The Life of an ATLAS Boy

The Fall of ATLAS Pt.2

"We were getting slaughtered out here!"
"Why won't General Irons give us a break already? He knows we've already lost."
"I know. He just want Olsteen dead. For revenge for taking his niece."
"What a dick Irons is, though. He knows that my wife and kids are at home, and they haven't seen me for two weeks!"
"Don't worry about it, Belich. You'll see them after this is done."
"I wish, Bleich. But there's no way I'm making it out alive..."
"You will. I know it."
*
You didn't kill them, not yet. As much as you want to see Dawn, you need to kill her. That will kill John, therefore making it easier to kill him. DeRose is a liar, and he wants to protect John. He failed, and now John will die.
"General Irons."
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"Sir, our Scouts say that there were some SENTINEL, but they got away. Olsteen was amongst them."
"Did you injure him?"
"No, sir, we didn't."
Damnit!
" Next time you see him, I want you to kill him!"
"Yes, General Irons..."
***
Truly, Gideon was right. ATLAS never goes down without a fight. As soon the black smoke cleared, we had to advance, since the Graveyard (that's what we called it after a few days' stay) would no longer be safe. All loaded up, we took to the roofs of the nearby buildings.
"This will keep us hidden from the Soldiers on the street," Gideon says. "Hopefully, the Snipers won't bother checking to see if we are on the streets."
I know we won't be safe for long. I look at Dawn, and she knows what I'm thinking. She shakes her head. "We will make it, John," she whispers, then kisses me on the cheek. One of our own Snipers, equipped with a Lynx, goes to the nearest window and looks down at the street. I look beside him, and I see a small group of ATLAS.
"Are you going to shoot?" I ask.
"No," was his response. I walked away from the window, back to sit beside Dawn. I reach for her hand, and she grips mine with a deathly grip. She's scared, I think as our eyes meet. I lean in to kiss her when the sound of a cracking skull and the splash of blood on the wall.
"Contact!" Gideon yells as he opens fire on the street below. The window was filled with Soldiers, shooting at the ATLAS below.
"Let's go!" Mitchell says as he takes a small group to the higher levels. I motion for Dawn to follow, and she grabs a HBRa3 that one of the fallen Soldiers dropped. She searched for extra mags, and she found two spare mags. She put the mags on her exo and followed in behind me. Men and women stationed themselves at windows, trying not to get hit from the borage of bullets that hurdled their way. I found a window, and when I looked down, there wasn't a small group of ATLAS, but rather two battalions full.
Jesus... I thought as I burst my BAL-27. Bullets ricochet off the concrete-metal walls, which caused many to duck for cover. Pretty soon, an unsatisfying click sounded from my gun. Out of ammo. Just as I'm switching out the old mag, I feel something tear through my sleeve and pinch the skin on my arm. Instinctively, I drop to the ground, clutching my arm. When I remove my hand, I realize that a bullet grazed my arm. Dawn worryingly runs to me, and kneels beside me, her face portraying her being scared, worried, and frightened.
"John," she says, her voice quavering. "Ph my god, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, beautiful," I manage to smile.
"What happened?"
"I just got grazed," I look down at my arm, "but I'll live." By this time, blood began to drip on the floor.
"Move your hand," Dawn commands me.
I start to laugh, but then realize Dawn is serious. "Move. Your. Hand." she says once more.
Slowly, I move my hand, and Dawn gasps.
"John! That's not a graze!" she basically screams at me.
"Dawn," I calmly say, and put my hand on her shoulder. "I'll live." She kisses me, but we part too soon.
"Walker Tanks!" someone from the floor above yells. Soon enough, the sound of a tank firing and the explosion of concrete and metal fills the air. Fragments of the building rain down on us.
"We gotta move!" Mitchell commands. "We need to move to the neighboring building."
