The Golden Soldier (Call of Duty: WW2 Fanfiction)

Chapter 44

My world was suddenly so bright, it was blinding. I felt a small tingle in my thigh, but ignored it as I tried to move forwards through the frustratingly white space.
"Guys?" I questioned, my voice collected. "What's going on?"
My body surged forwards as I was suddenly brought into a loud room. A baby's cry echoed off the walls, causing me to cringe as I blinked multiple times. In front of me was a woman giving birth through Caesarean section. She was sweating, gripping the hand of her nearby partner in an iron strength. The man seemed unbothered, his eyes focused on the baby sliding out.
"A lovely girl," a doctor smiled as the child was handed off to be cleaned up.
As I took a step forwards to investigate further, the room was ripped away from me in an instant. A numb pain insisted on growing stronger in my thigh and now my left wrist. I pushed through the darkness until my feet painfully collapsed onto green grass.
"Only the strongest shall pass!"
"I'm the strongest of them all!"
I watched a group of children play with swords and shields, fake by all means. Around and watching from a distance were amused adults...parents of the children. Two of them were the same couple from the first situation.
A pang of realization hit my chest like a baseball. It was me. The newborn and the young child before me. The two adults were my parents.
And there was only one reason why I was seeing them.
Before I could react to anything, I was sucked back into the black abyss once more. The same blinding white light blew in front of me and it slammed forwards into a wall. I let out a groan, pushing against the hard material to find out I'd landed on a floor.
"Guys?" I questioned again, spinning around in the bright space.
"They aren't here."
To the deep voice, I spun around. There, a man with brunette hair and green eyes stood patiently, hands clasped in front of him. He wore normal, comfortable clothes and his face was just as relaxed. Though he was without wrinkles, he looked like he needed to be much older with the wisdom in his eyes.
"Dad," I breathed.
He outstretched his arms, letting me run into them like a little girl again. I found tears streaming down my cheeks as I hugged the man I hadn't seen in over a decade. He squeezed me tight, his cheek resting on the top of my head.
"I miss you so much!"
"I know," he whispered, drawing away to squeeze my shoulders.
My smile faltered and I stepped completely away from him. "Wait. If I'm seeing you right now...am I dead?"
"Dying," he was serious, his voice calm.
I let out a gasp, feeling the tingle in my leg turn into a consistent burn. "Dying?"
Along with my burning thigh, my chest felt sore as if I'd done a long round of push-ups. My head was pulsing, messing with my vision to a degree. My left wrist was throbbing a gentle beat.
He nodded, stepping around me as if I were now to be examined. "I will be honest and say you have a chance to stay or go. Your wound is serious, but it's possible for you to live."
"How is this possible?" I demanded. "I'm in the past. You aren't even a child yet. How am I talking to you?"
"Death is always happening, Avaline. Past, present, or future does not exist here in the afterlife."
"But how am I talking to you? Like this?"
"We don't know how we die until we are doing so. This is the process."
I let out a breath. So I was truly dying. This is what death looked like: meeting my deceased father in this type of afterlife and watching significant moments of my life. Who would've ever guessed?
"You said I have a choice."
"You can go back," my father blinked. "You'll be in excruciating pain and there's no guarantee that you will make it through."
"So I'll come back here?"
"Perhaps."
"What's the point?" I questioned. "Either way I'm here."
He stepped forwards suddenly and quickly, cupping my face in his hands. "Do you remember what I told you that day I left?"
"You left many times," I thought a moment. "Are you talking about duty?"
"Yes," he smiled as if proud. "We all have a duty, Ava."
I nodded, repeating him. "I don't know what my duty is right now."
"You do," his eyes glanced to my chest. "Somewhere in between your heart and your mind."
I smiled and touched the outside of his smooth hands holding my cheeks.
"You have a duty," his voice grew harder. "Wake up, Avaline."
"But if this is the last time I see—"
"Wake. Up."
His voice was harder and colder than before. It started changing shape as he continued to repeat the words. I was suddenly blown away from him, a searing pain entering my thigh now. I let out a scream as I landed on my back, the wind getting knocked out of me.
"Wake up goddammit!"
My eyes flew open and I found Pierson kneeling over me. I let out a gasp deep enough to be breaching from water. Already I began to pant at a hyperventilating level. Pierson's face was immediately etched with relief, his features softening. His strong, war-torn hands on either side of my face wiggled in reassurance I was truly alive.
"Avaline," he breathed and I continued to pant, gazing around wildly.
He brought me back.
If no one had reached me after the shots had been fired, I would've likely slipped away and chosen to go with my father into an afterlife. Pierson had succeeded in getting there just in time. He'd saved my life...he'd brought me back.
"Hey," he breathed, his face covered in the grime of the loud battle still raging on around us. "Look at me, you're okay."
I was suddenly too aware of the pain in my left thigh and let out a moan to respond to it. Pierson released my face, moving to look at my gushing wound. My head was also bleeding from the impact against the boulders from the blast. I felt that my left wrist was numbly swollen into purple and yellow bruising already—broken.
Pierson looked me over, his eyes full of a pain I'd never seen him have. I reached for him with my good hand and clutched his tightly. Dark eyes found my teary ones.
"My pack."
Pierson nodded and then gently propped me forwards. He found my medical kit and then ripped it open, some stuff falling out of it. I closed my eyes, still finding my breaths quick and uneven.
"Aiello, get over here!" Pierson's eyes raked my face. "No, no, no. Keep your eyes open!"
I blinked, seeing the blurry figure of Aiello fall to my right side. His face was pinched as he tried to stop the blood oozing from my thigh. Not far past them, Daniels and Stiles were firing next to other Americans.
"We need to stop the blood," Aiello said as he reached for the supply needed.
I groaned when Pierson touched my wrist and he glared at the spot. "Fuck, her wrist is broken."
"Her head is bad too," Aiello glanced to my bleeding head.
Pierson moved closer to my shoulders, shifting the med kit closer to Aiello. He gently unclasped the buckle under my helmet and then tore it off. My hair, still stuck in a messy bun, fell partially to my bloodied face.
"You're going to be okay."
"Focus," I tried to speak, my throat so dry that it felt like sandpaper against skin, "on the...war."
Pierson's face faltered as I spoke, his eyes blinking multiple times. I reached out with my good hand, firmly grasping his jaw. I gazed as fiercely as I could into his eyes.
"Go...finish this."
He took a moment to compose himself and when he did, he firmly grasped my chin. "You stay alive. Got it? That's an order! I mean it!"
A smile came to my tender lips.
Pierson hesitated a moment longer before releasing my chin and setting my helmet in my lap. He stood and darted over to Daniels. The two of them began to circle around the Kraut forces, taking them down.
Aiello sporadically worked on my wound, helping Stiles defend my vulnerable position when he needed to. I groaned, holding my abdomen to make sure my guts weren't spilling like they felt. My thigh blood was spreading quickly, staining Aiello's knees as well. My wrist was a throb that sickened me to my core and moving it made dark spots appear in my vision.
"It's no use," I choked out, the blood spreading on my face to trickle down the side of my face. "He was right, I won't make it."
"You're not making sense," Aiello kept working. "Of course you're going to make it."
"Aiello," I choked out, reaching for him.
He finally stopped, glaring at my face. At seeing my helplessness there, his tough expression fell away to dread. Immediately, I noticed tears fill his eyes.
"We have some men coming in for reinforcements," Stiles drew back to us, looking from Aiello to myself. "Oh, Ava. No."
I shook my head, swallowing. "I'm losing too much blood."
"Tell us how to stop it."
"You're doing everything right," I breathed, glancing to where blood still continued to pool. "It's over."
"It's not," Stiles sounded choked up. "Ava, stay with us."
My eyes flickered over to where two men with giant red plus symbols were sprinting towards us. Aiello perked up, waving them over to my bloody mess. Stiles moved out of their way.
That's when I passed out again.

