Reflections: POV Chief

In a few days, his world was shaken to its core. Not that it was ever what anyone would call stable, let alone secure. Survival of the day dictated his life. Friendship? Trust? That word, even the concept was totally foreign and alien to him.

He seemed he had been living a completely new life over the last year. Yes, life was still a fight for survival, but it was not him alone against a pit of animals, all fighting for survival. He was still a convict, a prisoner, but this was different. There was a clear cut enemy and there were comrades that watched his back. He almost could call them friends, but that was not a feeling he was comfortable with. Friends and trust usually ended with him being on the wrong side of a weapon or behind prison walls.

He even had a camaraderie with some of locals at the Doves. They weren't a bad sort over all. He almost felt more at home here in a foreign country than the land of his birth. He had a sort of acceptance from them. There were fights here and there. But those were of a friendly sort, not life and death.

Now that world that even included hope, another foreign word, was crashing down. His commander and his friend he admitted with a mental shudder was facing years in prison. In spite of the seeming evidence, he KNEW that man was innocent in his core. Cynically, he knew that didn't matter. He and the others knew that all too well.

"Why, Warden, WHY?" he said. "Why wouldn't you let us get you away? You would be free!" In frustration and anger, he punched the wall of his room. He replayed that scene in his mind again and again. When his commander refused to take the chance of escape, he was shocked and stunned. This was a man who did not deserve to be locked away in a cage. He could survive on the continent with his contacts and languages and still carry on the fight.

He then replayed the last year in his mind: Their first mission where he stood up to a German general and pulled a con. That same mission when he took on all of them when he took on Wheeler. Their second mission when he risked his life to save him when the prison break they were planning went wrong with an inside attempt. This man risked his life again by pulling him out of a rain of bullets when he was wounded. And when they were assigned a suicide mission and he was offered a chance to stay back and live, he chose standing with his men, whether that meant life or death.

Suddenly things became clear. This was a man who could only live one way; that was with integrity and honour. He couldn't live a lie. He couldn't turn his back on all he had lived and sworn an oath to. That honesty and integrity were the reasons he stood by this man. He would suffer being locked away wrongfully than live a life of lies and looking over his shoulder.

Chief sighed and shrugged. Maybe Actor would have some ideas. He could find possibilities in the tiniest of details. That's what made him so good. If they couldn't find out what happened that night in North Africa, then he was back to life in the shadows. He did it before and could do it again. He was hoping that he could walk free and clear when the war ended, but maybe he was hoping for too much. No, the Warden would fight on until the end, and he would for the Warden's sake too. He owed it to this man.