This is probably gonna be the final chapter, unless someone wants an epilogue. Could be cos I'm a bleeding heart, could be cos I've been channeling Scout a bit too long at 1am for five nights straight, but I was in tears when I wrote this. So enjoy! ~ We took Sniper and Spy first, cos they were already here. RED Spy grabbed Snipes and pretty much just threw the guy over his shoulder. I just stared at my Spy for a sec. Looked like he really had shot himself. He had blood coming out of his mouth; it was open and I could see the concrete through it. Woulda been kinda funny if it didn’t make me wanna vomit. I picked him up, but for a skinny guy he was heavy. I couldn’t put him on my shoulder like the other Spy had, so I threw his arms over my shoulders and gave him a piggy-back. The bad Spy didn’t smile (but at least he grabbed Sniper’s hat). We just started walking. It was funny, we both went for the courtyard stairs. Guess we both knew it would be easier. We had to go slow, cos dead Spy was damn heavy, and felt like he got even heavier every step up I went. Bad Spy just kept waitin’ on me which, to be totally honest, was kinda nice of him, I s’pose. We got to the top and I could see Engie’s body again. He hadn’t moved, which was kind of a relief (cos then he wasn’t sufferin’ with a polka-dot stomach) but mostly not (cos, ya know, he’s dead-dead). Livin’ Spy looked down at him, and I could see his face a bit; he didn’t look happy, but we walked down the wooden steps and past him without talking. Soldier and RED Pyro’s bits were still all over the place, and Bad Spy made this real grossed-out noise when he saw ‘em. Totally bet that noise meant “Onhonhon, fuck this shit, now I gotta sort out freakin’ blown-up body parts and what the fuck did that bit even do, petty shoe-floorâ€, cos apart from the faggoty French-shit that’s what I was thinkin’ too. We got out to the battlements and he was right, the Heavies were both there, right at the ends of the bridge. His had a nice neat hole in his face, and mine was covered in blood and bullets. If I had to choose, I’d rather go down like mine did, cos at least you’d know you were properly dead. We put the guys down on either side of him, real gently. I looked over at Fucker Spy on Heavy’s right and saw him put Sniper’s hat on his chest, over his heart, before he walked off. I looked back down at my Spy, and reached down to pull his mask off, but Bad Spy poked my hand offa him with his foot, and when I looked up at him he gave me this ‘Don’t you even fuckin’ think about it’ look, and I followed him back inside. Spy walked straight past the bloody mess and back to the courtyard. Before he could touch Engie, I ran in front and started pulling him up by myself. I put his arms over my shoulders again, but Engie was a lot heavier than I ever thought he’d be, and I couldn’t lift him up properly. Spy started coming over to help me, but I gave him a ‘this was your fault so you don’t get to fuckin’ help’ glare and he stopped, and I started dragging Engie on my own. The tips of his boots still trailed along the ground, but I didn’t need no fuckin’ Spy’s help carrying him. By the time I got back to the others, my legs were wobbling and my back was killing me. I put Engie back down next to Sniper, and even managed to do it gently. I felt kinda proud of myself, in a really sad way. I stood up straight and stretched my back, and Spy put Engie’s helmet on his heart too. He looked back over at his own battlements, then back at me, and we got to work there. The RED Medic was easy, so Spy did him on his own. Apart from his face you wouldn’t know anything was wrong from the front. He put the body on Heavy’s left, and put their hands together. While he started makin’ Heavy look normal, I walked inside and right away spotted Mumbles’ body. He had blood on his mask, and I’m pretty sure it was his. He was in one piece, though, so I grabbed him and let him ride on me back to our side. I put him down next to Engie; those two had been like best friends. I almost tried to take his mask off as well, but stopped myself. If I couldn’t take Spy’s, I really couldn’t take Pyro’s. RED Spy was waiting for me, and we went into the courtyard on his side. His Engie looked like a pincushion, my Demo’s armour jacket was torn to shit and my Medic had made it right to the other end of the hall before he’d died. Spy grabbed his Hard-hat and carried him over his shoulder as well, but he looked like running past him too