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Arrow agreed with Amy.

Austin healed within a week. Each day he healed more than he had the last, which was unusual. By that time, he was well enough to walk and do regular tasks. SET Squad One was still off duty for now, however. They had worked hardest, and now there were plenty of other squads to work in their stead for a while. On top of that, the Infection breakouts/Cyborg/John attacks had died down.

Amy found herself two drinks in and occupying a table in the back of the mess, with a small plate of food and a book, on this particular evening, a rare moment of quiet. They'd had quite a bit of free time lately though, and Amy had to say, she didn't miss the combat, the last few months had been somewhat traumatizing.

The mission Wildner was on had not been as easy as expected.

He was deployed just outside the city, in order to support civilians fleeing their homes. Everything went well at first - It just seemed like a routine rescue mission. There was some infected activity, but nothing he couldn't handle on his own. As a result, he allowed the other SET squads to use most of the outside support such as air strikes and reinforcements.

When he was on mission for about four and a half days, things went bad quickly. A large force of infected emerged from the streets, rushing towards the the tower he was hiding in. He took down an amount that would have earned him several medals in the regular military, but they eventually broke through. He placed charges on the tower and rapelled down, Detonating them immediately after touching the ground. Screams of the infected filled the air and died down again.

Just as he'd thought he was safe, A man walked out of an alley. He was bleeding from multiple wounds, so Wildner moved in to help out. However, this man was just like the one that the squad had encountered, like the one that took down Austin. Wildner managed to evade it for a while, but his luck ran out quickly. As he was hiding in an old factory, the monster started smashing it up completely. Wildner called for air support, but all of it was engaged. The infected were on the counterattack everywhere. Finally, he was forced to run. Things had quieted down outside, so he just ran out towards the next building. As soon as he came in the open air, however, a giant fished hit him from the side and sent him flying several meters into the wall of a nearby tower. Wildner's vision got blurry, and he couldn't move. Just as the monster raised is fists to finish the man, air support arrived. Two choppers launched a barrage of missiles, eventually killing it completely.

Wildner was now rolled in on a medical transport, and rumour quickly spread throughout the base of how he managed to survive a whole horde and a giant on his own, yet also how close to death he'd been. The surgeons couldn't do much, though. They fixed the broken bones in his body, and several internal bleedings, but most was up to Wildner himself to overcome and heal. He was now in the med bay where Austin probably was not so long before. Several people from other squads had come by immediately after his arrival. All of them said some things, but Wildner couldn't understand anything of it. He heard it all like a person swimming underwater in a swimming pool would hear people talking on its surface.

Arrow was in the combat practice chamber, where virtual reality allowed him to blast his problems away. He violently outlet his anger on the fake robots, and vehicles that advanced helplessly into his enraged, power-driven laserstorm. What he was angry about? That ranged from the fact that he couldn't talk, to the fact that he had to watch good men go willingly to die by the thousands at the hands of inhuman monsters. When he got the call that Kenneth had gotten back, Arrow shut off the training system and ran out. He was anxious to see how the mission went.

Arrow arrived at the medical bay and smiled. His face was hidden by his helmet, but that was because he didn't have Amy ready to translate nearby. His helmet's thought translation software would do the trick just fine, although he didn't know that Kenneth couldn't understand what he was saying. "Hey, Kenneth." Said a robotic voice from the helmet. "How are you?"

Austin found himself in the mess hall as well, and noticed Amy sitting by herself. He took his drink and sat down at the same table. "Hey." Austin smiled.

Amy looked up from her book the minute she heard the voice. She was actually a little surprised that Austin was up and moving around so easily. She'd of course, heard that he'd been allowed to leave the med bay, but it was quite another thing to see him walking around right as rain.

"How are you feeling?" She asked curiously.

Wildner strained himself to hear what Arrow said. He couldn't manage to, so he just smiled, indicating he was fine otherwise.

