NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes

A few days later we were ready for the territory expansion… I was supposed to help Jessica collect her things, then head to the front. She tried making it so I didn’t have to, but they wanted me up there. I’m supposed to be ridding piggyback on a tank, it’s my first time seeing one… For some reason I was excited about this. This expansion is supposed to be reaching the edge of the Yellowstone crater.

Tanks are… huge, and rather daunting… There’s a divot in the tank’s armor that I have to lay in, it’s just below the barrel… I was told to stay down at all times so I don’t get cracked over the head with the barrel. In an emergency there’s a hole open behind me so that the guys driving it can pull me in and shut the hatch.

They had me wearing a camo cloak, it blended in with the tanks paint so I was harder to see… I could hear the guys inside the tank. “How’s everything looking?”

Someone replied. “All good over here, I’m not getting any errors.”

The other guy replied. “Alright, good to hear. Hey up front! You situated!?” He yelled, I could hear him regardless. I knocked twice, I guess that’s the ok signal I’m supposed to give

It’s interesting, the barrel is about a foot above me. I was a little worried about how loud it would be if it shot. My job was to scan ahead, make sure there’s nothing there… From what I could see there were about twenty other tanks, all with a sniper on the nose as well. Some of them had their own guns like I did, but others used the ones that were given to us. I had five spare clips, each one held ten rounds… I pushed the button to turn on the accelerator, I might get a chance to test it out.

The tank was loud when they first started it. Then it got quiet, almost like a hum… We moved forward, I liked being up front; it felt like someone needed my help… It was mostly empty, I guess people tended to avoid this area… Someone said something about it being bad for farming, and the raiders make it worse. Eventually I saw something, I knocked on the tank and the line started slowing down.

I heard them talking again. “Four of the snipers spotted something, did they figure it out yet?”

One of them replied. “Not sure, we’ll find out in a few minutes.”

Eventually it got close enough to see, looked like several people standing around a rundown building. I knocked three times for which meant people.

They started talking gain. “Looks like eight of the snipers have confirmed it to be humans. Wonder if it’s raiders?” No one replied.

They slowed down more, then I heard a speaker… It sounded like Jessica. “Attention! We are not coming to harm anyone. You let us pass and we won’t give you any trouble!” They started moving…

I watched jeeps come over the hill, they were had mounted guns… I slammed down twice, hostile. All the tanks stopped, and the barrels start moving… The second the jeeps shot one of the guys jerked me inside, then I heard loud blasts going on. Eventually someone came over the radio and gave an all clear, I had crawl back onto the nose.

Eventually we stopped, I guess the batteries were getting low on the tanks so they raised the panels to let them recharge, we wouldn’t be able to move further for a couple days… I got to head back to where Jessica and Elizabeth were. While I was heading back to them I saw people setting up armored walls, I would assume in case we get attacked.

I eventually found Jessica, she seemed happy to see me. “Hey Red! So, how was it?”

It was, interesting. “Strange, I don’t like getting yanked into the tank but I guess I can deal with it.”

She chuckled. “Sounds like it sucks. I’m sorry we can’t do anything right now, I have stuff to do. Elizabeth might not be, she’s further back.” She patted my shoulder and walked off.

I went towards the back, eventually I found Elizabeth; she was organizing boxes. She wasn’t paying attention so I hid behind one of the boxes when she looked away.

She picked it up and I yelled. “BOO!”

She stared at me blankly… “You’re going to have to try harder than that if you want to scare me Red…” She finished moving the boxes. She injured my pride with that sentence.

I waited around for her to finished, then she came up to talk. “Hey Red.”

She was smiling, I guess I was happy to. “How was it in the back?”

She sighed. “Stressful, if I’m not getting bossed around to move stuff I’m worrying because I hear gunshots in the front.”

She was worried about me. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

She sighed. “I’m not worried about this expansion going well, it will… I can’t imagine raiders having the equipment to take on a wall of tanks. I’m worried about you getting hurt. You were supposed to be in the middle but instead you were moved to the front.”

I hugged her. “I’m fine.”

She smiled. “Keep it that way… I’m going to be busy for a while, why don’t you find the sniper’s tent.” I nodded.

It was easy to find the sniper’s tent in all the mess, just look for the people wearing the same outfit as me. They were all sitting in fold out chairs, it looked like we were the only ones not supposed to do anything else. They had their hoods down, it was all guys…

I walked over to the tent and one of the guys put his hand up. “Hey, gimme five!” What? I ended up giving him a confused look. He lowered his hand and walked away looking defeated.

I figured it was okay to lower my hood, it was pretty hard to get my hair hidden in it but it was getting itchy. I lowered the hood and pulled my hair down, I was stared at for a second; then they went back to what they were doing. There were several empty chairs so I sat in one of them…

One of the guys walked up. “Hey, I heard there was only one female sniper this time. I guess that’s you then?”

I wasn’t aware that happened. “I guess? I just now found out.” I gave him a weak smile.

He seemed surprised. “Oh! You’re a NightTide!” Why was he surprised by that? “Sorry, where I’m from, there aren’t many of you guys.” Ok then? “Sorry if I’m bother you. I’m Joey.”

I gave him a smile. “I’m Red.”

He smiled back. “Nice to meet you. If you need help with anything just let me know.” I nodded and he walked off.

Not much happened, at least until the sun went down. One of the guys start a little firepit in the middle of all the chairs. The fire was warm, I guess it was a nice night. When we went to sleep there was one bed separated by a cloth barrier, I guess that was mine…