Chapter 13: The Riverbank

We were about to reach the riverbank when the second ambush happened.

Two male Ossarians appeared from the front, rushing toward us. Their movements were heavy and direct, it was meant to draw our attention and force us to focus on them.

But this time, none of us panicked.

Especially not me.

I had been waiting for this.

The first ambush had already taught us enough. The Ossarians did not attack randomly. They followed a pattern. The males came first to take the brunt of our attacks and hold our attention, while the females used that opening to rush in from behind and finish us off.

And just as expected, while Aaron and Alexander prepared to intercept the two males, two female Ossarians appeared from the rear. Their wing-like bones protruded from their backs, glowing faintly blue as they charged toward us.

We were in an arrowhead formation, with me at the lead point and Captain Sullivan guarding the rear. It was a formation meant to keep us mobile while protecting the tanker, but the moment the attack began, we shifted.

Aaron and Alexander rushed past me to intercept the two male Ossarians, just as we had discussed earlier. I fell back to assist Captain Sullivan, and our formation changed into a rough square formation.

The females were charging diagonally, trying to cut through our formation from the rear angles. Hitting them while they moved like that would be difficult, almost impossible for cadets like us. But the square formation solved part of the problem. Even if we did nothing, their diagonal path would not collide with any one of us, since they are rushing us diagonally.

That meant they would have to change direction midway.

And the moment they changed direction, they would give me a chance to critically hit them.

I raised my rifle and tracked the female Ossarian coming toward my side.

I knew I could not hit her while she was moving at that speed. Not from that distance.

So I waited.

For one small pause.

Then it came.

She slowed, only for a fraction of a second, adjusting her path so she could face me directly. I still did not fire. I waited for her to commit, for her to charge Radiance into her bones and lock herself into a straight path.

Her head turned toward me.

The grayish-white bones along her back began to glow brighter, pale blue light spreading through them like fire under stone. From that distance, I guessed she would need around four seconds to reach me once she launched.

Four seconds was more than enough.

If she came straight at me, I could hit her.

I aimed at the center of her body and pulled the trigger before the glow fully spread through her bones.

The shot struck her chest.

Her body jerked violently, the charge collapsing before it could begin. She stumbled, one hand clawing at the ground as her legs nearly gave out beneath her.

I pulled the bolt back, ejected the spent capsule, and reloaded.

Then I aimed for her head and fired again.

I missed it. The shot tore through her shoulder instead, ripping into bone and flesh. She collapsed harder this time, her body twisting to one side. She was still alive, but too badly injured to charge.

I reloaded again and glanced toward Captain Sullivan.

He had already dealt with his target. Of course he had. His female Ossarian lay dead, while Sullivan stood with his rifle raised, already looking toward Aaron and Alexander at the front.

I turned back to mine.

The female Ossarian tried to push herself up, but her body was failing her. I approached carefully, rifle aimed at her head with every step.

Once I was close enough, I placed the sight over her skull and pulled the trigger.

Her body dropped and finally stopped moving.

Only then did I move toward Aaron and Alexander.

“Good job, everyone,” Captain Sullivan said, scanning the bodies before looking back at us. “Next time, Ivan will handle the male Ossarian, and Alexander will assist me with the female one.”

I frowned. “Did I do something wrong, Captain?”

“On the contrary,” he said. “You did well. Your aim still needs work, but your judgment and quick thinking are solid.”

He glanced toward the dead female Ossarian.

“This is about experience. You need to learn how to deal with both types, male and female. Knowing how one moves is not enough.”

I nodded

After that, we collected the glowing bones as quickly as possible. There was no time to waste, the riverbank was still ahead of us.

Once the bones were secured, we returned to formation and continued moving.

After what felt like ages, we finally reached the riverbank.

Captain Sullivan raised his hand, signaling for us to stop.

“Rest for a few minutes before we fill the tanker,” he said. “Take turns guarding each other while you handle your needs. No one wanders off alone.”

None of us needed to be told twice.

I walked toward the river and crouched near the edge. The water was cold against my hands, and when I drank, it tasted better than anything I had ever had in my life. Maybe it was because I was exhausted. Maybe because my throat had been dry for hours. Or maybe because, after everything that had happened, something as simple as clean water felt like proof that I was still alive.

I washed my face, letting the cold water run over my skin until some of the blood, sweat, and dirt came off. For a brief moment, I felt human again.

