This morning I had a tough time getting up. Something about the cold air kept me glued under my sheets. I looked around to see if anyone else is sharing my difficulties, but I was surprised to find not a single soul was present in the sleeping quarters. I thought this was pretty weird, so I reluctantly got out of bed to investigate.

I made my way to the dining hall, but no one was present. Weird, I thought, but this can only mean one thing.

Truthfully, this situation has happened once before, and it was because an emergency meeting of high urgency was called forth. I’m surprised by how no one called me, the General, out to attend as well, though. Who knows, maybe I’m just blowing this whole thing way out of proportion.

I made it to the front plaza in hopes of finding someone walking about, but I didn’t find a single soul. Only now did I actually start to panic quite a bit, so I made my way to William the Guard. He’s most definitely still at his post.

Good news: He was there when I went to the front gates, bad news though…

“General Lune! What in good heavens are you doing here? Did you not hear the commotion?” he asked me with a worried expression.

“Commotion? I heard no such thing. How bad is the situation?” I reported back.

“Nothing is certain as of now, but as it currently stands, a group of self-proclaimed messengers of Neo Urbana Gang tried provoking Granto.”

Granto? That’s the same strategy I used to overthrow both BilBros and Blue Lions Gang! These guys are probably out defending our turf, then!

I still decided to make haste to the location of the potential conflict after asking William the directions. Running full sprint to not miss a single thing, I had finally made it to the scene. What I saw terrified me to no end…

The “Group”, as it were, was actually a hundred man army, and while we did outnumber them, calling them a group was just plain misleading. Everyone was fighting for their lives, but the issue lied in our enemies’ hands.

They used weapons, when we used fists. We were fighting an uphill battle and there was really only about 10 of us who remembered to grab their weapons just in case. I looked around to help as best as I could, but they weren’t letting up for even a second. I took one guy’s knife and started swinging it around, but my skill with the knife isn’t nearly as good as it was with the sword. It’s at these times where I regret not asking Cecily for training pointers the most…

“Lune!” she surprised me behind my back, “Sorry for not telling you about this, we didn’t think they would actually come with this much manpower, much less that they’d all be carrying weapons!”

“No worries, where’s Carter, or Aaron at least?” I asked.

“That’s what I wanted to ask you, honestly. But I’m sure he’s fine, just focus on these guys for now!” She said, knocking them out one by one.

As the General, I played an important role as the forefront of the gang’s morale. If I wanted us to win, I’d have to take down at least a dozen of them, otherwise the gang wouldn’t be motivated to follow my example.

I started off with taking down a few of them, taking their weapons and using them against themselves. It was at this moment that I started to realize my vision going gray.

“Are these guys… fodder characters?” I asked, questioning the legitimacy of their being, “Surely they’d take more than a hit or two, right?”

Before I realized it, I was making clean cuts across their chests, cutting their fingers so that they couldn’t grasp their blades, slicing their every extremity with vigor unparalleled. But nothing about this felt fun, nor invigorating for that matter. It was as if time slowed down to a grueling pace, no one was really doing anything. This was when a fellow gang member noticed my irises and shouted out.

“General Lune’s gone solipsistic!”

The word solipsistic reminded me of that Quinn. He spouted something similar during our battle with the Blue Lions before he was assassinated. I’m not sure what exactly this grunt meant, but it got everyone on our side fired up, so I guess it’s good either way.

Once the Neo Urbana punks got word of this solipsistic side of me, though, they decided to focus their forces on me. Before I realized it, I was being backed into a corner, slowly but surely. I had no escape route, I was in an alleyway situated between two abandoned buildings, with no way out but to enter the one on the right…

***

As I entered the first floor, I questioned what to do now, since from whichever side I exited from, they’d surely be waiting for me to pop out. I needed a distraction.

“Aha!” I though as I created a spark in the palm of my hands and dropped it on the floor.

The building had a wooden floor, and was well furnished with wooly cushions and beds and such, so it would surely burn well. This would serve as the distraction which would get me out of here safely. After I made sure the fire was spreading nicely, I was just about to exit before I heard faint coughing from the top floor.

Shit! Wasn’t this place supposed to be abandoned? What the hell do I do now?

