Isolated (Red vs Blue)

5: The Other Side

5: The Other Side

Present Day: Somewhere on the Edge of Colonized Space

"Men! Get out here! On the double!" Sarge ordered from somewhere outside.

Simmons groaned internally, but wasted no time in suiting up and heading outside. Grif, on the other hand, moved much slower and complained very loudly about having to do anything before noon. The maroon clad soldier would never understand how someone could be so lazy all the time. His teammate's steady complaining and his constant refusal to do any significant amount of work severely got on his nerves. And it had been that way for years. Simmons remembered the times when he used to plot out Sarge's ideas for trying to kill Grif. Nothing ever came of those times; much to the maroon clad soldier's regret at the moment.

Then again, Grif was one of the only people that he could even remotely consider as being close to a friend. If he was gone, Simmons would be stuck with Sarge. Not to mention he'd be left alone to deal with Donut and Lopez. As much as he absolutely hated to admit it, Simmons was almost glad he hadn't found a way to get rid of his teammate all those years ago. Almost.

The two soldiers made their way out of the makeshift base and found their leader standing just outside. Sarge was staring at the base and seemed to be rather frustrated. Simmons vaguely remembered a discussion Sarge had tried to start the day before about how the base had looked, but he and Grif had mostly ignored it. And it hadn't taken Sarge long to figure out that his soldiers weren't listening to him. The Red leader had been quick to drop the conversation for the time being, but now it seemed like the topic was about to be brought up again.

Simmons and Grif joined their team leader as they stared at their base. They were all quiet for a long moment before Sarge finally decided to speak. "This is absolutely and completely unacceptable."

"I couldn't agree with you more, sir," Simmons said loyally.

Grif looked at him. "Why are you agreeing already? You have no idea what he's even gonna say."

"Oh, uh, right. Yeah. My bad. I guess I just got a little excited," Simmons admitted with a shrug.

"Seriously? You are literally the worst kind of person," Grif told him.

"Quiet, you morons," Sarge ordered them, not taking his eyes off the base. "We've got a rather serious situation on our hands."

"Which is . . . what?" Grif asked.

"The absolutely deplorable condition of Red Base!" Sarge exclaimed.

The orange soldier crossed his arms. "You're really still hung up on that? Sarge, we're stranded in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention we're completely surrounded by a mysterious, seemingly uninhabitable jungle. And you're standing here all worried about the condition of our makeshift fort?"

Simmons looked over at his leader. "Besides, I really don't think our base is even that bad. I don't see a whole lot wrong with it."

"Well . . . I wouldn't go so far as to say it's not that bad," Grif said.

"What's that supposed to mean? What's really wrong with it?"

"Are you serious? There's an enormous fucking hole in the roof! Every night this damn planet decides it's time to rain, I get washed into the corner of the room!"

"Oh. Well, I mean, yeah. I guess there's that. But I was talking about overall."

"The majority of the entire west wing of the base is made up completely of sandbags and rain tarps," Sarge pointed out.