Chapter 4

Heyy sorry that I have been quiet when it comes to writing stories lately. I got super busy with work, so I decided to take some time off to get through until the summer break.. Now I am back!

15th of January 1917 – Private Jorel's Point of view

I wake up to Dylan shaking my shoulder. I guess it is now time to get up and go for breakfast. I look to my left and I notice that Danny is lying on his side curled up like a little hedgehog and is fast asleep. Danny always sleeps like this where possible as I think it's his defence mechanism. "I will wake Danny up in a second. Just let me put my boots on," I tell Dylan. I know Dylan was looking from me to Danny and back again. "Okay Jay, we haven't been able to wake him up yet, so we are a little nervous," Dylan tells me. Danny is quite a jumpy person after everything that has happened to him, so he is going to trust me a little more than he will trust the others. "Yeah, he can be a deep sleeper at times. He'll be okay," I tell him.

I know his recent injuries have made everyone, including me more worried about him than we usually would be. I know he will recover from his injuries after a week or two. I notice that as I go to wake Danny up he has a little bit of a fever. To me though it is not unusual for Danny to have a fever when he first wakes up and after a beating. "Danny, wake up bud. We have to go to breakfast," I tell Danny, who slowly opens his eyes. There is a small amount of panic, but when he sees me he calms down instantly which is good. "Morning Jay," he tells me, and he gives me a small smile. I am glad that Danny seems to be happy now. He's going to thrive here I am sure of it. I am going to see a new side of Danny here.

"Good morning, how do you feel this morning Danny?" I ask my best friend. I help him sit up in bed, so I could help him put his boots on. I don't want him to get light-headed again like he did last night. "A little rough if I am being honest with you, but I should be okay in a little while," he tells me. I hugged him tightly. He looked like he was white as a sheet if I was being honest. I don't think he is okay, but he is going to be resting all day, so there isn't much else he can do really in terms of helping himself along in his recovery. "Okay Danny, I don't know if an officer will come and check on you, but I will when I have free time," I tell him. I want to keep up the feeling and confidence Danny is getting by being here and away from his father.

I have a feeling that Danny will not be able to make it through today without an incident happening. He looks so unwell at the moment I am a little more worried than I was before he woke up. "Hey Jorel, are you going to walk with me to breakfast?" Danny asks me, as he pulls his jacket around himself to keep warm since he had two blankets around himself last night. It might also be why he could be feverish as he's not really used to sleeping with two blankets. "Of course I will dude, I will even help you walk over there if you want," I tell him. Danny felt less anxious now I have said that I will help him out a little bit. The others have already left. They left for breakfast when I was helping Danny put his boots on. I decide that it is time for Danny I to leave for breakfast so that we are not going to end up being late and getting in trouble on our first day.

I know that since it is our first day the camp the officers are going to be more lenient with us. Especially after what happened to Danny which the officers are a little bit aware of. We don't want to get into a bad habit so soon. I was surprised Rigo wasn't hanging around to make sure his baby brother is okay. Then again, he has the officer duties that none of us Privates have, so he has to do those before he gets to spend time with his brother. He's got to be briefed on what he is going to be doing throughout the day. Rigo told us that he will be teaching some of the subjects, but we don't know what lessons he will teach us just yet. I have a feeling he could be a fieldcraft teacher because I remember as a child, he was the best at hide and seek.

Then again just because I knew he was good at hide and seek as a child does not mean he would be as good now. I am just making assumptions now. We will have to see what he will teach us. I can't wait to be in a class with Rigo. I learned a lot from him when I was younger. He was a great teacher and I know that he will ask me to look after Danny when they are not together. It was a thing he made me swear a year and a half ago or whenever he left to come to this camp himself for the first time. He does worry a lot about Danny, and it is natural because of how close they are as brothers. They would have been twins if it was not for the ten-year age gap between the older and the younger brothers. They often don't act like there is that age gap because Danny has grown up way too quickly for everyone's liking.

Rigo looked really worried when he saw me helping Danny walk into the mess hall. He has two plates of breakfast, one for each of us in our spots by the time we got there. We are not late to breakfast which is a relief. "I will be staying with you this morning Danny. I don't have to teach any groups or anything," Rigo says, after he gives Danny some pain relief. It will be relief for Danny to have the comfort of his brother for his first morning. I think we have exercise this morning. "Okay Rigo, I do not think I want to be alone," Danny says. I had a mouthful of food, so I could not contribute to the conversation. My heart hurts for my best friend, he should not be afraid to be alone at this age. "Yeah, don't worry though. Everything will work out fine," I tell him.

