I had absolutely no idea what to do.
Everything was going wrong. Everything had been going wrong for the last 6 months. Hell, longer than that. The raid on the Fire Nation camp was supposed to work. I was never supposed to get captured there, but I did and so did Aden.
That didn't work, so I tried to fix it. I tried to strike a deal with the Fire Nation. Then the war against the Rats was supposed to work and we were supposed to get out alive, but we didn't. Everybody died, and it was just me, Luke, and Aden.
Aden wasn't supposed to wake up. His wounds were bad. I saw them, but he did wake up. I tried to keep him from learning what had happened, but he did find out and here I was, wondering what wound come first: Aden killing us, or Luke and I getting the hell out of here on one of those tanks. They were assigning us to different divisions. I was put in infantry along with some other people I recognized. I knew Dazni. Liked him too. He didn't mind me and Luke from the get-go. He was a good person. I looked around to see if Aden was anywhere close. Last I had seen him, I had dragged him into the medical ward, claiming he had fallen from the wall and hit his head on a catwalk. It was partially true.
"Gi Gu. Armored." Exclaimed the officer that had arrived with the 15th, prompting a series of giggles from other students who found the name rather silly. The officer wore what looked like a newer uniform. Sure, it was nice and shiny, but it seemed to offer better protection too. At least compared to what I was wearing. Luke was the only one that had been given a different uniform from the rest of us, given his abilities.
"Zihe Zutarro. Infantry." Zihe had come, despite all odds. He wore a bandage over most of his face, mostly the right side of it which, according to Zaydi, had been hit the most. I wasn't sure if Luke felt pity for him. Maybe he did. I know Luke wanted to hurt him, but I doubted this was what he had in mind. On the bright side, Zihe hadn't so much as given Luke a glance since it had happened. Bad things generally happened when you attacked a bender without being one yourself. That was something Aden didn't understand. Sure, he would have killed Luke had I not interfered, but I doubt Luke was ready, or even willing to defend himself. He was still giving himself shit over it. Aden had resurfaced all of the guilt Luke had felt from when the Hornets got killed off. He still believed it was entirely his fault.
I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him save the walk back to the military district. I brought Aden's body to the medical wing then I heard an announcement on the speakers that all graduated students were to report to the motor pool. I didn't even know we had a motor pool. And turns out for good reason. It barely qualified as one. It was just an old warehouse converted into one what looked like yesterday.
"Aden. Infantry." There was no response. I was hoping he would just skip the name. I wasn't in the mood to offer explanations. He didn't let up though. I didn't expect him to. "Aden!" he called again. "Where are you?"
I spoke up. "Injured sir!"
"Injured? Injured how?"
"Fell and hit his head."
I saw the look in Luke's eyes. He didn't hear what my excuse had been, and I was thankful he wasn't the one to spoke up. The state he was in, he might just have said something stupid enough to ruin our one chance to get out of here.
"Fine then. Luke. Armored." Luke shuffled out of where he had been standing alone, the last of the students to be called, and moved in with the rest of the kids who had been assigned to the armored division. There were more with him than with me in Infantry. In Infantry, it was mostly the older kids which made sense. The younger kids would be safer in the tanks. Or maybe not. Maybe they would just be bigger targets. I had no idea in all honesty.
"Infantry!" He bellowed again. "You will follow me outside the city walls for PT and equipment assignment. Armored! You will be demonstrated by Lieutenant Zand to board your individual tanks and you will be taken outside the city walls for practice. We march for Ba-Sing-Se in 2 days. Infantry! With me!"
Tomorrow? No. It had to be tomorrow. Aden would be awake by then. He'd kill Luke. We began marching. Luke wasn't too far so I took my chance before he started his own assignment and I rushed up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder and said quietly into his ear, making sure nobody heard, "If you get far enough outside the city. If you have nobody watching, you and you're alone. Make a break for it. Don't look back. Drive your tank however far you can and get out of here."
"Are you kidding me? And leave you?"
"Yes! Aden will kill you if he wakes up. You're only way out of here alive is if you make a break for it."
He didn't say a word. I didn't know what to think. "Private First-Class Aden!" yelled my new commander. "Get in formation!"
"Please." I mouthed to Luke before I ran to where my squad was waiting for me. And then we marched. I turned back to Luke and saw him getting inside a tank of his own. Please don't be an idiot. Please, just run.
We entered the tunnel that bisected the slums, marching straight through the slums in a steel tube. Before long, the light at the end of the tunnel appeared. The last time I had stepped outside these walls, it was to fight against the Fire Nation. Now, I was fighting for them. I might have found it funny if I hadn't been scared out of my mind.