On Shaken Ground: Chapter 2

Year 15X

Warring Zones between the Zerf and Albard Nations

No Man's Land

"Fuck!" The man picked himself up, holding a hand over his eye. The blood oozed stickily through his fingers and down his face. "Sir! Shall we send for a medic?" a soldier asked, helping him up. "Get the fuck off of me!" The man shoved him away. "Where's the fucking medic!?" A soldier saluted and shook from the news. "General Korbachov, our only platoon medic, was shot by them." The man glared right into the soldier's mask and then grabbed the soldier's pistol from him and shot him. "Anyone else!?" Korbachov waved his gun around, pointing at the dead soldier with his bloody hand. "Who has medical training!?" A soldier stepped forward and shakily saluted. "I know some basic surgery, Sir!" Korbachov grabbed him by the collar as he snarled at him. "Then prep a fucking tent and fix my fucking eye!" Korbachov shoved him off and angrily stormed off. "Let's go, fuck nuts!" The new medical soldier scurried after Korbachov as mortar fire echoed in the distance.

Year 15X

Warring Zones between Zerf and Albard Nations

Unknown Bunker in now enemy territory

Julia slowly began regaining consciousness as the mortar fire became less frequent. She rolled over on the table she was on, holding her head and groaning. "I feel like someone hammered my skull apart." Amy put a gentle hand on Julia's shoulder. "Ease up a bit. Your suffering from Shell Shock. It'll blow over in a minute." Amy's mouth twitched as she talked. Julia squinted up at Amy in the bright light hanging over head. "What happened?" Amy pulled over a chair and sat down by the table. "You got hit by mortar shrapnel. I patched you up but you were in shock for the better part of three hours." Julia groaned as she rolled onto her back. "Do you have any water?" Amy got up and unclipped the flask from her waist. With one hand she propped up Julia and helped her drink. Julia coughed from drinking too much and sat up. "My head's swimming. I feel like I'm drunk again." Amy smiled and clipped the flask back onto her waist. "Again?" Julia hopped down from the table and steadied herself. "Shut up." Another mortar blast shook the bunker causing Julia to stumble into the chair. "Jesus. How long have we been here?" Amy checked her wrist watch and then tapped the cracked glass. "Doesn't tell time. As far as I know maybe ten hours." Julia put her hand on her side and flinched in pain. "Fuck. What the hell?" She pulled back her jacket to reveal bandages wrapped around her waist. "I had to take a few shards from the blast out of both of us. You ended up with a nasty one right in the side. Must've been a real chip off the old block." Julia buttoned her uniform jacket carefully and winced. "Did you just make a joke?" Amy grinned. "I did." Julia shook her head ad she stood up. "That was terrible. I hope your combat skills are better than your jokes." Amy laughed and tossed a shiny wrapped package at Julia who promptly caught it. "Food ration. Eat up. There's a few left." Amy went over to a table and began looking over a geographical map as Julia ate.

Once Julia finished, she went over to Amy and looked over at the map. "What's this?" Amy shook her head. "I was never good with Geography. I'm better at remembering key landmarks to find where I'm going." Julia's eyes scoured the map. "We were at Point E Sector 4 when we met each other. What direction did you take us?" Amy shook her head. "No clue. I spent an hour dragging you along to find a safe place." 

Julia murmured something to herself as she kept searching for their position on the map.

Suddenly, a radio crackled to life and broken words fumbled from its speakers. Julia rushed over and began twisting the knobs. "What are you doing?" Amy asked walking over with her lip twitching. "Trying to get a better frequency," Julia replied as the words became slightly more audible. "What if it's a trap? Like they find us if we lock on to their frequency?" Julia froze for a moment, pondering the possibilities. "Only one way to find out," she said, clicking another dial that fixed the transmission.

"Come in, any survivors. Come in. Zerf or Albard, it doesn't matter. We managed to survive and are hiding. There's not many of us but we have secured a church abbey in Sector 35 Point F. Please, if anyone is there, gather others and head for the church. We need to regroup and get all the help we can."

The transmission played again and again in a continuous loop. "Is it a trap?" Amy asked, biting her lip. Julia shook her head and sighed. "I don't know." "Should we go and see?" Julia stared at the radio while a sick feeling washed over her. They could die and no one would know of the invasion. No one would be able to stop it. They could if they got help. A voice in her head yelled at her to just hide but her training said no. "Yeah," Julia said, swallowing her fear. "Let's check it out."