conflictpredicted

[conflictpredicted]

ch 8

“wha-what the hell is this!” an analyist said pointing to a radar the general got up from his desk and peered at the screen. There was a huge blink of blue light coming from Kintor, a city nestled on the boarder, which held the second military base.

“Hm.” He pondered

The analyist alarmingly zoomed in but was dumbfounded, he had never seen that the of symbol on the radar. A woman behind him gasped “it showed up on mine too.”

The general peered over his shoulder to see the blink of blue light on her screen too. He scratched his beard and then ordered the telecommunications fleet to get in contact with the Kintor base immediately.

“sir, no one is answering in Kintor.”

He shouted, “what do you mean!”

“the communication lines are shut off, sir.”

He walked up to the podium mouthing curse words

As tobas made his way back into the base the PA system turned on

“Kintor is under attack, prepare to be randomly sent there in the next 15 minutes” suddenly a long line of black military jeeps were driving up the parkway, tobas ran into the building to look for the squad members, sina was just coming out of the lounge, her eyes widened when she saw tobas and they ran to each other.

“Is this the first announcement?!”  he asked her

Sina nodded, and the hall began being filled with young soldiers confused and wondering what they were going to have to deal with. She felt a cold feeling rush down her back, she hadn’t had any dreams in a while, not even the good ones.

Sen rushed over with a set of keys jingling from his hands“ wheres Jackal?” jackal  almost fell out of the crowd and called “right here!”

The back of sinas eyes suddenly stung with pain as if a massive migraine was about to consume her. She stopped in her step and placed her hands around her temples the pain was unbearable and caused everything to go out of focus. Someone grabbed her hand and she could hear a muffled voice, but her head pounded even harder, and she could see a blurry image of something else. Suddenly the pain had subsided and her vision became normal again once tobas took her by the hand instead. SIna looked to her right where her hand had been held and there was jackal. She glanced down at her hand to find it covered in blood, she gasped and tobas stopped “Whats wrong?” he asked

Sina was fixated on her hand, her eyes slowly averted to Jackals gaze. It seems this was a hallucination since no one else was freaking out at the fact that her hand was covered in someone elses blood, so she shook her head “it’s nothing”.

Before they knew it they were rushing into jeeps, and there were helicopters flying over their heads. They were mostly for the higher-ups. The jeep was going at 140km/h through hills and rocky roads which made for a very bumpy ride. Not only was it bumpy but awkward, the squad remained silent, and sen’s communication device kept going off. He would click it every so often and respond in code. Tobas sat gazing out the window, sina was squished between him and jackal, she looked over and then down. Jackal had been quieter than usual.

“so uh, will this be our last mission together?” he asked peculiarly

Tobas shook his head “No I will stay here”

Hearing that response made jackal smile and bump his shoulder “well that’s good to hear” sina was happy to hear that as well and expressed a slight smile too, then gave him a little shoulder bump. Sen in the front seat overheard them and observed them through the front mirror.

“Oh and I’m not staying because of you guys, I’m only staying because I don’t feel ready to be an officer yet” he turned his nose up “Even though I easily could and would be great at it”

“suuuure” sina replied sarcastically

“No really!” tobas groaned. Jackal and Sina continued to poke fun at him until sen received a weird message and interrupted them “We’re going to Lodmorey now”

“hey isn’t that where you’re from jackal?” tobas asked.

His mouth fell open and  squeezed his hand. Tobas who knew about the incident that happened over a year ago feared for Jackal’s reaction once they arrived in Lodmorey.

“why are we going there?” he snarled at sen. He looked at his watch “I don’t know, I was just given the order, we’ll be there in approximately 7 minutes”

Tobas noticed Jackal’s hands shaking “Can we go back?” sen looked confused and answered “no?”

Tobas turned very angry “turn the vehicle around! We can’t go there!”

Sen was baffled at his sudden rage, and looked to the officer driving for a solution. The officer shook his head at him “sorry we have to go on” he said,

Tobas started shaking the headrest of the driver “come on just take us to kintor instead!”

Sina started to experience the headache again once the vechile turned onto the Lodmorey exit. Her eyes watered, she peeked over at jackal who was wearing an expression she’d never seen on him before “are you alright?” she whispered,

jackal snapped out of it for a moment and then gently smiled at her “Oh yes, sorry, everything’s good. So why are we going to lodmorey?”

“there is suspicious activity all over the country right now, lordmorey is the closest to our jeep” sen explained

“ahh…” he said softly

“sina placed her hand on his “You will be fine! You are welcome to stick with me”

Jackal locked eyes with her, they were dark and black and sina could see something going on in his pupils. It was unusual to see such an image but it looked as if she could view his past through them. Sen didn’t quite understand why jackal seemed so troubled

Meanwhile the general and four other officials arrived at kintor. There was indeed a virus outbreak from the number of people being rushed to medical tents set up around the city. Soldiers ran around searching for anything suspicious. There was one chest found in a diner, it was opened and located in a public washroom. The chest was immediately taken away by bioengineers to examine, but no more chests were found.

“where the hell are they?” general gallantas said with a furious look towards the border. Around the bend on a city street stood a strange man in the alleyway. He had a long straggly beard and thick unkept, black hair. He wore a long coat that draped over him like a cape, and the sinister smile that remained stuck on his face while holding a chest is in his right hand is what gave him away as an enemy. He whispered some unknown words into a radio and walked out of the alley onto the other side. A young girl pointed at him and immediately the soldiers idling around drew their weapons.

The strange man laughed hysterically and threw the chest onto the street. He sniffed a a small puff of smoke that drew from the chest, and the soldier drew back their weapons in fear of what was leaking out and backed up. The general had heard the commotion and rushed over, pushing whoever got in his way.

“STAY BACK!” boomed the general, and he held a handkerchief up to his face. In a matter of seconds, he drew a pistol and shot the strange man who had seemed to have lost it. Military police moved in and ceased the shot man and that was that. The rest of the young soilders separated and began guiding concerned citizens to safety zones set up. The general huffed and looked around at everyone’s faces.

“You!” he shouted at a female soldier who was about to walk away

She fixed her posture and put her hand up to her forehead and shouted back “Yes sir?”

“I want you to take your squad and whoever else you can find and search every corner of this city immediately!” he was disgusted to have missed this character of a guy only standing within feet away from him.

The young woman saluted and ran off.

They arrived in Lodmorey and there were only a few other jeeps pulling up from each directions. It was grey, dull and humid. It was always humid in the valley, which made working conditions a little sticky and unpleasant. Jackal slowly got out of the jeep, and when he was finally out, the view of the rolling hills and the pleasant Graygale River was enough to sting his eyes. To himself, he thought “this is work so I have to deal with it”.

Sen looked around curiously, it was his first time in Lodmorey. Sina had a pounding headache anytime she stepped near Jackal, but she wanted to be supportive since he would do the same for her so she stayed nearby.

An officer called for their attention “Kintor is now being dealt with, so far 2 suspicious chests have been confiscated and 1 man arrested, squads and patrols are still brushing through the city”

That caused a gasp, a series of whispers and remarks from the other soldiers. After given an order to sweep lodmorey the groups disembarked and swept through the grassy fields. It was quite windy today and every gust made the grass hiss. Jackal brushed some blades of grass and looked to the east, where his farm was, but now an ongoing investigation site.

Despite the horrors that happened a year and a half ago lodmorey still seemed peaceful. There were very few people who still lived there since everyone was encouraged to live in more urban populations for safety. But Etheland still needed to farm somewhere so there were only two large farms left where those farmers produced most of the food supply. The other farms existed in ballanalva. Food regulation had become so strict that people lived on very different diets than before. Bread, root vegetables, and fish were most popular because they were the hardest to infect and easiest to inspect. Leafy vegetables were almost always thrown out and the only fruit available were apples, grapes, and a few others but the rest were expensive and important from distant countries.

Jackal forced himself to remain cheerful and said said “I remember coming down to this river to catch frogs’ he pointed towards a narrow stream of water that went all throughout the valley.  

“its nice here” tobas replied, he used to the cityscape and the fast-moving life that he started to appreciate the subtle quietness of lodmorey.

Sen had his staff out and was pushing aside bushes in search of anything, then he bent down to touch the soil. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small bag to collect some of it. He didn’t quite match the peaceful scene. Sina was gazing around too, there really was nothing out here but grass it kind of made her forget some things for the moment.

“the man was from etheland sir” a police officer informed the general

“what In the world, an etheland man attacked us?”

The police officer nodded “it appears so sir.”

The police officer didn’t want to say this and coughed to distort what was about to come out

“he says he knows Alvin Valor sir.”

“what?”

“yes Alvin Valor was here, sir…”

The generals face boiled up to a bright red, he thought about all his failures and the damage Etheland was taking, all because of him. He said nothing and walked away, this was a great loss for such a dignified man. The war was some sort of labyrinth. The general thought about sen, he didn’t want to but wondered if he knew about his father being back in the country. He was often alone and unseen at the base sometimes. But the general immediately shook his head when he envisioned of a few years ago. He had known Alvin for a long time personally, being from Dalkey as well, and he knew the type of man Alvin was to his family. After he finally did the unspeakable and abandoned his teenage son, the general stepped forward and offered his son to work for him until he was the legal age to serve. Because he lived so close to a family he observed for years he could not bear to see the child grow up as a criminal too. And that is the price sen must pay to the general.

Lieutenant Gatez appeared before his eyes and asked if sen should be removed from the force temporarily, the general shook his head and said “that kid didn’t do anything, let’s just continue on our search”

Lt. Gatez felt the general’s hostile energy and backed away promptly. Gallantas was huffing about, frantically searching around the city streets.  He was most angry at himself for how far behind Etheland was becoming from his orders.

As jackal strayed from the rest, he walked down an old dirt road and contemplated. He kept imagining blue skies, bright green grass, the swaying wheat in the wind and the humidity coming off the water when he was younger. He was too distracted to follow duties. Simultaneously one his nightmares were about to come true, in rathnew military personnel had barged into the local hospital and requested to speak to Anjie about the Lodmorey incident. An incident that he tried to forget.

