Vol.2 Ch.35 - Younger brother

This morning I had a tough time getting up. Something about the cold air keptme glued under my sheets. I looked around to see if anyone else is sharing mydifficulties, but I was surprised to find not a single soul was present in thesleeping quarters. I thought this was pretty weird, so I reluctantly got out ofbed to investigate.I made my way to the dining hall, but no one was present. Weird, I thought,but this can only mean one thing.Truthfully, this situation has happened once before, and it was because anemergency meeting of high urgency was called forth. I’m surprised by howno one called me, the General, out to attend as well, though. Who knows,maybe I’m just blowing this whole thing way out of proportion.I made it to the front plaza in hopes of finding someone walking about, but Ididn’t find a single soul. Only now did I actually start to panic quite a bit, soI made my way to William the Guard. He’s most definitely still at his post.Good news: He was there when I went to the front gates, bad news though…“General Lune! What in good heavens are you doing here? Did you not hearthe commotion?” he asked me with a worried expression.“Commotion? I heard no such thing. How bad is the situation?” I reportedback.“Nothing is certain as of now, but as it currently stands, a group of selfproclaimed messengers of Neo Urbana Gang tried provoking Granto.”Granto? That’s the same strategy I used to overthrow both BilBros andBlue Lions Gang! These guys are probably out defending our turf, then!I still decided to make haste to the location of the potential conflict afterasking William the directions. Running full sprint to not miss a single thing, Ihad finally made it to the scene. What I saw terrified me to no end…The “Group”, as it were, was actually a hundred man army, and while we didoutnumber them, calling them a group was just plain misleading. Everyonewas fighting for their lives, but the issue lied in our enemies’ hands.They used weapons, when we used fists. We were fighting an uphill battleand there was really only about 10 of us who remembered to grab theirweapons just in case. I looked around to help as best as I could, but theyweren’t letting up for even a second. I took one guy’s knife and startedswinging it around, but my skill with the knife isn’t nearly as good as it waswith the sword. It’s at these times where I regret not asking Cecily fortraining pointers the most…“Lune!” she surprised me behind my back, “Sorry for not telling you aboutthis, we didn’t think they would actually come with this much manpower,much less that they’d all be carrying weapons!”“No worries, where’s Carter, or Aaron at least?” I asked.“That’s what I wanted to ask you, honestly. But I’m sure he’s fine, just focuson these guys for now!” She said, knocking them out one by one.As the General, I played an important role as the forefront of the gang’smorale. If I wanted us to win, I’d have to take down at least a dozen of them,otherwise the gang wouldn’t be motivated to follow my example.I started off with taking down a few of them, taking their weapons and usingthem against themselves. It was at this moment that I started to realize myvision going gray.“Are these guys… fodder characters?” I asked, questioning the legitimacy oftheir being, “Surely they’d take more than a hit or two, right?”Before I realized it, I was making clean cuts across their chests, cutting theirfingers so that they couldn’t grasp their blades, slicing their every extremitywith vigor unparalleled. But nothing about this felt fun, nor invigorating forthat matter. It was as if time slowed down to a grueling pace, no one wasreally doing anything. This was when a fellow gang member noticed myirises and shouted out.“General Lune’s gone solipsistic!”The word solipsistic reminded me of that Quinn. He spouted somethingsimilar during our battle with the Blue Lions before he was assassinated. I’mnot sure what exactly this grunt meant, but it got everyone on our side firedup, so I guess it’s good either way.Once the Neo Urbana punks got word of this solipsistic side of me, though,they decided to focus their forces on me. Before I realized it, I was beingbacked into a corner, slowly but surely. I had no escape route, I was in analleyway situated between two abandoned buildings, with no way out but toenter the one on the right…***As I entered the first floor, I questioned what to do now, since fromwhichever side I exited from, they’d surely be waiting for me to pop out. Ineeded a distraction.