War: A Business

Chapter 26: Memory of Regret

"Morning!" Jolo shouted.

  "Who? What?" I asked, half asleep.

   I realized then that I fell asleep in the water tower.

"C'mon, lets get out of here, before they notice us." Jolo chided.

"Okay." I answered sleepily.

   We climbed down the water tower and we hurriedly ran to the truck.

   Then we stood in front of the truck.The Quartermaster just woke up.

"Good morning!" we greeted our guardian.

"Good morning kids!" the man greeted back.

  "I have to leave, we will go to a supply run. Sorry kids." he apologized.

"Can we come? Please, please, please!" we begged.

  "Well, I gotta talk to the commanding officer first." he replied.

  Then he walked to a large, rectangular green tent. Later, after a few minutes he got out of the tent.

" Well, I'm sorr-" then a loud noise interrupted us. We instinctively ducked on the ground.

   A explosion had obliterated the water tower I slept eariler.Only now did I realized that bombs fell on our camp.

We run towards a foxhole and jumped right in. He took a board of wood and he covered the foxhole.

   Explosions filled the air. Screams of terror, both child and adult echoed outside.

   Then the bombing stopped. Finally, a moment of silence.

"Whatever you do, don't fight, just hide." he commanded.

   Then he grabbed a rifle from a crate beside us.

   He stood out of cover, searching for the enemy. He ducked, dodging a hail of bullets. Then he returned fire.

   The eerily familiar sound of firefights filled the camp.

   In a instant, he was shot in the head. He fell down in the foxhole. Blood poured everywhere. We were covered in blood. We look upon his corpse. His face is so disfigured that we couldn't recognize him at first.

"Cover me." Jolo commanded, eyes full of grim hatred.

"But he said that we don't fight, we hide!" I chided, worried about our fate.

"We need to avenge him and the other children! Now cover me!" he shouted.

   He gave me a medium machine gun. He grabbed an old assault rifle and a pouch of ammunition.

   Then he ran out of the foxhole and he took cover behind a old car converted into a makeshift house.

   Bullets hit the car and the foxhole. Bullets whizzed over my head. I kept my head down while spotting the enemy emerging from the dense forests.

   After that, Jolo signaled me to fire. I fired my medium machine gun at the enemy. I sprayed bullets on the enemy, I got one soldier down. The other 12 took cover behind sandbags and rubble.

   I continued spraying them with bullets until I ran out of ammo, signaled by a empty loud click of the trigger. I took cover and I reloaded by putting a new ammo belt inside the feed tray of the medium machine gun.

  A enemy soldier peeked out of cover, but Jolo shot him from behind cover.

   Then a enemy gunner sprayed us with bullets. Then, the enemy gunner was visciously shot in the head. I looked to my back and I saw a sniper in our side shooting from the guard tower.

   Then Jolo shot another three enemy soldiers. Then I saw the other children helping us in the firefight, five of them to be exact.

   They fired on the enemy while I was providing suppressing fire with my machine gun. Soon, a squad of enemy soldiers are dead.

   We cheered, even if the sounds of battle was around us, we hugged and high-five each other.

   Then a soldier with power-armor appeared, armed with a 30mm auto-cannon on its giant metal hands and anti-tank missiles on its shoulders.

   We immediately took cover. I fired my medium machine gun at the power-armored enemy.

   It left a few dents on the shoulders, torso and legs. Then, he fired 30mm shells at the children behind cover, the children were blown into pieces.

  I knew I was dead in that moment.

   I ran, like a coward. I ran to the guard tower. I saw my only friend, Jolo shot, blown to pieces behind cover.

"No!!" I shouted.

    I regretted that I ran.

    I wish that I was brave enough to fight, to avenge them, to make sure that they avoid dying in vain.

   An adult insurgent pulled me out of there.

   I wish that I died there.I wish I tried avenging them.

•
  
   After that memory, I waited patiently for the hover-plane to arrive to its destination.

    I remember my heart being pulled out of my chest.

     "I'm you, but stronger."  the hooded man's voice echoed in my head, who pulled my heart and crushed in front of me.

"Step-bro!" I called.

   He is busy playing a game on his Holo-Pad. I was never good at video games. It doesn't matter anyway, because I got a job, with high-wages.

"Joshua!" I called again.

"What?" He questioned.

"May I ask you a question?" Something popped inside my mind.

"Sure, make sure it is important, I'm practicing to up my rank into the Platinum league."

"When my heart is pulled out, how I are still alive?"

"Well, your heart was replaced with a artificial heart. Now excuse me, I'm gonna play the game." He nonchalantly answered.

  He got back to playing his game.

   That explains why.

  Turbulence shook the hover-plane.

    Some of the surviving mercenaries looked depressed, including my brother. Some of them are asleep, including Vince.

  Well, I'm going to sleep now. I'm really dog-tired right now.