#ch8

[conflictpredicted]

The next day tobas was requesting for the finest bread, he gave sen a devious smile. It was the day before the deadline and he had been thinking about exceeding sen ever since it was presented to him and he was extra obnoxious. Jackal didn’t know what else to say to tobas, and sat at the table uncomfortable, yet still upholding his usual cheerfulness.

Later that day tobas sat on the bed of his private dorm, alone. His parents had given the military a great donation for it, and that always bothered him. He contested the decision, to take the job, or remain on the squad. He fell onto his pillow and turned over to face the wall, he closed his eyes and pictured sina, and then Jackal appeared. Unfortunately, Sen appeared too, and he quickly opened his eyes to get rid of the illusion, deep down there was this attachment to everyone. The advancement wasn’t because of his own work anyway, it was from the work of his parents, and it made him feel sickly.

For some reason sen was nowhere to be seen today, leaving the squad free to do whatever the pleased. Jackal took advantage of that and took Anjie out to the beach. It was quite windy and still a little cool, but the sun was warm and the sky was clear and blue. Anjie wore a big sun hat and long skirt and thick cardigan. Normally, she didn’t have a lot of energy and could only be away from the hospital for a maximum of 2 hours. Jackal looked far out into the vastness of the sea, it was never ending and none of them had no idea what was out there since it was facing the west. Anjie peered out as well and breathed heavily, the sound of the water was peaceful and the wind caressed their faces. Jackal held his arm out to her and she fell into him laughing, she had almost got her shoes wet.

“I love the ocean, Rathnew Port may be one of my favourite places”

Jackal grinned “It is a nice place isn’t it?”

Anjie was an expert at reading others, and she could tell there was something going on by just looking at his composition.

“So, what’s wrong?”

Jackal was caught off guard by the sudden question and then chuckled “Oh, you got me!”

He helped her up the rocky beach, away from the booming waves so that talking would be easier to hear.

“it’s about Tobas, he is getting promoted”

“really? That’s great! I knew he would, he’s wonderful!” Anjie said starry-eyed

Jackal sighed “I think it’s getting to his head though, plus he would be leaving the squad”

Anjie frowned “Ah…” she thought for a moment then held her fists up “I’ll beat him up! That jerk!”

Jackal patted her on the head “don’t do that”

Time was running out and they wanted to get to lunch before going back to the hospital. What they didn’t know is that Tobas was waiting at the hospital outside of her room. When they looked at each other surprised.  she walked with excitement in her step and went as fast as her energy would allow her “tobas! We were just talking about you, how strange” she beamed

Tobas looked up and showed his shiny teeth, he had very defined canines.  Jackal gave a small wave and slid the door open for them. Anjie climbed onto her bed and watched Tobas walk over, pulling a single yellow rose from his jacket.

“For you” he said presenting Anjie with the delicate rose. She smiled so big it looked as if tears could leak from her eyes. Jackal offered tobas to sit down, while he leaned against her bed with his arms crossed. He still didn’t know what to say to him, and Tobas could feel the awkward tension.

“how have you been?” he asked her

“Oh, pretty good, but I missed you” she giggled twisting the rose with hands

“sorry, things have gotten busy” his voice wasn’t as animated as usual, nor his expression. Jackal decided to leave the two “I’m going to go back now, I’ve been away for a while now”

“Aw okay, thanks for today, love you!” Anjie said as jackal headed out “Love you too” and slid the door shut.

Anjie laid her rose gently on the bedside table and ruffled tobas’s fluffy blonde hair “I heard about your promotion from my brother”

He nodded and sarcastically said “Oh yeah, impressive, aren’t I?”

Anjie shook her head up and down with her hands clasped then leaned in closer “what are you going to do?”

Tobas placed his hand under his chin and his expression changed drastically “Nothing” he stated stubbornly

Anjie could tell he really wanted to be promoted but there was something conflicting him, they both sat in silence until she broke it with a “hmmm, are you sure?”

He nodded again, anjie placed her hand on his other hand that rested on his knee. The touch activated a string of whines

“I don’t know what to do, but I don’t think I deserve anything” he clenched his teeth and mumbled “everything is about them”

She tilted her head “them?”

“yeah my parents set this job up for me”

Anjie had a basic understanding of who they were. Rich politicians. Despite growing up in the country far from the capital, she had heard of him before even meeting him in Rathnew port a year ago. She wasn’t sure what to say but knew the glamorous life of being in the spotlight constantly wasn’t favourable.

“I never know how to act” he took his hand off his chin and leaned back “who even am I?”

Anjie quickly responded “Kind”

Tobas tilted his head up and gazed her, he had never been referred to as kind before.

“You are always tough, and dominant, but it’s because you care a lot”

He didn’t believe it and shifted his eyes downward

“don’t give me that look, I mean it!” she said in an aggressive yet soft tone. Her words resonated with him and he was finding it hard to maintain his stubbornness, Anjie had a skill at getting others to express their true self. She held out her arms “seeing this side of you isn’t going to change my admiration for you, in fact, it’ll only make it grow!”

He smirked “I didn’t come here to complain, I came here to see you” Anjie laughed “it’s too late to say that you fool! Now come here” he hugged her tightly and spoke into her ear “get ready to council me every week now, on crappy pasta, the boy's washroom…hmm what else” anjie reached over behind his neck and flicked it “ow!” he whined

“don’t treat this as a joke, I get enough of that from jackal”

 he released her from the embrace she tugged on the end of his coat with her lips pursed “I mean it mister!” tobas laughed towards the ceiling 

“You’re just a bossy kid!”

“Excuse me, I’m going to be 18 in 2 months!”

“ohhh so old” he said walking out “a grandmother here”  just before she was about to throw a pillow at him he had already blown a foolish kiss and slid the door shut. 

A few hours later, the headquarters at the military base were alarmed when they heard the news from the data analysts division.

#ch8

[conflictpredicted]

#anjie

[conflictpredicted]

#sina

[conflictpredicted]

Every morning was roll call where tasks were assigned. Although again, all was calm since the attack at rathnew port base, and squads were back hanging, not much was happening. That morning, lieutenant Laurie left tobas with a message to meet with lieutenant Gatez and herself later on.

Tobas walked down a narrow hallway biting a toothpick, which he discarded before walking into the small office. Lieutenant Laurie sat behind her desk, she was a very attractive solider who looked 25 but was probably almost 40. Lieutenant Gatez was a sly-looking fella who almost resembled tobas, such as in the way he stood with attitude. Tobas stood until he was given the invitation to sit down. He pushed his long bags from his face and took in a big breath before sitting down.

“Tobas Ruiz, we would like to discuss a possible route for you”

The words sparked him in a negative way and he thought of his parents. Lt. Laurie folded her hands, and Lt. Gatez had his crossed.

“We have noticed that you are constantly called upon for news stories, and the general has noticed your loyalty to the Etheland national military. You never talk in an ill way of our practices, furthering the countries confidence that we will protect this country.”

At this point he wanted to gag, he wasn’t doing it for any of that, even though he wanted to believe he was.

“Would you like to be promoted to public relations. You would not have to participate in duties with your squad any longer and you would be promoted to an upper rank.”

Gatez, looked at him in almost a grudgingly manner. Tobas thought for a moment, and Lt. Laurie spoke again

“You may leave and think about it on your own if you would like. Keep in mind we need your answer by the end of the week to confirm this new position.”

Tobas nodded “Thank you for your gracious compliments on the work I have done, and my purpose in the Etheland military. I will carefully take this position into consideration and report back you by the desired deadline.”

Lt. Laurie nodded and shook his hand

 After the meeting, both lieutenants met with major general Gallantas who was chewing on what it looked to be a piece of metal. His eyes beamed at a recent survey report done on the 3 Etheland bases. He handed a copy to Dr. Heid, a small old man who worked in one of the labs in Rathnew, and  one of the researchers who worked directly with the national military.

“now that we have confirmed what the victims have died from it is easier to explain what goes on within the human body”

Lt. Laurie looked down concerned

“the red blood cells expand and multiply at a very rapid rate, which exhausts the individual, and this results in an antibody attack”

The general raised his eyebrows “just like in Lodmorey, but the parasite was hidden within a chest this time”

“…a chest that is missing” Lt. Laurie interjected.  The four of them walked silently to the main headquarters until the more handsome lieutenant Gantz pondered  “why didn’t that guy Sen Valor get sick if he was inside of the infected space?”

Dr. Heid cleared his throat and adjusted his lab coat collar“That, I am not sure, we have yet to find out why some people are unaffected. There are a few other cases we are looking at, coincidently Jackal Kraus, who is on his squad has a very interesting case. However, he still refuses to speak of it”

The general swung the HQ doors open “we’ll be moving onto his sister, Anjie Kraus, within the next week”

An entire fleet sat down around tables working on strategies and retrieving information on Ostral from spies sent over. the Major general walked over to his desk and sat down with an eye over everyone.

Sweat ran down Sina’s neck, she ran across the field carrying a 25-pound bag to where Sen was standing with a timer, she huffed as she threw the bag down

Sen stopped the watch “42.7 seconds” he said

she sigh at the 2 second time difference from a week ago. Jackal ran uphill pulling an entire wagon of rocks, sen pulled out his second timer from his pocket “6 minutes and 24 seconds” jackal leaned on Sen in exhaustion

Sina smiled at jackal “I beat you on that one, 5 minutes and 50 seconds yesterday” she folded her arms in triumph

Jackal finally caught his breath and took his hand off Sen’s shoulder “congrats, I’ve never been one for agility. I might have been slower than you because I was carrying 50 pounds”

upon hearing that response sina’s face turned a bit red “f-fifty pounds!” jackal lightly laughed “Yeah fifty pounds”

Tobas strolled over in his normal military drab, unlike the rest who were in their training uniform.

“where were you?” Jackal asked

Tobas smirked “Important meeting.”