"It will. Danny gets to miss all of the physical training you guys have this morning," George adds, something which earned him a small smile off Danny. Jordon did not seem to be too thrilled at the thought of doing exercise. I know that we have to be really fit to be successful in the army and we will eventually be doing two physical training sessions a day. Danny can easily run miles when he is feeling one hundred percent. He can't run as fast while he is injured like he is right now. He seems to be more with it now than he did when he first woke up this morning which is good. His dad really got him good this time which worries me as I've never had to deal with Danny this injured before. It worries me more that Rigo hasn't seen Danny this injured either.

I had time before training to help Danny walk back to the billet. We are running laps this morning with a few other tests to asses our general fitness. I notice Danny was leaning on me less on the way back then he did on the way to the mess hall. He also seems to be in a brighter mood than the one he was in yesterday. I think he's finally realised that he is safe here. For the first time since his first birthday he doesn't have to worry about everything he does being seen as wrong. His father is not around to hurt him in anyway. "Rigo, do you think Danny will be okay?" I ask, after we get my best friend back into his bed. It felt like I was kinda talking about Danny behind his back like this, but I am sure he can hear us.

"Honestly, I think he will be okay. I do agree that this beating has been the worse he has suffered so far," Rigo tells me, I have told him about how I personally feel about Danny's beating. "I will be okay Jorel. I know am just feeling a bit rougher this time around. I am sure I will be okay in a few days," Danny tells me, which does little to reassure me. Maybe I will feel more comfortable about this when Danny gets to join us for training. He will recover sometime in the next two weeks I am sure of it. He'll have a lot more peace this time around to just rest and get over the injuries then he would at home. I remember one time I was staying over at Danny's house and his father took him to another room. When Danny came back he told me that his father had beaten him a second time that week and if his father knew he told me then he'd get a third one.

The memory makes me reach out to comfort Danny even though he was awake and just relaxing on the bed. He still seems to have a fever which is not that good. I don't think the pain medications he has been given have fully worked yet. It might take a little while longer before the pain medications finally kicks in and gets to work for his fever to go down. That would be the best for him right now. He needs all the rest he can get, and I know that all of the people sharing this billet with us will make sure that Danny can recover. I hope that Danny doesn't need to rely on rest for a while. I know that he is itching to get as stuck into training as much as he can but the officers who have higher power than us have basically forced him into resting.

Private Danny Rose Murillo's p.o.v –

I was lying to them when I told them how I was feeling. I am not as okay as I keep telling them I am. I feel awful and I also feel like I am going to pass out at any given moment. Luckily I have no training to go to today because it is quite focused on physical exercise and how fit or unfit everyone is. I can just rest all day and if I do pass out I am in bed, so I won't get further injuries. Rigo is spending the morning with me and George says he is spending the afternoon with me. Jorel will be visiting me as often as he can during the day when he gets some free time. "Danny, you do have quite the fever. Are you sure that you feel okay?" Rigo asks me, after he places his hand on my forehead. His hand feels so nice on my skin and he was worried.

"Yeah I feel okay Rigo. I am just going to be resting for today. Maybe once I have healed I will feel more one hundred percent," I tell him. He can't argue with this because he knows that I am actually going to stay on bedrest for this week. Jorel sat next to me and I hug him. He hugs me back straight away. "Okay, as long as you rest up Danny. I don't want to lose you," Jorel tells me, and I know it's a possibility, but I don't think that it is going to happen though. "I know Jorel, but you know you can't get rid of me that easily," I tell him, feeling pretty confident that nothing terribly bad is going to happen to me while I am here and recovering from my injuries. Jorel always thinks the worst when he really worries about me. We've grown close since we first met, and it has been tough to be apart from each other for more than a few days.

I was given a small stack of paper and a couple of pencils when Jorel left to go start his first lesson of physical training for the day. "Maybe you could draw the two of us together, so we can send them to mother when we send our letters," Rigo suggests, and I was okay with that. I was happy that I was able to spend this one on one time with my brother. That was the only perk of being injured and forced out of training. There was nothing that I could while stuck in here. I was drawing us in a way that we looked like we were one arm hugging each other and someone was taking a photo of us. I know the photorealistic drawing of us were mother's favourites. I also drew individual portraits which were both of us in our uniforms as I made the other one more casual. Mother could not see me in my uniform before I left in case there was the chance of father seeing me.

