An Eldian's Journal
Wartime Shenanigans
Chapter 28: Medic
After we all ate a less than satisfying meal, mama and papa insisted that the siblings come by the following day for another serving of lunch. Mama emphasized they were welcome to do that as long as Lina kept her smoke gargling habit outside. So, that's what they did. They came by the following day and gnawed on some subpar bread.
The bread can be described as what sadness would taste like if it had a crust and could be sliced into multiple pieces. I caught my dad dipping it in water, possibly to make the sadness go down easier. However, its mediocrity was overshadowed since we were starving for more extended periods for each day that passed. We accepted what we got.
As another tool to calm agitated nerves, a teapot sat on the stove behind us. The angry water inside sat waiting to hiss for the right moment. It was ready to surprise us when we least needed surprising.
We went on with our tedious chewing until mama noticed something, "Do you two think I didn't notice the back of your heads yesterday?"
Lina and I kept our heads low, but Lina looked at the plate and replied. "Yes, Mrs. Steiner."
"Tell me what happened, or I'll eat your share of the bread." Mama kept her aggression directed to Lina, but when she glanced over at me, it eased. "Please."
Lina and I traded stares as if we were deciding who should speak up. Alas, I lost the game and spoke up. "Two military men beat us with a baton."
"What did you do?"
Lina stepped in. "It wasn't Ricky's fault. In the middle of talking with a guy, they showed up and said he was conscripted."
Mama grew confused. "Why would they hit you for that?"
"Because…" Lina put her bread down. "The guy was excited…I couldn't understand why he was excited to go to war…I asked why so many times, and the Marleyan hit me in the head because…he thought I disrespected the military."
Papa bolted up from his chair, and he put his hands on the table. "You stupid girl…you've doomed us!"
"They already beat Ricky and me. Surely that's enough punishment!" Lina looked over at me as if there was something I could say to fix the situation.
Papa continued. "When you started talking at that one broadcast day about how islanders aren't bad, you got half the bar angry, and they destroyed everything…you talk now, and my son gets hurt…."
I watched the devils argue back and forth. That's what they always did; no matter how many situations taught them that arguing about things from the past wouldn't fix them, they kept doing it. What were they trying to achieve? Did they think their whining would fix that event? All of them were soda cans overflowing with their carbon-like, acidic words. Toxic. Liquid waste.
The devils kept overflowing until they heard three knocks from a door.
Their squabbling ceased momentarily until mama began her whimpering. "They're here…that nightmare finally came true." She looked at me, and her metal eyes melted and dripped oil. "They're taking you away from me."
I expected the door to cave in and the men from the day before to make a follow-up appearance. Instead, I heard. "Can someone open the door? I locked myself in." It was a little too high-pitched to belong to the Marleyan oppressors. After a few more juvenile words, we learned that Viktor locked himself into the bathroom somehow.
Mama cursed under her breath. "That stupid child." She then told me to go over and unlock the bathroom door.
After a bit of fidgeting, I unlocked the door, and Viktor asked with a typical clueless demeanor, "What were you all arguing about?"
"Who's a better fighter."
I heard three knocks again.
"Viktor, stop knocking on the door."
He gulped and stepped out of the door. "That wasn't me."
As we stood in the hallway that led to the living room, we heard the pattering of footsteps from my parents' feet. I listened to a high-pitched whimper, most likely from mama, and it was interspersed with deeper ones from my papa. Lina must have stayed silent the entire time. My heart played the ominous instrumental of thumping through its combustion. Numerous shockwaves of heat throbbed throughout my body.
The main door groaned from opening. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Steiner."
I whispered an 'oh no' as I anticipated the demon faces of the Marleyans who hurt me the day before. My throat caved in on itself as the saliva ceased production.
Viktor and I rounded the hallway to have our expectations subverted.
The two Marleyans I was expecting to see were instead one Marleyan and one Eldian. The Marleyan wore a long coat with an assortment of medals; his head was a mowed grass field with buzzed hair tapering off from primarily black to a grey. His eyes wrinkled with an aura of slight superiority.
"I'm Commander Magath."
The Eldian had steely eyes and stood taller than the commander. His face was all too familiar to me; I could recognize the depression weighing on his features, causing them all to go rough. He had no medals yet, for his first mission was a failure. His eyes didn't carry anything-they were weightless. So weightless, in fact, they stayed glued to the ground.
"I'm Reiner Braun."
He needed no introduction.
We arrived in the living room, and as I glared at Reiner, my right hand trembled its fingers must have recollected the vicious handle of the gun it once was tricked to hold. Yet, I was confused; I asked myself what in the world was Marley's weapon doing at my home? Shouldn't he be on the battlefield? I wondered the same thing for the commander as well.
As an automatic response, papa said. "Please…come in…."
The bad omens walked in. The Marleyan omen looked around, and his nose shriveled as if my home was too unkempt for his liking. Reiner kept his gaze away as if he didn't want to acknowledge anything that was about to transpire. Mama led the two of them over to the mediocre sofa in the middle of the living room. The cushions coughed as the two sat down.