“Oh really” He asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice

“Yep” he glanced at Sen and his smirk grew even more “working hard all?” he said with this sort of fake enthusiasm in his voice “…yes?” sina said, who could sense something devious about him

“good, what about you Sen? working hard with hitting that timer?”

he didn’t get his sarcasm and nodded, sina noticed her friend Sanya from afar “hey I’m gonna go now, good work out today though!” and dashed off

Tobas swung his arm around jackal and steers him away from sen “say, imagine me, above Sen.”

Jackal looked over at tobas who was smiling big and starring directly at the HQ “what are you saying?”

“ooooooooh nothing.” tobas said with a continued smile as the entered the building. The halls were busy due to dinner time nearing, the smell from the kitchen traveled into the halls. Tobas sniffed the fumes in “mmm curry”

Jackal was still attached to him wondering what he was talking about, he unlatched his arm from his shoulders “hey I have to shower before dinner, I’ll meet you after I’m done.”

Jackal walked through the male dorms to retrieve fresh clothes and a face cloth, he met sen, who he shared bunks with and he was also collecting clean clothes from their closet

“oh hey”

Sen nodded at him as he was about to head out “Tobas is acting odd, do you know anything about it?” jackal asked

He shook his head “No, but I have my eye on him” sen said as he left

Next door to their room was two guys name Benji and Hawthorn, they spoke to tobas a lot, they loved to hear about his extravagant upbringing inside a mansion in the capital. Hawthorn called over to jackal and sen in the narrow wooden hallway.

“Tobas is getting promoted as an officer”

Sen looked over his shoulder, and jackal eyes widened “what?”

“Yeah, Lt. Laurie spook with him earlier today”

“how do you know that?” Jackal questioned

Benji laughed and hit Hawthorn on the shoulder “this guy followed him!”

Sen looked away and started to make his way downstairs, jackal noticed and quickly made his way to him

“Hey what do you think of this?” he said to sen who was nearly at the bottom of the stairs now

He shrugged “I suspect Tobas will make the right decision for himself.”

“You know, he won’t be apart of our squad, any more right?”

Sen affirmed “Yes”

Jackal frowned, he never thought of Tobas leaving on the principle of status.

#ch7

[conflictpredicted]

A loud cawing and a stream of light woke her from her sleep. It had been two days since the attack at the base and everyone was moved to various hotels and inns across Rathnew Port and Zeilham. She could hear a muffled sound of a radio in the next room, and a trolley rolling down the hallway. Her room was bright and pleasant looking, inside were 2 vases of pink and white flowers, a kettle with small teacups, and a large window that faced the sea. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, not realizing she had been sleeping for almost two days now.

Tobas, in the room next to her, as usual, had the radio blaring.

“Since the attack at Rathnew Base there have been no reported cases of the virus and the situation is now under control, says General Gallantas. Sen Valor, the infamous captain of squad 18 has been taking into questioning by government officials. Not much has evidence has been found during his questioning period and he states that he saw no opened chest and that he was only searching for missing people within the base. He will be released tomorrow after answering some final questions later this evening.”

Tobas shook his head “I am so embarrassed to be on this squad”

Jackal was resting against his headboard reading a comic strip, it was a distraction from tobas’ constant complaining and accusations against sen. He didn’t show it but he was angry at Tobas and General Gallanatas for chastening sen after saving three people. That day he was taken aside was the last time the rest of the team saw him, since then he was in custody of the military police.

Tobas had a plan brewing that day, and jackal could see it in his face. He turned over and stared at the wall, there was nothing he could do to stop him. Tobas had been in a fury for days now and it wasn’t going to go away unless he did what he felt was right. Just then, there was a sound of breaking porcelain in the room next to them.

Sina stumbled to the bathroom but in the process knocked over one of the teacups on the small table at the end of her bed. Her head was pounding from being asleep for so long and she could barely open them from the crust. She must’ve cried for so long that the tears sealed her eyes shut.

Jackal knocked on her door and softly spoke “sina, are you awake?”

His knocking startled her and she leaned against the wall with her eyes closed for a moment before flicking the lock open.

Jackal slowly opened the door and peeked in. He saw Sina’s tired face and slid in.

“how do you feel?” he asked her

She shook her head and stared down at the cracks in the floor.

“Not good eh?” he smiled hinting his worry,

She dizzily made her way through the bathroom door and turned the handle on the sink making the water come out at full force. Jackal reached over and turned the facet down for her and she immediately started splashing her face.

After she was soaked she peered up at jackal absent-mindedly “I’m awake now”

He laughed softly and said, “I would be worried if you weren’t after that”

Still, with a stumble in her step, she sat back down on her bed. Jackal bent over and started picking up the broken porcelain teacup. Sina starred at it and immediately got upset because it reminded her of how imperfect the situation was “Its broken…like me” large blobs of tears ran down her cheeks. Jackal walked over and sat down beside her

“you just feel broken, you look whole to me though” he poked her shoulder “see you didn’t fall apart”

Sina wrapped her hands around his waist and held on for a few minutes. It calmed her down a lot, knowing that he was there made her feel stable like she might be able to move on. After releasing him from a long hug she asked, “where are the others”

Jackal looked towards the wall “we are staying in the room next to you, Tobas over there right now”

“and sen?”

“he’s in Liasten”

Sina tilted her head in wonderment, as to why he was all the way there

“he’ll be back tomorrow” Jackal said getting up “I’m going to see Anjie now, take it easy and eat something and if you need anything tobas will be around.”

Tobas was on a mission today as jackal suspected, he saw him downstairs in the hotel lobby with his legs crossed and tapping his finger repeatedly on the arm of the chair. Jackal sigh as he walked past him and out the door to catch the bus to the hospital. He could see a news crew walking inside with microphones and radio transmitters walking towards the building, they walked past him, and straight to tobas. They were more of a propaganda creating bunch than a news anchor and they loved tobas.

“What did you think when you saw your captain come out unharmed?” a reporter said holding a mic up to tobas

“Suspicious, being in a group with him and all I already know he can’t be trusted”

People from the crew took notes and snapped photos.

“do you think he has anything to do with the attack?”

Tobas chuckled “oh I wouldn’t be surprised, he was totally unaffected after carrying our deceased comrade out.”

Sina aimlessly made her way down the staircase to find the breakfast buffet but stopped when she heard the snapping of cameras going off and saw people walking over to one corner of the room to listen. She stuck her head around the corner and saw tobas standing in the middle with a microphone in his hand. He was telling them all the details of what went down at the base two days ago, from the thick smoke to the terror that ensued. The reporters saw sina, who knew of her close relationship with the deceased solider and ran out over to her to bombard her with questions. Tobas rushed over and pulled them off “leave her alone, shes recovering” he took her by the hand and quietly said “sorry about this the breakfast hall is down that hall and two your right” but she stopped and looked up at him with a look of disappointment. She knew very well what he was doing, and he only ever stirred the media up. The next day there would be his response manipulated and printed onto hundreds of papers magazines and editorials. His parents would respond to that, with an appraisal to their hardworking and loyal son and peoples reputations would be further harmed.

“please stop this” she said to him before walking away

Tobas frowned and rubbed the back of his head,  eh thought “if only I could” and then turned back to continue to the reporters again.

Sen sat in a dull room by himself, it was a small room located inside of the government state building with only a desk and chair. He had been in there since yesterday and it felt as if he was in prison. He walked over to the window and peered down at the busy street. He could spot some soldiers from rathnew mixed in with civilians and state military officers. He leaned back with his arms folded and hit the blinds at the same time General Gallantas walked in. He was a large man with wide set shoulders and a mean look to his face. His skin was rough, and he had a long mustache that covered up a scar across his lip. The floor shook as he pulled out a chair and sat down. The table was shaking in fear but sen acknowledged as if it were anyone who just walked in and sat down, not frightened at all by the intimidating general.

“You’re such a handful” the general groaned “sit down”

Sen strolled over, sat down across from him and stared at the papers.

“Lets cut to the chase here, so did you see any type of box when you were in the room with Petar Doneal?”

“No sir.”

The general lamed down his fist and boomed “tell the truth boy!”

“I am, Sir.”

“well everyone else thinks you’re not and it is my job to prove you’re innocent” He stroked his moustache with his eyes fixed on him.

“talk god damn it!” he yelled

Sen explained exactly what he did word for word, the same story he had been repeating for two days straight but it was as if no one wanted to hear it and make their own stories up instead.

Suddenly sen stood up in an abrupt manner almost knocking down the chair behind him, general gallantas was about to shout when sen put his hand to his chest and made direct contact with the general,

“I, Sen Valor, pledged my allegiance to Etheland and its people 2 years ago, and it is a principle I strongly abide by. If I were to break this oat then with no question I deserve a lifetime of imprisonment or death, Sir.”

The general gave a rough smile and took a recording device out of his breast pocket.

“this is enough, I will take this recording to the head office and have it known”

He exited the room, again shaking the floor with his footsteps.

 Jackal sat in a chair next to his sister’s bed. She was so happy to see that he was okay and brushed his hair with her delicate comb

“I am so proud of you, Jackal” she said warmly smiling

“You are the best solider Etheland has ever had” although a faint frown became apparent “but I worry every second”

He held her hand and smiled back at her “If I’m the best, then you have nothing to worry about.”

She had no idea that he worried about her far more than she could ever worry about him. Everything about the war gave him flashbacks to the first outbreak in Lodmorey Valley. That day he almost lost everyone.

“Petar…” the word lingered on for a moment after she said it. The hospital was quite quiet today, and every silent break felt as if they were mourning. It was only a few days ago she was beating him at a game of chest.

“The funeral for victims is tomorrow, if you feel alright I will pick you up”

“Thank you” she earnestly responded.

The next day the recording of sen’s plea for innocence made news headline, which beat tobas’ out of the park.  Immediately after leaving the government state building he was almost attacked by the media and their cameras. The general blocked them with his massive arm and guided Sen to a military jeep. A man in the crowd yelled out

“If he ever ends up being guilty can he and his father be reunited on death row?”

