SAVE

I am a soldier.

 S A V E

She rushes through the battlefield, touching anything and everything she can reach as she weaves and rolls to avoid obstacles, dive under metal pipes, and make her way closer and closer to Shein.

"Ruspy, can you hear me?" she yells, pressing the button on the side of her helmet over and over again in a nervous rhythm as she sidesteps behind a wall, a serenade of gunfire quickly validating her decision. "I'm in the sector where -"

"I've got you!" Her oldest friend's voice yells back at her through their link. "Hold on - I'll deploy a helicopter to come for you. Just sit tight and you'll be safe soon!"

"I don't have that much time!" She growls in frustration, peering out from behind the corner and firing off a few quick shots before retreating again. "They'll be on top of me in just a second, and I can't just -"

"I said sit tight!" Ruspy yells, voice hoarse with strain. "We're aborting the mission, you get that?"

"You can't do that!" she shouts, just as her friend clicks away the link. "You little snot," she hisses, pulling ammo from her belt to reload her pistol. "If you won't give me the time I want, then I'll just have to make it!"

She reaches towards her chest and taps her locket.

She stands in line with the rest of the soldiers in her division, the fingertips of her right hand pressing up against her right shoulder in a salute. She holds her head up high and doesn't waver even as the unit inspector walks about, correcting people's posture, criticizing wrinkles in their clothing, and glaring at them one by one to test their determination.

He finally reaches her, staring up at her from his underwhelming height. "I don't suppose you plan on messing up today, Redmoor?"

"Not today, sir," she replies, holding her posture and salute as she stares right back at him. "And not tomorrow, either."

"Someday," he grumbles, maintaining eye contact for just a beat too long before he moves on to the person next to her and immediately slaps her for using the wrong hand to salute.

"Get your act together, Fitbeaul," he snaps as the soldier winces and breaks salute to press her hand against her cheek. "We've been over this plenty of times!"

"I'm sorry," she whispers. "I just keep forgetting..."

"See to it that you don't forget again." The inspector moves on.

Fitbeaul's lip is trembling as she raises her right hand into a proper salute, and she dips her head a little so that her long hair tumbles forward, hiding her face. Redmoor narrows her eyes.

''She's right to be ashamed. That's not the behavior of a proper soldier.''

red room redmoor butcher cher

beautiful fitbeaul happiness shein

papyrus ruspy (ruspira) skeleton tekelson bones bones