Alfred grinned from ear to ear as the train swung around the bends in the track. He was excited to be back in China, and rightly so, after all it had been almost two years since he had last seen Yao and the separation had been hard, at least for the American.
As the train neared the station Alfred gathered his rucksack and messenger bag full of provisions, hopping off the train as soon as it stopped, his comrades that had come with him to help disperse food followed him. As he stepped onto the platform Alfred was a bit surprised to see the shock that was clearly written on the faces of the Chinese people around him. "Surly the Japanese invasion hadn't made them scared of us, has it?" His thoughts swirled as he and his comrades headed to the house of the contact that had been given charge of dispersing the relief supplies that they had been given to help the people of China. After they dropped off their packages of food and medical supplies Alfred and his comrades headed to the house of the elder of the village where they had been promised a refuge for the night. When they reached the house the Americans where received with open arms and worried glances. They were ushered inside and the door was shut behind them, as they were led to the living area of the house Alfred looked at what had once been ornately decorated walls and floors, inside the house was in stark contrast to the outside. The house from the outside appeared to be just another building, larger in size yes, but still it seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, but inside the ravages of war showed plainly, where there had once stood beautiful status there was nothing, places where there had been pictures where now just bare spots on the wall. As they entered the living area Alfred glanced around at the sparsely furnished room, there were some chairs and a small table that sat in the middle of the room, an old man sat on a pillow at one end of it, he rose to meet the Americans as they entered. From his appearance Alfred could only guess that this was the village elder, the man who ran the place so to say. He bowed and greeted his guests coolly; bidding them take a seat he motioned for a servant to bring them some refreshments. Quickly the servant scurried off and soon returned with some cookies and tea, setting it down the Elder motioned for them to eat while he and one of the other men struck up a conversation. Alfred sipped at the tea a little and nibbled at one of the cookies, he wasn't really hungry, turning to the man beside him he whispered to him that he was going to go find a friend and then rose and quietly left the table.
As he walked back down the hallway he passed the servant who looked upset and frazzled to see him not in the room with the others. As Alfred explained that he just needed to get some fresh air the servant protested "It is not wise to leave the house, please sir, stay inside." He repeated this several times but finally gave up when Alfred shook his head firmly. "No I am going out." With that Alfred turned and l left the house. As he stepped out the back gate he shut it behind him then looked around, "Now, which way was it to Yao's" he mused, trying to recall how to get to where he was going. Finally after a minute or two of thought he turned to the right and headed down the street. After he had walked a couple blocks he turned down a small one ally lane, then another, finally after a couple more he spotted the ally way that led to Yao's house.
The ally was empty, and rather cluttered, the only sort of life form that Alfred saw was a beetle that scampered past him, hurrying on its way to an unknown destination. As he approached the house he was surprised and disturbed to see its walls pocked by bullet shells and the windows boarded up. He paused long enough to assess whether or not it would be even safe to approach the house, after all it appeared not only partly broken down, but also very abandoned. "Does he even live here anymore?" He wondered. From Alfred's recollection of Yao, the man had always been one of a very neat and orderly conduct, his house was always spotless, and the outside was always well kempt. Mustering up the courage to try and knock, Alfred stepped forward and knocked on the door three times. Stepping back just in case he waited in silence for an answer; but in vain, "The house must be abandoned" he thought as he turned and walked back up the ally way. Where was he to go now? If Yao wasn't living here where was he living? Thinking back to some of his other friends in the village Alfred decided to try and find them, perhaps they could tell him where Yao had relocated.
Trudging down a secondary road he went to the home of one of Yao's closest friend, an old farmer who lived about half a mile out of town. As he walked his looked around him at his surrounding, the landscape looked bleak, the once beautiful pathways that led up to houses where now mud pits, and some of them didn't even lead to houses anymore, just empty skeletons of what used to be nicely furnished, well kept homes. "What has happened to this place? Where are all the people, all the children?" Alfred's pace quickened, could it be possible that Yao had left the area for good? Or even worse, been killed by one of the hard, evil looking Japanese soldiers? At that last thought Alfred almost broke into an all out run. In the distance he saw the old farm house with one of the old man's workers working in the little garden that grew by the house. The sight of the worker comforted Alfred's worried thought, "at least someone is still alive" he muttered as he stopped at the front gate and called out a friendly hello to the man.
The worker looked up from his work; a shocked look replacing the look of contentment mixed with worry that had been on his face.
Standing to his feet the worker dashed inside and soon reappeared with the elderly gentleman. He came over to the gate and greeted Alfred.
"Mr. Jones?" he questioned with surprise as he opened the gate and let Alfred inside. "What brings you to my home?"
"Well, I came to see Yao, but he seems to have relocated from his previous location and so I came to see if you knew where he was."
The farmers face grew serious as the American spoke. "Yes, he did relocate, out of necessity, the Japanese came in and caused great havoc in the village" the farmer looked around, making sure that no one was around, conveniently the worker had disappeared back inside the house. "Yao has moved to a little house on the outskirts of the village, if you want I can have my worker take you there."
Alfred brightened. "That would be awesome" he agreed with a quick nod. At least Yao was safe, even if he no longer lived in his old home.
The farmer nodded and then went inside his house; soon the worker that Alfred had seen earlier reappeared with a jacket. As he walked to the gate where Alfred waited he picked up his hoe and carried it along with him. "Follow me." He said, not really glancing up at the American, he seemed to be more focused on the surrounding fields and woods than anything else.
