My name is Alex, I am a soldier of the US Army. My rank is a Major. I’m from Goldonna, Louisiana of the USA……..or at least that’s what my dog tags say.

As of 2 months ago I was thrust into a new war with the Japanese. Japan has bombed New York and Washington DC and several other major cities in the US. I never thought it would happen but it did, it is World War 3.

The year is 2010 and not much has changed since 2006, everything was going fine between Japan and America, until Japan suddenly attacked the US all at once. I was drug into this hell hole of a war by my friend thinking it would be over quick and swift with new technology, we were wrong….

Its been 2 months since that day and I have moved from an Second Lieutenant to a Major due taking down many bomber plains with my suggested plan to the Colonel of my division. As of now I’m in a helicopter headed straight for the center of the war in Japan. I have 3 other soldiers with me besides the pilot, I am their leader. One a close friend the same one that drug me into the damned war, he is my tandem partner, or otherwise known as Bravo but I just call him DJ.

The other 2 consist of a woman and another man. The woman pushed herself into my squad demanding I take her, I tried to resist but it was useless she wouldn’t listen to reason. Her name is Midnight, or that’s what she has me call her. Stealthy, deadly, she doesn’t talk much, and acts as if she has nothing to lose. The other man is someone that was assigned to me by the General. I don’t know him all that well and he seems to not want to be here, who would? His name is Gene. And this…is Hell on Earth.

((Key: A name, date, and maybe a time will be at the beginning of each section. The name is the person who is telling that part of the story from their point of view.))

Alex: 3-11-2010

I spoke over the loud noise of the helicopter going over the plans with the squad. “Midnight, I want you to disable the security temporarily. They’ll notice if its off for too long.” I said and Midnight just gave a small nod. “Gene, I want you to help DJ make a distraction so we can have a clean insertion.” I continued. Gene looked at me and asked “What kind of distraction? A grenade, a firefight, what?”.

“DJ, you help him to set up a few timed grenades.” I said in reply. “Right.” DJ said.

“I don’t want any screw ups, if we don’t take out this bunker, then things could go wrong and fast.” I said with a half scolding, half worried look. “You’re one to talk Alex. If I recall you screwed up last time.” DJ said with a bit of a smirk. “Bite me damn it, I saved your @$# didn’t I?” I said in reply to his smart@$# remark. Any other officer would have demoted him but that wasn’t the time for that and plus DJ was always like that.

We had had a run in with a small Japanese squad in a forest on US soil a week ago. DJ got pinned down whenever I didn’t notice he wasn’t behind me anymore. I was the only one to go back for DJ because the other 2 where escorting a hostage to the extraction point. I ended up taking out the Japanese squad with a grenade, which I had told my squad not to use due to forest fires. I wasn’t about to lose a man though, it was either him or the forest, sometimes you have to make those choices in life.

The pilot yelled back to us that we would be arriving at the camp in less than 10 minutes. We nodded and sat back, and it was quiet except for the noise of the rotors of the chopper going. My mind drifted off to guns and swords and then somehow to women. I guess it was because of Midnight. I didn’t have anybody back home so I figured it didn’t really matter if I died or not just as long as I was doing what I thought was right.

Suddenly we heard the pilot scream “Oh crap!” and the helicopter veered to the left quickly and we heard a loud beeping. DJ knew what was happening and grabbed a sniper rifle and went to the door holding on to the hand rails and looked for whatever was shooting at us. I could see a large streak of smoke out the door as I got up off the floor, apparently an anti-air missile had been shot at us. “We’re in deep crap Alex! They have a lock on us and they have 3 anti-air trucks down there!” DJ yelled back at me. I ran to the front and the pilot was struggling with the controls to avoid the missiles. A missile was shot from straight in front of us and the pilot pulled back and we went upward but the missiles tail hit our choppers tail and we started to lose altitude fast. “Screw this, I’m gone Alex!” DJ and Gene yelled as they jumped out of the helicopter and parachuted down to the ground by a canyon. The pilot lost his nerves and pushed past me and grabbed the last parachute and jumped as Midnight tried to stop him but it was too late. I could have sworn I heard that coward of a pilot scream “Its every man for himself now!” as he jumped. Midnight and I looked at me with an oh sh** look. I on the other hand didn’t plan on going down so easily. “What now dang it?!” Midnight yelled franticly. I didn’t say anything and I grabbed the controls and pulled up as hard as I could and we started to glide but we were going at least 75 miles an hour just over the canyons floor. I spotted an ledge to our right and I jumped up grabbed Midnight by the arm and jumped onto the ledge and we rolled through various plants and finally came to a stop.

Midnight stood up saying “Holy crap that was close.”. I stood up and brushed the dirt from my shirt and pants and said “I’m gonna sue the helicopter company if I get out of this damned war. Not putting enough parachutes in like some idiots.”.

I looked up as a huge explosion filled the air behind Midnight, she turned around as well to see. Midnight turned back around and started to walk up past me. I turned and started to follow her. She knew what she was doing, she was planning to regroup like everyone is told to do.

I didn’t say anything as she tried her radio for DJ and Gene. I think it was that I was more entranced by the way she looked walking into the setting sun. Her hair which was long for a soldier flapped and flitted in the wind and she turned and looked at me as she stopped. “What?” Midnight asked as she looked at me curiously.

I had a stupid look on my face I suppose and I straightened up and said “Nothing, I was just thinking.”. “Well they aren’t responding so they have to be like 5 miles away or dead. But I doubt that Gene would die so easily.” She said confidently as we started to climb down onto the floor of the canyon.

We ended up walking a good 3 miles before stopping and setting up camp with what we had. All our stuff was in the helicopter which was now nothing but a smoldering pile of ashes and metal.
“God this sucks.” Midnight said as she sat against a large boulder. I didn’t say anything but agreed with her. A moment of silence passed and Midnight spoke again “Look….I…uh want to thank you for not abandoning me.”. I gave a small “Its ok.” as I struck a match and lit the fire. I sat against the wall of the canyon and asked “Haven’t I told you people I’m not leaving anybody behind no matter what?”. Midnight paused and said “Well yeah but its just I didn’t really believe you when you said it. I’ve been abandoned plenty of times so I don’t tend to pay attention to statements like that.”. I pulled out a flask and offered a drink to her. “Its wine, a good Pennsylvania one. I may be an @$# sometimes but I do enjoy the finer things in life.”. She gave a small “Thanks.” as she took it and took a drink and handed it back to me. “I don’t drink much but that is good.” She said with a bit of a smile.

I took a drink and put the flask away again. “So, Midnight…I’ve been wondering….why did you push your way into my squad?” I asked reluctantly. Midnight sighed and said “Its Gene, he and I are engaged. I just didn’t want to get separated is all.”. I crossed my arms and stretched my neck and said “Well at least you have somebody.”. She looked up at me curiously not knowing exactly what I meant. “So you don’t have anybody waiting for you back home?” She asked. I shook my head no. “I only have family at home, but they don’t really worry about me all too much. Not since I left home in 2006 after graduating high school.” I said. “I’d rather not talk about my family, they’re the whole reason I joined the army. I had to get away from them.” Midnight said as she pulled her knees up to her chin. I didn’t say much after that, Midnight ended up falling asleep and I ended up watching her sleep until about 12:30am. Women’s uniform for the army wasn’t much different from men’s, all camouflage. Midnight was wearing a hat and somehow it hadn’t come off in the fall. Baggy boot cut pants with combat boots and a thick camouflage shirt. Midnight carried a backpack but was now using it as a pillow. I ended up falling asleep myself after putting out the fire.

