Soldier

Chapter 7: Alex

After Willis had completely smashed the monsters head in; he dropped the metal pipe onto the floor and ran to the girl that the monster had picked up, and is now lying on the floor. He slid next to her and kept muttering something, as he held her in his arms. He franticly shook her, and yelled at her.

"Wake up damn it! Please..."

A few of the other students ran to their side. Two of them pulled Willis off of her as another person checked over her. As the two holding Will stood him up, he shrugged them off and walked away.

He looks like a zombie, completely pale with a look transfigured on his face that shows no emotion. He fell onto his knees, and started to weep to himself a few feet away. Kairi urged me to follow her. She grabbed onto my arm and pulled on it for me to follow. I kept my balance as she led me downstairs. Both of us headed towards Willis. When he noticed us he looked at us with blank eyes.

"T...Thanks kid, without disobeying my orders, I would have died..."

Tears rolled down his eyes.

"I told you though, people die. And now she's....she's...!"

He yelled at the floor as if we weren't there. Willis punched the ground with his fist, repeatedly.

I kneeled next to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. He stopped punching the ground and laid his hands on the floor. I tried to cheer him up, or rather, make him understand. I told him gently, careful of what I said, "Will, people die. But it's never our fault. All we can do is hold on, and fight for those that died. Make sure that they're life had purpose, so we can let them go and rest in peace." but Willis only wept more to himself.

I grabbed him by his shoulders and forced him to look at me. Tears rolled down his cheeks. He hardly muttered.

"How... she was my- I loved her. I can't just... We-"

I shook him hard, to get his attention focused on me.

"Get a hold of yourself!! There's hope, there will always be hope! You don't even know if she's dead! Never lose sight of it, because we have to finish what we all start. For those that died, for doing the right thing. We are soldiers; we protect the weak and fight for what we believe in! Now straighten up!!"

Will looked at me stunned, before he shrugged off my hands and stood up. He towered over me, and wiped the tears from his eyes, which were now turned to show more determination and faith. He looked down at me as if I had just pulled him out of the darkest abyss, slightly smiling. He held out a hand, and I grabbed it. He helped me stand up, then let go once Kairi stood next to me. Willis looked over at the girl, his partner, who was being put onto a backboard by a few students. They strapped her on with belts, then raised her and ran off with an escort of other students. All of them heavily armed. They ran through the hallway, over the busted doors on the ground, and other debris.

Willis glanced back at me.

"Thank you kid. I almost lost hope for a second. I almost gave up, but... you helped pull me out of it."

Willis started to run off towards the hallway, but stopped quickly to turn around and say "I'm looking forward to seeing you both join my regiment." before he ran off again. As he ran he shouted "Oh and ta..." though I didn't hear the rest of his sentence. He was already half way down the hallway, taking a turn.

I sighed to myself afterwards. I'm glad he didn't break; a broken heart is a terrible thing that can change people. I'm glad I didn't break, physically, either. I was worried he was going to scold me for disobeying his orders at first (Which is a first class ticket to getting beat for "disloyalty").