The fire and flame of war

Life without war

Daniel stands at the sink in the bathroom, naked except for his underwear, shaving. Hanging on the back of the door is his neatly pressed service dress uniform, his badges gleaming in the warm light. Once he has finished shaving, he washes his face and stares at himself, observing all the scars covering his body. He remembers how he was shot by a sniper through the stomach, falling to the ground, feeling Jade hold him as he slowly fell out of consciousness. He shakes himself from this memory and gets dressed. He buttons his shirt up and fastens his belt. He leaves the bathroom and enters his bedroom. Lying on their bed, still asleep, is Daniels wife. Jade sleeps peacefully, not having the night terrors that Daniel does sometimes. He watches her sleep for a few moments, watching the rise and fall of her back as she inhales and exhales. Daniel notices the clock on his bedside. 0445. He sits on the edge of the bed, ties his shoes, grabs his cap and heads toward the kitchen, leaving jade to rest. Daniel grabs the keys to his car and his work bag, and locks the front door behind him. His car grumbles to life, a 79 series land cruiser with a V8 turbo diesel, and he heads off towards RAAF base Williams.

Work for Daniel consists mostly of exercise, weapons training and other teamwork based activities. Today however, Daniel was receiving another medal, recognising his exemplary service during and after the Russian war. His experiences allowed Daniel to develop a new way of saving lives, by using a cryogenically frozen form of healthy bacteria that can slow down bleeding and other wounds. Daniel arrives at the base right on 0600, and parks his car outside his office. He barely uses it, but he still has an office. He places his bag under his desk, and turns on his computer. 'What's North Korea up to now' he thinks as he flicks onto the defence news webpage. He doesn't find anything of interest, so he begins to fill out some paperwork in regards to his development. The day goes on as usual, with the ceremony being held just after lunch.

Jade gets out of bed at seven. She rolls over, hoping just as she does every other morning that her husband is still lying beside her. However, all she finds is empty space. She instead grabs the TV remote and lays in bed watching the news. Eventually, her 15 year old daughter walks in.
"Morning mum, we need more milk, I just finished our last bottle."
"Okay, I'll pick some up after I drop you off at school." Jade says back. She turns and leaves the room, and jade gets up and has a shower.

Right after the end of the war, Shortly after Daniel proposed, jade found out she was pregnant. After daniel had recovered enough to return home, jade gave birth to a girl, which they named Amelia. Jade took seven years off from work to stay home with Amelia as she grew up, and now works four days a week in a Logistics management office. Today is Friday, and Amelia is in year 9.

Jade drops Amelia off at school, quickly goes to the supermarket, and heads home to relax.