Midnight: 3-12-2010

I woke up with a start whenever I heard a rock slam to the ground. I grabbed my pistol and immediately pointed it at the where the rock had fallen from but nothing was there. “Gah, I’m getting jumpy.” I said to myself as a lowered my gun and looked over at Alex. I was 2 ranks lower than him but he didn’t seem to act like it much. I stood up and looked around for any Japanese enemies and finally concluded there were none. I took a good look at Alex and saw he was sleeping pretty soundly so I decided to go off and take a bath, since I hadn’t had one in the last 2 days. I walked just down the stream and found a cove and I undressed to nothing but my bra and underwear and got in. The water was cold as all stuff but what would you expect in the middle of fall? I washed the blood and dirt from me and got out and wiped as much of the water I could from me and dressed in my uniform once again. I walked back to the camp we had set up and Alex had woken up and was checking his clips for his M-16 and 9mm when I came up. “Morning.” I said. He replied by asking “Morning, have a good sleep and bath?”. I thought for a second he had been watching me. “You were watching me?!” I asked with a tinge of anger in my voice and he looked up at me and flinched back a bit. “So you were!” I nearly screamed. “Now hold on Midnight, I wasn’t watching you, I just figured as much since you were gone and hadn’t taken your stuff with you.” He said as he went back to checking his ammo. “Fine, but if I find out you were watching me, I’ll kill you.” I said half jokingly. “I wasn’t watching you, I haven’t even gotten up from this spot ok.” Alex said with a serious tone. I started to believe him, he didn’t seem to be the kind of guy that would really care, I mean he’s never even made an advance on a woman as far as I know. Alex stood up and put his gun case over his shoulder and asked “Ready to get going?”. I shook my head yes and we started to walk even further down the canyon toward where DJ and Gene had landed.

About a mile down the path nothing was said so I decided to break the ice by speaking. “So what’s the reason why you joined?” I asked curiously. “You know DJ right? He’s the whole reason why I joined, for some reason partially unknown. Part for money and the other part I’m not all to sure why, I guess at the time it sounded like a good idea since I had recently been fired from my job for some bullcrap some little punk pulled and I was blamed for.” He said not looking back at me. “Well, now that we’re here we may as well get used to it.” I said trying to offer a bit of comfort but it didn’t seem like it did much since he didn’t reply. Another quarter mile and the radio started to crackle and Alex picked it up and listened carefully. “Make out anything?” I asked.
We kept walking as he spoke into the radio asking if DJ and Gene if they heard him. He finally put the radio back on his belt and said “Nothing, knowing DJ he probably isn’t up yet, he’d sleep through a tornado.”. “That bad of a sleeper huh?” I asked and he gave a nod yes.

Another mile and we made small talk, stuff like what we liked and old friends and the current situation. Alex wouldn’t make long winded answers unlike Gene. Alex explained what he meant and then would shut up. Maybe he was sorting through thoughts, or maybe he was planning something, I couldn’t tell.

Alex finally stopped and sighed sitting on a rock saying “God dang it this isn’t getting us anywhere.”. I sat beside him and asked “Well what do we do now?”. He gave another one of his extremely short answers “We go up.”. I looked at him curiously and asked “Up?”. He then replied by explaining what he meant. “We climb up the canyon wall and hike to the nearest US camp. While we look for DJ and Gene of course.” Alex said as he took out his canteen and took a drink of water and I did the same since it didn’t seem like a bad idea. We stood and we started to climb the wall nearest us after checking out GPS’s and determining where the nearest US camp was. We were about half way up when I started to make small comments about my hands starting to hurt from the jagged rocks. He didn’t seem to be bothered by them, but he also didn’t say much either. My line was hooked around his waist meaning each others life was in the others hands. I didn’t exactly like depending on others but I had no other choice, it was either fall to my death or depend on him to save me. And I’m glad he was there by the time we got to the top. About 3/4ths of the way the rocks seemed even more jagged than ever and I lost my grip when one cut my hand deep when I slipped. I fell and the line jerked and rocks flew as I dangled hundreds of feet above the canyon floor. I gulped and he asked if I was ok and I said yes. Alex turned and grabbed the line beginning to swing me towards the wall again and I finally caught my grip, even if it was painful. Alex looked down a few times making sure I was ok. A few minutes later a cloth fell on my head and I grabbed it. “Use it to climb.” Alex said turning his head back upward.

We finally reached the top of the cliff and the cloth was covered in blood from my hands. I handed it back to him saying “Thanks. Once again I owe you my life.”. He looked at me with a stern look and turned back around and started to walk and he said “You owe me nothing Midnight.”. I followed him and as he walked, I watched his feet and noticed a few drops of blood drop from his hands. I hadn’t noticed it until now but the rocks I was climbing on were redder than usual. It wasn’t the rocks that made it red it was his blood. Whenever he held on when I slipped his hands were cut deeper than mine were. I started to say something but decided not to remembering the stern look he had just given me. I didn’t know if he was mad at me or not. If he was mad then he wouldn’t have said that I didn’t owe him anything. Alex flung the blood from his hands and looked back at me and I looked away. His eyes went wide and he pulled out his pistol and I ducked and he shot 3 bullets and I heard a scream and a thud. Alex kept his gun at the ready and walked over to the man the had just shot. “Not dead yet I see..” Alex said as the Japanese man grunted in pain as he reached for his rifle and I came running up with my pistol at the ready and I looked around for more but didn’t see any. Alex kicked the gun away and looked down at the man and the man said something I didn’t understand, it was Japanese. Alex lifted his gun and pointed it at the man and responded in Japanese saying “Giseisha no senso.” and Alex shot the man in the head and I looked away quickly. The statement that Alex made wasn’t English of course it was Japanese and when translated it means “Casualty of war.”. Alex picked the dog tags of the man up and read and then snatched one off the chain and put it in the man’s mouth and he took the other one. “What’s that for?” I asked half curious, half not wanting to know. Alex walked by coolly and responded “I need it for retribution.”. I had no idea what he meant but I had a feeling I had better not ask.
I followed Alex to the nearest camp or what we thought was a camp. It was nestled in the middle of the woods by a nice sized stream. We got there and the tents had bullet holes in the tents and we could see signs of a struggle and blood splatters all over the camp but no bodies. Alex frowned and said “Bet they took them as examples.”. “That’s horrible, you mean some of them were still alive?” I asked. He shook his head yes and bent down and looked at the amount of blood on the ground. “Its fresh but its not enough to die from.” Alex said as he stood back up and walked over to the medical tent and walked in and came out with a bandages and he threw me some and I put them on my hands. He bandaged his own hands and then looked around and said “No wonder they were wiped out, this is a horrible place for a camp.”. The camp had a stream by it but was surrounded by hills. “Whoever picked this place is an idiot.” Alex said as he put his hand on the table beside him and it happened to fall on a pump action 20 gauge shotgun. Alex checked to see if it was loaded and it was. A voice came from behind us saying “We live with…geniuses.”. Alex and I whirled around and I pointed my pistol at the man that spoke. He was standing holding his bleeding shoulder and leaning against the medical tent’s post. Alex had whirled around and pointed the shotgun at the man but then soon lowered it, I didn’t put my pistol down though. The man spoke and said “Lady, I’d like to keep my nads ok. I’ve been shot before by this jack@$# once before.” the man smirked a bit as he spoke. “Bite me Zach.” Alex said with a smile and he put the shotgun on the table and walked over to him and I lowered my gun. “So you know this guy Alex?” I asked. “No dip Sherlock.” The man said. Alex let out a “Heh” and then explained saying “I don’t know him, I’m kin to this smart@$#. He’s my 2^nd cousin but we feel a lot like brothers. His name is Zach.”. “Oh ok.” I said as a put my gun away and walked over and handed Alex the bandages he had given me. Both of them walked over to a table and Zach sat down and Alex wrapped his shoulder. “I almost lost…” Zach said with a somber tone. “Almost lost what?” Alex asked. “A rapier fight.” Zach replied. “Cant win ‘em all I guess.” Alex said as he stepped back once he had finished wrapping the wound. “So you’re a rapier fighter Zach? Are you good?” I asked. I was interested in swords but I didn’t compare to these two as I soon found out.

