The Ballad of a Bullet | A Short Girls Frontline Story

[December 25th, 2056 | 19:09 hours]

The light from the entrance of the cave was starting to fade away as the glow of the sun through the clouds dimmed, flickered and shut itself off for an early nightfall underneath the rain. When I woke up again, I could smell the wafting scent of alcohol beneath me. My bottle of Jack Daniels I had stashed in my satchel had most likely fallen out when I fell, and smashed itself on the rocks beside me. Nonetheless, it was comforting in a sense, nothing like the smell of whiskey to wake up to.

    I didn't want to get up yet. I didn't want to sit up. The puddle felt warming, reassuring, and safe against my back. At this point, water had swamped my up almost to my front and I could feel the electricity draining out of me, but I didn't really care. I wanted something, I wanted something badly, but I didn't know what it was. I thought I needed something to comfort me in my final moments and with that, I grasped onto the grip of my rifle, pulling her close to my body again for a second time.

    Inside me, the humidity from the water began to damage my exposed wires and circuit boards inside my cavities. One by one, I could practically hear the error messages inside my head.

"Liquid Damage located in area 4A. Grenade modules going offline"

"Liquid Damage located in sector 30b PPBUS 139. Zener modules going offline"

"Short to ground located in microchips 261 - 488"

Slowly but surely, everything began to rust.

While this was happening and while I was on the brink of shutting down from all the rusty circuitry that was now covering my modules and chipsets, I felt a sharp jolt within me and a loud, explosive crack that echoed throughout the cave. My finger was hard bent around my rifle's trigger and wouldn't let off. It was then that I finally understood what I was doing. It was like my rifle calling out to me. I wasn't just about to ignore her... not now. I can't do it. I won't.

The memories of my sisters are still in me. Even though the past is years bygone and maybe even if my sisters were no longer living upon this god forsaken mortal land, I can hear them calling out to me from my rifle's smoking muzzle, compelling me forwards like images of mist and clout. Sitting upwards again, I let out one last tear before I crawled onto my stomach to a small ledge above me. With a sharp tug against rocky outcropping, I was upright against the wall again with my satchel hanging by my side, bits of water flowing out through my open thigh wound. Ripping some fabric off my skirt, I stitched together a crude thin film to cover my innards for the time being, protecting them from further damage from the soaking rain and streams of water in the cave.

My arm was braced against the side of the cavern wall and slowly I hopped out towards the front of the cave again to see a sky dimming to a solid black in the now heavy rainfall. Reaching into my satchel, I pulled out my handheld radio. It was most likely not going to work, and I was certainly going to get captured if it was intercepted, however I wasn't the one to choose my options.

Hearing the static of the radio crackle was calming in its own way. Shifting through each of the channels was cathartic. I had done it countless times in the past, but now I find myself having trouble even turning its knobs the right way. As I stumbled my way through to high command though, I could hear the ongoing chat. Units reporting destruction left and right still in the hellish operation headed by inept and heartless politicians instead of the general staff. Soon enough however, I found my time.

"This is unit M16A1. Code 429. I am requesting immediate extraction in sector SO8. Units M4A4, M4 SOPMOD 2, and AR-15 are retired from the field." Speaking into the radio, I could hear myself and my broken voice box echo back from the speakerphone, a testament to my damage.

A full two minutes passed while I listened in to the frantic headquarters scrambling to find ways to salvage the assault before a man finally got to me, radioing back with his robotic headset.

"Unit M16A1. Extraction request has been approved. ETA 90 minutes. Defend your sector until extraction is complete." The man in high command replied in a stern, staunch voice.

I chuckled a little bit, holding onto my side. There wasn't much in terms of defense that I could do now that I've revealed my location, I guess I'll have to see to any scouts that will attempt to rush to me though. Nothing like the smell of gunpowder to wake someone up.

Pulling out a few scraps of metal from my bag, I riveted them into my own metal frame to act as prosthetics so as to prepare for the arduous upcoming firefights. Its wasn't like me to give in without one. Loading up my magazines with their signature 300 grain black bullets, I was ready for the finale of the night.