Slow Motion

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Far from the Finish Line

We had now been walking around the outside of our now shelter for over an hour waiting for Luke to come back. It was now about 2300 hours (11:00 pm) and I was starting to think Luke had either been killed or was on his way to another shelter, which was probably a bad idea at this time of night. I decided to get Tom out of bed and make him help me find Luke. He agreed so we went into the forest first to check for him. It was quite deceiving out there, fog was blinding us from seeing any further than our own feet which made our search for Luke all the more dangerous, especially the chances of bumping into a Japanese patrolman scanning the area. We kept looking, not daring to call out his name for the Japanese would surely hear us. After we got out of the forest we checked in some bombed out houses and old shelters for him, but he wasn’t in any. We looked in lots of places but he wasn’t there and any further we would be where the Japanese were last located, but we were so determined to find him. So we went back to the house we were currently hiding in and took more weapons, so we were more prepared to fight if we stumbled upon some soldiers.

***around 8 hours later***

We were now further than we have been before in Japan. We have already entered the old shelter we were hiding in before the Japanese invaded it and we saw something that might lead us to Luke. As we looked around trying to find anything to help us Tom spotted something, sitting on a wooden, upside down box. He ran over eager to see his findings. It was an old rag with writing on it. It said ‘I knew you would try to find me. I am going to catch a ship out of Japan. If you’re smart, you won’t keep looking’.

We knew we had to keep going so we did, because luckily good ol’ mud was there to help. We could see footprints in the mud, so we followed them and we did get somewhere, but not exactly  where we were intending to go……into the Japanese Military Training Grounds (JMTG).

We were so close to the main gates, too close and if we ran it would only make matters worse for us. So we went to the outside wall, away from the guards and stayed there, for several hours, just waiting for anything to happen. Luke was in there I was sure of it, we followed the footprints here, to this exact place… but before my mind could wonder any further, the huge front gate opened, making way for about twenty soldiers to come marching out in one big pack. As they were all out of the gates and the men inside had fully closed them, the soldiers began to break away from their formation, revealing another soldier that was hidden inside of the group, but this was no soldier… no. It was Luke!

While I stared, wide mouthed at Luke I slowly began to in a way examine his body. Nothing seemed too wrong until he turned his back to face Tom and I, that’s when we saw it.