I was starting to feel a little better while I was drawing, and it makes Rigo feel a little more at ease with the current state of my health. I know he is still nervous about it, but I am showing him that I am slowly getting better. "Mother will love these pictures Danny. It is a shame that we can't include Kyle in any of them," Rigo tells me. I can't really remember what Kyle looks like anymore. I believe that Kyles was part of one of the first American squads which was sent out to France to help with the frontlines. "Yeah. One day we will be able to include him in future drawings if he comes to visit us or we can visit him," I tell him. I am not currently trained for the frontlines at this moment, so there is no chance of me going to Europe anytime soon.

I know for a fact one day either Rigo or I will be sent out to Europe to fight the Germans and their allies. The way the war is going means that America has no other choice. Especially with what we know the Germans have up their sleeve. I will make my family proud of me one day. No matter how angry father will be at the fact that I went behind his back to join the army. I know mother and sister will be proud of me no matter what I do. Rigo and Kyle will be proud too. Although, I have a sneaking feeling that Kyle has no idea that I have joined the army. He might have been given the same message mother was trying to give to dad about me after the last beating. He might believe that I am dead like father is supposed to believe. Not that my father would feel much remorse for anything he has done to me.

I hope that one day I will be back home with my mother and my siblings, and our father will be long gone, never to be able to go near us again. "I bet he will be locked away in jail before the war is over," Rigo tells me, which makes me start to wonder if I said my thoughts out loud or not. "Who will be?" I ask, just so I was sure that I knew who he was talking about. "Our father. Everyone knows he will do something stupid and reveal himself as the monster he is before the war is over," Rigo says, using air quotations when he mentions our father. I always find it funny when he uses air quotations, since as far back as I can remember he does them whenever he mentions our father when he is not in the room.

The male who played part in the creation of my brothers, sister and I has actually never been any kind of father to any of his children. He beats his sons for whatever reason he can come up with at the time and ignores his only daughter. He isn't even a loving husband. "True, he will mess up sometime sooner rather than later. He will miss beating us up too much, especially now he thinks his favourite punching bag is dead," I tell him. We hate that it is the truth. We can talk about it openly now since it is only the two of us in the billet right now. I believe I have spent two hours drawing my brother and I. So I am guessing it is either nine or ten in the morning now. I believe lunch is at one in the afternoon. Not that I am actually hungry.

I still don't know the routine here off by heart. I know Rigo has told me before what the schedule and routine is here, but I am still learning. Maybe by about week 5 I will know it enough to not ask about it anymore. Also maybe I will be actually taking part in the actual activities that are part of training. I can't wait for the guys to come back and complain about the running and exercise they have to do. For many of them, it will take some getting used to and they will be very sore the next morning. I am already sore from the beating before we left, so I can sympathise with anyone else who feels that way. When father started training us when I was about five years old we were sore from all the running he made us do until we became accustomed to it.

I know that I am still feverish, but I feel cold at the same time. So I put Jordon's spare coat around me. He told me at breakfast if I still needed it for the extra warmth then I could use his coat again until he needed it which he said he'd sweat so much today that he wouldn't. I snuggled into it, trying to get rid of the feeling of how cold I was. "Danny, do you want to get some sleep after lunch?" Rigo asks me, I know he is still quite worried about the current state of my health and how it changes quickly. I give him a hug to try and reassure him that I will be fine. "Maybe, I am not that tired right now though. At the moment I am just feeling really cold," I tell him, and he hugs me back as tightly as he dared. He was so worried about hurting me even though I felt fine.

He rubs my back to try and warm me up a little bit. I snuggled into him for warmth and comfort. I admit only to myself that I am still scared of father even though he is miles away now not knowing where I am. All the time Rigo was comforting me without him knowing he was being really gentle with me. He was considering the level of pain that I would be in and try to minimise it as much as he could. I freaking hate my father right now. He might have ruined the start of my military career all because he has the weirdest obsession of beating his male children for no real reason. I also hate how he has been ignoring my sister because she is the second strongest woman I know and has been really helpful to my mom through these rough times.