I came to only partially, seeing working arms through my blurry vision. I could hear low commands from the man on my right, a well-trained medic by the sounds of it. There was a solid squeezing on my broken wrist and a firmer squeeze on my left hand.
My dizzy and blurry vision shifted to the faint outline of Aiello, who was on my right closest to my head. He was looking down at my face, twisted in alarm.
"You're okay Baker, stay with us."

"Ava, wake up, please!"
To the consistent shaking, I let out a gasp and tried to sit up. My core rocked in pain, forcing me to stay where I was as my eyes shot open. Stiles and Aiello were on either side of me, both panicked.
"Thank God!" Stiles shouted.
"They patched you up," Aiello explained, glancing to the bandage slowly turning pink. "It won't last long, but we can get you out of here."
I look down at the white wrapping around my left wrist and felt the stitching on the side of my head. Whoever had worked on me knew how to work in the pressure of the field. I didn't know what to think.
"Come on, we have to get you up."
My body stung as the two helped me to my feet. From the right, a sneaking Kraut caught my attention. I instinctively pulled my pistol off my thigh with my right hand and shot them down in two shots. Aiello glanced at me in surprise.
"I can still shoot," I choked out.
"Of course you can."
"We need to get up to the others."
"They're surrendering!" there was a shout.
We joined the others on the paved road on the victorious side of the bridge. Pierson was talking to Daniels and looking around at the others nearby. Howard was ordering some Privates around.
The Krauts at the entrance to the beginning of the Rhine held their hands up. Our boys went around to restrain them, making sure the surrender was taken seriously.
"W-We won," I whispered, trying to shrug off the two holding me.
"We need to get her better medical attention now," Aiello told Pierson as he turned to face us.
Relief etched his entire tired face and he came forwards to make sure I was really still alive. I forced a smile, painful as it was, and held up a thumbs-up. He had to think I was okay even though I felt worse than death.
"Get her back to camp," Pierson ordered.
"I'm going with you," I persisted, pulling against Stiles and Aiello. "To find Zussman."
Pierson looked torn. "We can't wait and you're in no position to join us."
"I'll be fine—"
"You're going back to get proper medical support," Pierson snapped, his eyes narrowing. "That's a damn order, Baker."
I said nothing as Aiello and Stiles took me to a truck offering a ride to behind the front lines, especially for wounded. The men in there took over and gently made sure I was seated without damaging my bandages. The truck started moving when I, the last person to join of six, was settled.
The boys watched after me in sorrow, but they were firm. They wanted me to get proper attention and heal. I wanted to be with them and find Zussman. It was a war I wasn't going to win.
As the truck began to cautiously cross back over the bridge, I realized with a pang of alarm that this was the first time I'd been separated from the platoon permanently. For the first time since arriving in the 1940's, I felt truly, completely alone.

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I just couldn't kill her off, ya know? 😉 Sorry this is a little shorter than recent updates, but I hope you're enjoying nonetheless.
Song: Heaven Loves a Fire by William Morris
~MS~