Chapter 33 Echoes of the Wasteland

Aria crept closer to the room, moving cautiously through broken concrete until she spotted him. Slumped against the wall of the debris-laden corridor, a young man sat barely upright, his uniform tattered and stained with dried blood. His face was pale, and he looked as if he’d used every ounce of strength just to sit up. When he noticed her, he tried to speak.

"Hey... over here... help... please help..."

Aria walked up to him and knelt by his side. 

"Calm down, buddy, calm down. Don't get excited, let me give you a shot of active nanites, that will help you with the pain."

While examining his condition she asked, "So, who are you? I see you're a tank mech pilot, one of Ewan's new pilots?" 

“Officer… I… I mean, I’m Second Lieutenant David Harlow, part of Bravo Squad.” His voice broke off, his breathing painful, before he forced himself to continue. 

“My squad was mostly wiped out at Safe Point… so I joined Ewan’s squad... yes... for the backup mission. We were supposed to support Major Aria and Elias's team.”

He winced as he shifted his weight. 

 “When Raptor 01 appeared... everything went to hell. We never saw anything move like that... one minute, we were advancing, the next... Our tank mech was torn apart. I... I was thrown out by the blast. My partner… he didn’t make it. He is... gone.”

He took another shaky breath.

“When I came to… Raptor 01 had already gone. I was hurt badly and disoriented. Had no way of contacting anyone. My leg’s busted,” he said, grimacing as he looked down at the torn fabric and makeshift bandages on his left leg, “and my arm’s not much better.”

“You’re lucky to be alive, Lieutenant. A lot of people weren’t.”

David looked away, his face shadowed by guilt and shame. 

“I managed to drag myself to this building… survived on emergency rations, water from the rain. I was sure someone would come, but… days kept passing, and no one did. I’ve lost track of time. Has it been… two weeks? Three?”

“Almost three,” Aria confirmed, glancing at the wounds he’d patched up with his uniform strips and whatever supplies he had on hand.

He clenched his jaw, a trace of anger in his tired gaze.

 “Please, you have to help me. I can’t stay here any longer. Just… don’t leave me here to die.”

He was dehydrated, malnourished, and likely suffering from several broken bones. 

David’s face twisted with fear and exhaustion, and his words came out in a rough whisper.

 “Please... you have to help me. The mutants... they’re getting closer every day. At night, I hear them outside, scraping and snarling, that horrid gurgling sound Aegis mutants make when they hunt. Sometimes I can even feel them breathing nearby, just beyond the rubble.”

He looked down at his trembling hands.

 “I’ve been hiding... covering myself with anything I can find, broken boards, shattered concrete, anything that might keep them from sniffing me out. But every night, I wonder if they’ll finally find me and tear me apart.”

 His gaze darted around the room as if any sound might signal the mutants’ return. His face was pale and his eyes carried the look of someone haunted by near-constant fear.

“I… I just want to go back home. Back to my family. To hold my little girl, to hug my wife. I thought becoming a pilot would mean I could keep them safe, that I could make a difference, and push back the mutant threat. But… I was a fool.”

He swallowed hard, struggling with the memories.

 “They’re so much more terrifying than I ever imagined. All those training sessions, all those simulations - they didn’t prepare me for this. For how relentless they are. I wanted to be brave, like… like Seargent Ewan.”

 He managed to lift his head slightly to look at Aria, “But... I don’t know if I’m cut out for this. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to face them again.”

He let out a shaky breath, eyes filling with tears he didn’t bother to hide. 

“Please, just… just get me out of here. I want to go home. I want to feel safe again.”

Aria could see he was at his breaking point, having held himself together through unimaginable terror and isolation. 

"Hey, hey… you’re safe now, okay?” She looked directly into his eyes, trying to anchor him back from the edge of his terror.

 “You’re not a fool, and you’re not weak. You survived two weeks alone and injured. Anyone would be scared - hell, anyone should be scared. But you held on. I know it’s been hell out here. I know those things are… worse than any nightmare. You did everything you could to survive, David, and you made it. That takes strength most people don’t have. You did your part and it's time to go home. Rest assured, you’ll see your family again. I’ll make sure of it. Right now, we’re going to get you back to the Beehive. Also, you don't need to worry, HQ keeps a close eye on the area, there have been no sightings of mutants since the Raptor 01 incident.”

David's eyes widened in pure terror, his voice trembling as he gripped Aria's arm with surprising strength.

"No, no... you don’t understand," he stammered, his gaze darting around the room as if expecting something to lunge at him from the shadows.

 "I heard them every night. Every single night... those sick, horrible gurgling sounds. They were so close. Sometimes… sometimes it was like they were inside the walls. In the ground, crawling under me, scratching, just waiting for me to close my eyes."

He swallowed hard, the memory seeming to drag him back to that dark, relentless fear.

“It was… I can still see it, as clear as if it were last night. The rain was coming down hard, thunder cracking so loud it felt like it was right above me. I’d just managed to drag myself here, my whole body screaming in pain, but I couldn’t stop... I knew if I did, I was done for. And then… then I saw it.”

He clenched his fists, “There was this narrow crack in the wall, and… I don’t know why I looked through it. I wish I hadn’t. There it was, standing out in the open, in the middle of the street. An Aegis mutant. It wasn’t moving, just... standing there.”

He swallowed hard, his eyes wide as he relived it. 

“The lightning flashed, lighting up its whole body for just a second, but that was enough. I saw its arms - way too long, each muscle bulging, skin stretched thin and slimy. Its skin was hanging in loose, twisted folds like it had been peeled off something worse underneath. Its face… if you could even call it a face, was all twisted, with these black, empty eyes. And it was just… gurgling. This sick, bubbling sound, like it was drowning and breathing at the same time.”