Chapter 2 B - CHAIN REACTION

Drip, drip, drip

Heather grimaced as she slowly opened her eyes. All she could see was some sort of basement that was filled with darkness and a slightly musty smell. She then spotted the Ostmark witch at the other end of the room, hunched over and doing something.Trying to get up, she didn’t get far before the pain forced her to back down. The Ostmark witch heard this and turned to face Heather. The Liberion witch gasped at the bloody bruises on her counterpart’s face and tattered uniform. The Ostmark witch then approached and produced a small flask of water.

Accepting the flask, the Liberion quenched her throat which was parched dry.

“Thanks, I don’t think I caught your name.” Heather said.

“Amelie, Ostmark Air Force.”

“I’m Heather, Liberion Marine Corp. How did we end up in here?”

Amelie didn’t respond initially as her left hand started shaking. Grabbing it with her right hand, she took a deep breath, “When I woke up, I freaked out since I was lying on the soldier that was carrying me. He was … he was dead, took the brunt of the fall for both of us. Then I saw one of the others stumble and fall. Then I saw you crawling away and pass out. I don’t know why but I got a sudden burst of energy that I didn’t want to die. So I pulled myself up and dragged you to a nearby basement. As I pulled you in, the building collapsed and I could not go back out. I then passed out myself so I have no idea how long we’ve been here.”

Heather took a quick look at her watch, it was stuck at 8:09 am.

“Did anyone else make it?” Heather asked as Amelie shook her head as tears began to streak down her face. 

“They were all frozen and didn’t move when I checked. All the carnage, it … it’s something from the worst dream one could never imagine.” the Ostmark witch said as she buried her head in her hands and sobbed. Heather ran her hands through her hair. She was the only one of her unit left. The lone survivor. At the moment, Heather could feel tears well up in her eye as she felt incredibly guilty, why was she still alive? Why not any of the others, they all deserved a chance to live and go back home to their families. She felt like a failure, she was the commanding officer and all the responsibility was on her. 

Scooting on her behind, Heather made her way to Amelie and gave her a tight hug.

“I don’t blame you for any of this. If I had to do it all again, I would have made the same decision every single time. I was their commander, so I’m at fault.”

At that moment Amelie looked at Heather for a few seconds as if studying her. The Liberion looked confused.

“Don't say that.”

“Huh?”

“You're putting all the blame on yourself. If we play this blame game then it should fall on me. If you never came back for me, you might have escaped the city. I’ve seen what this bundling up of emotions goes, it happened to my previous commander when she and myself were the only ones to come back from a mission involving four of us. She wasn’t the same and had to give up her command and flying for a few months later. I nearly lost myself to grief before I realized I had to live with what happened and rely on others for help. I’ve managed but today, all of this, it’s too much so I had to let it out.”

“But why did we live?” Heather asked.

Amelie shrugged. “I don’t know and I don’t think we will ever know. It’s the deck we’ve been dealt with. We’ve made it this far, I say let’s keep living so your comrades' sacrifices are not in vain.”

Heather thought over what her compatriot said as she tried to come up with some sort of counter. But she finally buried her head into Amelia’s shoulder and let out all her frustration for the next few minutes. Afterward, the two witches said nothing for a few minutes, lost in thought before Amelie spoke. 

“Tell me, what was your squad like?”

After that, both witches told each other about the people they served with and lost track on time. Then they heard something that was not either of their voices. Both went dead silent as they heard something mechanical. Then they heard the shifting of heavy rocks outside as the sounds came closer and closer. Both witches huddled together behind a desk and held each other’s hands. The Neuroi were back. Suddenly, the door flung open as sunlight filled the room. Both witches held their breath as neither of them wanted to take the risk and emerge from their hiding spot. Then a voice called out.

“Anyone here? Hello?”

Hearing the voice, Heather recognized that voice and turned to Amelie to reassure her, as both of them gingerly stood up and were illuminated by the flashlight. 

“Sergeant is that you?” Heather said as both she and Amelie shielded their eyes. The Marine sergeant who was wearing a gas mask did a double-take before he spoke. 

“Holy shit.” he said as turned behind him towards the door.

“We got two live witches down here! Get the medics now!” he then yelled. Two medics and a witch ran into the room within a few seconds and surrounded both of the battered witches. The sergeant then walked over and knelt down so he was face to face with the two witches. Though most of his face was hidden behind the mask, Heather could tell from his wide eyes that he was excastic to find them.

“It’s good to find you two. When we found the rest of your unit on the street, I thought you were dead as well. We found blood trails leading this way so we followed it. What do you guys remember?”