"Don't worry about hugging me too tightly Rigo. I have missed the big brother bear hugs," I tell him. It's the truth, anyone who has family currently away for the army will tell you how hard it is to know your family member is out there. Especially if they are on the front lines fighting for their lives. My mother dreads the day she is convinced she'll get a letter about Kyle. "Okay, you tell me when it is too rough then little brother bear. I honestly do not want to make the pain worse for you," he replies. I smile at the second nickname which has returned. I wanted to call him father bear often because he has been more of a father to me than our own and that is a sad fact about our dysfunctional family. All the life skills I have learned have been from my older brothers and not my father like they were supposed to.

"You might be suffering from fever chills right now. You might feel very cold, but if I was to check your temperature it will probably by a high temperature," he tells me. He is probably right on that even though we have no way of knowing for sure how high my temperature is. Putting your hand on someone's forehead isn't exactly an accurate method of taking someone's temperature. "Yeah, I am not sure why my temperature could be that high though," I tell him. It is out of the blue for me to get fevers at random, but it is always a possibility that it could happen. I know that I have fevers after beatings, but they don't last this long. I'd have to sweat it out I guess. It's not going to be pleasant, but I get rest now.

"Yeah, I get that. If you still feel that way and are still feverish later on then it might be worth going back to the nurse. Maybe then we could get to the bottom of why you have a fever," Rigo tells me. I snuggle up to him while we still have time before Jorel comes to get us for lunch. "Sounds like a good idea to m. I don't want to spend too much of the training time we have out of action with whatever the bastard did to me," I tell him. He gives me a sad smile and a little chuckle as I pouted. It is the first time that we have been together since he left to go to camp, and I am injured. He would probably love to chase me around when I pull a prank on him and watch me outrun him as I always do, but I can't when I am like this.

I really want him to feel less worried about me now that I am here with him and he can see that I am alive. He can keep as close eye on me anytime he wants to now. "I know Danny. Your health and well being is a top priority for me. You know I'd walk over burning hot coals for you," he tells me, and I sighed. I know he'd do everything he just told me and then some. I want to spend more time with him I am healthy, and I can enjoy the time more. "Yeah, but I want to enjoy more time with you while I feel fine and I am not injured like this," I tell him. He hugs me carefully again and I hug him back as tightly as I dare now the pain is not as bad as it was. I just want to hug him as much as I can and let him know that I love him because one day he won't be here, and I don't wanna mess up my relationship with him.

"You will be okay eventually Danny. He can't hurt you while you are here, so your body has all the time it needs to heal from the injuries he gave you before you left," Rigo tells me. Then Jorel walks in a little bit out of breath as if he ran here after all the running he has done this morning. "I need to sit down for a minute before we go to the mess hall for lunch," Jorel says, sounding as out of breath as he looked. That was fine by me, I need a minute to get up. As he recovers he seems to be not too out of shape which will help him out a lot. "That's okay Jorel, I think Danny will need a minute to get steady on his feet," Rigo explains. Since I have been a lazy dude and have been laying down most of the morning I will be a little dizzy when I first get up.

"Although I gotta say, all that running you did back when your were in LA did you well this morning it seems," Rigo says, and I chuckle. Jorel had completely recovered now from his little moment of being out of breath. "I told you back then running away from trouble was good for the soul," Jorel tells him, before we both burst into laughter. It made Rigo happy hearing me laugh so freely. "Yeah especially that time where Mr Wilson chased us so far we had to hop over that wall to escape him," I tell him. I think Mr Wilson secretly loved the trouble we'd cause him. He always forgave us the next day and laugh about all of our chases. "Oh yeah, Mr Wilson used to give ya a run for your money. I always wondered how he could keep up with you two. You're like the fastest rascals in Los Angeles," Rigo says. "We'll never know, he passed away a month after you left. I saw him the week before he died, and he thanked me and told me to thank Jorel. He said those chases where the best time of his life," I tell them.

"God bless him. I bet he was lonely, and our chases gave him some fun in his old age," Jorel says. Now, back to the task at hand. I know for a fact I am going to need support walking from building to building today. However, if I can stand on my own okay, then I can help them out somewhat and make them take less of my weight. I am not exactly the lightest dude. Jorel watches as Rigo helps me stand up and after a minute of trying to get my balance he leaves me to stand on my own. Then we all start making our way to the mess hall, so we can eat lunch and I could finally talk to the others. George is coming back with me after lunch to keep an eye on me and take me to the nurse if he finds it necessary. He'll make me rest, Rigo will kick his ass if he doesn't.

