The Mundane and the Magic

5075 words

When someone has a loaded gun pointed at the back of your head, what do you do?

According to one man, you lower your own weapon and turn around to meet the antagonist with a cocky smirk on your face... and apparently, you feel flutters in your heart when you meet their eyes too.

Piercing, cold eyes of a foreign girl stared down the American, wavering his bold smug ego to a quick strike of fear when the tip of her gun barrel edged ever-closer to his face, never faltering from his eye level.

"Step aside." Her voice was cold, monotonous. "I'll be taking him with me."

Words were lodged in his throat as he stared between the gun and her striking features, which were tinted a rosy shade of pink as the bitter cold nipped at her skin. He gulped when her eyes darkened, his Adam's apple visibly bobbing up and down,

The American could have suspected that he would meet foreign soldiers along his travels to Northern France, but he bypassed any expectations of meeting a girl, who was astoundingly flawless with a loaded assault rifle clutched in her hands. He's not sure what captivated him more. The way she kept herself composed, and her riveting bravery to confront 4 soldiers single-handedly. Or, how beautiful she alone looked with that gun in her hands.

Each of the men surrounding the American never eased their defences, remaining vigilant of their unpredictable setting. It seemed they were each surprised just the same, with Richtofen even peering over the American's shoulder to take a brief look at her. They all exchanged, what seemed like, weary glances. Except one. The man that was distinctively Asian, given his Eastern features, never faltered from his stern, sharp expression, still urged to continue his own mission and begone with this unwanted intervention.

'Thud!'

The ground rumbled, startling all but Richtofen. Tensions began to rise between every person present when what could only be guessed as a bomb being dropped just a fair distance away, shook the ground they stood on, and vibrated tools messily scattered about. Everybody flinched when it sounded again, only this time it was louder.

Standing to the right of the girl, was the man in the bullet-proof vest. He seemed to be the only one who paid attention to the thumping that was becoming louder and nearing at a steady pace. He turned his head to peer outside the barrier he had hauled himself through in the beginning, trying to locate the source of the noise, but the torrential rain was proving impossible to see through.

Becoming increasingly agitated the longer she stared at this man's ridiculous dumbfounded expression, like he was absolutely oblivious to the hellish nightmare presumably closing in, her brows knit tighter in fury as her finger twitched on the trigger of her gun impatiently. Despite the way she scowled, her mind yelled the words she dared not slip from her tongue in a state of panic and fret.

"There's literally a loaded gun shoved in his face! Why the hell is he staring at me like this?"

Judging from his bold and daring nature to turn and face someone with a loaded weapon in their hand, with a conceited grin on their face all the while, she had already sussed the surface of his stupidly brash personality. But in this very moment, she couldn't surmise if it was his pride or his mission to be an obstacle between herself and her target; Richtofen.

'Thud!'

Multiple clumps of concrete crumbled from the ceiling this time. Clouds of ash and dust landed on the shoulders of every person standing sparking the fear that the bunker was destined to fall apart at any second. The German began scrambling to gather his belongings, knowing that he was to be crushed by the bunkers' debris if he didn't move soon.

"You have five seconds." She warned through gritted teeth, desperately trying to conceal her panic, knowing well that danger was approaching.

'Thud!'

Huge clusters of slate smacked the floor, barely skimming their bodies when it shattered into tiny clumps as it connected with the ground.

As she opened her mouth to threaten the dark-haired man once again, agonisingly loud screeching emitted directly above the bunker.

A beaming circle of golden light shined through the gaping hole in the ceiling, absolutely blinding to behold. The five-some stared upwards in sync, their weapons slumping to their sides, astounded to see an enormous mechanisation of a steel foot raised sky-high above their heads.

"Move, now!" The bearded man in the bullet-proof vest yelled loudly as he hastily exited the bunker through a barrier in the wall.

The other men followed suite and disappeared quickly, but the girl stood anchored to the ground, frozen in fear as she stared up at the godlike machine, mouth agape and eyes wide.

Knocking the air from her lungs, a brute force jolted the girl sideways, causing her to accidentally fire her gun, fortunately at the floor, as her finger hit the trigger while being grabbed a hold of and hauled rapidly out of the bunker seconds before it was diminished into nothing but a pile rubble when the robot stepped its route.

Her weapon flew from her grasp before she landed sloppily with a yelp on top of someone unknown, the mud squelching underneath their bodies when they hit the ground together forcefully. She had yet to open her eyes, to which she had clamped shut when she was saved from certain death. Her palms pressed firmly against her saviours chest, feeling the curvatures of the military gear and additional weaponry in holsters on top of a leather jacket. It then dawned on her just who she had landed on.

Her eyes shot open to meet a pair of baby blue eyes gazing back at her in concern. Instantly, she scrambled to her feet when she recognised the face of the man she was antagonising just minutes ago, patting her pockets and holsters in a desperate fret to arm herself.

The man stood and composed himself hastily, just as she had.

"Easy! Easy!" His empty palms raised to imitate surrender "It's alright."

Something about him made her panic ease slightly. She huffed, looking him up and down blankly at his tall and stocky physique as he wiped away odd splatters of mud on his face, and only at this time did she truly absorb the little details about him.

