Credits
Transformers One By Paramount Pictures, Olympus Has Fallen By FilmDistrict, Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 By Treyarch, Dog Tags:Prisoners Of War By C.Alexander London[]
"Hey Section," Harper whispered in my ear. His breath frosted the air between us. "Looks like a fairy tale out there in the woods doesn't it?"
Crunchy snow clung to the tree trunks like white fur. I pressed my fingers against the ground in front of me and the snow crackled. I stood up to my shoulders in the icy foxhole. Harper stood beside me shivering and talking too much.
"I feel like little red riding hood's gonna come through the forest any second,"he laughed "Off to grandmothers house she goes. Except she ain't finding no grandmother out here. Just us, the twenty-fifth alien division!" He slaps the snow and laughed again.
I grunted. I didn't think we were supposed to be talking. We were supposed to to watching for aliens. I wanted to fight some aliens, not sit in a frozen foxhole with a guy jabbering in my ear. I kept my eyes on the woods in front of me. The snow wasn't so thick. I could see branches and a few scraggly bush poking out from th ground, covered in frost, like icing on a cake.
I doubted I'd see anything more exciting than that. They sent the noobs like me out to the Black Forest, which is a mile from the front lines. There is little risk that my lack of experience would mess anything up or get someone killed.
I couldn't feel my feet in my boots anymore. I hoped they were still under me. I kicked my feet against the ground just to make sure. They stung.
"Hey Section," Harper pressed me "Do you hear me? Do you even speak English? Huh? Usted habla ingles?"
I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore him.
Harper's Nova-27 lay between us, propped up against the edge of the foxhole, next to my medic bag. I knew if he ever had to use his rifle, I'd probably had to use my medic bag. I had just a few week medic training before the Twenty-Fifth Alien Division called me in as a replacement. I didn't even know what unit I was in, a sergeant had simply put me in this foxhole next to Harper and told us to look out for aliens.
"What do we do if they show up sarge?" Harper had asked.
"Shoot em" grumbled the sergeant and he stalked off into the night.
Harper probably knew as much as fighting the aliens as I knew at being a medic, bit we're stuck together, in the foxhole all night, so we both did our job and looked out for any aliens. I kinda wished I had a rifle instead of bandages and morphine.
In boot camp, all the guys had made fun of me for training to be a medic. I wasn't my fault, I wanted to fight the aliens, but the army didn't ask me what I wanted when I signed up for combat.
I scanned the dim forest, shivering through my thin coat because the army didn't give me any thermal armor. I didn't see anything to make me worried. Somewhere in the night, I heard a M-Z7B2 roar up. I figure it was our guys mowing some speedlings and panthers down.
I hugged myself and rubbed my shoulders to keep warm.
"SECTION!" Harper whisper-shouted at me, fed up with my slience." I asked you if you speak English!"
"Yes!" I snapped at him." i speak English!"
"You haven't said a thing all night. I thought you might only speak what?Manderin?"
"I do speak Manderin," I told him "and English"
"You Japanese?"
"American"
"We're all American but where were you before America?"
"I was born in America." I informed him.
"You know what I mean." He snapped.
"FIne, my great, great, great grandmother was Chinese."
"You don't look Chinese"
"That's because she was the only one in my family tree with chinese blood."
"So where do you come from in America?"
"Richmond, Virginia"
"I'm from New York," said Harper." There are a lot of Japanese there."
I didn't feel like explaining to him how Chineses and Japanese are different, so I just shrugged.
"My family's from Mexico,"he continued on."They make delicous tacos there you know?"
"Uh-Huh,"I said, althrough I wasn't sure what was the question was. Harper loved to talk. I was happy just to watch the forest, but Harper was determined to have a conversation.
Yeah, listening to a chatter box wasn't the best way to start the morning.
"What do you think they are hiding inside there?"Harper pointed to the building behind us.
It was a domed building, sticking out of the ground like a half circle. The army says that they were doing something that might end the war. It has serious security probably even more than the White House.
"Some guy told me that they were making a robo Santa in there"said Harper."With 180 degrees lasers and homing rockets!"
"You shouldn't believe everything someone tells you"I replied, not believing in the story myself.
"Ehh, you never know"
I didn't really care what top secret project they were hiding down there, I just signed up to prove I was tough. I stayed quiet for a while until Harper started getting impatient.
"You don't have much to say, do you?"Harper shakes his head.
"Not much to say"
"You got a problem with me being Mecican?"questioned Harper
"I don't have have a problem with that"I said"You got a problem with me being Chinese?"
"You said you were American,"Harper smirked. That broke the tension. We both laughed a little. I guess we both are used to people having problems with who we are. Now that we were together in this tiny foxhole in this frozen forest, the only people we have a problem with are the aliens.
And we are gonna kick their butts all the way to their underground anthill where they belong.
"When we get to their sorry excuse for a home, I can't wait to show them"He laughed"They think we humans are weak. They think they can just kick us around and bully us, but we'll show them. They will know for the rest of their miserable life that a Mexican and Chinese exterminated them!"
"I thought you said we were all Americans!"I cracked.
"I'm a New Yorker."He said laughing."We're something else together.Nothing kicks us around. We'll teach them what's what,you and me!"
I nodded. We fell back into an uncomfortable slience, the chattering of our teeth, the oinly thing I hear. The sun was just rising. After a few minutes, I guess the slience became unbearable for Harper because he started whispering again.
"You know the red riding hood story?"He asked"I learned them from my grandmother."
"I learn a few things frommy grandmother too."
"Hey, we got that in common,"Harper smiled"My grandmother told me old Mexican tales, she got them from her village. She only speaks a certain dialect of spainch so I don't understand half of the things she says."
I don't knowwhy but it feels good to know thay someone else had a grandmother that speaks a different language. It made me feel less different.
"I don't know a lot about other languages"I said"Never took a look at for-"
"Shh" He cuts me off and grabs his Nova-27 and ducked. I ducked down beside him, so just our eyes and the barrel of Harper's Nova-27 stood above the foxhole. We listened to the forest.
I could hear anything at first, then I heard a loud roar.
"Incoming!Take Cover!" shouted someone in a foxhole down my line. I haven't even known there were other foxholes. When I stood up to see who had shouted. Harper yanked me back into the foxhole, just in time to avoid having my head cut off.
There was a screech and something green flew over our foxhole in a blur.
Harper jumped up and started firing his Nova-27. My ear was still ringing and I was kinda in shock.If Harper hadn't pulled me down, I would have died.
He just saved my life.
"Thanks" I yelled, but Harper didn't hear me over the gunfire.
I poked my head out just in time to see the outline of a Mantis in the smoke.
It was chaos, pretty much everything was burning in a smoking wreck.
The Mantis inhaled and when he exhaled out came a laser that sliced through the iron fence that surrounded thefactory like swiss cheese.
THE ALIENS HAVE COME!