Chapter 3 - the grunt

Darkness, heavy hissing in the ears, disorientation, blurry vision.

"Wake up soldier!" Says a strong voice.

Trent opens his eyes with difficulties, his vision is completely blurred and he is laying on the ground. He can't feel his legs.

"My legs!" He shouts.

"They are here, you still have them! Don't worry, this numb feeling will disappear soon, you will be enjoying some nice old pain!" The same voice shouts.

And indeed pain started to wake up in him. First in his legs but quickly spreading all over his body.

"That hurts so bad! What happened?" Trent asks.

"You got blasted away! Now try not to move just yet." The voice replies.

Trent's vision slowly recovers and he can see shapes, his hearing recovers as well. In the distance, he can recognize the sound of vehicles' engines.

"This is our extraction, soon we will be done with this shit." The same voice says.

A convoy arrives, three black reinforced SUV-type vehicles surround the area and a flying transporter starts hovering before landing.

Armed troops quickly secure a perimeter and two medics get out of the flying vehicle. The medics rush where Trent is laying.

"Only two survivors?" A medic asks.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad." The strong voice says.

One of the medics examines Trent in rush. After a moment, he reports to the other one.

"We need to put him to sleep for transport." He says.

"Then do it." The other replies.

He grabs a shot from his field kit and injects it into Trent's arm. His vision fades to black, again the darkness arises.

A voice muttered at first is slowly becoming more audible.

"Good morning, New Paris, today is march the 20th and we are in 2050. Corporations are still at it, Polymax corporation suffered the loss of their biggest assembly chain yesterday in a massive explosion, 5200 employees lost their lives..."

Trent slowly opens his eyes and recovers consciousness. At first sight, he recognizes the personal rooms of the medical section of Tanaka corp, the usual medical bed with holoscreen, and a small bathroom in the corner. His memories come back fragmented, he remembers joining the corporation when he had just turned 18. He was an orphan looking for a family, a powerful one. Tanaka corp's military department was recruiting heavily, probably preparing for the corporations' war to come. They offered training, money, housing, and a lot of brothers and sisters. The first year was probably the hardest one, proving yourself, getting accepted.

Years passing by, higher ranks, higher responsibilities.

Everything culminating to yesterday, the climax of his career, blowing up an assembly chain. A full unit of 15 of the best warriors of Tanaka corp on a secret mission. It didn't go as expected, his fellow soldiers all dead except one, the sarge who took care of him when he got injured. A nurse enters the room pulling him out of his memory ride.

"You are awake, it's good, how do you feel?" She asks him.

"Confused... But I start remembering things." He answers.

"That's good, and what about your legs? Can you try to move them?" She asks again.

"Sure, they hurt but I can move them." He replies.

"The pain is normal, you are very lucky, soldier." She says as she leaves the room.

After a few minutes, a doctor comes in to examine him. The results are pretty good but something changed in him during this mission, not something physical. After 7 years of service, he had finally reached his limits, the feeling wasn't good, the bitter taste of defeat, he hated it.

His physical recovery lasted a month, he had to relearn how to walk. Thanks to the resources of Tanaka corp, he recovered the full usability of his legs without any significant impacts.

That's during this month that he decided to write the resignation message, he knew the corporation will not be happy about it, he also knew he will be stripped away of their implants. An enhanced eye with targeting assist and an arm directly linked to it. He sent the resignation message anyway and the answer of the military council of Tanaka didn't take long to arrive. They accepted his resignation, asked for the removal of Tanaka's assets, and offered him a year allowance for his service, the price of his new freedom.

He could only afford a small apartment in the commons, far from the Corpo districts but he was ok with it. The first months of this new life were fine, small gigs of warehouse security were regular, bad pay but it was allowing him to go by. He almost thought it could only get better from there.

The first crisis occurred one night, he woke from a nightmare about the explosion of a huge industrial complex. The nightmare wasn't something new for him, after 7 years as a soldier, he had a backpack full of demons taking turns haunting his subconscious.

What worried him was the fact that his vision seemed to deteriorate pretty fast as the nightmares were getting more intense. Eventually, he got a check-up at a cheap ripper doc, the best he could afford but the diagnosis wasn't good. Intense trauma and removal of eye enhancement had caused permanent damages, things will only get worse if he doesn't get a new implant.

And it did, after a couple of months, his vision was so bad that he couldn't hide it from his employers anymore. He lost the only source of income he had and quickly the allowance from Tanaka corp ran out, leaving him with months of unpaid rent. It didn't take long after that for his landlord to have him evicted, he ended up sleeping in the streets of the Commons.

From new freedom to a new hell, it took him a bit more than a year, he started to regret his decision. Begging had become his only source of income and his vision was so blurry that he could barely see people as vague shapes moving around. There were days when people were generous enough for him to get proper meals and there were other days.

He had lost it all, he was just a crazy homeless dude, sometimes taking a beating from random gangtoons, other times being mentally tortured by his nightmares. His blurry vision had turned the world around him into a nightmare populated by ghosts and fading shapes. He wanted to end his life but couldn't find the courage or even the way to do it, until this day.

It's evening, he can see the day getting darker and less "ghosts" in the streets, that's when the demons come out. 2 shadows seem to move towards Trent.

"Maybe tonight, they will finish me." He thinks out loud.

"What are you saying, bum!" One of the shadow shouts.

"Finish me, demons! I'm tired of this life!" Trent replies trying to get up.

He gets kicked by one of the shadows and falls back on his butt.

"That's all you got?" He starts provoking the shadows.

A flurry of blows hits him from both sides, he can feel a mix of punches and kicks until he is barely conscious.

"Let's take him to the butcher, maybe we can get few eddies with his organs." Says one shadow.

Suddenly two loud gunshots and both shadows fall on the ground and a pinkish mist appears in front of Trent.

"Are you ok?" A soft female voice asks him.

The pink mist starts to spread, muffled noises, darkness.