Bolt Action Serenade

ARC 1 - Pain and Growth

 

I awoke in pain. Nothing in my mind but the searing agony in my leg dragging me into the waking world. I sat up screaming before I managed to focus enough to try and find out what was wrong. Eyes and hands quickly found the problem, a twisted chunk of metal was driven deep into my right calf.

Confusion raked itself across my mind. How in the hell did that happen? Where did this come from? I was just… what was I doing? Where am I? I suddenly found myself panicking over a whole new problem. The complete and total lack of memories of anything before that moment.

I looked around to try and get my bearings and things somehow managed to get even worse. I was inside some metal room with holes and gouges in it letting sunlight through. No, not a room... I looked to my side and saw some kind of drivers compartment, door cracked open just enough to see into and make out a seat, windshield, some levers, it looked familiar somehow but nothing more than that. This was a vehicle, I was sure of it.

I drew my attention to my other side and felt my stomach turn. There was a man, or… most of one. There was a gaping hole in his chest and a pool of blood under him, his empty gaze staring at nothing. He was wearing some kind of military uniform, navy blue with pale orange accents but mostly simple. The shoulder held a symbol, a white scroll wrapped in green vines with a single blue flower in the center. It felt familiar too. On his chest, just above the bloody hole was a tag, Bernson. I guess that was his name. His lapels had markings, silver bars. Something in the back of my head seemed to associate the markings with authority, an officer I guessed.

I can’t really say for sure where my mind was at during all this. There was so damned much happening and I was terrified and in pain and everything just felt like I was lost at sea and the waves were getting bigger and bigger, threatening to drown me in what I somehow very calmly recognized was a building panic attack. I felt things bubble up in my mind, ideas that felt so familiar but I couldn’t link them to anything.

Focus. Look for details. Think about what is needed first and then what you can do about it. I took a breath and winced as I shifted my leg, pain lancing up my body from the action. But I still managed to calm down enough to think.

First. Seek help. I reached to the side and banged on the door into the driver’s compartment. “Hey! Anyone alive?” no response. I carefully dragged myself to one of the holes in the vehicle, trying to neither move my leg much nor touch poor dead Bernson. I got my head near the hole and peered out and listened for any sounds of life. Silence. Shit. I almost yelled for help but part of me suddenly worried that might get the vehicle attacked again if the wrong person was outside, and from what I could tell, whatever had hit this thing was more than enough to finish me off if used again.

Okay, on my own then. I looked at myself to try and take stock of the rest of me aside from my fucked leg. Okay, same uniform as poor dead Bernson, though sadly no name tag. No shoulder bars either. Maybe I’m just a grunt and grunts don’t get name tags? That was depressing. Made some sense though, considering my uniform was clearly not made for me specifically, the buttons down the front were straining a bit against my chest. Huh. My breasts weren’t even very big, small handfuls I’d guess. Must have been a men’s uniform? Cheap ass leadership probably.

I mentally moved on and saw a strap across my chest, with a shift and a tug I pulled it forward and realized I was armed. A rifle. I… I know this one. It was more familiar than anything else I’d felt. I knew how it worked immediately, intimately. I realized I could disassemble, clean, and reassemble this thing in no time if I needed. I had a flash in my mind, a brief moment of my hands doing exactly that at a table. Then it was gone. I guess that makes sense, if I’m a soldier they probably trained my to take care of my weapon. It did feel wrong though, thinking of myself as a soldier. It made my insides twist and turn nervously.

FOCUS

I looked around and saw a few more rifles scattered about, most damaged. A few thin wooden boxes my mind identified as containing ammunition. A shredded canteen. A few backpacks hanging from hooks on the far wall, they looked full though I wasn’t certain of what. Oh! A metal case strapped to the wall next to the door into the driver’s compartment, it has a symbol of a red butterfly. I knew immediately that meant medical supplies, a first aid kit!

I whimpered as I shifted again and pulled myself closer, nearly falling from the mental bench I and poor dead Bernson were on as I moved over. The strap was thankfully undamaged, as was the kit itself So I was able to get it down and open it in my lap.

The inside of the kid was absolutely alien to me. I wonder if I had received training on any of this? It sure as hell didn’t feel like it. Right in the center of all the gauze and sutures and metal vials of who knows what, were a few leather bracelets covered in runes. A moment of confusion hit me before I noticed writing on the lid, some basic instructions. I saw the note about these right away ‘Place on patient wrist for diagnosis’.

That sounded… odd. But what the hell did I know? I couldn’t even remember my own name.

I pulled one onto my left wrist and waited a moment. The runes glowed a soft green and the bracelet tightened. I felt some sort of pulse go through my body and suddenly words started to write themselves in light in the air above my arm.

[Warning: Several abnormal status conditions detected. Warning: Several injuries detected. Warning HP critically low. Advisement: Administer Emergency Health Infusion Immediately. Metal vial. Red label. Injection is advised but oral administration is viable.]

I blinked and stared for a long moment. It was a very, very odd sensation that hit me then. I both felt that this was extremely wrong and perfectly normal at the same time. Like two sides of my brain were fighting each other over if this was something I should understand or not. I decided to ignore that feeling and focus on what was being shown.

