Not too long passed before the Captain and the Lieutenant came to a decision.
With that, Gabriel walked back over to Claire who was still by Trina's body. Though she had her eyes down, no words had to be exchanged for her to sense his presence.
At first, silence. Neither one of them wanted to break it.
"This is the first time I had someone die in my arm, on top of that, witness someone's death... you know that?" Claire voiced, lifting her eyes to Gabriel. "So, I do apologise, Captain, if I am a little bit slow with all of this. I'm still just trying to digest the fact that...". A pause. "That she is really gone...".
Immediately, Gabriel shook his head, replying to Claire's words. "No, that wasn't why I came here. What I wanted to say had nothing got to do with that...".
That's when he came to understand that Claire's words haven't fully settled within him. And when they did, or at least that bit more in comparison to when he spoke up, he looked at Claire. Kept his eyes on her.
"Your first time?".
At first, a small, sheepish smile grew on Claire's lips before she looked back at Gabriel. Then, she nodded. "Yeah..." was all she managed to say. With that, she looked back at her dead friend. "A-and I don't know what to do. S-should I... should I say a prayer?... To whom should I report this.".
A short break.
"You already know of this, G-". Upon realising what she was about to call him by his first name, she stopped herself once more, shaking her head. "-Captain..." Claire corrected herself. "But is that enough?...".
Then, another thought entered her mind.
Instantly, it destroyed her. Broke her heart, because it hit close to home. The more the thought dwelled on her mind, the more the pain seemed to grow. "W-what about her parents?...". Despite her greatest efforts, her eyes filled with tears. She tried to tame the pain, but it fought back, like a scared puppy, unfamiliar with all the emotions the world had to offer.
She was tired of the lump that remained in her throat. She wanted for it to simply go away. But Claire didn't know how to get rid of it. "Her poor parents...". Claire couldn't help but sympathize.
Beside her, Gabriel had a dilemma. He wanted to reassure Claire.
If he was in her shoes, he'd want the same. But he knew that doing such a thing wouldn't be very professional of him. It wouldn't portray the proper image, the proper title of being a Captain that he worked so hard for.
But in the end, with a small smile on his lips, his sense of being a human won. He knew what Claire felt, how she felt. He was exposed to such harshness more than often when on his missions. More than he wanted to admit. Because saying, owning up to sharing the pain would make him remember. Remember all the pain, the suffering. All the loss of which he wanted, in the least, to keep off his mind.
Not to forget, but to keep those memories, those final moments of his fellow colleagues he looked up to, in the back of his mind.
But what hit him was, he wasn't close to Trina. But yet, he felt pained by her loss.
He felt such a thing a few days ago when some of his soldiers were killed when they were back in the second camp. And even today, when he realised that Claire was the first one of her group alive. The only one out of his medics that managed, so far, to get out of the wreckage. But those emotions didn't quite match up to what he felt when he saw Claire holding her dead friend.
With that, slowly, he began to stretch his hand out. At times, he found his hand forming a fist, acting as though doing such a thing would give him more strength. More strength to continue closing the gap between Claire and himself.
And then. Contact.
Gently, Gabriel laid his hand on her shoulder.
Such an action surprised Claire but was warmly welcomed. She rose her gaze back to Gabriel, who, this whole time, was gazing her way.
His smile grew that bit bigger when her eyes met his.
"Don't worry. There is nothing that you need to do.". Gabriel allowed room for a pause. "Take in a deep breath. You, yourself, told me that this is your first time witnessing such a thing..." Gabriel voiced. He didn't notice, but the smile on his face disappeared. Along with that, his hand on Claire's shoulder moved in gentle caresses of reassurance.
On the other hand, Claire was not as oblivious to these things. She couldn't help but notice. And not that she minded.
It wasn't long before Gabriel coped on to what he was doing and stopped his actions.
With that, he, slowly, retreated his hand from Claire.
"Also, Claire.". A pause. "Don't worry about Trina. I'll contact someone and they will pick up her body before burying her. Sadly, I don't think we will be able to make it back for her funeral, nor for the funerals of all the others who had died.". A pause proceeded. "Now, follow me. We need to see if anyone else needs help. Lieutenant Mason and a few of our fellow colleagues managed to find more survivors under the debris.".
---
Not too long passed before a few more survivors were rescued from the bombed building. With that, they suspected that those were the final few survivors.
