Love & War

Chapter 1

How is it my life has ended here? If I would have known 12 years ago I was gonna die this way I would’ve fought my father harder. Sure I love my country, but this isn’t where I want to be. Lying in a pool of my own blood in the woods of a foreign country. 

I’m to the point that I only have vague recollections of what surrounds me. In the distance I can hear the birds sing, I can hear flowing water. We must have ended up near a stream, is the only thought I have.  I can barely register the pounding against my chest as my “brother” Charlie gives me CPR. He’s doing everything he can to keep my heart circulating my blood. I feel like I’m drowning, I know he’s yelling at me telling me to stay awake, stay with them, help is on the way. I can vaguely feel the tears running down my face.  I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t save us, I’m sorry I failed us. Please just make it stop. I feel like time has slowed down to a crawl. I open my eyes to see him push my chest down and release. I close my eyes. Turn my head, open them again. I see my other ‘brother’ Max using a satellite phone, where he got it I don’t know.  Behind him I can see the youngest in our band, Liam sitting on his butt with his knees up to his chest, he looks like he’s crying. He’s still holding the satellite video camera that’s been recording for the last bit of time.

Please keep my team safe. Please let them get back to their families. Please let them survive this. Please tell me we didn’t fight our way out just to die in this god forsaken country.  I can’t help but pray to whatever God will listen at this point.

My name is Lieutenant Commander Annabelle Stevens of the United States Navy Seals team Valkyrie and I can feel my life slipping out of my fingertips, what could be minutes feels like hours. They tell you when you die that your life flashes before your eyes, I always believed science. It’s not memories; it’s just your neurons shutting down. But I can’t help but turn my thoughts to my best friend, my honorary brother, Chris.

20 years ago… 10 years old.

“Class, this is our new transfer student, Annabelle Stevens. Ms. Stevens, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?”

I glance at my new teacher, I hate introducing myself. I wish I could just go sit in the back of the class. I won’t even be here at the end of this school year. Mrs. Collins gives me a reassuring smile as if to tell me it’s ok.

“My name is Ana, my dad and I just moved here from Germany. We were in Norway 8 months before that for almost a year. I’m 10, I love acting and learning how to disassemble different firearms.” As I say this I can hear an audible gasp and a few chuckles from some of my peers. Which they aren’t really my peers. I’m only 10 and I am in a room full of 13 to 14 year olds. I’m quite smart, so I got to skip from 5th  grade to 8th. If I continue on my path I will graduate when I am 15. When most of my peers are only in 10th grade. It makes me a bit of an outcast.

“Ok dear, why don’t you go sit in that empty chair by Chris,” Mrs. Collins gently pushes me further into the room towards the cute kid I noticed earlier. He’s got sandy blond hair and bright blue eyes. I slowly make my way towards the empty seat, not realizing that the kid sitting in the front row had put his foot out. I stumbled over it and fell flat on my face.  

“You need to apologize, Kenny!” I look up and see the Chris kid up and coming at me, speaking to my offender.  He offers his hand to me to help me up. Just as I was getting back on my feet I hear the kid, Kenny, laugh and call me a freak. Before I had the chance to turn around and punch him in the face. Chris slammed his head into the desk and held it to the table. “Apologize, now!”

“Christopher Hemsworth! What are you doing? Go to the principal’s office right now young man!”

“Kenny tripped the new kid, I was just defending her,” he retorts.

“Fine. All three of you,” she points to me, Chris and Kenny, “go to the office. I will not tolerate any of this nonsense.” Kenny storms out of the room as Chris walk by my side the whole way.

I tell him that I can’t believe it’s only my first day and I’m already getting into trouble. He just chuckles and responds with its not unusual for him to be in trouble. I lean over and whisper “I could’ve taken him,” with a giggle.

We spent 15 minutes with the principle. Most of that he was lecturing us on getting along. Blah Blah. I tune him out.

Later on that day Chris invited me to sit with him and his friends during lunch.  Which was nice, all of his friends seemed to accept me into the fold. It was great I had never gotten friends on my first day.

4 hours later…

School has let out. I’m sitting on the curb outside the main office waiting on my dad.

“Hey Belle,” I look over at the familiar voice, its Chris. “What are you waiting on?”

“My dad. He always forgets to pick me up, and the doors are locked.” He replies with a hold on and runs to a blue car in the parking lot. He leans into the passenger window talking to, I assume, his mom.

He looks up with and waves me over. “Come on, you can call your dad from my house.” I get in the back seat and mumble a thank you to his mom.  For 15 minutes his mom is asking me questions, where I live, what my dad does. Where is my mom. How could he forget you? After I answer her questions (he’s a General for the US Army, we live on base, she died when I was a baby, he always forgets me) her face softens and she just makes small talk the rest of the way to her house.

I call my dad from the Hemsworth house and after 20 minutes they finally reach him. He’s in the middle of an exercise; he’s gonna be another 4 hours. Can’t I just take care of myself? He asks. I tell him I’ll figure it out and hang up the phone with tears in my eyes. Why am I always second? Why does he embarrass me in front of strangers?

After hearing what my dad says, Mrs. Hemsworth insists I stay for dinner and she will take me home.

For the next 3 years we stayed in Australia, every day after school I would hang out with Chris and his family. He became my big brother, and his parents became my “surrogates”. It became a question of when I was coming for dinner, or when I was gonna spend the night, not a question of if. Since then Ive stayed in constant contact with him and his family. They would always be a part of me and I apart of them.

Present…

I open my eyes and see Liam kneeling next to me; he has taken over for Charlie. Push down, release. Push down, release. I close my eyes. Turn my head. Open them again. I see Charlie tears streaming down his face waving his blood covered arms in the air. I see a huge shadow fall across his figure, feel the wind around my face, its stirring up the dirt around me, whipping sand into my eyes. I try to move my head again to see what’s going on. It’s a helicopter. It’s my company’s helicopter, Bell Securities. I feel relief and sorrow at the same time. Get my boys home. Please.