There were other rowdy people standing amongst the crowd on the sidewalk. They starred at sen and the general as if they had just got away guilty and uncharged. But thankfully there were some people who were on his side and were yelling at the rowdy people who spouted awful things.

Meanwhile, Tubas who had been listening to th radio all morning took this response in as an unexpected curveball. The oath that sen confessed might have very well saved him from the continuing accusations and he was seen getting onto the train in the daily paper. Tobas threw it in the trash can “pft” and walked out of the room. He received a message from the front desk notifying him that there was a call from his parents, and now he was only expecting an earful.

play this  for while reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0GKGpObgPY

After they ate breakfast they made their way to the funeral. All of them wore flowers on the breast pocket of their uniform. The funeral was being held in a wide-open field near the ocean. Hundreds of people gathered on a flowered filled field. Sina held onto her other hand tightly and stayed hidden between jackal and Tobas. Cameras were flashing left right and center, it was almost blinding. The military police released sen and he was free to go back to the squad. He walked up and stood next to Jackal in the sea of people standing on the sides of a red velvet carpet. A trumpet playing sad music started to play, everyone remained silent, Jackal glanced over at sen, and he returned the look. Sen looked further down the line to see \sina. She was trying her hardest to hold back the tears. Tobas stood headstrongly but you could see the water pooling in the bottom of his eyes. sen looked down and jackal brushed his shoulder and whispered: “I’m glad you’re back.”

The funeral commenced which was a lovely ceremony based on the achievements and life the victims had. Crow was even there, with his poor father who sobbed the enitre time. Crows energy was quite depleted, he was a smart dog and knew what was going on. Petars squad 17 stood in the very front with their hands over their chest the entire time.Tera was choking back the tears and said “I feel that I’ve failed as a captain, Petar will be remembered as apart of squad 17 forever” she broke down, jewel and Jackson held onto her. 

The big wooly boy followed the casket down the red carpet. Sina finally could not hold her tears in anymore and let them go. The pain from holding her intense sadness stung her eyes and hurt her head. crow must’ve heard her because he came running into the crowd. Sina wiped the tears from her eyes and opened her arms for crow. The people in the crowd backed up to make room for this moment. For the rest of the funeral, sina sat on the grass with crow, where she stroked his fluffy mane.

When the funeral was over, and everyone started to separate, sen walked over to sina. He kneeled next to crow and gave him a pet to the head. Crow licked his hand, which startled him a bit. she couldn’t bring herself to smile but she did think that was funny.

“Sorry for the way I acted” he said to sina

She shook her head and softly said “thank you”

Sen continued to pet crow long after everyone left. He remembered the last words Petar had said to him “take care of sina for me”

This was only the beginning for what squad 18 was in for. Many questions about the Rathnew attack were left unanswered for a long time, and a secret investigation on the “virus” chests went underway. Ostral denied any allegations, saying that they never sent any soldiers over on February 18th, the day of the attack. Although they applauded whoever did it. 

#ch6

[conflictpredicted]

The smoke from the hallway was starting to travel in through the cafeteria doors. The sight of it scared the cooks off immediately, and at that moment Tera sprinted across the room to guide them to an exit. The cooks were not specialized in combat and were most vulnerable. All of them started coughing, and petar picked up his napkin and started to wave it around.

“Wow we must have got-“ he coughed in between “hit with a big smoke bomb” but before he could finish the sentence,  no one was around and all that he could hear was smashing dishes from the kitchen staff running out, and a faint voice that sounded like Sina’s. he stepped out and called “Sina? Are you still here, is anyone still here?”

“Smash” another dish went, he wasn’t sure who that was this time.

Sina called out “I’m still here!”

She was guiding her way against the wall feeling out the windows and trying to open them to let some of the smoke out. She held a napkin up close to her face, the same idea everyone else had.

“I-I’m trying” cough “to op-open the windows”

Petar hit the table when he moved, and then a couple feet further he almost fell over from something that was probably a dining chair.

He shouted “don’t worry about the windows” cough “j-just get out of here!”

Petar frantically pushed whatever was in his way aside, quickly, trying to find her. Sina responded

“But we can’t see where we’re going anyway!” she finally slid a window open and stuck her head out. The sky was a grey and dull and the wooded area remained the same, calm and serene with a few crows cawing in the distance. There was no sign of enemies just a big grassy training field. From afar a few cooks, soldiers and deputies were standing out in the parking lot where 60 or so jeeps were parked. Suddenly she felt a hard tug on her arm. She quickly stuck her head back in, startled, but it was petar behind her shouting to leave.

“C’mon, we have to go!” Sina nodded in agreement, forgetting that both could not see a thing and then advised petar to get some fresh air first

 “stick your head out here and get a breath of fresh air first!”

She helped him bend over and guide his head to the window. A strong gust of wind and a thundering noise rattled the windows, his hair blew everywhere and he quickly held his bangs aside to get a glimpse at what was happening

He shouted “What the hell is that!” and she forced her head through the same window to see a giant fighter jet flying overhead, “I think its one of ours?”

She wasn’t sure and starred at it for a few moments before petar went back in and grabbed her

“Now we’re leaving.”

His forcefulness was out of pure worry. They ran through the cafeteria bumping and knocking over everything.

Sen and tera went their own ways. Tera guided out staff around the building, and sen went in some unknown direction with his staff in hand to search for potential lurking enemies inside the base.

Meanwhile, Jackal caught up to Tobas who had been in the boys dorm before joining all of them for lunch. Tobas held his hand up to his mouth and tried to talk over the panicking people and slamming of doors. The halls were hazed out and smoke seemed to be coming from every direction.

“what the hell, is this a joke?” tobas gagged almost losing balance, he couldn’t comprehend the current situation. There were no visible enemies around and no one was hurt, it was basically a mysterious attack with no one around. Unfortunately, sina and petar were separated after escaping the cafeteria, she had gotten run into several times by people who were rushing for the exit. She called out for his name but he must’ve gotten plowed over as well. She ran around as if she was blind holding her pistol close to her chest. Finally, she realized she had no idea where she was inside the base, it was like a massive maze. She leaned against the wall and called out “is anyone there?’

It was oddly silent and she could no longer hear a sound, like the breaking of windows and things inside the base or the slamming doors. Her anxiety started to kick in high speed now that she was alone and she slid down the wall holding her head “its just a dream… wake up” she said to herself.

It was indeed, like the nightmare she had experienced for weeks. And her head started to pound.

“Petar…”

“Jackal….Tobas…Sen…”

“anyone”

She began coughing uncontrollably, suddenly there was an abrupt sound of a door opening near her. She stood up and called out “Hello!!”

It was jackal “Sina? Where are you?” he said as he walked around the area feeling it out “Its Jackal”

SIna reached her arms out “I’m over here against the wall” that she started banging on it

Tobas walked in moments later “You found sina?”

“yeah!” Jackal shouted back

He felt his way around to the sound of sinas voice until he touched part of a uniform and a long strand of hair. He finally found her and they were all reunited for now. She felt so relieved that tears streamed down her cheeks. 

“Are you okay, SIna? Its Tobas, Jewel and I here” jewel was from the same squad as Petar.

“I’m okay” sina confirmed “have you seen Petar” she asked

“No we lost him at the same time we lost everyone else” Jackal exclaimed

A few moments later they heard another door open a few feet from them. It had a light left on, so they were able to easily guide themselves to it. To their surprise, the room had little haze. All of them entered it with precaution but it turned out to be a typical room, probably used for testing since it was lined with tables and a chalkboard.

“Hm this is weird,” Jewel said, she like sen, also had a staff, that she had drawn out upon entering the room. Her long and straight brown hair wisped around as she rapidly searched the room for anyone or anything. Sina, who had a significantly harder time comprehending the situation, looked around with a stunned look on her face. Tobas waved his hand in front of her face.

“your pale as a ghost are you going to be alright, I can carry you if not”

She slowly shook her head “its ok its just a dream”

Tobas looked at jackal with a concerned look. Jackal was shaking but still kept a strong mentality up. He walked around the room moving desks when he noticed a small box. He paused in his position and his eyes laid fixed on it, his head felt light and his body became cold. Tobas walked over to it “Hm, whats this, equipment?” as he was about to go up and open it jackal pushed him and shouted, ‘EVERYONE GET OUT OF HERE, I KNOW THAT BOX”

Tobas got up “what the hell man! What is it then?” without explanation jackal was forcing them out of the room. Sina was still in stuck a trance, and really just floating around so he picked her up and tried his best to navigate everyone to an exit. Tobas was holding onto jackals coat, and Jewel was holding onto his. They moved as a human chain, that way noone could get separated in the smoke.

“so can you tell me what was up with that box now? Looked pretty average to me”

Jackal who was trying to catch his breath responded “i-it was the virus”

Tobas almost tripped after hearing that and had a realization that if he touched that box he would’ve been done for. As they ran through the base he held onto Jackals coat tighter, thankful to have him around.  

The four of them finally found an exit where they kicked opened the door so hard that they fell onto the cold gravel.

The four ended up going to a back exit, that faced a wide-open plain before they hit a seaport. It was easy to breathe again and the outside was much calmer, but Tobas starred back into the building in horror at what they had been running in for the last 20 minutes. Jackal fell onto the pathway due to being out of breath for so long and carrying sina.He  quickly caught his breath and rolled over to get got up

“sina, snap out of it, this is real life” he said shaking her as she laid on the ground, her eyes slowly opened and moved around

 “w-what, you mean I’m really awake?” jackal nodded and helped her sit back up. She slowly moved her head around as if she was trying to remember who everyone was again. There was a boom in the sky and then a flash of lightning in seconds the sky opened up and raindrops hit her face. She finally came to and stood up “wait! We escaped? where everyone is else?” what are we doing here” she had many questions. Tobas walked around the corner of the building and noticed that pretty much everyone was out of the base, but there was something odd. The main entrance had several emergency vehicles and people with biochemical suits were standing around.

