RuneScape Forum Archive | Feel the Silence

Crystal Smee

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Lucas leaned back and balled the edges of his shirt in his fists. “You’re wrong.”
“I’m not. You got conned, man.”
Lucas was silent for a long time, staring at the ceiling and blinking back his tears. He wiped his nose with one hand and sniffled loudly. Sorokin stopped folding and just stared at the frayed bedspread, his jaw clenched. Finally, Lucas said, “Well I guess I’ll just have to live, then. I can’t let him win.”
Sorokin laughed loudly. “There we go.”
“Still doesn’t explain why she’s not writing. You don’t --- she wasn’t in on it, was she?*
*That’s crazy talk, man.”
“Well, I’m crazy about this.”
“We’re on leave…if you rode fast, you might be able to make it back…”
“No, no. I’d never get away with it. I should be here. I should learn to be a soldier.”
Sorokin vaulted the bed so he was next to Lucas and punched his arm, saying, “I”ll help you any way I can.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have any kind of training?”
“I joined up right when the war started. They did*’t waste time training us. They just stuck a sword in my hand and tossed me out here.”
Sorokin rubbed at his forehead. “Shoot, man. I’ll do what I can.”
“Just don’t ever –“ Lucas faltered. It sounded so stupid, but he had to say it. “Don’t ever, like, risk your life for me or anything. I’m not worth it.”
“This about that guy Martin?” Sorokin rose, and sat on the bed next to him. “Yeah, I heard about that. You gotta stop beating yourself up. No * listen to me. You did*’t kill Martin. You have this noble idea that we all have to look out for each other, cause we’re soldiers and we’re brothers and man, that is a load of crap.”
Lucas was silent.

26-Aug-2010 22:24:01

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

*As soldiers, we are each responsible for ourselves and only ourselves. Yeah, you’re close with your other guys, whatever. But no guy is obligated to step in front of a sword for another guy. You do that, that’s your choice and you own it. Martin blocked you, that’s his fault and his fault alone. You did*’t ask him to. He wasn’t obligated to. He did that all by his lonesome.”
“Then why did he do it?”
“How the hell should I know? Not your problem, man. Gavin’s just bitter cause he lost a friend, and he’s entitled to that. But he should be mad at Martin, not you. So don’t expect me to save your ass out there; if you make a mistake, that’s on you. I’ll train you but that’s as far as it goes.”
“But…we’re medics, aren’t we supposed to save people?”
“Only once they’re injured. If they ain’t harmed, they ain’t our problem.”
“Well…ok.” Lucas wasn’t sure what to do with this information. All he’d ever heard was all about brotherhood, and how soldiers were so close they were willing to die for each other. But looking back, most of what he’d heard about being a soldier and fighting was crap. The world, the books especially, they made it sound so noble and glorious; nothing about this was glorious. It was a lot to take in, realizing that his books had lied to him. “Martin made a mistake.”
“Yes.”
“It’s not my fault.”
“Nope.”
“Ok.” He took a deep breath. “Okay. So what happens now?*
Sorokin slapped his legs. “We go to the infirmary. Tomorrow, I'm gonna get you in shape.”

At the infirmary, Lucas was treating a soldier with vicious burns from an explosion caused by a Kandarin mage. He carefully peeled back the bandages to reveal oozing, bright red weals on the man’s arms and chest. The ointment made the man shriek with pain. Half of his face was burned as well, leaving a drooping shadow of a once handsome man.

26-Aug-2010 22:24:51 - Last edited on 26-Aug-2010 22:25:16 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

His eyelid was swollen shut, the right side of his nose had almost burned away, and the corner of his mouth was twisted in what looked like half of a maniacal grin. Once Lucas had finished cleaning the wound, he turned to the supply cart for more bandages. He realized there were none. He told Sorokin, who directed him back to the supply room for more. In the back room, Lucas wandered among boxes of surgical equipment and various medicines, but found no bandages.
“I can’t find them.”
Sorokin sighed and left his patient to accompany Lucas back. He couldn’t find them either. He sought out the chief doctor and asked him for help.
“Oh, there are no bandages.*
*Excuse me?”
“We ran out.”
“You haven’t sent for more?”
The doctor pinched the bridge of his nose and frowned. “Of course I sent for more. Varrock hasn’t sent anything back. I wrote weeks ago for more supplies and they did*’t bother to respond. When I wrote again, all I got whas a note saying they couldn’t afford to give me anything more for the time being. What we have stocked is all we’re going to have for a while.”
Sorokin slammed his fist against the man’s desk. “This is crazy. We need bandages!”
“You think I don’t know that? Varrock’s broke.”
Lucas stared at the floor, very much unsure if he should enter into this conversation. He wondered briefly if Gray had anything to do with this, or if trying to write to Gray would gain him anything. But probably not. Gray would probably tear up the envelope without even opening it. He did*’t pay attention for a while, thinking about Gray and relishing the fact that he must be stressed, if the army had no money. But he shouldn’t really relish that; it was going to cost soldiers their lives.
Then suddenly Sorokin grabbed him by the soldier and dragged him from the doctor’s office, saying, “Come on, we’re going shopping.”
“Shopping?”
“We’re going to buy shirts.”

