Side By Side

13

Warnings:
-Mentions death

Clay's POV

~ A Few Days Later ~

Sapnap and I were walking together while going to the physical tests we had to pass. We didn't have to redo the whole boot camp, but we had to do a lot of physical tests to check if we were actually able to join the army.

I sighed softly since I was pretty nervous. I knew we trained really hard for it and I had the mental strength to keep going. I knew I would be able to pass these tests and so was Sapnap. We were going back, no matter what anyone said.

Sapnap and I walked up to a man who was here to test us. We were about to grab our IDs as we heard a voice. A very recognisable voice.

I turned around and immediately straightened my back. 'Sergeant!'

'Oh my goodness, you were the two people who wanted to rejoin the army? How have you been?' he yelled happily, grabbing my shoulders, then looking at Sapnap.

'It has been hard, but we are doing really good now,' I answered. Sapnap immediately nodded and smiled as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

'He's my brother, his parents adopted me,' he giggled proudly.

I smiled because he was so happy and the sergeant chuckled softly. 'I'm so happy to see you again, I thought about you so often... it was horrible to let you go that way. I don't know if you want to be reminded of it.'

'It's fine to me. I had PTSD, but I went to therapy a lot,' I smiled. 'So did he.'

'And I sometimes want to talk about it to process it,' Sapnap added.

The sergeant nodded slowly and sat down. We sat down too and he looked at us. 'It's more than a year ago that I had to let Sapnap go to the hospital with one arm. Clay, you were unconscious, no legs... I was so happy when I knew you both survived.'

I grinned as I leaned back. 'I'm just so happy that I've proved everyone wrong and I'm back, stronger than ever. We got implants,' I told him.

I lifted my army's pants up till my thighs and showed him my implants. 'This leg was just completely gone, only a tiny bit of bone left. The other knee was saved during surgery.'

'Has it been difficult to walk with?' he asked.

'Yeah, in the beginning it was, but we learnt pretty fast and better than ever,' I smiled as he looked at Sapnap.

'My arm was gone till a tiny bit under my shoulder and I have an implant too now,' he explained, showing him the arm. 'I was used to it before Clay was since he has two prosthetics and I only have one.'

I nodded to confirm his story and looked at the sergeant. 'I've been deaf for a long time, but I got my hearing back which no one expected. I was already on a list for implants so I'd be able to hear again as I suddenly started hearing sounds.'

'Yeah, that's true. I remember that you were deaf.' The sergeant listened interestedly and nodded heavily when we told our stories.

'Also, we still see George and Karl. Do you remember them? The two boys who were hiding with one of their dads?' Sapnap smiled. 'I remember telling that to you just before driving to the hospital with Clay.'

'Really? I'm so glad to hear that! It took a while before we could save them because the other army was just constantly there. As soon as we entered, we got shot from three sides. After a while, we decided to fight them because we needed to defeat them at some point anyway.'

I listened carefully since it really interested me and he smiled as he continued.

'We lost so many of our soldiers, but after three big fights, we beat them and they retreated. As soon as we could, we saved the two boys. His father was with us in the hospital and wanted to go back, but it wasn't save so they sat there alone for days.'

'Poor them...' I whispered. I never heard this story before because Karl and George didn't really like to talk about it.

'They were malnourished and dehydrated. We fed them and gave them a lot of water. Karl's wound luckily healed well and his dad was pretty much fine but a tiny bit dehydrated.'

'And Nathaniel and Pete?' I asked, remembering them in our platoon. I knew they weren't dead before I left.

The sergeant sighed softly. 'We lost Pete, Nathaniel is still fighting in the army today, but he went to the hospital multiple times. He was shot in his chest, luckily not dangerous and he was hit by glass when a grenade exploded in a house. He recovered.'

'How did Pete die?' Sapnap whispered. 'He was my friend...'

'He died as a true hero. There was a young boy who was hidden in a house, we think he was Jewish, and he went in to save the boy. The boy got out, but he didn't get out before the enemy exploded the house... he was dead right away so he didn't have to suffer anymore in the flames.'

'At least he died like a hero, my goodness,' I mumbled. 'Death numbed me when I was there, but I need to get used to that again. Why did he give his life?'

'We found out that Pete was Jewish too. His parents died because of the enemy and he got really angry so he wanted to save the boy.'

'I'm so sorry for him... at least he's safe now,' Sapnap sighed. 'What else happened?'

'It has been really difficult. I went mentally crazy and they sent me away because I wasn't able to fight anymore. I'm doing good again now, but after an explosion killed eight of our soldiers in front of me and left six men severely wounded, I've only screamed.'

'I'm so sorry,' I mumbled. 'Are you sure you're okay now, sergeant?'

'Yes. The war isn't over yet, I was taking a break while doing what I enjoy. I will be going back to war in two weeks, Germany this time...they truly aren't giving up, but we aren't either!'

'We aren't giving up for sure,' I smiled, standing up again.

'Alright, warm yourselves up, we will now do the physical tests and see what you have in you!'

'Yes, sergeant!' we both yelled as we walked with him.

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