War Within Us

chapter 2 . denial

International Armed Forces - Kaden Base

Footsteps of soldiers going to their morning exercise session could be heard from a mil away. On the contrary, special forces were already pass morning exercise time.

Even after their hectic night, they were able to wake up at 6 am and do their morning exercise.

They knew the whole incident was their fault but since they were able to clean the mess afterwards, no one dared to say a word. Of course no one knew that they got help from those volunteers.

Hunter knew if he had told his superiors what really happened, he would have to deal with a lot of paperwork which was the last thing he wanted.

Not only himself but his whole team would be under a heavy paperwork load.

He felt a bit uneasy about the whole ordeal but thought about the paperwork he was able to skip through and felt slightly better.

He knew he was not obligated to award a volunteer for helping a soldier as they were both working towards the same goal but somehow, Maroon and Haven were able to persuade him the moment they got back to the base, saying that they should at least let them know that they appreciated their help.

These were his exact words;

"As long as you keep it small and simple plus no notes. Now go away and play with your present."

After they left smiling, he thought 'Who the hell let these kids into the army for God's Sake.'

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"Up up. Get your pretty arses up boys. This is no playground. You're training for war here."

Whole troop was training under the burning heat of Kaden for 2 hours now. They were oozing with sweat and their feet were hurting but the Major in command was one pigheaded insructor and he didn't have any intentions of letting them go any time soon.

As all of them had the same thoughts in their minds, their prayers were answered.

"Hey Brit. Do you enjoy your torture?"

As he heard thevoice, he faced his friend and saluted. Seeing the slight head shake, he started to walk towards Hunter.Even though they were equals in daily life, Hunter was his team leader in here.

"End of the training. Everyone is dismissed."

Hunter could see the smiling faces of the soldiers as they saluted him and walked to their ward.

"I like this good cop , bad cop game." Brit had a sadist smile on his face.

"No, you like torturing them."

"Of course I do. I like their struggle. Back home, everyone has good poker face."

"You are one sick son of a b*tch, you know. This is why they call you Vader among themselves"

"I know, I like the nickname." Subject had a sharp turn as they started to walk. " Haven and Maroon, what were they doing in the morning all excited? They kept whispering to each other on the way as well."

Hunter took a deep breath. He was still uncomfortable with this.

"They wanted to thank the civilians from yesterday.They had a point with their argument, so I just let them have their fun."

A weird smile formed on Brit's lips.

"You could've said no. If I didn't know any better, I would say you were being soft for some reason."

"Don't try to turn this to something that it isn't. You know I don't go soft for sh*t and you should be the one to know that better than everyone. Cut the bullsh*t."

Brit's smile got surprisingly bigger. He knew Hunter had slight anger problems when he was cornered and he would get angry even if you complimented him but Brit could sense something fishy about this one.

He felt like one of the people back in that village had an impression on Hunter.

He was excited because for the last 3 years he knew Hunter, they rarely had a serious talk about relationships or women in general. They were always so busy with their job so it kind of made sense that their love life was not a talk between them because they didn't have one.

Thankfully he could be comfortable now because at some point, he seriously thought Hunter was gay. Not that anything was wrong with that but it would make things weird between them.

Brit was positive that he saw Hunter glancing few times. His stares lasted for a second or less but they happened. He knew Hunter too well to miss those small signs and he was determined to keep that detail in mind.

" Since it is really hot out here, I don't want to make you sweat even more."

Hunter's face remained emotionless as he kept walking.

"Let's eat something. Our patrol is in 35 min."

Their conversation was left behind as they started to walk but not before they both went through the whole thing in their mind once.

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(2019) Soo, I'm not so good with military terms but I'm trying my best to learn about them. Hope you liked the new chapter. (2020) This was a longer chapter but I decided to shorten it because it would be too long. The story will not be written 50/50 between Vanessa and Hunter but I always enjoy writing about my boys.

Question of the part : What time of the day are you reading this part?

Love you all and see you next time. Peace -ONM