“Alex and I used to practice different types of swords when we were younger. My favorite was rapier, his was katana and broadsword. It didn’t matter how fast I was I could never beat Alex, it didn’t matter, I don’t know I guess he’s just tougher or something. But I fought other people with rapiers and I could always win and never lost.” Zach explained. “So you lost just now then. But to who?” I asked. “Don’t know, I just know it was a Japanese rapier fighter. The only way I won is I got a hold of a gun and shot him. Hey if it works use it I say.” Zach said. “So let me guess, you tried telling these idiots that this was a bad camp ground, they didn’t listen, and they got attacked and you barely survived and got away. Am I right?” Alex asked. “Dead on. Bet most of them like Spiderman too, that would explain why they are so stupid.” Zach said as he looked back at the rubble of the camp.

DJ: 3-11-2010

I am second in command of a squad my friend leads. We recently got shot down on the way to a camp close to enemy territory. Now I’m stuck with another person I don’t even know in the middle of Japan.

After I jumped from the helicopter that was being shot down I pulled my rip cord and my parachute opened and I looked up to see if any one else was behind me, there wasn’t. At the time I didn’t know that we had less parachutes than people, but that cant be helped now. I landed with a thud and undid my parachute as a watched Gene, a fellow squad mate land about 40 yards from me. I started to walk toward him. Gene was new at this kind of thing and was an Second Lieutenant. That’s all I knew about Gene, he hadn’t shown much emotion on the helicopter but he jumped all the same. Gene was on the ground struggling with his parachute trying to get it off and he seemed to be getting frustrated with it. I walked over and cut the cords with my survival knife and he looked at me. “What?” I asked. “Nothing….where is everybody else?” He asked. “Not sure, I didn’t see anybody else jump.” I said as I looked toward the sky and saw another parachute open. “Wait there’s one now.” I said as I pointed toward it. Just as Gene looked up the person using the parachute was shot as we heard a loud bang. Gene’s eyes opened wide and he started to run toward the person but I grabbed his shoulder before he could get any further. “What the heck is wrong with you?! Let go of me! What if that’s Midnight?!” Gene yelled. I looked at him sternly and said “Cool your jets Gene, unless you wanna get blow to nothing.”. As I said this the body landed and a we heard an explosion. Gene looked over at me with a strange look and asked “Landmines?”.
I shook my head yes and pointed to a dug up spot about 10 yards away. “I don’t care I still have to see if Midnight is ok.” Gene said as he walked carefully toward the body….or what was left of it at least. I followed him confident I knew where all the mines were because they were all freshly dug.

We got to the body and it was bleeding, burned, and missing a leg that was lying about 20 feet away in pieces. Gene bent down looking for dog tags and he picked up a bent piece of metal and read what was on it and sighed in relief and said “Good, its only the pilot. At least it wasn’t Midnight.”. I used the scope on the rifle I had grabbed to look around for anybody. Somebody had to fire that shot but I didn’t see anybody. I stayed alert just in case though. “Happy now?” I asked sarcastically and I started to walk toward where the helicopter had crashed even though it was probably 10 miles away by now. Gene started to follow me and asked “And what about you? You would have liked to verified if that was your friend Alex right?”. I didn’t look back at him and said “This is a war, men are going to die. I have to accept that fact, no matter who it is or how bad it hurts.”. Gene didn’t reply and we walked through the minefield carefully until we didn’t see anymore dug up spots. I occasionally checked around to see if we had been spotted or not. It was practically a barren waste land except for the fact that there were woods off to our right and the canyon on our left. Gene checked the radio and asked if anybody could hear him but he didn’t get anything. After about 5 minutes of him trying I stopped him saying “Ok, that’s enough Gene, I think we are on our own for now. Until we can regroup.”. He put the radio away and we walked a good mile and he started to ask me small unimportant questions. I dodged most of the ones I didn’t want to answer at the time. I was more worried about getting shot by a Japanese sniper and regrouping with any survivors of our squad. I started to think about us getting shot down and finally recalled the fact that there were only 3 parachutes and we had 5 people. Meaning Midnight and Alex didn’t have one. I cursed under my breath and tried not to mention the fact to Gene, as I could tell he was extremely worried about Midnight for some reason.

We stopped when it got dark enough to where I couldn’t really see much. We stopped by a group of boulders made in a sort of semi circle and I sat down after I grabbed up some plants and made a fire. Gene sat down and was in deep thought and then he cursed saying “Sh**. Midnight doesn’t have a parachute.”. I looked up at him and asked “Why are you so worried about Midnight, Gene?’. I wasn’t totally clueless about the situation between the 2, either Gene had a crush on her or they had a relationship together.

Gene replied by saying “I’m engaged to her.”. I gave a small “Oh ok”. He asked if I had anybody back home and I answered by ignoring him. I didn’t have anybody back home ‘cept for family of course. Gene persisted to ask me heavier questions about my past and love life. I dodged most of them hardly giving him a straight answer. Gene finally got tired of trying to figure me out and he fell asleep against the boulder. I on the other hand didn’t get much sleep, I kept waking up every 2 hours or so. The thought of Alex cursing me from the grave kept creeping into my head for some reason. I thought Alex might have took my quick jump as abandoning him. I knew he didn’t like that kind of thing but on the other hand Alex wasn’t the type to jump the gun on something so critical.

DJ: 3-12-2010

Morning finally came and I went to look around just to see if there was any life. Gene and I agreed that if Alex and Midnight were still alive they would head to the nearest US camp so that’s the way we started to walk. A few hours later we were almost spotted by Japanese soldiers. Gene and I ducked behind a downed tree until he looked away. The group of Japanese men was large and some were carrying American soldiers, some shot some bound and gagged, some dead. Gene looked over at me and asked “What do we do now? They are right in our way.”. I looked at him with a no sh** Sherlock look and said ‘We wait for them to pass, I’m good but not that good.”. The group passed and we managed to get passed them and ran into a few stragglers of the Japanese group and I had Gene pick them off for practice. I didn’t really think they were worth my time since most of the were wounded. We finally got close to were we could see the camp down between a few hills and we were on top of one and looked down at the camp but didn’t see anybody. Gene and I looked carefully to see if there was any life in the camp but we didn’t see anybody. Gene walked out and a shot was placed just beside his head in the tree. Gene ducked down behind the tree again. I did the same and peeked around the bottom of the tree to see if I could spot the marksman that shot. I didn’t see anybody until I saw Midnight run from a tent and duck behind a table. “Hold your fire Gene, Midnight and Alex are down there.” I said looking for something I could use as a signal to tell them that we were American and not Japanese soldiers. “Sh** leave it to Alex to shoot at his own men.” Gene said with a disgusted look. I wanted to punch him but couldn’t reach him without being shot by accident. “The guy doesn’t see to well @$#hole. Stop jumping the gun.” I said defending Alex. It was the truth since he had vision problems since I knew him. Regardless of his drawbacks he could shoot like a pro and fight like a black belt.

I held my left arm out with and dropped my gun and told Gene to do the same. I walked out slowly with my hands up hoping I wouldn’t get shot by Midnight and we weren’t. Alex emerged from a tent with another man and waved us down and we picked up our guns again and walked down to the camp.

We had regrouped successfully and had a new ally. I had never met Zach in person but I had heard of him from Alex. Gene and Midnight ran to each other hugging one another. Midnight seemed relieved, so did Gene. I met up with Alex and Zach and we were introduced and we shook hands. Zach was injured but didn’t act like it. Apparently being stubborn runs in Alex’s family. Alex was always stubborn and always went his own way no matter what anybody else said. I too am a bit hard headed too but that’s beside the point.