I was happy to be back with the others for a while. "Did you see that guy that messed up on the assault course? Apparently people who have been here for a long time have never seen our instructor so angry," Dylan says, just as I reached the table which made me feel gutted I missed that. "Yeah, apparently he lied about some serious medical conditions he has. He has been dismissed and sent home," George explains. Matt was the first to see me and slides a tray of food my way, so I don't have to walk all the way over to the serving table. It was hard enough walking here. "How are you feeling now Danny?" Matt asks, just as I started eating my lunch because I was hungry. At least I have time to consider my answer while I finish the mouthful I have.

"I am alright Matt. I have not really moved from the bed this morning," I tell him, being one hundred percent truthful with the older male. I had no reason to lie to him though. Jordon was the first one to complain about the physical training they had this morning. Well, they have more this afternoon too. George almost seemed to be happy about all the complaints he was hearing. I just listen to Jordon's complaints; I know they will die down when he gets used to it. "You and I are going to spend the rest of the day where you rest okay?" George tells me, quickly trying to get Jordon to shush for a minute. I nod to quickly agree with George because from experience it is not worth getting on his bad side. Plus resting is not a bad idea for me right now anyway because I don't think I'd have the strength to do anything else.

"I could get your drawing done today George." I tell him. I know what they are going to say about this, and I am not going to be pushing myself by doing one more drawing tonight. "That would be nice Danny. Just don't push yourself too far okay?" he tells me. We both know how unhappy Rigo would be if anyone made me push myself too far past what I can do right now. "I won't, I know I can only do one more drawing today anyway. So, while you're keeping an eye on me I might as well draw you," I tell him. Rigo was in the middle of eating and because of that he couldn't really contribute to the conversation. I knew he would have mentioned that I drew him and myself this morning and that I shouldn't be pushing myself no matter what.

I was nearly finished eating lunch and then I get given a second serving because I didn't realise that I was actually really hungry. I guess I was quite used to being starved for so long and now I am eating three meals a day pretty much. It's going to be a change, a good one hopefully. I know that Rigo is quite keen for me to put weight on because I am underweight according to the medical people I have seen. I think because of my fainting episode back on the train I think the day before yesterday the officers don't want a repeat of that while I am here. I hate all of this; I hate that people are fussing over me because that is something I don't like. I am not the type of person that enjoys being the center of attention, so the next few weeks are going to be rough as hell for me.

After lunch was over, the others went to their next physical training lesson. George helped me walk back to the billet. I was slowly finding that I am starting to need less support walking when I feel more awake and more with it. When I feel more tired I feel myself leaning on George, Rigo or Jorel more when I am walking so I won't fall over. I was doing pretty well so far considering this has been the worse I have been for a long time and we spent two or three days on a train which was not good for my injuries. I go straight to the bed while George spends a few minutes looking at the pictures I have drawn this morning. I did one extra one of my sister that I was keeping here so I wouldn't forget what she looks like.

"Wow Danny, these are amazing. You could be a highly paid artist in the future," he tells me. It was something I contemplated when Jake originally told me the café was closing down for the duration of the war. "Yeah, I would still like to keep my café job for a while at first. I think it's going to take a while for everything to go back to normal after the war is over, so I don't think many people will be interested," I tell him. I feel like the world is going to be a different place once this world war is over and done with. We might not even live long enough to make it back to our families. "That is very true Danny. I wouldn't rush into a new career either until I knew that everything was stable again. We don't know how long the war is going to drag on for," he tells me.

It made me feel a little smarter and like I could easily have an intelligent conversation with someone and that felt really good. I often got spoken down to in most conversations back home unless they knew me well. George sat very still while I drew him very carefully and tried to get all of the details right. We did more talk about the war. When I was finished with my drawing I showed it to him so he could pass his judgement on it. He carefully took it off me and studied it, I knew he was looking at each little detail I had drawn. "Oh my gosh Danny. This is better than anything I could have imagined. Thank you so much. I am definitely sending it home so it can be treasured forever," George tells me. We both smile at each other. I like the idea of it being framed somewhere where his family could see it.

Then he pulls me into a gentle hug. I tried not to hiss in pain or react badly to the hug. I am sure I have some cuts on my back from the beating which George unintentionally touched when we hugged. They hurt and sting like hell when the fabric of my shirt rubs against them when they were touched. I noticed that despite that the pain was not that bad, and I do feel pretty tired at the moment. I think I will be fine though. I do know that there is a time difference between where the camp is based and Los Angeles which will make me more tired than normal. It takes time to get used to being in a place where the time is different to the place that you came from. By the end of the week I will be fine and so will the others who will undoubtedly be as tired as I am.