I definitely wasn’t going to leave the person on the top floor to die, but I also didn’t have much time myself. I had to act quickly, so I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, and the person who stood in the room next to the window was…

“Carter!?! What’re you doing here? It’s dangerous!” I beckoned him to follow me.

“Lune!” he said as he turned to reveal what he was carrying in his arms.

“A… baby? Whose is it?” I asked.

“No clue! But I heard ‘er cryin’, so I went ta’ check up on what the noise was, n’ sure enough, there she was!” He explained. “But screw that, we need’a get outta here pronto!”

His idea was to leave out the window, but we were on the top-most floor. No matter how you look at it, falling down wasn’t gonna be good for your legs (or body for that matter). I proposed we just run out quickly before the fire spreads any more.

“Let’s go!” He shouted, running ahead of me.

We ran out of the room to see the stairway was blocked off by the fire.

“Guess th’ window’s our only way ‘fter all!” He said, still cradling the baby.

We made it back into the room, staring at the window as we braced ourselves for something dangerous…

“Hup!” Carter jumped from one window to the other. “C’mon Lune, we can’t afford ta’ go slow!”

“I’m not that good with heights!” I shouted back, slowly shimmying my way across.

Before we realized it, we were on the other side of the building, where we had to make another difficult decision.

“Lune! We’re gonna hafta’ jump to the lower floor!” Carter shouted as he shushed the baby that was bawling it’s eyes out at the situation. “N’ YOU SHUT UP! YOU’RE DAMN ANNOYING!”

Note to self: Carter wasn’t that good at babysitting.

The jump was surely a 2 meter height difference, so I have no idea how Carter managed to just nonchalantly make it, and with a handicap no less!

I was too hesitant, so as I was getting ready to jump, the balcony crumbled from beneath me. As I was just about to fall all the way, Carter gently placed the baby on the floor and jumped to grab my arm.

“Jeez! See what overthinkin’ gets ya’?” He reprimanded me as I was still heaving and coughing from the situation.

“Now lessg-” A stray beam fell from the ceiling and hit him in the head, knocking him out.

“Carter! Fuck! C’mere, baby, and you too, dumbass!” I went to grab them both.

I was now extremely impaired movement-wise, as I now had to carry two people, all the while covering up their mouths so they don’t breathe in the soot.

“Wake up, Carter! I can’t carry you like this for long!” I shouted in between breaths, when I realized his head was split open at the top.

“Fuck! This is bad, this is bad, this is bad! No wait! You’ll probably be fine! Yeah! I just gotta get you to Ed! He’ll fix you up in a jiff!” I coped.

“…… Ugh… Whuh?” Carter slowly started to wake up. “Where… Am I?”

“You’re in a burning building, now stand up on your own two feet and let’s get out of here! Once we’re done with this day, I’ll treat you to a crepe with Cecily and Ed! Don’t worry!” I said with tears in my eyes, whether it be from the soot or the emotions this situation is bringing up.

“You’ll have another cool scar, but it’ll be okay!” I said again.

“… Cecily? ... Ed? Who’re they?” He said the words I least wanted to hear.

“Quit joking around, Carter! I don’t have time for any more of your bullshit!”

“…Carter? Ughh, my head hurts…” He said to me.

“Carter… Do you not remember anything?” I asked, still denying this horrible truth.

“Fragments. I know you, Lune.” He said something good, ” It’s getting back to me now… We were fighting someone, dunno who tho’. Then suddenly we were in this building with this baby…”

“Good! I’ll explain the situation to you fully once we get out. Can you move on your own now?” I asked, slowly letting him go from my shoulder.

“Nah…” he said, “Can’t feel a single muscle.” He murmured.

“W-What?! Nononono, this can’t be!” I panicked, “How the fuck am I gonna get us out of here then!?!?”

“Lune… There’s a way… That there door… It leads to a stairwell.”

“Yeah, but it’s disconnected from us! There’s a huge gap between the door and where we’re standing! How’re we gonna make it past the gap if you can’t move?!” I asked rhetorically.

“Simple… leave me ‘ere. Take the baby witcha’…” He said something unreasonable.