"I'll cut to the chase about your son…." Mama and papa prepared their tears for the news as they pulled up their own chairs to sit on. I prepared myself to hear Commander Magath present a punishment. "Reiner came to some of the higher-ups to say that your son saved him from a crazy lunatic…."
Viktor looked at me with a distraught look. They reversed the story; I shot Reiner. Why did Reiner lie? Weren't my fingerprints on the gun? Mama and papa glanced at each other as well. Commander Magath continued. "I'm sure Heinrich told you about it already."
"Y-yes. He did."
"Reiner is in a difficult situation now where many people mistrust him. Despite that, your son saved him from gunpoint, which shows dedication to our country."
Reiner moved his weightless eyes. They looked at me, yet I felt like they were hollow. In contrast, there was some sincerity in his words and even some tension in the consonants and vowels. He told me them once before. "Thank you, Heinrich."
Maybe he wanted to say, 'Thank you for trying to shoot me.'
Commander Magath: "Reiner looked through the records and was able to recognize the man that attempted to shoot him. The police visited his residence first, but the suspect wasn't there. After a while, they found a man smothered on the street. The police were still able to take his fingerprints, and they IDed him as the suspect."
I began thinking. 'Who could have killed the journalist? Do they think I murdered him?'
"I'm not here to say Heinrich murdered the suspect even though we found the boy's fingerprints on the gun Reiner handed in. Reiner insisted that Heinrich took the gun from the suspect." He took a pause and a shallow breath. "Mr. and Mrs. Steiner, the reason we came here isn't to tell you about the suspect. It's about something else."
As typical of the events in this journal, events come and go poorly when you least expect them, and most importantly, when you least want them to happen. I guess you can say it was the work of the devil. But hey, it was the devils themselves being bombed.
The teapot hadn't gone off.
But the bomb siren did.
XXX
Reiner and Commander Magath stood up immediately, and everyone else was on alarm. Papa pointed out where the basement was and led them to it. After a few minutes, there was tapping and knocking on the door. The usual customers were waiting at the door.
When the customers walked in, their faces broke at the sight of Commander Magath and the warrior next to him. Even military officers had to bow down to the threat of explosives from the sky-they were still human after all. Mr. Kruger came in, somehow managing to get his bones down the stairs. (Guitar wasn't with him.)
Last but definitely least was the cabbage man. His face couldn't have been more confused at how to respond to Reiner being in the room. "R-Reiner? Why is he in here?!" He turned towards the Grinch. "Let's go somewhere else. I'm not going to be in the same room as that…thing."
"Have you seen who's next to him?" The Grinch must have assumed that it would be disrespectful to leave a place BECAUSE a commander was in it. Which was ironic coming from the woman that was the epitome of rude. The cabbage man sighed and went down the stairs. He made sure to sit down on the opposite side of the room, away from Reiner.
The Eldians in the room could all agree on the same expressions. Distraught. Confused. Scared. They must have thought the commander visited to punish them for something; that's the assumption everyone makes when a Marleyan is around.
Magath: "Who would have thought a military commander, a Marleyan, like me would be stuck in a basement with a bunch of Eldians, waiting for a bomb to fall on our heads?"
The commander answered unsaid questions for us. We were worried that if we spoke up, it would cost us a little beating. But once again, it was odd to see someone of such a high stature in the country relegated to sitting on some creaky wooden planks. Despite the surroundings not acknowledging his reputation, we indeed did. "I'm only here as a formality since this building is on the way to a branch office located within one of the other sections."
Despite the eccentricity of the situation, there was still the issue of what Magath was going to tell me. Was I going to be pardoned from recruitment? The other problem was the cabbage man. I knew that he grew softer when talking to my parents and me. (He was like a sharp rock getting blunter, yet he still hurt). But he was still himself. He was a slave to his emotions. No matter what lessons his mistakes should have taught him, I expected him to follow the bait of anger rather than look at things objectively.
I had a feeling he was going to be the real bomb of that day.
Magath wanted to pick up right where we left off, just underneath a pathetic light that lacked stamina. "Heinrich Steiner." He aimed his gaze at me. The yellow light focused dimly on him. It contoured the network of lines on his face. The eyes looked more direct than any Marleyan had ever looked at me…
***MAGATH's PROPOSITION***
"…You've been awarded the honor to serve the Marleyan military as a combat medic. Instead of taking lives, you will be saving them."
Yes.
The man writing this journal for you was conscripted.
Mama yelped and let out a well of tears. No matter how hard she tried to keep a hard shell exterior, her inside thoughts and feelings would leak out. Everyone else let out silent murmurs. "He's only turning 15 next month…I thought he needs to be 17 to join…."
Reiner replied in place of Magath; his gaze was focused downward once again, and his words ached with pain despite the reassurance they should have conveyed. "I used to be in the warrior group, the kids fighting to earn the titans. I started training at half his age. Besides, it's a war crime to shoot anyone wearing a medical cross. He will be ...safe."
