--------
A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry. I totally forgot I was going to Spain over spring break until like 2 days before. This chapter is really REALLY short (even shorter than the last!)...I wrote it on the airplane when I was really bored, and I type a lot faster than I write so basically it shrunk cause of the time I took to write things down. I'm now suffering from jetlag, I got up at 1 o clock! But anyway. Spain and Portugal were awesome; they're obsessed with Digimon over there! I met a digimon friend on the tour, a 10 year old boy, but hey, it saved me from withdrawal :) Thank you guys so much for the reviews, luv you all! I also drew a picture while I was on the tour bus...it's Mimi, but doesn't really look like her cause I didn't have a pic to draw from. neoagent.net/stellar/ci.jpg No idea why it's so blurry...I don't think anybody would want to, but DON'T STEAL.
The song of this chapter is "Superman" by Greenday.
Always contactable: joy_fishy@hotmail.com (email and MSN), sunshine ba ba (AIM), stellar687@yahoo.com (Yahoo!), 71018292 (ICQ). I think that's the order I use them most in, AIM and MSN are equal :)
--------
Brooding silence hung over the whole landscape. A raven cawed before flying off, as if in warning of the upcoming destruction. The sun was just peeking its crown over the horizon as the Japanese soldiers hid themselves on a mountain. In the distance, sounds of the unwary advancing Chinese army could be heard.
Matt stood farther back in the ranks, surveying his troops. After a few weeks rest, they were renewed in mind and spirit, as optimistic and trigger happy as the day they arrived. How many will ever make it to the end?
By now the Chinese were quite close. You could hear, if not understand, what they were saying.
- (A/N: excuse my horrible pin yin! Note that none of the Japanese soldiers can understand this conversation.)
"Wou kuh y dah nuh ga szh toe!" (I can hit that rock!) The man gestured up the mountain at a distant rock.
"Bu kuh y uh!" (No way!) and other negatively conotated fragments were thrown at the first man, who bristled at the disbelief.
-
The first man was a burly Chinese private with an ego and pride bigger than the Grand Canyon. He carefully took aim at the mountain rock and let off a shot. It clipped the top of the boulder and his fellow soldiers slapped him on the back, when a round of shots rang through the valley, silencing a few of the men in an instant, the only sound they made anymore was the thump of limp bodies hitting the ground.
-
General Mali winced as something hit the top of the boulder he was crouching behind, raining little fragments down on him. He reached for the piece.
In his hand lay a burning twisted piece of metal. It scorched his hand, but he didn't notice. It was a bullet, in the middle of a Japanese ambush in wait. A bullet, that wasn't supposed to be here, a bullet where the Chinese weren't supposed to know where they were…
No time to think about that now. Dropping the smoldering projectile, Mali waved his arm wildly in the gesture to attack. His men and the other troops opened fire.
Matt didn't know what had happened. One second, everything had been quiet, the next mass pandemonium. They had shot the Chinese and the latter group was rapidly returning fire, even with the Japanese height advantage. It was chaotic, pieces of rock flying, people shouting, guns going off…
TK. Where was TK? Matt jumped up, spinning wildly about for private #6858230. He finally spotted him, down in a natural ditch firing. Matt breathed a sigh of relief, letting the cool mountain air fill his lungs.
Suddenly a pain so intense it was as if somebody had stabbed him with a white-hot poker and held it there while it burned his flesh, twisting and pulling, trying to consume him at once ripped through his body. As his body went slack and Matt fell, he saw images flash before his eyes. TK and Matt at the park. Matt, Dad, moving away. Matt, Mimi. Mimi…do you know my last thought is of you?
-----
(A/N: I know, I know... how cliché was that? I'd love to end this chapter right here, just to torture you guys…but I won't ;) )
Matt slowly opened his eyes, blinking against the bright white light. Everything was white, white, white. Where was he? Heaven? Sure didn't look like hell, but not the picture image of eternity. Hey…the dead can't be picky…
A surge of pain throbbed through his shoulder, causing him to inhale sharply. Okay, this wasn't heaven. He carefully turned his head to see his left shoulder.
A once-white, now crimson bandage was wrapped around almost the whole upper half of his torso. Matt tentatively pushed the wound with his index finger, trying to see how far the bullet had gond and consequently how bad the wound. Nothing. Breathing deeply against the spasms of pain, Matt probed a little deeper. Still nothing. Somebody must've removed it.
As if summoned by his thoughts, a casually dressed man walked into the room. He looked surprised to see Matt awake.
"How are you feeling…" he consulted his clipboard. "General Ishida?" His Japanese was heavily accented, but Matt could hear a sarcastic edge in his voice.
A headache washed over his brain, and Matt was aware that he had a fever. "Fine." he bit. He hated being the one on the bed, somebody else looking down at him. He was used to being the one standing. "What happened?"
The young man began to laugh, making Matt's head even worse. It was like that annoying sound was filtering into his ear and instead of going wherever sounds go, straight into the core of his brain where it scraped and scratched the sides.
"What's so funny?" he grunted.
"Welcome, to the Chinese camp. You've been here 2 days, ever since we found you on the field after the victory of Hungkow Mountain. After your worthless friends left you to die. You almost did, but we found you and removed the bullet. Maybe your arm won't need to be amputated; you're so full of dirt some infection probably wouldn't affect you." The doctor put his face close to Matt's. "Enjoy your stay."
It was during this speech Matt noticed the straps holding him to the hospital bed, the unfamiliar language coursing down the hall, the words on the radio that he couldn't understand.
The doctor left, his shoes making an echoing click-click noise as he stepped down the hall.
-----
"One of the generals is missing." The murmur passed through the assembled soldiers. "They won't say who."
Upon hearing the news, TK looked at the row of generals, brow furrowed, blue eyes flicking left and right, searching for the leader of Platoon #687. There were too many rows; TK who had memorized the back of his brothers head from the time he was born couldn't see the familiar shock of blonde hair anywhere. His heart dropped into his stomach, and he broke formation, darting up to double check. Searching each face, he just saw a blur, a doll face, a nothing. Not his brother. A general snatched his arm.
"Private! Return to formation, now!"
"Sir, but-"
"What part of "NOW" don't you understand, private!" barked the officer. He was obivously on short tension and had the tolerance of a soap bubble.
"Sir, sorry, sir." Spit TK, stalking back to his troop. But he had gotten a good glance at the line of generals, and while his head was saying "Yes, it is", his heart pushed over. "No, it's not."
-----
Sorry. SORRY. That was incredibly short. But please review or contact me :) Flames are okay...
IF THEY'RE COHERENT. ^^ Thank you and have a nice daaay!
