Chapter 13: Life After War & PTSD

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Hunhow woke up at 6:00 am on Wednesday. Four days after Malcolm's funeral. He remembered what Malcolm's mother said and knew Malcolm would want him to do the same. Hunhow showered, got dressed, prepared all his school gear and wore his new punisher hoodie that his uncle had brought him since he would miss his 19th birthday during the summer.

He went downstairs and greeted his family and hugged them for the first time since he came back home

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He went downstairs and greeted his family and hugged them for the first time since he came back home. "Hey son" Joseph said. "Hey dad, what's up" Hunhow replied. "You seem to be feeling better and are in high spirits" Jane said happy and relieved. "I'm sorry about the past few weeks". "It's okay honey". Jane and Joseph both hug him. "Imma have some cereal and waffles real quick" Hunhow says in a joyful tone. "Oh, I almost forgot, the Furry National Guard sent you a metal and reward for your service" Joseph says. "Thanks, I'll get it when I come home" Hunhow replies. Hunhow finishes breakfast and goes to grab his truck keys. He then hops in his truck, starts the ignition and drives to school. He was driving happily down the road until he noticed something in his peripheral vision. He noticed smoke. He thought his truck was overheating so he pulled over to the side. He gets out and checks the exhaust pipe where he saw the smoke coming from and sees nothing. He is about to walk back to the driver's side until he hears a loud explosion and possible gunshots. He runs behind his truck and retrieves his Standard National Guard Rifle. He looks up and sees multiple bodies and blood covering the road. All of them appear to be Equalists. He randomly shouts military orders. He doesn't know what to do until he realizes it's not real just visions. As quickly as the visions appeared, they disappeared and Hunhow calmed down realizing it was all a hallucination. He sits there for a while and calms down before unloading and putting his rifle back into the bed of his truck. He hops back in and drives. He doesn't know what happened or how this hallucination happened. He decides to put Music on and play Bon Jovi's This Is Our House

But as he turns the volume up, he starts getting flashbacks of guns firing and sniper shots blaring. He turns the music down and becomes agitated that he cannot listen to his loud music anymore like he used to. He however overcomes this and blasts the music loud to max volume and relaxes. The rest of the drive goes smoothly and he arrives at school without incident. He heads to the front desk and is greeted by the Crocodile front desk administrator. She is so delighted to see him and asks how he is doing. He replies with "I'm alright". Afterwards he makes it to the cafeteria and sees his friends and Crystal. Crystal and the gang see him and all rush over to him. Crystal kisses him and they all sit down and talk about life after war. Hunhow talks about many things but doesn't bring up the visions, dreams or hallucinations he has because he doesn't want to scare his friends or make them feel uncomfortable. Lizzie and Jennifer however know what PTSD is and when Crystal and Marcus aren't around talk to Hunhow about how it affects people after war. They suggest him to the school's mentor as well as the school nurse. This makes Hunhow feel better knowing his friends have his back and that he doesn't have to explain the situation to them. But he doesn't tell Crystal because he is worried she will become too concerned.

~ Time Skip ~

Hunhow goes to his 3rd period and least favorite class which is math. The teacher of the class is the female teacher that he mocked all over the restroom incident. However she is very supportive of Hunhow and even talks with him privately outside the class room showing she has his support. They re-enter the classroom and begin with the lesson. Hunhow is alone on Wednesday math classes so he sits at his desk and just does his work. Until familiar faces enter the room. It's Kevin and his jocks and they are up to no good. He keeps his cool and they all sit 2 rows behind him not bothering or looking at him. It wasn't until after class that things made a turn for the worst...

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