Chapter 10
Surprises Around Every Rock
"The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst." ~Henry Fosdick
May 26th, 1944, 1643 hours (04:43 p.m)
Charles had spent the last five minutes explaining the layout plan for the squad as the lion family sat there, confused but excited to see them in action. Shelton drew a small field map on the ground and pointed out the positions for the men, talking to them at the same time. "Vick," said Charles, "You, Jackson, and Simon take up an 'M' shape on the northern side of the field. Me and Peterson will take up opposition on the southern section. Clear?" he finished. The soldiers looked at each other and looked at their friend, "Clear." said Vickers. The rest of them called clear quietly, eager to get down to business. Charles looked at his allies and then at the lions and nodded. "Enjoy the show." he said quietly. He looked back at the dirt map and up at the squad, "I want single shot on all weapons and all of you can only fire one round each, so no automatic fire, as in," he looked at Jackson and O'Brian, "no full-auto BAR or Thompson. Got it? We don't want to exceed the kill limit." They all nodded. The hunting party looked down onto the plains overlooking a herd of thirteen antelope. The soldiers started to set their weapons to semi-auto, all except Jackson, who set his M1A1 Thompson back to full auto. "Screw this!" Jackson thought in annoyance. In a split second, Jackson started to run down the hill, firing his Thompson like a crazed soldier running into gunfire. "JACKSON!! HOLD YOUR FIRE NOW!!!" yelled Vickers. It was too late for Jackson, he had already taken down over half the herd. Bodies fell riddled with bullets and blood covered the ground. Charles had never seen anything like it, it wasn't a hunt, it was a massacre. "JACKSON!! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE NOW, DAMN IT!!" Vickers continued to scream. Charles couldn't stand seeing the sight anymore, so he started to run after Jackson. "PRIVATE! GET BACK HERE! SHELTON!!" yelled Vickers. Charles caught up to Jackson and tackled him to the ground, trying to keep him still. "GET OFF ME!!" ordered Jackson in anger. The rest of the hunting party made it down the hill and circled around the two men, confused and afraid to get in the way. Charles gathered all of his anger and hate and punched Jackson square in the face, grabbing him by his uniforms collar. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" screamed Charles. Private Jackson started to bleed heavily from his nose and a little from his mouth, dazed from the powerful punch. Charles punched him again, this time with less force. Peterson tried to restrain Charles, but he was shoved away by the enraged soldier. "YOU THINK IT'S FUN TO KILL INNOCENTS!?" He hit the now weak Jackson again, "HUH, YOU SELFISH BASTARD!?" Charles got off of Jackson and pulled out his Colt .45 and cocked it. "Charlie! Don't do it!" yelled Nala. Charles looked at her, infatuated with anger. He hated it when people called him that, which grew his anger. He looked back down at Jackson and aimed the pistol at his forehead. Simon was shocked by this, seeing his allies fight. "Charles! Lower the damn gun!" he said, hoping that he would, but Charles didn't. Vickers tried to get close to the two, until Charles gave him a 'death glare' and stepped back, "Stand down, Private!" he ordered, but to no avail. Kiara snuck up behind Charles and placed her paw on top of the gun, trying to push it down. "Please, put it away Charles." she said quietly. What came next was never expected by any of the squad or the royal family, but Charles, for the first time in years, he drew tears. Vitani walked up next to him and started to help Kiara push the gun down. His vision flashed, but he wasn't in the Pride Lands anymore, he was in a village. He looked up and saw the flag of Japan on a large stick above a shelled hut. Charles looked left of himself and saw a brutal sight, he saw many bodies of the villagers surrounded by their own blood. They were all headless. He felt sick to his stomach at the sight, but the horror wasn't over, for he saw a Japanese officer with his katana raised over the neck of a blindfolded Marine. His hands were bound behind his back and was kneeling next to the Japanese soldier. He looked at the Marines jacket and slightly opened his mouth in shock, the jacket read, "PFC. Shelton" The officer looked over at Charles and smiled evilly and brought his katana down on the Marines neck. In a flash, he was back to his original state, his pistol aimed at a bloodied Jackson with Vitani and Kiaras' paws on the Colt, trying to push it down. Charles, by his own free will, lowered his pistol and slowly holstered it, tears still sliding down his face.