“So we regrouped now what?” I asked Alex as I sat down at a table with the others as Zach threw some rations on the table. “Tell me, why are we staying here again Alex?” Zach asked as he sat down as well. “The Japanese think this place is empty so it will be best for us to stay here for tonight.” Alex said as he opened his ration. I opened mine and started to eat. “But you know our luck gets worse when you and I are together.” Zach said. “Yeah I know, we’re just a couple of unlucky old men.” Alex said sarcastically. “Hey don’t jinx it you guys.” Midnight said. Alex and Zach gave each other a sarcastic kind of look and said “Jinx nothing, it’s the truth.”. “I don’t believe in luck.” Gene said as everybody looked at him. “I’m just saying, its not luck its just coincidence and the choices you make.” Gene said trying to justify his words. “Maybe.” Alex said as he leaned back “I kind of do and kind of don’t believe in luck. I guess you could say I’m indifferent on it.”. I finished my rations as they talked and waited for them to finish and talked with them. Alex was the first to get up and head to one of the beds in the tent. We had moved one of the tables into the sleeping quarters tent. Of course Alex and Zach were the ones doing the moving.

Midnight: 3-12-2010. Approx. 10pm.

We finally regrouped at the camp with an extra soldier who turned out to be Alex’s cousin. I almost shot Gene when we spotted bodies moving at the top of one of the hills beside the camp. I was so relieved when we met up. I thought I’d never see him again, that thought will cross your mind when you are in a war. Its kind of like dancing with death itself. We ended up talking at dinner and Alex tried reassuring us that we wouldn’t be attacked at the camp since the Japanese thought it was abandoned. Zach and Alex ended up discussing the last 2 years that they hadn’t seen each other in and apparently were making fun of idiotic screw ups they had encountered, whether it be theirs or someone else’s. Gene was pulled into the conversation as well but I didn’t say much I just listened and watched Gene, happy that I could be with him.

Alex was the first to go to bed which happened to be a cot on the other side of the room. He spent a long time laying with his eyes open just staring into space. He took off his shirt and had a white muscle shirt on underneath his uniform. His arms were covered in scars from cuts. I think the only one who had a clue to what Alex was thinking while he stared into space was Zach. Zach said it was something Alex did when he was in college. He would lie on his bed and just stare into space. Zach said he finally got up enough courage to ask him what he was thinking one night and but Alex only said one word: Companionship. I had an idea of what Alex meant and it wasn’t perverted, as much as I could figure Alex was just lonely. Everybody finally made it to bed and it was about 3am when Alex sat up and quietly grabbed his shotgun. I sat up and noticed since I was a light sleeper. “What’s wrong Alex?” I asked. Alex had a determined look on his face, I thought he had been having nightmares or something. Alex replied by cocking the shotgun after he put in a shell and saying in a sort of whisper “We’re surrounded, don’t move.”. I froze and looked over at Gene who was sleeping beside me and I shook him lightly and he sat up. “What is it?” He asked. “Be quiet, Alex says we’re surrounded, hand me my gun.” I told Gene and he handed me my M-16 and I squatted on the ground waiting for Alex’s command. Gene picked up his 9mm pistol and squatted beside me waiting as well. Zach on the other hand was still asleep and yawned in his sleep and rolled over. Alex threw a piece of paper at Zach and he woke up and grabbed his sword and put it behind his belt and Alex threw him his M-16 since Zach didn’t have a gun anymore. “3 round burst, make adjustments.” Alex said in a small voice as walked silently to the side of the tent and looked out one of the bullet holes and looked around and stepped back and cursed.

Zach: 3-13-2010 Approx. 3am.

This is just great! Let me tell you something! I have a cousin who has a knack of getting me in trouble and I hadn’t seen him in 2 years and thought it was going to be a semi peaceful reunion. Ohhhh no, once again Alex has gotten me into trouble. As of now I’m holding his M-16 and we are surrounded by Japanese soldiers. Aint life wonderful? Kari, my wife, wasn’t happy when I left to fight in this war but if I die she’ll resurrect me and kill me herself! Maybe we’ll make it out, you can never tell, Alex and I make a pretty good team.

Alex looked back at us and said “We only have 10 clips per M-16 as of now so we want to preserve ammo so make you shots count. I’m not sure how many there are out there but there are a whole hell of a lot.”. Midnight looked over at me and asked “Can you handle this or not?”. I made a questionable face and said sarcastically “Babe, I’ve been through hell with this man. I think I can handle a little fire fight.”. Alex looked back at us and said “This wont be a small firefight but I’m not losing anybody. Midnight and Gene stay together, DJ and Zach you 2 work together and cover our backs. As for me I’ll do what I do best, solo. Now lets go!” Alex ran out of the tent and DJ and I tore through the back of the tent and DJ took 2 shots with his rifle and 2 Japanese men hit the ground and I turned and shot 4 Japanese soldiers and a rain of bullets came our way and DJ and I split and rolled behind 2 different overturned tables. “God, I cant believe this is happening.” I said to myself.

I looked over at DJ as he poked his head over the table and took out another 2 and I stood and took a good shot and took out a sniper up on the hill in front of me. I started to run with DJ and we took out about another 25 Japanese soldiers when we met up with Midnight and Gene and all 4 of us had our backs to each other and Gene was already out of ammo and was now using his survival knife. “We’re screwed.” Midnight said as she shot another Japanese man. “Maybe, maybe not!” I yelled as I switched my M-16 to fully automatic and fired wildly into the crowd of Japanese men that were coming our way. I ran out of ammo and DJ had to take out the last few but he too ran out of ammo. The only people left with any ammo was Midnight and DJ. The Japanese kept making advances on us and all of us finally ran out of ammo and a man with a General rank pushed through the crowd of soldiers. He spoke and had a perfect American accent I could tell he wasn’t Japanese but he looked like he was one. “Out of ammo eh? That’s too bad.” He said with a smirk. “If you’re gonna kill us do it quick.” Midnight said with a determined look. Midnight smirked a bit and said “But I promise I’m not going down without a fight.” Midnight dashed at the man and a he didn’t move and just kicked Midnight and she flew back into Gene’s arms. Gene growled and the Japanese General spoke again saying “Don’t move, we’ve got you out numbered and out gunned.” Gene growled again and we all heard a barrage of shotgun shots and as the General looked to see the commotion Gene dashed at him and took a good slice at his heart but only cut the side of his neck as he ducked. What happened next all happened in a flash and less than seconds. The group standing to the right of Gene and me dropped as we heard a shotgun shot and Alex emerged running as the group to our left shot Gene and Gene fell to the ground and Midnight ran for him but DJ grabbed her and was almost shot by the group to our left. Alex had dashed in between Midnight and the Japanese General and ducked to avoid the groups fire. Everything was still for a split second and Alex threw the shotgun and his 9mm in the air and I caught the 9mm as DJ caught the shotgun. Alex had dashed over to the Japanese General with his dagger he always kept with him and had it at his neck. Everything was still again and Alex spoke saying “Its over General Kasagi. Now tell me where the bunker is or I’ll slit you in half.”. The General laughed and Alex put the knife closer to his neck and Kasagi said “Yes I am General Kasagi. You want to know where the bunker is? I could tell you if I wanted but I’m not going to. Because if you kill me you’ll never know.”. Kasagi grabbed Alex’s hand and twisted it as Alex hesitated. Alex twisted his back to Kasagi and the General smirked and we started to move forward but stopped when he said “Hold it! Take one more step and I’ll kill him.” Kasagi was holding a DE-50 to Alex’s head. Midnight looked down at Gene and shed a tear and screamed “This war is pointless! What the hell are you people trying to achieve?!”. Alex looked up at Midnight and saw she was crying. Kasagi answered “We will take you’re friend and we will gain world dominance from the information he will give us.”. Midnight gritted her teeth and said “You’re not taking another person from me.”. I stepped in front of Midnight and pointed my gun at Alex and Kasagi. Alex and I made eye contact and I knew what he was thinking. We had a unique way of communicating without words or thoughts. “Do it, he’ll die and I with him but the information about the bunker will be lost with me.” Kasagi said with a smirk. Alex gave a nod and I pulled the trigger and shot through Alex and Kasagi and they dropped the ground. Kasagi died as of then but what happened to Alex I wasn’t sure. Alex was as stubborn I’ll give him that but he told me to shoot. Midnight grabbed me and screamed “You ass how could you? You just shot your cousin and my squad leader!”. I looked down at her with a determined look and said “We have bigger problems now, besides he told me to!” I slammed the gun into her hand and dashed at the remaining Japanese men and killed as many as I could with my rapier. DJ and Midnight killed the rest and as we came back to where I left Alex. He wasn’t there. Gene on the other hand was lying in a pool of blood 3 feet away from Kasagi. Midnight fell to her knees and cried on Gene’s chest and DJ and I stood and watched for a second then I noticed Alex’s body was gone. Midnight then stood and wiped the tears from her eyes and walked over to Kasagi’s body and snatched off the dog tags shoved one in Kasagi’s mouth and put the other away in her pocket. DJ looked at her with a questionable look. Midnight spoke in a shaky voice saying. “For retribution.”. Midnight looked over at DJ and said “You’re in command now, what do we do now that Alex is gone?”. DJ spoke confidently saying “We continue on but first…” DJ trailed off and walked over to me and punched me in the face and hollered “What the f**k is your problem?! Why did you take such a high risk we may have lost with war thanks to you!”. I looked at him and said “That wasn’t Kasagi, that’s what Alex told me ok. I cant explain it but Alex told me to shoot him. Alex always thought of war as a chess game, you take out the queen to get to the king. That’s what I saw and I did what he told me to.”. DJ turned away and said “We were headed to a bunker full of Hydrogen bombs, enough to end the world if needed. We were to disable them, but only one person has or had the code. That was Kasagi. If he is dead you will be held responsible for the end of he world.”. “All the weight’s on you.” I said in a small voice to myself.