“Aha!” I though as I created a spark in the palm of my hands and dropped iton the floor.The building had a wooden floor, and was well furnished with woolycushions and beds and such, so it would surely burn well. This would serveas the distraction which would get me out of here safely. After I made surethe fire was spreading nicely, I was just about to exit before I heard faintcoughing from the top floor.Shit! Wasn’t this place supposed to be abandoned? What the hell do I donow?I definitely wasn’t going to leave the person on the top floor to die, but I alsodidn’t have much time myself. I had to act quickly, so I ran up the stairs asfast as I could, and the person who stood in the room next to the windowwas…“Carter!?! What’re you doing here? It’s dangerous!” I beckoned him tofollow me.“Lune!” he said as he turned to reveal what he was carrying in his arms.“A… baby? Whose is it?” I asked.“No clue! But I heard ‘er cryin’, so I went ta’ check up on what the noisewas, n’ sure enough, there she was!” He explained. “But screw that, weneed’a get outta here pronto!”His idea was to leave out the window, but we were on the top-most floor. Nomatter how you look at it, falling down wasn’t gonna be good for your legs(or body for that matter). I proposed we just run out quickly before the firespreads any more.“Let’s go!” He shouted, running ahead of me.We ran out of the room to see the stairway was blocked off by the fire.“Guess th’ window’s our only way ‘fter all!” He said, still cradling the baby.We made it back into the room, staring at the window as we braced ourselvesfor something dangerous…“Hup!” Carter jumped from one window to the other. “C’mon Lune, we can’tafford ta’ go slow!”“I’m not that good with heights!” I shouted back, slowly shimmying my wayacross.Before we realized it, we were on the other side of the building, where wehad to make another difficult decision.“Lune! We’re gonna hafta’ jump to the lower floor!” Carter shouted as heshushed the baby that was bawling it’s eyes out at the situation. “N’ YOUSHUT UP! YOU’RE DAMN ANNOYING!”Note to self: Carter wasn’t that good at babysitting.The jump was surely a 2 meter height difference, so I have no idea howCarter managed to just nonchalantly make it, and with a handicap no less!I was too hesitant, so as I was getting ready to jump, the balcony crumbledfrom beneath me. As I was just about to fall all the way, Carter gently placedthe baby on the floor and jumped to grab my arm.“Jeez! See what overthinkin’ gets ya’?” He reprimanded me as I was stillheaving and coughing from the situation.“Now lessg-” A stray beam fell from the ceiling and hit him in the head,knocking him out.“Carter! Fuck! C’mere, baby, and you too, dumbass!” I went to grab themboth.I was now extremely impaired movement-wise, as I now had to carry twopeople, all the while covering up their mouths so they don’t breathe in thesoot.“Wake up, Carter! I can’t carry you like this for long!” I shouted in betweenbreaths, when I realized his head was split open at the top.“Fuck! This is bad, this is bad, this is bad! No wait! You’ll probably be fine!Yeah! I just gotta get you to Ed! He’ll fix you up in a jiff!” I coped.“…… Ugh… Whuh?” Carter slowly started to wake up. “Where… Am I?”“You’re in a burning building, now stand up on your own two feet and let’sget out of here! Once we’re done with this day, I’ll treat you to a crepe withCecily and Ed! Don’t worry!” I said with tears in my eyes, whether it befrom the soot or the emotions this situation is bringing up.“You’ll have another cool scar, but it’ll be okay!” I said again.“… Cecily? ... Ed? Who’re they?” He said the words I least wanted to hear.“Quit joking around, Carter! I don’t have time for any more of your bullshit!”“…Carter? Ughh, my head hurts…” He said to me.“Carter… Do you not remember anything?” I asked, still denying thishorrible truth.“Fragments. I know you, Lune.” He said something good, ” It’s getting backto me now… We were fighting someone, dunno who tho’. Then suddenly wewere in this building with this baby…”“Good! I’ll explain the situation to you fully once we get out. Can you moveon your own now?” I asked, slowly letting him go from my shoulder.“Nah…” he said, “Can’t feel a single muscle.” He murmured.“W-What?! Nononono, this can’t be!” I panicked, “How the fuck am I gonnaget us out of here then!?!?”