WARZONE - König

3 - P.t One

Daylight was running out as their journey continued. Their fight in the shopping plaza delayed them by nearly an hour, and even though the mission was first in priority, a break was also necessary.

"We can stop here." Nadja suggests as the golden light of the low sun casts down on them, approaching a large rock surrounded by shrubbery stands as cover nearby the bridge into the urban zone. She squats behind it as Konig sits next to her, pressing his back against the jagged rock, propping one knee up as he rests his arm over it.

Nadja zips open her bag between her legs, occasionally looking around and checking her surroundings as she reaches inside the pocket, pulling out a green MRE bag. "Let's hope I got the lucky draw." She says, using her teeth to tear the top off, pulling the air-tight sealed food out. "Yes!' She whispers with excitement, separating a cookie from the rest of it. "Oh, wait..." She takes a closer look, spotting the raisin chunks baked inside.

"Dammit..." She mumbles.

"You don't like raisins?" Konig asks.

"Hate 'em." She replies, collapsing to her behind as she leans against the rock next to him, looking to the cookie with disappointment.

"I'll eat it." Konig offers, looking over to her. Nadja upturns her nose as they meet eyes.

"Ew." She simply replies, handing it to him.

"In war, you learn to survive off what you can." He says as he takes it, unwrapping it and raising it in the air like a trophy.

"I'm not that desperate." She shakes her head, opening the sealed pasta and sauce along with a side snack of crackers.

"Not yet." Konig retorts.

Nadja chuckles as she takes the flameless heater and prepares it, filling up the bag with water, placing the heater and the pouch of pasta inside as she waits for it to heat. She lays the full bag with the heater against the toe of her boot as she brings her knees to her chest so it doesn't tip over, looking down to her watch as she begins counting in her head.

She taps her fingers patiently as her arms were wrapped around her folded legs, awaiting it to finish. She looks over to Konig as he breaks pieces of the cookie off, slipping them beneath the hood as he slowly picks away at it.

"You're a peculiar man, Konig." She suddenly says, tilting her head as he halts, lowering his arm in embarrassment and looking her way.

"You're a peculiar woman." He retorts.

"It's not a bad thing. I've just never met someone like you."

"That goes both ways." He says, continuing to eat the cookie.

"Well, since we're actually talking now..." She continues. "What's your name?"

"Kilgore." He simply says after a moment of hesitation.

Nadja stares at him blankly, blinking as she awaited him to add on, yet he said nothing more. "That's... your name? Just Kilgore?"

"Eh..." He sighs. "It's... Tobias, Kilgore..."

"Oh... Tobi."

"No."

"Sorry, that's your name now." She shrugs.

"No."

"Yes, I win." She nods affirmatively. Konig chuckles, shaking his head as he finishes off the cookie.

"Too cocky, like I said." He mumbles. "And yours?" He asks, swallowing the rest.

"Nadja Kaiser. On paper, people always mis-pronounce it. For a month straight, Commander Graves called me 'Nad-ja', so I just started spelling it with an i."

"I like it." He replies.

"Oh, thanks... I like yours too, Tobi." She smiles.

"Okay, Nad-ja." He teases, triggering an eyeroll from her. She looks down to her watch, seeing nearly ten minutes had passed and smiled eagerly as she reached for the pouch of food, opening it as it steamed. She carefully removes the pasta, taking the wrapped fork and digging in.

"Now this is war food." She points, her cheek full of warm pasta.

"You say that until you're starving in a pinch, and you have no choice but to make do." Konig says with a firm tone.

"Okay mister war veteran, what's the worst thing you've ever eaten?" She asks.

"Boiled piss." He replies.

Nadja stops chewing, slowly looking to him in disgust. "You're joking."

"It was purified." He says.

"As if that makes it better."

"It does."

She raises her brow in disgust as she continues to eat her pasta, finally finishing it and trashing the fork inside the pouch. She packs it neatly back inside her backpack in a separate pocket, zipping it up as she starts to stand, bringing the packet of crackers up with her as Konig jumps to his feet aside her.

"We save the crackers for later." She smiles, putting them in one of her cargo pockets. She tightens the backpacks straps over her shoulders, picking up her weapons and looking out to the bridge as night fell over them, the winds growing colder as the sun disappeared. "The darkness will bring us cover, let's take advantage of it." She says, looking to Konig who nods in agreement, fist bumping before they move forward, staying low and to the walls of the bridge as they move forward.

As they enter the city, the houses and surrounding area looking a bit more modern, they march aside one another, their footsteps aligned as Nadja squints to the map, struggling to see in the dark.

"It's gonna be hell trying to find the hostages in this big ass city without any leads. We need to find more AQ's and interrogate them to find where they're being held."

"Sounds good to me." Konig replies

She folds the map, shoving it back into her pocket as she holds her sniper rifle, scouting ahead through the dim streetlamps as they stay tight to the buildings in the shadows.

As they walk in silence, the radio on her vest suddenly crackles as Arabic voices break through. She leans her ear closer with the volume low as they continue walking, Konig keeping his eyes ahead.

"Wait." She halts them, looking around the streets and spotting a sign. "There's some grouped up, I think they're that way." She points, looking up to Konig who nods, letting her lead as they quietly run across the street.

She follows the street signs, her memory of the map sticking in her head as her mind was flooding with information. They turn a few corners, cutting through alleys until they were soon to approach the suspected location of an AQ post.

Nadja slows as she lowers her head, Then looking to Konig as she sought his suggestion. "What do you think?" She asks.

Konig looks to her for a moment, the strange woman patiently awaiting his reply. He struggles with a plan at first, having to remind himself this wasn't a lone mission. "I'll take lead. We leave at least one alive for interrogation."

"Affirmative." She replies.