fast would make him fall over. I looked down at Demo, and shit, I’d never realised how big he was ‘til right now. Dude had a chest like a fuckin’ barrel, and it made it real hard to give him a ride. I ended up throwing one of his arms over my shoulder and dragging him along. How the hell was he not as heavy as Engie? Hay and shit got stuck to Demo’s boots as I dragged him along, and I could feel stuff getting stuck in my socks too. One of his hands was dangling on the ground, but I couldn’t grab it without dropping the rest of him. But then Spy came back, saw I wasn’t doing so good and helped right away. He’s a bit taller than me, but not enough that him throwing Demo’s arm over his shoulder and carrying him too was hard. It felt weird walking Demo like this. It was like he was just out cold from boozing. And thinking that made it hard to swallow. We put him down next to Spy, cos someone had to be there, and Demo sometimes shared beer with him. Then back across the bridge and into RED base. I jerked my head at the sewers when Spy tried to follow me to my doc, and he nodded and went down. I wonder if he knew my clone was there, or if he was just going cos he trusted me. I found Medic; he was lying on his stomach, and when I rolled him over he had a huge chunk of his neck missing. Carved out by a shovel, I think; confirmed when I saw it lying nearby, abandoned and crispy. Medic was actually pretty light. Shouldn’ta surprised me, really. He was old and kinda tall, but almost as skinny as Sniper. He was easy to carry (but oh god, his head kept bouncing around, shit), and when I got out the doors Spy’d caught up with me. He was carrying my clone like a girl in his arms, and when I saw him looking like burnt toast, it didn’t feel good. Other Scout was like, the only person that played ball with me, and even though he was a Yankee he wasn’t half bad. Spy put his Scout down on the far left, but I put Medic down next to Demo. Seeing ‘em next to each other, for once not fightin’ about Demo’s drinking problem or the pole up Medic’s ass, kinda made me smile, even if I couldn’t swallow again. And back into RED base. Upstairs again. His Demo was lying where I’d left him, and my guts did flip-flops when I remembered that he was dead cos of me. Spy took Demo by throwing the guy’s arms over his shoulders and dragging him along. He looked like he was wearing a human cape. I went out to the battlements, and had to stop for a sec just to look at what we’d done. You couldn’t see my guys properly cos of the bridge, but you could see Spy’s just fine, and just lookin’ at ‘em all, the sight of all those poor bastards just lying there, never going to be able to see their ma’s or kids again, of them all not knowing their sons or bro’s or dad’s ain’t coming back... Goddamnit, sweat was getting in my eyes. I looked away from them and grabbed Sniper. He wasn’t tall enough to drag like a cape when I put him over my shoulder like Spy’d done, but he was heavy, and when I got him back downstairs the fuckin’ long way, Spy took him off me and let me try and pop my shoulder back in. While I stretched, I looked down at everyone again, this time trying hard not to think, just countin’. Six REDs, seven BLUs. I only had Soldier left, but he had his Solly and Pyro. Spy looked really grossed out, and started to go across the bridge, but I grabbed his shoulder and pointed down. He just raised an eyebrow at me, and I went back into his base. He followed right behind me as we went down the stairs (oh geeze, more blood. I almost slipped again), through the gross water and past the dry patch. Soldier was still there, but his brains had finished sliding down the walls. I think Spy might’ve stepped in ‘em, judging by his face, but he didn’t look down. Soldier musta been heavier than he looked, cos Spy stumbled when he tried to carry him over one shoulder. I moved closer, Spy lowered the body til he just had an arm over his shoulder, I took the other and we walked again. Between the two of us, we must’ve almost fallen over RED Soldier’s huge feet like a dozen times, but we got him back to the others eventually. Spy put him down next to my clone. I stood back and looked at Spy’s team. He’d put them down in some kinda order, I think. Scout on the far left (my left), then Soldier, Demo, Heavy, Medic, Engie, and Sniper. There was a big hole between Soldier and Demo. Must be for his Pyro. Oh geeze, Pyro. Well, this was gonna be fuckin’ fun. We just stood in the