He tried sitting up, gave up, reached for the bed control, and it silently folded to bring him to a sitting-up position. He hadn�t noticed William sitting there, no more than two meters away, also awake and sitting up. His eyes were blank and depressed, as he stared down at his stump of a leg. Obviously, his operation hadn�t taken place yet. David started remembering again, how he had lost his lower leg. Such a simple mission, and he had still hit snags.
�Been awake for a while?� asked David. William didn�t say anything, but shook his head a fraction of a centimeter. His eyes were still towards the edge of the bed, unblinking.
�You alright? Tired?�
�Sir�� William almost seemed to be choking on his words.
�It�s okay,� David reassured him, �the doctors are just going to clone you a new foot and you�ll be battle ready within days.�
�It�s not that, sir. Hell, they could take every damn limb I�ve got. It�s just��
�What?� David prompted.
�Sir, I understand that as squad members we look out for each other and watch one another�s backs, but� I guess thanks is all that I can say. You damned near got yourself killed, too sir, you should�ve just left me. You didn�t need to risk your life like that.�
�Nonsense. I couldn�t leave a teammate, and a friend, behind. I simply ensured that my team got back safely. You don�t need to thank me.�
William turned to look at him. For heaven�s sake, from what Jean had told him, David had practically taken the same chances as if he�d pointed a gun right at his temple and fired. The chances of them getting out of that inferno should�ve been none� how he�d done it, he couldn�t imagine. He didn�t have a mark on his body, though it did feel weird being parted with his foot. How had he lost it? He couldn�t remember�
�Jean told me about what happened once we were out of the building, sir, but� even she doesn�t know what happened up to that point.� He grinned slightly, and added, �I guess she didn�t figure out that the helmets had cameras��
David sluggishly reached for his wrist implant, and interfaced. Good, he thought. The link between him and his helmet was still active. He found the camera William had spoken of, and sent a link to it through a digital screen that flickered to life on the wall. He forwarded, and stopped when he saw those hallways� and the pile of metallic wreckage. He pressed play�
The sight of the video began to let the memories flow back to David, and he saw how much faster everything seemed to move now that he didn�t have adrenaline rushing through his blood. William watched in both remembering and a slight sense of shock as he saw the camera swivel to his body on the ground.
�Wow� don�t remember it seeming that bad. But how did you-�
His question was answered. He saw the .44, saw his own leg explode on screen, and heard his own yelp of pain as his digital image passed out. He watched the short remainder of the film that led up to the dropship, and David�s blackout. He turned to look at David, but saw he had already drifted back to sleep. William could not, and sat there thinking for several hours.
Jean stood there next to N�tn�see in their barracks. The AGF�s had been almost completely silent over the past two days, as had she. N�tn�see was just quiet as usual, he never spoke much anyway. She could tell, however, that he had worries on his mind as well.
She looked back at the briefings that had recently been sent to her account. More boring scouting missions, but for now that�s all they could handle. She wasn�t a leader; there�s no way in hell the two of them could command thirty troops effectively in a serious mission. If they were going to get back to the regular, much tougher missions that she was used to, they would need William and David�
It hurt her to think of David, she had felt a great emotional spike when she saw him running for his life to the dropship. It wasn�t a good thing; she normally didn�t let emotion win over her solid-steel logic. She was a sniper; she always had to be cool and emotionless. But seeing David so close to death like that�
She stopped. No, she said to herself, you can�t be thinking about that. You�ve got a job to do; David will be fine. Just get him out of your mind. She took in a deep breath, exhaled, and started putting her armor back on.
�Shall we?� asked N�tn�see, and within ten minutes, she and her temporary squad leader, N�tn�see, were off on their first mission without David.