Claire felt relief when she recognised a few of the survivors to be from her sector.
Before speaking, Gabriel cleared his throat. "Alright, I need everyone's attention now," he began. "Both Lieutenant Mason and I had come to a decision not so long ago. And we have decided that we will split the group up into two. The first group will follow Lieutenant Mason back to Ponte Vecchio. This group will include anyone whose injuries are moderate to severe, which is most of you. While group two will follow me. Group two will go down with me to Solide, in Douleur. There, in a few days, is where we will all meet up and continue our journey. Is that understood?".
"Yes, Sir!".
With that, they did as they said. The group was split by Gabriel and Mason.
Lieutenant Mason and those who were assigned to him boarded the rare few buses that managed to stay preserved from any harm.
With the starting of the buses, they rolled off, back towards Ponte Vecchio. All while, Gabriel and his group remained in their place. It was a pure act of coincidence that Gabriel chose Claire to be in his group. Or, at least, that's how it seemed to Claire.
She was given a bag by Gabriel. When she opened the bag, she saw that it was filled with medical stuff, similar to what she would have found in a medical kit.
Closing the bag and hanging it over her shoulders, she looked up into the sky.
Columns of clouds of smoke that came from the burning debris slowly rose and expanded in the sky that, ever since that bombs were dropped, lost all of its blue beauty.
---
After another brief talk from the Captain and him radioing a nearby base, both he and his group began their way.
"An hour or so worth of walking, that's all it should take to get to the base I just contacted," he said before leading the way. Behind him followed an orderly line of his soldiers. Claire was near the middle of the crowd.
Within minutes, they managed to pass all the wreckage and get out of the destroyed town. And after a few more minutes, they were already at its outskirts. A few abandoned houses and sheds speckled the green lands and hills.
Very soon, the blue of the sky came back. Broke through the thin smoke.
But the disappearance of the smoke allowed for them to see a wave of big, ominous clouds approaching. It was almost certain that they were to bring bad weather. They needed to hurry and get to the base before the clouds arrived.
They entered an area filled with trees. A small forest. Though some trails lead into the woods, Gabriel and his team continued walking the road.
Forty minutes into their walk, the sky began to darken from the big clouds that slowly but surely seemed to be catching up with them. The wind began to strengthen as the rustling from the leaves above them echoed through the air.
With his group summing up to about 30 individuals, it was easy for Gabriel to keep a track of them. Occasionally, he looked back, glanced at everyone who followed him.
This time he looked back, and when he looked forward he slowed down as his brows furrowed. With a closer look. "Shit..." he muttered under his breath. He spotted an enemy's vehicle.
He turned around to his group before, with his hand, quickly ushering them to hide in the bushes.
"What's happening?" Claire asked one of her colleagues, only for him to give her a shrug.
A mere second later, the sound of a car approaching grew louder. And, as luck might have it, the car stopped right by where Gabriel and his group hid.
"It was here...". A soldier stepped out of the car. "I saw someone go into the bushes...".
Slowly, Claire widened her eyes to the words she heard.
"Okay, but was it a person you saw? Might have been an animal," another, deeper voice was heard.
"It looked like a human being," the soldier replied.
Then silence.
The man, the captain of the group who spoke second now walked out of the vehicle. He stood beside the soldier, looking around for anything, for anyone that would have resembled his soldier's claims.
With the rise of an eyebrow, he looked down at the soldier. He felt his holster before touching his pistol. Taking the weapon into his hand, he pointed it up into the sky.
Gabriel looked around at the individuals that made up the group, holding his index finger against his lips, signalling for silence.
The man with the weapon voiced nothing else. All that proceeded was him pulling the trigger.
A loud bang echoed through the sky, causing a flock of birds to flee their place of rest from the surrounding trees.
The group, of which the man was unaware of, held their hands tight against their mouths. They didn't even dare to breathe.
Seconds passed and when no other reaction was noticed, the captain looked his soldier's way. He looked into his eyes with a bleak, poker expression.
Suddenly, a wave of distant thunder rattled the air. With that, the man placed his gun back into his holster, as his eyes went up into the darkening sky. "We are wasting our time. On top of that, looks like a storm is coming.". A pause. "Come on, let's go.".
That was the last thing heard before the vehicle drove off.