May 26th, 1944, 1706 hours (05:06 p.m)
Later that day, Jackson was sent to Rafikis' tree due to heavy blood loss, while Charles was in the den with the rest of the lionesses, but he ate to himself the entire time. The rest of the squad was eating with some of the lionesses from Nala's own hunting party, talking about the ordeal that occurred earlier that day. "Really? He almost killed one of his own?" one lioness asked. Peterson still tried to cook his food to eat, "It wouldn't be the first time," he stated, "It's said that he killed one of his own squad mates at Guadalcanal." Peterson finished cooking his meat and started to eat slowly. "Whoa!" exclaimed O'Brian, "He shot one of his own blokes?" Some of the lionesses outside the group gathered around the humans, wishing to hear the tale. Vickers decided to join the conversation with his own evidence. "Well 'supposedly' the Private was drunk in the middle of a fire-fight and refused to follow his orders." Simon looked at Peterson and Vickers in awe from the story, "There is a story like that in Normandy of a Lieutenant chap named Spiers where he killed one of his Sergeants who refused to go on patrol because he was heavily smashed." he explained to them all. Peterson and Vickers looked at each other amazed by the similar story. Charles stood up and started to walk to the entrance of the den but stopped and looked back at the lionesses as they all stared at him, keeping quiet. "War is hell." he quietly said as if to nobody and walked out of the den. Once he left, the room was filled with talk again. He walked around the side of Pride Rock, getting closer to his squads' den, when he heard a familiar voice from behind him. "Where are you going?" said the voice. Charles continued to walk for a few feet until he stopped, not looking back to see who it was. "Leave me alone Vitani." he said, not looking back. Vitani walked up next to him, but he looked away from her. "Did I do something Charlie?" she asked. "Please stop calling me that Tani." he said, still looking away from her. Vitani looked hurt from his words. "I'm sorry, I wont anymore." she said. She looked down at the ground and Charles looked at her. "Why are you so nice to me? Everyone says that you aren't this nice to anyone else, so why me?" Vitani continued to look down at the ground. "You saved my life." she quietly said. Charles thought that it was for another reason, "Do you like me?" he asked the lioness. Vitani didn't know how to respond. "What do you mean?" she asked. Shelton started to grow impatient, thinking that she knew what he was talking about. "Are you in love with me?" He asked differently. Vitani looked up after hearing the question. "I..." she paused. She didn't know how to answer such a forward question like that. "Because I'm not in love with you, so if you do like me, find someone else, because I'm a human," he said. Vitani looked at him, the moonlight glistening in her blue eyes, wishing to say something but was cut off by his finish. "and your a lioness." Charles finished. He slowly turned around and walked away, leaving Vitani in her worry.
May 26th, 1944, 1754 hours (05:54 p.m)
He finally reached the den and grabbed his Thompson. He looked at a rock and on it was a picture of Charles, Vickers, Jackson, Peterson, and O'Brian in front of the C-47 they flew in on. "Well there goes my only friends." he thought. He was afraid of how Jackson would think of him once he got out of Rafikis' care. Jackson was always a good guy, and most of the time, a joker, but a good friend of Charles. He continued to stare at the picture for a few minutes. "What's wrong with me?" he said in a whisper before he walked out of the den and started to walk towards the direction of the Elephant Graveyard.
May 26th, 1944, 1912 hours (07:12 p.m)
It felt like an eternity of walking for Charles as he got closer and closer towards the canyons that cleared the way to the Elephant Graveyard. He was thinking back to how he treated Vitani back at Pride Rock. "Did I have to be a jackass to her?" he thought as he got to the canyon entrance. He noticed from a distance that there were little caves in the rock sidings of the canyon. As he went further into the canyon, he started to hear voices from the caves. He slowly grabbed a magazine from one of his leg pouches and slipped the stick clip into his Thompson and quietly walked towards the mouth of one of the hundred caves . "Hello?" he said, Thompson ready in hand. He heard little voices that sounded like injured dogs and lit a match. Inside was a hyena mother and two pups in which one of them was missing a leg. "Wh..Who are you?" stuttered the mother, who was obviously afraid of the human stranger. Charles set his Thompson onto the ground and slowly kneeled down, "Private Charles Shelton, 101'st Airborne." he said. He looked at the pup with the missing leg, "What happened?" he quietly asked, directing the question to the mother. The mother hyena nuzzled her child, "The humans in grey skin betrayed us. They killed half of us already, and they took my sons leg off with some kind of explosive device from underground." Charles became appalled by the story, continuing to look at the pup. "He must have tripped on a mine." he said and gently pet the hyenas son. He looked at the adult hyena, "What do you mean 'half' of us?" The hyena rose a weak paw and pointed outside the cave. Charles turned around and his eyes widened. "How could the Nazis' be so cruel?" he thought as he looked at the sight before him.