He stood there at the edge of the treeline, looking down the hill at the field full of bodies in the pre-dawn light. He'd known it would be bad, but he was hoping that there would at least have been some survivors, some cluster of humanity huddling together holding out hope for a rescue. Even the horror of moans or screams or crying would have been encouraging.

The only sound came from the wind and a few birds singing to each other cheerfully a few trees away.

Stomach churning, but otherwise emotionally stunned, he made his way down among the bodies, stopping occasionally at faces he knew to check, fruitlessly, for any signs of life. After a moment he struck upon the idea of using his thermal goggles to look for discrepancies against the cold ground, and fumbled around in his bag until he got it out of its case.

After looking over the area twice, he was ready to give up hope and leave, but then he saw a flicker of movement, a warm spot that he had mistaken for noise before. Reminding himself not get his hopes up too far until he knew it wasn't just a bird, he jogged over to the spot. There was a cracked gasp as he arrived, and he looked down to see a feeble movement underneath a pair of other bodies. In seconds, he had them clear.

It was Sally.

Her right leg was a ruin from the knee down, and the front of her body was covered in blood. Her face, somehow, had been entirely untouched, hardly even dirty, and the pale, clammy, but unblemished skin was almost a mockery of the devastation below. Somehow, she had managed to tie a tourniquet around her leg just above the knee, and had pressed a wad of clothing across her stomach to slow the bleeding, then pulled the two nearest bodies over her for warmth. It wasn't going to be enough, though, and he hid his dismay as her eyes opened and passed over him with no sense of recognition, her breath coming in short gasps.

In moments, his bag was open, his tools unfolding neatly around them. Rocking her body gently upwards he snaked a hand underneath her shirt and vest and stuck the nerve blocker on her spine. Its activation was rewarded with a kind of shuddering sigh, and he reached for his medical scanner.

She wasn't going to make it. Most of the abdominal injuries had been superficial, but two bits of shrapnel had cut their way in deeper, nicking her kidney and left lung. He needed a fully stocked medlab, and all he had was a field kit. That didn't stop him from trying, though, and he quickly peeled back the remnants of her vest, cut open her shirt, and started cleaning the area for surgery when he felt her hand grab his wrist.

"Not... like you," she said in between breaths. "Usually... more... realistic."

"I can always try," he said as soothingly as he could.

"Rather... not... spend last... moments... cut open," she answered, and let go of his arm. There wasn't really a response to that, so he just quickly sutured the cuts that were still bleeding, drew her shirt back together, and pulled an emergency blanket over her.

"Did... we win?" she asked, eyes closed.

For a bare moment, he actually considered telling her yes, telling her that it wasn't all for nothing after all, but he'd never lied to her before, and couldn't bring himself to start now. "No," he answered simply. "I'm sorry."

She actually smiled a little at that. "Good... man. Always... knew you... were honest."

Of course she knew, he thought, uselessly.

"Help... me up. Wanna... see... sunrise," she said after a moment.

He nodded and sat cross-legged next to her, pulling her up to lean against his chest, wrapping his arms around her to keep her steady. The hill in the distance left the horizon blessedly free of bodies, and they sat together in silence as the edge of the sun peeked over the edge. After a short time it became too bright to look at, and she sagged back into him. "Thank... you," she said simply, and closed her eyes smiling. Her breath came in even more ragged after that, but her smile never faded until she gave one last shuddering gasp and stopped breathing completely.

He kept holding her until the sun was high in the sky. Eventually he set her back down, closed up her vest with her arms folded over it, gathered his things, and left.