I'm hoping that this story does well, compared to how it did the first time around. I feel like I've grown a lot as a writer since the original upload, so now I can see why I was getting a lot of people saying Show don't tell. Well, enjoy my show.
The Ranger
For most soldiers, sleep wasn't about resting. It can be an easy way to escape the harshness of the reality that we volunteered for. For some people, like myself, it brings back things we thought bottled up. These dreams, on the rare occasion we have those, are the only truth to the lies we tell ourselves. Reality is always more sinister than the rationalization.
I was taking part in a push to take a mountain in some god forsaken place in Korea. I can't remember the name of the damn thing, but it would be a day I would always remember. We started the day of with a good rain, always an amazing start, as we began the push upwards. We made it a good clip up the hill before the enemy spotted us. The sounds of the bullets whizzing past is enough to scare me, but I press on. Moving from cover to cover, taking each shot with deadly precision, until I made it to a good fortified position. A grenade fell near the squad, and one of our best jumped right onto it.
A loud boom pulled me out of my restless sleep, as we began to tumble uncontrollably out of the sky. I couldn't see or hear anything for a good couple minutes, but when I came to, we were out of the chopper. I looked up to see the pilot dead, his head resting awkwardly on the flight stick. The big man was holding his shoulder, but completely unconscious. The oriental was trying to cover us with his single pistol, but we would surely get overwhelmed in a matter of moments.
Through the fog in my mind, I found the revolver poking out from the big man's jacket. I stood up in a crouched position and moved with the speed of a viper, poised to strike, for the gun. Once in hand, I turned just in time to see a man bolting towards our position with a katana in hand. I pumped a bullet into his chest, even though my hands were shaking like a leaf in the breeze.
"This is a bad situation, Veld!" the oriental stated, most likely thinking I was him.
There were two more who charged us, I took one out while black suited man took out the other. Then he turned to meet my position. "Drop it!" The man ordered, pistol trained on my chest. This only made me tighten my hold on the only weapon I have and shook my head.
"If we don't get out of here, we're going to be overrun!" I blurted out through the shock of the dream.
The oriental man nodded, still hesitant of me being armed, and said, "Carry him, towards the tree line. I've got you in my sights in case you do anything stupid."
I lifted the big man up, adrenalin is a hell of a drug, and carried him over to our chosen destination. Once there, I set him down flat and took a position keeping my eyes focused on the crashed chopper. If there was going to be a shootout, I'd rather they be the ones in the open. After a few moments, nobody came until they heard two sets of feet running through the woods towards the chopper.
"Brace for impact," I said to my suited friendly enemy.
The two people came from the trees, and revealed themselves as my former captors, Sephiroth and Angeal.
"Search for survivors, I've got the chopper," Seph ordered.
Each did their role while I lifted a twig. I mouthed, 'Watch this' and intentionally snapped it. Both their heads snapped to my position, and I threw the revolver out. We lifted Veld, while they converged on us weapons drawn.
When they saw it was us, they stopped in their tracks. "You survived?" Angeal asked incredulously.
I shuddered for a moment, but didn't say anything. It was around now that I felt the pain in my shoulder return slightly. I looked down and saw blood freshly ooze down my hand.
Seph looked at the other conscious man and said, "Report."
"We were flying along the sky, when we were shot down. We then found ourselves surrounded by five men, but the both of us shot our way to safety," the man reported.
"Good work Tsung," Angeal said, but then gave my shoulder a look. "You're bleeding," He bluntly stated, fishing through his belt only to produce a small blue vial. He tossed it over to me and said, "This is a potion, should stop the bleeding while we double back to the field hospital."
I decided it would be in my best interest to take drugs from strangers, so I drank the vial to the bottom. It tasted like vomit going down, but I was already bloody so I didn't notice any more sprinkle from the hole in my shoulder.
"You fended off these guys with a bleeding arm? Are you a lefty?" Sephiroth asked with an eyebrow raised. I shook my head and he chuckled, "You've got grit, I'll tell you that."
"Yes, sir," I snapped him a salute, only for him to go back to being straight faced. He motioned for us to follow, and so I did. Marching was something I felt at home doing, even if I was still feeling groggy and confused.
