Arknights Short Story Compilations

Escape (OG + Firewatch)

So I was just playing with my friends on Minecraft for the past day and then I got bored at 9:13 pm. I've been having this idea for quite a while now so why not write some of it when I have the time to?

Contents are subjected to change.

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The snow-white forest around me started to change to a bright luminous orange-red. All the snow that once gathered up was simply burnt into nothing from the raging fire that was going on.

"Run. Do not look back. I'll always be with you."

Was the last sentence I heard from my father as he raised his crossbow against the heavily armed invaders with tears in his eyes. They came and caught us all in surprise. Our small town's defences couldn't withstand them.

The winds were whipping so furiously that I could hear the trees surrounding me crack. A flurry of snow was blowing into my face, slowing down my motion and making my teeth chatter. But none of these mattered.

The pain travelled up through my elbow, providing me with the only thing keeping me conscious. It heated up my entire body in return for blurry vision and an immobile limb. The snowstorm was enough already, but this worsened my status. I was on the brink of breaking down from all the cold and pain.

"There's one more!" One of the invaders screamed out, persistent in hunting down possibly the only survivor of the small town. I didn't get why they were so hell-bent on killing a child. Do they hold this much hatred towards us?

Throughout all the chaos of sounds, there was one which I pray will never happen again. The sound of a crossbow being reloaded. It blended in perfectly with the blizzard storm, yet I could still pick it up.

My heart raced to hope that the blizzard would throw them off track. There was no chance that one of them could land a hit in this kind of climate.

An arrow pierced through the sky, its sound snapping through the air. Within a second it landed on my leg. I fell onto the thin snow layer with blood dripping out of my sounds and merging with the snow. But this didn't falter me at all. It only added to increase my body temperature to push through this cold.

I forcefully dug both of my hands into the snow. Applying the rest of my strength to my elbow I attempted to push myself up. Clenching my fists and teeth I got it over with and kept running. My legs felt like they were set on fire but it didn't bother me at all. I had to run as far as possible.

"Son of a bitch, how is that kid still alive?" Their sniper complained about their horrible shot.

"Save it. The storms getting worse. He'll die of frostbite."

Their footsteps became more distant as the sound of wind growling took over. My adrenaline kept going and going, I didn't know how long I was running for with two arrow wounds which were bleeding and extreme cold.

In the distance, I saw someone wearing a cream sweater with what seemed like a khaki green coat. They were rapidly heading towards me. I desperately scanned my surroundings for a weapon for protection. There was no one I could trust in the forest. I bit my tongue forcing myself to stay awake longer. 

"Grandfather! There's one here!" She spoke out as she ran towards me. The more she got closer, the more I feared that my death was coming. Running the opposite way back to where I came from, I tripped on a tree branch and fell flat onto the snow bed. Turning myself over I couldn't move my limbs from the freezing cold and exhaustion. 

My blurred vision stopped me from recognizing if it was a fellow Elafia or one of those bad guys. She ran toward me and I coughed up blood. I was frozen in place, with nowhere to go and nowhere to run. All the adrenaline went in an instant after being overtaken by the fear of death. 

"Please..." I pleaded towards the stranger. "Don't come closer..." It was a futile attempt. She didn't listen. My heart was in my mouth as she moved over with more people coming in the distance. A bright yellow light.

Was that the gateway to the afterlife?

I didn't know.

I closed my eyes, finally being rendered unconscious from everything I've been through.

...

In the dark void appeared a glimmer of light. It darted across the room as a bunch of packed up dots. A warm breeze blew into my skin shaving off all the icy cold I had. All my pain had passed away miracle. 

Opening my eyes I found myself in a small room. It looked just like the previous room I lived in. White walls, an oak desk, a simple bed and a closet. My eyes skimmed over every other detail. To my left was an Elfian girl. She seemed the same age as me. Her tanned eyes with her upper eyelid pulled up and her lower ones tensed up and drawn. The girl's lips were as steady as the rumoured seas, yet through her eyes, I could sense her worried about me. 

Not to mention that she also has her hands placed on mine. I slightly blushed to try to signal her to take her hands off. I didn't want to let her see my outer palm flick towards her. That would seem if I wanted her gone, shooing her away. This was the only way I could think of to say 'Please don't.' in this situation. 

Trying to get up I used my lower half and pulled my upper to a neat 90 degrees. She noticed that I was awake now and still had her hands kept on mine. At first, I felt a bit of an annoyance, yet then.

I didn't hate it that much. It was the first friendly hand that I've touched since I escaped. If time permitted, I would have wanted to extend this period.

"Okay, okay. Stop for a moment." Vierren interrupted my story telling, minus all the weird thoughts I had at that time. He held his hands up to his chin. "You're saying that you managed to live in a middle of a snowstorm?"

"Yeah? What's the problem?"

"Nothing. It's just that I can't believe someone can withstand those temperatures."

Deevy joined in the interrupting, "Sends me chills too. Now I quite enjoy the sunshine."

Deevy, Vierren, Hope and the infamous Sankta alongside the rest of Penguin Logistics randomly decided to join me and Firewatch's break in one of Rhodes Island's break rooms. They got curious to how I met Firewatch, yet I think they're more focused on the useless details.

"I mean, you did live near the Ursus border. The temperature during winter shouldn't bother you that much." The Sankta spoke out with Exusiai nodding. "Mentioning Ursus makes me want to puke."

"Are you referring to what happened a month ago or the country's politics?" Hope asked.

"Both."

"Wouldn't blame you. I'm still scared after seeing what you did during the war."

The focus switched from my backstory to the previous war on Terra. Most of us still have bad memories from what happened, but the guy has had it much worse by far.

Soon the room lit up with chit-chatter about Terra politics. Firewatch grumbled as she rubbed her eyes. She had her head laid on my lap due to the lack of beds here. And also because the couches were all taken up by the ladies.

All of us shut quiet seeing Firewatch wake up.

"It's alright." I patted her head. My hand moved through her hair smoothly. "Go back to sleep, you need it."

She closed her eyes again and went back to napping.

"You two make a great pair, when's the marriage?" Exusiai teased the two of us.

"Oh please, we haven't even start doing that yet."

"Was that a scuffed confession?" Vierren caught on.

And the room was back to being noisy again.

No explanation today.