Chapter 2
"When the first one dies, you die too. On the inside you die with every one of your soldiers."
When you're a kid war is just a game. Fingers are guns. Rocks are grenades. Dirt piles are embankments and makeshift trenches. The front lines are your back yard. When you get shot you do down with theatrics yelling that you're hit! You're hit! Then falling to the grass your father just mowed with flailing limbs. You thrash around on the manicured lawn until you've decide that you've bled out and stop. You stay still until you've decided you've been 'dead' long enough. After that point you jump to your feet laughing while you're friends are laughing. You continue on killing each other until your mother call you inside for dinner. It's all a game and it's all fun.
But war, it's not a game.
Something crunched near Leonardo's head pulling him from the blackness of unconsciousness. He fought tooth and nail to stay inside of it. To keep the black nothingness wrapped around him. He was confused, angry, and he knew if he left this nothingness that surrounded him it would all get worse. He heard another crunch then a groan, it sounded nearer, too near. Leo felt scared. Whatever that noise was it was too close and he still had his eyes shut. Steeling himself he forced his eyes open. He needed to be brave. But, nothing happened. He tried to open his eyes but they were stuck, too heavy. Something hard and rough was under his cheek and the side of his face. It was painful. He hurt. Everything hurt. His eyes wouldn't open.
Another groan. Leo was almost sure it had come from his mouth.
"Shh... -nardo," Someone whispered softly near his aching head. "It's okay... Okay, Leo. You're... be fine... fine." The voice was getting farther and farther away, like it was backing down a dark tunnel.
Softly, something touched his head. Leonardo still couldn't get his eyes to open. They were glued shut. Absently Leo thought of a toddler with Gorilla Glue smearing it across the rims of his eyes and pinching them shut until they dried. There was a muffled sound above him. Someone was speaking.
Leo felt himself whimper as the speaking voice gingerly moved his head so his cheek came off of the hard, rough surface. Leo felt himself cry out as a sensitive part of his head was touched maybe purposely, maybe accidentally. Fire licked down his neck, his heartbeat drummed in his head. Slowly he felt himself being placed back down on something soft, warm.
"Get some sleep," the voice commanded. It sounded familiar, comforting. But Leonardo couldn't call a face to it. His mind was too muggy, too pain filled. His head beat too loudly to concentrate. Using one last pull of energy and hope, Leo forced his eye lids to unstick. As soon as his eyes opened he was assaulted by light. His eyes felt like they were being burned through. He tried to jerk his head to the side and pull his arms up to cover his face but they refused to do his bidding. When he moved his neck more pain flared from his head. Tears brimmed his eyes and ran down as agony shot down his body.
"Leo. Blue! It's okay. It's okay! Shhh... Shhh, you're okay. You're okay." A hand came down over his eyes and another one was placed on his chest rubbing soothing circles. "Shh, Leo."
Darkness grabbed at Leo as his head fell to the side and he passed out.
This time when Leonardo came to he didn't feel as heavy, his eyelids weren't glued shut. Tentatively, Leo opened his eyes and blinked three times. There was something tall and brown an inch from his face. The closeness of whatever it was scared the teenager into jerking back.
Pain. His head drummed. Leonardo brought dirty hands up to his head trying to keep his brain from leaking out his ears.
"Morning Sleeping Beauty," came a rough voice. The voice startled Leo but he was smart enough this time not to jerk around. Instead he closed his eyes against the orange light that blanketed around him and then slowly, deliberately twisted and hoisted himself up until he was in a sitting position. The pounding in his head settled some when he let himself fall gently against the hard wall. When he stopped moving, Leonardo finally opens his eyes. It took a few moments for them to adjust but when they did Leo gasped, tears leaked from his eyes. Without thinking he jutted forward trying to get closer, needing to touch, to prove that he was really there. That he was real and not some ghost.
