About 35 of Viktor's 51 war buddies were waiting for the Commander's orders. A meeting had been arranged to determine what the guerilla army should do with their remaining 4 hours in this world.
Viktor was chewing on a rat hungrily when the disastrous news was shared to him.
"The armoury's planning on a full frontal attack." Konstatin grabbed him by his shoulder.
"Mmm." Viktor didn't have the energy to care. Neither did anyone in the guerilla unit. "We aren't even living in the first place." he motioned the rat on the stick. "Shithole's so bad even the rats seem to have left."
Konstatin's eyes were sunken and bloodshot. He was caked with mud and smelled like sweat and rotting corpses. It wasn't just him. The air had the stench of death, despite the freezing cold which had done its best to preserve the bodies of Viktor's surrogate family. Despite his obviously horrible state, he managed a laugh "Yeah. Maybe we can surrender to them, eh?"
"Heh. Yeah. Then they'll chop our balls off and watch us slowly bleed out in agony."
"Nonsense. There are laws against that kind of stuff." Konstatin retorted, but he looked like even he could believe what he said.
"Look around you." Viktor waved his skewered rat around, pointing at his zombie-like comrades sitting in the tiny village. "Forget laws, even gods don't exist in this forest."
"Well, maybe the gods exist about 2.5 kilometers to the north. The people there seem well fed and full of vitality."
"We're the gods' bastard children. What do parents do when their bastard children try to go to them?"
Konstatin's face darkened "You're not helping."
"Oh come on, that was a very creative piece of dialogue. Besides, bastard children don't need their parents. Who the hell are they to tell us to fuck off? We never needed them to live in the first place." Viktor grinned lightly. "We. Take. What. We. Want. Konstatin. You and I."
"Heh. Riight." Konstatin rolled his eyes. "You really think we can live through this??"
Viktor inhaled deeply and looked around. "You know what you told to me in sixth grade, a week before our math finals?"
Konstatin looked at him. "...that isn't the same as-"
"Just tell me what you said."
Konstatin found himself unable to speak, while Viktor's gaze pierced through him.
"...."
Viktor waited patiently.
"I said that there's no way I can pass my math finals. And that we'll.....we won't be in the same class anymore."
"Did that happen?"
"No. We came up with a plan, sneaked into the teacher's room and swapped out the exam papers."
"You're fucking right. What did you tell me when Daddy's gang were going to humiliate you in front of everyone in school?"
"I-"
"Tell me, Konstatin." Viktor stared at him.
"I told you that...there's no way we can prevent that from happening."
"What did we do?"
"We sent him to jail before he could come to school the next day."
"Konstatin, my brother. What did I tell you during the night when HMS Soverign attacked?"
"You.... told me that there's no chance of you living through that."
"What did you tell me?"
Konstatin smiled, although it wasn't a bright radiant smile. It was instead a rather confused, distressed smile. Like he didn't want to have any hope.
"I told you that we've got to live. For the sake of the bitches."
"You'er goddamn right." Viktor put his fist on Konstatin's chest. "We'll get through this, somehow. And then we're going to leave this war thing, and we're going to have tons of sex."
"And cocaine. If I live through this, I deserve to take some drugs." Konstatin joked sarcastically. "Maybe I'll fuck two women at once. Have a threesome."
"We'll hire five sex workers each. And tons of cocaine, count me in too. We're trying cocaine after we get through this." Viktor replied.
Konstatin was about to retort with something when footsteps echoed closer—likely the guerrilla leaders coming through the tunnels to address everyone.
The trapdoor swung open and the Commander came out - followed by the four Deputy Commanders.
Viktor got up - and was dismissed with the wave of a hand by Deputy Commander Pyotr. The poor man looked weary. Maybe it was because he wanted to cling on to some semblance of positivity. "It's okay, son. Did I hear something about cocaine?"
"Sir yes sir." Viktor said, straight faced. "Konstatin and I are going to try some cocaine, sir. Uh...later, sir."
""h-what?" Commander Mikail looked astounded. "Did the destroyed ship have cocaine?"
"No sir." Konstatin replied. "Viktor here says that we'll live through this, then try some cocaine and hire some sex workers, sir."
"The hookers and cocaine was your idea, dumbass." Viktor shot a glare a his friend. "Although I was the one who suggested five hookers per person, sir. If you want, I'll pay for your cociane, sir." Viktor saluted.
Commander Mikail looked exasperated, like a teacher who didn't want to encourage a class clown's behaviour, but secretly found it funny. A couple of the Deputy Commanders did managed to crack a smile, albeit a pitiful smile. A smile filled with anguish.
"If only you knew about the situation." Commander Mikail sighed. Then in a loud voice, yelled: "Everyone, come here."
He didn't need to say it, as the small army had already noticed him, and started moving towards him. After a little while, everyone had their eyes and ears on Commander Mikhail.
"As you know, we're surrounded.