Heather and Amelie proceeded to fill himin on their tale.

“Why did you come back, the area is still contaminated.” Heather asked. The sergeant proceeded to fill the two witches in on what had happened on his end.

20 minutes before

At a staging area outside the city, it was pandemonium as it was turned into a triage area as the staff struggled to keep up with the situation. Dead and wounded piled in and soon the medical staff were overwhelmed as the casualties lay all around the ground. No one was prepared for the situation and no one really knew what to do. People ran about trying to help where they could. Several just simply looked on at the now destroyed city. Some wandered about aimlessly, shell shocked at what had occurred that morning. Others wanted to go back.

“You’re insane, we don’t even know if the toxic gas is completely clear.” an army major argued as he followed a Marine to the outskirts of the base.

“We left friends in there. We don’t leave our own behind.” The Marine argued as the two began to argue loudly which drew the attention of many other Marines and soldiers.

“No one could have survived that blast sergeant. I’m not sacrificing any more people into that, if you want to go in, be my guest.” the higher ranked officer said.

“I’ll take that risk.” the Marine retorted.

“You got a death wish, who is going to follow you?” the major argued as both looked at the group of people around them. There was dead silence for a few seconds as everyone looked at each other to see who would be the first to say something. Finally, an Ostmark engineer who was in his late 40’s stepped forward. 

“I’ll go. I can get us equipment to help remove debris.” he said.

“You’ll need some firepower if any Neuroi are left and you will need a helping hand. So I’m in as well.” a Marine said as he grabbed his M1 rifle and was soon joined by a few handful of his compatriots.

“Me too. I don’t have much combat experience but I’m willing to try.” an Ostmark witch medic witch added as she threw a medic bag across her shoulders. The sergeant smiled as his platoon, other Marines from other units, soldiers, along with other medics, engineers, and other base staff organized together to re-enter the destroyed city while the major looked in disbelief, not knowing what to say.

Back to present

“So yeah that’s pretty much it so let’s get you out of this shit hole.” the Marine said.

“We’ve patched them up as best I can. I can do more back at base.” the Ostmark heal witch said. The sergeant nodded as he and the heal witch wrapped Heather's arms around their shoulders while the other two medics did the same for Amelie. Slowly, they all made their way to the exit. As they all exited the dark basement, both witches squinted at the sunlight. As their eyes adjusted, they were met by a roaring sound of cheers and clapping as both witches noticed dozens of people all wearing gas masks for their own protection. There were also some Sherman tanks with dozer blades that had helped clear debris.  There was practically nothing left standing except for a lone tree and a few buildings that withstood the blast. Looking at the other rescuers as she passed, Heather noticed tears in the eyes of some of the rescuers which were visible despite the masks they wore. As both witches were placed on stretchers and put into the back of a half track, the sergeant briefly hopped on and did a final check to make sure both witches were comfortable. As he was about to leave, Heather spoke up.

“Thank you again for coming for us.”

“We are always faithful to those we fight alongside with. Never leave anyone behind. I’m sorry for both of you for what you had to see today. I don’t know how you guys are coping but I’ll make sure to visit. If you need to talk about anything, let me know.” the sergeant replied.

“Thank you sir. We’ll probably take you up on that offer. But are you still going back out there?” Amelie asked.

“Until someone of higher rank physically drags me out, we’ll keep looking.” he replied as both witches both looked at each other before they gave a quick salute to which the Marine replied in kind. After he hopped off, the halftrack slowly drove away as both witches watched the various rescuers continue to fan out among the devastated landscape.

20,000 Marines, soldiers, airmen, and witches entered Brno that day, 15,000 never came back alive. General MacArthur, upon realizing the magnitude of his defeat resigned from command but his reputation was forever tarnished by this disaster. For the rest of the world, the news that so many people could be killed by a Neuroi weapon in one blow was shocking. Some called for a stop to the war as they feared more such disasters. Others called for the development of such weapons of mass destruction to retaliate. However, once it was determined that this was a one-off weapon and seeing the impact such a weapon had on soldiers and witches, the Allies decided against the pursuit of such a weapon. Allied forces would stick to using conventional weapons and moved in with a vengeance and hatred for the Neuroi never seen before. For the city of Brno, once the fallout had subsided, it was decided to rebuild the city and in the central plaza, a memorial to all those lost was erected in 1952. At the attendance, Heather and Amelie were given the honor of laying the first wreath under the memorial cenotaph to commemorate those who perished while the Marine sergeant and the Ostmark engineer placed another wreath to remember the resolve of those who helped in the recovery effort. On the monument itself was etched, “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we will not repeat the evil.”