"R-Ra-" was all he got out before whatever was under him supporting his weight - his legs, his knees, his arms - give out and he fell to the ground, face first and eating dirt.
The figure that sat on the other side of the small hut they were in jumped to his feet, "Maybe you should go back to sleep."
Leo looked up as Raphael knelt down beside him and grabbed his waist. The red haired boy pulled gently until Leo was sitting up again then even more gently set him back against the side of the rough wall. Bits on rock dug into his back. Raph looked down into Leo's eyes as he moved his head up so he could get a better look at the boys' pupils.
Leo coughed wetly looking up at Raph, tears ran unashamed down his face. "R-Raph, I-I thought you were dead… Am... am I dead?" He had to be dead. He'd seen them shoot Raph in the head. He'd seen the man brandish his rifle and point it at Raph… didn't he? Didn't Raph get shot..?
Raphael took a long breath before sitting down next to his best friend. He bit his lip thinking about when he'd woken up seething Leo's body twisted and tangled at awkward angles at the other side of the hut. He'd panicked, jumped over to his friend already convinced that he was dead. There was so much blood around his head, too much...
But then he'd moved. He groaned. He was still alive.
"I ain't dead Leo, an' neither are you."
Leonardo took a deep breath mentally pulling himself together. He was a soldier, he needed to keep his head on straight. Leo blinked four times before the world around him came into better focus. Sitting up had helped; it cleared some of the cobwebs from his head. Looking around, Leo took in their surroundings. They both sat in a small room. It looked to be made out of the same mud and rock consistency that the locals made their small shanty-huts out of. There was one window near the top of the rocky brown wall that was big enough to light up the entire space yet too small to fit through.
Damn, Leo cursed. The hut was a circle in shape with only one door that was on the opposite side of the useless window. The door looked solid. Solid and locked.
He started, "Is the door-"
"Locked."
"Damn."
Raph sighed heavily. "The Charlie's came in a few hours ago. They just looked at us and talked to each other in Spanish, I couldn't understand them. Then they left."
"Does this means we're... What? Prisoners?"
"Guess so."
"Damn," Leo repeated again, there was nothing else to say. No other words to express.
They were silent for a few minutes, both thinking over the events that landed them here. Faintly, Leo thought he could still hear the screams of his friends. The way their guns peppered against the ground around his tent. He could still feel the fire, it licked and burned and torched every important file and piece of paper he was issued.
Dead. All dead. Dead or scattered or captured.
"What happened to never leaving a fallen comrade?"
"What happened to not being a stupid idiot?"
Sweat dripped down Leo's forehead mixing into the dried blood that had already painted his face from being hit by the butt of the Charlie's rifle. Not for the first time Leonardo felt choked by the heat. He pulled at the collar of his army camo jacket. He pulled once then twice trying to get stagnate air to rush into his clothes to help cool down his already overheated body. He pulled again on his collar then stopped when he heard nothing. There was no jungle coming from his chest. Quickly, almost frantically, he grabbed for the tags that were supposed to be hanging around his neck. When he only felt sweat slicked skin his heart sank. He had no tags. No identifying number or name. Nothing that showed his identification number or his religious preference of Protestant Non Denomination.
"They took my Dog Tags," he tells Raph letting his head fall against the side of the hut. His hand, now sweaty, also falls dejectedly to his side.
Raph nods slowly gnawing on the side of his cheek, "Mine too."
"Nothing to I.D us."
"Nope."
Again they are quiet. Something outside of the hut stirs, voices seep through as muffled and foreign. Leo doesn't hear anything he recognizes. He's fluent in Spanish – he had to be to become a Communications Specialist – but he doesn't hear anything that makes any sense. Suddenly a voice close to their door laughed. It was deep and throaty and Leo jumped slightly. Someone ran in front of the door. The sound became softer and lighter as the person running passed and got further away.
"I think we're in the middle of a village," said Raph looking down at his fingernails. His too-bright red hair stuck to his forehead.
