Systems In Chaos: Dissention

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Vladimir shifted on his bunk for what seemed like the thousandth time within the last twenty minutes. This time he propped his elbow up under head and rested his face in the palm of his hand as he sat up on his side facing the girl that had been treating him and Garen over the last day or so. Keimi had finished treating Vladimir hours upon hours ago, but he had insisted on staying inside the first aid truck until Garen had improved. She didn’t mind this notion as it gave her an opportunity to talk with him. Garen had woken up a little over two hours ago and Vladimir had just been recounting everything that he had to go through and put up with trying to save his ass. He joked about considering to just leave Garen in the hollowed out tree for the worms in favour of being able to get out of the swamp faster.  The three of them had laughed it off and continued talking about this and that, Vladimir constantly chose to try and probe Keimi about how she became involved with these rebels but, to his disappointment, she always answered in half-truths or avoided answering altogether. Vlad didn’t mind, he thought she probably had a personal reason for joining up with the militia – which she did, he just didn’t know what – but her consistent efforts to elude answering made Garen somewhat suspicious.

Garen knew, just as Vladimir did, that she wasn’t just any ordinary girl. She was clearly more than what she was claiming; her gear was proof of that. But neither of them had a real chance to bring it up. He was still groggy from being unconscious for the last three to four days and Vladimir didn’t want to approach the topic and instead pretended to be uncomfortable lying in his bunk and shifted around a lot. It was justifiable, these beds were terrible. The soft and thin cushioning that was placed over the steel bunks wasn’t nearly enough to make them comfortable. Not only that but they were always knocking and bumping their heads and other bones against the metal of their transport as it drove along the uneven forest ground.

“So, you two are pretty high up in the rebel chain of command, and you’ve fought with the Zeuti Guardians. That is so awesome; I’ve wanted to meet one for a long time,” Keimi admitted, starting up the conversation again.  She had her helmet folded back into the neck guard still and her hair sat lightly on her armour around her body. She was sitting on the edge of Vladimir’s bed so to give Garen more space.

“Yeah, well, at least, I would like to think we are.” Vladimir smiled lightly. He raised his hand to his mouth to attempt to take a swig out of the cantina of water he had with him, but, just as every other time he had tried previously, the truck hit something and sent a jolt through the steel and up his arm, causing him to spill more water over himself than he had gotten inside his mouth. “Ah, shit,” he shooked the water off his hand with a flick. “Well, we have fought with quite a few Guardians since this war has started. But, there have been a few which we have been with for a lot longer than others; the leader of our outfit, Teren, for one. There are others, too.”

“Leader? So, you weren’t the leader of the camp you were serving in, even though you are a Commander?” Keimi questioned curiously. She needed him to open up as much as she could get him to, it would make it a lot easier later on.

“In some ways that’s true. See, I was the leader of the United Alliance rebel forces for a time, but things just didn’t go smoothly. Soldiers were demoralised, ill-equipped and didn’t respond well to surprise attacks made by the enemy. We needed more flexibility. When Teran Artosis and his Guardians came, we not only got our flexibility but we got true and devoted leadership aswell. Someone that wanted to hurt the Hadi at every opportunity that revealed itself. We were quite lucky to gain so many Zeuti warriors.”

“I hope I can see one someday. I haven’t been around the ‘verse too much,” Keimi admitted.

Garen coughed dryly as he sat up to join the conversation, “I find that hard to believe. I’m sure you’ve come across them before, and I’m sure you’ve travelled a bit,” he told her as a matter of fact. He rubbed his neck which felt stiff after lying down on a steel bed and being constantly knocked around by the motion of the vehicle for the past eighteen hours.