Luckily George didn't notice that is was in pain. I don't want any of them worried further than they already are. "Why don't you take a nap Danny? It won't do you any harm," George suggests. I yawned after George made the suggestion of falling asleep for a while. I make myself as comfortable as I possibly can in the bed and George sorts the blankets out for me. I had ditched Jordon's spare jacket for now as I feel sufficiently warm enough now even with the extra blanket as these are the thin and itchy ones. "Yeah no harm will be done," I tell him. I snuggled into the blankets, ignoring all of the stinging and pain that came with every move I made. "I will be here when you wake up Danny," he tells me.

That made me happy as I closed my eyes. I am sure Rigo has told him more that I would ever tell him. George and Rigo are as close and Jorel and I. They confide in each other and share any worries that they have with each other. Rigo will have definitely told George he was worried about father coming to hurt us and that I would share the fear because this would be the first time in my entire life that I was away from him and all the abuse I suffered since my first birthday. "I trust you George," I tell him, quietly. He chuckles and tells me to go to sleep. He also said that if I was feeling rough I would feel better after having a good rest. I have still worked hard today even if it wasn't physical training.

A few hours later – Private Jorel Decker's p.o.v

I have some free time to kill before the next session of the day. It is good to have a little break from all the physical training. I have no way of checking the time, but what I do know is I have time to check on Danny before my next session. I am still quite worried about him; I don't think he realises how ill he looked when he left to go back to the billet at the end of lunch. When I got back to the billet, George is sitting on Danny's bed at the edge with Danny himself laying down curled up like I saw him this morning. He was fast asleep next to George and nothing seemed to be further wrong with my best friend. I was quickly about to change my mind as George definitely looks really nervous while he was looking at Danny while he is sleeping.

"Is Danny okay?" I ask George, who looked a little startled at me for a moment then back to Danny. "I am not really sure to be honest Jorel. He has been sleeping for a long time. He feels really warm like he has a fever," George tells me. I think Danny might need to visit the nurse again. I put my hand on Danny's forehead and he definitely has a high temperature. George had taken both the blankets off Danny. We need to check to see why he might have this high of a temperature. Poor Danny, my best friend is not having a good time lately. I want him to feel better so we can have more fun. Even though I know we can't get up to much fun until we get permission to walk off camp to explore nearby towns and villages.

It took us roughly a few minutes, but we did find something. Danny's so called "father" had left three very deep gashes in my best friend's back. By the looks of things they were already pretty infected which is why he has not been looking or feeling well since he woke up from the beating. "He definitely needs to go to the infirmary," George tells me. I was definitely not going to not disagree with George on this one. Danny needs to get to the infirmary tent as soon as we can get him there. George lifts Danny up effortlessly and takes the jacket off. I was a little more worried about Danny now he was not really reacting to anything around us. He must be really unwell if he is so deeply either asleep or unconscious.

We walk over to the infirmary where we are met by Rigo. He was probably worried about his brother and has a break too. It seems to be that he told the nurse we were coming because she went to get things to treat Danny. She took his shirt off him and asked me to help keep him on his side because he can't support himself. George told her about the cuts we had found on Danny's back and I heard Rigo cuss quietly. I keep Danny on his side while she works to get rid of the infection that was already there and clean them so that the infection doesn't come back. Danny is still not showing any signs of responding to my touch or the nurse while she works. It would probably be pretty painful for the poor dude.

I guess that is going to happen with how sick that infection has made him. The nurse said that it was the quickest that she saw infection take hold in an injury after Rigo told him how long ago the beating was without revealing too much detail which we knew. She said if she had to make an educated guess on what went down is that whatever was used to hit Danny was not clean. He is probably going to wake up either later on tonight or some time tomorrow. He just needs to take the time to rest and recover. She said if she would have known sooner than she would have recommended that Danny waited a few more days before making the train journey. It is what is making his symptoms probably worse then what they could have been.

Soon Danny was all bandaged up and the nurse said the infection will clear up in a few days' time with daily dressing changes and the antibiotic cream to heal the injuries his father gave him. The nurse didn't know who attacked Danny, but the other people in this infirmary do. I am still somewhat shocked that Danny and Rigo's father could be this nasty and aggressive to his own child. Then I realised that he probably did the same to Rigo and Kyle when they were younger as well. That is how ruthless the man can be, and I was not going to be surprised with anything that I will learn about this man if the boys decide to open up further about what they have gone through. It will help them both out mentally.

