I ducked as another Korean took a potshot at me. "Darn it." I hissed. He was good, the bullet had almost gotten me. And if he got a good clear shot I'd have to hope the vest I wore would save me but I doubted it. The gun was not a small caliber weapon.

"Dustcatcher, you still alive?" My radio crackled to life.

I lifted it with one hand, cradling my gun in the other arm. "Yeah, no thanks to you, Carter." I replied.

Joe Carter was my partner in the specialized unit I had joined. We flushed out infiltrators or intruders that got past the border patrol. And, sniper though he was, Carter took his time getting into position. For our job, it was necessary to have two people working together; the bait and the hunter. I was the bait and Carter'd be the killer.

Frankly, I wanted Carter's role, I didn't like being the lure. I hadn't been hurt yet but there was always a first time for everything.

"Stop your whining, I'm just making sure you're still alive to complain another day by finding the best spot necessary." He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes. "Well if you keep talking instead of getting into position then I won't be soon." I retorted.

It'd been almost four months since the initial atttacks on what used to be the United States. Now, four months later, all that was left of the states were the ones in the middle. This was because a unified force of Iranian, Russian, and Afghan troops had taken over the East Coast and a month after that North Korea saw a chance to kick a downed dog.

Those of us who'd survived banded together to protect what land was left and the best fighters got sent to the toughest areas to try to aid those who need urgent help.

I wasn't the best by any means, but I was good enough to survive thus far. Though not without prior injuries. I had new scars.

Those who didn't fight created bullets and manufactured what they could, the women and children left tended gardens. Food was low and weapons were fought for on the field. Everything was rationed.

My own weapon, an AK-47, I had taken from an Iranian after strangling and killing him and his companion. Sounds violent and cruel for an eighteen year old girl that was supposed to be heading to college but that was my life now. Death and violence were a regular occurrence.

Either way, Carter had chosen me to come with him as his backup and that was the reason I was in Wyoming and not back in Iowa. The border near Utah was the big issue at the moment. But being on the bottom left corner of Utah meant that I was in the center of the action and when I was busy fighting, I was at my personal best. Something about being constantly on your guard- or maybe it was the regular bursts of adrenaline- was addictive. I also didn't have the time to feel sorry for myself.

"Dustcatcher, you still there?"

I brought my head out of the clouds and back to earth. "Yeah, sorry."

"Where is this rat? I'm in position but he's not moving. Do me a favor and let him shoot at you again."

Oh, yeah. That's what every girl wants to hear at one time or another. How could a girl resist? "You know I should get paid for babysitting." I told him before popping out to take a few shots. But I didn't even have the time to bring my gun to my shoulder, the Korean had been waiting.

I ducked back down as bullets thudded into the rock wall I hid behind. "Good enough?" I asked sarcastically.

"Perfect." A single shot rang out and the last Korean was down. "Thanks, gorgeous."

"No problem, handsome." I stood up, poised to duck should we have miscounted. But, as always, Carter'd been exactly right. I looked around. Ten of 'em. Two more than the last round of Team Carter-Dustcatcher vs. Koreans.

Carter joined me, wiping sweat away from his blue eyes as the summer sun beat down on us. "See you're still alive." He grinned.

I leaned my AK-47 on one shoulder. "And so are you."

Carter ran a dirty hand through his medium-short blonde hair. "Want to let Colonel Raleigh know we're still alive?" He asked as we headed back to base.

"Fine." I radioed it in.

"Home, Akeera." Carter said.

I rolled my eyes again.

Home was a relative term for where I lived. It was actually a camp where the special fighters stayed.

I got to my tent, put away my equipment- except for the gun- and flomped on my bed.

No I would normally sleep but tonight I couldn't. Memories haunted my mind, holding me captive.

Eventually, I drifted off.

Allen's POV

Wren's look of disapproval was not something I saw on a regular basis. So when she was upset it was normally for a very good reason. But this one, unfortunately, was one time I wasn't backing down.

"You're going to leave me?" She asked, her green eyes flashing against her dark skin. Man, she was going to be a heartbreaker when she grew up.

I bent down to look her in the eye. "Wren, I've told you, you've got to stay put. Searching for Akeera's not going to be easy or safe and the last thing I want to do is get you hurt."

Wren tried to argue. "But I saved you, remember? You were dying when we reached here but I brought you back to health! Please, don't leave me!" She pleaded. "If you get hurt, who'll take care of you if I'm not there?"

I hugged her. "I don't want to leave you Wren but I'll try to be back for Thanksgiving."

I honestly had no idea how long it would take to get word of Akeera but it wasn't going to be easy. Especially since I was going to travel by foot. I stood up, hefting my backpack and shouldering the same gun I'd carried since Akeera and I had first joined Jamison's group. "Be good for the Andsims, alright?"

Wren threw her small arms around me, buring her face in my side. "You won't forget me?" She asked, her voice muffled by my shirt.

It was hard to believe that this was the same silent little bird we'd found stealing our supplies, she'd grown at least an inch in a few months and she talked and sang now. Leaving her with the Andsims was harder than I'd thought.