His hair, a rich auburn shade, slicked back smoothly, given a sharp contrast by the glint of his charming blue eyes. She noticed a small amount of facial hair on his upper lip, against his fair complexion, to which was dampened by droplets of rain that trickled down his sharp jawline, and dripped on his brown leather jacket.

The man side-eyed her, somewhat pretending to be observing his surroundings when he made minute glances at her.

"Am I not going to get a thank you?" He said smugly.

That cocky expression she was first faced with in the bunker shined boldly on his face once again. Admittedly, it made her heart skip a beat when his lips curled into a waggish smirk.

She took a deep breath and swallowed hard before muttering a few words of gratitude, keeping her eyes focused on the flooded ground, merely embarrassed.

Breaking the uncomfortable silence, the American huffed and soon an outstretched hand came into her eye view as she kept her head bowed from the pouring rain.

"Name's Dempsey." He greeted, before beginning to stumble over his words. "Well, uh- it's "Tank" Dempsey. You can call me either."

The girl peered up at him through her eyebrows, reading his eyes and searching for some sort of harmful intent, but his soft gaze seemed entirely genuine.

She begrudgingly accepted a small handshake.

"(Y/n)." She responded, seeing him smile faintly.

Feeling his gloved hand in her own briefly brought great warmth, as opposed to their bitter cold conditions they stood central of. She crossed her arms and surveyed the area, squinting as the rain began to batter harshly on her face.

Every inch of the land had something horrifying to behold. Wooden wagons lie tipped on their sides, run aground in a heap of mud and blackened from a fire that evidently scorched it prior to the rainfall, now left to wither away with the Earth. Barbed wire fences had fallen soldiers entangled in them, meeting their fates gruesomely when the undead virtually outsmarted them by cornering them to their death. Wooden spears, shanked into the gut of soldiers, displayed around the battleground, as a taunt that disobedience meant fateful punishment.

The sight made her stomach churn, leaving her to question the mess she had fallen victim of.

A mound, with wooden crafts of walkways leading to it's centre, distinctively stood out more so than anything else, apparently to Dempsey too.

"I'm guessing you have the same mission." His statement sounded more like a question of surprise.

Just why was the German wanted in so many countries?

"Yeah." She short-handedly replied, keeping her attention focused on anything but Dempsey.

It was evident in the skies blackening colour of the clouds that another storm was yet to thrash the land. Thunder began to growl in the distance. The rainfall was pattering evermore, unrelenting as it almost never ceased, only worsening the muddied conditions of the makeshift pathways to navigate their way around.

"Where did that fucking German run off to?" She took a few steps forward as she thought out loud, her question going unheard by Dempsey as the rainfall became overbearing.

However, Dempsey did hear what she muttered to herself, he just couldn't pay much attention to it as his eyes remained on her, observing her every feature, perhaps more provocatively than he should be. The rainwater dampened her clothes and slicked it to her figure, accentuating her body, and highlighted the leather straps of the holsters she adorned across her chest and thigh, complimenting her figure beautifully, in Dempsey's eyes.

A flash of lightning igniting the sky reeled Dempsey from his imagination, startling him more when the girl turned to him, sending a red hue across his cheeks.

"We should get moving." Dempsey suggested, needing to raise his tone over the sound of the rain splashing in the puddles around them.

He began trudging through the deep mud, presumably heading to the central battleground, to the mound they each noticed earlier. However, Dempsey paused when he didn't hear a second pair of footsteps tailing him, turning on his heel and shielding his eyes from the rain when he looked back at her. She almost looked dumbfounded.

"Are you suggesting that we stick together?" She snickered. "I hardly know you. What makes you think I'm so up for that idea, pal?"

Dempsey chuckled and rolled his eyes, as he began to reason. "Well, I can only assume you faced the same things before we got here."

His statement sounded more like a question, to which she nodded at him in agreement before he continued.

"Then I'd say we have a better means of survival if we stick together." Dempsey raised a brow, eyeing her as she scowled at his naturally cocky mannerisms.

The American was talking sensibly, but she would be damned to admit that he was right not to a man she just met. Judging from his noticeably inflated ego, it would only fuel his will to be so overweening in himself, more so than he already is now.

"Fine." She huffed, making her way up alongside him, her hand resting on the pistol in the holster on her thigh. "But try anything funny and I won't hesitate."

She motioned to the gun below her hip.

Dempsey tutted as he said sarcastically, "Got it."

-X-

The duo had scavenged the wasteland for what seemed like eternity, battling hordes of undead creatures around every corner, amidst a raging storm all the while.

Throughout their travel across the battlefield, they stumbled upon plenty of questionable contraptions and machines, that Dempsey sought be power generators, although still leaving each of them just as confused as they other as to what they do exactly. For they were no ordinary power switch on a wall, but instead a large steel platform with pillars and dials, a large antenna on top, and words engraved in German above buttons. Presumably, it held some significance to the German's for there were numerous buildings of the same structure dotted about.

"Just what have the German's got going on down here?" Dempsey spoke, his hand hovering above a big red button on the generator.