Angeal must have sensed my tension when he asked, "You need a break?"
"No sir, pushing onwards sir," I replied. I wasn't sure if they would appreciate my sir's, but at this point I was grasping for anything to ground me back in reality. If I was stuck here, I wanted it to be familiar.
Not twenty minutes later, keep in mind at a brisk pace, we found ourselves back at the field hospital. I started towards the field hospital, only for Angeal to grab my arm. I expected pain to shoot down it, but frowned when it did not come. I looked into his eyes, and he shook his head.
He instead moved me towards the mess hall, where upon entry every eye in the room bolted right up to me. Each man who talked before our entry fell silent, save a few in the kitchen who still produced noises. When the novelty of our sudden appearance wore off on them, and they went back to eating, did I finally take a breath of relief. The air that came in almost smelled heavenly. I wasn't sure if it were ham of some sort, or some other succulent cut of pork, but I was ready to eat an entire cow if given the opportunity.
"I'll bring you yours, you just sit here," Angeal said pointing at the table. I fell to the hard wooden bench, and waited a few moments. This wasn't too different from where I'd been before, and I wasn't all that worried anymore because of it. I smiled when Angeal returned and placed a tray before me.
He must have never seen a man vacuum the plate and ask for seconds, so when I was ready to get up for seconds he said, "Slow down, you're gunna get a stomach ache."
I chuckled and produced a picture of my kid from my pocket. I handed it to him and said, "I've been in a foxhole for the last week eating MRE's. I'm hungry, tired, and completely out of energy Richey…" I got up to get my seconds and returned to a confused look. He set the picture back on the table, and pondered where to begin.
Angeal must have chosen the picture first, "Your daughter?"
I nodded and said, "She'd be eleven this year."
Angeal nodded and asked, "Okay then, who's Richey?"
"He was in my squad. Last person I remember talking with before I wound up eating food here, with a man who has a surf board for a sword," I retorted.
Angeal chuckled and but didn't have a comeback in mind. He finished his food, more akin to poking at it then putting it in his mouth, and the asked, "Shower?"
I moved with him towards a building with no windows. I expected an interigation chair, but was pleasantly surprised when it was a prison style shower room. I stripped down on the other side of the room and went to work at cleaning all the dirt and grime that accumulated from a week of crawling and running through and in the mud. When I got to my shoulder, I was again surprised to find no hole or wound to be found.
When I finished, I got back into my fatigues and waited for Angeal to finish. I figure I'd be in trouble if I left his sight, but jumped when the katana from earlier appeared past my right side. I froze and blurted out, "Angeal brought me here!"
The blade flew back away from my head, and when I turned to meet his eyes, "Come," was his only response. I followed without hesitation, through the compound until we got to a tent. He opened the door to the tent to reveal a table with a nice looking chair, and a rickety, old wooden chair.
I took my seat and he sat across from me. I felt completely naked right now, without my gun, and couldn't help but wonder who would be interrogating me. Sephiroth didn't take the seat, but elected to stand at the entrance to the flap. Who did come through, and walk all the way around, was the big man in the black suit. He sat down, for the first time I noticed his arm was in a sling, and pulled out his revolver. Placing the gun on the table, he looked into my eyes and said, "Who the hell are you?"
I stiffened a bit, and said, "Corporal Abraham."
He nodded and said, "Well, Abraham, I would like to make you an offer. It's more or less a big one because you hold in your hands the future. You can either become a POW lab experiment, and possibly die at the hands of one of our scientists, or join Shinra as a Turk or Soldier."
I opened my eyes wide and said, "Well, I'd rather not die so I choose join."
Veld smiled and said, "We're going to give you a sedative, when you come to we're going to be in the ocean heading to Junon."
I didn't understand what he was saying at first, but that must have explained the syringe that just hit me in the neck. I hit the table, and my lights were completely out.
End of chapter 2
As far as word count is concerned from the original, we kept roughly the same amount of words, but I feel I've done more with them this go around. I gutted the story with the spotter, seeing as he's now a true ranger and not some crazy hybrid.