"I hate to say this, but this is worse than anything that he has done to Kyle and I," Rigo says, something tells me that he was probably telling us the truth. "Danny is strong, he will get through this. He has the strength of you," I tell him, I want him to feel good about himself while I feel confident about all of this. "I know he will. I just can't help but think that when Danny was attacked on his last day of work that the guy really meant to kill Danny on that day," Rigo says, avoiding saying who has done this to the younger male. The nurse is still around and now is not the time to get their father in any sort of trouble. The nurse could tell anyone higher up what she thinks they need to know. They might think the person is a threat to camp.

There is a time for that soon enough, when he is least suspecting it to happen. He probably has been led to believe that Danny is either dead or has run away form army training. For Danny's sake I was hoping the former rather than the latter. "Yeah I agree with that. I think that he probably meant to have killed Danny that day, but he has failed so far," George says. Danny already starts to look better than when I first saw him before lunch. I was probably late to the last lesson before dinner, but I am too worried about my best friend to care that much right now. "I will go and let them know you are here with Danny. I think they'll let you stay here with some persuasion," George tells me. I think we were going to have a break from physical training and learn about the weapons we will be using here.

I nod at George before taking my place on Danny's right side and I took hold of his right hand. He'll be so confused when he wakes up because he'll know he didn't fall asleep here. "Danny is very lucky to have a friend like you Jorel. He needs someone like you to help him through this hard time in his life," Rigo tells me, while we both watch over Danny. I felt like I was the lucky one to have Danny in my life. I have no idea what I would do without Danny. "I am here for Danny until the very end. I think I need him as much as he needs me if I am being honest," I tell Rigo, who smiles at me. Rigo is the best big brother Danny could ever have. He's always going to knock down mountains to help his little brother out.

I thought today was going to be all about physical training and assess us to see where we are at, so we can see our improvements. I was told at the last lesson before we discovered how sick Danny was that we'd have an introduction lesson to the guns. George walks back in a few minutes after he left and smiles at me "Last lessons today have been cancelled anyway. The guns have broken so they need to be repaired," George says, which blows my mind. That seems to be a weird thing. Guns are not supposed to break in an army camp. What if the enemy discovers our location and decides to attack. They'd meet a whole bunch of unprepared new recruits with weapons that don't even work properly.

"Wait a minute. We are at an army training camp and the weapons that they have don't even work?" I ask, in a lot of disbelief. Well, I guess the bright side to all of this is that it does mean I can spend more time with Danny and stay with him for a bit longer before I have to go back to the billet for the night. You would think that they would make sure that all the weapons would be in full working order with new recruits arriving soon. "Yep they don't work. My guess is they have not been cleaned for a while. They will get the guys who have been here longer than you guys to clean them and help restore them to full working order," George replies. I felt Danny's hand twitch against mine and I smiled at the sleeping male.

I bet he will start to feel a lot better when he wakes up now. The treatment he needs has been started now which will massively help him out. "Well they do say what can go wrong will go wrong and things come in threes. Especially when most of the weapons were due for a service before all the newbies arrived" Rigo tells us both. They already had the new recruit who lied, then Danny collapses and now the guns don't work. Rigo has hold of Danny's left hand in both of his hands and starts to rub circles on the hand. We now all doubt that Danny will wake up even though he reacted to my touch at least. "Do the others know that we are here?" I ask George, since he has probably seen them when he went to the other lesson to find out what was going on. "Yeah Dylan is heading over here in a little bit," George says.

Danny is going to be very well protected while he is here that is one thing that I do know for sure. He is going to have a lot of friends here by the end of the war. When they get to know him who wouldn't want to be friends with such an amazing soul as Danny? The correct answer would be nobody. "Yeah he saw what happened to Danny and got him some help from Jake. So I know he is going to be worried about Danny," I tell them, before going into details and tell the older two males the story that Danny gave me on the train about what happened. I wasn't worried about the nurse as she was busy elsewhere. This was not much of a surprise to Rigo since he said he experienced similar with his father before, but it was something that shocked George a lot. It's a natural reaction to the aggression of their father.

