Brothers
Gemini
May 27, 2014
Third Hour
English 2
My unit and I are sitting in the bed of a transport truck as we make our way east into the Atlas Mountains in North Africa. Damian, my 18 year old baby brother, sits beside me on the bench. We have been here since this damn campaign started. My personal goal is to get him out alive, and I have a suspicion that he has a similar goal. But he will be the one to go home. He always was Dad's favorite.
I am snapped out of my pondering as we hit a bump in the road. We all lurch to one side, pushed by the force of the breach in the road. Then there is pounding gunfire coming from ahead the truck that we are in. Almost instantly there is yelling all around the convoy as people grab their guns and get them loaded. I glance around for Damian, spotting him as he jumps out of the bed of the truck. I load my Colt M1911s as I run after him, into the firefight. My rifle is still on my back, but I know that it takes too long to reload. This should be over fast. I find him crouched behind a parked truck, waiting for me to catch up. He glances up at me in acknowledgement and I fall in beside him. We wait for the axis soldiers to reload their guns, or at least for them to let their guard down. We hear a hole in the fire, and we both jump on it, completely in sync. I brace myself on the hood of the truck and Damian dives low towards the front of the truck, lying prone in the dirt. The axis troops were crouched in a shallow ravine that protected them from the return fire from the truck that they were firing on, but not from us. They are totally exposed on our side. Five seconds to shoot. We take aim and between the two of us we drop 12 enemy troops before the seconds run out. Then we get back down behind the truck.
"Bet I took down more than you," I comment.
"'TT' in your dreams, Jay," Damian bantered back. I allow myself to smirk. Same old Damian. Then we both go back up to fire at the enemy troops again, only to see the backs of their uniforms. Then someone shouted.
"Hey guys, looks like you could use a little help."
"You are delusional, Harper!" Damian calls back.
"Roy! Get your butt down from there and get over here!" I yell over the din of people shouting at each other post ambush.
"Fine! I'll be right there!" We watch as he climbs down off of the tank that he had climbed on, to watch the enemy retreat and yell at us from. As he came over to us he took off his helmet, reveling matted red hair, in contrast to our black. He dodges around people that are running around. Eventually he gets to us. "So, how have you guys been?"
"How do you think?" I retort as more people rush by.
"Point taken. How 'bout you Baby Bird?" he is smirking.
Damian turned an extremely light shade of pink. You had to know him to be able to tell. "Why do you two insist on calling me that?" he hissed.
Roy's smirk grew. "We do it because it bothers you. Now come on, we're loading back up."
We ride for another few hours before we make it to the next base. We roll through the rest of the day with ease. Then we head to our sleeping quarters. Baby bird and I are always together. It might be because of dad's intervention, but I've never been able to prove anything.
"Jay, would you stop that?"
"Stop what?" I grunt.
"Cracking your neck. You're going to hurt yourself. Stop it."
"What, like this?" I ask, and then pop my neck particularly loudly.
"Stop it Jay!"
"You need to relax, baby bird. Now get some sleep. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow."
"Fine. Night Jay."
"G'night Damian."
The next morning, we load up early and hit the road. We ride for a few uneventful hours, but I can't shake the feeling that they are waiting for us. Shortly after, my suspicions are confirmed.
We are heading further into the Atlas Mountains when it happens. We are ambushed by enemy troopers that had previously been hiding in the foot hills. After a few minutes, the ally troops fell out of favor and we began to retreat.
"Run Damian! Go!" I scream as I try to take down as many enemy troops as I could.
"I'm not leaving you, Jason!" he yelled back, trying to help me, but being shoved forward by his over protective older brother. He was still struggling to turn and help me when suddenly the shoving stopped, replaced by my slackened body leaning against him. "Jason, Jason!" he yelled as he turns to see me lying in a bloody heap on the ground. He leaned down to check my pulse.
"Damian," I groaned. "run." Just then Damian slumped by my side. Ironic. That is my thought. We both try to get the other out alive and we both end up dying. I raise the gun in my hand to take out a few more enemy troops. I stick my other hand in Baby Bird's hair.
"It was fun while it lasted." He said. I smile.
"Love you, Baby Bird."
"Love you too, Jay."
A/N: Another historical fiction. Leo and I are in the same English class and so same homework. We decided to make our stories inside jokes with our English teacher and she obviously didn't notice. I wanted to post this on Memorial Day but I lost it and Leo bugged me to find it. I finally did and Leo has hacked me(not really) and is typing this. Hehheh third person Leo. Muahahahahaha. I'm tired and hungry. This is Gemini's story not Leo's. Hand In Hand is Leo's historical fiction. Warning they are very sad. Well it's a little late for that now isn't it? Sorry.
-Gemini
-Approved by Leo
