NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes

Elizabeth and Jessica were standing at the door… I didn’t know what to say, I stared at them in shock mostly… I was happy. Elizabeth smiled and walked up to me, she picked me up.

Now I was confused. “What are you doing?”

She was smiling. “It’s been way to long since I’ve seen you, I’m carrying you out of here!”

Jessica was shaking her head and laughing. “Come-on you two, we have a somewhere to go.”

I tried getting down, Elizabeth wasn’t letting me. “Oh no! I said I was carrying you. So, I’m carrying you!” I heard Jessica laugh again… I guess I have to accept this situation then. Either way I’m happy to see them.

I wonder what they’ve been doing. “So what have you two been up to?”

Jessica answered first. “I’ve been checking your progress here, and preparing. Another expansion is coming, I’ll be put in charge of the new base and someone is coming to take my place here.”

Oh… “Are we going with you?”

Jessica replied quickly enough. “Yes. You’re my assistant so of course your coming, Elizabeth was able to get on the list to move as well. Turns out Chuck is coming with us, so he’ll be handling troop training at the new base one.”

Elizabeth butted in. “Ya, it sucks though. I’ll stuck moving around cargo… At least working in warehouses is better than helping officers.”

I looked up at Elizabeth. “Sounds boring.”

She groaned. “It is~!”

Jessica laughed again. We got on the elevator and went down. After we got off were made our way to the front desk, the lady sitting there saw Elizabeth carrying me and snickered. Jessica filled out some paperwork, I guess I can’t check myself out. Then we left, Elizabeth was still insistent on carrying me…

She finally put me down at least. “Alright Red, get on my back!”

What? “Why?”

She looked at me. “I said I was going to carry you, I’m not kidding. I am going to carry you.”

I didn’t argue, I jumped on her back. I put my arms around her shoulders and she grabbed my calf’s.

Jessica sighed. “Really, a piggyback ride. You two are way to quirky… one second you act like children, then adults, then a child and an adult. Inconsistency at its best.” I didn’t really care about the comment, Elizabeth huffed.

That made me think of something I heard. “I heard someone at that place say that guys don’t grow up, they just get bigger. Does that apply to girls as well?”

Jessica had a weak laugh. “I’m stuck with you two most of the time, I’d say yes… Well maybe not, NightTide girls don’t seem to mature much, I’ve noticed human women tend to be a lot more mature. Guys act strange, be it human or NightTide. Guys tend to screw around and NightTide guys seem to either be super serious or a bit screwy themselves…”

I wondered where we were going. “So where are we headed?”

Jessica looked back, she had a grin on her face. “You’ll see when we get there.”

We walked for a bit, I guess wherever it was at base four… We eventually got a door, it looked like it went to some building?

Elizabeth sat me down. “Alright Red, you go first!” She nudged me forward. Jessica moved to the side and motioned for me to open the door.

I twisted the knob and walked in. It was dark, I tried looking around when the lights came on and I heard screaming. “HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!” Several people jumped out and threw streamers. They scared me!

I didn’t recognize anyone here… Jessica put her hand on my shoulder. “Sorry Red, I know it’s a really late but we thought you deserved this. You’ve been through a lot and I heard you behaved yourself… “There was Elizabeth, Jessica, and five others I didn’t know. Three guys and two girls.

They all walked up to me and introduced themselves. Nick, Nathan, Zoey, Ethan, and Stella. They came from base two to help Jessica. It was nice, Jessica got drunk though. At least Elizabeth didn’t, and I made sure they couldn’t pull a stunt to get me to drink either.

Later the girl named Stella came up holding an oddly wrapped gift, it was clearly a gun… but I was still curious. “We all got you a present. Jessica told us you were a sniper and I heard how far you could shoot. Figured this would be the best fit, you’ll be able to use it… It’s all yours as well.” She handed it to me, I smiled at her and pulled the wrapping off…

It was interesting, I stood it up next to me. It was about four in a half feet long, almost as tall as I am. The barrel was about three feet, the rest of the gun was around one in a half feet. It was pretty heavy; the clip was large… about seven inches long. It had a switch that would cause blue lines to go down the barrel, there were six lines, one for each corner. The scope was adjustable, turning the nob on the left would zoom in and out the top was vertical adjustment and the right was horizontal.

She had a smile on her face. “That gun can fire in either regular mode or accelerator mode… Basically it’s a type of railgun. It fires fifty caliber rounds, standard modes max range is about nine thousand yards, with the accelerator, it peaks at sixteen thousand. It’s charged up right now, but you need to give it about eight seconds between shots for it recharge when the accelerator is on… A big gun for a pretty girl…” She nudged me over to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was smiling. “You look happy Red.”

