming for her brain to give the command to depress. Katie felt her leg start shaking and her arms began to follow suit. She fought to hold the sight on the target and her eyeballs began to blur. Katie had to break contact and wipe the sweat away. When she put the sight back on the creature she realized something. All that stuff on it wasn’t armor and, in fact, it didn’t even appear to be wearing armor.

Katie looked over to the burning wreck of the armor car. She looked back at the Orc and realized, “oh my god, oh my god, that’s not armor! FIRE!”

Both small arms ripped to life on full automatic as they sprayed the Orc with tracer rounds. A second later, before either magazine emptied, a blinding flash brought the shooting to a halt. Katie and Lolita were knocked off their feet and landed on their backs. When the compression of the blast was over with and Katie began to cough, she realized that all she could still see was that blinding bright light. She tried to get back on her feet anyway. Then it felt like someone hit her with a hammer in the gut. Katie went back down.

The spots started clearing from Lolita’s eyes and she staggered back to her feet. When the blur started to take on a definitive form, the first thing that Lolita saw was Katie laying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. There was a giant gash in Katie’s belly. Lolita panicked and dropped to her knees, by Katie’s side, “don’t fucking move girl!”

The first thing Lolita did was go for her morphine injectors. She jabbed one in Katie’s leg and then hit the button. Katie did not even seem to notice. She just kept flailing her arms around and screaming, “I can’t see!” Lolita did her best to keep Katie’s movements from tearing the hole in her belly any worse. Then the major grabbed Vega by the vest, pulled her down, and then screamed in Lolita’s face, “MOMMA! PLEASE!”

“Goddamn it Katie,” Vega screamed as she fought back against her friend, “tell her that your own fucking self when you get home. I think this qualifies you for the privilege.”

Vega was ripped away from Katie by someone behind her. She fought back in anger and almost shot the guy who grabbed her. Vega found herself looking right down the sights at Colonel Hogan’s face. Lolita felt like pulling the trigger but, did not. Hogan stood there, as stoic as ever and then he pointed towards the nearby rise and said, “point that thing at them Lieutenant. We’ve got incoming!” Hogan then began yelling for what was left of his people, “everybody front and center, standing tall, now!” He pointed to the temple and continued, “this is the front door to our homes and we’re all that’s standing between them and our families. We are not running today!”

This was a side of Hogan that Vega had never seen before. She had long since been convinced that Hogan was just another paper pushing ass kisser with no guts. The guy had spent most of his war, so far, in the rear doing who knew what. Just another typical REMF for all that Vega knew. Now, from everything that Vega had seen of him in the last few minutes, the man acted just as calm and calculating as if he were still in that office. He didn’t flinch at the sound of explosions. He was walking around as erect as ever and, when that man said he was not running, she believed him. Who was this guy, really?

It seemed to Vega as if she were not the only person who believed him. What was left of them wasted no time joining her in the middle of the road. Hogan lined them up on Vega and pointed up the hill to where a long blob had just appeared and was growing in size. It did not take Lolita very long to figure out what that blob really was. It was a horde of Orc’s and, unlike the one that blew up on her, these creatures were mostly carrying staff weapons and wearing armor. The only good news there was, at least they probably wouldn’t explode like the last one had. The crater where they had shot it was pretty big and still smoldering.

The one thing Vega did not like about this plan was standing in the open. When Hogan drew a side arm and stood just to Vega’s open right, she asked him, “shouldn’t we take cover sir?”

“Why is that Lieutenant?” Hogan said as if he were giving her the most mundane of orders. He yelled out to his line of less than ten, “wait for my command!”

Vega nodded to the rushing enemy, “they can shoot back.”

“I think they’re out of ammo,” Hogan replied. “That means all they got are those big ass pig stickers.” How did he know that? When Vega put it to him he said, “have you heard them shooting in the last couple of minutes?” When Vega thought about it, she had not. Hogan, somehow, made sense. Course, she realized, it could also mean they had run out of targets. It also seemed as if Hogan realized this cause he leaned closer and said in a hushed tone, “besides, do you think we’re going to make a dent with these pea shooters we’re carrying? This way we can make an impression.”

That was quite a bold move. Lolita had to admire it in a way. Then she realized just how stupid it was too. Sometimes stupid worked though! In this case she doubted it because, out of everything the man said, the part about these pea shooters not making a dent was very true. This fact did not seem to escape the girl on Lolita’s left. It was that new girl, the one that Lolita couldn’t remember the name of and called Jill. That made Lolita snap, “what was your name again?”

The girl was huffing and out of air. She acted like there was something that would explode inside her if she didn’t keep making that gasping noise. Surprisingly, at least to Vega, she seemed otherwise all right. There was a tear rolling out of her eye, every now and then but, the girl was steady enough. She told Vega, “I told you, it’s Dixon.” Then she also said, “we’re going to die, aren’t we?”

Why bother lying at a time like this? Vega just looked back down her sights and replied, “pretty much, sure looks that way.”

