The Kidnap War

Just children

Author's note: Why hello there, it's been a while. My apologies. Depression has been kicking my butt, so I wanna say I'll upload more constantly, but reality is that I have no clue when I'll be able to get to writing again. Anyways, enjoy the chapter.

James, Adam and Chris stared at the man in fear. It seemed like they would suffer the same fate as Zalinki. James closed his eyes, waiting for death to come, but nothing happened. He opened his eyes again to see the strange man lowering his gun.
'But, you are just children!' He said with a heavy accent.
The three boys looked at each other and nodded, still heartbroken over their dead friend.
'I didn't expect the US to send children to their wars. That's disgusting.' The man muttered.
'Why are you here?' He asked.
'They...' James began, but he seemed too lost to find words.
'We were kidnapped. Then they brought us here. We don't know where we are or who we're even fighting. All we know is that it's fighting or dying.' Adam explained.
'That's sick! Straight up sick! You can't do that! Children don't belong in wars! And kidnapped? What is wrong with people?!' The man snapped.
The three boys stared at the ground, not knowing what else to say.
The man pulled a little piece of paper and a pen from one of his pockets.
'I'm going to tell my commander! He won't allow this! I want to see if I can contact your families. Will you write down your names? We shall ask America for an explanation for this and if they do nothing, we'll contact NATO or something! Kidnapping children for war, it's disgusting! We won't let this keep going!' The man called.
'But, we're your enemies! Why would you help us?' Chris asked.
'Because by the looks of it, you didn't want to attack us. We're not fighting to win, we're fighting to defend ourselves. We weren't the ones to start this war... we just want peace to return.'
James, Adam and Chris all wrote their full names on the little piece of paper, together with as many other names as they could fit.
'Don't worry, something will be done about this... and I'm sorry about your friend... from a distance, we can't see who we're fighting.' The man said as he glanced at Zalinki's body with a sad look.
James wanted to say "It's okay." But he couldn't. It wasn't okay. Zalinki was his friend. But now he was lost forever.
The man gave the kids a sad smile before he turned around to leave.

Suddenly the sound of gunfire echoed through the air and the three boys ducked in fear. When they looked up, they saw that none of them was hurt, but the man that promised to help them, the man that was their only hope... lay dead in the leaves. When they turned around, they saw where the bullets had come from.
Officer Wolfkins stood behind them, the end of his weapon still smoking.
'Rule number one here, kill or be killed!' Officer Wolfkins said as he lowered his gun to aim at the boys instead.
'Fortunately for you, we need all the fighters we can get! But if I catch you in any possible attempt to communicate with our opponent, I will kill you!' He threatened. The three boys stared at him in fear.
'Now get back! Your shift is about to end! Don't even bother with your friend's body! Dead is dead! Leave it!'

Explaining to Rush and Jaiden that they lost Zalinki was horrible. The were all quiet and mourning for days... days turned into weeks. More and more kids fell to the war. Team blue and team yellow had both lost so many people, they had been put together to form a new team that was about as big as team red had been when they started. It seemed like in the near future, more teams would be fused together. All the teams were shrinking with the amount of people that died.
James was laying on his bed. Team red had a free day, but nobody was spending it training on the training grounds. Nobody had the energy or the motivation. The blonde just wanted to go home, but he knew that was impossible. He shook his head, tired of being trapped in his own thoughts. He should look for Adam. Talking to Adam made him always feel better. The dark haired boy made him smile and he felt better just by being in his presence. When James looked around though, he couldn't find Adam anywhere. Would he really have gone to the training grounds? Nah, nobody was training! But maybe he was just hanging there or something. He wasn't in the sleeping hall, so he had to be somewhere else. James went outside and as he approached the training grounds, he could hear Adam's voice. So he was there. But what was he doing there all alone. As James peeked inside, he saw Adam sitting on one of the parts of the obstacle course, with his eyes closed and he was... singing? James knew he shouldn't be surprised. He knew Adam loved to sing and play music, but the blonde had never heard it.
He closed his eyes as he listened to what the dark haired boy sang.

'Tell our families and everyone we know, yeah
We're not coming back, we're not coming back, oh
Count them one by one, every single soul here
We're not coming back, we're not coming back

Hello, hello, hello, hello, can you hear me call for help?
Hello, hello, hello, hello, I am really not myself
Today or another day I can recall or any other day before the fall
Since the purple haze consumed it all, all

And there's others here like me
Lost and lonely, unheard screams

Tell our families and everyone we know, yeah
We're not coming back, we're not coming back, oh
Count them one by one, every single soul here
We're not coming back, we're not coming back home
Oh, whoa, everything we had, oh, whoa, never meant to last
Oh, whoa, we're not coming back
We're not coming back, we're not coming back, no'

James wiped a tear from his cheek. Not only had Adam the voice of an angel, he also sounded so sad. So lost and hurt, so desperate and hopeless. The blonde couldn't blame him. But the sound hit James's heart like a truck.

'Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, into darkness I descend
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, where ghosts are my only friends
And we roam these barren halls where we will stay
Locked behind our masks for all our days
Never to return, forget our names, names!

Tell our families and everyone we know, yeah
We're not coming back, we're not coming back, oh
Count them one by one, every single soul here
We're not coming back, we're not coming back home
Oh, whoa, everything we had, oh, whoa, never meant to last
Oh, whoa, we're not coming back
We're not coming back, we're not coming back, no'

Adam opened his eyes and noticed the blonde.
'James, what are you doing here?' He asked, quickly wiping away the tears in his eyes.
'I couldn't find you so I went to look here. You have a beautiful singing voice, Adam.' James said as he came closer and sat down next to the other boy.
'Thanks.' Adam said, blushing a little at the compliment and staring at the ground.
'Are you okay?' James asked worriedly.
'Yeah, I'm fine.'
'Are you sure? That song made it sound like...'
'It was just a song! Nothing more!'
A beat of silence followed.
'Adam...' James muttered. The dark haired boy sighed.
'It's a little hard to keep hope. At this point we know that there's no escape. We're going to die here. Face it, James, we're not coming back home. None of us will come back home...'
James didn't know what to say. He knew Adam was right, but he refused to give up so easily.
'You can't give up, Adam. You never know what will happen. As long as we keep hope, we have a chance!' James said.
'I wished that was how it works, but we both know there's no escaping this place.' Adam replied.
'Don't say that! Opportunities are everywhere. Just think of the man that was trying to help us a couple weeks ago.'
'Do you really think that'll happen again?'
'I didn't even think it would happen once, but then it did! You don't know what's behind the next corner. You don't know if we get another chance if you give up and stop looking for it! You can't give up, Adam! I know it's hard to do, but you can't give up!'
Adam glanced at James, tears in his eyes.
'You're right.' He said, before clearing his throat and wiping away the tears.
'As always you can make things better for me.' Adam smiled before he pulled James close into an embrace.
James couldn't help but smile. It felt so nice to get a hug from the other boy. The blonde was glad he had made Adam feel a little better, but he himself was struggling to hold on to hope as well. Most of all, he was scared. They'd already lost Zalinki... James wouldn't know what to do if Adam was next.