“Lune… There’s a way… That there door… It leads to a stairwell.”“Yeah, but it’s disconnected from us! There’s a huge gap between the doorand where we’re standing! How’re we gonna make it past the gap if youcan’t move?!” I asked rhetorically.“Simple… leave me ‘ere. Take the baby witcha’…” He said somethingunreasonable.“My ass! Quit your bullshit and let’s think about a real way out!” I slappedhim.“Nah… Thing is… If there was a way, I’d menchin’ it… But it’s either youtwo make it outta here, or none of us do…”“Think about Cecily, though! What’ll Ed do without you!” I asked through thetears.“Cecily… Cecily… Yeah, now I remember… Big Sis’… Don't rememberthis Ed guy tho'... Listen, Lune… Take Nelly outta here…” he said, coughingup blood.“Nelly?” I asked.“Yeah… S’what I named ‘er… Sounds cute, dunnit? Heheh, guess that’ll bethe last good idea in this head o' mine…” he said.“W-What do you mean?” I asked, fearing the answer.“Look witcha’ eyes, Luney… Mah head’s busted open… Here look, if I pokeit just right… I can feel mah’ brain…” he said laughing in a self-deprecatingtone.I quickly stopped him, “Don’t touch it! Fuck! I can’t think anymore!”“Then just… GO!” he said, pushing me into a running start with the last of hisstrength.I had no other choice now… I was either gonna jump over or fall down intothe fiery pits. The momentum from his push didn’t give me any other option.“Carter!!!!” I looked back after jumping over.“Nelly…! Remember that name…! Think of yer’ dear brother-in-law whenya’ figure it out!” he said, before falling into that very same pit due to hisown momentum from pushing me.Carter… has passed away in the heat of battle.***I walked out of the building slowly, not giving a damn about the facteveryone of those Neo Urbana fucks was either slain or subdued.“Lune!” Cecily called out, “Where’s Carter!? I can’t find him anywhere, andwhose baby is that?”“Nelly…” I said with tears flowing down my eyes, “Carter named her…Nelly.”I fell to my knees, holding Nelly up against my chest as I wept for a fallencomrade, a fallen friend.Cecily was slowly getting the gist of the situation. She was beginning to tearup herself. I don’t know if I wanted to comfort her, or if I wanted comforting,but I hugged her. It wasn’t romantic, and it wasn’t cool either, it was… cold.The air around us was cold, the situation was cold! This world… was cold.We were about to head back to base, I still held Nelly in my arms, she wassleeping soundly.She survived this wretched day because a helpful Big Bro decided to actrashly. If only he overslept today, if only he was sick today! HE DIDN’TFUCKING DESERVE THIS! BRING HIM BACK! LET ME SEE HIM WHENI GET BACK HOME, GOD DAMNIT!I screamed out internally, weeping again as I notice Aaron, Max and Jorgenlaughing over their victory today. I pushed them over in a fit of rage, howdare they be happy when their General fucking died!“Lune! What’s your problem?! We won!” Aaron said, smiling.“CARTER IS FUCKING DEAD! AND YOU SHITS ARE FUCKINGSMILING! WHAT THE FUCK’S YOUR PROBLEM?!?” I screamed.Cecily broke down in tears when she heard me say it outright, and everyonefrom the gang froze up upon hearing the news.“Carter’s… dead?” Max said, as if to reaffirm.Jorgen stepped in to ask, “Where is his body? A General whose body isn’trecovered won’t be able to properly rest in the afterlife…” he said.“In that building I…” then the thought hit me.Things would’ve gone dif erently had I just not used my spark… FUCK! Hewould’ve lived! I don’t care about my own safety, JUST TAKE MEINSTEAD OF HIM, PLEASE!They noticed my shameful silence, and assumed the location by me pointingto the burnt down building which was by now completely extinguished, sothey went to fetch him.They told Cecily and me to go back home and alert the guys that stayed back.We’ll hold the funeral tomorrow they said, Rest up until then.Notifying Ed about the matter wasn’t at all easy. I first got a punch to the facebecause I didn’t save him, then he broke down crying on the floor, punchinghimself for not being there to do something himself.With that, we prepared a cradle for Nelly to sleep between my bed andCecily’s, and went to bed ourselves.“Hey…” Cecily tried making a morbid joke, “I’ve never… seen Carter’s bedempty before…”She couldn’t get to the punchline, as she started crying uncontrollablyimmediately after.Today, we lost a friend…