Glitch

Chapter Five

I looked around to check our surroundings. I heard voices up ahead. "You heard that too right?" I asked Cooper.

"Yeah. Get off, we're going to go investigate." He commanded.

I jumped off and waited for him. He disembarked and told his titan to stay before we walked quietly toward the voices. We came to a clearing with a hand full of buildings. There was one in the middle that had a parachute covering part of it. I immediately recognized this as one of the maps on Titanfall 2.

We saw pilots kneeing on the ground with their hands on their head and IMC soldiers looking at them and talking. "They can't fight! Their basically civilians. Let's just killed them now!" One of the IMC riflemen said to a IMC pilot.

The pilot looked at the people who appeared out of nowhere. "They are useless, I don't see why not. But if General Marder wants to know more about these people and places we would need some of them." The pilots argues.

The rifleman nods. "Yes, then why don't we kill most of them and keep a few?" He asks.

The pilot's head snaps to the rifleman. "Because we're going to wait for Marder's say. Got it?" The rifleman quickly nods and looks down.

I look at Cooper who's still watching. He looks at me and takes out his gun. I bite my lip nervously before taking out my gun. I had to do this, whether I liked it or not. Cooper looks back to his titan and gives him the signal. Cooper activates his cloak and walks over to the IMC soldiers. I get ready to burst from my cover. Cooper quickly assassinates a soldiers and fired at some others. I burst out of the bushes and use my grapple to land straight on top a soldier, killing him quickly.

"Don't move!" A soldier shouted at me. I raised my hands and looked at the soldier. He had a pistol amused at me. I quickly place my hands on the pistol, whipped my body into him, pulled the gun out of his hands, and turned back around to shoot him instead. I thank my dad for teaching me that move. After finished with that soldier, I looked around to see the rest also down.

I looked at the people like me who appeared out of nowhere. "Does anyone here know what happen?" I asked them. Some were shaking quietly, others were staring into space. I saw one person who was sitting down with his head in his hands and was whispering something.

I walked over to him. "Hey." I tried to get his attention, but it fails. I placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump and finally look at me. "Are you ok?" I ask.

His hands start to shake. I take off my helmet and crouch down to him. "It wasn't my fault, I swear. He made me help him. I didn't think it would work. I didn't believe him." He said, shakily.

I frown. "What do you mean?" I ask him. I heard a branch crack and immediately raise my gun to the sound. I look to see Cooper also looking around. Something's up. I slip back on my helmet and stand up, checking my surroundings.

A burst of bullets came from the trees and bushes. I dived to cover and looked to see Cooper firing back. It felt as if I couldn't breath and my heart was in my head. For a second, I thought I was having a panic attack. But then I slowed my breathing and calmed myself. I threw a grenade into a group of grunt, ignoring their painful screams. I didn't think, or I tried not to at least, and shot my gun at any enemy I saw, hoping I didn't miss.

The battle raged on for what felt like forever. I just wanted it to end. A grenade was thrown at me and I panicked. I tried to move away from it, but it exploded before I could. I was thrown into the air and landed right on a hard rock, head first. I groaned and sat up. My head hurt terribly and it was spinning like a crazy dog chasing its tail. I held my head it in my hands and held my tears in my eyes.

I didn't realize that the gunshots, shouts, and screams had stopped until someone tapped me. "Hey Reilly, you alright?" Cooper asked.

I looked around. "I may or may not have hit my head extremely hard." I squinted because for some reason it seemed really bright out. "Hey, why is everything so bright?" I ask to no one in particular.

He laughed. "You probably have a concussion." He gives me a hand to help me up. I stand up, but almost fall if Cooper didn't catch me. "Yeah, you definitely have a concussion." He remarks.

I shake my head, but that just makes it hurt worst. I look to see that the people like me are all dead, I gasp. I feel my pain grow worst. They were just normal people, not soldiers ready to die for a cause they didn't have to deal with at their home. "I thought they would find cover and didn't realize that they were easy targets." Cooper admitted.

I sigh. "I totally forgot they were there. I was just focusing on survival and getting rid of the threat." I also admit. Cooper nods, understanding. "I'm so stupid." I wanted to punch something, but I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Cooper sighed. "I know how you feel, but you can't blame this on yourself." He looked away from a second. "Come on, we gotta move. They'll be sending reinforcements." I nodded and followed Cooper who had already started to move the way we were originally going.

I looked back at the innocent people that were now dead and sighed before following Cooper again. I can't believe that this is really happening. This should be impossible. I don't even know how I'm surviving. Probably because of Cooper and my dad teaching me life lessons and survival techniques. My dad always thought one day something terrible was going to happen and he thought that he has to prepare me for it. At the time, I didn't believe him. But now I thank him for it.

"Deep in thought, aye?" Cooper's voice cuts into my thoughts. I look at him a little startled and nod. "What are you thinking about?" He asks.

"If this is real or not. And if I'll ever get out." I sorta wish I didn't say that. I shake my head, trying to clear my tangled thoughts but failed. "I'm losing my mind."

"Well you're not alone." Cooper admits. I frown. "It's not easy to wrap your head around the fact that you're a part of a video game." I laugh slightly. I forgot that he wasn't able to see what I had saw, so it would be hard to believe if you didn't see it happen like I did.

"Yeah, that is true." I pause. "Where are we going anyway?" I ask him, hoping for a straight forward answer.

"We're heading to a IMC station, so we can figure out what information they got on the object." I nod, slightly disappointed that we weren't going straight after the object. Cooper notices. "Hey we're going to get that object and get you home, I promised you that."

I raised a eyebrow. "And I told you not to make a promise you can't keep." I replied.

He stops to look at me. "And I told you I'm keeping that promise." I smiled. Whether I liked it or not, Cooper was giving me new hope. Maybe he's the real key to getting me out of here.