International Tankery

Chapter 8: Unexpected Help

Maho sat up and wiped her tears. She sighed and asked, "Where to begin?" Chiyo said, "How about the beginning? How did you meet him?" Maho told her, "It was the day when, mother had forced me to disown Miho. I was sitting on a park bench, when he came up to me. He asked why I was sad, and I explained everything. He sat down and started comforting me. After a while, we started hanging out, and eventually he asked me out. On the same day that we met, we had exchanged emails, and he told me, that he would send me an email every now and then to see how I was. Soon, he invited me to Yugoslavia and showd me all his favorite places."

Maho pulled out a CD and asked, "I'm sorry lady Chiyo, but do you have a computer by any chance?" Chiyo smiled and said, "Follow me." Chiyo led Maho to her office within the camp, and they sat down by her computer. Maho put the disk in, and pressed play. There were pictures of Filip and Maho together, videos of the two of them, and Chiyo noticed that in every single one, Maho was smiling. Not a fake smile, but a genuine heartfelt smile.

Each picture was labeled, and Chiyo said, "He must really make you happy." Maho nodded. She pulled something from out of her shirt. A necklace. She took it off and showed it to Chiyo.

Chiyo asked, "What is this? I mean, obviously it's a necklace, but what is it to you?" Maho told her, "Filip gave it to me as a present. He told me that as long as I had this necklace with me, he would be with me as well."

Chiyo turned it around and saw soem engraved words that read, "Volim te ujutro. Volim te i kad mi ideš na živce. Volim te i kad se smejemo. Volim te i kad nisi tu. Volim te i popodne. Volim te i u pola noći." Chiyo asked her, "What does this writing mean?" Maho looked at it and told her, "He told me that it states how much he loves me. I found it sweet, and this necklace got me through some hard times. Whenever I see it, I think of him."

Maho started tearing up and crying again. She continued, "That's why I don't want his line to be attacked. I can't stand the sight of seeing him get hurt." Chiyo gave Maho a comforting hug, and whispered, "I won't pretend to understand your position, but I can give you some advice. While family is important, do what your heart tells you." Maho wiped her tears and nodded. Maho said, "Thank you." Chiyo smiled and told her, "It's no problem. I'm right here, whenever you need me."

With the Serbs

Filip was inspecting the equipment, when a Tommy came up to him and said ,"Sorry to bother you sir, but there are some people here." Filip asked, "What people?" Tommy shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know, but you'd better check it out." Filip said, "Okay. Bring me to them."

Tommy led Filip over to the people. Filip asked them, "Who are you? Sorry if that came out rude, but I don't remember ordering reinforcements."

One of the people said, "No problem. I'm field marshal Archie Venter. We're the Australian forces." Filip told him, "Now I clearly know that I didn't call you. So, who did?" Archie told him, "Mark Johnson called us. He said that if we wanted some good action to come over to the Serbian lines."

Filip sighed and said, "Typical of him. Calls for help, and dumps them on me. I'm field marshal Filip Cvetković. Nice to meet you." Archie said, "Likewise mate. By the way, what's that giant cloud over there?" Filip looked behind him and his eyes widened when he realized what it was. He yelled, "ГАС! СТАВЈАЈТЕ МАСКЕ! (GAS! PUT YOUR MASKS ON!)" Everyone in the trenches was rushing, when Archie saw what they were, doing he ordered his men to do the same.

One of his men yelled, "Sir! My Mark's broken!" Filip threw a gas mask to the soldier. The soldier put it on the mask, and went to the frontlines. Filip and Archie were looking at the enemy through their binoculars. Filip said, "What the hell? There's a child on the battlefield." Archie asked, "Where?" Filip told him, "Switch places with me." They switched places and Archie said, "Oh, I see him. What do we do?" Filip said, "Wait here."
Filip went over and sprinted towards the child, trying not to get hit by a machine gun. He reached the child, and grabbed him. He pressed the child's face into his uniform so that it wouldn't breathe in the gas fumes. He ran to the closest place where there wasn't any gas. The girls' trenches.