Lost and Loaded

Chapter One

I live, I die, I live again.

A bright flash encompasses a room, birds on the rundown buildings fly off. Four loud thuds echo in the empty building. Smith's eyes opened and immediately began gasping for air. Calming himself down as fast as he could, smith reached for his weapon.

The familiar feeling of his rifle in his hands did little to calm his nerves, but a little was still something to him. Checking the room he's in the first thing he notices is how disarranged everything was. Cracks on the wall, a table turned over, and small amounts of moss growing all over the place.

Taking one steady breath smith keeps his weapon ready just in case he runs into something he shouldn't have. Opening the door, its squeak making smith cringe, he looked into the hallway to see... another mess.

Walking out, he keeps his eyes on anywhere someone might pop up and attack him. Smith's steps came to a halt as he arrived at a large hole in the middle of the hallway. Smith wrinkled his nose. Looking around he was reminded of the deteriorating walls, and had an idea 'The walls look weak enough, maybe I can get through another room...'

Smith leaned against the door, slowly opening it as he entered inside, only for his barrel to be grabbed and pushed away. "Drop it!" Someone had pulled a gun on smith. He was prepared to be shot but what came wasn't a bullet, but a question. "Sergeant smith?" He looked at his attacker, "Johnson."

'It doesn't make sense.' He thought. 'He's dead... I saw him die...' Though apparently his teammate didn't notice his confusion, too relieved at seeing a familiar face in this old place he got stuck in.

"Sir?" Smith was taken out of his thoughts by Johnsons call. "What do we do now? What's even going on?" Smith looked at him, unsure whether or not this is real.

"We'll think about this later, right now we need to make sure we're safe." Smith motioned his head towards a closed door. Both men got up and started exploring.

While smith was still unnerved by recent events, after all he should be dead, he kept himself level headed. Johnson on the other hand was more focused on admiring the view of the old, unfamiliar architecture of the building they're in.

Smith could hardly blame the boy of course, he looked no older than 19. A small amount of pity manifested for the boy, the draft and recent involvement in multiple foreign civil wars and insurgencies have left a bitter taste in the american public.

There wasn't much they could do though, years of patriotism and freedom being exchanged for the illusion of safety has taken away much of the power away from the people. (1)

A loud squeak echoed through the halls. Both men stopped. Their hearts pounded as their fingers are a moment away from pulling the trigger. He looked back at Johnson, the boy wasn't terrified, his training pummeled into him that he should always stay calm even in the most unfamiliar situations.

Smith shouted "Cloud!". A few seconds of silence felt like hours, then a response "Niner! Don't shoot!" The door opened as two other men entered the halls.

A small smile appeared on smith's face, at least compared to the large grind Johnson had. All four began to let themselves relax, at least for a little bit. "Miller, Robert, aren't you a sight for sore eyes."

The relieved looks on Roberts face began contorting into confusion as his eyes wandered to the young private. Smith noticed and shook his head. He didn't need words to know that smith said 'Not now'.

Robert was hesitant, but knew smith was going to confront the issue later. "Come on, we need to find out our location and see if there are any others here." Smith immediately tried to divert the groups attention as he noticed Johnson being suspicious as to how miller was still walking.

As the group made their way down the stairs, they noticed more and more of how 'alien' everything was. While the building looked to be made out of the same materials they know back home, the way everything was built left a strange feeling growing up inside them.

None of them spoke out about it however, the architecture may be strange but it was still enough to accommodate them after a few repairs. Where they will get the materials, nobody knows, but Miller thinks we can make do by trying to scavenge some scraps.

Though the buildings were strange they could still make out what most of them seemed to be. The building they were in contained multiple rooms, all bedrooms and a pub in the ground floor. They could make out it was probably an inn when it was open.

Plenty of these places looked like they could have been thriving. A vendor by the corner of the street, a blacksmith judging by the swords displayed by the broken windows was down the road.

Their minds wandered, and one thought constantly ate at their minds. 'What happened here?'

---

"We'll hunker down here for the night." Smith said. The group was in the most intact house they could find, a few holes on the roof of a few rooms but they could ignore that by moving to a different room. Or they could fix it with a few board and nails, but they doubt it would be very good given that they had no experience.

"We'll take turns keeping watch, Johnny!" Johnson stood straight as an arrow. "You're up."

"Yes sir." Smith watched the boy as he left, eventually disappearing into a hallway. Letting out a tired sigh he looked back at the other two. "I think it's time we address the elephant in the room."

Miller stiffened, his eyes darted between the two. Robert nervously took a step forward. "Look miller, we don't have to tal-"

"No, it's fine... I already know what you're going to ask about." Miller cut him off. He turned to smith "What about johnny?"

Smith just let out a sigh as he shook his head, "I already checked for any threats when we were wandering the place, it's safe, I just sent the kid out there so we could figure things out. Besides, don't hurt to be careful."

Miller only shook his head. "So, where do we start?"

---

Greetings readers! I intended this chapter to be published in jan 20-28 and for it to be a lot longer but

A. ) School has been making things busy

B. ) I'm a lazy bitch

Thank you for sticking around, and I hope I don't disappoint.