Alex: Date and time unknown.

I was suddenly punched in the stomach and woke up as a I coughed up blood. “Wake up bastard.” I heard somebody say. I opened my eyes and I saw combat boots on a brick floor in a pool of blood which seemed to be mine.

I still had on my sleeveless shirt from last night. I hadn’t bothered to put on my normal shirt when we got surrounded. I looked up and saw a man in a US Army suit. I looked surprised and somewhat pissed because I hate betrayers.

“I’m not American so you can relax Alex.” The man said. “So what are you?” I asked. “I’m Japanese of course. Well its all a bit twisted. I was born in the US but I favor the Japanese because my parents are Japanese.” He said with a bit of a smirk. “So I take it you’re Kasagi then.’ I said. I had an idea of what was going on but I wasn’t completely sure. “Yes I am the real Kasagi. The other person was a decoy for you idiots.” he said with a smirk. He was apparently trying to piss me off and it worked. I tried to punch him but my arm was caught by a shackle. “Temper, temper.” Kasagi said playfully shaking a finger. “They told me you were strong so I took extra measures.” Kasagi said as he pointed to the chains on my wrists. “So what do you want out of me?” I asked. Kasagi turned and paced the room with his hands behind his back. “Well what else would we want out of an idiot like you? The location of the US bunker. Of course.” He said. I snarled an said “Go fornicate yourself.”. He turned to me and said “I have a full background check on you, I know exactly what you’ve done, who you like, what make you tick. So be a good little boy and just say it so I don’t have to drag it out of you.”. I smirked and said “You can always try. Try being the key word.”.

He walked over to me and grabbed my shirt and frowned. “I wont hesitate to kill you boy.” Kasagi said with a forced determined look. “Go to hell.” I said and he threw me up against the wall behind me. I coughed again and he left the room saying “I’ll be back in an hour so think it over.”. I looked around and noticed that all my knives and supplies had been taken and all I had was my brute strength and my clothes. Which to tell you the truth wasn’t going to break the chains that bound me because they looked like they could be used to tow a freaking truck. “Just my luck. All the weights on you huh Zach?” I said to the empty room. I realized what I said and remembered I had been shot and I looked over at my wound, which was still open and hadn’t been wrapped. I looked up as a Japanese girl came in through the heavy metal door.

She walked over to me and looked me over and then spoke in Japanese but I could understand her since I had been studying. The girl first insulted me, I guess she thought I couldn’t understand her. “What a pathetic soldier. Getting captured and shot by one of his own team mates.” She said. I looked up at her and replyed saying “He’s my cousin for your information and I told him to.”. She stepped back in surprise and then smiled asking “So you understand Japanese?”. I gave a sarcastic look and said “No shit. No I‘m just communicating telepathically.”. She smiled evilly and punched my gunshot wound and I grimaced in pain and she said “You better be nice because I’m the one tending your wounds. Prisoners of War do have guide lines but we don’t always have to follow them you know.”. I looked up at her again as she removed the head of the bullet from my wound. “Why are you people so bent on this war?” I asked. “You could say we feel compelled to protect the world.” She replied. “Lotta hell that’s doing, you know you people killed thousands. And to think we trusted you.” I said as she continued to wrap my shoulder. “We know, but to protect the many we must sacrifice the few.” She said as she stood and looked me in the eye. I felt as if my heart was being ripped out because I had always liked the Japanese and here I am being tortured by them and a good looking girl no less. She started to walk away and I asked “What’s your name?”. She turned and looked at me as she stopped. She said “Ayoko.”. I smirked and said “Thanks, now I know who to kill when I break out.”. She walked back over to me and pulled out a tanto knife and cut my upper right arm. I tried to hold in a yell as she cut deep and blood ran down my arm. “Don’t test me Alex, I know you, I’ve been watching you. In fact I requested this job.” Ayoko said as a I looked up in surprise. “Wha….what did you say?” I asked in surprise.

She smiled and leaned down and our faces were level with each others. “You don’t remember me do you? Take a good look in my eyes.” She said as I looked in her eyes and realized who she was. “You….you cant be….” I said in shock. She kissed me and I was surprised. She pulled her head back as she stood up. “You never even noticed me, you’re such a bastard Alex.” She said as she slapped me. I used to have a girl friend when I came to Japan a few years go but I left when we started to drift apart besides I had urgent matters to attend to in the US at the time.

“Great now I’m going to be killed by my ex-lover.” I thought to myself. Ayoko turned and walked to the door and then turned back to me and said with a sad expression “You probably didn’t love me but I loved you. I hope you know that.”. Ayoko turned and walked out the door before I had a chance to say anything. After about 40 minutes of hanging on the wall I decided to try to break the chains as futile as it seemed. I crossed my arms over my chest and jumped and put my feet on the wall and tried to stand on the wall. It wasn’t working I didn’t even hear a groan from the chains. I pulled harder and nothing happened. I tried several different positions but none of them worked. I finally gave up and Kasagi came back in the room with a bag over his shoulder. “I hope you decided to do this the easy way.” He said. “I told you to go to hell already.” I said as I stood up. Kasagi sighed and threw the bag on he floor and it made a clanking noise as if it was full of metal. “Wonderful…This is just great.” I thought to myself. Kasagi opened the bag and pulled out a torch and a metal rod and began to heat it. I didn’t do anything, I mean what could I do I’m bound to the wall by chains that can tow a damn truck! Kasagi walked up to me and put the rod on my arm and it burned and I flinched away. “Burns don’t it?” Kasagi asked with no emotion in his voice. “Maybe.” I said sarcastically.. “I hate when you people don’t cooperate. Especially the ones with potential like you.” Kasagi sighed again after he said this. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. Kasagi spoke applying the hot rod to my arm again “You people are so stubborn. Why? Just join us and tell us where the bunker is and it wont hurt.”. I moved into the rod forcing it away. “I hope you burn in hell Kasagi. I’ll never betray my country or my friends!” I said almost yelling. Kasagi remained calm and stepped back and reheated the bar and he applied it to my face and I cursed as I yanked away. “Tell me where it is. Or I’ll be more serious. I haven’t even gotten started.” Kasagi said. “Go fornicate yourself Kasagi.” I replied with a bit of a snarl. Kasagi walked back to the bag and picked up a knife and heated the blade until it was red hot. “If I cut you, you wont bleed but it will burn like hell. Not even a man of your stature can handle it after too long.” He said as he walked back toward me.

“I’m not stupid I know that.” I said because I had experimented with this before. He wasn’t lying if he cut me it wouldn’t bleed too much it would just feel like somebody let out a fire under my skin because of the nerves being burned.