I gently peeled her off of me, pushing her back. "I could never forget you." I said. I had an idea, taking off the watch my dad had given me for my sixteenth birthday some years back. "Now you won't forget me either."

She was crying as I put the watch on her wrist, it was huge on her small little hand but I was sure she'd grow into it. I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned.

I couldn't look back as I walked or I'd go back and bring her.

As I walked she sang the first song I'd ever heard her sing when she found her voice again. And even after the village was far behind me, her voice followed me like an echo.

Akeera's POV

"Yo, Dusty!" Carter's voice burst through the darkness of welcome sleep that I'd finally enjoyed, jerking me upright.

"What?! What is it?!" I asked, the gun already in my hands.

"Nice to know I earn a polite welcome." Carter said, hands in the air as he stared at the gun in my hands.

Realizing that there wasn't an emergency, I switched the safety back on. "What on earth was so important that you had to wake me?" I asked, grouchy that my rest had been disturbed.

"Coffee." He held out a mug and I had it in my hands and was sipping it before he got to the last syllable.

"So," I asked between sips, "what's today's agenda?"

Carter sat at the foot of my bed, earning a glare that he studiously avoided, "Nothing, for once. So I was wondering if you'd hang out with me. I know a place with a good beer and actual food."

I swung my legs off the bed, already shaking my head at "out with me".

"No can do, Carter. If I have a day off, I'm doing something all on my own."

He cocked his head and opened his mouth to say something.

"I. E. without you." I finshed.

"Why are you so determined not to get to know me?" Carter asked. "Do you hate me? Or is it because you hate people in general?"

I pulled on my boots- sleeping in one's clothing made it easy to dress in the morning- and sighed. "I don't hate people and I don't hate you. It's just the fact that you're a sniper and they tend to die off easy. So you'll forgive me if I don't want to get to know you because the minute I share anything personal with someone they die."

Carter shook his head, standing up. "Well I'm sorry that you feel that way. But I've followed you on your days off and you go to each hospital every time we get to a new post. Who are you looking for?"

I tied my shoes and stood up. Maybe if I gave him a little information he'd get off my back about being friends. "My family and my team." I replied. "Anything else you want to know? Or do you have my life figured out already?" OK, so sarcasm was a close friend.

Carter grinned. "Are you looking for your boyfriend?" He asked, twitching his eyebrows mischieviously.

"Carter. . ." This guy was incorrigible.

"Alright, I'll stop." He put up his hands as if to ward off an incoming argument. "But only if you open up just a little more. I've got to deal with you too, ya know." And with that he left the tent.

Sighing I knew he was right. But I had business to attend to at the moment.

Walking along the streets I asked the few people I met if they knew where the hospital was. My chances of finding any of my friends or family were better in the hospital.

So far, I'd not found anyone. But I wasn't giving up on them.

The directions that I'd received brought me to a tall building that had somehow survived thus far and still had electricity. That in itself was amazing. I walked in and went to the desk. Despite the circumstances, not much had changed about hospitals, only they were way more crowded.

"Excuse me." I said and the nurse at the desk looked up. "I'm looking for some people."

The nurse winced. I didn't blame her. It was hard enough looking for one person, forget the plural. "Names?"

I rattled off my family's names and Jamison's team. I, unfortunately, didn't know Allen's or Wren's last name.

The nurse shook her head. "I don't know, miss. I don't have any of those names but you can come take a look at the people we haven't been able to identify yet." She said, standing up.

I nodded. "Alright." I hated this part. I hated hospitals in general since every time I'd been in one someone had been hurt. Someone close.

But I followed the nurse to the floor where they kept the unknown. It was probably the saddest place in the entire hospital. Most of the time the people there were burned beyond recognition, unconscious, or insane. There were some dealing with amnesia, others who just gave up mentally.

I walked by each bed, looking into the face of whoever lay there. I held my breath. I wanted to find my family and friends but not here. Never here.

I let it out when I got to the end of the row and didn't know anyone and no one had recognized me. "Thanks." I said and left.

Once I got outside I took a deep shuddering breath that tasted bitter-sweet. I was sad that I hadn't found them, relieved that they weren't in that place.

And I headed back to camp. When I got there, it was in an uproar.

I headed towards the main tent, where Colonel Raleigh was. If there was someone within our walls, Carter and I'd be sent out immediately. It was also the place where I was most likely to find Carter.

"- and make sure that the evacuations are fast! Gas masks need to be distributed if at all possible!" Raleigh was shouting.

"Sir!" I called, pushing through people to get to him. "What's going on?"

"D****d Koreans used a gas explosive. We have to get the people in town evacuated immediately. I need you and Carter to check the border while we pull back, the little monkeys'll try to sneak in during the bustle." He replied.

"Yes sir." I said, heading towards my tent. I grabbed my AK-47 and the gasmask that came with the rest of my equipment, tossing my backpack on before I grabbed a jacket and hat. Never knew how long one of these missions could take and it was best to be prepared.

I went out and ran into Carter. "Hey, we're supposed to-"

"Yeah, I know." Carter interrupted, his gasmask already pushed up on his forehead, ready should he need to yank it down to protect his face. "You ready?"

