Love is War

Chapter 61

“Well, I am so thankful that I missed that shot,” I told her instead of apologizing to her while I smile awkwardly towards her. She is sure full of emotions and expressions today. That gunshot probably alerted nearby enemies. Alexis, who is left staring at me in disbelief just sighed, and I turned around to the door again. “Come on, help me open this door,” I told her, trying to forget that I almost killed my partner.

“Panic surely clouds the mind,” she remarked and then she walks towards me, shoving me away softly, and pointed her gun on the lock. She shoots it and I am surprised that there is a lock there in the first place. I did not notice that when I came here. I thought her remark earlier was pertaining to me almost killing her, it was this lock, or maybe both. Who knows? I can’t read the minds of others in the first place anyway.

With the lock gone, she opened the door and quickly gets inside, but one question just came into my mind. I stopped when after I locked the door from inside and barricading it, because I am a doubter myself.

“Where’s Gerick?” I asked her and I noticed her reaction, she seems down and I know where this is going. “S-.”

“He sacrificed himself for me to get away,” she answered my question before I can completely stop her. “He is dead,” then the words that I don’t want to hear slipped out of her mouth. Now there is only three of us left. Two dead, one missing. I did not say anything because I don’t want to hear more about it. I just walked slowly passing her.

Then a loud bang on the door just started, that’s enemy tying to get the door open and I am thankful that I barricaded the door for assurance.

“We must head straight to the exfil,” she suggested and I stop on my tracks and quickly looks towards her.

“Are you insane?” I asked her in disbelief because I really can’t comprehend what she had just told me. I can’t believe that she suggested to leave an ally behind, because I wouldn’t do that. She still the same Alexis after all, cold inside.  

“He is dead,” she said.

“You are not sure about that,” I countered her statement. “Show me proof and I listen to your words,” I added. “You just can’t assume things,” I said with anger in my voice.

“Come on,” she said and her voice rises and I can feel that an argument is rising up. “Let’s be real here, he is probably dead considering on how of a coward he is, if you don’t listen to me even us and the people on the copper will be good as dead,” she explained to me the consequences of my action. She has a point but my principles are getting the best of me now. I’m in a moral dilemma right now.

I sat down on the couch ignoring that there are still enemies trying to get inside this room. I grabbed my head with both of my hands and slightly pulled my hair believing that this will help me to get the answer to my question.

“We have no choice,” she told me, reminding me of our current situation. I thought I am prepared for this kind of thing when I experience it and it turned out that I am not and I can’t make a decision for myself. “Don’t fail what you promised your dad,” she said reminding me of my pledge to not to die.

I freeze for a second there, I am more than surprised that knew about that, maybe dad informed her before he assigned her to be my partner, but that gave me the answer that I should follow even I it is against my principles.

“Miss Nova, the chopper will arrive their soon, you must leave immediately the exfil area is hot, we must waste no time,” Garrison spoke to the radio which made me decide much clearer. I stood up and slowly I stare at Alexis.

“I hate to say this but you are right,” I said to her. “Let’s go to the exfil point,” I added but my voice can be barely heard but Alexis is close enough for her to hear my voice. I putted my mask on again to avoid identity detection from the enemy.

“No more doubts,” she said to me and I nodded and we went to the other side of the door which will lead us to the more unknown area, of this place, but considering how much time we have wasted on this place, the back up enemies must be on their way to meet us on the other side of this door.

I grabbed my radio again and pressed the button which will transfer my feed if Troy’s radio is still not broken.

“Troy, meet us on the exfil, we are on our way there, be quick we have no much time left,” I spoke on the radio, repeating the statement again about the exfil, but I am not still done with the radio yet. “If you can hear me, the exfil point is besides the docks the evac will not wait for us,” I reminded but as usual, no response. Might be dead or in a middle of the battle, I cannot tell.

“Ready?” Alexis turned to me. I looked at her with my eyes, trying to be as convicted person that I can be and nodded at her. “Good, I’ll go on ahead, let’s hurry we don’t have much time,” she told me and proceeds to open the door. Just like what I expected, the enemies just dropped by the ladder and it is a good thing that we came prepared.

We started shooting at them and before the enemy knew what was happening, they are already lying on the ground. We moved on ahead towards the ladder and I started grabbing the bars first. We heard explosion behind us.

“Go on ahead, I’ll follow you,” Alexis said to me and I have faith on her that she will fulfill he words and without hesitation, I started climbing the ladder fast so that Alexis can follow me as fast as possible. I heard gunshots below me.

When I reached the top, I saw many enemies heading on our way but fortunately there is enough cover and dropped rifles on the ground. I grabbed it and headed to one of the covers as fast as possible. Then I started shooting at them aimlessly.

It does not matter if the bullets hit them or not, all I need is to stall time for Alexis. I started firing towards the enemy, and when I peeked, I saw no more enemies, they hid behind their covers which is good and this is good. No one will dare charging in here.

I reloaded my gun thanks to the mags that I grabbed earlier that proved to be a life saver now and started firing at them again. I scanned the area to see if the stocked cargos are visible here, and thankfully it’s nowhere in sight, but still, we need to be more careful because us hiding behind cover will not stop him.

That why I am changing position as fast as I could constantly so that neither of the enemies nor the Shinigami can pinpoint my exact location. The gunfire from below subsided and I heard someone climbing the stairs. Once Alexis is here, we can handle this with ease.

Then moments later of firing aimlessly towards the enemy, Alexis rises up and quickly run to hide. Now the fun begins.

“Hey don’t just stay in one place,” I informed her. “The Shinigami can still track you down and put a bullet in between your head, I informed her. “You must move constantly and provide me some cover, I’ll rust into them to clear the area,” I informed her, then I threw that rifle away and pulled out my twin daggers.

“Got that,” she said and started firing to the enemy. Unlike me, Alexis has a precise gunplay and she still managed to shot a couple of them down. With them back in hiding, I seized the opportunity to charge towards them and I went straight to one of the enemies’ locations. When he got out to fire back, I can see the shock in his face that he is facing me this close with my mask.

I did not hesitate for a second there and I slashed his neck. Blood spurted out and that did not make much of noise hidden by the gunshots in the background. Some spotted me, so I rolled on the ground grabbing the rifle in the process. With this close distance and a clear vision towards them, I can’t afford to miss.

I still can’t get headshots but the body shots are enough to bring him down, assuming that it is not dead because of the bulletproof vest that they wear, I rushed towards him and stabbed him on the neck that can at least guarantee me a sure kill.

There are still plenty on hostile units in the area so I decided not to get caught by them. Still there are some that spotted me but I did not use my spare time to hide instead I run across the walls with my agility and charge towards them.

With fear in their hearts the missed all the shots that is supposed to bring me down and I jumped towards to one of them and used my twin daggers to s***h their neck open. That is good, and I immediately grabbed his body and used it as my meat shield as the other gained their control to finally fire at me. When I am close enough, I threw the body to one of them which made it to fall on ground, and jumped to avoid the bullets and dashed towards him pinning his face on the ground. That is great. I threw one of my knives to an enemy whom I threw the body at earlier, and it is a clear hit!

Now that is excellent!