“uhh…” Tobas said turning to them “come look at this”

Jackal peered around the corner and almost choked. There were some people laying in stretchers and others having coughing attacks. Sina ran over and looking for anyone else she may know but couldn’t spot Petar anywhere. Tera was talking to one of the deputies until sina an up to her interrupting “Wheres Petar?”

She looked annoyed for a moment, and then moved her eyebrows up “Hm? I thought he was with you?”

sinas heart sank and she ran around looking at everyone in the face.

“D-did someone open that box?” Tobas wondered in horror at the sight of the sick people.

“defiantly… there was probably more than one” Jackal responded before running to control sina who was out of her mind.

“Sina, come back with us”

She was in the middle of a panic attack, her debris-covered face made her eyebags look ten times darker. WHats worse is that her panicking was being fueled by the very fact that she could recognize the symptoms of the virus that people had around. The medical team had already quarantined them and aided the coughing people as potential victims who would develop the virus later on.

She shook her head and bolted for the doors of the base, a man in a biochemical suit pushed her back her and jackal rushed up and took her by the wrist

“Sina” he said again in a clear tone “Sen is missing too. There is nothing we can do, we cannot go back into the base”

Tape was now being put on the doors and  the windows were being shut up. She screamed

“PEOPLE ARE STILL IN THERE STOP IT!! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL THEM”

She kept shouting while trying to get away from Jackals strong grip on her wrist “STOP IT YOU MURDERERS”

Everyone in the area was starring in their direction now. Jackal smiled and pulled her close to him, tightly squeezing her and caressing her hair, all of this felt very similar and sina felt like his little sister at that moment,

“it’ll be okay” he said repeatedly.

 In the meantime, Sen was still creeping through the building. The base was a wreck and he could no longer hear any sounds except for whatever was coming from the outside. The bioengineers decided that it would be best to quarantine the area and lock up the base, there was a virus seeping from somewhere and it was unsafe to leave it open. They shut all of the windows and then taped around the premises so that no one could get in.

He had a strange feeling in his head that he may come across an Ostralan solider, who he desperately wanted to speak to. There was a faint whimper in one of the rooms, and he followed it until he reached a filing office. The whimpering got louder and he noticed it was coming from under the desk. He jumped over it with his staff and peered below, through the thick smoke he could make out the silhouette of an office working who stored data within the base. She had got left behind when the rest of her colleges ran to the exit. Sen held out his hand “Its Sen Valor, Captain, from squad 18.”

The lady grabbed onto his arm and cried “do you know the way out?”

“Yes” he confirmed and untied the cloth napkin from around his neck for the woman. He could withstand the thick smoke without it for now. He moved much faster than her, and she found it hard to keep up.

 “Its okay I’m on your side” he assured her running through various halls and rooms, the lady didn’t seem to think twice about it and clung to his arm as tightly as possible. The two ran past an opened door with a light on, which caused him to come to a halt. He peered in through the smallish opening and saw a leg in the corner. It was someone laying down.

“Please wait outside, there may be something dangerous in there” he instructed the lady, before entering the room. The body of the person laying against the wall was Petar. Sen walked closer examining his state, Petars eyes opened

“Oh…it’s you, Sen.”

Sen slowly nodded and once approaching him put his hand on his forehead

Petar lightly laughed “I feel awful, I lost everyone, but now you’re here”

Sen stayed silent kneeled next to him, petar tried to move his arm up but it fell on his lap immediately

“do you know what happened to me?” he asked, already knowing the answer

Sen nodded gravely “Do you want to get on my back? I can take you outside.”

He walked out of the room with petar on his back, the office worker looked up at him with an expression of terror. As they walked down the hall petar was quite talkative despite his state

“Hey, yyou know, I don’t think of you as a bad person”

Sen kept his eyes fixed in the direction they were going but still listened

“take care of Sina for me”

“Of course,” Sen assured him

There was another person on their way scurrying around in the smoke and looking for the exit. Sen held out his arm for him too and after finally reaching the exit, the doors were locked and barricaded.

He said to himself “I’m going to have to smash something”

He called out to petar who had been silent for a few moments now before smashing the windows of the door out “Hold on tight I need to smash the windows of this door”

He took out the staff from the inside of his jacket and spun it around, with full force he hit the windows smashing both into a million pieces.  The tape on the windows stuck to his staff but he was able to throw it down and make them visible to the outside crowd.

The sound of the smash caught jackals attention, and he peered over to the main entrance to discover Sen there covered in debris, carrying petar, and holding onto two clerical workers. He couldn’t help but smile uncontrollably, the two were finally back, but his smiled faded quickly when sen staggered around coughing, and petar who was unconscious on his back. 

Almost Instantly the medical team was all over them, the two clerical staff escaped with frightened looks to be with the rest of their team. Sen gently placed Petar on the ground, and a doctor had guided him over on the grass to do a checkup. The nurse brought over water and some medication which sen downed, the doctor then shined a flashlight in each eye and further inspected for any signs of illness or injury. Meanwhile, several other medics placed petar on a stretcher. Once sen was checked out and deemed fine, he walked over to jackal who had been comforting sina the whole time. She was now sitting on the grass biting her nails, it was difficult to imagine that this was real life considering it had just been like her nightmare predicted.

Jackal went up to sen

“I was so worried you weren’t going to come out..”

Sen only stood there silent. Tobas who was talking to reporters came over to see what was up “Whats up with you” he asked sen

Sen looked at the two with a look of seriousness before opening his mouth “Petar is dead”

Sina looked up at him with her nails still in her mouth, tobas had noticed sina’s reaction behind them furied him. He grabbed sen and pulled him away from her. 

“what the hell man! Sina has been going insane and you say that in front of her?!”

He looked confused as if he couldn’t emphasize with emotion “I carried him out, I know that he is dead.”

Tobas face turned red in anger, it was one thing for sen to blurt out something like that, but to convey no emotion made him much angrier. He brought his hand up and slapped him “whats wrong with you? Or was it you who caused the virus in the base today?”

Jackal called out “Tobas, stop it!” he wanted to break them up but he couldn’t leave sina alone.

Sens face remained the same, except an outline of tobas’ hand was on his face. Tobas continued to hit him until General Gallantas walked up and boomed “I command you both to stop!”

The general grabbed the back of sens jacket and pulled him off to the side away from his squad. Tobas stayed fuming in his anger “I can’t stand him!”

#ch5

[conflictpredicted]

“Jackal Kraus, how are you today?”

“About the same”

“Do you think you can proceed with your appointment?”

“Yes”

he sat in an office in the northern wing of the base, he went there a few times a month. A middle-aged lady with a long figure dressed in a suit displaying a military crest sat behind the desk, her hair was pulled tightly back in a bun and while she looked intimidating, she had a kind face. She leaned in closer to her desk with a pen and paper and smiled at him.

“You said that last time too”

Jackal straightened up in his chair even more “no I think I can” his eyes averted to the corner the book shelf in the corner of the room “sometimes it’s just hard to tell if I can until I start talking”

The woman grinned “that is very true.” She flipped to a new side of paper in her notepad “Now, if it’s okay to begin. How is Anjie?”

“She’s stable” he stopped for a moment and began to play with the button on his jacket and then looked back up at her “she loves board games and adores my friend Tobas. She laughs all of the time and last week she even tried a cooking class offered by the hospital” he continued on with full expression “and well she says she is not sure if she’s the greatest cook considering she spilled most of the ingredients on the counter-” he stopped himself “sorry that’s not what you wanted to know, is it?”

The woman still held her pleasant smile “That’s okay, I’m glad to hear.”

He was quite nervous and started to feel sweat on the back of his neck.

“Anjie seems like quite the happy girl, compared to you.”

Jackal looked away, he couldn’t stand coming to terms with his real self.

“it would help if you opened up to me.”

Both sat in silence for a few moments before she started speaking again

“Jackal, please look at me. You have experienced trauma, no doubt, and you are doing the best you can. But you have pretended as if nothing has happened for over a year now. It isn’t healthy.”

Jackal finally looked at her again, wearing a disheartened smile “I guess I can’t proceed with the appointment today” he let out his signature light laugh “sorry” and left the office. The woman remained in her seat and watched him walk by the blurred window, she sighed and felt confounded.

While more than half of the base was in Liastein, the upper ranking officers thought it would be a great opportunity for the remaining squads to do an “area scope” whilst cleaning. Tobas groaned he couldn’t believe he wasn’t chosen to leave, it was his hometown and he hadn’t visited in months. Watching everyone get on trucks and leave the base only made his homesickness manifest more. He pouted on the stone wall outside, moments later sen appeared and searched around for the rest of the group

“Where’s Sina and Jackal?”

Tobas turned away, he did not want to talk nor look at him. Sen was used to this behaviour and while it was annoying it didn’t get on his nerves too much. Tobas finally jumped off the wall and walked up to him with his arms crossed

“You did something.” he said accusingly

Sen didn’t know what he was talking about and walked around to see if sina or jackal had arrived until he was stopped by Tobas who grabbed his shoulder “What was that look general gave you last night”

Sen removed his hand from his shoulder “I don’t know, he just looked at me”

Tobas’ eyes were pointed and gleaming, “You know I don’t believe a word you say” he said through his teeth

“then why are you asking me a question if you won’t believe it anyway” tobas balled his hand into a fist and as he was about to swing it Petar walked out the entrance of the base

“Wow you two, am I going to have to break you up?” he came over to see what was up and tobas released his hand and shoved it back in his pocket “No, sen over here is just being smart”

“hmm” Petar said assessing the situation with his shifty hazel eyes, sen shrugged with both hands it was the most animated he ever got aside from combat and eating bread. He stepped back and sat on the bench taking out his pocket watch to check the time, petar brushed his bangs from his face, he usually kept them held back with a few pins but forgot them today. He looked to sen “You know Jackal and Sina are cleaning out the compost over there.”

he looked up “really?”

“yeah they have been for about 20 minutes now”

Sen felt a bit foolish since he had been waiting for them to begin todays duties and to find out they had started without him. Petar looked obtusely at the two of them and wondered if they ever really functioned as a team, before offering to reunite them.

