De-Vries: Part One
Posted By: teemus<teemusligg@hotmail.com>
Date: 30 November 2006, 2:59 am
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Kenny shot up in his bed, cold sweat dripping down his forehead. His undershirt was drenched and sticking to his chest. He looked over at his alarm clock and cursed when he saw it was 3:30 in the morning. Kenny buried his face in his hand and fell backwards back into bed. This was the third time in a week he had been woken early in the morning by his reoccurring nightmare. He racked his brain and tried to recall details of his dream. Nothing came to him. It had gone just as quickly as it had come, vanished without a trace. Many things had vanished in Kenny's life, so he just dismissed his nightmare as another one of those countless things and didn't think about it again.
Kenny still had 15 minutes before his patrol started, so he closed his eyes and thought of happy thing and how tired he would be on his patrol if he didn't get these last few minutes of shut eye. Soon enough his happy thoughts turned into horrible images of men being torn apart. Kenny shot his eyes open and decided that he no longer needed the 15 minutes of sleep.
Kenny rolled out of bed and gave his eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness of his room. He had never gotten used to getting up early in the morning since he had gotten back from his leave on Earth. He stood up and looked around his room. It was his room because his roommate was dead, or so everyone assumed. At the thought of his now deceased roommate, he turned around and looked dully at the bunk above his. A duffel with the name BRIAN KERRY stencilled into the side of it lay on the mattress still full of clothes. The bag had been in the same spot ever since that unfortunate day that Brian had arrived at the base.
Kenny had been going over his patrol logs trying to find a way he could cram more hours in without doing them when suddenly the door had flow open and there stood Brian. He looked no older than 19, had short blond hair, blue eyes that gleamed with eagerness. His new silver pilot wings glistened on his chest.
"How ya doing?" Brian had said as he threw his bag onto the top bunk, "The names Brian Kerry, but you can call me Brian. Or Kerry, whichever you like."
Kenny had just stared at him and mumbled something even he didn't understand, then had returned to trying to tweak his patrol log.
"Anyways, they bunked me with you because all of the other fly boys already have roommates."
Kenny had felt irritated by his new roommate and regretted it now. At the time he didn't know it would be the last time he would see him. Instead of returning his greeting and trying to strike up a conversation, Kenny had just sat there staring down at his patrol logs. Neither of them had spoken for a good 3 minutes, and just as Kenny had begun to feel like he could no longer take the silence the phone rang.
Brian had moved swiftly across the room and snatched the phone up. He held the phone to his ear and stood silently nodding. About a minute later he had placed the phone back on the hook nodded to Kenny and walked briskly out of the room.
Good riddance Kenny had thought. It was only later that day that he learned that Captain Sparksman needed an important package delivered to the other side of the planet. Seeing as all the other pilots had suddenly come down with a mysterious case of the flu, Brian was the only healthy pilot available. Brian had geared up, boarded his plane and flown off into the sunset to never return.
Kenny stood rooted in place staring at the green UNSC issue duffle bag. The poor bastard had only been on the base for a grand total of 3 hours before they sent him flying to Oblivion. Kenny blamed Captain Sparksman for the death of his roommate. The Captains important package most likely was another box of chocolates he was sending to his mother.
He shook the thought from his head and walked into the bathroom flipping the light switch. Kenny slammed his eyes shut and recoiled from the bright light like and old man stepping out into the sun for the first time in years. He blinked his eyes to get them to adjust. At last when the light was tolerable he let the hot water in the sink run and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He was skinny, very skinny. His cheekbones stood out and his eyes sunk back into their sockets. People often concluded he was Bulimic. He was no such thing, intact the very though of shoving his finger down his through made him feel like throwing up. No, he didn't have an eating disorder. He just didn't like to eat and wouldn't eat if he didn't have to in order to survive. His hair was jet black and cut short. He had bushy eyebrows, a small nose and hadn't shaved in a week. He hated shaving as well. On any other base he would have been chewed out by some officer for not shaving, but non of the officers on this base cared. Kenny often viewed Fort Such as a dead end place where they sent dead end Marines. The place after all was located on some back wash planet the Covenant had forgotten about.
Kenny put his hands under the hot water running from the sink and wiped his face. When he first started out in the Marines he despised the patrol job he had been given and wanted to be placed on the front lines and see action. Captain Sparksman had granted him his wish and threw him into combat on planets he had never heard of. When on combat duty he hated it and yearned to be back on his dead end fort patrolling. Kenny had fled back to Captain Sparksman and begged to be pulled out and brought back to Fort Such. He had gotten down on one knee and wined to the Captain about how hundreds of Aliens he didn't even know were trying to kill him. A grin had crossed the Captains face and he had looked Kenny Square in the eye and said, "I told you so." The next thing he knew, Kenny was back in his dead end patrol job yearning to be back in combat so hundreds of Aliens he didn't eve know could try and kill him.
The Marine dried his face with a towel and began to focus his thoughts on the patrol he was about to go on. Kenny found that if he pumped himself up before going on a patrol, they tended to be more bearable. Kenny didn't even understand what good going on patrol would do. The Covenant would never try and take Fort Such; they could just glass the whole damn planet if they wanted to.
Kenny pushed the thoughts out if his head and resumed pumping himself up only to hit a wall. His thoughts had drifted to man he went on patrol with, Perry Miraz. The little fucker was out to get him. Kenny knew it. He could tell by the look in his eyes every time they went out on patrol together. The way that he bobbed along humming tunes to songs that Kenny didn't recognize. Him and the Captain were both conspiring against him. He knew this as well because the Captain had thrown him into combat. Everyman on the base knew that Kenny was not fit for combat. That's why the Captain had done it, to dispose of him without actually having to kill him. Kenny let out a small giggle. He was smarter then that, he had brains. Kenny's thoughts drifted back to the weasel he knew as Perry Ramirez and how he despised him when he realized that Perry was missing. He had gone out on a patrol while Kenny was on his leave and never returned. Disappeared into thing air, just like that poor bastard Brian.
With the disappearance of Perry, Kenny had been given a new 'Patrol Pal'. A term that Captain Sparksman had coined in a desperate attempt to raise the moral on the base. His new pal was Joe Mang. A man he despised just as much, if not even more than Miraz.
Kenny pushed all the thoughts of disappearances, traitors, and patrol pals out of his mind and began brushing his teeth with a dull look on his face. The Marine finished washing up and donned his torn uniform and scratched armour. The Marines on Fort Such were all given used armour because the UNSC was sending all the new stuff to front line troops and didn't have enough cash to spare on the boys stationed at Fort Such. Those bastards, thought Kenny of the UNSC, they want to kill me to.
Kenny shook his head vigorously one last time, picked up his Battle Rifle and marched out the door of his room into the dark hallways of Fort Such.
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