aftermath: life debt | the bad batch

xxiii. on the run

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xxiii.

on the run

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•••

"I have to do this," Wrecker said. "For you guys. I know I was the most expendable of the team. At least I'll die with some type of honor."

"Wrecker, please," Hunter said, with a newfound sense of urgency. He kneeled down above the hole in the ceiling, looking down at Wrecker. "That's not true. Please, come back up."

"They're closing in," Wrecker said, a wave of nervousness taking over him. "There's no time. I have to detonate the bombs."

"Forget the bombs!" Hunter said, reaching his arm out towards Wrecker. "Just come up."

"But then they'll come after you."

"That doesn't matter, we can fight them off. Please, Wrecker," Hunter begged, almost pleading at this point. "Please."

"I'm sorry, Hunter."

"No Wrecker," Hunter whispered, pleading. Just then, Wrecker pressed the button, causing all the bombs he had placed in the halls to explode immediately.

"Wrecker!"

•••

It was all a blur for Hunter. He saw the inside of the ship below start to explode, and he saw Wrecker disappear right before his eyes. He felt numb. He could see the flames starting to come towards him, but he didn't know what to do. He couldn't move. Just as the flames did get to him, he felt someone pull him back, seemingly avoiding the flames.

Echo sat him against a crate that happened to be on the roof of the ship, where they were. He waited for a response from Hunter. Anything. An update on what happened, a hello, anything. But he said nothing. He practically looked dead.

"Are you alright?" Echo asked Hunter.

No answer.

"Hunter?"

Echo didn't know what was wrong, but it could've been that the flames had gotten to him before he was able to pull him away. Echo removed his hand from Hunter's shoulder, and tried his best to remove his helmet. With only one hand, it was more difficult.

He checked for burns, hoping that the flames didn't get to him. Echo was relieved to see that nothing too serious had happened, however, there were a few burns running up along Hunter's neck. It was nothing worse than a first-degree burn, so they could wait until they got back to the ship to treat it. There was no reason to panic now. But, Echo had a second question for Hunter, one that caused more concern.

"Where's Wrecker?"

Hunter squeezed his eyes tight, then opened them, making eye contact with Echo. "He's gone, Echo," he whispered, a single tear rolling down his cheek. "Wrecker's gone."

Echo's expression quickly changed from one of relief, to one of sorrow.

"Please, please tell me you're joking," Echo said, holding on to any little hope. He couldn't afford to lose one of his brothers. Not now. Not when they're this far in. Not when they're this close to completing their mission

"Gone," Hunter repeated, with almost no sound coming out of his mouth.

Echo stood up and looked over the ledge, clinging on to any hope that Hunter wasn't telling the truth. He couldn't have been telling the truth. Maybe it's just what he thought. But Wrecker was nowhere to be found. And the ship was starting to cave in. Which meant they needed to move. Fast.

"Hunter," Echo said, helping him up. "We need to go. If we don't, we'll die too."

"But Wrecker-"

"We can mourn when we get to the ship," Echo continued. That sentence broke him inside, but it was true. They couldn't wait any longer. "We need to save our own skins first or Tech and Omega are as good as gone too."

Hunter looked at Echo blankly, tears falling from his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. He stood up, knowing that the mission had to continue, with or without Wrecker. As much as it pained him, he nodded, going to the front of the remaining three members of the group.

Thankfully, Hunter knew the hangar didn't have a roof, so getting there shouldn't have been a problem. He had the entire ship mapped out in his head, and after the wrong turn they made, causing Wrecker's death, he was determined to not make another mistake, as he saw what it could cause. He couldn't afford to be careless again. The hangar wasn't far, and they reached it in a short amount of time. It looked like they had left the empire back in the dust. Or at least they wouldn't catch up for a while.

They climbed down the wall, seeing their ship sitting in the hangar of the abandoned star cruiser. It looked so peaceful just sitting there. For a moment it felt like they weren't running for their lives.

"Rex," Echo said into his comm link. "We made it to the hangar. Can you go down the stairs to the ship?"

With no response, the stairs to the ship appeared. They all ran up the stairs into the ship, managing to avoid the empire. Hunter was the first to enter the ship, and when he did, he collapsed on the floor from the physical and emotional pain he was in. He sat on the floor, back pressed against the wall of the ship. When Echo had taken his helmet off, he knew that he was checking for burns. Echo only saw the small ones. Not the real ones.

"Rex, where's your water ration?" Echo yelled, once he saw the state Hunter was in.

"Why do you care?" Rex asked.

"Hunter got burned. We need to treat it. It's just first-degree burns, nothing too bad. But still. It's better to treat it now than wait for it to get infected later."

"But that's my water ration. I'll die if I don't get water."

"You can have mine. Now, where is it."

"Here," Rex said, tossing Echo his water ration.

"Thanks," Echo said, then turned to Hunter. "Put this on the burns. It should help the pain."

Hunter couldn't speak, and just took the bottle of water. Echo walked away from Hunter and towards the cockpit, however, when he passed the stairs, he saw what he didn't think he'd see.

More troopers.

"Go Rex!" Echo yelled, running to the cockpit.

"Where's Wrecker?" Rex asked. "We can't just leave him."

"Just go!" Echo shouted.

"I'm not leaving one of my brothers behind Echo!"

"He's dead Rex. Now please, we need to leave, before the empire catches up to us."

"He's gone?" Rex asked, choking up.

"Rex hurry up before we're all dead," Gregor yelled from the back of the ship.

"Okay!" Rex yelled, overwhelmed and fed up with everything. "Okay."

Rex flew the ship out of the hangar, with imperial troopers still shooting at the ship. Once they reached orbit, Rex typed in the coordinates for Ord Mantell and immediately put the ship into hyperspace, getting as far away from Bracca as possible.

"Is Wrecker really gone?" Rex asked Echo, still in disbelief.

Echo sighed before responding, looking down. "Yes. He sacrificed himself for us. So we could live."

"Crosshair was right," Hunter muttered, walking into the cockpit. "This is the aftermath. This is our life debt."