Chapter Six

“Come on, we’re burning daylight.” Leon said through the comm channel as the group continued their trek back to base camp.

For the past two days they had been doing recon on the mountain castle looking for any signs of forerunner technology. They had taken scans, mapped out the entirety of the caves, and checked if the building collapsing had killed anyone. Leon felt like a small burden had been lifted off of him when he heard that all involved had survived, but where in commas.

“Six days in this hell hole. Six days and all we have to show for it is a cave as our home.” Josh said from the back of the group as they edged around Ghastly Gorge as a sign nearby labeled it.

“We’ve only been searching for two days, at least we got our base set up and defenses in place.” Alfred countered keeping watch on the forestry in front of them.

“Stay focused, you can both argue when we’re safely back at base camp.” Leon said keeping an eye on their sides and the skies from the center of the group.

“Why couldn’t we just get one of these caves as our base camp?” Josh asked looking at the number of holes in the walls of the gorge, “With how many their are they got to connect into some kind of system of caverns.”

“The cave I found not only has water, but it had a boulder in it’s entrance that we could use as a door, it’s barely noticeable, and should stay at a good temperature year round because it’s underground.” Alfred said as they entered the thick underbrush that made most of the forest unnavigable.

Leon let out a loud groan stopping Josh’s rebuttal, “Were I anyone else, you two would of been shot by now with how many of my orders you’re ignoring.”

“That’s why you’re the best C-O I’ve ever had.” Josh said as they came into a small clearing with a boulder in the middle, half submerged in the ground.

“I’m the only C-O you’ve had since you got out of the ODST training academy.” Leon stated as Josh and Alfred moved to either side of the boulder and scanned the dense foliage around them.

Leon attacked his rifle to his back and crouched down in front of the boulder. He dug his fingers a small way into the ground to search for a good grip and, a few seconds later, Leon lifted the front of the boulder and rolled it on to the opposite side of the hole. The whole time this was going on Josh and Alfred had not stopped bickering like an old married couple.

“I’m just saying the opening is a little obvious and a few more pitfalls and spike traps would let me sleep a little easier at night.” Josh said as he and Alfred walked into the cave. Leon followed them and slowly lowered the boulder back to it’s original resting spot.

“So you’re volunteering to be the one to go around and clean out said traps, reset them, and gather the supplies to keep them working?” Alfred asked as they walked down the carved out steps into the fair sized cave.

“... Well when you put it like that, no, but if we all pitch in-”

“The traps are fine, now both of you retire for the eventing and I’ll wake you for tonight’s operation.” Leon interjected as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Well at least tonight will be fun then.” Josh said as he attached his assault rifle to his back and walked over to the edge of the small body of water, nearest the cave wall, and sat down.

Alfred started walking to his spot on the opposite side of the cave, but Leon placed his hand on his shoulder, “Hey, come here for a sec I gotta go over some revisions to your assignment.” Alfred nodded and the two walked to the cave wall farthest away from Josh.

“What’s the new plan?” Alfred asked attaching his DMR to his back.

“Stick with the plan we made when we came back from the mountain. What I wanted to talk to you about is you and Josh.” Leon stated crossing his arms.

“What about us, we’re just arguing like we always do.”

“No, you two used to get along somewhat fine. Now you’re both arguing like you and Chase did back in basic.”

“Well I can’t help it if he disagrees with everything I have to say.” Alfred leaned back against the wall, crossing his own arms like Leon.

“Maybe not, but you can try to get him to be himself again. I want this resolved by tonight's op, understand?”

“Yes, Sir.” Alfred sighed and began walking over to where Josh was sitting. Leon nodded his approval that the problem would be resolved soon and they could focus on getting home. Leon walked back over to the stairs and began the climb up, he needed to check and reset the traps.

As the boulder to the entrance was moved back into place Josh looked up to see Alfred walking towards him, “The hell you want?”

“We need to talk.” Alfred stated bluntly.

“If you could just go away that would be great cause I’d rather sleep than argue with your dumb ass.” Josh made a shooing motion with his hand before leaning back against the wall.

“Direct order from Leon, we gotta sort this out before tonight.” Alfred sat down with his legs crossed a few feet from Josh.

“... Fine, I’ll give you five minutes, but after that I’m just gonna mute ya.” Josh said.

“Firstly, why all the added hostility lately?”

Josh curled his left leg in, leaving the right straight, “With Chase gone someone has to pick up the slack.”

“So you’ve been acting like an asshole, well more of an asshole than usual, because you miss your best friend?” Alfred asked. Josh remained silent, “I knew him almost as long as you did, but I’m not acting like a more bitchy version of him.”

“No, you and Leon act like he was never here, like you’ve already forgotten him.” Josh said, his voice sounding threatening.

