The Life of an ATLAS Boy

The Fall of ATLAS, Pt. 3

"Walker down!"
"Shit, I'm out!"
"Sergeant, what are we doing?! We can't stand-"
"Corporal... man down!"
"The roofs! They're on the roofs!"
"Open fire on the rooftops! Hit anything and everything that moves!"
"MAHEM!"
***
"Nice shot!" Calem yells to me as I reload the MAHEM I found on top of a roof before Hansen got blown away. The good part: we were thinning out the ATLAS numbers. The bad part: everyone's shooting at me now, and Dawn's with us as well...
"Thanks brother," I reply as I haul the MAHEM onto my shoulder. I try to find someone to aim at, but the spray of bullets makes it impossible to see. "Is the Walker still up?" I ask.
"She's been down for a while," Calem says as he trains his AK-12 on an ATLAS coming out of the doorway. My helmet comm is buzzing with orders from Gideon.
"Orlando," he says. "Where the hell are the Goliaths?"
Goliaths. That would be nice.
"Inbound. ETA sixty seconds," a female voice says in return.
"Thanks Dani. Gideon out," and with that, the line goes dead. Still trying to find somewhere to shoot, I see more ATLAS Soldiers coming out of the doorway. C'mon, you pussies, I think as try not to fall while keeping my aim as steady as possible. A group comes out, and I fire. The blowback throws my aim a little of target, but I manage to hit the group. I drop the MAHEM, draw my BAL, and let the bullets fly. As I reload, I see a laser, pointing directly underneath us. I follow it with my eyes, and it belongs to a Stinger M7.
"Shit," I mutter, then yell, "Run!" Dawn jumps first, then me, then Calem. Luckily, we all make it, but Calem couldn't find his AK.
"Don't worry about it," I tell him. "Just run back and grab something else. I'm sure the stolen Goliaths should be here soon, and they need everyone on the ground. Dawn and I will be right behind you." Calem nods, then takes off. Dawn starts to go, but I stop her.
"Listen to me, Dawn," I say to my lovely girlfriend. "I don't want you caught in the fray. Just, stay back as far as you can, and-"
"I'm going in," she interrupts.
"What...?!"
"I want for Irons to pay for what he did to my parents," Dawn says confidently. I sigh.
"Fine," I say, and kiss her on the top of her head. "Let's go." With that, I take off with Dawn beside me. We jump back to the building where everyone is, dodging bullets left and right. We didn't stop to shoot. We just ran.
Suddenly, my HUD goes dead. Damn, I thought as I slide behind an air conditioner. Dawn stops.
"What happened?" she asks.
"A bullet must've hit the back of my helmet," I say. Dawn starts to cry.
"John..." she sobs. "I... I... I could've lost you..."
I take off my helmet. "I'm still here, gorgeous," I say as I kiss Dawn's sweet lips. When we part, I whisper, "Told ya."
Dawn manages a smile through her tears, and we keep running. We're a building away from safety when Gideon yells, "Incoming!"
I look to see what he's talking about, and that's when I see about five more Walker Tanks. Shit, I think as I run. I see one of the cannons trained on the building Dawn and I are on, and I yell at Dawn, "Run!"
Not looking back, she sprints and jumps to the other building. I stop, and look at the Walker. I look over at Dawn, whose eyes are telling me, "Come here! Be safe."
Calem runs up behind me. "Go, little brother," he says.
"No," I reply, and start to run back to where I came. I could here Calem following, and just when we both jump, the cannon fires and the building is no longer a building, but rather a giant pile of rubble.
"We need to get to ground level!" Calem yells as he jumps off the building we are on.
Fuck it, I think as I jump off. When I land, my exo-suit absorbs most of the shock, but I still buckle. Once I get up, I follow Calem, who runs away from the rendezvous point.
"Calem," I whisper. "You're going away from where everyone else is."
"I know," my brother says calmly.
"Well, don't you want to go home?"
"No," he says coldly, and keeps walking. We stick to the back walls, and before I know it, we've reached the edge of the ATLAS HQ.
"Stay close," Calem says as he looks out and moves towards the next building. I follow suite, moving quickly yet quietly. The next gap between us and the side of ATLAS is pretty big.
"I'll go first, then you follow," Calem tells me.
"But if you die, what am I going to tell-"
"Don't worry about it," and with that he takes off.
"Over there!" someone yells. Calem looks back at me.
"Run!" he yells before my brother, the person that's the only family I have out here, gets riddled with bullets.
"Calem!" I yell, but I know it's too late. Horrified, I run back to the group, ignoring the fact I could be seen. I run back to Dawn, knowing that she'd comfort me. When I reach the second last gap before I regroup with the group, a MORS battery missed my feet by a mere centimeter. I run back to the rendezvous point, and I'm immediately embraced by Dawn.