Kasagi slowly drug the hot knife over my shoulder and I screamed in pain. “Tell me and I’ll end it.” Kasagi said. “F**k you.” I said as I looked up at the metal door again halfway expecting to see DJ or somebody come through the door. Kasagi cut me gain close to the previous cut and I screamed and hung my head in pain. Kasagi kept reheating the knife and cutting me up until the point somebody opened the door. It was a Japanese guard and he was holding Ayoko’s arms behind her back. “I found this b**ch trying to steal a gun from another soldier. What do you want me to do with her General Kasagi?” The Japanese Guard asked as Ayoko struggled against him. “Let me go!” Ayoko screamed. Kasagi stood and walked over to Ayoko and grabbed her by the hair and the Japanese guard let go of her. “Is this true Ayoko? After all we have done for you? Taken you in, kept you from debt, kept you alive? This is the thanks you give us?” Kasagi asked. Ayoko replied by slapping him and I kind of flinched because I knew that feeling because I had been slapped by her plenty of times. “Winch! Don’t ever slap me again!” Kasagi yelled as he punched Ayoko in the face and Ayoko flew against the wall. I felt a demonic feeling inside of me awaken. A demonic feeling that I hadn’t felt for 3 years, one I had suppressed and put to sleep because I almost killed a man over it. Ayoko gave a sort of whimper and Kasagi turned back to me. “Cuff her.” Kasagi said and the Japanese Guard cuffed Ayoko’s hands behind her back. “Leave her here, she may prove to be useful.” Kasagi said with a bit of an devilish smirk on his face as he saw the look on my face. I was pissed, pissed beyond belief and I didn’t know why. Ayoko had just tortured me herself so why did I feel like protecting her? The Japanese Guard left closing the door behind him. “So have you decided? Are you going to give us the location or not?” Kasagi asked again. “Damn you’re persistent. I told you, NO.” I said. “Fine we’ll just do this the hard way then. I’ll drag you to the edge of death if I have to.” Kasagi said turning back to the bag and pulling out a bigger torch with a tank attached to it. “You do know what this is don’t you Ayoko?” Kasagi asked.
“No I don’t what are you going to do?” Ayoko asked with a tinge of fear and worry in her voice.

“My job of course. This torch can reach extreme temp…..” Kasagi was interrupted. “Extreme temperatures and when you apply the flame to the skin you don’t feel anything but cold because of it closing the pain sensing nerves. Yeah, yeah. I saw the Punisher ok.” I said looking directly at him. I was trying to get his attention away from Ayoko. If I knew anything it was he had the guts to do that to a woman. “Good, then you know how excruciating it is then.” Kasagi said as he turned the torch on.

“I’ll give you one last chance. Tell me or else.” Kasagi said as the flame of the torch turned green. “Didn’t I tell you? I’m not afraid of death. Go ahead do it.” I said with confidence in my voice. Kasagi shrugged and said “Ok if you say so…”. Kasagi put the flame to my fore arm and pulled it back as I inhaled quickly. “Fun isn’t it?” Kasagi asked with an evil grin. “If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a hundred times. Go….to….hell.” I said as I saw Ayoko slip her legs between her arms and stand up.

“Fine maybe Ayoko would like to try.” Kasagi said as he turned around and saw Ayoko standing. Ayoko ran at Kasagi with a knife she had just picked up and tried to stab at Kasagi but missed as he jumped to the side and Ayoko hit part of my upper arm. “Opps. Sorry.” Ayoko said as she looked at the cut she made.
Kasagi ran for Ayoko and I said “Its just like you to miss!” I jumped and kicked Kasagi and he went flying back and dropped the torch.

Ayoko stood there for a second. “What are you doing grab the freaking torch Ayoko!” I yelled and she came to her senses and grabbed the torch and ran back to me. “What now?!” She asked as Kasagi got up and picked up a large knife. I crossed my arms again and said “Cut the chains so we can get out of here!”. Ayoko managed to cut only one of the chains before she was chased around the room by Kasagi. I struggled against the last chain with all my strength. Kasagi got Ayoko pinned in a corner and I noticed. “I have no use for you anymore winch!” Kasagi yelled as he raised the knife. The large screws on the wall that held the chain in the wall broke free and I swung the chain at Kasagi knocking him unconscious. Ayoko got up and cut the chains off my hands. I still had the shackles but who cared? I was free….at the moment at least. Ayoko and I ran out the door after we cut her cuffs off and we were about to run out when I turned back to Kasagi and smiled devilishly and picked up the torch and branded his back with an A and left the torch beside him. Ayoko and I ran out of the room and down the hallway and out the door. Apparently it was a small P.O.W. camp and not many guards were around. Ayoko waved my toward a H4 that was sitting beside the building and I jumped in the drivers side and she jumped into the passenger seat and we took off. After the few guards noticed it was a jail break the started to shoot at us. We were in deep crap because I didn’t have any weapons.

-----

DJ: 3-13-2010 Approx. 4am

Damn it! Alex has been shot and we don’t know where his body is. He was gone by the time we got back to where the fight with Kasagi was. I didn’t know if I had lost a friend or not, and if I did it was because of his damn cousin. What a way to go killed by family. I was immensely pissed at Zach for shooting, but I couldn’t help that now. The total fight for survival itself in that abandoned camp took almost 45 minutes and I was out of ammo and so was everybody else except for Midnight. Somehow the death of Gene pissed her off so bad her aim got so sharp I swear she could have picked off a flea from a mile away. We were walking toward the nearest radio station Zach had said something about. I wanted to get more supplies but if we were caught in a battle we were screwed. I was walking alongside Zach and it was quiet. Nobody said a word for miles on end. I could hear Midnight mutter something every now and then about Gene or Alex. After about 10 miles of hiking we finally came up on a lake and we stopped to fill up on water.

Midnight and Zach ended up having a heated conversation as I filled my container and drank.

“I still say it was wrong.” Midnight said. “I told you already, he told me to do it.” Zach said in defense. “What if he’s dead?” Midnight asked. Zach gave a big “hah” and said “Alex is the most stubborn person I know. Plus he needed it.”. Zach couldn’t catch himself before he said the last part. Midnight slapped him and stormed off saying “I cant believe you shot your own cousin.”. Zach stood there for a second and I’m guessing he realized that he did say something wrong to Midnight because he half smirked about it. I had heard the slap and looked over at them. Midnight seemed to be taking this harder than I first expected. But its not like I could blame her, I mean she watched her fiancé die right in front of her. Not to mention what probably went on between Alex and her between the crash and the camp. I stood and walked over to Midnight. She had her back to us and I spoke and she turned and glared at me, I suppose she expected it to be Zach. “Hey, look Midnight… Alex probably isn’t dead. Zach does have a point, Alex is more hard headed than my mother. And that’s saying something.” I smiled a bit thinking of mom and how all three of us used to get into debates on stuff. Midnight uncrossed her arms and looked past me at Zach who was now sitting reading something. She looked back at me and said “Forget it. I don’t need comfort ok?”. I nodded yeah and said “We’ve got to get ammo. Then we can go look for Alex.”. Midnight upholstered her gun and looked at it. “Yeah, I’m the only one with ammo. I only got 2 clips left so if we get caught we’re screwed.”. She re-holstered the gun and said “Look, I just need some space ok.”. I gave a simple “Alright. I understand.” as I turned and walked back and looked around just to make sure we weren’t being watched. I had been nervous ever since we left the camp because we could be out manned and out gunned easily. I still had my favorite rifle but it was empty. I had dropped the shotgun that I caught from Alex because it was out and I didn’t like shotguns all that much. Zach looked up at me and asked “So…when are we gonna get going? And what about me?”. I looked down at him and said “Well, that is totally up to you. Although….we could use another man now.”. Zach looked back at the letter he was reading and after a second he said “She’d kill me if I died…she already wasn’t too happy about me joining the army.”. I didn’t look at him I was looking off into the distance but I asked “What’s her name?”. He responded “Kari.”. There was a moment of silence and then he asked something awkward. “Say, you and Alex are close right? So did he ever pick up a girl in these last few years?” Zach asked. I looked at him for a second blinking incoherently and then said “Well…he never really told me about his personal life but as far as I can tell he didn’t. Why do you ask?”. Zach sighed and stood up and said “Well the last thing I remember him saying at Kari and my wedding was that he envied us. It was the first time I really heard him sound sad in my life. He was always the badass in high school and never did show many signs of being soft.”. I leaned against the tree I was standing beside and said “Well I don’t know anything about it and frankly I don’t care. If Alex wanted a girl he could get one but he never tried as far as I could tell. I wasn’t all to interested in women in high school either because of going to law school afterward.”.