26-Aug-2010 22:26:03

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“With what money?”
Sorokin stopped short, swearing loudly. “Damn you, Lucas, I did*’t even think of that.”
“Don’t think about it.” They turned in the hallway to find that Jonah had materialized behind them. “We need bandages. You requisition them for the army from the store.”
“We can’t do that! We’ll put them out of business,” Lucas protested.
“Then I’ll do it.” Jonah began walking away, then stopped when he realized they weren’t following. “Are you coming?” They stared at him. “Look, I don’t like this either. But we have to do it.”
Sorokin shook his head with disgust, but followed. What else could they do? They needed bandages. As Jonah led them out of the barracks in search of a store that sold clothing, Lucas looked around with opened eyes, examining it for signs of poverty. He saw that the training equipment was worn and battered and probably hadn’t been replaced in years, and the buildings all leaned a little and could have used repainting. He thought of the equipment they’d been given, and realized it was all secondhand – nicked and rusty blades, tents with frayed cloth, clothing with holes and blood stains. Nothing here was new. This garrison was falling apart. The army really was broke.
Gray must be going out of his mind.
No, he probably did*’t care…it might be his responsibility, but it did*’t affect him if the soldiers had nothing to eat. He was in the elite, and there was always food on the table and brand new goods for them.
Jonah led them into a small general store and marched up to the balding, pink-faced man behind the counter. “Commander Jonah Barron. We need to take your shirts and pants from the store, as well as any extra cloth you have in stock.”
“Excuse me?”
“The army hospital is out of bandages.”
“So you’re just taking all my goods to tear to shreds?”
Jonah met his gaze, scowling. “Pretty much. I’m sorry, sir, but this is a dire matter. Men’s lives are at stake.”

26-Aug-2010 22:26:43

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“You’ll bankrupt me!” the man roared.
“Or people will die. Sorokin, Myren, take the stock. Sir, you have my deepest apologies. I would promise you compensation, but I hate to make empty promises. I do promise I will do everything in my power to be sure that the army will pay you back. But I make no guarantees.”
Lucas watched this exchange as he loaded the shopkeeper’s entire stock into boxes with Sorokin. He had a horrible, sick feeling in his gut. He felt dirty. He knew that Jonah was honorable and wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, but he hated it all the same. Was this the true power of the army; to take whatever was necessary from the citizens? If they could requisition supplies for bandages, what else could they take? Food? Money? Gods, they could destroy entire cities with behavior like that, with power in the wrong hands. At least he was serving under Jonah. He hoped he would never have to play a part in a scheme like this again.
Each of them emptied their pockets, but Jonah was the only one with any kind of salary, and it wasn’t much. The amount they gave back no where near covered the cost, but they left with the clothing anyway, and returned to the infirmary to shred the clothing into strips. Without any more major battles in the area, the supply would last this hospital a few weeks.
Later that night, Lucas lay sleepless on his cot in the dark, still thinking about the situation. Who knew an entire army could go broke? If the army was facing poverty, what was life like for civilians in Varrock? Where had all the money gone? How could they get it back? Was Gray doing anything about the situation, or was he secretly hoping the army would fail? His head spun with questions, no matter how much he willed himself into sleep. He knew there was nothing he could do to help, but it troubled him nonetheless. He lay awake long into the night, until dawn approached and it was time for his training to begin.

26-Aug-2010 22:27:16

Chuk

Posts: 14,177 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Son of a gun. More that I haven't read. Smeeze, I apologize for my lack of reading. It's not that I'm tired of your story or anything. (It's still as good as ever, if not better; I just don't have as much time online as I used to.)
At this point, I can't make promises about reading for a few weeks, not until I get to college. Speaking of that, when do your classes start?
And with the Venice thing, it may have been because it was very hot and muggy when I went, and I despise humidity. Might've just lessened the whole experience. Plus, I'm less of a city person and more of a mountain/forest person.

27-Aug-2010 01:47:37 - Last edited on 27-Aug-2010 01:49:39 by Chuk

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Yeah, I get that. Everyone told us it would be 100 degrees every day when we went, but somehow we lucked out and it was pretty cool. When we were in the Mediterranean two years ago, it was a lot worse. When it gets that hot nothing is fun...
And don't worry about keeping up with adds

Read whenever you can, I won't hold it against you. The tide of adds will slow down soon anyway. I leave two weeks from yesterday, on Sept. 9, but I'm doing a pre-orientation program and then orientation, so my classes don't actually start until Sept. 21.
Any college advice for me?

27-Aug-2010 15:25:58

Dragride2742

Posts: 67 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

i have a ds I that i go on every night to read some of the stories, and with, said ds I i will make an effort to bump this thread. I woulden't want this to get eaten by some monster that is roumored to be in the stories section. so without any further ado, i declare this thread..... BUMPED! ps add more soon as you can, kthxby.

27-Aug-2010 23:46:51

Dragride2742

Posts: 67 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

And no advice srrz. also would this be cosiderd a double post?

27-Aug-2010 23:48:58

Chuk

Posts: 14,177 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Only advice I can give ya is about classes. Leaving homework 'til the last minute is a bad, bad, bad idea. Worse than it ever was in high school. I dunno if you're a procrastinator or not, but I sure am, and it got me into some tight places for classes last year.

28-Aug-2010 09:00:49

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