“My ass! Quit your bullshit and let’s think about a real way out!” I slapped him.

“Nah… Thing is… If there was a way, I’d menchin’ it… But it’s either you two make it outta here, or none of us do…”

“Think about Cecily, though! What’ll Ed do without you!” I asked through the tears.

“Cecily… Cecily… Yeah, now I remember… Big Sis’… Don't remember this Ed guy tho'... Listen, Lune… Take Nelly outta here…” he said, coughing up blood.

“Nelly?” I asked.

“Yeah… S’what I named ‘er… Sounds cute, dunnit? Heheh, guess that’ll be the last good idea in this head o' mine…” he said.

“W-What do you mean?” I asked, fearing the answer.

“Look witcha’ eyes, Luney… Mah head’s busted open… Here look, if I poke it just right… I can feel mah’ brain…” he said laughing in a self-deprecating tone.

I quickly stopped him, “Don’t touch it! Fuck! I can’t think anymore!”

“Then just… GO!” he said, pushing me into a running start with the last of his strength.

I had no other choice now… I was either gonna jump over or fall down into the fiery pits. The momentum from his push didn’t give me any other option.

“Carter!!!!” I looked back after jumping over.

“Nelly…! Remember that name…! Think of yer’ dear brother-in-law when ya’ figure it out!” he said, before falling into that very same pit due to his own momentum from pushing me.

Carter… has passed away in the heat of battle.

***

I walked out of the building slowly, not giving a damn about the fact everyone of those Neo Urbana fucks was either slain or subdued.

“Lune!” Cecily called out, “Where’s Carter!? I can’t find him anywhere, and whose baby is that?”

“Nelly…” I said with tears flowing down my eyes, “Carter named her… Nelly.”

I fell to my knees, holding Nelly up against my chest as I wept for a fallen comrade, a fallen friend.

Cecily was slowly getting the gist of the situation. She was beginning to tear up herself. I don’t know if I wanted to comfort her, or if I wanted comforting, but I hugged her. It wasn’t romantic, and it wasn’t cool either, it was… cold. The air around us was cold, the situation was cold! This world… was cold.

We were about to head back to base, I still held Nelly in my arms, she was sleeping soundly.

She survived this wretched day because a helpful Big Bro decided to act rashly. If only he overslept today, if only he was sick today! HE DIDN’T FUCKING DESERVE THIS! BRING HIM BACK! LET ME SEE HIM WHEN I GET BACK HOME, GOD DAMNIT!

I screamed out internally, weeping again as I notice Aaron, Max and Jorgen laughing over their victory today. I pushed them over in a fit of rage, how dare they be happy when their General fucking died!

“Lune! What’s your problem?! We won!” Aaron said, smiling.

“CARTER IS FUCKING DEAD! AND YOU SHITS ARE FUCKING SMILING! WHAT THE FUCK’S YOUR PROBLEM?!?” I screamed.

Cecily broke down in tears when she heard me say it outright, and everyone from the gang froze up upon hearing the news.

“Carter’s… dead?” Max said, as if to reaffirm.

Jorgen stepped in to ask, “Where is his body? A General whose body isn’t recovered won’t be able to properly rest in the afterlife…” he said.

“In that building I…” then the thought hit me.

Things would’ve gone differently had I just not used my spark… FUCK! He would’ve lived! I don’t care about my own safety, JUST TAKE ME INSTEAD OF HIM, PLEASE!

They noticed my shameful silence, and assumed the location by me pointing to the burnt down building which was by now completely extinguished, so they went to fetch him.

They told Cecily and me to go back home and alert the guys that stayed back. We’ll hold the funeral tomorrow they said, Rest up until then.

Notifying Ed about the matter wasn’t at all easy. I first got a punch to the face because I didn’t save him, then he broke down crying on the floor, punching himself for not being there to do something himself.

With that, we prepared a cradle for Nelly to sleep between my bed and Cecily’s, and went to bed ourselves.

“Hey…” Cecily tried making a morbid joke, “I’ve never… seen Carter’s bed empty before…”

She couldn’t get to the punchline, as she started crying uncontrollably immediately after.

Today, we lost a friend…