✔𝚨 𝚸𝛐𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞 ➳ 𝚩𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝚩𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

Chapter 12

Light. Again. So much light, pale light as she slowly opened her eyes, narrowing them as her eyes adjusted. The green tent was surrounding her, some kind of green tent at least. Melora slowly sat up in her bed, seeing the carriers and the makeshift beds.

The first aid kits lying to the side and various tools were lying next to her. One of them was used to listening to the heart, she knew that much.

"Hello, Lieutenant," The Colonel's familiar voice sounded, and she looked to the side to see the older gentleman standing there in his slightly worn-out uniform. "Thought we'd lost you for a second."

"Am I back at camp?" She nervously asked, knowing the answer already and looking expectantly towards the entrance to the medical tent.

"Sharp as ever," The Colonel sarcastically said, stopping himself from saying anything else.

Melora immediately put a hand to her chest, feeling around her heart, and she now noticed the bandage wrapped around her body. She pulled at her neckline, noticing no blood on the gauze, and she felt no noticeable pain either, slight discomfort perhaps.

"I've got bad news for you, Lieutenant, and then I've got more bad news," he spoke up, drawing her attention to him as he walked around to the front of her bed, keeping his back straight. She sent him a stern nod, wanting nothing more than to figure out what was going on.

"I don't know how you're alive – I don't like not knowing things," he said, voice warning her, but she decided to not speak. "Battlefield full of dead men while you somehow survived... weeks."

"Weeks?!" She asked, glancing to see if there was anything on a date on it. Her mind had only been gone for a mere minute, nothing more.

"The attack on Azzano was more than a month ago-"

"What are you talking about?" She tried, mostly convincing herself. "It was just, yesterday... we were in the ditch."

"How are you not dead?" The Colonel pressed on while she reached out for the clothes lying not far from her, needing to get some fresh air and more importantly talk to...

"Where are my men?" She turned to the man and asked, not caring much about anything else any longer.

"The 107th infantry was decimated, Lieutenant," The Colonel said as she felt icicles press into her spine, not melting, but spreading their freezing temperature to her blood. "I'm sorry – barely fifty men including you made it back."

"Whe-" She tried, not sure which of the ten questions in her mind she should ask first, but one quickly rose from the rest. "What of Sergeant Barnes?"

"Unaccounted for," The Colonel replied, and she immediately pulled on her pants, dressing in her usual uniform. "What do you think you're doing, Lieutenant?"

"I am going to get my men back," she shortly replied, feeling quite secure on her legs.

"They've been missing for too long-"

"Don't finish that sentence," she warned, pointing a finger at him as she gripped the warm jacket and drew it around her shoulders feeling the cold around them without the sheets to protect her.

"Is that a threat?" Phillips said, raising his eyebrows, and his voice was getting angrier, but she did not have a care in the world for him at the moment.

"It is if you're planning to stop me," she said and pulled her hair back in a ponytail, removing every strand from her face.

"I'm not sending my men back in there – I know losing men can be hard, but there's no way they're alive," he grumbled, putting a hand on her shoulder, but she pushed it away immediately. Not another word left her mouth, eyes filled with purpose.