Walking along the deserted road the two didn't speak, and it seemed to Alfred that there was a growing tension in the air as they neared the village.
Once they crossed the village's outermost limits the farmer turned to the side and began skirting the outside of the outermost ring of houses. As they came to an ally the man motioned for Alfred to follow him, making the turn they walked a couple feet than stopped in front of a small one story house. As the worker steeped to the door and knocked Alfred took a quick look around the place, it was neat, and clean, well, as clean as it could be considering the couple stray bullet shells that lay around in various places. "Alfred?" Alfred's head snapped up and he stared into the face of a Chinese man. It took a second for him to recognize Yao, his friends face, once so young and beautiful, now looked tired and strained; the years of war had taken its toll on the beauty of the older man.
"Yao" Alfred chocked slightly, trying to calm his ragging emotions. "Hey…" he faltered slightly. Unsure of what else to say he looked around quickly to where the other man had been standing but was shocked to find that he was nowhere to be seen.
3~3~3
Yao paused, his hand grip tightened on the door as he gazed in silence at his old friend. Questions filled his mind as his heart beat quickened. "What on earth is the American doing here? How did he get past all the soldiers? What did he… how did he…" Yao bit his tongue and stepped back, opening the door. "Won't you come in," he offered quietly.
Yao watched as the American stepped inside, his head barely cleared the door, at six foot the small Chinese house seemed short and tiny compared to him.
Yao quickly looked up and down the street before he shut and bolted the door closed. Turning to face his guest he smiled a half hearted smile and motioned toward a nearby chair that sat in front of an unlit fireplace. "Wont you have a seat; can I make you some tea?"
Alfred smiled; even in the worst of circumstances Yao had not discarded his manners. Sitting down he shook his head. "No thanks, I am fine really, unless you have some water or something."
As soon as Alfred said that Yao disappeared into an adjoining room, reappearing seconds later with a glass of water in his hand. "I apologize that it's not cold," he said softly as he handed it to his guest.
"That's okay, in this weather cold would probably freeze my teeth," Alfred gave a half hearted laugh at his fail attempt at a joke. He took a sip of water and watched as Yao walked over and sat across from him.
Yao looked at the American, that blond hair, those sky blue eyes, he had missed them, being separated from his friend had been hard and he had wished so much that he could talk to him, but now that they were together he felt tongue tied and at a loss for words. Finally he looked up at Alfred "So what brings you to my country?"
Alfred set down his half empty glass "Well, I wanted to see you," he smiled "I heard that you guys were having problems with Japan and so I was sent to bring supplies to you guys."
Yao's face brightened then fell; the American had come all this way to see him, but only because he had been ordered to bring supplies? The thought made him cringe a little; his country didn't need help, did it? "I see…" he paused "but I thought that your country just passed laws that said you couldn't help other countries that were at war?" Yao looked up at Alfred.
"Who us?" Alfred chuckled "Well, you're right, but you guys aren't really at war, you haven't declared it yet so…" shrugging his shoulders Alfred took another sip of water.
Yao raised his eyebrow. "So, your president decided that we needed aid?"
Alfred nodded "Ya, but hey it gave me a chance to see you so it's a good thing right?"
Yao shrugged "It is always nice to see you Alfred, but I wish that it didn't have to be like this. aru"
Alfred smiled, the two chatted about other things for a while before Alfred couldn't hold in his curiosity any longer "So… uh… how is life, you know, with Japan here and all."
At the mention of Japan Yao's eyes where lit ablaze, hatred clearly registered on his face "It is deplorable, I have never had to deal with so much trouble in all my 4,000 years aru."
"So not good?" Alfred's voice faltered.
"No, it is terrible, when the soldiers took over our village it was like hell on earth; they killed people, burned buildings, killed our livestock and broke our wagons." Yao spat "And on top of that they disgraced our village elder before what people they had left alive. Mostly farmers and such, anyone who could leave left before they got here, the ones they killed where mostly families that had been helping out at a mission that was located not far from here." Yao glared angrily at his hands, "They looted his house, they've looted the whole village, there isn't a thing of value left here."
Alfred gapped; he knew that disgracing someone, especially the elder of a village always brought on some hefty consequences. "What… did you guys do about that?" he asked as he watched Yao's eyes burn with a inner hatred.
"To get revenge on them the farmers that were left have formed into gorilla bands, they prowl around the outside of town at night. And on some nights they raid the village, killing any Japanese soldier they can lay their hands or gun sights on." Yao looked up at Alfred's horror stricken face. "What's wrong?" Yao questioned, not wanting to believe that the American was so easily horrified by the ravages of war.
Alfred shook his head quickly wiping the look of stunned surprise off his face, "I was just thinking about… well the safety of my men and such." He said "Do you think the gorillas would harm us?" Yao rubbed his chin thoughtfully "Well, they are here for the soldiers, but it's possible since you are a foreigner that if they found you guys that they would kill you too just because. When they go on raids like that they work themselves up into a frenzy and there is no stopping them." He smirked "Some nights, when they are in a especially savage mood they wipe out small divisions of Japanese soldiers."
Alfred shuddered "Do you think they would come tonight?" he questioned worriedly.
"It's possible; no one knows when they will strike. Tonight is as good as another…" Yao's eyes took on an evil glint and as he spoke it seemed that he was speaking for the whole of China "We like their raids, we hate the Japanese, and we want them dead."