The three of them walked through the soggy field in their boots and full uniforms, although they were only cleaning it was still considered an official duty. The sun beamed down, for a February day it was almost like spring and the grass let off a peaceful earthy smell. They came upon a concrete platform which led to the sorting facility enclosed in a fenced off area, it no longer smelt like spring but now awful. Sina and Jackal were there working away and wearing masks on their faces to block out the smell. Sina dropped her bag and waved at Petar, Jackal lifted his head up and waved as well. Sen didn’t look pleased with the situation their squad was assigned, he knew that it was probably his fault though. If sen wasn't pleased then tobas was a hundred more times discontented, looking more than unwilling to step foot through that gate.

The two of them came out smelling strongly of rotten banana peals mixed with spoiled milk, they took off their gloves and breathed in the fresher air for the moment. 

“its not as bad as it looks” jackal assured, mostly speaking towards tobas who carried a pretty boy complex.

Petar was in a daze and still smiling at sina, she said nothing and continued to return it back to him. Sen rolled up his sleeves, took off his nice white gloves, and stuffed them in his pocket. After putting on the rubber gloves he proceeded through the gate before the others. Jackal followed behind him shortly.

“sorry you have to do this, I would help out but my team and I got assigned the lounge.” He patted sinas head and said his goodbyes

Tobas smirked at her “Is that your boyfriend?” sina looked at him with a look of dismay

“No we’re just friends.” She stated firmly.

“oh~ he would feel miserable to hear that” chuckled tobas

Sina expressed confusion

“Petar has it hot for you”

Sinas face flushed red, scrunched her nose up, and joined jackal and sen.

Jackal held the bag open so that sen could pour one of the bins into it. Behind them sina was knelt down sorting through cans, she ripped the labels off them and placed them in a separate pile.

Tobas sat on the ground against the fence, to him he was in hell. He sighed his head back and forth repeatedly while watching the three of them touch garbage

“I could easily get a girlfriend you know”

Jackal glanced over and gave him a funny look. Sina increased her concentration at the can sorting.

“I’m serious, I’d say I get asked every week” tobas went on, none of them knew what he was going on about.

“what about you Jackal, you’re pretty good looking yourself” he winked. \jackal tied the garbage bag and chuckled “am I? I don’t know about that”

Sina looked up at him “People admire you Jackal”

He rubbed the back of his neck bashfully “well that’s good to know” then he wondered “why do you bring this up, Tobas?”

Tobas expressed a half-twisted grin “Petar is hot for Sina”

Her face again flushed red in both embarrassment in anger she violently started ripping the labels off and digging loudly through cans, sen peered down at her confused. Tobas turned his head and watched her attentively “I think love is what we need during this dark time, I say go for it sina”

Jackal continued to rub his neck, he wasn’t sure what to say, he could feel her embarrassment and could see the fun tobas was having.

“Don’t listen to him, he just likes to poke fun at whatever he can, Petar seems nice though. So, if you like him don’t be ashamed”

Followed by his comment, Sina made the biggest racket, now avoiding any contact with jackal and tobas. Sen changed the subject to work “Lets just finish cleaning so we can get out of here” the smell was starting to become nauseating. When the work was done they were all so relieved but badly needed a shower, except tobas who did close to nothing. Despite that he rushed off to the showers anyways, sina waited until sen could tell them ago, for she respected him to that extent. Sen dismissed them, and she hurried off partly because she was still flustered and so she could get a shower as well.

It was nearly lunchtime and sina was starving. Fortunately, ever since she saw crow her nightmare had stopped, and she was able to focus during the day now. This had her feeling mentally good. She caught sight of jackal who was walking back with sen. Behind her was petar  from the other direction, jackal did a small salute to him, in which sina looked behind her shoulder and spotted him. It caused her to blush and that made her anxiety exceed levels. So she decided to rush off and enter the cafeteria by herself. Petar watched her leave in confusion. Momentarily, a few of Petar’s squad members showed up, including tera the snippy one.

“shall we eat, I think we worked for it” he said inviting Jackal and Sen to join them.

Tera plugged her nose “Oh my, do I smell trash?” then laughed as she continued to enter the cafeteria.

 Petar sigh “sorry about that, she’s not that bad” then whispered, “all of you actually smell quite nice” sen didn’t know what to do with that information and waited for jackal to say something, which surely the polite guy did “Well, thanks” he replied lightheartedly.

Petar eagerly looked for the table Sina was at, ever since yesterday he hasn’t stopped thinking about the times they’ve spent together. He was dying to confess his feelings but was at a difficult crossroad with himself. They had hung out with crow alone many times in the past, she knew his father, and they got along well. Everyone gathered at a table in the middle of the room, sina felt uncomfortable when everyone abruptly sat around her talking loudly. She wasn’t expecting all of the company and had taken 3 portions of food for herself. She quickly pushed a cheesy baked potato at sen, who had a plain one without butter. He looked down at it and then at her puzzled, she gave him a desperate look that read “please just go along with it” he nodded at her and pulled the cheesy potato closer to him. Petar looked happily at her and asked how the cleaning went, she gave him a thumbs-up but didn’t feel like talking. She never liked talking during meals because she was so focused on the meal in front of her.  

Suddenly an alarm went off, it was so startling a piece of potato fell from her mouth. Everyone looked around, everything seemed to be okay until smoke started billowing from the hallway

“What is It a fire?” Jackal questioned in a panic

Moments later an announcement over the PA was made “everyone take positions, at this time the situation is unknown, prepare yourselves for potential combat and take positions. I repeat prepare yourselves and take positions”

Sen’s and Tera’s communication devices started beeping like mad both of them answered and there was shouting at the other end of them

Tera shouted back into hers “what’s going on, please calm down!”

The voice at the other end said

“w-we’re being attacked!”

#ch4

[conflictpredicted]

Anjie skipped from wall to wall she loved to be free from her bed, she grabbed tobas from behind in an attempt to spook him. But his peripheral vision caught her and he spun round “Fail. I saaaw you!”

She laughed and continued to cling to him, she always favoured him and gushed to Jackal about how pretty his eyes were. Sometimes jackal had a hard time getting her attention when tobas was around so he would have to get him to leave so they could have a straightforward conversation.

But jackal was a bit more serious lately due to the medical forms he had last time, but seriousness didn’t change his facial expressions very much, so his gentle and endearing personality was still present. He pointed towards the couch

“Anjie, why don’t you sit down for a bit. I need to talk to you”

She frowned “talk to me about what?”

“nothing bad, but you’re 16 now and there's a few things you need to sign”

She unattached herself from tobas and sat down on the sofa in their common lounge. She still frowned as she played with the pen in her hand. Tobas joined a table across the room that was playing a game of chess, a freckled boy yelled “checkmate for the third time! Man, you suck Jackson!”

Jackson pushed out his chair and shamelessly offered it to the next opponent. Tobas took his seat and with his hands clasped together he gave his signature devilish smile “let's see how long  you last against me, Petar.”

The two boys played a tough round of chess, they were almost equally matched. Their corner of the lounge became the nosiest with several guys standing around the table cheering them on.  

There was screaming coming from all directions and amongst the screaming was coughing. The military base was hit with an intense smoke bomb, people ran in every direction looking for their masks. Sina stood flat against the wall watching the horrors, but she couldn’t move her feet.

She saw the colour black whenever she turned her head, and she wondered why is this happening? this is a nightmare isn’t it? She felt Jackal’s or someone’s hand and extended her arms out as far as she could, he was telling her something, she could tell he was shouting but what? What was he saying? She started to lose her ability to breath and heaved uncontrollably until she slid down the wall and heard a loud horn blow, she wanted to take out a pistol so bad but was too nervous about shooting a fellow soldier. Suddenly she was able to breathe and the smoke cleared allowing her to see normally one again. Although her vision showed her still in bed.

She sat up and looked around. For a  good five minutes, she stayed still in her pile of blankets before punching the wall beside her. To herself, she said “it was just another nightmare” and walked off to the bathrooms. Sweat dampened her bangs and she needed a cold shower to bring her back to whatever the reality she was in was, having these dreams so frequently was only confusing her into thinking the nightmare might be real life, whereas this current reality is her escape to dreamland. She turned the faucet on and it was ice cold she hissed for a second but then let the water run down her head.

She walked out the bathroom with facing down, parts of her hair were still dripping, and she looked like a mess. In the main hallway, she bumped into someone and was quick to apologize. she continued through biting her thumb. She swerved her way efficiently through the crowd until she almost swerved around sen wearing a hat and holding clipboard, in which he took a quick look at her drenched hair and then at her pale face. Her eyes were filled with water as if they were about to upset all down her face. He tried frowning and wanted to ask if she was okay but then Jackal who had noticed her from afar came out from the lounge. A tear began to stream down her face when she saw him and embarrassingly looked away. Jackal looked at Sen to see if he had any idea, which he then gave off an uncertain look. With a sad grimace, she whispered, “I’m sorry”. Sen certainly didn’t know what to do and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder. People in the hallway were beginning to notice now so Jackal blocked her from their sight and took her aside. Tobas from the table noticed the three of them in the hallway, as he got up he said “looks like times up boys, gotta run- good game Petar- Squad duties though” and rushed off.

Jackal had taken her inside the male dorms, anyone was allowed in the living area, so he sat her down on the couch and went into his room to find a package of tissues. Tobas entered the room and leaned against the doorway. Sina hugged a pillow and buried her face in it “ahh this is so embarrassing…” he shook his head and walked over “Its fine. What did Sen do?” he asked sternly

Sina slowly looked up from her pillow “nothing”

Jackal came out with the tissues, but she had finally stopped sobbing.

“aah that’s a relief, your okay now” jackal added in the middle of tobas’ interrogation session

Tobas put his foot on the coffee table and leaned in closer “you mean Sen just watched as you got upset?” Tobas took this as more evidence to further prove his point that he was a bad person. Jackal shook his head “not now Tobas” then turned to Sina “if you don’t want to talk about it then that’s okay”

It's not like she didn’t want to talk about it, it's just that if she did talk about it they wouldn’t take it seriously and she didn’t want to look like a bigger baby than she already did. She sat there for a moment until Petar walked in. He seemed a bit startled at the sight of them

“Oh sorry am I interrupting something?”