I wondered if Reiner expected me to get that position. When he lied to the higher-ups, was he doing it to protect me or to get me thrown into the war?
"But..But…" Mama used the back of her hands to wipe the tears. She then gave a nod at papa as if they planned for something if this ever happened.
Papa: "Commander Magath, I'd like to go in place of my son."
"We were counting on taking you anyway."
"What?"
"We are assigning you as a trench digger. You'll be clearing out the dead as well."
Mama protested that two males shouldn't be taken out of a single household since it was a societal norm to have at least one to take care of the family. The fact that the commander was a Marleyan didn't deter her resolve in mentioning this. Papa simply looked away from Commander Magath. It looked as if he simply didn't know how to react to learning that he would be staring at dead bodies for months at a time.
Magath responded with a slight growl in his voice, "Your family will get twice the chance to become honorary marleyans. Isn't that worthwhile to you, Eldian?"
There it is.
No matter what Marleyan we met, they couldn't go a whole day without referring to us by race at least once.
Upon the mention of "honorary marleyans," the teapot that was Dick the cabbage man released his steam in the basement corner. His overalls couldn't chain down his reaction. I was wondering the whole time when he would intrude uninvited into the conversation; he finally did it.
His tinny voice was turned to the max, and fingers were shoved into the air accusingly. "Why does he get a special position?!"
Magath: "He saved a soldier at gunpoint...I'm sure that's more than you have ever done."
Before that day came around, I understood that becoming a war medic was not as honorable compared to being a regular soldier. Sacrifice was commonly associated with the latter, but there aren't many accounts of similar heroic feats with the former. But the cabbage man must have seen it differently; after all, his children were regular soldiers and at look at what happened to them. He must have thought a medic position is a merciful, even lucky option in contrast to other posts.
Magath continued and looked over at Reiner. "That soldier is in this room."
The cabbage man followed the shift in Magath's gaze to the failed warrior. Upon his realization, he ceased fidgeting and absorbed the weight of the deed I had done. He looked over at me, and I captured the nuance of almost...betrayal in that face of his. I felt as though the silk of unsaid acceptance we wound together had been severed.
He looked over at Reiner again and said, "You failed us...why do you deserve to be saved?!" The other Eldian strangers murmured among themselves like crickets, buzzed like bees.
"Now you come down here and expect us to respect you?!"
The irony was that I felt though I understand Reiner's stance just because I took the time to see the world from his perspective. All these Eldian adults were spending their time reacting to events in their lives rather than bothering to think.
And they wonder why we are thought of as cattle.
Reiner didn't have a response, but in all honesty, I didn't really need one. I knew his answer. The others, however, didn't, and that was to be expected. When the cabbage man grew frustrated, he got up from his place on the floor.
He rushed towards the warrior, and before he could throw a punch or a word of verbal slander, Commander Magath got up and pinned the rotten cabbage to the wall.
The cabbage man snarled underneath the grasp of the commander like the beast he was. Everyone grew even more unsettled and stopped their murmurs.
Magath: "You really are a devil."
"You're a leader of an armed fleet of them. That makes you one as well."
Magath threw a few hooks at the stomach, but his adversary wasn't discouraged. Only until the cabbage man took a blow to his head did he land on his knees.
Magath took something that was hanging from his belt the entire time. Something you've seen so many times before.
A baton.
Magath removed the tool of oppression and raised it above the cabbage's head. He then lowered it and looked over at Reiner while reaching his hand out with the baton waiting eagerly on top. "If you want these people to respect you, show them you aren't weak...make an example out of one of them."
"Commander...I..." Despite the protests, Reiner picked up the baton. Even then, his fingers didn't embrace the cruelty of what they held; they lingered on it with reluctance in the fingernails.
The cabbage man crumpled on the floor but turned his head towards Reiner. He captured the sight of the warrior with the baton through his winced eyes. His preconceptions of Reiner were going to be destroyed right before him.
"I can't do this, Commander Magath."
"Do you want to be stripped of the armored right before you head into war?"
Reiner closed his eyes, and his bottom lip rode his trembling chin. His movements were slow and jerky. Sobs must have been trapped in his throat.
The baton landed on the cabbage's skull.
The cabbage man yelped in pain instead of growing unconscious; there probably wasn't enough impact. Magath insisted, "Do it again." Reiner raised the baton once more and reinforced the deed. He yelled and did it once more afterward.
The green leaves of the cabbage man were tainted with his blood as he grew unconscious.
The Grinch and their son released blood-curtailing screams in the background. Reiner dropped the baton onto the wooden planks that witnessed sin.
Everyone's hearts must have become pits in their stomachs for the sight they witnessed. Papa whispered, "Dick," and Mama pulled me over for a hug with her metal arms. Over her shoulder, I noticed Reiner falling onto his knees and shaking the body of the cabbage man. The weightless eyes carried a ton.
Commander Magath came over and looked down at my parents and me. "Do you accept, Heinrich?"
"..."
"You can nominate two other people to join you. Who will you choose?"