As Long As I Have You // A. Ghale

Reclamation

"Duck!" Ajay yells from a couple of feet away, and I do so as I hear a whiff of a bullet beside my ear. Holy shit, that was close.

The sounds of rounds of ammo being used echos through the mountainous terrain of Kyrat. The sound rang in my ears on repeat. I never thought I'd be shooting a gun and using it to kill someone. Who was I becoming?

I was interrupted by a rather large royal army soldier. He was stronger than normal, he had a much more powerful machine gun, and he was nearly twice my size. I was getting nervous, I was really nervous. I did what my gut told me to do....

"RUN!" Ajay yells to me and we slide behind a bush, catching our breath for a moment before reloading our guns.

I dodge bullet after bullet but managed to get hit by an arrow in my right side, earning a loud screech of pain coming out of my throat. It burned and continued to burrow itself deeper into my abdomen. Ajay finished off the soldiers as the golden path rebels came in to help, Ajay came rushing to me as I lay shallowly breathing and trying to remain as calm as possible. 

"Just...stay calm. And whatever you do, don't move. You could injure yourself further." He was trying to assess the situation with a calm demeanor but instead came across as very concerned and unsure.

"How many times?" I ask him, trying to take my mind off of the unbearable pain in my abdomen.

"What?" Ajay asks me, frantically. Searching my body for further injuries. My vision was slowly blurring and I was experiencing double vision.

"How many t-times have you saved me?" I get out, and continue to try to calm myself down, which wasn't actually working out.

"Not enough. I brought you into this mess, and it is my mission to get you out of it."