Beat of My Own Drum Pt.1 (Mercs x Reader)
A/N: Welcome to something new I’m starting. This will be a series of x reader stories that will later branch out into individual stories depending on which mercenary you choose. There will be another chapter or two of building before the paths branch off but in any case stay tuned. I hope ya’ll enjoy.
An endless expanse of sand colored nothingness stretched across the horizon. The only break from the beige ocean was one long strip of double-laned highway and a single traffic sign that said ‘SPEED LIMIT: 70 MPH UNLESS POSTED’. That little sign was nothing more than a blur in the passenger side mirror of the old cargo truck barreling down the road. Smoke billowed from the tailpipe, the windshield was cracked right down the middle and the damn thing didn’t even have a working air conditioner.It was a major shit box.
Despite all of its faults, though, the damn thing had a working stereo equipped with a cassette player and that was as good as gold when you were stuck driving two and a half hours through brutal New Mexican desert. No radio stations could broadcast this far out so the radio was functionally useless but you had come prepared, loaded with an arsenal of mixtapes that you typically had in the daily rotation, about a dozen of them actually. Each of them contained about 90 minutes worth of carefully curated tunes hand-picked by yours truly, and each with its own assigned genre. You even went the extra mile to sort the songs in alphabetical order according to band name.
You really like music, okay. Plus it really came handy when you were in the mood for a certain artist. For example, if you found yourself in the mood for Cher, then you knew to skip past the Beatles block of the tape and then you’d be greeted by the catchy opening notes of ‘Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves’.
You’d made it halfway through your rock mix when you finally saw and old, worn out trail that veered off the road and into the raw desert. The trail was well-worn, it was clear that you were nowhere near the first person to travel this road. You knew you weren’t because the woman who normally makes this run had called in a little favor.
Miss Pauling and you had been friends for a good few years. The two of you had met at a specialty weapons expo and had struck up a quick friendship. You liked that she was so knowledgeable about the maintenance and repair of rifles; Miss Pauling liked that you would answer your phone at all hours and didn’t ask many questions when it came to the ‘favors’ that she would call in every so often. This one was definitely one of the easier ones though. You were just swinging by the R.E.D base to drop off some supplies, just normal stuff like food, letters from loved ones, new clothings, oh and ammunition. Lots and lots of ammunition.
About ninety percent of the cargo truck had been stacked to the roof with crates of bullets, grenades, nitroglycerin- You name it, if it had a destructive property then it was probably stored on your truck in some form.
One traffic stop and your life was over.
That was the furthest thought from your mind, however, as you saw the hulking mass of what looked like an old school fort. The reds and browns of the exterior were illuminated by the setting sun on the horizon. Shit, it was almost blinding.
”Where the hell is the loading dock?”You muttered, crouching down in your seat in an attempt to see lower. Little did you know, just to your left was a large sign in the shape of an arrow with little red letters underneath that spelled ‘DELIVERIES’ in capital letters. Well, you weren’t looking to the damn left okay?
The resulting sight was you helplessly driving in circles around the base helplessly, somehow managing to ignore the delivery sign each time. In your defense, it wasn’t everyday you just drove out so far and the endless nothingness of the desert only succeeded in making the base appear more complicated than it was. From the perspective of the mercenaries in the tower, it was an amusing sight.
Spy took a drag off of his cigarette before pinching the cherry out into the free air beyond the open window in front of him before flicking the whole butt out to the ground below. If he was aware of the disdainful look that the Engineer had given him, he did not let on.
“It’s kinda odd isn’t it?” The Texan drawled, his eyes glued to the white truck as it disappeared around the base for a fifth time. “Think we should probably go down there?”
Engineer rolled his eyes when his only answer was the click of a lighter as the Frenchman lit his next cigarette, his eyes still glued to the scene. Stupid question. “Fine” Engineer sighed before turning around to head towards the stairs.
This was odd indeed. Miss Pauling typically had no problem making the scheduled deliveries but this didn’t seem to be Miss Pauling they were dealing with. Did The Administrator hire a new assistant? It couldn’t be, that’s something they should have been notified of . Right? Ugh, he didn’t know, the poor man just wanted to get down to the bottom of this mystery.