"Why has he not gone to jail already for everything he has done to the three of you?" George asks. We knew he was holding back most of his emotions as he moved Danny's hair out of the way of our young friend's eyes. "We tried when Danny was only three years old. Mother was sick of it and didn't want her third son to be harmed. It didn't work because he mentioned that Danny can be easily misled and managed to convince the judge we had lied despite that fact Danny would scream and cry every time father went near him. He would also say no whenever we would mention going with father anywhere," Rigo says, and it made both George and I feel very angry at the man and I swore I would put him in jail myself.

How he managed to get away with something so major like beating your three male children since they could walk is beyond me. I know Danny is still traumatised from his childhood and early adulthood. It broke my heart to hear about how afraid he was back when he was three years old. I was his friend back then since we have known each other since we were babies. I felt bad to not remember any of the early years, although something tells me they were not worth remembering regardless. One day the children's father will be in jail and we will help them celebrate their freedom. After all these years they deserve to be able to go back to Los Angeles and not be afraid of living their life.

We must have been comforting Danny for at least most of the cancelled lesson. Little Danny needs the comfort even if he can't tell we are comforting him right now. The nurse came to check on Danny so any talk about Danny's attack was silent which she made some basic checks on him. The main thing that is important for us is that Danny is stable and is given the chance to recover from his injuries. If the nurse is happy then we will be happy and worry less about him. The nurse is really nice and has let the three of us stay with Danny without one single complaint. She could easily kick the three of us out and say that Danny needs peace to rest. She would know from the uniform having our surnames on that Danny and Rigo are siblings. I bet the whole camp knows Rigo's baby brother is here now.

I think back to their father. How a man could get away with hurting his child when all the evidence against him was there in black and white was definitely beyond me. "Danny is still afraid of your father isn't he?" George asks and Rigo nods. The nurse is busy again. "Danny will always be afraid of him. All the memoires that he is going to keep that are to do with our father will always be nasty. Our father will never be nice to us for as long as the three of us are alive," Rigo tells us, feeling a bit sad but at the same time it is no big loss to them. He was no real father to any of his children at the end of the day so why mourn something that was never there. Even their sister won't miss him when he is gone.

The three awake people in the room need to get dinner. The nurse said to us when she saw the time that Danny would be fine while we go to the mess hall for dinner while he is still unconscious. She would be there if Danny wakes up anyway and would provide a familiar face for him. We met up in the mess hall with the others who were eagerly waiting for us. Dylan saw us first and told the others that Danny still currently in the infirmary. "Is Danny going to be okay?" Jordon asks us, when we get our dinner. "Yeah, the nurse said he will be fine in a few hours. He had some infection in his back that will clear up soon," I tell him, and then explain exactly why Danny was in there and what happened to him.

Matt and Jordon will find out the truth about Captain Murillo eventually, so why not now? it will impact on Danny's training so they will end up finding out. After dinner, Dylan and I decide to walk to go and see Danny in the infirmary. Rigo is going to be spending the night with his little brother to keep him company. We are dividing ourselves, so we don't overwhelm Danny when he does wake up. He will be confused and possibly still, not feeling to well as well. Like I think I mentioned before he will remember falling asleep in the billet and not remember getting to the infirmary. Rigo also needs some time to chill with George so he doesn't stress out while he is taking care of his little brother. He needs some time to himself as well.

The nurse lets us do some care for Danny, so we decide to clean his hair. The nurse has given him a sponge bath but let us deal with his hair. We both hoped while we were doing all of this that Danny would wake up. Unfortunately for us Danny didn't show us any signs of responding to us and didn't wake up at all while we were there. I don't feel comfortable leaving him here overnight, but Rigo's going to be on watch so he is safe. I know Rigo won't let any more harm come to his brother if he has anything to do with it. Rigo feels bad enough that Danny is in the mess even though there was nothing he could have done to stop it. They both would have ended up in the infirmary or dead if their father got his own way.

We reluctantly leave when Rigo walks in to take over. He told us it was our bedtime and we need the rest. Today has been tough on us and we don't really know how sore we'll feel. We walk back and deliver the news that there was no real change in how Danny was and his condition. It was not bad, at least we didn't come back and say he felt worse and was doing worse. Hopefully Danny will be feeling better when I visit him tomorrow after breakfast before our first lesson. I feel empty now Danny is not here. We are like brothers; we have rarely been apart in the time that we have known each other. "Don't worry Jay, Danny will be back with you before you know it," George tells me. After I finish my night-time routine I crawl into bed and just beg sleep to take me quickly.

And that is the end of chapter 4! Do you guys like the story so far? There is more to come soon I promise.

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