The American Server (A Sword Art Online Fanfic)

Chapter 22

When the morning rise came up over the horizon, peeking through some clouds that were in the sky as it fell through the ruins of Nuketown and as it began to lay delicate tendrils on Kirito's eyes, he groaned as he knew it was time to get up.

So, with that thought afresh in his mind, he got up with all of his stuff still on as he stood up from the cot and took up his sword in it's sheathe as he buckled it to his back and then he slowly left the tent that was full of the others, his friends and his team specifically.

He had finally gotten use to keeping all of his gear on instead of bothering to strip down to be more comfortable. Of course, as he slowly made his way through the area to were the mess hall had been set up, he still longed for Asuna to be here with him. She made his day shine like no other and as he walked into the mess hall set up inside the ruins of a decently sized house and as he sat down at a table, he pulled out his copy of the Infected Manual for N00Bs and he opened it up as he read again since last night.

He scanned through the very descriptive articles about the many types of Infected: Walkers, Crawlers, Runners, Sprinters, Dogs, Fat, Armored, Spitter's, Jumper, and many more that as he looked through the list, he saw some were official and only part of the game while others were user made content that had been added in, like the flying Infected.

As he looked it all over, he heard someone else walk in and he looked up to see Rosebeth walk in as she twirled her dagger around. She sat across from Kirito as she took out a whetstone and began to sharpen her dagger as he said to her, "Morning, Rosebeth."

"Morning Kirito." Rosebeth replied as she saw he was looking at the manual and asked him, "You figure out what we could be dealing with?"

"Nope. Not a clue. We're gonna have to find out on the fly it seems." He said to her as he put the manual away just as Sarbina, Theodosius, Mucia, Jason, and Silverblitz came into the mess hall all at once. As Kirito watched them all settle down around him and as he looked at them all, he felt a hol forming in his heart. He loved his friends from SAO but as he looked at the ones he had around him from this game, he felt himself being torn apart into two between the two groups, wanting to stick with his old friends but also wanting to stick with these friends as well.

"You okay, Kirito?" suddenly asked Silverblitz next to him and Kirito snapped out of his trance as he nodded and said, "I'm fine."

Then, SpartanHalo entered and as they all stood and saluted him, SpartanHalo saluted back as he said, "Good morning to you all as well."

Then, Klein, Leafa, Lisbeth, Agil, Recon, Sinon, Thinker, and Yulier entered suddenly and as everyone got comfortable at the table Kirito sat at, he noticed Yui standing outside, starring upwards into the clouds for whatever reason.

He was about to call her over when she seemed to snap out of it and as she entered the place, SpartanHalo said to them all, "Alright since you all are the first ones up, besides SpaceMarine04 and SF024, you shall become our companies first recon elements into the Infected Zone.

"As of right now, our frontline elements can't break into the last control point, Point Charlie, and we need you all to scout it out and maybe create a beachhead inside the Infected territory for our company to use to push into it... is that not as much of a suicide mission, Kirito?" SpartanHalo looked over at the boy with a smile beneath his Ranger mask.

Kirito chuckled as he said, "At least we have a chance!"

Everyone gave a small grin as SpartanHalo said to them, "Then prepare yourselves. Kirito, you will be leading this group, so try to stay in one piece until we arrive."

Kirito gave a small laugh as SpartanHalo said to them, "Dismissed!"

Kirito watched as his team of 17 players, including SF024 and SpaceMarine04 who SpartanHalo had attached to them just for some extra kick, and as he looked them over, he felt like they were entering the very bowels of Hell again. He watched as Rosebeth finish making some paint bombs and as she passed him, he knew they needed to get going soon before they lose track of what their task was.