Chapter 25: Emergency Assist

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As he drove away from Adamant and in the frozen wilderness, Greg found that he was actually in something approaching a good mood. Despite everything that had happened, despite the soul-sucking cold and the terrifying Flood and all the other crap he'd had to face recently, he was actually beginning to feel a little bit better about this whole nightmare. It was probably the fact that he'd completed a major goal and was now in the presence of something resembling a command structure. Though he was still decently independent.

It was odd. He respected the chain of command, he followed orders and generally didn't have a problem with it, and yet...there was a part of him that actually really enjoyed the unbridled freedom he'd been experiencing the past several days. On Polaris Island, he'd been cut off from not just the chain of command but the outside world, with an extremely vague goal in mind, and it had been up to him, (and Izzy), to stay alive and figure a way out of the situation. Sure, it had been miserable and difficult and gut-wrenching at times, and obviously the death of their fellow Marines wasn't worth it and still weighed heavily on him, but there was an exhilaration in figuring things out for yourself, in making and executing your own decisions.

Would that all change now?

Probably. And he could live with that. But a part of him missed the freedom.

Greg was jarred back to reality as he hit a particularly heavy bump in the terrain and the Warthog jumped about a foot off the ground. They all grunted as it hit and kept going, the tires chewing up dirt and snow as it grabbed for traction and shot them off towards their destination. Huge forests of dead, snow-capped trees stood to either side of them, and to the right, the landscape eventually rose up into a cliff sheer that seemed to continue for quite a ways. In the distance, the land dropped away. That's where they were heading.

"I can't believe we actually made it," Izzy said, her voice close and almost intimate over the radio in his helmet.

"You doubted my abilities?" Greg replied.

She snorted. "Give me a break. You're good, Greg. Really good. But all the crap we went through...honestly, it's a miracle we've made it this far."

"Yeah, I'll give you that. Couldn't have done it without you."

"Of course you could've. You're...you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know if I've ever met a more skilled, focused, independent man, Greg."

Greg hesitated. She almost sounded like she was accusing him of something. "Is that...a problem?" he asked finally.

She sighed. "No. Not a problem. Just..." She fell silent for a few moments. Greg waited, focusing on the snow-stricken plain ahead of them, watchful for more Flood. "It's difficult watching someone succeed with apparent ease at something you struggle so desperately with."

"Oh." He paused. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault. You're good at something. Mostly, I appreciate that. Don't...you know, don't let someone's bad mood bring you down."

"I mean I get it. And it's not just someone, it's you."

"Well, sometimes I'm petty, and a bitch."

"There are worse things."

She sighed. "Stop being so reasonable."

"Really?"

"No." She began to say something else, but her attention shifted as they finally crested the natural rise in the land and got a better look at the area. The cliff sheer to the right continued on for quite a ways, but the forest to the left eventually opened up into a vast plain. He spied two things. To their ten o'clock, maybe two miles off, the wrecked remains of the downed Pelican. Farther off, past another huge forest, the vague shape of a communications tower and dish. Their two goals were now within sight.

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