I rose from my crouching position and looked over the people who were with me, Andy was bowed over Sarah for the second time in a very short amount of time. He had no helmet, and she was coughing up blood, Ashley was desperately trying to help Nate who'd born the brunt of the explosion, his blood was staining the ground around him. I looked at all the men of Andy's, who were sitting, laying and all groaning in pain. I sighed lightly, it was now or never, this was the last chance.
I walked over to Andy and put my hand on his shoulder, "My friend, can you please stand up?" He complied slowly, first mumbling something to Sarah then groggily getting up. I looked into his eyes and spoke, "Look, I know how this will turn out, you'll want to take them all on by yourself to avenge the deaths that have happened here... But, I can't allow that, I have one last gift to give to you Andy, and that's life, use it wisely and live it for as long as you can, this is all you'll get."
I turned and walked over to Nate and Ashley, "Hey, guys, I guess I wanted to tell you something... Nate, through all we've been through, through all this [censored], you've still stood by me as a friend as well as a soldier, I guess I owe you something... As such, here, I want you to take my rifle." I unhooked the strap off my back and handed the weapon to the injured Nate. I looked at Ashley and gave the smallest of smiles, "I realized something today, through all this death and destruction."
I moved a little closer and dropped my voice a bit more, "You were right, all those times, every one of them, I have a gift for you as well Ashley, it's what I'm giving Andy as well... It's called life, use it well, live it while you can, no matter how much it hurts, it will get better in the end... You were a great friend Ashley, you've saved my life more times then I'd care to count, and for that, I thank you. In return, I'll trade my life for yours, you'll be the one who lives today, not me."
I turned and walked over to Andy, I reached inside the very end of my shirt and pulled out my small knife. I didn't let the metal touch my skin, I winced as it brushed against a vein, which ended up getting cut and flowing out synthetic blood. I looked at Andy, "You have to kill me, with this, it's the only thing that can truly end me, it was made of a certain mineral that isn't even on the planet anymore. All we know is, it can affect people like me very effectively."
I gave a light smile, "The only way to end this is to kill me, if I die, it will send a signal to the ICBM, it'll make it set off while it's still in the launcher... Which will then cause a vast amount of radiation to issue from it, instead of an explosion, it doesn't make sense, but nothing does anymore. Do it Andy, this is how you can save the world, kill me, kill your friend, I won't forget you."