Our Destiny

Part 11: Splatsquad

An alarm woke Meggy up as she laid in her bed. It was the comfiest mattress she had been on in weeks. She had everything she could've needed: A bed to herself, a room, an area to meet her team, her friends...but not everyone was there.

They had no choice but to lose Axol before they could arrive.

Axol reaches over to her side and grabs hold of the string to activate Meggy's parachute.

Meggy: Axol! N-!

Axol: Win that competition for me.

He pulls the string and Meggy's parachute activated, flinging her out of the plane and she spun around for a few seconds before stabilizing herself enough to see the plane continuing to go down.

Meggy: Axol!!

Meggy closes her eyes as she tried to push the thought out of her mind. She tried to think back to their walk to Shanghai instead...

—6 Days ago—

Meggy: Axol...He...He...

Trident: Meggy! You have to focus! We need to move! Now!

Meggy looked around. They were stuck in the jungle-like forest thirty miles away from the nearest city, and they weren't alone. Helicopters flew around them, searching, and everyone knew exactly what they were searching for: Survivors.

Meggy held on to her friends as she stumbled with them. She wasn't limping and stumbling because of an injury, but because of the witness of the loss of her friend. She couldn't believe that he would sacrifice himself like that.
She looked back one last time to their parachutes lying either on the ground, or snagged in trees.
That's when she heard the voices. They were speaking English, but the voices didn't sound friendly.

???: They're around here somewhere. Find them, and don't let them escape.

Douglas: We need to move. Who knows how close they are.

Aliya: I'd rather not find out.

Mario: Same here.

Everyone starts moving, but Melony was having a tough time trudging along. She was starting to cry. Meggy stayed back with her and helped her along, beginning to cry herself.
They never cried out loudly, just to themselves. Mario, Aliya, Douglas, and Trident could only walk slowly up ahead, feeling terrible for what happened.

Trident: I could've done something...Anything...Yet I didn't.

Mario: This isn't your fault. You could never have known that-

Trident: If I would've stayed in the cockpit, I could've saved our asses! I could've saved Axol!

Douglas: There's nothing any of us could've done.

Aliya: I really wish we could've, but Axol made a choice, and it wasn't against his will.

Trident: I still should've done something.

???: Keep searching! I think I hear one of them!

Mario: We need to move.

Everyone follows Mario as he starts blindly making his way through the underbrush, trying to stay as quiet as possible. It was clear that the soldiers were close to them, and they didn't want to give away their position.
Douglas saw Trident draw his weapon slowly, but set a hand over the weapon to silently let him know to not do it.

The soldiers that were following them split off into groups and a few of them ran into the plane wreck that was left behind. There were still a few scattered flames, but
three of the soldiers walked throughout the wreck of the plane, searching for any bodies, and one of the officers of the group suddenly called out.