Tobas looked over his shoulder “Ah Petar, no come in”

Sometimes Tobas was a bit domineering and answered for people, but thankfully sina actually liked Petar. He was an ashy brown and freckled faced guy with black-rimmed glasses who worked closely with them during their entry-level training days. He was known for having a gigantic Newfoundland dog named “Crow”. His father brought Crow down to the base weekly because Petar loved him so much. The perks of being from Rathnew Port is that you're never far from home and you can see your folks whenever you please. Most soldiers only went home a few times a year because of how hectic their schedule is.

“By the way, Anjie beat me in chess shortly after you left, Tobas.” Jackal laughed “that’s Anjie for you, she could probably beat us all at any game”

Then it hit her, the voice from her dreams wasn’t jackal or anyone on her squad for that matter. But it was Petar’s. She suddenly became very concerned and her skin turned pale again. He looked at her “Are you alright, you don’t look well.”

 Sina finally told them about the dream but she didn’t mention Petar’s voice. She didn’t want to freak him out. Tobas patted her on the head and had a jovial expression on his face. Jackal nodded “hm I see. That’s understandable, maybe you should take a sleeping medication?”

Sina shook her head “No they don’t work. I’m fine now, thanks for your concern though, all of you” she got up and made her way back to her room to fix her appearance up.

Petar sat down in her seat and leaned back “I sort of pity her, she's been having sleep issues for months now.” Tobas was still sitting on the coffee table and with his hand rested on his chin in thinking position. Jackal decided to head back out and take Anjie home, who had been wound up in board games in the lounge.

Anjie was just like him, they even looked similar except she was much smaller and delicate looking and her hair was an uncontrollable style of random waves and curls but it matched her devilish flare. Jackal was tall and had an athletic build, many people thought of him as attractive and it wasn’t based all on looks but his personality as well. Anjie loved being around others and expressed it through physical action more often than words. She always clung to who she liked and it made Jackal feel bad for leaving her at the hospital so much but there wasn’t much option. He had a job to pursue and she needed care.  Anjie didn’t like when he left neither and stalled for a good hour before jackal was getting a call back to the base.  

“Tell Tobas I want to pay with him next time!”

“I will” he promised

“or maybe he can come visit me instead?”

“I’m sure he will”

that imprinted a big smile on her face as jackal slid the door closed and walked out. He couldn’t help but have an awful feeling in his heart every time he slid that door close. He sat on a bench outside for a few minutes, titled back his head and breathed in the brisk February air.  He heard a small child exit the building and a tiny muffle voice in a rhetorical tone. When he tilted his head up and caught sight of the child and mother leaving, she was holding the child in her hands and the child seemed curious about the outside world. Maybe that child was sick too but was now well enough to go home, that is a thought he wondered and hoped for Anjie.

Today there was another threat made to Liastein. Ostral government hinted a secret attack that would take place at approximately noontime. However, Noontime passed and Liastein remained unaffected but security was heightened and the entire city was under lockdown. All day long flyers fell from the sky and littered the streets, Jackal picked one up on his way back to the base. He too was one of the many people getting tired of the threats and felt awful for almost wishing one was real. The flyer showed that same illustration of Dr. Valor walking into a bakery on an avenue in Liastein.

Days were slow at the base and there wasn’t much to do except train and prepare themselves for a possible outbreak of war. Jackal walked into the cafeteria and noticed Sen sitting by the window with his lunch. Jackal picked up the featured meal of the day which was squash soup and a grilled cheese then made his way to his empty table. He pulled the chair out and sen, who seemed to be in a daze was kind of startled “Oh hey” he said to Jackal

He noticed four of the same flyers floating around Sen. He gathered them up and threw them in the trash bin behind them.

“How’s it going?”

Sen shrugged “Same as always”

“why were there so many flyers around you?”

Sen didn’t want to answer but a few soldiers interrogated him on the flyers just before lunch, because they did, indeed, depict an image of his father.

“They’re everywhere” he turned in his chair and reached for another one at the table behind them “see”

Jackal sipped his soup “fair enough” not wanting to talk about them anymore either. Sen nibbled on biscotti, he had a plate full of them that chef Boulder prepared especially for him. Jackal playfully stole a piece off his plate and dipped it in his soup “you should try eating some vegetables, Sen.”

He looked at the soup, in which he said, “No I’m good”

the thought of pureeing a vegetable almost made him gag and he stuck another biscotti in his mouth. Jackal liked to have this small talk with him, but he was always quite difficult to track down. Sen was always on the move and preferred to be alone.

“We may have to go to Liastein tomorrow, they are calling on reinforcements.”

Jackal lifted his head from lunch in surprise “really? Why nothing ever happens”

Sen closed his eyes and shook his head “I know, but the government is starting to think this is a part of Ostral’s scheme” he went on to explain “they have put in a special request for squad 18, we have no choice”

Jackal paused to wonder why they would request their squad, then suddenly the dots connected. The recent propaganda focusing on Dr. Valor was making the government want to monitor his son more closely. He balled his hand into a fist under the table and felt infuriated at this

“You didn’t do anything wrong”

“I don’t think I did”

“Then why do you let people think whatever they want?”

“I don’t, they just do”

Jackal was always frustrated with that side of his personality. He never did anything to help himself and Jackal always felt strongly about protecting his innocence. He could only imagine Tobas’ reaction to this now, and Sina was in no shape to be in the center of attention. But he shook off the frustration and calmed himself down.

“Although, I’m sure they just want what is best for the country” he affirmed

That night there was an assembly and Sen led the group into the large stadium. All of the soldiers stood in a straight line in front of a large podium and curtain. Petar who had been behind them nodded a silent hello. Tobas with his hands in his pocket stood in a relaxed position until the General chief, Nathanial Gallantas walked onto the stage. He explained the current state of Liastein and what to expect.

“I am going to announce which squads will be leaving, whoever is not named shall remain here and continue duties in Rathnew Port.” He cleared his throat and began naming off the departing groups, Jackal nor Sen mentioned anything to Sina and Tobas. Although for some reason General Gallantas missed squad 18, jackal looked over at sen concerned, but he still facing the stage.

“those who I named please leave now to pack your things. Transportation will be here in approximately 75 minutes.”

More than half of the room ended up leaving, and Sina disappointingly watched Sanya leave. The  room felt a lot emptier now. Now that everyone had left the sound of whispered complaints and groans came from the individuals left behind.

“ That’ll be all. Dismissed.”

As the general walked off stage decked out in his badges of high ranking honor he flashed an eye at Sen. Tobas noticed and gave him a flaming glare before walking out first. 

Petar up to them “it looks like we’re all the unwanted ones”

Jackal attempted to turn the situation positive “No the base can’t be empty, there has to be someone here to guard it”

But Petar challenged him “Hm, isn’t that what the military police are here for?”

None of them had the answer, but not being chosen to protect the more vulnerable parts of Etheland was something they had to accept without question. Before Petar left with his team, known as squad 17, Sina called out to him

“Is Crow around…by any chance?” she loved his gigantic dog crow and it was the highlight of her week. Petar smiled and took out a key from his pocket “No, but would you like to go see him?”

Her eyes filled with glee “yes please!” and she followed Petar off.

His squad captain, Tera, a lanky solider with a bazooka that looked way too heavy and unnecessary to have on, said aloud “ahhh the last picks again, is it because we’re too closely associated with the no-good squad 18?” in a snaring tone.

Crow bolted out the door of the small wooden cottage Petar’s father lived in.  The dog was so big that he had his own room and a human-sized bed, that Petar graciously gave up to him when he signed up for the army. The dog slobbered all over Sina's pants and his excitement almost knocked her off her over, but she didn’t mind because Crow was full of love and temporarily took her worries away.

“Woah there big guy, calm down” Petar said as he brushed the dogs wooly main with his two hands. Sina cheerfully laughed and held his ears, and Crow was having just as much fun.

Petar sat on the porch watching the two of them, he smiled at her warmly. she noticed and returned the smile. She always nervous, so her eyebrows were usually stuck in a permanent upward position, Petar liked to compare her as a pup of Crow’s.

“He must’ve missed you” he said kneeling down next to her. Crow was tumbling on the ground getting his fur full of twigs and dust. Petar did what most did to sina, give her a rub on the head. It was a given considering how much she resembled a lost puppy. 

“Crow is the only medicine you need! look at you, you're all better now”.

 “thanks for always cheering me up” she said modestly

He wanted to reach out and give her a hug so badly that it saddened him, but he hesitated. Being in love in the middle of a war was not the ideal fantasy. As Sina dusted off her pants she gave Crow one last pet before Petar rallied him up back into the house. 

#ch3

[conflictpredicted]

Ch 2

“The state is happy to announce that the number of emergencies this week were indeed false alarms. Officials are advising citizens to keep a close eye on their close ones and report any health abnormalities anyone may be experiencing. In other news Gallan-

Tobas turned off the radio at that point and sigh “I mean I’m glad no one got hurt, but how long are these false alarms going to go on for, at this point it’s a war full of empty threats”

“I know.” Jackal said, his eyes fixated on the piece of paper in front of him, Tobas looked over “What’s that?” gesturing to the papers

Jackal rubbed the back of his neck, he did this whenever he was stressed. From tobas’ 5 second glance he could tell they were papers from the hospital

“How is Anjie?”

