The Wilted Planet

Chapter Five: Covenant

A few minutes later, William and Flint walked around the corner ahead of Caleb and stopped in their tracks, gawking at him. Caleb shot them a look and they nodded walking over slowly. Trying not to rush in and freak the girl out. Once they got close by they studied her curiously.

Caleb tried to pull away from the crying girl so he could tell them what had happend. But Rose didn't let him go, her grip on him only tightened. "Where did you find her?" William asked reaching him. Caleb pointed at the hollow spot in the floor and Flint facepalmed with a groan. "Dude we've got to be the worst marines at scanning ever." William nodded as he took in the new information ignoring Flint. He mouthed to Caleb. 'Who's the girl?'

Caleb mouthed back. 'I don't know. But she's terrified.' William nodded and tried to get Rose's attention. "Hello I'm Lieutenant William Smith. Could you tell us what happened here?" He asked trying to sound professional. Rose didn't even glance his way or acknowledge his presence. William tried a few more times to get information out of her but failed.

After trying a fourth time he sighed giving up. Caleb tried to defend her. "She's just scared Will." He said, but William shook his head. "I understand that she's traumatised. But we need information Caleb. She's all we've found and we've searched half the stinking outpost." He exclaimed. Rose flinched at the sudden outburst and Caleb glared at William.

"You need to calm down William. For one thing her name is Rose. And two she's the victim here. She's probably been hiding down there for days. I don't think she even saw anything." William looked angry for a moment but calmed down knowing Caleb was probably right. "Fine." He said and motioned to Flint. "Go get Dean. We need to report back to Serge that we've found a survivor."

Flint nodded and ran outside out of sight. William sighed and looked at Caleb and Rose clinging to him. He smiled a little at Caleb's expression of awkwardness and pressed his radio button. Static filled the channel and he grumbled smacking his radio against his gloved hand. The static cleared slightly allowing him to hear a part of the other marine's sentence. "Please report." The voice repeated even clearer.

William lifted radio closer to his face and turned to look at the wall. "Squad A reporting. We have found a female survivor. No medical attention is needed. But she's very shaken up." He said pausing for the other marine to relay his words to the Sergeant. After a minute the static filled voice replied. "Good. Keep the survivor safe and complete searching in the west sector."

William glanced at Caleb and Rose who continued to cling to him sobbing thinking it would be hard to continue searching with her slowing them down. But he knew orders were orders. "Command recieved." William said into the radio then shut it off. He rubbed his neck and turned to Caleb who was still frozen due to Rose not letting him go.

"So what do we do now William?" Caleb asked. "Well they said to finish searching this sector since she's not harmed." Caleb's eyes widened slightly. "But wait what about." He stopped realizing he didn't want to offend Rose and mouthed it instead. 'But what do we do with her?' William mouthed back. 'We're taking her with us. So get her moving lover boy.' William smirked a little at the end.

Caleb blanched and almost shouted at him but didn't want to scare the girl clinging to him still crying. "You're joking." He said aloud. William shook his head. "Sorry not joking this time." Caleb groaned in his mind not knowing anything about girls and sighed. "Fine. But I better get something after all this." He said. William nodded. "We'll see."

Just then Flint and Dean ran in breathing heavily faces pale. William stood up straighter. "What's wrong?" He asked all humor in his voice gone. Flint gulped in air looking faint and Dean spoke for him. "Covie ships about two clicks out and coming in fast." He said quickly. William's calm expression turned to panic as he registered what was said.