The Company

Chapter Twenty-Five: Miguel Cabrera Wants Private Ryan to Please Come Back

It was cold. I remember that. When it happened, it was cold. Cold and windy. Those were the things that stuck out. No wait, one more: cloudy. It was also cloudy.

I was up in the bell tower that night. I was half-asleep, looking down at the mark on the floorboards. I felt awful, no matter what Lionel said. I was thinking too much, and I knew that, but I couldn't stop.

The scariest thing was when I heard a loud bang. I jumped right to my feet, turning on my rifle. That was when I saw it.

It was a huge group of Them. They had on SWAT armor and held rifles, swords, and what looked like machine guns in their hands.

"Oh my God," I muttered, exasperated. "You've got to be kidding!"

I ran over and shook Lionel. "Lionel! Lionel! Dude!"

He rubbed his face. "Michael? What the heck do you want? It has to be at least one in the morn-"

I shook him harder. "You don't understand! It's a whole army!"

That woke him up real fast. He stood up and grabbed the baseball bat that was laying next to him.

"Let's go," he said.

I was scared, but I went up and said, "I'm standing my ground."

"What?" he asked. "What are you trying to do?"

"Look, I'm not exactly an up-in-the-action, Private Ryan kind of guy," I explained.

"What, so you want to be a sniper up here in the bell tower?" he argued. "Have some kind of manly-man sniper last stand? Dude. You know those don't normally end up good for the person who it revolves around, right?"

"I-I know," I stammered. I started to see a whole lot more of Them now, which scared me quite a bit. "I know. Just make sure you don't die, will you?"

Lionel shook his head a little, then nodded. "Alright. Alright. Be careful up here."

Then he turned around, went to the stairs, and was gone. Before he was gone, though, he turned one time to look at me again.

I was alone now. It was just me, the bell tower, the rifle, and some music in my ears. The sweet sound of a playlist on shuffle to calm me down and help me focus.

I leaned against the lower wall. This time I wasn't looking out on the horizon for admiration, it was survival. It was to protect everyone. Every now and then I'd duck down to hide from Them, but otherwise, I was taking them down one by one. 

My shots weren't all too good, but when I hit, I hit good. I was happy with it, but the fear was setting in.

"You missed one."

I turned for a brief second to see the Not-Michael standing there. His mouth and the hole in his chest were dripping, but there was still a creepy smile on his face.

"Not now," I whispered. "Alright? I'm busy."

"Fine, fine." He knelt down next to me, whistling along to the music playing through my headphones. "But you are missing a lot of them."

"Quick question," I asked. "How can you hear the music I'm listening to?"

"Well, I am a part of you, you know. It's not that hard."

I sighed. "Can you at least do something to help?"

"No way. I'm not on your side."

"Then just do something helpful!" I snapped. "Come on, anything!"

"Nah, I'll just sit here and watch. I think that's a good plan. But I do want you to know that you can't win this."

"Oh yeah, that's original, isn't it?" I scoffed. "That's got to be the billionth time you've said that."

"Wow, don't you think that there's a trend to that?" He laughed. "Really. It's funny that you haven't caught on yet. You really won't win. But you'll catch on soon enough. I promise you that."

I shook my head and stopped shooting for a bit. "You keep saying that. What the heck does that mean?"

He sighed and blew at a leaf that was blowing towards us with the wind. "What did I just tell you? You'll catch on soon enough."

"To what?" I asked. "For Christ's sake! Just tell me!"

He turned to me and pouted. "Now what would be the fun in that? Where's the suspense, the action?"

"Screw that!" I snapped. "Just tell me already, will you?"

He shook his head and wiped off some of the glowing green blood from his chin. "Nah. How about you go back to what you were doing?"

I quickly turned back to the heat of battle. "You little- why now?"

"Well, you told me to be helpful somehow!"

I shook my head. "You know, I really, really hate you. Like so much."

"Just following orders, O Captain, My Captain."

"Oh screw off," I scoffed. "Just try to keep watch or something. Be helpful. Actually, wait. Correction: be helpful, but not a jerk. Fair?"

"Whatever you say. To your left."

"Huh?" I turned and fired some shots. "Thanks."

"What'd you just say?" He got up in my face.

"Absolutely nothing," I said.

"No, I want to hear this again. Say it again for the boys back home."

"Absolutely nothing," I repeated. "How many times do you want me to say 'absolutely nothing?'"

"No, no, I heard something else before that. What exactly was that?"

"A gunshot," I snapped. "Let me focus for a bit, okay?"

"Whatever." He stretched a little. "Just one thing before I go: you-"

"Can't win this, I know, I know."

He wiped more blood away. "No, I was going to say that you have a lot more coming. You're going to be overrun. But thanks for reminding me. You're not going to win. Also, thanks for shooting me."

"Yeah, you're welcome, screw off," I grumbled. "Wait, overrun?"

I turned around quickly to hear banging on the door. "OPEN UP!"

I tried to load my gun, but all I could hear was an empty click.

Oh my God, I thought. I have to Private Ryan this.

I grabbed my sword and turned it on. "COME AT ME, BOYS!"

They started flooding in really fast. I was swinging away, knocking people down.

That was when I went down, and my vision went black.