By now Midnight was walking around aimlessly thinking to herself.

Zach ended up saying one last thing before we headed out. He said “Alex always could take on other peoples burdens but he could never really carry his own is what I heard from somebody close to him a while back.”. Midnight looked over at Zach when he said this and to me it looked as if she was surprised to hear what he had said. Midnight didn’t say anything but seemed to keep listening with her back to us. After a few minutes we headed out. We didn’t really encounter any problems until the next morning.

Midnight: 3-14-2010 Approx. 7am.

I couldn’t sleep at all last night because I kept thinking and crying over Gene. And if that wasn’t bad enough our team leader was shot by his own cousin and now DJ is our new team leader. I’m not sure if Alex is dead, I sure hope not. He may be a jerk at times but nobody deserves to die. I went for a walk about 6:30am this morning and almost got lost. Zach and DJ were still asleep so I had time to do whatever I wanted. As I walked out of the woods and into a field I was cautious not to let myself be seen by anyone. The field had tall grass about up to my waist, I crouched down and pulled out the pistol I had with me, the only gun with ammo I might add. I looked around for about 5 minutes to make sure no soldiers where there. I sat against a tree and kept thinking of Gene and Alex and how much different the were. Gene an open person with his feeling and Alex so shut off from the world. I had tried to talk to Alex but he always avoided telling me anything too personal. My thoughts were interrupted as I saw an H4 burst through the other side of the field and head straight for me. “Holy sh…“ I said as I jumped and kept low in the grass running to my right side. The H4 hit the tree doing around 70mph and exploded throwing me since I wasn’t far from it. I got back up and picked the pistol back up since I had dropped it. I slowly approached the vehicle with the gun at the ready. I was looking for the people driving it but I didn’t see anybody. Not even a dead body. “What the hell? H4s don’t just drive themselves.” I said as I looked down the path the vehicle had cut into the field to see if anyone might have jumped out. I started to walk down the path in a squatting position to keep low. I got to the end of the path and saw a narrow path of grass that looked like somebody had rolled into it and started running. “I knew it! Somebody was driving that H4.” I said to myself as I heard DJ and Zach yelling for me. I stood up straight and looked around and saw them coming through the field. I waited for them as the looked at the vehicle and then came running over to me. “What happened Midnight?” DJ asked impatiently. “Look here, somebody was driving that H4.” I said as I pointed to the narrow path. “Well no dip Sherlock. Of course somebody was driving it.” Zach said sarcastically “We want to know who though.”. I glared at him and he stepped back. “I don’t know, that’s what I intend to find out.” I said as I started following the path.

After about 2 or 3 minutes of running we saw 2 figures disappear into the woods far ahead of us. “Did you see that?” Zach asked. I nodded my head yeah and started to run faster and they kept up. Once we got into the woods we lost track of the 2 figures. “Dang it.” I cursed as looked around each tree making sure no one would ambush us. Zach had his rapier out ready for anyone and DJ was holding his survival knife. “Recognize this?” DJ asked as he bent down and picked up a necklace. We came over to him and he held it up for us to see. “Never seen it.” Zach said. “Neither have I.” I said taking the necklace from him and looking at it closely. “Well at least we know they came this way.” DJ said looking into the trees. The necklace wasn’t a dog tag or anything it was more like an amulet. It had Japanese symbols on it. “I don’t suppose any of you can read Japanese can you?” I asked. Zach and DJ shook their heads no. They seemed to speak at the same time as they both said “Alex was the only one of us who could read it.”. I looked up at the them in a bit of surprise that they both said it. “DJ, why did Alex get this assignment?” I asked, I was on to something. DJ shrugged and said “Not sure, just lucky I guess?”. “I highly doubt that.” I said as I stuffed the necklace into my pocket and we started walking through the woods. “Who do you think those 2 were?” Zach asked. DJ answered and I kept walking “Not really sure, but by the looks of it somebody that was Japanese, or at least according to the necklace.” DJ said. I didn’t say anything, I was too intent on finding those 2. We came out of the forest cautiously and no one was around in the small clearing. We heard a beeping and I jumped and pointed the gun at whatever was doing the beeping which happened to be a radio on DJ’s belt. He took it off his belt and listened. “Americans, and lots of them too.” DJ said translating what seemed to be mores code “I don’t care, where is the one who broke out?”. DJ stopped for a second and then said “He got away, the vehicle exploded but we didn’t find him or the girl.”. DJ stopped again for a second then said “Find them, I want them alive.”. The mores code stopped and DJ changed the channel and listened for a voice, he found one too, an American. DJ spoke into the radio saying “This is Major David Day of squad 739. I need a supply drop.”. The voice over the radio responded saying “Major David Day, this is Second Lieutenant John Davis of squad 458. We have access to extra supplies, we would be happy to help. We only need your position and confirm you are an American soldier to get you the supplies.”. DJ responded immediately saying “My code is 937B251L and my position is…” he looked down at the GPS he was holding “75 degrees north, 64.358 degree’s west.”. The voice paused for a moment and then spoke saying “Ok, we will be there in half an hour, do not move and keep hidden until we arrive.”. “10-4” DJ said and he clipped the radio back on his belt. “Well, at least we wont die out here.” Zach said with a hint of relief in his voice. I had put the gun away by now and was listening intently, I remembered the code, just in case I would need it in the future.

It was 45 minutes later when we heard a helicopter over head. We all looked up as it started to lower a large box with a man standing on top of it who was holding onto the rope that was lowering them. He jumped down and looked DJ in the face and saluted him and said “Second Lieutenant John Davis, you are Major David Day aren’t you?”. DJ gave a yeah as we all walked toward the box and John opened the doors after he moved one of the ropes and unlocked the box. “Take what you need and only what you need sir.” John said as DJ bent down and looked into the box of weapons and supplies. “DE-50 ammo.” DJ said as he threw me a 2 boxes of ammunition for DE-50 pistols. “I’ll take one of those if you don’t mind.” Zach said and I handed him one of the boxes. “Niiice, a Model 18. I’ll take this.” DJ said as he put his pistol into the box switching it for a different one and a box of ammunition. “Zach, you are good with an SP-80 right?” DJ asked as he pulled out a gun that had a scope on it. “Hell yeah. Let me have that one if you don’t want it.” Zach said as DJ threw him the gun and a couple of wrappings of ammo for it. Zach put the ammo belts over his shoulder and put the gun over his back holding the strap. “M4A1SD (silenced), good primary for you Midnight.” DJ said as he threw me the gun and 2 ammo belts. I put the ammo belts over my shoulder and across my body just like Zach and held the gun waiting for him to choose his weapons. DJ took a minute and then looked up at John “Yo, its ok if I take 2 HK’s?”. “Go ahead, nobody likes to use them, you sure you can use them?” John asked curiously as DJ took 2 guns and a large box of ammo for them. “Heh, you people just don’t know how to use them is all.” DJ said with a smirks standing. “We all use IW’s don’t you all use them?” John asked as he closed the door and locked it and strapped the rope back in place. DJ gave a loud hah and said “What do you take me for? IW’s are too unreliable, they jam up too much.”. John jumped on top of the box and held onto the rope and said “You’ve got a point, maybe I’ll change to a RA-14.”. DJ smirked and said “Good man, don’t get yourself killed. And thanks for the stuff.”. The helicopter lifted John and the box back up into the air and they took off out of site. DJ turned to us and we all looked at each other for a second. “Well, I got what I wanted. Midnight, you want to go look for Alex right?” DJ asked. I was totally surprised at what he asked. I hesitated and then said “Y…yeah…”. DJ just stood there and then said “Well are you going to lead the way or what?”. I looked up at him not expecting him to actually let me lead. I nodded and said “Thanks, sure lets go.” I turned and started to walk in the direction I thought the 2 figures had gone. DJ and Zach followed and we didn’t encounter anymore problems for a while.

