Chapter 2
The day was beautiful, the birds chirping away, the perfect amount of sun, clouds, and blue sky. Everything was perfect, except for the fact that this was the last day I would be here at home. Today I will be picked up by the army to train for the next three months and head off to the frontlines.
I got up, washed my face, brushed my teeth, changed clothes, and headed down for breakfast. At the table was a plate full of waffles, oh God how I love waffles! Waffles are amazing. mom out did herself for this, the smell was amazing. I sat down and ate 5 waffles more or less. When I was done eating I got up and there was a knock on the door.
I walked over to the door and opened it.
-"Hello, is this Jacob Dwellings"?
-I replied, "yes"
- "We've come here to notify that your transportation is here".
"Ok", I said. I closed the door behind me and ran over to get my stuff. I said my goodbyes to my mom and dad. I stepped out the door and looked at the van. I turned around, and a t that instance I felt a sense of sadness, this heaviness that made me want to buckle down and lay there insensible to everything else. I just stared back at the house for what seemed like the longest, but it was only fractions of a second. I turned back around, unexpressive.
Finally, I jumped into the van, and was greeted with expression less faces, like if they were lost in thought, or daydreaming.
I sat down and a guy greeted me from across the van.
"Hey", he said.
-"Hey" I said back to him.
-"My name's Jimmy, but you can call me Jim if you want".
I replied to him, "my names' Jacob, but you can call me Jake"
He said, Nice to meet you Jake.
We carried on talking, and I found out that he actually signed up for this, I guess you could call him a badass or insane. He wanted to teach those Koreans a lesson or two. I just thought this guy is really looking for death.
The ride was at least three hours long, and we finally made it to boot-camp. There we were separated by whatever we chose to be and the knowledge that we already have. I was chosen as infantry, for some strange reason, and after finding out what Infantry did I lost it. I panicked, and ran straight to the front entrance. I got tackled right before I made it there, tried to fight back but instantly was tackled down by a huge bulky dude.
What’s wrong with you man?
I said nothing back at him.
I said, What’s wrong with you soldier!
I told him that I was trying to get away.
He told me to settle down and take a breather, and he laid me the truth.
Look man, I don’t want to be here either. And as much as I want to get away, where would I go? How could I go when others are going to have the same fate as me? In fact they might be the ones to die, and I would live through the whole thing. With that in my mind I couldn’t be able to leave anyone in this damn war.
He started tearing up.
Look man, I lost my brother I that war, he was younger than me. He had a life man, all I had were lies back home. How is it that a good person like him dies, instead of a coward like me.
His eyes started getting redder and redder.
I hate admitting this. I hate it, and I hate myself forever thinking this. I was there when he died, and the funny thing is that we were the first to get into the whole thing. It was day one of this stupid war, and I just saw a grenade fall over where we were. I froze and just stared at it. Looked over to my brother looking at me, a second later he jumped on to it. The next thing I heard was a deafened boom go off under him. He bounced up bit and landed with a thump. I saw his eyes still open, but lifeless. I saw a pool of blood begin to seep from under him. And I just stared at him, his lifeless body.
The next day I buried him. We had no actual funeral. No one spoke a word, I didn’t cry, I was just lifeless, empty, and angry. Angry because I just stood there looking at the grenade. Why didn’t I just grab it try to throw it, he could’ve had a chance.
I looked up at him and he had an empty look to his face. It was motionless, like it was lost in thought somewhere in a far away place.
He shook his head and told me to choose, I could either kill myself in the war or fight for my life and the life of the generations to come.
