Green Fields (Numb)

[thehonorablebat]

Summary: The second story I ever posted.

Before XCOM's victory over ADVENT, there was twenty years of struggle. Bradford isn't sure how he survived it.

A loose collection of snippets, pre-X2.

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Bradford didn’t know which was worse. The aliens looking to kill them all, or the various governments of the world helping them? They had fled from the HQ only to have to go into hiding again. They had been told to surrender and turn themselves in. They wouldn’t be harmed. Really!

You didn’t have to be a genius to see the bullshit. Lots of people had been rounded up. Not just XCOM personnel and supporters. It was anyone who protested.

He was still in shock. The attack on HQ, being ordered to get the senior staff to safety, the Commander’s death-

None of it had really hit him yet. He didn’t have time for it. They had stay on the move. He had to make sure that their temporary camps were secure. Try to think of something to do. Whether it be fight back or just survive, he didn’t know.

Shen wanted to find his daughter. Bradford sympathized, or he thought he should. Everything had taken on a kind of unreal dreamlike quality since their grand escape. He didn’t actually feel much of anything.

The point was that San Francisco was too dangerous. They’d almost certainly be caught. Bradford had to think about the lives of the other twenty-three people under his care. It just wasn’t a good idea.

Of course, telling a father he can’t go find his own daughter was never going to actually work.