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Ayoko: 3-14-2010 Approx. 7am

God how wonderful it is to be reunited with the one you love. Or at least that’s what I thought when Alex and I got into the H4 escaping from the prisoner of war camp. Now we are being shot at by the guards of the P.O.W. camp, they seem pissed at us both and aren’t giving up.

Alex drove like hell across the dust ridden plain as I searched the Hummer for a weapon as he wanted me to. I found only 2 thing that registered as a weapon to me. A sword and a gun with only one clip. “Great..” I thought to myself as I found the gun half rolling my eyes. I spoke to where Alex could hear over the noise of the roaring motor of the civilian issue H4 “We only got one pistol and a sword. What now?” I asked half franticly. “Use the gun. Keep the sword.” Alex said bluntly. “How the hell am I supposed to take down 3 jeeps of men with machine guns?!” I nearly yelled. Alex looked over at me out of the corner of his eye with a glare saying “I taught you didn’t I?”. It was a rhetorical question, he indeed had taught me how to shoot but that was years ago. I scrunched up my face for a second and turned around in the front seat with the gun pointed out the back glass. The H4 was a king cab with a bed in the back and only had a small set of seats in the back. The back glass had already been blown out by the shots the guards had fired earlier. They kept shooting at us but missed most of the time only hitting the tailgate. I took as good aim as I could at one of the jeeps front windows aiming for the driver. I shot one shot and the gun kicked which scared me and I dropped the gun on the floor and scrambled for it again. “Get it together Ayoko.” Alex said with a tinge of frustration in his voice. “Oh shut up and drive.” I said in reply as I put the gun up again the same jeep was still there only a headlight was busted. I rolled my eyes at missing what I was aiming for. I took a firm grip on the pistol and shot at the jeep again. A hit, a dang good one too. The driver of the jeep lurched back and the jeep swerved and rammed one of the other jeeps but only slowing it for a second. I took close aim at a gunner that was firing wildly at us. I heard a twanging as the bullets hit the tailgate. I shot and hit him in the arm missing his head as I had planned to hit. The 2^nd jeep caught up and the other gunner started firing at us and our vehicle jumped and I missed again. “Dang it keep it steady or I cant kill them!” I yelled over at Alex. “If it was me they’d already be dead!” Alex yelled back and I stuck my tongue out at him and shot at the other gunner and he fell off the jeep. “YES!” I said as I aimed for the other gunner and I suddenly started hearing another loud twanging as more bullets hit the tailgate, they got louder and suddenly Alex’s hand reached out and yanked me down to the floor as he ducked and the windshield shattered. We both got up again as Alex slammed on the gas and we tore through several bushes. “Take the wheel.” Alex said and I grabbed the will as he pressed the cruise control and we kept rolling, we switched seats and I handed him the gun. “Watch this.” Alex said with a smirk as he aimed the pistol at one of the jeeps drivers. I watched as he shot and for a second nothing happened and then one of the jeeps started to swerve and it flipped hitting the other jeep knocking it off course. The jeep that had swerved busted into flames in my rearview mirror. The other jeep barreled at us and I swerved to avoid several trees by now we were by a mountain off to our left and the other jeep was closing in. It was smaller so it could obviously dodge trees faster than we could. I glanced over at Alex as he tried to fix a bead on the jeep. I kept looking forward avoiding trees and tearing through bushes. We must have hit a log because the H4 jumped as if it had hit something but we kept moving. Alex gave up and sat back down into the passenger side seat. “Keep going. I have a plan.” Alex said. “Well I’d kinda like to hear it man.” I said with the sound of urgency in my voice. “The next opening we come to drive as fast as you can into a tree.” Alex said looking back at the approaching jeep. “You’re nuts. You mean kill ourselves?” I asked not exactly knowing what he planned to do. “No baka. I mean we will jump before we hit the tree duh.” He said sarcastically. “Ok. What good will that do us? Wont we get caught?” I asked. “No. Who said we would wait for them?” He said checking the clip. He cursed under his breath. He only had a 2 bullets left. “Good enough for suicide.” I thought I heard him say under his breath looking back at the jeep coming closer than ever. He put the gun in his pocket. He was still wearing a white muscle shirt that had a bloodstain from a bullet wound from the night before. I saw a clearing ahead. “Ok that plan of yours better work or I’ll kill you.” I said as I slammed on the gas more and we reached somewhere around 70mph and Alex grabbed the Katana and I hit the cruise on the steering will as we jumped out and rolled a few feet. I could have sworn I saw a glimpse of something ugly in the distance. Maybe the Hummer would hit it and put it out of its misery. But that was just a side thought. We rolled and came to a stop and Alex ran over to me keeping his head below the grass. “Come on lets go.” Alex said as he lightly grabbed my hand and we kept below the grass and ran for a few minutes. We got into the woods and we started dodging trees to avoid any pursuing soldiers. I was still holding his hand. I didn’t want to let go. It had been so long since I’d even seen Alex and now here we are running through the woods. No doubt he is more worried about my life than his own. We jumped a log my necklace came off. I tried to turn back to get it. “What are you doing? We need to go, we don’t have time to stop.” Alex said pulling me along. “But…my…….necklace….” I said in a small voice as I reluctantly was pulled along. The necklace was special to me but so was my life so I kept running. We ended up crossing over a mountain and found ourselves looking down at a Japanese Village. Alex stared at the village of houses that had a hotel in the middle of it, it looked like it had a hot spring behind it. “Wonder if they’re peaceful…” I said and Alex started to walk. “Hey, where are you going?” I asked to Alex’s back and he turned his head to the side and looked at me out the corner of his eye saying “I need supplies, I’m getting them one way or another…”. I ran after him and stood in front of him with my arms out blocking his way and I spoke in a determined voice “No, you cant rob them and plus you’re an American they’ll shoot you on sight probably. I wont let you do it.”.

Alex looked me in the eyes. He was giving me that over determined look he sometimes got back then. When he set his mind to something important nobody got in his way. “Move Ayoko.” He said in a flat tone. “NO! I wont let you rob my own people!” I replied. Alex started to walk toward me with his unchanging look. I stepped back as if faltering. “Don’t…I’m begging you don’t do it Alex. What if you get shot again?” I asked with a worried tone. As stubborn as he may have been he still had a wound that wasn’t completely healed. “I NEED supplies Ayoko. I cant go around in a blood stained muscle shirt all day. And a sword wont always cut it now a days.” He said still walking forward I finally stopped stepping back and stood firm. “NO.” I said in a more determined voice. Alex clinched a fist and said “I’m going to that village Ayoko. Wether you like it or not.”. He tried to push me to the side but I resisted. “Stop Alex! Don’t do this!” I yelled as he pushed past me finally. I watched his retreating back and yelled at him “You jerk! You never did love me did you?! You just wont accept the fact that I still love you, will you?!“. Alex stopped in his tracks and I put my hand up to my mouth realizing what I had said. I did it, I let my true emotions slip again. Last time I told him I still loved him it was just to get him to cooperate with Kasagi. Alex spoke with a sad tone in his voice “Love was long ago Ayoko.”. He started walking after he spoke. I gave a small “No…” to where he couldn’t hear. I started to cry but he kept walking. “Why are you doing this Alex? What happened to the old you? The one that cared?” I asked to him but he gave no response and from what I could tell he clinched his fists and kept walking.

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