[ WP ] A soldier in the heat of battle suddenly hears a voice that says `` I am your child 's imaginary friend . They have sent me to protect you in your greatest time of need . ''

There it was again. That fucking smell. Mech plasma has a distinct smell that Gary had never been able to quite place. Somewhere in between dead caterpillar and a stale fart and if you smelled it, it meant your mech was leaking it's pungent blood. Which meant that the thick armor had been penetrated which meant you were probably dead. 
 
 But not Gary. Gary found his luck to be rather oddly placed. Eight feet above the hard stone of a ruined road, his dead co pilot's seat pinned his legs to the mech after being warped from the large caliber gunfire. But the absolute luckiest part was that this was a deep strike, that was *supposed* to end in a feint. Of course, whoever fired a hole through the 15 foot mech did not know that. They also did n't know Gary was lucky. Neither did Gary. 
 
 Gary looked out into the distance. The occasional sound of gunfire arcing across the small mid-western town like the song of a lonely cricket. Out in the distance, enemy soldiers would be rushing through forests and sporadic buildings. 
 
 `` Where's Gary?'' they must be asking. `` Let's go finish the job on Lucky Gary.'' 
 
 Gary will just sit here and wait. Fuck it. 
 
 He fumbled for his cigarettes and opened the ( mostly ) bulletproof canopy to let some of the fresh Midwestern air in. It barely smelled polluted. It was quiet. 
 
 `` You got ta go.'' 
 
 Gary turned his head down. The two-pilot cockpit meant his co-pilot, and supposedly deceased best friend was about two feet lower than where he was sitting. But Matty was no longer sitting there. Instead a little girl sat in his place. 
 Her face was clean and familiar, and she wear a red headband with little devil horns that only made her seem more innocent. Behind her the canopy was cracked and stained in blood. Gary's mind stopped working. His eyes were wide and mouth agape. 
 
 `` Kim sent me. You got ta go Dad.'' 
 
 All Gary could do was stare at the little girl's shoulders, which seemed to disappear when he looked at them. They were like puffs of smoke that had the right colors to them. Little blank spots. They were everywhere. Parts of her hair, her fingers. Gary felt his nose begin to bleed. 
 
 `` My name is Bel. Can we go now? You got ta go.'' 
 
 Gary felt his mind click. Kimmy. Not Kim. Kimmy was his beautiful 5 year old angel waiting for him back home. And she often played with a little girl named Bel who died a year ago. Only, Kimmy never stopped playing with her. 
 
 Gary looked up from deep though, and back at the thing that called itself Bel only to be met with the Matty's corpse. He sat there for a bit longer. Kimmy. 
 
 Gary began to pry his foot loose with new found strength. He looked at Matty's corpse and gave one last push as his newly freed leg rushed towards his chest. 
 
 I got ta go. 
 
 
 
 

