The End

An Offer

3 weeks have passed since I've woken up and I've been slowly dying of boredom as I went through the weeks going through physiotherapy, exercise sessions, checkups and spending the rest of the time playing poker for bottle caps against the other patients in the games room. Right now though I was lying in my bed fully clothed in black military trousers and a black Tshirt, waiting for Rush to swing by as he promised to sign my release papers by lunch today.

I sighed heavily, he was taking his time but I wasn't too upset, I knew he was really busy. Sure enough after another hour of lying around I heard footsteps around the base of my bed and I sat up to see Rush standing there with a clipboard smiling at me. His friendly face was slightly offset however by his heavily bloodstained shirt and lab coat he was wearing.

"Woah" I said reactively and Rush looked at me questioningly, then realising what I was looking at he laughed. "Oh don't worry about this," he said lightly "I haven't been killing anyone or anything, quite the opposite actually!" And I let out a laugh at that. Rush being a doctor was also called upon as a surgeon thus explaining his lateness right now.

"Surgery go well?" I asked as Rush began to scribble on what was undoubtedly my release papers on the clipboard. "He survived" said Rush in a slightly preoccupied way as he kept writing, "nearly lost him to blood loss but I stitched him up in time". "I can tell" I said shrewdly and Rush just smiled. He finished scribbling with a flourish and then flipped the clipboard around towards me and handed the pen.

"Just sign here to confess your crimes!" Joked Rush and I snorted as I took the pen and scrawled my signature on the indicated spot. "Great!" Said Rush as he took the clipboard back, "you're a free man now!" I smiled broadly and hopped out of bed feeling excited, "ah but before you go" he said suddenly and I stopped in my tracks "do you remember your old pal Nathan from Phoenix?" He asked and I nodded. "Good cause he said he wanted to see you about something really important today, I think he's waiting at the entrance so don't keep him waiting!!" And with that Rush hurried off down the corridor.

Curious as to what this was about I quickly picked up my duffel bag of stuff, slung it over my shoulder before heading towards the stairs. I quickly jogged down the steps, heavy military boots clanking all the while and soon found myself walking into the wide room that was the reception and entrance area to the hospital. I walked past the main desk, manned by a bored looking nurse, and excitedly headed for the main doors. This would be my first time outside the hospital and my first proper look at Bastion.

I headed through the open door to be hit with an impressive sight. The hospital I was in was on a raised part of the area and it gave me a good view of the base. Bastion stretched over a giant sprawl of land, it was a giant installation that was teeming with activity. I guessed that Bastion covered roughly 5 square kilometres of space and it was surrounded by a tall wall with many towers scattered on it at regular intervals.

At the far side of the base was an obvious airstrip with at least 5 huge hangars set alongside it with a miniature control tower next to them, none of the large aircraft seemed to be active at the moment but loads of helicopters sat surrounded by ground crew that resembled ants from the distance I viewed them from. Next to the airstrip was a large area that seemed to be dedicated to land vehicles and supplies. Everything from Humvees to Challenger 3's were sat there along with stacks of shipping crates and piles of smaller metal crates.

Most of the rest of the base seemed to be taken up by either training or residential areas with soldiers and personnel walking through the streets that ran between all the buildings. As I stood there revelling in Bastions vastness someone came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. Jumping with surprise I spun around to see Nathan standing there smiling slightly a cigar clamped in the corner of his mouth, the end glowing slightly. "Nathan!" I said and he nodded slightly, "good to see you up and about again" he said curtly. Something in his voice told me that there was something serious to be discussed.