fh_alumni | Colorado Springs - Late evening 8 September 2009

The moon was rising just over the horizon, huge like it only seemed to be on television. Used to be. There wasn't a television anymore. It was one of the first things to go along with other lines of communication. He missed it, one of those inane little things that they'd spent their evening summing up to keep from falling asleep while on watch. Along with mp3 players, fries and hamburgers, ice cream, showers, a double bed, a single bed... They were easy things to miss, ones to long for without feeling worse thinking about them.

Cameron had a huge list and it kept getting longer. Lemonade was his favourite today. Sour or too sweet, he didn't care. Freshly made with too many ice cubes so his hands would be freezing by the time he'd finished it.

Snap.

The sound pulled Cameron out of his thoughts, instantly aiming his G36 into the darkness in front of him. His eyes and ears straining to pick up anything. It came soon. Someone was moving out there. His finger moved towards the trigger and he waited until there was a soft hooting. He tapped his finger against the side of the gun, counting. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. Four Mis- Another hoot and Cameron counted again. Three beats now before he answered the sound, waited for five Mississippies and then hooted again.

Two beats later, a soft whistling came back and Cameron relaxed even as he kept his gun trained in the direction of the approaching footsteps. A few minutes later two other cadets had joined him. Jones was grinning from ear to ear and dumped a rather overstuffed back on the ground.

"Good haul," Jones smirked and started pulling open the bag. He grabbed out a small bar and tossed it Cameron.

"Snickers?" Cameron asked, eyes going wide and chocolate definitely was on the list of things he'd been missing.

"Uh huh! Can you believe it?" Jones was bouncing on the balls of his feet. "We found some houses in the suburbs that hadn't been cleaned out yet."

"Must have been some kid's secret stash," Byrd piped up, sounding somewhat wistful and Cameron couldn't blame him, suddenly feeling less enthusiastic about the find too.

"Doesn't matter," Jones pulled the bag close again and tossed it over his shoulder. "It's food and the way they've been running us all over these hills we're going to need it."

Cameron knew he was right. When the prior had first brought his troops to Colorado Springs, the superintendent had opted for evacuating the academy. It was an easy target and they were without any air support. The radios had been silent for three days by then, all they knew came from people who had fled down from Denver and other cities. The priors had been slowly converting or destroying towns all over the country. By the time they reached Colorado Springs, the academy had been stripped bare of anything useful and the cadets had taken up cover in the hills.

At first they'd stuck together, but it soon proved too difficult to hide such a large force. After three full out attacks and too many deaths, the superintendent had opted for separating them. In groups of twenty they were spread out across the woods. It was harder to coordinate and every night they seemed to lose more men, but they were still fighting and that seemed what mattered.

Byrd nudged Cameron's foot with his, raising an eyebrow. "Yo, Mitchell. You with us?"

Blinking, Cameron realised he'd been zoning out. Not good, but his watch was almost over. He nodded and put the bar in his pocket, knowing he probably wouldn't be eating it. "Fine. Shift's over anyway. Want an escort?"

Jones snorted. "Sure, you can watch our asses, Mitchell."

Shaking his head, Cameron took up the rear as they quietly made their way through the trees. He kept scanning around him, a strange prickling in his back telling him they were being watched but there was nothing there. The feeling soon disappeared anyway and after fifteen minutes walking they made it to the camp. Jones and Byrd were greeted enthusiastically by anyone who was still awake and Cameron stepped around the group, heading to his tent to catch up on some sleep.

He'd only put his G36 down and taken his cap off when the noise outside started. He grabbed the rifle again and charged outside to find only chaos there. Ori fighters were seeping into the camp, firing their staff weapons and gradually were driving back the cadets. Some of them were only half dressed, having just been woken up by the noise. But everyone was fighting and Cameron joined in, but any time one fighter fell, another would replace him while their ranks kept thinning. Byrd had fallen beside him seconds ago, an eternity and he couldn't lean down to check on him. His voice was hoarse with screaming for him to get up and then his rifle ran out of bullets and someone was tugging on the collar of his vest, dragging him into the brushes.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jones standing a bit behind the Ori fighters. His rifle still in hands, but he wasn't shooting at anyone and then Ferguson was shouting in his ear for him to move and he ran. Ran until his lungs were burning and his side was aching, but there were no sounds behind them and when they finally stopped his knees were near buckling.

Ferguson was still beside him, struggling to catch his breath even as he spoke. "That fucking asshole! He sold us out!" he roared.

Cameron didn't need to ask who he had meant. Jones had moved over and now... He pushed away the thoughts. They'd lost a lot of people already, but there was no time to mourn now. That was for later, when they'd finally booted the Ori off Earth. That victory had never felt so far away.

"You're bleeding," Ferguson remarked and Cameron looked up, looking at Ferguson as if he'd just gone crazy.

"What?"

"You're bleeding!" he motioned for Cameron's arm.

Looking down, Cameron stared at his arm. His jacket was ripped and when he touched the flesh underneath his fingers were back sticky with blood. The pain slowly started to register now that the fighting was over and he nodded slowly. "Yeah."

It didn't really seem to matter and they quickly bandaged the wound before heading deeper into the woods, moving to the meeting point to find the superintendent and let him know what had happened.

((Sorry for taking so long with this omg. Obviously NFI but OOC comments are loved.))