Vega did not wonder why she was calm. She suddenly realized she always was. She was scared, yes, only not so much that it really bothered her. In fact, it was not so much that she ever really even noticed, let alone, wondered why. Vega was usually too busy to care. Watching death running right at her now, waiting for the command to pull the trigger, gave her a little time to do just that. She quickly reached a conclusion, she still didn’t give a shit.

“Take aim,” Hogan yelled out. Then he mumbled, “let ‘em get close enough so our bullets will work.”

The man might have yelled “fire” but nobody could hear him. The loud and rapid thumps that were coming from behind them drowned out all other sound. Vega saw Orcs just burst into bags of liquid right in front of her. She just automatically assumed that Hogan gave the order and started shooting herself. The fire that her little small arm was putting out did not even compare to the growing chorus of heavy thumps behind her. She saw the tracers flying by them and then coming from both the sides.

When she had to change out her magazine, Lolita took the time to look and see what was making all that racket. She saw the familiar looking profile of an M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle as it turned on a dime and then surged forward, firing it’s main weapon the entire time. Now Lolita looked behind her and saw even more of them coming out of the temple, in a line. As they rolled out the doors, one would turn left and the next to the right, then repeat. They were fanning out and every last one of them was shooting as fast as it cleared the building.

The mob of on rushing Orcs rapidly began to turn into a pile of gore but, they still did not run. Some of them even started shooting back. Vega looked to Hogan who had now holstered his side arm. He too saw the Orcs shooting at the Bradley’s and knew what Vega was thinking. He just shrugged and easily said, “well, you win some you loose some I guess. See to the wounded.”

Lolita was in no mood to argue. She ran back to Kaite and dropped to her knees again. There was no need to check for a pulse since the girl was still conscious. She even grabbed Lolita by the sleeve and in a panic she said, “I can’t feel my legs, I can’t…”

“That’s just the morphine I gave you,” Lolita was somewhat relieved, “you can see again, that’s a good thing, so, calm down.”

“It hurts Lolita,” Katie cried.

A voice from behind Lolita said, “Major Mack, why are you out of uniform?”

“Why don’t you fuck off pug knocker,” Lolita snapped before she looked back and saw a one star general behind her. She jumped to her feet, “I meant that in a respectful way sir!” She gestured to their clothing, “we were on a special…”

Bob waived the girl off, “relax Lieutenant.” Bob pointed down to Katie, “sides all that, I meant her blond hair.” The general patted Lolita on the arm as he began to walk off but pulled Lolita to the side first and quietly told her, “we got medics right behind us, make sure they get her first. That looks pretty bad.”

When the general walked off towards the shooting, Lolita went right back to her knees, tossed her British helmet aside, since she had no plans of ever putting it back on, and then grabbed Katie’s hand, “hear what he said? Medics right behind him. He told me it don’t look so bad nether. He’s a general, they know shit like that.”

“That was Isaacs,” Katie said in a half daze.

Lolita’s eyes opened and she tried to spot the guy but, there was just too much carnage around them now. She then asked Katie, “that was the shit bag that cut out on us at Nottakay? I didn’t recognize him with all them, uh, stars and shit. Damn I wish I’d known that a minute ago.”

The conversation became quickly irrelevant as Katie started coughing up blood. Lolita started trying to wipe it away and it did almost no good. Now Lolita’s was panicking and she began screaming for a, “medic! Goddamn it! Medic!” Surprisingly, someone came but, it was not exactly who Lolita expected to see. It was some woman in civilian clothes who had a Marine in tow. She pushed Lolita aside and began looking Katie over. Lolita protested, “who the fuck are you?”

It was the Marine who answered since the civilian began yelling for others to come, “that right there is called a ‘Doc-Tor,’ sweetheart.”

Vega slapped the guys service tape that proclaimed him ‘marine’ and then she came off with attitude, “oh just great. If it ain’t the United States Marine Corps, I guess the day is saved.” She looked behind him, “so where’s the rest of you fucking bozo’s.”

The Captain replied, “I’m it. You got one war you get one Marine.” He was then a little more serious when he said, “you guys got the stuffing tarred out of you here.”

Vega winced in confusion, “what the fuck does that even mean? We had, no correction, have a fight on our hands. You could help a little jarhead.”

Two guys in black uniforms came running up with a litter that they put down next to Katie. The civilian girl was giving orders to them as they carefully got Katie on the litter. It did not seem as if they were too careful since Katie screamed when they did. That’s when the civilian got back to her feet and asked Lolita in a rush, “how much mophine did you give her?”

Vega shrugged, “one injector why?”

“How much is that?” The girl didn’t wait for an answer. She grabbed Lolita’s first aid pouch and looked. She was not happy, “shit, that’s too much. Her heart rate is way too low.” The girl then led the stretcher off.

Vega suddenly realized she did not even get a chance to say goodbye. Lolita doubted that, even if Katie lived, they would ever see each other again. It felt kind of weird and then suddenly, Lolita worried about herself. What would she do without Katie? They’d been together ever since Katie did that short stint at the Pentagon. Vega sighed and started walking back towards the sounds of battle. She saw a lone soldier, still in her British uniform, on her knees and crying.

Stopping next to the girl, Lolita gave her a nudge and said, “come on Dixon. We got more Cookie Monsters to blow to hell.”