"Just coming to find you."

He nodded. "Let's go."

And we were off. We trotted easily towards the border wall that had gone up in time to protect the city but it was by no means safe. As we drew close, Carter tapped my shoulder and then his mask.
Mask on.

I yanked down my mask, securing it. Exchanging a look with Carter, we moved forward like silent wraiths through the smoke that'd settled over the town. Our masks held radios making it easy to keep our conversation unheard.

"You see anything?" I asked.

"Just you." I turned to glare at him and he waggled his eyebrows. Jerk, I thought with a chuckle. At least I wasn't bored.

"Any hostiles?" I clarified.

"Nada, Dusty."

I rolled my eyes, a habit that seemed to increase in occurrence the longer I was with Carter. "Want to split?"

"No, not when I can hardly see two feet ahead of me." He replied.

Good point. We walked quiet as shadows, trying not to make much noise. The gasmasks were more than necessary, I realized as I saw bodies lying in odd distorted positions on the ground. The faces of the dead were gruesome, twisted in eternal agony, the stuff the Korean's had tossed hadn't been an easy way out.

I stumbled over something and found it was the thin body of a dog. Poor mutt, I thought morosely as we continued our silent walk.

A person suddenly stepped out of the swirling smoke, wearing a uniform. A hostile, we both knew instantly. We didn't have the luxery of uniforms any longer, plain clothes were our uniforms. And vests, if lucky. I lifted my gun to shoot but Carter'd already darted ahead of me and knifed the Korean where he stood. Wiping his blade on the dead Korean's uniform Carter motioned for me to lower the gun. "There's probably more behind him." He said softly even though our masks made sure our words weren't heard.

I nodded, switching from long-range weapon to my close-quarter knifes and iron knuckles made from piping. Classic old-fashioned dirty fighting, I know, but it worked. Carter had already done the same, only his iron knuckles were jagged and rough on top. That meant more damage inflicted with each blow. (Pardon me a cruel chuckle, bwa-ha-ha. . .)

I moved closer to Carter when another shape appeared. This one was mine. I had already pulled back a fist by the time the Korean turned to me and it smashed into the unlucky fellow's mask, crushing it. He fell to the ground, already silently choking on whatever it was they'd contaminated the air with.

I turned back to see who was next but Carter had disappeared. "Carter?" I called in a hoarse whisper.

"Behind you." He replied, tapping my shoulder.

I turned my head slightly and gave a nod, letting him know I knew where he was now. "Keep up."

He chuckled. "I am."

And then the radio channel crackled as someone joined in on the conversation. "Hey, Carter, Dustcatcher, get back to base, we need to get out of Dodge." It was the radio guy, Patrick Williams, Pat for short.

"Alright, Pat." Carter replied. "What is the gas, anyway?"

Pat hesitated a moment and I exchanged a glance of surprise. For Pat to not want to tell us meant that it was pretty nasty stuff. "It's carbon monoxide with a touch of acid."

Whoa.

"We'll be right there." I said, putting away my iron knuckles and switching back to long-range mode.

"You'll want to rinse off, ASAP, before the top layer of your skin erodes." Pat said before he signed off.

Carter and I trotted back, to find that most of the camp had already been packed. We were retreating and it irked me but this time it was necessary.

We traveled to the next town that day, the soldiers going last to protect the civilians. We met up with Pat, who gave us special wipes that he'd taken the time to make for us. "Wipe whatever skin was exposed." He instructed, pointing to his neck and wrists for example.

Pat was a small red-haired genius of maybe twenty years old, eighteen at the most. He'd been a Chemistry fiend and had been top of his class before the war. He was proving himself really useful now. He wiped his Harry Potter glasses with the end of his dirty t-shirt, probably doing more damage than good, before he returned them to his face. Without them, his brown eyes were useless.

The wipes were cool and I started cleaning the skin that'd been exposed. It stung a little and a thin layer of skin peeled off as I wiped. "OK, that's gross." I said, shivering at the thought of the poor souls who'd died of the stuff.

"I know." Pat said. "But I have to admit, the Koreans are brilliant when it comes to chemical weaponry."

Terribly brilliant, unfortunately. "Do we have anything to match that?"

"Not yet but I've got something for you two." Pat replied reaching into his satchel he always wore. He pulled out two tin cans and held them out to us. "These are my own concoction of -"

Carter put up a hand to stop the flow of words that were bound to come from Pat. "Skip the science, just tell us what it does."

Rolling his eyes, Pat pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose before he replied. "It's basically a smoke bomb." Obviously, I wasn't the only one that got annoyed by Carter.

I put it in my backpack. "Thanks. Anything else we should know about them?"

"They explode when shot."

Even handier. "And do they happen to contain any toxic gas?" I asked, knowing that with Pat it was rarely something so simple.

Pat grinned. "Yeah, so don't forget to wear your masks before you use 'em. Only toxic if you breath in the smoke."

Carter, after studying the small tube a moment, grinned. "Alright, thanks brainiac."

We continued our retreat till we got to the next town and then set up our tents again. And the next wall went up the next day. Medival tactics but they were efficient.