Young Writers Society

Hey, here's chapter three, my first try ever at a fight scene. Hope you like!

Chapter 3: Raef City

As far as the eye could see, ruins rose from the dusty land, pieces of the tall skyscrapers that dominated the scene long ago littered the ground, all had been torn down. Nothing remained intact after the war that was raging between the two Worlds had started, and this city, that had little to do with it, had been right in the middle, cut in half by the border that separated the North and South Worlds. It became a battle field once both the opposing troops had attempted to reach the other side through the city, and now it is the desolated place that is known as the Great Ghost City.

The six Armi exited the car as the human soldiers closed the doors behind them. Kira was still holding Agnar's hand, who's worries had been swept away as he fell under the charm of the beautiful void the city held.

"814, we were ordered to leave after your arrival," said one of the men once all of the bags had been handed to the Armi. He and the other three that had accompanied them were soldiers working at the border of the city, the ones in charge of preventing The North-World from trying to reach the South-World by passing through Raef, like it had happened many times in the past. But the war here had been recognized as a waste of time by now, and the important battles were fought elsewhere, even though it occasionally happened that a small fray would erupt from time to time. The only reason why the soldiers from both sides stayed here was because of the strategic importance of the city's location; staying here was costly and there were no war to be fought, but it would be disastrous if they didn't, so uncertainty kept everything at bay.

"Yes, we don't need anythin' else." said Kira. The men mounted the car again and left them, the six Armi, probably the only living things for miles, in the middle of the great desert.

"Hey, come on," said Kira, shaking Agnar and the two from sector four from their stupor, "you'll have plenty of time to admire the city as we go, but if we don't hurry you'll soon learn to hate it. Check what you have in your bags, then we can start heading towards the A.2 team."

The tension in the air, the insecurity that characterized the battlefield had awakened Kira. All her rage was gone, her focus was now staying alive, and making sure that everyone stayed alive. She crouched and examined the content of the two bags that had been handed to her. The long one doubtlessly contained her trusted sniper rifle. In the HQ no one was allowed to carry any weapons unless in the training ground, where they were always kept under surveillance by a battalion of soldiers, and when not in use they were securely locked down. Feeling it in her hands gave her the feeling of power and security she so loved to feel, and with it in her hands, she was a threat to every human being out there, as long as they came one by one, and not in a groups of thousands as they usually did. She opened her other bag and found a map of Raef, water, food, ammunitions, a set of knives, and a rain coat.

“A rain coat in the desert. Very useful. What idiots.” she thought, as she slung the two bags on her shoulders, and turned to see what the others had. They had similar items, except their weapons. Zesciel of the sector four carried a sniper rifle as well. Mevers had a gun while the others all had assault weapons.

"If you have finished we'll start heading toward the location where the A.2 team awaits. I’ll show you where they are.” She pulled out the map as the others gathered around. They were at the edge of the city, in the south. The A.2’s team was in the center of town, at the very border of the North and South worlds. Seeing as the North-World was the one the South was waging war against, getting near the border was near suicide. Crossing it was sure death.

“So they send us, disposable things, instead of their own people. If I were in their place, I'd send them too now that I think about it. Just because they are all jackasses. They'd deserve it.” she thought. She rolled up the map and carefully repositioned it in the bag.

“I’ll stay in front, and Vech will cover our backs. We are at the edge of the City, so there shouldn't be many enemy troops out here, but once we get farther up north I want you all as alert as you can be," said Kira. The Armi listened raptly as she explained, and got into position immediately.

The small group traveled through the town, making little noise, observing the beautiful scenery, the ground covered in wreckages, shattered glass and the occasional body of an animal or a human that had been forgotten by his comrades, on which side he had fought on it was a mystery, but it mattered very little to the Armi, who's only thoughts were not ending up like them. But what caught Kira’s attention were the few remaining skyscrapers. She had always beens scared of them, of the way they stretched towards the sky, but to her, this was proof that humans were demons, because their buildings reached towards the gray sky, the place that demons called home. The first time Kira had seen one of the skyscrapers reaching high she had gone berserk, but the humans had explained to her that it was not the home of demons, but clouds that covered the surface of the planet that blocked the view of the sky, and that nothing could live on these clouds. They had told her nothing of the religion she believed in was real in an attempt to make her “see reason”, but this had only done the opposite, and now Kira was convinced that humans were just another type of demon. Her fear of the sky, which was the fear of every Arma, could not be erased, not even by facts. Fear, after all, does not care about facts.

Hours passed as they traveled, the tension growing steadily as they neared the center of the City. There had been two false alarms, and Agnar had nearly died in the first by friendly fire, but he had been saved just in time by Kira's intervention, getting through with just a scratch. This was the problem with untrained soldiers, and this problem was why Kira hated going on missions with them.

"Let's rest here for a while, I'm so tired" said Zesciel, who was panting. Kira who was slightly ahead of them, turned around and saw that only Mevers and Vech were still in good shape, while the others were panting heavily. Here was the second problem with untrained soldiers.