We're in the middle of the only mountain pass running from North to South in over 3000 kilometers, so we can't go east or west. Because of the mountains, obviously. Well....we could....but we don't have the supplies to survive that. To be honest, no army can trek through bare mountains and come out the other side alive.
Behind the mountains-that is- to our south, the Arvandian Ocean used to belong to us. But the Terran Alliance destroyed our naval support, cut off our communication lines and now they lurk south. They're no doubt happy to kill us all if we go even 500 meters into the ocean. Plus, it's not like asking our army for help will work. The war has stretched the resources thin, and noboy will come to save us. Fifty people aren't worth saving, unfortunatly"
"Yeah. Our destroyed Aircraft carrier has washed to shore. " One of the Deputy Commanders mentioned. "We thankfully salvaged a few jeeps and one jet and used all their fuel for our molotov cocktails-" he pointed to the weapons shed nearby. "-and the rest for cooking, and keeping ourselves warm."
"Thank you, Deputy Commander." Commander Mikhail sighed. "And to the north, is the Verdant Collective's Armory F. We can't attack them because of their automated weapons system and army with three times as many people as ours."
"The armory army have grown restless....we don't know why, but they need this mountain pass to be theirs.
They wanted to fight a war of attrition until now. I mean, they destroyed our suppliers, our Navy. It was just a matter of time till we starve or give up.
But they're going to do a full attack, apparently bring a huge chunk of their army and plan crush us in one, decisive strike...."
Silence fell amongst the listeners. An air of hopelessness could fell on the guerilla group.
"Now...that doesn't mean that we will give up...." Viktor let the Commander's voice trail off. He looked at Konstatin. Konstatin had already given up, and was clinging to every word of the Commander's pep talk, desperately trying to scrape off some reason to keep fighting. It obviously didn't work. The commander couldn't give anybody any hope. The situation was hopeless and they were about to die a useless death.
"And so, we'll make a great stand here!" the Commander yelled, trying to muster as much bravado into his voice.
"Why can't we just surrender?" A voice yelled in the back.
"Is that you, Tiimmy? You little shit?!" Deputy Commander Pyotr yelled. "They'll cut your balls off, for god's sake. Oh- nevermind. You'll be safe, because you've got no balls, ya fucking pussy!"
"There are laws against that sort of stuff!!"
"Yeah, let's surrender!" some voices yelled.
"No! I'd rather die than be tortured by them."
The camp fell into chaos.
Konstatin and Viktor walked outside the camp, as the camp erupted into chaos.
"Fuck, man." Viktor looked troubled. "I- I don't wanna die." his voice started to crack up.
"No. Do NOT do that." Konstatin now became the pillar of support, because Konstatin was the most terrified of losing hope. If he lost hope, he felt like he'd go mad. "Look at me. Let's come up with a fucking plan."
"O-okay...uhh..."
"wh-what if we run to the mountains? No, we'll die of cold." Konstatin grimaced. "Maybe we go to the ocean?"
"And what? We have no boats. We only prolong our deaths a little longer." Viktor said. "Maybe- maybe we kill the army coming for us?"
"Have you seen their equipment? That's not mentioning their superior numbers."
"O...okay. We have the jeeps right? And the fighter jet!! Maybe the two of us can leave!" Viktor's eyes lit up.
"We barely have enough jeep fuel, and that's considering using the molotov cocktails' petrol too. The Armory's automated machinery will kill us if we go North." Konstatin reminded Viktor.
"What about the plane? Why did nobody mention the plane?! I could have flown it! where's the plane?!"
"The plane is to the west, on camp site C." Konstatin said. "And uhh....we used all the aviation fuel."
"Well...we can use the kerosene!" Viktor said, then immediately shook his head. "Aviation fuel isn't kerosene. The plane's engine will probably explode in like, two minutes if we use that. Not to say, we'll get shot by the Armory's automated machinery as well."
"..."
"We...we could..."
"Fuck."
"..."
Silence. A hopeless silence filled the air.
Viktor and Konstatin stood silently, looking at the sky. "God." Viktor began praying. "God, please. Please, help us." he started shivering.
Konstatin felt fear. The fear of looking at death. He felt ssomething rising in his stomach and puked. There was nothing to puke, except stomach acid and bile.
Viktor stood silently. His eyes looked vacant. All hope was lost. "I hope I get shot in the head." he said. "I don't want to suffer when I die."
Konstatin felt his eyes well up with tears. This was the first time Viktor acted this way. 28 years of knowing him, and he had almost always been crazily optimistic, cracked jokes at the worst possible moments and put on a weird smile no matter what happened, like the lovable weirdo that he was. This war made Konstatin see Viktor look hopeless thrice, now.
But maybe this time was different. This truly WAS the end. Fuck you, war. Fuck the fat ugly old motherfuckers who did this to him and his friend. Konstatin cursed the fuckheads who were the cause of this war. Fucking scum of the earth.
Game over. GGs.