Side By Side

29

Warnings:
-Amputation (main character)

Sapnap's POV

'Clay, wake up,' I whispered as I softly hit his head. 'Please, wake up.'

I was crying while I laid next to Clay. After the first grenade that exploded right next to us, I figured he lost his hearing since he didn't hear me scream at him and he didn't hear the grenade either.

'I don't know what to do, Clay,' I mumbled with a tear rolling down my face. I didn't dare to look down to his legs, well... his legs were pretty much gone. There was just blood and exposed bones.

'I can't carry you well because I only have one arm and everyone else is already gone. I don't really know the way out either... I'm so sorry, Clay, I really want to help you. I don't want to lose you, you're my brother.'

I laid next to him and rested my helmet on his chest. 'Don't give up, please. I love you, Clay. I wouldn't have made it without you.'

It was quiet... of course it was quiet, he was unconscious. Luckily, the other army didn't shoot us anymore and I tried my hardest to move him away from the open area. I didn't manage to since I could only pull him with one arm.

'Please, wake up,' I begged him. 'Please...'

I didn't know what to do anymore and I sat down, pulling Clay against my chest. 'Keep fighting, I'm going to help you in some way.'

I grabbed my bag and searched through it. 'I only have this reddish light, but that's meant to be when there's a helicopter above us... I'll just shine with it and hope they come back to check if there's still anyone alive out here.'

I was about to turn the light on as I saw Karl's dad run outside. 'DOWN!' I screamed at him which he immediately did. He was holding a part of the table in the house and crawled further.

'I know how to get out of here. Help me lay him down on this table!'

The legs of the table were kicked off so it was pretty similar to a real stretcher now. I helped to get Clay onto the table and carried the side of his head with one hand. I knew we needed to run now before anyone saw us and started shooting again.

We started running as fast as we could. I followed Karl's dad in every step he went and after minutes of running, we finally arrived at the side of the road. I knew it was safe here because the enemy didn't come out of the forest so I started screaming for help, shining my light while we kept running closer to where our barracks were.

'HELP! SOMEONE HELP!' I screamed. Karl's father started screaming too while we ran. He was panting loudly because he didn't have as much stamina as I did, but still kept going to save Clay.

'SOMEONE, WE ARE DOWN THE ROAD! HELP US! PLEASE! IT'S SAPNAP, PLATOON THIRTY-ONE. CLAY IS WOUNDED, HE NEEDS HELP! SERGEANT! ANYONE!'

We kept running and screaming until we saw something move. I couldn't shoot since I had only one arm, but it wasn't necessary since there were people from our army. They were far away, but sprinted towards us with a medic next to them.

'HELP! HELP PLEASE!'

More soldiers started running towards us and then I saw my sergeant. He ran up to me as I laid Clay down when the medic was here.

'Sapnap! What happened? We lost you and we've been searching for you for hours!' he yelled.

'I'm so sorry, sergeant. Clay got shot twice and I tried to help him and lost my arm. Clay went into the house and there's two young boys, one Jewish boy and his best friend. This is the father of one of them. Clay went back into the house when he heard gunshots and came back again but he got blown up by a grenade and I tried to get help, but I can't do shit because I'm dying from the pain, sergeant.'

'GET A MEDIC HERE FOR HIM TOO!' the sergeant screamed as another medic started running to us. I sat down on the ground and realised the adrenaline was going away again.

I felt how much pain I actually had and started sobbing as the sergeant sat next to me while the medic took the blood soaked bandage from my arm.

'I'm going to hurt you,' the medic mumbled as he grabbed his sulfa powder which was just salt that was going to make it feel like my wound was on fire.

'AGH, STOP!' I screamed as he put it on my arm. 'This shit hurts!'

'I'm sorry, it's to prevent it from getting infected because then you'll have even more pain. The other medic called the ambulance, they will take you to the hospital.'

'Is Clay going to be okay?' I whispered as I looked at him. His legs were bandaged now and he got lifted up onto a stretcher.

The medic shrugged. 'I don't know. The medics in the hospital will do anything they can...'

I nodded slowly and looked at my sergeant with tears in my eyes.

'I'm sorry, sergeant. We shouldn't have left the platoon... there was no medic coming to us when we screamed for help during the fight so we couldn't get back to you, sergeant.'

'Don't apologise, you did everything you could. We were under fire and we couldn't get to you anymore. Our medic was wounded and we needed to fall back.'

I nodded slowly and stared at my feet, trying not to cry from the pain in my arm. 'I guess this was it then... I know I won't be returning, neither will Clay...'

The sergeant sighed. 'It has been an honour to fight by your side. You've been one of the greatest soldiers I ever had along with Clay.'

'Thank you, sergeant. Also... in the house, there's still two boys. One of them is Jewish and Clay promised to them to save them.'

The sergeant nodded. 'As soon as it's safe enough to enter that area, we will save the boys.'

'They are in an underground room, firstly hiding with that man too. He knows where they are. He helped me and I think he left the two boys alone. They need to be saved, sergeant.'

'I'm doing anything I can,' he smiled as he pointed in front of him. 'There, you can go to the hospital now.'

He lifted his hand and saluted, which I did too after that. 'Good luck, sergeant. I hope we will meet again.'

He smiled shortly and then stood up, taking off his helmet to show respect. He put it back on and turned away as Clay and I were driven to the hospital...

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