Here is my entry for Round 1.1: Max 1500 word military fiction piece with romance, incorporating all three required images as pictured.

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Lily peered past the scorched curtain into the night. The haze of wildfire smoke was a miasmic, green fog through her night vision goggles.

All that was missing were lurching zombies and the horror tableau'd be complete.

But then, she and Red were the undead here, weren't they. The bodies of civilian casualties littering the streets were too charred for limbs to move. There was no reanimating anything that crispy.

A bead of sweat trickled into her eye. She blinked the salty sting away as best she could, unwilling to pop up her NVGs to wipe her eyelid.

The couch seat dipped, Red shifting his legs again. Her fellow scout propped his assault rifle over his left shoulder. Through his mask, Red's soft snores resumed. How she envied him his ability to sleep anytime, anywhere. Not that it mattered. She'd lost the rock-paper-scissor for first watch. It would be Red's turn to take over in an hour.

Communications were down so they'd chosen to settle the night here, checking themselves–so to speak–into what remained of a ground floor hotel suite. Up to their nuts, or in her case, tits, in bombed out 5-star decor while they waited for their Green Conglomerate forces to show. It'd been sheer luck to find this armless couch more or less intact.

She and Red were fully armed at least, with ammo to spare.

There'd been no sign of the Big Oil Cartel–the BOIL's–troops or drones during the day. Chances were slim but not zero that any BOIL troops were hanging about, now that the damage had been done. If the advancing GreCon forces didn't arrive by dawn, she and Red would resume their scouting.

Lily eased back a little on her seat.

The sulphurous smell of the bombed out building reminded her of eggs.

Another drop of sweat stung her eye.

Damn, every square inch of her flesh was on the BOIL, har-har. Was this what an egg felt like in hot water? Eggs... Lily couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten one. It'd been so long since they were available on the free market. Man, what was up in her head with eggs tonight?

She sucked air through her mouth to bypass the stench, gulping that inhale as if all the oxygen in the air were about to run out.

Which it could, if they didn't win this war.

There were so few forests left. The wildfires set by the BOILs to clear land for drilling had transformed forests of wood and foliage into those of steel and fumes. Oil rigs and bobbing drill heads now stood for the oaks and maples, pipelines the new treelines that stretched along too many horizons.

Her arms trembled as she shifted her rifle to her opposite shoulder. PTSD, the unit medic had told her, before he'd been killed in that last bombing run. If the war didn't come to an end soon, she suspected she would.

The last report from HQ claimed the BOILs had sustained crippling losses though.

When Red shifted again, Lily couldn't help but turn to look at him. They'd been partnered for duty for nearly twelve months. Partnered in love for the last five months of those.

She couldn't imagine being without him.

Red was her breath of fresh air. He was her tree. The roots that kept her grounded. He told her that once the Conglomerate won the war, they would marry and he would plant her a grove of trees for their honeymoon (as long as she did the pruning –she was better with a blade than he was he'd laugh). Oh, and he'd plant her a garden filled with red lilies too. How could he not when those beautiful flowers so perfectly symbolised their names together? He called her his 'Lily flower' often when they were alone.

Red was a romantic at heart.

A hot sting pierced the meat of her thigh. Breath lost, her sight blurring, her bowels nearly voided from the pain. No time for that shit. Not if she wanted to cover Red who'd pitched himself forward to roll towards the former sliding door window.

That was when the drone appeared in the space beyond the shattered window jambs. Its lights pierced through the smoky haze as it advanced.

Adrenaline overrode the pain in her leg and Lily dove behind a shattered counter. Using her signalling mirror to see over and behind, she held her fire until the drone got within a three metre range then she opened fire. When the thing crashed to the floor, she pulled out her combat knife and leapt onto it. She stabbed it repeatedly, screaming, again and again.

"Lily! Lily, stop! You got it!"

She wrenched around.

Red was back-flatted against the wall by the window. Muzzle flashes outside reflected as bursts of light in the pool of what she smelled as blood spreading around his boots. Shit, he'd been hit somewhere. He was clutching his left arm to his chest.

"Let's go!" he shouted.

She could jump up and run which meant her thigh bone hadn't been struck. Together, she and Red launched themselves out the window into the night.

Gunshot echoes and shouts exploded. Friend or foe? Either would plug you just as well in the crossfire of a cluster fuck battle.

Race left, pop-pop. Race right. Drop and tuck into a roll. Spring up. Leap over a fresh body... BOIL soldier, given the uniform. Lily kept running. Kept pumping off rounds and pumping her legs. Red on her six.

She fell off from her shooting. No choice. Her rifle clip was empty. No time to reload.

She and Red one-after-the-othered behind the burnt out shell of a car and ducked. Or in her case collapsed as her leg decided to time out.

Bullets sizzled by. Like bacon frying, she thought. Shit, now she was doing bacon and eggs.

Red was on his feet, firing his rifle single armed over the hood of the car. Then he spun out, both arms punching to the sky as he fell backwards. Exit stage left from the theatre of engagement. "No!" Lily screamed. She hit the ground and tore off her goggles and mask and then his. Red was gasping for breath, spitting up blood. But the bastard managed to turn his face to her and smile, then mouth, It's ok, Lily flower.

Heavy discharge from firearms filled the air. Fighting everywhere. Cover nowhere.

Lily threw herself back against the car.

The shadow of a head appeared upon Red's heaving torso. Lily watched a pair of hands above her gripping a pistol levelled at Red's face. Sleeve cuffs were from a BOIL uniform.

Belly flopped on the hood, the enemy soldier hadn't spotted her backed against the front fender.

In one swift motion, Lily outed her handgun, grabbed the BOIL soldier behind the neck and pumped off a pound of lead right into his face before he could react. Blood exploded out the back of the SOB's skull. For good measure she slit his throat with her knife.

A familiar buzzing filled the air. Another drone. There was an abrupt flare of orange light and Lily gasped at the resounding kick in her side. She blinked, tried to breathe, tasted blood in her mouth.

She lowered herself down. Holding her knife and handgun tight, she started crab-walking on her fists and the balls of her boots. Muzzle flashes everywhere now. Pop! Pop! Pop-pop!

She scrambled towards her partner, reaching for him. Coughing, choking, blinded by fresh smoke, she slapped her arm forward.

"Lily! Hey lily flower, it's ok. It's ok."

Her thrashing arm was seized... from behind?

"Red?" She choked back a sob. Then blinked her eyes open into the daylight.

Sitting up from a blanket, Lily steadied herself by bracing her hand on the tree beside her. Red's hand fell upon hers. His palm was warm. The kiss she felt on her temple was warmer still.

His artificial arm wrapped about her waist... and the pain in her side eased as she inhaled long and slow.

Even after fifty years, Red was her tree, the clear breath she needed.

She turned to look at him. Tracing the wrinkles mixed with scars on her husband's ever beautiful smiling face. Then she glanced up to the dappled sunlight through the oak leaves overhead.

"It was all worth it, wasn't it?" he asked. It was the same question he asked every time. He knew, of course, what her nightmares were always about.

Lily drew another deep breath. The sweet smell of the red lily blooms nearby perfumed the air and she smiled.

"Yes, it was."

Then she coughed. And her surroundings changed back to where they still were...beside the burnt out car.

She managed to draw her arms around Red just as the drone hovered into view above them. Lily's last breath sliced through her and Red as the drone fired.