Leo looked at his best friend, "Where are we?"
"We're in a hut," he answered eyeing Leo stupidly.
"Why are we in a hut? I always thought that POW's were caged underground," Leo huffed out a humorless laugh. "In like, dank cells with one light and dripping ceilings or something. And some guy threatening us with guns and needles and demanding to know all our secrets."
"Yeah well, looks like we just get stuck in a hut." He was quiet again, watching the door. "Heh," Raph says suddenly, then grumbles, "stuck in a hut... That rhymes."
Leo jerked his head over to look at Raph. A ghost of a smile was stretched thinly against his lips. Raph didn't look over at Leo, he stared forward and let his thin lips mold into a slightly bigger smile.
"Shut up, Hothead," Leo chuckled shaking his head slowly.
"Whatever you say Blue."
They were both silent after that, both listening to the sounds of outside. There were more voices muffled by the thick door separating them. Younger, lighter voices yelled playfully back and forth to one another. Their sounds wafted through the small open window.
"Pasa la pelota! Ven a pasar! ¡Pásalo!"
"You speak Spanish, right?" asked Raph after listening to the children's voices for a while. Leo nodded, staring at the far wall listening to the children and imagining what they looked like by the way they spoke. He ran his tongue over his lips, he was thirsty. A bead of sweat dripped onto his tongue. It tasted dirty and salty.
"Vamos, su mi turno para jugar con la pelota! Se acabó para siempre ya!"
"Come on, it's my turn to play with the ball… You've had it forever already." Leo translated to Raph. He slimed slightly at the wine in the boys' voice. He sounded just like Mikey...
There was a commotion, the sound of rustling and shoving. Something hit the dirt then another something. More sounds of scuffling and then there was a roar of children yelling and egging on. One voice was distinctly older sounding than the others. It yelled over the other children forcefully. But it sounded more brotherly commanding than fatherly.
"Vale, vale. Eso es suficiente Hector. Basta usted loco!"
Raph looked to Leo expectedly.
Leo let the words translate in his head then roll off his tongue without really thinking, just letting his mind work. "He's just telling them to break it up."
Leonardo's heart sank as he listened to the older boy speak again to the others. He was reminded of himself whenever Don or Mikey started getting into a fight over something stupid and he had to step in and break it up.
"Hey Blue?"
Leo looked over to Raph, "Yeah Raphie?"
"Why did your dad always sign Splinter at the end of his letters to you?"
Leo looked at him, dumbstruck, "How did you-"
You left an email open a while ago on you're iPad an I saw it." He admitted almost guiltily. "Sorry, I was board. It was when you went out for a walk through with Captain Bennison ."
Leo nodded remembering going out on a jungle mission with Captain Bennison and the rest of his team a few weeks ago. They needed a communications specialist to relay messages back to command while they scouted a possible Charlie outpost. Stockman had been among them complaining per usual about the heat and how he should have become a scientist instead of a soldier. At that time Leonardo had wished the man had become a scientist as well just to save him the headache of having to listen to him bitch and moan about the heat and the weight of their packs and LAW rifles.
Leo licked his dry lips with his even drier tongue. He'd never really told anyone about his father's nickname, no one had really ever asked actually. But, Leo figured, there was really nothing else left to do in this small, hot hut other than talk.
"It's just an old nickname of his. Kind of a long story."
Raph raised an eyebrow at him. "We got plenty of time."
Leo shuttered then nodded his head slowly. "His got the nickname in Vietnam. He was drafted but he said that he would've joined anyway even if he didn't get chosen. He was a paratrooper. Anyway, so him and about ten others were ordered to jump down into this hill in Khe Sanh. The Marines there were having trouble keeping the hill and they asked for backup."
"Those Devil Dogs needed backup? No way," Raph chuckled remembering the Marines who had come through their camp a few months ago all chiseled and growling with thick arms and tattoos.
