From Darkness

[Manticore]

INTERLUDE

Pain and confusion reigned in his consciousness, settling over him like a haze. He glanced down at the dark shape on the ground in front of him, a stain of vomit on an otherwise pristine floor. Why was it there?

Abruptly, he realized that his head hurt - like an enormous vice was trying to crush it to a pulp. How had he not noticed this before?

He looked up into the confusing shapes and motion all around him. Where was he? Sounds, flashes of light. Giant walls reaching up towards a ceiling high above, but not quite reaching it.

He tried to move, but he could only seem to rock back and forth. His body was encased in metal armor, stained with blood. Liberty.

The battle. There was some kind of battle going on, wasn’t there?

He contemplated this for a long moment, but nothing else entered his mind.

Suddenly, a man was shaking him and yelling into his face. He pushed the man away - the yelling was making the vice on his head tighten even more. Words. So many… damn… words. Too fast - they raced past before he could catch them. He pressed his hands to his face, squeezing back against the vice.

Slowly, with great effort, he started to catch words here and there. Sir. Why did this person like using that word so much? Was that his name? ‘Sir’ didn’t really sound like a proper name…

Rheinlanders. Enemy. Closer. Die.

Orders. Orders? Orders!

He couldn’t understand what this man kept going on about, or why he should care.

Eventually, the yelling man left him in peace, surely to go bother someone else. Now if only that deafening gunfire would stop…

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