Jackal responded, “she’s well, these are just consent forms for a new medication” then got up with the papers “I’m going to take them there now, see you later”

In the mean time,, Sina was outside at the shooting range wearing her training uniform, which was a plain white t-shirt and cargo pants. Her eyes were narrowed, and her position exhibited full concentration, as she shot each bullet her eyes narrowed even more. One bullet hit bullseyes the other was a fail and hit the edge. She sigh and looked down at the gun in her left hand and then at the gun in her right hand. A girl who was a few targets down walked over to her

“whats wrong with your left pistol?” she asked

Sina shook her head and then placed the pistol on the ground next to her bag “Not sure…”

The other girl hummed “you’ll need to get a new one then, although who knows when you’ll be needing it next with all of these fake threats and propaganda- actually did you hear that rumour about Dr. Valor being spotted in the capital a few days ago, Liastein is a mess right now!”

Sina positioned herself again and shot another bullseye, she didn’t believe most of the news and chose to filter out a lot of the time, besides the report was drawn by someone who wasn’t even at the scene. WHats worse is that her eyebags were multiple times darker than usual because she had been experiencing a recurring nightmare almost every night. Sina always had disrupted sleep due to the nightmares and had permanent black circles around her eyes. The dreams made her incredibly uneasy because they often made her question reality. she even began confusing her dream with news reports or actual events and mumbling about them to whomever he saw. 

“How’s your squad going, Sanya?”

As Sanya walked back to her target to pick up her belongings she shrugged “same as usual, but what I should be asking is how is being in a group full of guys?” she chuckled and nudged her when she came back “Do you like anyone? I wish I was in your group, so I could get close to Jackal”

She brushed her long brown hair over her shoulder it was in a high pony tale. She was actually a very pretty girl with mocha skin, dark brown eyes and wavy long hair. Much taller than Sina too.

Sina groaned “all they do is argue”

“Oh yeah, well I suppose with Tobas the popular well-known son of a government official, and the son from one of the most hated families” Sanya giggled more “I would love to see them in a full-on fight with each other.”

Although Sina shoved her “now you are a sadist”

She knew Sanya had a habit of initiating arguments for fun. But Sina hated drama. With two of them being quite different from each other, Sanya was her only female friend, and they didn’t see each other often. She was in squad 14 and their team had a pretty good dynamic going for them, and that made Sina a bit envious.

When she was walking back to the base where they lived, she saw Sen getting out of a jeep nearby. She hesitated to approach him at first but gulped and went up anyway.

Sen turned his head in her direction, he was about to head into the building too

“Um” Sina tripped over her own words

“I-“ before speaking anymore she decided to just dig through her bag and take out the pistol “this isn’t functioning right…”

Sen took the gun from her and examined it, he started taping the top of it and then shaking it a bit. He held it up towards the light “the clicker is stuck, I can take it back to the tool shed and fix it now if you’d like?”

Sina was now alone in a jeep with him, her palms grew sweaty and she kept her head facing the window, she was fine if it wasn’t one on one. It was dead silent and Sen could tell she was nervous and attempted to ‘act natural’ and attempted conversation “how was training?” but it came out dead and emotionless because he was nervous too. Sina’s anxiety made her neck feel almost impossible to turn “Uh-h Yeah. It was good, except for the gun problem.”

“Of course.” he murmured as he took a sharp turn to the wheel and pulled off the gravel road onto a grassy patch. Finally, the painful ride was over, and they pulled up at a giant industrial looking shed made of steel. He was quite handy and usually fixed everything on his own even though there was a whole fleet dedicated to repairing weaponry.  It was after hours and dinner was soon approaching so no one was around the tool shed, sen sat down on a stool and started screwing into the pistol, strands of his medium in length and pitch-black hair fell into his eyes and brushed his cheeks while facing the workshop counter. Meanwhile, sina explored the place with her hands behind her back glancing back as if she was watching him from the corner of her eye. There were walls of hundreds of little cupboards and tiny screws everywhere as if someone knocked over a box of them and didn’t bother cleaning them up. It was very quiet since the two of them weren’t big talkers. As if things couldn’t get worse for her, he called her over to try out the gun.

He placed the gun in her hands and instructed her to shoot at an old newspaper clipping on the wall, they weren’t supposed to be shooting in there of course but where else were they going to. Sina took another heavy gulp and pressed the trigger, although it felt stuck and worse than before. Her eyes shifted towards him, and he stood up to place her finger over the small metal clipping, he noticed how cold her hands were and accidentally left his hand on hers a second too long for comfort. He quickly drew his hand back and wondered why he had done that, but she yawned and didn’t seem to think anything of it so he proceeded to direct her “Use this piece” indicating to the one he had just installed

She squinted at the small piece he put in “wait this small piece?” she was confused and wondered if it was going to be her new trigger.

“Yes, just press it, it should work” he said with a slight sound of encouragement in his voice

She was doubtful but proceeded to press down on it anyway. He was right though, her gun shot with more power than before. He asked for it back and turned around in his stool to continue working on it again. This time placing a trigger piece on the tail end. Sina didn’t show it but she was delighted to have her pistol fixed so quickly, and surprised at Sen’s ability. Strangely enough, she didn’t feel as nervous as before, she closed her eyes and released some of the nerves, although she still felt a little torn on whether to trust him yet.

#ch2

[conflictpredicted]

False Alarm

The rain came down in sheets soaking everything through, Sina’s uniform was twice as heavy, and her collar became droopy. She saw a bus shelter and ran under to take shelter her oval beady eyes and little button nose sighed in the silence. Although the heavy rain put a damper on things, she was glad the emergency alert in Zeilhem was just a false alarm and she could soon go home without seeing another death.

Jackal walked through the small fishing town and helped notify any fishermen who may still be frightened or comprehensive of the situation. Jackal’s kindness always left people with a copious feeling of ease. To escape the rain, he dropped into a small restaurant that still had its open sign on, a middle-aged woman rushed out from around the counter at the sight of his military uniform.

“Oh dear, are we safe now? please tell me so” she pleaded with both hands clasped tightly into a prayer position.

Jackal removed his dripping hat and warmly smiled at her “Please do not worry, Zeilhem is safe” The woman let out the greatest sigh of relief, almost losing her balance, Jackal quickly put his arm around her back and said, “it is a relief isn’t it?”

She seemed to have returned to her normal self, and with a big smile, she swung around the counter and into the kitchen to retrieve some clean drying towels.

“here you are dear, dry off, you’re soaking wet, you worry me you’ll catch a cold”

He greatly accepted the towels and began to take off his heavy jacket

“How does a warm bowl of fish chowder and baguette sound? - oh and where are your comrades I would like to serve them as a thank you as well”

Jackal was overjoyed at the woman’s generosity. He placed his hat and wet coat on the vacant stool next to him and thought for a moment

“Hm, good question, we tend to get split up in times of emergencies, the intensity of the rain and dusk wasn’t a good mix neither”

Just then a charming blonde boy with iridescent blue eyes popped into the shop roaring “AH JACKAL! I knew that was you from the window!” he walked over and roughly shook his shoulder

“Tobas!” Jackal exclaimed in surprise, seconds later another boy walked in with Sina. The rest of his team were together and had already been walking through the town.

The restaurant owner smiled “well it looks like you’re back together now, I’ll prepare the meals!” she turned around and disappeared into the kitchen. Jackal removed his coat and hat off the stool beside him to free up space for the others, Sina waved and quietly sat down in that seat. The boy who walked in with her, still stood in the doorway, typing away on this chunky black device. He was the captain, Sen.

Whilst the three others talked about the scare in  Zeilhem, a small district next to their base, Tobas shared a story with a big grin on his face.

“Sina and I were down at Gilbert’s Bay and she noticed something laying on the beach, and oh did it frighten her, she dropped her gun and ran down the bank. But once she approached it and saw what it actually was you should have saw her face” Tobas said erupting with laughter almost unable to go on “it was a- a potato sack!” it was if his own story was going to make him fall off the chair laughing, although she didn’t look too impressed and quietly justified her actions

“well what if it actually was… you know”

Jackal who also thought it was funny, looked her way and agreed to make her feel better “Oh for sure, you always have good observation skills Sina.”

Tobas stopped giggling and patted her on the head “I know, I know, just the fact that it was a potato sack made matters hilarious”.

Sen walked over to the counter and finally removed his dripping hat after being preoccupied with typing. Tobas’ eyes flickered in his direction, and then averted back.  

Jackal nodded at him and then asked if everything was okay. Sen nodded “Yes, I just had to record what we did before we leave Zeilhem”

Tobas muddled “I bet your disappointed nothing happened”.

Sen ignored the comment and sat at the very end next to Sina, who was slightly uncomfortable whenever Sen and Tobas were in the same room together.

Steaming hot bowls of chowder were brought out, along with a large baguette and butter for them to share

“Bon Appetit you four!”

they graciously thanked her. Sen’s communication device kept going off, so he slid his untouched bowl over to Sina who was nearly finished her soup within the first 5 seconds of having it.  She was starving and would always be willing to take the leftovers of whoever offered. Sen happened to be very picky and would be fine with eating baguette for the remainder of his life. The extent of his pickiness was even noticed by the head Chef back at the base, Chef Boulder, always went out his way to make special meals for him, despite Sen stating that there was no need and he was fine with “eating toast for every meal”.

“This is really delicious, do you run this place yourself?” Tobas asked curiously as he noticed she was the only one back in the kitchen.

“Oh no, I have a husband, although he is down at the dockyard helping his friends, I have a daughter too, married and living in Liastein now. You know with the big government” she oozed

“Ah I see, well I’m glad you’re not alone” he replied slurping up his soup. The woman leaned against the counter gladly watching them as they enjoyed their meals. Sina felt slightly uncomfortable whenever someone wasn’t eating stood around her, it made her feel more self-aware, which she hated, but she was thankful for the warm meal.

Sen got up and pulled his jacket closed.  Jackal stood up, holding a piece of the baguette

“Oh have the jeeps arrived already?”

He nodded and turned to the woman “thank you for your hospitality” in a very military-like manner. Sen’s emotionless voice always went straight through Tobas’ head, he cringed and said “ha-ha, he’s a bit of a killjoy, but honestly, thank you” and at that, they headed out with their appetite fulfilled and a little dryer.

#ch1

[conflictpredicted]

#tobas

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#map

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#sen

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#extras

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(second image created by russetred) r

#jackal