"Yeah," Leo smiled slightly. "So my dad and his team jumped near the hill and we about there when Viets started shooting at 'em from the ground. They killed his buddy Yoshi right away. Dad said a bullet went right through his forehead... Yoshi was dad's best friend, he used to tell us stories about him all the time... Anyway, they shot through his parashoot and he free fell the rest of the way to the ground. He hit a tree going fifty miles an hour and it snapped his leg in half. Almost tore his arm off too. A big splinter from the tree went right throw his hand. When the Marines finally found him he had taken up position in a ditch at the bottom of the hill with the three others who had survived in a ditch at the bottom of the hill. He had set his leg using wood from the tree he'd demolished."
"So that's how he got his name?"
"Yeah." Leo coughed, his head swam. It was so hot. "He had to keep that splinter of wood in his hand for three days while they waited to be rescued. He knew if he had taken it out he would've bled to death."
Raph rearranged and slid until he was laying down, his bright red head close to Leo's thigh. "Sounds like a badass."
Leo didn't say anything. He couldn't. He felt ashamed talking about his father. He knew, deep inside that if his father had been here he could've found a way to stop the men from capturing them. He would have done something better, thought quicker, fought harder, not have been so afraid. Splinter would have been smarter and saved his men. Leo buried his face in his hands. The hut was so stuffy with stale air that it was hard to think. His head hurt. His legs felt like jelly still from running - stumbling - through the jungle with Raph. He tried to take a deep breath to calm himself but the air was too dense, he couldn't breathe. He was so thirsty. He was so tired. His head hurt. He tried again to take another breath but his throat closed up. The air was stolen from his lungs. The walls of the small hut felt so close, too close. He felt his face, it was awash with sweat. His jacket was constricting but he knew he needed to keep it on. It had his last name – Hamato – stitched on the front. He didn't have his dog tags, no means of identification. If they killed him his body would just be buried in some mass grave, if they even bothered to bury him. Maybe he'd be burned or just thrown in the jungle somewhere.
"Leo?"
Who would remember him? His family would. No, they would hate him. They already did hate him. Donatello refuse to talk to him, he wouldn't answer his emails or letters or even Skype him back. Mikey barely spoke to him and when he did he would just beg Leo to come home or ask him why he'd signed up in the first place.
"Leo?"
April would miss him, he knew that. But she would get on well without him. She would find some other guy who didn't decide to go to war. She would find someone else to open doors for her and take her to the movies or listened to her while she read the newspaper aloud. Some other man who wasn't too stupid to think he could play hero in some third world country would kiss her cheek and whisper sweet nothings in her ear –
"Dude! Leo!" A voice yelled close to his face. Leonardo snapped his eyes open and jerked away from the face that was inches from his nose. The bands around his chest that constructed his breathing were finally cut away letting him take a full fledged breath of air. He gulped in the stale oxygen and scooted away from Raph's worried face.
"I'm fine," he said. "I'm fine."
"Like hell you are."
"If you could go back in time, where and when would you go?" Leo questioned. The sun was just about to set. Their small hut was alight with oranges and yellows. The camp or town or wherever they were was eerily silent save for the creatures that lurked in the jungle around them. It had been two days since they'd woken up in this small hut. The door had only opened once to reveal an old man with two buckets. One filled with water and the other empty. The empty one had a cloth over it.
"What's the empty one for?" Raph had asked.
Leo gave him a suffering glare. "What do you think?"
"Oh," Raph's eyes had gone wide.
"Are we playing games now?" Raph asked with a slight smile on his cracked lips. The water had been so nice even if it was dirty. But, it hadn't lasted long. Both boys chugged their share down without much thought then stared at each other for an inordinate amount of time thinking and cursing themselves for downing all of their water so quickly.
"It's either that or stare at eachother some more and I have to say, your face is getting uglier by the second."