"No, we can't. About half an hour and we'll be at the camp site. It would be a shame if the enemy attacked us now and we had died a few meters away from our destination," she said coldly, turning her back on them. She had never had the patience for people who were a burden in missions, and she had granted many times a few minutes to rest, many more than she would have ever granted if she had been with her seventh sector companions, or in The Spaniah, but they had to get stronger if they hoped to survive in other missions. Her companions sighed and willed themselves to follow stumbling at times, receiving no mercy from Kira, but as she continued on she saw something stirring in the rubble. She screwed her eyes and saw a man, a rifle slung on his back, wearing a light gray uniform, the uniforms of the enemy. She froze on the spot, and the others, alarmed by her sudden tension, stopped in their tracks as well.

"What-" Agnar started saying something but Kira silenced him immediately. The huge ruins of a skyscraper had so far cast a shadow on them, and they had been shielded by the sight of enemies, a perfect place to see, but not be seen, a sniper's ideal location. Kira silently gestured to the others to take a better cover, who still had not noticed the enemy. Vech and Mevers had noticed the enemy and swiftly moved aside, drawing and loading their weapons but the other three hadn't even realized it yet. Kira drew her own weapon ad propped it on a large chunk of fallen building, observing the enemy from afar through the scope. The man she had seen earlier was explaining something to other seven people, probably an attack plan, a map laid out in the clearing. Judging from the direction the man was pointing in, the attack was directed at the A.2 and, if so far there hadn't been a counter attack yet, they had been quite efficient in their perimeter check.

"Seven North-world officers behind the rubble at two o’clock. Vech, Agnar move quickly and silently and strike at their left, Mevers and Sedre, you do the same at the opposite side, get as near as you can then start shooting, I want them all dead. Zesciel and I will cover you from here," whispered Kira quickly. Vech, Mevers and Sedre all silently nodded, and started moving, while Agnar, who was now nearly beside himself, forced his legs to follow Vech as he lead him towards the enemy. Zesciel positioned himself at Kira's side and they both waited to attack, still observing the enemy from the scope.

The two teams got nearer and nearer to the the rubble that shielded them, their pace steady and silent, their weapons ready to kill. And then one of the men slightly raised his head from the map. His cold gray eyes met with Agnar's. His mouth opened to shout the alarm, but not a word had managed to escape from his mouth that he was already on the ground, shot down by Kira. Chaos erupted as the fallen soldier’s companions realized what had just happened, and Kira shot two more times, two more men fell to the ground, Zesciel shot twice and one man fell, but missed the other and he leant against the wall, holding his bloody shoulder, and was not quick enough to prevent Vech from administering the final blow as he charged in the fray. More than half were already down. One of them had managed to get his hands on a rifle and shot point blank at Vech, the bullet merely grazing his side, and was then killed by Sedre who had silently come up behind him, the other two were taken on single handedly by Mevers who killed them both without hesitation.

Eight men now lay on the ground, their blood mingling with the sand, the same eight men that less than two minutes ago had been plotting to attack the other Armi. Two minutes, ten bullets. That was all the Armi had needed to wipe out the eight men. Neither of the two had a direct quarrel with each other, but the thing that had brought them to war, the thing that had brought them to end each other's lives was simply the different colored uniform, not their religion, not their language, not their names. They probably hadn't realized that it wasn't even their target who was attacking them, but the reinforcements.

Kira started to raise from behind the ruble that had shielded her, but as she did she saw a shadow creeping towards Sedre, armed with a gun, his forehead bloody, grazed by a stray bullet. She took aim with her weapon as Sedre turned, also ready to shoot, but before either of them had pressed the trigger there was a bang and the man fell, his life taken away from him by the hands of Agnar. It was anyone’s guess how he had managed to hit the target so precisely while shaking so much, but he had, and his ghastly stare was now fixed on the man who he had just killed. Kira ran towards him, calling his name, but he did not answer, his rifle still in his arms, ready to strike once more. She shook him and his stare found her again, and they stared at each other like they had in the car.

“Agnar, you’ll be fine.” she whispered. He nodded silently, relaxing his arms and turning back to stare at the dead soldier.

“It gets beater, you say?” he said, his voice shaking.

“Yes, it does.”

“Good.” he opened his mouth to say something else, but heavy footsteps could be herd running towards them.

“Cover!” Shouted Kira. Her team swiftly positioned themselves behind the rubble that had been the enemy’s camp not too long ago, their weapons at the ready, even Agnar was focused now. About ten people emerged from the ruins, all of them looking very tense, their weapons at the ready. It took Kira a while to see clearly who the people approaching were, but as soon as she did, she dropped her weapon and started to slowly rise from the barrier that protected her.

From the other side he heard a mellow, voice saying, "Put down your weapons. The reinforcements are here!” The speaker was a tall, young man,wearing the same uniform that the Kira was, his tail furry and short, unlike Kira’s who was completely devoid of cover and much longer; his hair was short and black streaked red, his eyes red as Kira’s, but much, much kinder, devoid of the hate that Kira carried with her at all times. He lowered his left hand, two fingers pointing to the earth, the traditional way that Armi greeted each other, and Kira did the same, a smile on her face. Finally, after nearly two months, she could see Jack’s face again.

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Note: this was revised after the review made by BiscuitsBatchAvoy and