The Fighter

Chapter 37

At dinner time we all go back in. The stale air of the base replaces the fresh air in our lungs. General Hugh greets us in the mess hall as we grab our trays of food.

"Tomorrow is simulation day and we need you two to show everybody how it's done." He motions towards Oliver and I.

"Can we go practice?" I ask.

"Sure." He says. I put my tray back and leave the mess hall. Oliver follows behind me.

Once we get to the room somebody is already in it.

"Who would be in here?" I ponder aloud.

As soon as I say that the door opens and General Logan steps out. He is sweaty and out of breath.

"I'll set everything up for you two." He rushes air out of his lungs. We thank him and then step in.

"I'm not ready for this." I say as I stretch out. Oliver shakes off as the blacking out happens.

When we wake back up we are in an old building. It's an ancient building that had to be from the the Third World War. It creaks with every move we make.

We keep still in a hidden spot until we hear more creaking from something else. Two soldiers appear around the corner of our hiding spot. They charge at us with full speed. One tackles me and the other gets Oliver. I take a knife from my belt and save Oliver first. Then I look at the boy on top of me. I get so captured into a flashback on when ever I was in battle and it was so real. It still seems very real but now the simulation can't really kill me. I kill the boy and then jump up. Oliver and I kill two more boys and then the simulation is over.

"Still got perfect scores but you were a little hesitant." General Logan says.

He leaves Oliver and I looking at our scores. We put all our weapons back and then go back to dinner. Alan and Jax are sitting at the table when he plunk down into our seats.

"Tomorrow is going to be terrible." I mutter to them.

"Was it really that difficult?" Alan sighs.

I lay down the papers in front of him and show him what the suggestions were from the simulation.

"At least you still got perfect scores." Jax shrugs.

"These scores don't even matter when you go into war. Never once did it cross my mind that I would survive because I got a perfect score." Oliver says with an attitude.

"Oliver, are you ok?" I hold his hand but he quickly pulls it away.

"Nothing matters when your about to kill or be killed." He says.

"Some things do." I weakly say. There are certain reasons to fight and that's what matters the most when you are killing.

"Oh really, like what?" He says sarcastically.

"People you love. You care about them before you go into battle. That's usually people's last thought is the people they love. That's who they're fighting for and who they care about." I defend my beliefs as he gets angrier.

"That's a total myth. Nobody has time to think about that when they are about to die." Oliver starts to frustrate me.

"Really? You didn't think about your family when you were fighting those boys out there?" Tears swell in my eyes as he begins to answer.

"No," he says.

"You didn't think about me? You didn't think about if I was still living or if I was dead, you didn't care about me?" My heart drops as venom leaks from his mouth.

"I didn't care about anything. The only thing that was on my mind was blood." He hisses as I stand up.

"Well I guess that shows how much you actually did love me." Tears streak my face.

"Good bye, Oliver. You never did really like me. I guess I should have known it was just a little excitement before you died." I walk out of the mess hall and then run. I run for the outside, the refreshing air that fills my lungs when I can't breath but something seems to be holding me back and I can't leave.