"I don't know." She sounded suspicious, looking about. "But I wouldn't press any buttons if I were you. We don't know what that thing does."

Dempsey stood upright with a huff, glancing over his shoulders nonchalantly, making a brief observation of any opposing threat. He kept his weapon equipped, looking her up and down while she reloaded her assault rifle a small distance from him.

"Is there a problem, Dempsey?" She asked lazily, noticing his staring from the corner of her eye.

"No." He responded quickly.

"Well, on we go then." She began walking away leaving the American to follow her hastily.

The girl stepped into a pit of mud, mounded in a perfectly rectangular shape in the middle. Both of them had discovered that it was a imprint in the ground made by one of the German's robots. Occasionally, they had witnessed them step their typical patrol route, and one time barely scrimping away alive as they hurried through pools of mud to get out of its way before they were stomped on.

Dempsey seemed to have more whereabouts of the area, leading the way across paths and to better places of shelter. While she trailed behind a small distance from him, it gave her time to wonder more about his back-story.

During the short time she had spent with him, the girl figured him to be a very genuine man behind his typical brash demeanour. Often the remarks and responses he had were rather crass, but he had not a care. He would play things off with a small chuckle. He was quite fascinating to her.

But perhaps that was due to her lack of interactions with anyone during the time she travelled from her homeland to Northern France. She was sent with the trust that she could tackle this mission alone. Little did she now there would be upheaval that'll cause disruption.

She found herself walking quicker to be alongside Dempsey. He turned his head slightly only to catch a glimpse of her, before slowing and stopping in his tracks to look up the huge bell tower that caught his eye. The girl paused by his side and followed his line of vision.

"A church." She looked up at him slightly. "You think we can take shelter in there?"

"Hopefully." He responded. "We just need to get outta this damn rain, and maybe come up with a plan."

Dempsey carried on walking, the girl following suite.

"My boots are squelching so bad I can practically have a conversation with them." He grumbled to himself.

The girl happened to faintly catch what he said and cracked a smile, giggling faintly in confusion at his random statement, but apparently it quipped Dempsey's attention. He smiled bashfully, but kept his focus diverted to avoid it being noticed.

"So, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you're a Marine?" She sounded a little cocksure in her question, but it was entirely genuine.

Tank was somewhat taken aback. "What- How'd you know?"

"I didn't. You just seemed like you'd fit the profile." She shrugged. "And I don't think they'd assign just any soldier a mission like this."

Part of him wanted to be assertive and retort with a flirty comment, but he pushed the urge aside as they neared the church, knowing well he needed to remain level-headed.

The church entrance came into full view, or what seemed more like a gaping hole in the side of the building, guess-ably obstructed by a bomb. Clusters of stone bricks piled up around the site, from patches in the ceiling that had caved in on itself, weakened by the harshnesses it was facing from the undead barging and tearing their way through what once were mere cracks in the walls, and the storms ripping apart the structure brick-by-brick.

'Just how much longer is this place gonna be standing?' She thought.

Proving itself to be everything else but safe, the churches only liable aspect was that of the feeble shelter it provided.

(Y/n) was preoccupied in searching for any clue that the German may have left behind to let them know of his current whereabouts, and it was certain that Dempsey questioned his location just the same. She scanned tabletops for something as simple as a letter, perhaps some notes, or a map even, that might hint a location that they had yet to explore.

"We've got ourselves some transport if we need it." Dempsey called out.

Following the sound of Dempsey's voice, she found him observing a German tank. Judging by the way he eyed it like it was a brand new toy, he seemed quite compelled to climb aboard and take it for a ride.

"You think it's still operational?" She asked.

He never took his eyes off the vehicle. "There's only one way to find out."

The American slipped his gun back into its holster, preparing to haul himself up onto the tank.

"Halt!"

They froze in sync when a shotgun cocked behind them. (Y/n) side-eyed Dempsey, only to see him roll his eyes dramatically at the sudden intervention.

"Turn around, slowly." The commanding voice was gruff, and definitely foreign, above all.

As ordered, the duo spun around wearily, met with two men, both utterly diverse from each other. Despite how they each recognised the opposing men, Dempsey's stern face never faltered. His chest puffed and shoulders levelled, virtually sizing up the men despite the fair distance between them.

(Y/n) took note of the man with the shotgun first, a tad taken aback by his tall and broad physique.

From where she had dismissed him at their first encounter in the bunker, she observed his attire intently. He was adorned in padded, thermal winter clothing, along with his bullet-proof vest over the top of his coat. Judging from his aviator hat, with goggles over the top, and leather gloves, she guessed he was Eastern; a soldier of origin from a colder country.

However, his facial features she couldn't surmise much description of, for his most prominent features were that of his sunken eyes, his bushy eyebrows, and thick beard, groomed neatly on his chin and moustache that delicately curled up pompously at the ends. As for the man's hair, it was concealed by his hat.

Perhaps an arms length to the side of him, stood a man slightly shorter, the top of his head only level with the taller man's chin.

The girl scanned his features from head to foot, immediately noticing his prominently muscular build, for his uniform was slashed and torn off completely at the sleeves, revealing the contours of his bulky arms.