Melody shot forward with singular intent. I grabbed her arm before she could get too far and pulled her back.

“What are you doing?” She yelled.

I ignored her question and pulled her to the side. We crouched down behind a rock and bush combination that gave us cover and concealment.

“Take a moment and look at what you were about to run into,” I said. I pointed in the direction Melody was going to run and let her peak around our hiding position to look. “You might be able to take a couple bullets, but you’ll be hard-pressed to make it all the way.”

Melody was about to run straight up the paved road that passed all the campground sites. Tracers and muzzle flashes lit up the campground going in multiple directions. She probably didn’t worry too much because of her tough Carpenter skin and advanced healing, but I didn’t have those advantages.

From multiple campsites, members of Melody’s own liberation group were running from cover-to-cover while periodically stopping to kneel and fire their weapons. Further along the path, the attacking force was retaliating. Where the two forces met in the middle, the number of muzzle flashes and tracer fires increased. I focused on the area a little more, and I could also see signs of metal shards flying through the air. That was a solid indication of Welders, but a better indication was the multiple armor-clad figures I could see running around. Unless there was another military unit with Welders, those armored, metal throwing individuals were the cadets of Camp Walker.

“We need to go around,” I said sternly. I didn’t know if the soldiers were attacking just because of me, but I knew that I was a definite target.

“That will take too long,” Melody hissed back.

“It might take longer, but we’re more likely to actually arrive.”

I could see her fighting between the two choices, but she eventually nodded. We both started to move in an attempt to go around the main fighting. We walked down the hill a little way then cut over to head toward the tent with Melody’s brother. We were careful, staying behind cover and looking out for any signs of danger. The whole time, the sounds of gunshots didn’t stop echoing through the woods. We didn’t see any signs of trouble, so we took a moment to catch our breath before we once again decided to cut pivot our path once more toward the tent.

A thunderous boom shook the ground. Before we could react, a limp body slid passed the small rock formation we were hiding behind. It was one of the liberators. They had been struck hard and were bleeding profusely from the chest. I couldn’t be sure, but they didn’t look like they would recover since it didn’t appear as if they were still alive.

Melody and I both froze as a yell roared from the direction the body had come from. Over the edge of our cover, a figure clad in a mixture of black cloth and metal armor came rushing forward. Atop his head, he wore a standard military Kevlar helmet, but over his face was a metallic mask that reminded me of a Spartan warrior’s. His arm had been shaped into a sword, and it was raised over his head, ready to strike down on his fallen opponent. He hadn’t noticed us yet, so with the element of surprise, I sprung forward and tackled him to the ground.

I wished I had thought about that action before I did it. My tackle was a solid hit, but slamming into a metal-clad Welder caused a sharp pain to slice down my arm, so it wasn’t the smartest decision. It wouldn’t be a smart decision even if they didn’t have armor, with armor it was a hideously bad idea. Unfortunately for me, my body moved before my brain could do anything about it.

We hit the ground hard. Luckily, I was on top, and I scrambled up to try and get a high, mounted position to I could control the sword clad arm. I grabbed his arm and tried to pin it to the ground, but holding it threw me off balance. My opponent bucked his hips, and I was flipped over, my feet sailing in the air, and then landing on my back. A sharp rock stabbed my side, and I simultaneously exhaled from the impact and winced in pain.

The ground started to rumble below me. I forgot about my pain and opponent as I scrambled around under the rolling earth. The cadet I was fighting wasn’t able to move as two dozen wooden legs burst from the ground around him.

The dirt around the cadet crumbled, and the ground collapsed around the enemy, causing them to drop into a shallow pit. The multiple roots, which looked like the underside of a centipede wrapped around the armored attacker. There was a high pitched scream, and I realized that it was a female cadet, and she must have thought it was a giant bug too. As I watched, the limbs secured the cadet tightly, making her unable to move more than a slight wiggle, and I thanked the powers that be that giant bugs don’t exist.

“You should be more careful,” Melody said. She was standing to my left with her right hand pressed up against the nearest tree. I had never thought of moving a tree’s roots before, probably because I usually only manipulated what I could see. Her display made me appreciate not only her power but those of Carpenters too.

From around the side of the tree, another cadet stepped out. They were swinging a giant metal rod with a pointed tip in a huge arc. The side of the pole slammed into Melody’s chest with dull “tinking” sound, and she crumbled to the ground.

Without thought, my power flared to life, and I rushed toward the attacker. The greyish aura around the welder lit up with my ability. I could also make out the silver lines running through their body and limbs. In the handful of running steps it took me to get there, they barely moved an inch. I considered using the same power as the Welders and punching them in their armored face. I could make it spike backward, or collapse in on itself, but at the last moment, the brutality scared me.

I grabbed their hand and the weapon it was holding and pivoted to throw them off balance. The weight was too much for me to overcome. Instead of moving the Welder as I wanted, they were pulled to the side, and their feet twisted in on each other. The cadet began to tumble toward me. The staff, more a javelin due to the pointed tip, was torn from their grasp, and I too began to tumble away.

My momentum caused me to spin around, and as I fell to the ground, I could see the body of the Welder falling toward me. I hit the ground, shielded my eyes and braced for the full force of a Welder’s dense frame slamming into me. I heard the crunch of metal being ripped apart, then the sound of squished fruit. No unbearable weight pressed down upon me.

I looked up, and the first thing I noticed was the dark trail of blood seeping down the metal staff. My eyes continued the upward climb. The metal staff was pierced through a thin layer of metal covering the Welder’s stomach. The armor was crumpled around the spear, the Welder didn’t seem to do a good enough job forming it. Leaning on the pointed stave was the limp form of the Welder. Their arms dangled toward the ground while their body was propped up at an angle.

I scrambled to get up and out of the way. Just then, Melody sat upright, gasping for air and coughing. Relief washed over me as I saw her. As a Carpenter, her increased constitution and accelerated healing protected her from being killed from the punishing blow she received. I ran over to her as she continued to struggle with breathing. I fell to my knees at her side and started to pat her back to help her breathe.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I should have been more careful. They always move and work in teams. It’s one of the things they always drill into us. I should have been prepared for more attackers.

“It’s okay,” she winced and stopped me from patting her back. “Where is the person who attacked me? I want to punch them in the face.”

I looked over to where blood was seeping into the dirt and fallen pine needles underneath the still propped up body. I continued to stare at the scene. I had no idea if Melody looked to where I did, but I couldn’t look away at what I had done.

“I think I killed them.” I hollowly stated. “I didn’t mean too.” I could feel her hand against mine and then the warmth of the other on my cheek. She forced my head to turn, and my gaze to shift away.

“It’s okay,” she consoled. “It’s not your fault.”

I tried to turn back and look because it was my fault, but she didn’t let me. No, look at me. We still need to get my brother.

I focused on her words and boxed up everything else. I nodded and still holding hands, we began once more to make our way to her brother. We were almost to the tent before we were sidetracked, but we still made sure to be careful as we moved. We sprinted from rock to tree and tree to rock, always looking for enemies before we broke cover. Even being overly cautious, it didn’t take long until we managed to get to our campsite.

“Shit,” Melody blurted, then ripped her hand out of mine and dashed forward. Around Melody’s tent were at least ten bodies of soldiers lying on the ground. None were wearing the signature metal armor of the cadets, but their faces were still all covered with baklavas, so I couldn’t tell who they were. “Victor?” Melody cried. The fear and anguish in her voice were prominent.