"It's a good thing yer my best friend, Leo. 'Else I'd have ta pop you in the mouth fer callin' me ugly. And besides, yer one to talk. That ain't no shiner on the side of your face. It looks pretty awful. I think yer gonna have a few scars."
Leo shrugged, "Chicks dig scars, man."
"Does April?" Raph looked up from their game of tic-tac-toe they were playing in the dirt when Leo didn't answer back right away. Leo was biting his bottom lip while looking away from his friend. They were both quiet for a while as Leo turned back to their game.
After two more games that both ended in a draw, Raph finally asked, "When would you go back to?"
Leo didn't hesitate, "I'd go back to just before the Charlies attacked. When we were sitting in the Comm. tent."
"Why?"
"Cause everyone was still alive."
"Oh."
"And we only had seven days left." Raph nodded. Leo turned his head away to cough. This coughs were getting worse, they racked his chest making it hard to breath. They sounded wet and rattled deep in his chest. When he thought he was done hacking he turned back to Raph. It was less than a minute later when another round hit. He doubled over grabbing for the collar of his shirt to pull it away from his throat. He hacked and hacked, his throat felt like it was bleeding. Something vile crept up his throat, stinging it and making his eyes leak with tears. He jerked away from Raph and flung himself as far away from his friend as he could then promptly threw up everything that was in his stomach. The bile burned all the way up. He couldn't breathe. After he was done throwing up he noticed Raph sitting on his knees next to him, whispering close to his head and genty patting his back.
"It's okay… it's okay."
Leo sat back on his heels and wiped his mouth with the bottom of his shirt. Damn, he wished he had some water.
"Maybe my brothers were right." He croaked, Raph took his hand away. "Maybe we shouldn't be here. Maybe I shouldn't have joined." His voice cracked.
Raph took a deep breath before helping move Leo over to the other side of the hut slowly.
"No, they were wrong." He said looking Leo straight in the eye. Leo felt nauseous. "We're 'ere because if we weren't then people would keep getting hurt. Dying. We're here to protect people."
"We aren't doing a lot of protecting in here Raph. Mooch and Stockman and Holloway sure as hell aren't protecting a lot of people," Leo scowled.
Just then the door was flung open. Raph scrambled to his feel and steeled himself for whatever was about happen, whoever was about to come through. Leo tried to get up but his arms were too shaky, his body felt too weak from forcing everything out through his mouth a few minutes ago. He set a deep scowl on his face.
A man came through. He was young looking, no older than twenty-five by the looks out it. In his right hand he held an automatic rifle. Leo cursed inwardly, the rifle was one of theirs. In the man's other hand was a bucket of water. It sloshed around inside the metal tin. Leo licked his lips involuntary and was reminded of how incredibly thirsty he was once again. His tongue felt like sandpaper and his mouth tasted like something had crawled up inside of it and died.
The man smirked at the two soldiers. "Thirsty?" He taunted in perfect English. Raph looked sideways down at Leo who stared holes into the man. They wouldn't show weakness. They were still soldiers.
The man just stared right back at them. They stayed like that, all three just looking at each other for the longest time. Finally, Raph had had enough. "You know, if you stare long enough I do a trick." He held up his middle finger, "Oh! There it is."
Leo laughed thinly, the man smiled darkly, unamused. Raph put his hand down. The man dropped the bucket to the ground spilling and soaking the dirt. Leo could have cried as he saw the dirt become moist with the water they were supposed to drink.
"Opps." The man laughed then about-faced and left slamming and locking the door behind him.
Leo let his head fall against the wall, defeated. Raph sat next to him mirroring his posture. "How long do you think they'll keep us before they kill us?"
"I don't know, Raphie."
Sorry for the long wait and sorry that nothing really happened in this chapter. Writers block was hitting me hard. In truth I wasn't planning on this being a chapter story - in the original draft Raph had died in the first chap and that was the end... but then I just couldn't kill him and this became a chapter fic. There should be one or two more chapters :)
Have a good day