The small squad moves to the opening where the top of the small skyscraper used to be. Luckily, the gap was small enough for us to jump over, but wide enough for us to just get on. We all look at each other, and we are all thinking the same thing.
"I'll go first," Mitchell declares, "then we go in rank from highest to lowest. Got it?"
We all nod our heads in agreement.
"Let's go!" Mitchell jumps and boosts across the gap. He rolls, and when he gets up, gives us the all-clear.
"Ladies first," someone says. "Rookies first." He meant Dawn. Infuriated, I clenched my fist, but Dawn put her hand around it. I calmed a little, but I was still a but angry. I look at Dawn, and she looks at me. Then we run, and hand in hand, jump. We aren't going to make it, I realize. I give Dawn a little push forward, and boost towards the ledge. I let go of Dawn, and Mitchell catches her. I, however, don't receive much of a good landing. I bend my knees to absorb some of the shock, but I lost my footing and did a face plant. Thank god my helmet's a bit larger than my head.
"Mitchell," Gideon says through the comm on Mitchell's vest.
"Copy," he says.
"Where the fuck are you?!" Gideon sounds a bit angry. "We're getting hammered down here!"
"Don't worry, Captain," Mitchell calmly says. "We're only a building away."
"Take out that Walker ASAP, before it makes the building crumble onto us!"
"Copy that. Mitchell out." Mitchell looks at his group, then to the ground, then back to us. "We have to clear out that Walker Tank. Sergeant Olsteen."
My brother walks over. "Yes, sir?"
"Take your brother and a few others," I could tell he referenced Dawn there, "and find a way to destroy that Walker."
"On it," Calem puts his mask back on. "Corporal, Dawn, Hansen, come with me."
I cock my BAL and start after my brother. We jump from rooftop to rooftop, avoiding every bullet.
"I think I see a MAHEM!" the man named Hansen yells. "It's about five-" A bullet slams into his head. His limp body flips over itself, breaking the spine, neck and a few bones, then falls off the side. Shit,, I think as I continue forward.
***
Dawn nearly trips as Hansen's body lands in front of her. She hurdled the body, his leg almost catching hers. Luckily, she didn't fall, only stumbled a little. She hears the bullets that narrowly miss her, and that's when she wondered what it would be like to have a bullet in the brain, or really, anywhere. Would it hurt? Of course! She remembers John getting a bullet graze, and that hurt him. She snapped out of thinking when a loud ping startled her. She dropped to the ground, confused about what happened.
"Dawn!" John yells as he runs to her side. "Holy shit, Dawn, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Dawn says softly. "What happened?"
"You're lucky the bullet hit your exo. If it were one centimeter over, you would've had to limp the rest of the way."
Shocked, Dawn stayed down until the muscular force of her boyfriend pulling her up and starting to move her got her going. I never want that to happen again, she thinks as she starts jumping behind Corporal Olsteen.
***
Jonathan Irons sits in his office, drinking a fresh glass of Budweiser. He laughs to himself. Look how pathetic SENTINEL is, he thinks as he takes a sip. There's no way they'll be able to-
His thought was cut short due to a blast.
"Sir!" a young voice yells through the comm in the General's room. "Walker Tank A-2341 is down! We need ground support!"
"Negative, Sergeant," Irons says seriously. "You are fine."
"But sir-" the Sergeant whines, but then gets interrupted by someone else.
"It was only a MAHEM," it says. This time, it's a female. Good ol' Fran, Irons thinks as he hears the two Soldiers argue with each other. Eventually, he couldn't take it.
"Both of you, shut up!" Irons rages. "How about we keep the First Line in there, and everyone else fall back to Defensive Position Delta. If they advance, let them come. If you see Corporal Olsteen or Recruit Fetick, let them come."
"But sir!" Commander Francine Zölrd says. "Defensive Delta is inside the building!"
"I know, just do your goddamn orders."
"Alright. Why do you want to let two enemies slip by, General?"
"I'll deal with them myself," Irons says as he puts a battery into his RW1. This is the end of John and Dawn.

Part 3 underway!