I guess I was. I had just been given something. That’s when I noticed my name was engraved on it… Then, Elizabeth pulled two things out, a white collar, of course; and a strap for the gun. She put the collar on me and helped me get the strap on the gun… I put it around my shoulder, it was heavier than the other guns but not too bad.

Jessica wasn’t slurring drunk but her cheeks were rosy… She handed me something. Elizabeth explained what it was. “That is a military ID, since you’ll be carrying a gun around your going to need to have that on you.” Ok then… motioned for me to follow. “come on, let’s go to the firing range. I’m sure they’ll be fine.” I followed her out, I put the ID in my pocket and zipped it up.

We walked around for a bit, ended up getting stopped by a guard. I guess that’s what the ID is for.

He seemed concerned. “Hey, you! Do you have authorization to carry that?!”

Elizabeth sighed and he walked over to us. “Yes, she does.”

The guy was rather sassy. “I asked her, not you.” I nodded. He didn’t seem pleased with that response. “Can I see your ID.” I pulled it out and handed it to him, he read it aloud. “Red Kraus, age eighteen, rank specialist, sniper division, Jessica Kraus’s assistant… Alright, my bad. Everything checks out, keep your nose clean.”

He handed it back and we continued. We got stopped again and decided to clip it to my shirt. “Why are they so worried about me carrying this around?”

Elizabeth shrugged. “They’re fine with any other gun. They just seem to get nervous around larger weapons.”

We finally got to the firing range, the gun was easy enough to shoot… It was nice shooting a semi-auto, instead of bolt-action… I couldn’t test out the accelerator since the firing range wasn’t large enough, and it was in a building… Apparently this is also armor piercing.

Elizabeth was having fun. “So how is it Red?!”

I liked it. “I like it!” She smiled, she was shooting something I didn’t recognize. It fired a type of goo that would melt the target. “What gun is that?”

She was still smiling. “Plasma pistol, you can’t use these in actual gun fights… Something to do with being inhumane but their fun to shoot nonetheless.” Well, she was enjoying it… It was entertaining watching the foam target melt. Eventually she returned the gun and we left.

On our way back, Elizabeth was asking me questions. “So, how was it there?”

I wasn’t as bad as I thought. “Fine, I guess. I haven’t eaten lunch in a while, just breakfast.”

She gasped. “Red! You need to eat!” She grabbed my arm and started dragging me. “We’re getting you something!”

She was dragging me, I saw a couple people giggling while she was dragging me along. We stopped in front of a stand, the guy was making… kebabs, Elizabeth bought one and made me eat it… It was good.

She was frowning. “I was wondering why you felt lighter…” She hugged me. “Make sure to eat, okay?”

I still had food in my mouth. “Okay.” She laughed.

After I finished it she grabbed my hand. “Come on, let’s head back.” She didn’t drag me this time.

When we got back, it was interesting. At this point Jessica, Stella, Nick, and Ethan were drunk. The others were avoiding them. They were having fun at least, attempting and failing at dancing. Nathan was working on his gun and Zoey was taking a nap… Chuck was here now, he was laughing.

He turned and saw us. “Ah hello! How are you two doing?”

I smiled. “Fine, we just tested out the gun.”

He didn’t have that usual seriousness about him… “That’s good to hear, it looks like everyone is having fun then… You know that we’re starting another expansion, soon right?” I nodded. “Good, I can show you how to maintain your weapon. You’ll want that thing in working order at all times. Every time we got through an expansion we have to cut through raider territory.”

He had me follow him to a desk, Elizabeth went and did her own thing. It was interesting to watch him take apart the gun. He seemed to know the ins and outs of it, after he finished he showed me how to put it together and how to oil the parts… Apparently, it’s sealed once reassembled, so it can be fired underwater… Though the accelerator has to be on for the bullet to go anywhere. We went through it for a while. Once I got it down five times in a row he decided it was good enough.

He looked at me. “The expansion will be stressful, a lot of people moving a lot of weapons and supplies. We’re going to have armor in the front, snipers behind the armor, and the brass in the back. You’re going to be in the second row. Likely on watching from a jeep behind armor. Elizabeth and Jessica are going to be in the back. Jessica is part of the brass so she’s top priority, Elizabeth is going to be helping with supplies so we keep that behind the defense units as well. Try to be careful, ok?” I nodded, how bad can it be?

I got up and went to walk over to Elizabeth, except I tripped over something incredibly fluffy… I looked to see what it was, and there was a guy passed out on the floor, I didn’t recognize him but he had an absolute ton of fur laying on him… It was weird, I ignored him and spent the rest of the party with Elizabeth.