"Oh my god," she says worryingly. "I heard gunfire... wait, where's Calem?" I couldn't hold my tears back any longer. I bury my head into Dawn's shoulder.
"He sacrificed himself to save me," I say in between sobs. Gideon comes down what remains of the stairs of the building we were standing in.
"Corporal Olsteen," he says. "Where's Sergeant Olsteen?"
"Dead, sir," I mutter.
"Oh," he sounds surprised. "Well, someone's gotta take his place. Don't you think, Sergeant?"
I smile. "Yes sir," I say. I actually got a promotion. I look at Dawn, and she kisses me. It was a quick one, but the sweet taste of her lips is still evident.
"Good job, Sergeant," she salutes. Once everyone else goes to see what they're up against from the level up, I walk over to Dawn, wrap my hands around my waist and I kiss her, and she kisses me back. The sweet taste of a midsummer day fills me with newfound life, but this moment might be our last, so I cherish it. When we part, Dawn puts her hand over my heart, and I grab her hand with my own.
"I love you," I whisper.
"I love you too," she whispers back.
We go join the others.
"What's the plan?" I ask. I see one of the former ATLAS members riling a BAL-27 bullet in his hand. That answers my question.
"Let's break in and show them how it's done," Mitchell says, and on Gideon's command, leaps out of the building and starts to fire into the sea of ATLAS. Everyone jumps off, and I reluctantly follow. They easily outnumber us, but somehow, we were pushing them back. They must be taking orders, I wonder as I kill another ATLAS. They must be, since they never go down this easy.
"Fall back!" someone on ATLAS yells. At once, all the ATLAS fall into the HQ, and we continue to drive them back.
***
"General Irons," Commander Tuluse, one of ATLAS' best Soldiers, walks into Jonathan Irons' office. "The Soldiers have fallen back. One of our cameras have reported Mr. and Mrs. Olsteen-"
"They aren't married," Irons snaps. "They're enemies. One of them is my niece, whom I want dead, along with that goddamn asshole Johnathin Olsteen."
"Yes sir," the Commander says. "What shall we do?"
"Let them come," Irons orders. "I'll take care of them myself."
***
Dawn and I head into the HQ, making sure to clear a way to the stairwell. The plan is that Dawn and I go up the back stairwell, while Gideon and Mitchell go up the main. In no time, the stairwell is cleared, and we run to get to the top. I kick in the door, and make sure everything's clear before I let my precious Dawn into a new hell. Everything seems fine. No doors are open, no people are around. It's quiet. A bit too quiet for my liking, but I go in anyways, giving Dawn the all-clear.
"Stay close," I whisper, constantly checking to make sure no one jumps out at me. I walk a few steps, then I hear the scrape of metal on a holster. I turn around, and the sight is something I thought I'd never see. Jonathan Irons holding his niece hostage.
"Well well," he says in an intimidating voice. "One of my favourite Soldiers decides to come back." Irons points his RW1 closer to Dawn's head. "And my niece. A traitor. And somehow, lovers."
I point my BAL at Irons' head. "Let her go, Irons," I yell. "It's over. SENTINEL had won."
Irons laughs sarcastically, then his face goes straight. "No, it isn't," he says, his voice colder than ice. He points his RW1 at me, and before I have a chance to pull the trigger, I feel the battery tear through the flesh of the crook of my left elbow. Pain shoots up my arm, and almost immediately, I drop my BAL, and clutch my arm. Just imagine what it's like, on the ground, crying, in pain, while the person you love most might die. I open my shut eyes, and I see Dawn free of Irons' grasp, running towards the helpless Soldier that she calls her boyfriend.
"John," I hear her call. "John... holy shit, John, you're losing blood!"
"I am?" I manage to get out while still in pain. I look down at my arm, and a small pool of beautiful crimson blood is under my arm, as well as flowing over what is left of my elbow. That's when I realize I can't feel anything below my elbow!
"Dawn," I begin to panic. "I can't feel my arm." That comment is all she needed to break out into a fresh set of tears. She buries her head into my chest.
"Oh, John," she cries. "You shouldn't have to go through this." I put my right arm through her hair, and kiss the top of her head.
"Dawn, it's fine," I try to sound calm. That's when Dawn says through the comm in her helmet, "Man down."
***
"Mitchell," Gideon says to his friend. "John's down. We need to get up there, double time." Mitchell nods in approval, and follows the Captain through the winding halls of ATLAS HQ. You'd think they'd make it so Soldiers and other workers don't get lost, Mitchell thinks as he helps gun down a small group of ATLAS in order to reach one of his fellow Soldiers. Reaching the fourth floor, something rolls in between him and Gideon. It's a metal ball with dark blue humps.
"EMP!" Mitchell says, but it's too late. The grenade goes off and immobilizes two of the best. Mitchell was expecting ATLAS Soldiers to turn the corner, but rather it's Irons that makes an entrance.