“I could live to be a hundred years old and not forget him, but you know Chase and I haven't exactly been on the best of terms the last few years.”

“You mean after you abandoned-”

“There’s no need to reopen old wounds, right now you got to stop acting like him and move on, or at least keep up a good facade until we’re somewhere safe.” Alfred said, ‘That’s what Leon is doing.’

“Fine, I’ll stop, I’m kinda relieved actually.” Josh said leaning his head back against the wall, “Ignoring Leon has been annoying and down right hard, I respect him to much to disobey him, but that’s what Chase did all the time.”

“Yeah, but those two were always the ones to come up with the plans, they corrected each other all the time and used each other to make amazing plans.” Alfred paused for a few seconds before he continued, “With Chase gone I think Leon has been pushing himself to hard. He’s hardly gotten any sleep and when I have seen him asleep he moves around like he’s having a nightmare.”

“He’s got to be taking this hard... I’ll talk to him about it after tonight’s op. We should get some sleep.” Josh said as he laid down on the ground.

“Good to have you back.” Alfred said standing up. He then walked back over to his side of the cave to enjoy some rest before tonight's operation.

*****

Wind raced through the dark forestry making a low whistling sound. The sky above was a brilliant blue with a few clouds hanging around here and their. Leon looked out from the small cliff that barely got above the tree tops, taking a deep breath as the scene brought back memories of a more pleasant time. He did this despite the fact his helmets air filters made it pointless, it was the thought that counted.

He had just finished checking the last of the traps and was shocked to find nothing had been caught, not a single thing in any of the traps. It had perplexed him to no end and he had started searching around each trap after the fourth empty one. He started to notice a powder on the traps, but thought nothing of it as it looked like it could've easily been pollen. At least that’s what he thought until he saw a cloaked figure tossing the powder all around one of the traps.

It looked like another pony in body shape and had a cloak covering most of it self and little cloth bags around its hooves. Despite the lack of opposable digits it had no problem tossing the powder from its saddlebags with it’s left fore hoof. As Leon watched he noticed that it left no hoof prints anywhere it walked, looking behind him he saw his boot prints as clear as day... ‘I’ll have to talk to the others about making a few false trails.’

Back to the pony, it seemed to finish up tossing the powder as it closed the flap on it’s saddlebag. It then proceeded to scan the area around it as if it sensed Leon watching it, but with Leon’s distance and black armor and visor it would be damn near impossible to see him.

“Hunter hiding in the green, do you think you can’t be seen? Poaching is illegal in the Everfree, all that do are stopped by me.” The female pony said looking right at Leon, it’s eyes glowing yellow through the darkness of the hood and forest. At first Leon felt a ping of fear, but he soon saw the pony had not moved from it’s spot. All bark no bite.

“I hunt for survival only, leave now and no-one has to get hurt.” Leon said after a few moments, it was true in a sense, but the traps were more of a security system.

“So you say, yet you hunt by day.” She said, her eyes narrowing to slits, “All you have is a party of three, yet the traps you place are more than plenty.”

Leon thought hard about what to say next, ‘She knows how many of us there are so she has more than likely seen us also meaning she could know where we have made our base camp. It’s too big of a risk, she can’t go free.’ “How about this, we go back to your place, get a map, and you can show me where I’m allowed to put my traps.”

Her eyes seemed to lessen in intensity for a few moments, as if contemplating Leon’s plan, “For your solution to become reality, you must dismantle your traps immediately.”

“Of course.”

“Then tomorrow we will see, if or if not you are lying to me. At noon north of here at Ghastly Gorge, a treaty together we will forge.” before Leon could put in any say to the new plan she pulled a bottle out from under her cloak and shattered it against the ground, “Be sure to bring the other two, and remember-” her entire body began to become mist, converging together to make a stream going somewhere over the tree tops, “-I’ll be watching you.” with her last few words the rest of her body turned to mist and flew out of Leon’s sight. The piercing yellow eyes though remained for a few seconds before they closed like a blink and disappeared.

Leon stood there, rooted to the spot in confusion of what he just witnessed. Slowly he began to turn before he remembered the pitfall trap that the figure had stood by, “I’ll get that trap later...” he muttered before walking back to the other traps. He planned to follow his end of the bargain since the powder stuff the pony spread affected the traps in someway. Whether it was his own paranoia of the figures final words or something else, Leon kept seeing little bits of yellow while he walked through the dark forest, like those eyes were following him.

Author's Note

I had planned for this to be a longer chapter, but I think two thousand word chapters are going to be the new norm. I also started another story to try and get my thoughts flowing more smoothly, so hopefully I'll be writing more overall and improving my skills.

Anyway community question: If you had to face down the flood, what would be your primary weapon? It can be from any Halo game or book.