I reached into the kit at examined the vials, there were twelve in all, four of which had red labels. Four had yellow and four were blue. I also saw a syringe in the kit but something in my mind rebelled against the idea of trying to inject myself, even if I wasn’t struggling not to shake from the pain I seemed to recall something about how injecting something in the wrong spot could be very bad, no matter what it was. So I tore the paper seal, tugged out the rubber cork with some difficulty, and downed what might have been the most vile thing I have ever tasted. Which, considering my entire memory could be measured in minutes at that point, isn’t a high bar.

Either way I downed the disgusting drought and shuddered. Then, moments later a warmth started to spread from my belly throughout my body and once it reached my leg, the pain receded enough that I was able to take a breath and actually relax slightly. It still hurt, but not so much that I was dragging my every other thought away with the pain. With that settled I turned to look at the display again, thinking about what it could mean.

“Abnormal status conditions?” I said aloud, and then immediately the words started changing. I realized it responded to the words as a command and started listing the said conditions out.

[Disorientation: Severity D]

[Blood loss: Severity E]

[Mind Shatter: Severity SSS]

[Infection: Severity E]

[Immobilized: Severity B]

[Soul Containment: Severity Unkn0wn]

I hope I don’t need to explain which ones stood out. Even with my brain apparently mega fucked I could see them. “What the fuck is Mind Shatter?” I asked, hoping it could tell me.

[Mind Shatter: Ultimate Level mental status effect. Loss of memory. Higher ranks result in more memories lost and for longer average periods of time. S rank Severity is likely to result in complete amnesia with little to no chance of recovery without treatment.]

“Fuck.” I rubbed my face with my my free hand and tried not to start crying. It was honestly pretty damned hard. “Okay, okay what about Soul Containment?” and was that a typo in the condition?

[Soul Containment: Detai1s Unkn0wn.]

“Well double fuck.” I took several breaths before looking back at the display again. Yep, that’s a typo, or something like it at least. Worry about it later. “I think I can figure out the others just fine. Okay, what about the injuries?”

[Minor Concussion]

[Various Contusions]

[Various Abrasions]

[Fractured Fibula]

[Three Fractured Ribs]

[Severe Shrapnel Injury]

[Unknown Minor Mutation Effect]

“Mutation, what?”

[Unknown effect in place, the patient’s body is undergoing seemingly benign change.]

“Seemingly? It could actually be really bad then?” I felt panic start to swell within me again.

[Possible, but unlikely.]

I suddenly realized the answers were a bit more aware than I had thought at first “… uhm… are you like… alive?” I raised my eyebrow and stared at the bracelet with newfound apprehension.

[Triage bands function via bound blood elemental spirits. Life is an inaccurate description. Partial sapience is mimicked through medical runes. Blood elementals are split into multiple lesser fragments and spread across multiple triage bands in order to prevent full sapient awakening.]

“Well that’s fucked. Are you like, trapped? Tricked into the deal or captured and forced into it or something like that?”

[Unable to answer]

“Yeah probably the wrong time to consider the ethical ramifications of a magic bracelet.” I almost laughed but the weight of the situation kept it stuck in my throat. “Alright, so how do I treat the other problems I have?”

[Most issues will require medical assistance, please seek a medical professional immediately. Conditions self treatable with the standard Pitrak Republic Military First Aid Kit are severely limited. Recommendation: Please consume one yellow label medical vial to treat your infection and find proper medical personnel as soon as possible.]

I nodded and quickly downed one of the four yellow labeled vials. It was somehow worse than the red. I felt no different after drinking it, but it was meant to fight a minor infection that I wasn’t even aware of without the band. “Okay, so how do I… how do I fucking do anything? Fuck. I don’t even know who or where I am. Am I a Pitrak Republic soldier?”

[Patient’s uniform is consistent with Pitrak Republic infantry.]

“Okay so I… try and find more Pitrak soldiers and ask for help. Hopefully that will not be too hard. Any suggestions?”

[Triage bands are limited in capacity to medical assistance.]

“But you recognized my uniform.” I said, staring at the bracelet.

[Elemental Spirits are capable of growth. Hypothesis: Spirit Fragment within band has grown beyond normal capabilities.]

“Meaning what, you’re getting smarter over time? Will you become fully sapient if this keeps going?”

[Fragmented spirits are unlikely to reach full restoration while they remain fragmented. M4k3 m3 wh0L3]

“What the fuck? What was that!?”

[Unknown.]

[|-|37p m3]

I had enough to freak out about at this point to be honest. But… I dunno, someone asking for my help? I felt like I had to try. I looked into the kit and saw several more of the bands and started pulling them all out. I knew it was stupid and risky, but I think maybe I was slightly insane at the time. So I proceeded to put all five of the other bands on my arm as well, making sure they were all pressed up against each other.

“I really hope this helps you. I feel like one of us should make it at least.”

[Warning: Containment of elemental fragments failing. Triage band integrity collapsing.]

The runes on the bands all started glowing red, and then suddenly it felt like my arm was being stabbed by ten thousand knives.

And then the world went dark.