District 71: Battle Earth

Chapter 4 - Here's To The Fallen

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DISTRICT 71

BATTLE EARTH

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Chapter 4: Here's To The Fallen

Early morning of the next day, military gun salutes were heard at the district to give honorary memorial to those who died. There were a total of 14 casualties and 26 injuries. One civilian casualty and the other 13 came from the military including the 2 platoon members from Platoon Six.

At the hall of Platoon Six dormitory, Ana placed the nameplates and tags of her 2 lost men at the memorial wall. The wall now consists of five names and still considered the least of all the platoons with casualties –all of which died from fighting the monsters.

Ever since the district assigned hundreds of platoons to fight the monsters, it was always Platoon Six who fought bravely and has always the best leadership and teamwork. Ana can still remember the first three names on the memorial wall.

“Cruz” –the only woman who died from their Platoon. Platoon Six only has two female military members, Ana and the other was Sheena Cruz. Sheena was already a junior officer before Ana became a member of Platoon Six. When Ana arrived, they became like sisters until the sudden attack of monsters at which Sheena was killed. After that sudden attack, the government decided to create a barrier made of high-voltage wires to prevent the monsters from attacking suddenly. It was just only yesterday when the power voltage of the gates broke down and the monsters were able to come near the gates and break them apart. The gates were repaired and activated again just after Ana and Officer Dizon returned inside the district.

The second name was “Wang”. Chon Wang was a Chinese-Korean national. Platoon Six called him Johnny since his English name was John Wang. He was the Second Lieutenant during the time when Ana became the First Lieutenant. He hated Ana so much during the first year when she was assigned at Platoon Six. He bullied her as well as Sheena because he doesn’t believe that women can be good as men in fighting. One time after Ana had been promoted to First Lieutenant, Wang could not accept it and became drunk. He forced Ana to fight him so that he can prove that Ana was not worthy of the position. The fight ended when Ana was able to hold Wang from behind with a fork pointing at his throat. From that day, Wang realized that Ana was no ordinary woman and he started to show respect to her. Wang died during a special military operation and he did not die alone.

“Megara” –their very first captain and the son of Major Megara. She can still remember being assigned to Platoon Six after graduating from a cadet officer. One year later, she was promoted as a junior officer. She knew the captain even before she entered the military. It was Captain Megara who taught her how to use a sword. It was also the captain who gave her the butterfly swords as a gift. Another year later, she was promoted as a First Lieutenant. And there was the special mission to accompany the water treatment scientist of the district, Dr. Hedges, and his assistant to get sample water from the nearest river, south of the district. The government assigned Platoon Six to head the mission. It was supposed to be a simple and easy mission when the platoon was ambushed by an unknown species of monsters. They were on their way back to the district when suddenly the group heard the loud cry of Second Lieutenant Wang. He suddenly disappeared from the group and they can only hear a frightening sound of his cry and the growling sound of monsters at the top of the trees. Captain Megara ordered his men to run as fast as they could together with the scientist back to the district. He was left there at the forest. He can never leave any of his men behind. He decided to get Wang back -dead or alive. On the other hand, as soon as the rest of the platoon was near the district, Ana returned to the forest to help the Captain but she was already late. No body was found or worst left –only blood scattered everywhere and the bloody uniform of the Captain. She took her inability to retrieve the bodies as one of her biggest failure. She even was unable to protect their captain’s will of not leaving any of their men behind –even the captain himself. It was after the Captain died did Ana seriously practiced the art of Wushu and took the place of the Captain.