War Within Us

chapter 11 . let the mind run wild

International Armed Forces - Kaden Base - Around 7 am

Hunter woke up three hours later. No one bothered to come by their small team house which was a good sign. At least the rest of his team could get some more sleep without any disturbance.

He washed his face, brushed his teeth and went out to exercise.

His mind was so full after yesterday's events and he needed to let some of it go. He learned from experience how bad it got when he didn't allow his mind to run wild when he was alone.

This was something he did for years to protect his sanity. When he didn't let some pressure out in an appropriate time, he exploded in unexpected moments. It took him a pretty long time to learn this but after countless failures, he was successful.

After he warmed up his muscles, he started to run. He ran for a while, losing his sense of time in the meantime.

His brain kept on repeating last night. Everything from the moment they noticed Haven was gone to the moment he appeared on the door.

A part of him blamed himself for all this but another side of him was reassuring, telling him that he did everything he could in that moment.

As the team's captain, he had to think about everyone and what would benefit all of them. He knew last night, he had to sit back and control the situation in the base. No matter how much he wanted to go out there and bring Haven himself, he just couldn't do it due to his position. He trusted his team with his life, more over with Haven's life.

Apparently, he could now trust those women too with Haven's life.

It was still hard for him to wrap his head around everything that had happened. After Haven told everything, his emotions were even more complicated.

He couldn't decide what to feel when it came to that woman. She was unexpected and expected at the same time. Even though he saw her only once, he could remember the tough look of her eyes.

One look at her and one could see that she experienced hardship. At least Hunter could see it. He could sense her strong stance but he also knew all that strength arose from something else.

He suddenly felt out of breath and stopped himself immediately. He forced himself to take slower breaths in an attempt to calm it down.

He didn't notice he gained speed while thinking.

He didn't know when he started to think only about her while he was just thinking about last night.

This woman was dangerous and he knew it before touching and burning himself.

He knew she would burn him to his bits, breaking everything and anything he had to himself.

He knew it, yet he couldn't stop a part of him from wanting to feel the burn.

He took one last breath before clearing his mind. And the next time he opened his eyes, his mind was clear from 'her' and he was back to his reality.

A soldier.

With a gun in his hand and an outh sealed to his heart.

This was his reality and there was no way of changing it any time soon.

However, the moment he went back to their house, he understood that universe had serious plans about him, as if it tried to push him into her. Because the moment he thought he was safe, he was not.

The guys were talking about last night when he reached the house.

Hunter could hear Maroon's excited voice.

"I haven't had that much fun in a long time. It was relaxing but fun. You know, I didn't expect her to do that. I thought she would freak out or something."

Hunter heard Haven's booming laughter.

"Believe me, those people have some more things up on their sleeves. Think about me for a second when I woke up and found out that they'd already managed the cube, talked with you guys and already prepared everything from clothes to coordinates. You'd think this was something they do every weekend as a fun activity but they said this was the first they'd dealt with this sort of emergency."

Hunter was caught off guard when Brit joined the conversation. He would mostly remain silent when the younger ones chatted.

"You should be, you knobhead. They didn't have to save your ass but they were kind enough to do it." He sounded bitter yet Hunter couldn't figure out why.

"Believe me, I know but at least I was smart enough to ask right people for help."

Hunter decided that it was stupid to just wait outside of the door and just stepped inside the room.

At the last second, his eye caught Maroon's flick on Haven's nape. Haven was about to respond when he saw Hunter. He backed up and waited for his captain's reaction but he just gave out a simple order.

"Get back to your bed."

Haven grumbled while walking to his bed but his mood suddenly changed when he turned to Hunter.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Vanessa wanted me to say hi to you and asked for you to go easy on us for this once."

He was smiling happily while he swayed in his place with hope. He had high hopes on Nessa's request. He hoped for this once, he would go easy on them.

He thought he was an idiot for even considering it when his captain answered with a dull face

"I don't consider requests that are delivered through an envoy. Especially an envoy like you. Don't tire yourself and just rest. We'll have a lot more time to decide your punishment since it looks like a bed rest is not a good enough one."

What Haven didn't know was that his last words messed Hunter's head once more and it was getting harder to keep her away from his thoughts.

*-*

With a last minute decision, I decided to give you all a "Kaden Base" chapter full of Hunter and his thoughts. I'm planning on writing some fun filler episodes after these ones but I guess we'll see how that goes in the future. Hope you liked the episode. We have a long way to go with this story. We are only just beginning.

Question of the part : Which animal would you like to have as a pet?

See you next time and love you all. Peace -ONM