War Of The Race's

CH 24: No Purpose Of The Minds PT2

[...I'LL SEND YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL!...]

Puerto Vallarta remained a hive of activity as final preparations for Etherworld were finishing up. UAVs flew equipment from the enormous storage facilities to the landing bays of the massive UCAS North and South America warships stationed just offshore, where the salt from the ocean grew stronger and tickled the tongue.

Amid the heat and thick nerves for the upcoming mission, everyone pressed on.

Azzrick clasped one end of the container, and the young man he'd talked with for the last day took the other. They moved the heavy cargo toward the UAVs. "Hit you like that, huh?" the young man said as they packed carbon boxes marked 'MASSIVELY VOLATILE.'

The young man wore the standard uniform of the UC Navy, a standard digital deep blue camo that reflected off the sun. His sleeves were rolled up as he raised his gloved hands to wipe the large globs of sweat that pooled into his light, brown eyes.

Azzrick hummed, his lips upturned as he leaned against the black boxes. "Yeah, came out at night and everything. We had just finished coming from up North and to Africa before our entire base was crawling with the bugs," he said with motions of his hands, his silver eyes staring off and yonder, his tone the ever slightest cracked, although he made certain to leave out details he knew he couldn't tell.

The young shark bent forward and rested his chin on his hands. "Now I'd mention it. It happened to you guys, too, right? I hadn't had much time to read in on it, but I heard a lot of people were killed... Did you... Ya' know, were you there?" His tone grew lower as he finished.

The sailor shook his head and sucked his teeth. He nodded to Azzrick's words even after silence had dawned on them. His sandy, hardened fingers tapped against the wall of the cargo bay inside the UAV. Each strand of brown hair on the sailor's head flowed in the subtle breeze of hot, gushing air that hit them on the ramp of the UAV.

"Part of the job. Of course I was," he finally said.

"Me and my brothers in arms, we fight for those who can't. We each lost someone, and I'm more than certain we don't wanna lose any else back home. We each do our part, noticed or not, blue sharks included." The man said, he opened his mouth to say more, but quickly clenched it tight. Instead, he hopped to his feet and stepped out of the bay and off the ramp.

Azzrick followed curtly behind. He wasn't all too great at social cues, but he knew when someone wanted to drop a conversation.

"Say, I'm interested, once we get some free time, I was wondering if you'd be willing to spend more time getting to know each other, Curtson," Azzrick asked, his tail whipping the ground with light tremors as he eyed down the man. The man walked forth without looking back and gave a wave to Azzrich behind his back.

"Sure, I like you enough to kill time with. Why not?"

Azzrick fell behind Curtson as the sailor continued to walk ahead of him. Azzrick's black combat boots moved along the stone roads from a steady pace until he stood completely still and watched as Curtson moved on. A tug pulled at the upper corners of his mouth.

The realization came upon him that he was making his first human friend, and he didn't want to screw this up somehow.

When he was about to take another step forward, he suddenly felt a wave of nausea hit him. His feet locked in place as his head burst towards the distance where the mountain range surrounded the town and then to the short skyline of the town's buildings.

It was as if his instincts had abruptly ignited to life and started to pound the inside of his head, and his hands started to quiver before they clenched into an iron fist.