Somber route back

Us the stairs and onto any of the trucks, we dragged and carried the bodies from the subway all the way to the top, further feeling fatigue hit my body, slowing me down as i started stretching and breathing heavily from exhaustion.

Hoisting the bodies up one by one felt far longer than putting them inside those bags. But as well looked around, the task was done. With fatigue slamming us hard, we brought all the bags onto the trucks.

"Alright, took a long time, we'll just bring these ones back and call on other personnel back at the tent area. Let's head out." One of the personnel spoke in a loud voice from her comms.

The groups headed back to their respective trucks. I climbed up ours as my teammates began hoisting themselves up, by the way they climbed and walked, they were also tired from the repetitive task.

The ramp shut and we were left with the large pile of used bags, stacked above one another until it reached the top of this truck. There weren't any unused body bags left, just space partially used to put extra corpses on.

On the move, one more trip, one more trip back. Hopefully finally out of this place, the corpses, the bags, and the destruction wrought on this place.

"So, are we just gonna get taken away by a transport ship once this is all over? or are we gonna get relocated to probably a worse affected city than this?" Stephen spoke, asking a question, trying to start a conversation.

"Don't know, and frankly..." Lennox breathed heavily. "Don't care, but after the shit we went through, i wanna get the fuck out of this place." He continued.

"Same here." Alina finally spoke after staying silent for a long while.

"I treated other people in my time, but...." She sighed deeply, putting her hand on her visor. "There's nothing but dead bodies and people nearing death in this place, the only ones that survived are the ones that barely got anything on em, like a blister or two only." She continued, her voice rising with anger and hatred.

"So that's what you saw in the tent?" Sebastian asked.

"Yes." She reluctantly replied, no longer continuing to talk.

"Wonder how the mercs back at the academy are holding up." Stephen started a conversation once more after a long awkward silence.

"Since i could still talk to them, it's probably less of an issue compared to ours." Sebastian replied.

"Maybe doing insurgent hunting missions is a better option than this, walking through the snow and desert seems like a better option." Sebastian joined in.

"Shut it, were here to help people, alive or dead, and that's what we did. Isn't that the point of our lives? We kill for money and to keep others safe." Thalia replied.

"Yeah, keep others safe, sometimes yeah. Remember our missions back then? Sometimes civilians got killed when we were attacking with military or by ourselves." Lennox rebutted.

I looked back and forth, keeping my mouth shut while the two continued talking.

It went on for a while until the truck began slowing down. Once it stopped, the two stopped talking immediately.

THe ramp went down, we were not at the safe zone, seeing the green gas in the distance instead of in our faces.

"Other free personnel will start getting the bodies out, you can head back through the tunnel, thanks for your help." He thanked. The two headed away.

I jumped down onto the pavement, the others joining in as well, with my weapons in my hands and a suit soaked in blood and tissue. Stil lstuck on me like glue, peeling it off felt difficult.

We all headed towards the tunnel, other people in suits rushed towards the parked trucks, pushing gurneys with them.

Inside the tunnel, the mist hit our suits. As i stared into my hands. The blood started falling off my suit, trickling down all the way to my legs, drenching the floor under me in flowing red liquid streaming down all sides. The others had blood flowing under them as well.

As the mist ceased, only a few blotches were still left, fabric and some human tissue that refused to fall off while the blood was mostly gone now. Seeing the true colors of the suit once again.

Outside with our stuff out, the tents were still just as busy as when we left, people running around while others who had bandages wrapped around different parts of their body walking around, escorted by other suited personnel.

"Let's head back and change our suits, in case the strategist tells us to do another task. Hopefully not." Sebastian ordered while we were already walking forward. Facing the tent.

One by one we entered inside the tent, others were already inside doing other tasks, changing suits, bringing out supplies, among other things. Sebastian started walking towards the communications room. Our group dispersed, heading to different rooms. I dispersed as well, heading for a new suit to wear.

With others who were inside the room with me, we all began taking off our suits, quickly zipping up with new ones.

Sebastian went through the door while we were changing out.

"He said we can leave." We all sighed in relief, finally, out of this place.

"They said they learned more on what happened because of the attack, more intel on what it is. We'll report back to him once the transport arrives in a few." He ended his talk, exiting once again and walking in the way to the communications room.

"Did they get the place under control now?" Thalia questioned.

"Probably, but we didn't get anything of returning without our suits so probably still not out of it yet." Stephen replied back while we were just throwing out our old suits.

With a new set, we went back out, Sebastian was waiting for us outside, looking over the map.

"He said we'll just wait, but helping the ones here can be better with whatever energy we have left, siad that they're gonna guarantee everyone there some fresh cups of hot coco among other good stuff." Sebastian explained. "So i suppose we'll just do anything for now until the ship arrives. So, just do whatever for now." He added.

No more orders to leave, only free time around this camp. I guess helping with the wounded can work, or helping bring out cargo out of trucks.