doorway, looking at the body parts everywhere. Neither of us knew where to start, but I think the biggest problem was how we were gonna fuckin’ carry any of it. But then I had an idea. It wasn’t a bad one, either. Spy watched me as I took my bag off, took my shit out and threw it down behind me, and put one of Solly’s arms into my bag. Spy nodded, and almost even smiled. He took his coat off, tied what was left of the sleeves under his right shoulder and over his left like a bag strap, and grabbed the two bits of the bottom to make a little bag, and he put his Pyro’s head in first. We had no idea who half the bits actually belonged to, and I dunno ‘bout him but I didn’t know what half of ‘em did, either. In the end it took us the better part of an hour to get what we wanted, just anything with a piece of team clothing attached to it. Course, that didn’t leave us with a lot, but we both had a head and most of their arms and legs, so at least we had somethin’. Spy started reassembling his Pyro right away, but I put my bag down and rearranged my team a little. I carried Spy over and put him next to Py, then dragged the doc across next to Heavy. I put Demo closer to the big guy, then finally grabbed my bag and put the bits of Solly down where I thought they looked about right. It left a whole fuckin’ yard between his head and his knees, but it looked right, so that was okay. I gave Solly’s foot one last nudge, then stepped back to look at them all properly. I’d put the Frog on the far left, then Mumbles, Engie, Snipes, King Kong, the Doc, Demo and what was left of Soldier. I let all my breath out in one big rush, to try and get rid of the lump in my throat. Didn’t work. I looked behind me at Spy, and he was sitting down at the end of the bridge, just talking. I couldn’t understand him, it was some dumb European language. I looked back at my team, swallowed hard, and tried to think of something to say. “...shit, guys.†Not what I wanted to start with, but when more words came I didn’t try and stop ‘em. “Shit, this isn’t how it was meant to go. We were all meant to, to retire or somethin’, not get shot and blown up and, and killed before we could even go home.†I looked over my friends, one at a time. “Doc, you and Ruski were goin’ to find a place in Italy, just retire and raise a couple dogs or adopt some kids and get married or somethin’. Sniper, you said you were gonna show me how to use that goddamn bow of yours, show off to your ma ‘n’ pa, say sniping was real sweet. You said you’d work stuff out with your pa, what happened to that? Mumbles, you were gonna show us your face, you fuckin’ promised. We even got it down in writing that you would when we retired, and now you’ve gone and died on me, that’s fuckin’ cheatin’.†A laugh escaped my lips, but it was wet. “Engie, you...†I had to take a huge breath to try and make my voice stay straight. “You were gonna teach me how to ride a horse. Ya know, back down in Texas. I was gonna come down on vacation, bring Ma with me. See if you two didn’t get along like we do. “Solly, you wanted to show Demo the Fourth a’ July, and he was always sayin’ he’d make some fireworks when it came back round again, just for us. A whole fuckin’ show, just for you and me, Solly. How awesome would that’ve been?†I couldn’t see straight no more, the tears were in the way, just about ready to fall. I looked at Spy last. “Spy, fuck...no-one knew what you wanted to do. But I always thought you’d wanna go back to France, find some nice blonde, or go to Spain and get a sexy dancer in one a’ those puffy dresses. I didn’t know you’d kill yourself, but...but that ain’t right. You don’t do that, you don’t kill yourself.†I blinked, and felt tears roll down my face. I’d forgotten how bad they tickled. “Why’d ya never talk to us ‘bout it? We woulda helped, we woulda fuckin’ tried.†I just stood there. My shoulders shook a bit, my face was wet and I was sore all over, but I could still feel something else to say. “It don’t feel right. Why’m I the only one left? Compared to you guys I’m only a kid, I don’t know what to do now. You guys were all I had for, what, two, three years? Shit, guys...†I bunched my fists so tight I woulda bled if I didn’t have my hands wrapped. “I’m gonna miss you. Every fuckin’ day, I’m not gonna have you guys, and...†My voice died. Spy put his hand on my shoulder, and we just stood there. We barely even noticed when the siren rang out. Ceasefire. The war was over. And like fuck had we won.