Dawn Dixon did not want to get up. She was not irrational. She was just crying. She then said, “I can’t do this without Steve. We’ve been together since OCS, almost two years now. I never thought…”

“Happens to all of us Dixon,” Vega said. Lolita reached down and picked up the girls weapon. She held it out for the girl to take and said, “ain’t worth much but, it beats nothing. Come on, stick with me kiddo. I’ll get you through this shit.”

Surprisingly, the girl took the weapon and then got to her feet. That was when Vega realized that, just maybe, this girl had a chance after all. They began walking towards the perimeter and Vega even laughed, “did I ever tell you about the time those ass wipes dropped a tree on my head?” Lolita got no further when she found that they were overtaken by a bunch of guys in black uniforms, jogging by in a column formation.

A guy with a British accent, that had to be their officer, stopped and singled out Vega, “you, Private, have you seen a US General go by here?”

Vega realized she never got the British uniform off but, that was not going to stop her. If he couldn’t figure out, from her New Yorkrican accent, who she was then he was too stupid to worry about, “I ain’t no goddamn Private. Who the fuck are you?”

Instead of getting hostile back, the man simply developed a smirk and mumbled, mostly to himself, “so that was their plan, smart.” He then told her, “fine then. The question still stands, whoever you are.”

Lolita pointed in the direction she was heading, “that fucking way, you can just follow us. Oh yeah, and by the way ass wipe, my question is still standing too, fuck wad.”

“Major Cross,” he touched the brim of his helmet, “Camelonian Army.”

When the MIB ran off to rejoin his advancing column, Vega asked Dixon, “where the hell is Camelonian? Is that over by Jersey?”

Dawn Dixon shrugged and replied, “I think it’s somewhere near Switzerland, isn’t it?”

Vega felt herself grabbed and then shaken. It took her a minute to recognize the guy who was doing it, mainly because he was wearing the full array of US combat gear. Phil Conner also had the virtue of being clean and Lolita was anything but. He was near panic stricken as he said, “I just heard about Katie, where is she?”

Vega tossed a thumb over her shoulder, “they evac’ed her to the temple with rest of the wounded.” As Conner ran off, Vega yelled back, “tell her I said, see her soon!”

A few minutes later Vega reached the top of the rise that she had been shooting at. She picked her way through the bodies of Orcs and then saw the carnage that had once been the perimeter of the temple facility. It looked nothing like what Lolita remembered. The walls and fences were mostly down. There was not a single building that was not burning. Several armored vehicles were laying on their sides and smoking as unexploded ordinance cooked off inside. The bodies of mangled elves and Orcs were everywhere.

The only good thing that Vega saw were the Bradley’s moving forward, still shooting, and pushing back what was left of the Orcs. They were showing no mercy and, Lolita figured, they didn’t need too. She also figured there was not much she could do now. Maybe she had already done enough for one day? Lolita went to her knee and then unhooked the straw that was clipped to her collar. She took a sip of water and tried to relax.

Dawn Dixon did not kneel. She simply stood in shock. She had thought she was ready for war. This was nothing like what they told her to expect. In a near stunned silenced, she quietly asked Vega, “is it always like this? You know? War?”

Vega did not know how to answer that, “girl, I never seen no shit like this. Not even back up at Nottakay.” Vega wiped away some of the dirt on her chin and realized she had only managed to replace it with blood. She gave up on it and then told Dixon, “I guess you picked a good one to get your cherry popped on, huh? You don’t fuck around bitch.”

Dixon was as pale as a sheet when she said, “what does all this mean? It does mean something, right?”

Getting back to her feet, Vega just shook her head and said, “the fuck if I know. I guess, if anything, it means that General Hammond can suck the dick I don’t have. He said this thing was almost over but, just my opinion, don’t none of this shit look much like it’s goddamn over.”

The ground shook and, at first, Vega thought they were taking fire. Then she realized that whatever had made that noise was distant. She looked around, trying to locate the source when she heard the freight train that was flying right over her head. Lolita had no idea what it was but, she grabbed Dixon and pulled the girl to the ground anyway. She could feel the heat from the blast, a wave of hot air roll over her body, and finally the concussion that not only knocked her one way but, then knocked her back in the opposite direction. It also repeated itself twice more.

Even after it was over with, Lolita waited before she got back up. She was still coughing when she finally did. Debris was still falling from the sky when she checked to see if Dixon was still alive. Still on the ground, the girl coughed and gave a thumbs up. With that done Lolita started looking for another helmet. She took one from a dead elf and was not so picky about it because little chunks of burning rock was still falling from the sky. They hurt like hell and she did not even want to think what would happen if a big one struck her.

It was after she got the helmet situated that she finally looked up enough to realize what the target had been. Lolita’s jaw dropped and her eyes could not peel away from the pile of rubble that used to be the temple. It had collapsed in on itself and, somehow, even the marble and stone work looked to be on fire. Lolita took off the helmet she had just put on, ran her fingers through her sweat soaked hair, and then moaned out, “we are so totally, totally, fucked.”

TO BE CONTINUED