After resting for a while, I climbed a small hill nearby and surveyed the surroundings while the others finished what they were doing. 

The sky looks so beautiful. A massive ring arched above the world, stretching across the horizon like a pale river of light. It was beautiful in a way that felt almost wrong. It feels weird how this world is so much similar to earth and so much different just by looking at the sky. I was standing on another planet, under another sky, looking at something no human from my world should have ever seen. For a brief moment, despite the blood, guilt, and exhaustion, I could not help but be astonished.

I could not deny one thing.

I had grown.

Not enough, but more than I had expected.

This mission proved how much I still lacked. My aim needed serious work. I was using two or three capsules just to bring down one Ossarian, and out here, wasted shots could mean death. My reload time was also too slow. Five seconds on average might not sound terrible, but in a fast-paced fight, five seconds was an eternity.

And first aid.

I needed to learn first aid.

Watching Captain Sullivan work on Harper while I stood there uselessly made that painfully clear. There had to be some kind of course or training back at Beacon.

Out here, knowing how to shoot was not enough.

There was still so much room for improvement.

After everyone was ready, Captain Sullivan ordered me to remain on the hill and keep watch over the surroundings.

I gathered a few loose pieces of wood and made a crude little bench for myself. It is barely worthy of being called a bench, but it was better than standing the entire time. From there, I sat with my rifle across my lap, watching both the river and my team below.

The tanker had a thick black intake hose coiled along its side. Once the driver pulled it free, he dragged the end toward the river and lowered it into the water. A pump attached to the tanker started with a rough mechanical growl, pulling water through the hose and into the tank. The sound was loud, too loud for my liking, like an old engine choking on metal and gravel.

For releasing water, the tanker had a valve system near the rear. From what I could tell, once full, they could connect another hose, open the valve, and let the water flow out wherever it was needed.

While the tanker filled, the others formed a circle formation around it. Aaron watched the front, Alexander covered the side near the road, and Captain Sullivan moved between positions, checking angles and blind spots. No one relaxed. 

Maybe Lady Luck had finally decided to smile on us, because we managed to fill the tanker without running into another enemy.

However, by the time the tank was full, dusk had already arrived.

I had left the small hill by then and returned to the others near the tanker. The moment I reached them, Alexander looked toward Captain Sullivan.

“Moving in the dark is dangerous, right?” he asked. “Especially with the tanker.”

Captain Sullivan glanced toward the fading light, then at the heavy vehicle beside us.

“It is,” he admitted. “Cadets aren’t trained well enough to fight in the dark, and moving with a tanker at night would only make things worse. If we get ambushed now, visibility alone could get us killed.”

He paused for a moment before making his decision.

“We’ll camp here for the night,” Captain Sullivan said. “Close to the river. Two people stay awake at a time, and yes, I’m taking a shift too.”

A two-man watch was basic field logic. If one guard missed something, the other might catch it. And if something did go wrong, one could engage the threat while the other alerted the rest of the group.

No one argued.

Setting up camp was easy, mostly because there were no tents involved. Each of us had a folded sleeping bag attached to our backpack, so making camp was just a matter of finding a decent place to lay it down. Preferably somewhere hidden, like beneath a tree or near enough cover to avoid being seen from a distance.

The most useful lesson I learned was simple: remove the rocks before putting down the sleeping bag.

Sleeping over rocks was hell for the back, and after the day we had, I had no intention of making my body suffer more than it already had.

After setting up my makeshift bed for the night, I helped gather firewood. Once everything was ready, Captain Sullivan assigned the watch schedule. He and Aaron would take the first shift from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM. Alexander and I would take the second shift from 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM, then wake the others before dawn.

Once the fire was started, we sat around it and ate dinner.

It was nothing impressive. Dry biscuits, a small strip of salted meat, and a portion of cold beans from a metal tin. The food tasted bland, but none of us complained. At that point, anything warm or filling would have felt like a blessing, and even this poor meal was enough to shut the hunger in my stomach.

By 8:00 PM, exhaustion had already caught up to me.

I asked Captain Sullivan if I could be excused, and he gave a short nod.

“Sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn.”

That was all I needed.

I crawled into my sleeping bag, the sound of the river nearby and the crackling fire behind me. My body felt heavy, my eyes burned, and despite everything still circling in my mind, sleep took me faster than I expected.