Admire (DJ x Commander)

Chapter 3: COMMANDER

The entire landscape had been destroyed. Almost every single building had collapsed. 

Commander rose from the rubble, pushing large chunks of concrete off him. He coughed wildly, as glass and dust caked his lungs. Picking up his now cracked sunglasses, he put them on.

A thin layer of soot fell on the ground, but the cybernetic zombie was gone. Huge footprints were left in the ground, leading far, far, away. 

Branches fell off of dead trees nearby, and the metal structure of buildings creaked.

Birds chirped in the distance, but even them, seemed full of sorrow.

Other than that, it was nearly silent. 

Commander's head pounded. His thoughts raced. I need to find everyone. What was that THING? Where's DJ?

He tried to ignore that last one, but he knew DJ was in trouble. He knew everyone was in trouble. 

He looked around frantically, spotting a baseball cap in a pile of bricks and rocks. It was DJ's. Commander tripped over himself, rushing over to the pile, and started digging through the wreckage. 

Before long, Commander found DJ in the debris. He was unconscious, but alive. Commander's heart hung heavy, but he pretended not to notice. 

He was injured badly. DJ's arms and legs were bruised in some places, and he had a cut on his cheek. Maybe some broken ribs too, Commander wasn't sure.

Commander took care in picking up DJ from the rocky surface and looked for somewhere that wasn't destroyed. 

Not much time passed until footsteps could be heard. It was soldier.

"Oh my god, Commander!" Soldier said. His expression quickly changed to worry. "Is DJ-"

"He's not dead. Where's Medic?" Commander asked insistently. 

"Follow me. Quickly, the buildings are unstable." Soldier waved, and walked off, just fast enough that Commander could keep up.

The "new" base was two tents, all being used for medical use. Mortar and Sniper were almost completely bandaged, they must have had it bad.

Others seemed okay, but a lot of people were still not there.

Freezer and Medic were both tending to people, healing wounds as much as possible. (Freezer had been training with Medic for a while, so he was a decent nurse by now.) 

Medic turned to look at Commander from the tent, and quickly rushed over. "Holy crap, we couldn't find you and DJ we thought the worst had- nevermind." Medic spoke quickly. "Get DJ over here quick."

Commander walked over and placed DJ on one of the makeshift tables that had been set up. They were mostly mattresses recovered from the debris. They weren't great, but it was the best they had right now. 

DJ seemed to wince as commander set him down. 

"..Commander..?." DJ muttered.

"Yes? I'm here. Don't worry." Commander breathed a quiet sigh of relief, and moved aside as Medic checked DJ for wounds. 

"Is everyone okay...?" 

Commander looked around the room. A lot of people were wounded. "We can't be sure just yet." Commander said, avoiding the question slightly.

"You're bleeding.." DJ slightly raised his finger to Commander's shoulder.

"Oh." Commander said. "I guess I hadn't noticed." 

"You should.. Take better care of yourself.." DJ smiled slightly. 

Commander wore a guilty face. How could DJ smile even at a time like this? Commander said nothing, and DJ's expression quickly changed.

He flinched as Medic disinfected the wound on his face. "I feel like this is my fault. Maybe the music was too loud- maybe-" 

Commander shushed him. "It's not, believe me." He laid his hand lightly on DJ's arm. "Rest." He took his hand off his arm, and backed away. 

DJ tried to get up, but he yelled in pain and promptly laid back down. His chest was probably wounded. Medic said something to DJ, but Commander didn't hear. 

Commander re-adjusted his hat, and walked out of the tent with a blank stare. 

No, Commander didn't want to leave DJ. He didn't know why. But in situations like these, Commander knew when to follow his head, and not his heart.

Soldier was outside talking to Demoman. 

"Soldier, Demo." Commander walked up to them. "Who's still missing?"

"Pyro and Militant are out looking for more people right now." Demoman said.

"I'm pretty sure that Rocketeer and Ranger are both missing, unless they found them." Soldier said. 

"Well, what if they didn't?" Commander said with a tone of annoyance. "Why are you two just standing around here!? Get moving. Now." 

"Y-yes sir." Soldier said. "Sorry sir."

They scrambled off to to search the wreckage again. 

Blockheads.

Commander clutched his wounded shoulder, as it was finally beginning to hurt.

We have to get out of here. As soon as possible.

Commander trudged off to find things to salvage. It was the only thing he could really do. The wounded shouldn't be moved around at this time. More people were still missing, anyway.

He worried for DJ, though he wouldn't admit it to himself.

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Phew, this one was a long one. I hope you enjoyed reading!

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