Arrow dematerialized his armor, realizing that talking wouldn't be necessary. One deaf, one mute. He smiled back at Kenneth, and sat down in the chair next to the hospital bed. Arrow wondered what happened over there that they only wanted Kenneth, and why he was so badly hurt...

At the mess hall, Austin shrugged. "I'm feeling great. I don't know why, but I've healed completely since the attack. Totally better again. How about you?"

"Fine" She answered shortly, a fairly typical one word answer, as was the usual for her. "Glad you're feeling better."

She wondered at how quickly he'd healed, it seemed nearly impossible, that being said, since when had healing fast ever been a bad sign? No, she wouldn't dwell on it, she was satisfied that he was okay, that was good enough.

Wildner couldn't move his right arm yet, so he reached for a pen and paper with his left. He quickly wrote down a not and handed it to Arrow.

"How are Amy and Austin?"

"Good, that's good. And thank you kindly. Is that, uh.." Austin gestured towards Amy's drink. "Is that your second?"

Arrow quickly took the pen and paper and scratched his head for a few seconds. He had forgotten how to read or write since the incident, in fact, he probably had never learned at all. He generally had no need to read things, but now he wished he could decipher those little symbols. If Amy were here, she could translate. Arrow did recognize the question mark (he had seen it before) and Amy's name (also known from experience.) He decided that Kenneth was inquiring about his friend's well-being. He drew a smiley face and handed the pad back to Kenneth. Perhaps that would work?

Amy wouldn't answer with words, a simple nod. She wasn't going to lie about it, she didn't much like that attention was being drawn to it however.

Wildner saw how much difficulty Arrow had reading his message. When the paper was given back to him, there was nothing but a smiley face drawn on it. He smiled and nodded, then put the paper and pen back to the table beside his bed and leant back into the pillow.

Austin shrugged, and took a large sip of the drink he held in his hand. Pointing to it with his free hand, he smirked. "This is my first. I've never really had time for drinking before, but now I want nothing more than to forget everything. Y'know?"

Arrow frowned, disappointed with himself for failing to communicate with his friend. He continued to sit there in silence for a little while, hoping the company might help Kenneth to forget his problems for a while.


None of these knew just how much danger they truly were in.

Amy frowned down at her drink and swished it around. "Doesn't help..." She allowed after a moment. She never really forgot.

Austin frowned before taking another gulp. "Well, that's disappointing... So why bother?" The brutality of his comrades' deaths were burned into his memory. Even if he hadn't actually seen Jack die, the memory was there. He had, however, witnessed Laurence's death. The exaggeration of the memory's more horrible aspects after replaying it in his mind over and over again made it ten thousand times worse than it might really be. Possibly.

The thousands of cadets dying before they even finished their first mission came to mind, too.

Amy gave him a rare smile, though it was strained. "I guess I just keep hoping it will work eventually." Speaking of her drink, she reached over, and picked up the half full cup, taking a long sip.

A nurse entered Wildner's room. "Would you like to get some fresh air?" she asked. Wildner nodded. He knew that by 'fresh air' she actually meant the halls outside his room, but it'd have to do. The nurse rode in a wheelchair, and Wildner was hoisted in. Once he was seated and ready to go, he looked at Arrow. "Ready to go?" he asked him.

Austin nodded. "Makes sense." He smiled back before taking another sip. "When will it end, is my question. When all the fighting stops, and all of the death comes to an end. When will their ruthless quest for violence finally stop, and we can all rest?"

Arrow nodded with a smile. He grabbed Kenneth's wheelchair handles and walked out the door. He wondered where Kenneth wanted to go, but didn't know how to convey his query. He decided to stop the wheelchair outside the door, and let Kenneth tell him where he wanted to go.

Kenneth looked around and saw a pointer that said "Cafeteria". he pointed it out to Arrow.

Amy let out a long sigh. "Doesn't seem like it ever will. You get rid of one bad person, six more pop up." She downed the last of her drink, but of course, it only made her feel more miserable. "The way we've been dropping like flies...it'll be us that's over and done with, before all the bad tings are gone."