NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes

The next morning was, interesting… I woke up to the sound of a bunch of guys screwing around, I think they were shoving each other. I got up and changed, then stepped out of the cloth wall. They were shoving each other around, there was one poor guy getting shoved back and forth but they were all laughing. I decided to walk past them. This environment was, different. I’m used to either goofy or serious, not both mixed at once… I guess I like seeing humans and NightTides having fun, usually they’re just working around each other.

When I walked out of the tent I saw a couple guys talking. I decided to stretch, I felt my arm pop; it hurt a bit. Then Joey walked up.

He seemed to be in good mood. “Hey Red. How’d you sleep?

I’m a little surprised he was greeting me. “Fine?”

Now he seemed apologetic. “Oh, sorry if I’m bugging you.”

Now I felt bad. “Oh no, it’s fine. I just woke up…”

He seemed to cheer up a bit, he’s odd. “Want to go eat? The center tent is serving food.”

I’m not going to refuse food. “Okay.” I followed him to the tent, I could smell the food.

Elizabeth found us, she was eyeballing Joey. “Who’s this?”

He introduced himself before I could say anything. “I’m Joey. I’m one of the snipers.”

Elizabeth nodded her head. “Okay… So, how was last night Red?”

She was acting strange… “Fine, the beds are uncomfortable though.”

Joey wandered off, Elizabeth was staring at me… “Right… Do I need to be worried?”

About what. “I can’t think of a reason or you to be worried?”

She calmed down. “Good answer… Let’s eat.”

We ate, Joey went and did his own thing during it… I think that made things go a little smoother with Elizabeth.

Shortly after we ate Elizabeth looked worried. “Red, are you ok? You look pale!”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, at least not until I felt a cramp in my stomach… Then I heard a noise come from it. I ended up curled up on the ground. It hurt so much.

Elizabeth was freaking. “Red, talk to me! Hey, Red!”

I had to use the bathroom, badly! Elizabeth helped me up. “Bathroom.”

I was trying to keep quiet about it. She heard me and helped me get to a toilet. I finished up but still had the cramps. I walked out holding my stomach.

Elizabeth was worried. “Red, your still pale! I think you got food poisoning.” I guess I was sweating to. “Come on, let’s get you to the medical truck.”

Elizabeth took me to a truck, she wanted to carry me but I was making sure to walk on my own. When we got there I saw Emilia, I guess she came as well.

She had the biggest frown on her face. “You didn’t hurt yourself again?!” I tried laughing at it, I felt another cramp. I hunched over when it happened and she quickly walked over. She touched my stomach and I felt the cramp ease a little. “Right, sorry about that. What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t talk, Elizabeth did for me. “Right after we ate she fell down. I had to help her to the bathroom.”

Emilia sighed. “Food poisoning then. She can rest here for the day then. I’ll let the tank crew know, they’ll find someone to take her place for the day.”

Elizabeth seemed confused. “I thought we weren’t moving for a couple of days?

Elizabeth answered her. “So did I, apparently the tanks charged overnight. They’ve decided to go ahead and make more progress.”

Elizabeth was groaning now. “Crap, I have to help take all the tents down now!” Emilia laughed, then she helped me onto a bed in the truck… I hope it’s not incredibly bumpy.

Elizabeth left after a bit and Emilia had me drink something, it helped with the cramps but she didn’t want me on a tank today. “The cramps should be gone… But the last thing we need is you making a mess of yourself on one of the tanks, they’ve found someone to take your place for the day so just rest.”

I slept for a bit, I woke up because of the truck suddenly stopping and the sound of explosions. My first reaction was to get up and grab my gun…

Emilia looked at me. “Don’t get hurt now.”

The vehicles weren’t moving so I jumped out and started making my way to the front… When I got there several of the tanks were firing, at something large…

There was a loud rumbling, then I heard someone scream diesel. “Diesel engine! Everyone get to cover!”

Diesel engine? I looked through the scope of my sniper and saw what they were referring to. It was a massive tank, it had two barrels and I saw our tank’s shot pinging off it, there was smoke billowing out of the back… I don’t think we had the firepower to damage it. I didn’t know what to do… What could I do? I’m just a sniper. I watched it get closer, our shots still weren’t doing anything… Then it fired back, it took out one of our tanks in one hit. What could I do?! I watched it take out two more of our tanks! I looked around for something, anything would help… that’s when I found a four-wheeler.

I jumped on it and started it up, fully charged… I didn’t bother trying to slowly speed up, I twisted the grip as far as it would go and it took off. I went up to the tank at an angle, maybe I could get it to turn away from the others… I have to make sure to stay ahead of its barrel though. I got maybe two hundred yards away before it noticed me. It started turning towards me and I swerved in the opposite direction of its turn… It took a second for it to stop turning and start following me again. I swerved back the other direction when it got close again, I don’t know how many more times they’d fall for that.

I was right to be worried about them falling for it again. I was fifty feet away when the barrel caught up, I swerved but they shot instead… It hit just behind the four-wheeler and launched me off. I tried standing up and felt a sharp pain in my leg, there was blood running down my pants… I must have been hit by something. Luckily, I got launched too close for them to be able to shoot me though. they started moving, towards me, I think the intent was to run me over! I limped to the side but it was able to turn as fast as I could move… It was heading right for me… It stopped, just before it would have run me over…

I watched the hatch open and a man wearing leather armor pop out. “Well shit, I thought you were dead… I guess I need to make sure this time then!”

He closed the hatch and started moving forward again, I jumped onto the tank before it would have crushed me. The barrel started turning, he was trying to knock me off. I clambered up to the top of the tank before I got hit. My leg was bleeding badly… It stopped moving when I was on top, then it started turning around… Why was it heading back?! I pulled on the hatch and it opened, then someone jumped out and hit me in the head with a pipe… It hurt, my head was bleeding now. I pulled out my pistol and shot him in the chest, then another guy popped out and shot me in the stomach! I started falling backwards off the tank, but someone grabbed my foot… They pulled me inside, I tried fighting him off but they hit me with a tire iron… I pushed him away, grabbed his pistol and shot him, then the driver kicked me in the face… He grabbed my hair and slammed my head on the controls, he slammed my head over them multiple times before I blacked out.