Contaminated

Squad

Asgard had the highest score on the Simulator, of course. Maybe it was just me, but he seemed to have done this before. I was third. They docked points for getting shot. Second place went to an Anthro who I'd never met before. His name was Argentum.

Asgard was squad leader, and he chose me, Frey, Mira, Argentum, and Igneel and his friends, three Anthros and another feral. The Anthros' names were Winter, Coffee(no one knew her real name, they just called her that because she looked like a cappuccino with scales), and Therian. The feral's name was Wither.

Winter, from what I'd seen of her, was aptly named. She was pure, unbroken white all over, and her eyes were an icy blue color. She was our field medic and had a very good throwing arm, which I witnessed when she threw a softball that clocked at 105 mph.

Coffee had a thing for Igneel, and Therian was her brother. He got along pretty well with Igneel, so I assumed he didn't know. He was a brown so dark it was almost black, like coffee with no cream, and his eyes were a lively yellow.

Wither was also aptly named. He was a dull grayish green, the color of dying plants, but his eyes were a bright, almost neon shade of green.

And then there was Igneel. He was a light blue with dappled scales of a darker cerulean. There was a scar running from his temple, across his left eye and down to the corner of his jaw. He was cheerful and really nice, but also tough as nails. I could see why Coffee liked him.

About two days after our squad placements came out, we were sitting around the lounge in our barracks(yes, it has a lounge, suck it up), just talking and laughing. Coffee was sitting between Igneel and Therian.

I was laying on the couch eating. Just eating.

"Geez, Sith, slow down, the steak's not going anywhere." Wither grinned.

I rolled my eyes. "I haven't eaten this well since I was five, man."

He raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means she's been living on the edge of the desert for almost her whole life, living off the Heap." Asgard stretched and yawned.

Wither looked surprised. "That thing's real?"

"What?" I said through a mouthful of beef. "The Heap? Of course it's real. 'Bout ten or so miles out to the west, near the ocean. Though I've never seen the ocean," I said thoughtfully.

"Never?" asked Coffee.

"Nope," I replied, swallowing. "Never went far enough in to get a look at it. Mostly just smelled it. The Heap is several miles wide and made of scrap metal, car parts, all around trash that other people don't use. I'm assuming they must live in complete freaking luxury if they don't use all this stuff. I mean, rig a used car engine and an old ceiling fan the right way and you'll have AC for a week."

"Well, not luxury, necessarily, but compared to what you're used to, yeah. Compared to what those 1% people are used to, a lot of people live in poverty. To them, you're practically a savage." Therian crossed one leg over the other.

"Well, to the bandits out there in the desert, I'm fresh picking on my way back from it."I huffed. "Never did have much luck with finding stuff. 'Cept maybe last time, and that was right before--" I stopped. They knew what I was talking about. Pretty much everyone did. It had been big news when a shot up feral showed up in the med bay.

"I still don't know how you managed to get all the way here without bleeding to death or getting caught," Wither cracked a smile.

Asgard chuckled. "Trade secret, buddy."

I jumped a bit when someone knocked on the door. Wyatt walked in holding several pizza boxes. Wyatt, the head honcho(though he hated being called that) was surprisingly laid back when it came to the soldiers under his command. He liked making friends with them. His easy disposition and kind face made making friends a likely prospect. He was only hard when he absolutely had to be. Surprisingly, he was Parker's older brother. Yeah, we'd all been shocked to hear that one. The only similarity they had was their eyes. They were brown, but so different. Parker had eyes that sparked with disdain and irritation, where Wyatt's were warm.

"Holy . . . how did you get those?" I gaped.

He shrugged. "Only way you can. Had 'em imported."

We didn't complain, but dug into the pizza ravenously.

"I never thought I'd say this," I said through a mouthful of pepperoni, "but I think I've found a food I like more that Bratwurst."

My squad laughed. I licked the pizza sauce off my lips.

"How long have you been living out there anyway?" Igneel had his hands behind his head. "You're what, sixteen?"

"Seventeen, actually." I scratched my head. "And I don't remember the exact amount. Like, ten, eleven years? It's all pretty blurry after a while. Just wake up, go to the Heap, find an exhaust pipe, get chased off by bandits, go home. I can list off the number of times I almost starved to death, and not on one paw."

The squad looked at each other, maybe a little uncomfortably.

"What?" I said. "You'll get a similar story from pretty much everyone out on the edge of the desert."

"It's not that," Coffee scratched the back of her neck. "It's just that none of us ever lived like that. We all came from different continents and really never had to fight for anything in order to survive. It's kind of weird talking to someone you can't relate to in that respect."

"Well, it's good to have someone who knows the field, right? If we're ever stuck somewhere, I can ghetto rig us a distress beacon."

My joke shattered the slight tension. The team laughed it up as I went back to my pizza.

Wyatt just smiled. "You have some sense of humor for what you went through."

"What, spending more than a decade living in a wasteland, then being used for close range target practice? I guess so."

"How, though? It's downright bizarre."

I scratched my ear. "I can't explain it. I know it's weird. Maybe it's a coping mechanism or something."

"Some coping mechanism," Wither grinned.

I looked over at Wyatt. "By the way, about that spring water we found in the tunnel. Have you had it analyzed yet?"

"Not quite. We're going to check for any radioactivity first and then go over it for toxins. You guys could have found something big down there."

"We had to, seeing as Gratz's men were willing to kill us for it. My question is, how did they know about the spring? And why were they keeping it hidden?" Asgard chewed a slice of pizza thoughtfully.

My reply was cut short by Wyatt's cell phone ringing. He pulled it out and frowned at the caller ID. Answering it, he said: "Who is this and why are you calling me from a landline?"

His eyes widened in shock at the answer. "Right. I'm sending backup right now. They should be there in a couple of hours. Stay low, and do me a favor: don't die."

He hung up. "Guys, I have your first mission."

The roar of the V-22 came close to drowning out Wyatt's orders as he communicated our mission to us.

"One of our squadrons that has been stationed in Endos has had a run-in with Gratz's men. They have sustained casualties and are currently hiding out in a building in the former suburban district."

"Sir," I raised a paw. "Endos is almost a thousand square miles. How are we supposed to find them? From what I know, there were hundreds upon hundreds of suburbs."

"They gave their coordinates when they called me. Apparently a short range EMP charge knocked their radios out of commission. They hid out and called me from a working landline they found. "

The thought of a working telephone in the ruin that was Endos city got me thinking. I didn't have any time to dwell on it though, before we loaded into the V-22 and it lifted off the ground, taking us to the one place on the entire continent no scavenger dared enter.

For good reason.