What's the Point?

“They’re coming down on the south side! Repeat, they’re coming down on the south side!”

Mathews grunted. Andy was still frozen to the spot, unable to bring himself to move. He had no idea the progress the Khardis were making down the cliff, only that it was annoying the sergeant. More radio chatter as the soldiers in the castle re-coordinated some men to the southern side. Andy’s heart skipped when he heard another bullet zip past his head. For several minutes, there had been a constant hail of bullets raining down, a message not to poke their heads out.

He swallowed and dared to poke his head out. Men were working their way down the cliff using basic climbing gear, already a quarter of the way. A handful hung dead near the top, killed by Mathews’s men. A bullet grazed Andy’s ear, causing him to duck back down.

“We’re not in a good position, sergeant!” called one of the men.

“I know that,” Mathews answered.

“Any ideas, sarge?”

Mathews shook his head. “Not right....” Glancing at the radio, his voice trailed off. “Maybe one. Kid, call someone for backup.” He pointed at a nearby tower. “If we get someone up there, they might be able to give us some cover fire.”

Andy nodded. “This is, uh, Crusader. Mathews is wanting someone to go in the, uh, tower here, maybe give us some cover. Shooters on the cliff have us stuck.”

“Copy that, Crusader, this is Lieutenant Jackman. Would that be the tower with the old library?”

Mathews nodded.

“Yes,” Andy said.

“Copy, me and a few others can be there soon. Just how bad is it?”

“We can’t do anything. We’re kind of stuck hiding behind the parapets.”

“Roger.”

The gunfire stopped a while ago. Mathews and his men looked around at each other for a couple minutes before one man lifted his head to look. Pop. He fell over, dead.

“Do you think the courtyard’s a good place to be now?” Andy asked.

Mathews scoffed. “No, I don’t. If we even made it down there alive, we’d still be stuck. I bet they’re planning on scaling the wall once they get over here, but we won’t be able to get a decent line of sight. The Khardis up top will see us on that far end, and the ones scaling will know we might stay up against this wall to avoid that. Right now, we wait and hope Jackman and whoever he gets will be able to make a dent in the top there.”

Andy let out a shaky sigh. The thought of armed men climbing up a wall ready to kill them wasn’t exactly comforting.

“Stop shaking,” Mathews said.

“I’m not sure I can.”

Mathews shook his head.

#

Fifteen minutes passed. Another man dared to look at the scene, and he reported the Khardis were almost at the bottom. Mathews cursed. However, his mood did seem to brighten a little bit when the first shot rang out from the tower. It was followed by another, then another. The Khardis’ response was near immediate. Before long, the area was alive with gunfire once more.

Andy still kept his head down, his body shielded. Others there were a bit braver, daring to take shots at the descending men. Where they doing anything? His adrenaline was telling him to keep low and stay out of harm’s way, but the curiosity was starting to take hold. It kept building under the flurry of the firefight until it overshadowed his cowardly self-preservation. He slowly turned his head around his cover to see the cliff.

Many of the Khardis were on the ground now, hiding behind what little cover they could. Though they were still exercising caution, Mathews and his men gave those soldiers their full focus. There were other squads with them on the wall, but the Khardis still outnumbered all of them. Another one of their boys got shot, and he fell backward into the courtyard.

Andy wished he drowned in the river. At least then his body might make its way back home. The man standing next to him let out a pained scream before slumping against the parapet. How many have I already seen die? Andy asked himself. There was the man shot by the plane. The three here shooting at the enemy soldiers. What about the Warmonger’s round? How many died from that? He found himself repeating only one question: Why am I alive? He’d asked Coulson and Polski about it down in the sickbay, and they both said it did a number. Andy himself only saw a couple of the guys from out there.

Shit, he thought. Is this what survivor’s guilt feels like?

He closed his eyes, beginning to wish it all was over. Except what was the point? That wish had been on his mind consistently since arriving in this world, and it wasn’t getting him anywhere. He wasn’t going to find himself magically home just by wishing for it, nor was he going to find himself in a safer part of the world. He stared at the man bleeding next to him. Would this man even live to see tomorrow, or would he bleed out right there on the wall? He scooted closer to the man and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Where’d you get hit?” he asked.

The soldier rubbed his shoulder.

“You guys have a medic up here?”

He shook his head.

Andy didn’t have a gun on him then. He didn’t have a weapon since he woke up in sickbay. This man was in no condition to continue the fight. Andy grabbed his gun, then grabbed the soldier by his shirt’s collar. Andy dragged him to the stairs, staying low and firing when he could at the Khardis approaching the wall.

He would not see another man die.