Chapter Two
Hearts are worn in these dark ages
You're not alone in this story's pages
Night has fallen amongst the living and the dying
And I try to hold it in, yeah I try to hold it in
Sarah McLachlan – World On FireWhat a mess. The group of men walked forward, their bodies aching from lack of rest. It had been two days ago when they had been sent here, on this green field of grass. When they had first arrived, the only flaw within the grassy surroundings was the anxiety growing within them.
The leader of the group looked up at the sky briefly; the sun was lowering, spilling the colour of blood across the heavens. The thought came to him, that maybe the crimson sky was reflecting off the once tranquil field. His eyes drifted from the gory sky, back down to the surroundings around him. What a mess, he thought again.
The sound of desperate voices could be heard faintly in the distance as the group of men made their way through the muddy field. The earth seemed to have been wounded over the past few days, attacked by the rain and leaving the water to mix with the mud as it spilled from the damaged earth. Nothing surrounding him looked like the once peaceful landscape. Not even the sky, yet as he stared back towards the bleeding night, he felt a strange sense of calmness grow within him. A kind of sick irony that showed him what his purpose in life really was.
His footsteps made their way through the field. Nothing about this place was peaceful anymore. It seemed more like a hell playground. The leader turned around to his limited number of men, each holding a weapon tightly within their grasp, as they were confronted with the many mingled corpses sprawled out along the wounded earth.
Adjusting his eyes on the horizon, he saw a group of men making their way towards them. "Stand by," he said taking his stance as the enemy approached. "We can't let them win," he said quietly to himself as he slashed his weapon in the direction of his enemy, carefully aiming the tip of the blade to slide across the throat. He watched as the nameless man fell limply to the floor, joining the rest of the dead.
Looking around him, he saw a group of approximately twenty soldiers making their way towards the small group. He knew that they had a slim chance of surviving this battle; they were one of the only groups left. Yet some part of him couldn't let go, he felt he just had to try. Turning to his right, he looked at his comrades. "Prepare your weapon," he ordered the few gunmen stood beside him.
Waiting until the soldiers were in range, he nodded to the gunmen who were awaiting his order. The others stood back, watching as the men shot down some of their rivals. Turning to face his other comrades, he ordered them to get ready for battle. The many men in front of him ran beneath the sky, and for a moment he found himself lost within the bloody night sky. Beautiful, he thought to himself. A crimson night, just like many other nights he had witnessed. It almost seemed like he was supposed to see this night. It was his purpose. Endless fighting. Such a tranquil sky.
"Commander!"
His gaze was distracted by a familiar voice, pulling his eyes away from the night, he saw his comrade cutting in front of him. He watched as the man named Nida skilfully fought with a solider who would have killed him. For a brief moment, he felt a small bit of sadness within him. That maybe he should have died when he was lost somewhere within the heavens. Breaking away from his thoughts, he concentrated back on the battle at hand as the heavy sound of gunfire from the side of him stopped briefly.
"I don't think we can keep this up for much longer," one of the gunmen said, while quickly loading up his gun again. "Squall, I don't plan on dying here."
Squall didn't say anything. He didn't get chance, before another wave of attacks were sent towards him. Defending the attacks with his gunblade, he glanced around to see how his comrades were doing. Just a little longer, he thought to himself as he thrust his blade into another soldier. Pulling out the blade, he aimed for another solider, pulling the trigger as the weapon pierced the skin.
As the battle continued, he watched as many of his men were killed. Some of them witnessing their first and last battle. Their blood spilling out onto the wounded earth, scarred from the war. Battling the few soldiers surrounding him, he looked around for any signs of his other men. Amongst the crowd of bloodshed, he saw four of his men still fighting. He watched as one of the remaining survivors screamed out in pain as a sword was thrust through his chest.
The mans attacker was stood above him, as he lay within the mud, taking in quick breaths. Squall ran in the direction of his injured ally, aiming his own gunblade in the direction of his foe. Watching as the man fell limply to the ground, he turned his attention back to the wounded man. Tearing a part of his jacket, he tied it around the mans waist, so it acted like a tourniquet. Holding the man's arm around his neck, Squall pulled the man up, trying to help him walk.
Squall looked around the field, which he had grown to hate. "Retreat," he shouted to his remaining men, dragging away the injured man beside him.
From the distance, he saw Nida running to aide the injured man as the rest of his troupes fled from the battle. A man named Irvine, shooting any remaining soldiers giving chase after them.
"There should be a ship nearby," Nida said, as he tried running along whilst holding the injured man with Squall.
"You know where it is?" Squall asked, as he could see the green ocean in the horizon. He saw Nida nod his head as they continued to escape from the wounded ground. After a few moments of silent walking, a relief came over his senses, as he saw no more of the soldiers visible in the distance. No more broken corpses tormenting the living as they battled each other to death.
Squall's attention turned back down towards the injured man beside him. He saw the crimson blood pouring from the bandaged wound, some had spilled onto his own clothes, he noticed as he saw the dried liquid itching his hands as it crusted. His eyes were met with Nida's, the same silent understanding overcoming the two.
"He could still make it," Nida reassured. He could see the lack of sleep and constant fighting over the last two days had taken a physical affect on his leader. His once serious and firm face now looked slightly withered, he wondered if perhaps the effects of the war had taken a sudden realisation to Squall. Nida simply shrugged away his thoughts, thinking back to the training the two had engulfed in over the last few years. He understood Squall was always withdrawn and serious, now he realised that this was a better way to approach a battle, yet he knew that he would never be able to simply shrug others off like Squall did. It simply wasn't him. Nida wanted to stand out. To be a friendly face, which other soldiers could approach, without feeling threatened, as well as coping with the violence he had seen within these past couple of days.
In the distance, Squall saw a lone boat on the shore of the beach they were quickly approaching. He realised that perhaps more of the troops had fled before Squall and his men had arrived. The boat looked rusty and old, the sight of it made him wonder if he ever would get out of this place alive. He guessed that this was a better place to be than in the middle of a losing battle. Anything would be better than that.
Approaching the boat, Squall lay the injured man inside the small vessel while the other three men stepped inside the boat. Pushing the small ship into the emerald depths of water and finally let himself inside the boat, as Nida worked on starting up the engine and another of his troupes offered to steer the ship.
The blonde man studied Squall for a moment, but Squall chose to ignore his gaze by looking out into the distance of what seemed like never ending water and noticed that the sun had finally set, leaving only the darkness to surround them. Looking through one of the bags Nida had placed within the vessel, Squall took out some medical supplies to aide the soldier, trying to ignore the feeling that the man who lay in front of him probably wouldn't last the night.
"Hey man, maybe you should get some rest?"
Squall looked up to see the blonde giving him a worried expression. "You've been up for two days straight," he said whilst steering the boat away from the brutal land. He saw the spiky haired man looking at him, "I think you gashed your head or something while you were fighting. Relax for a while, I don't want our Commander suffering from a concussion."
The Commander gave the man a strange look for a moment, before putting his hand up towards his head. The texture of a warm sticky liquid could be felt on his fingers, yet he didn't recall hitting his head during the battle. Thinking back now, the last two days had seemed to be all mixed into one for him. It had felt like a small eternity without any sleep, yet he wondered who could sleep at a time like this. A growing pain seemed to be emanating within his head as he studied the substance from his wound.
"Zell's right," Irvine said from his silent seat towards the front of the boat. His gaze looked at Squall briefly, before he dug through some supplies in a box on the boat. Bringing out a lantern, he went to work on lighting it, and the four men sat in silence listening to the helpless breaths of the wounded young man.
Somewhere within the night, Squall had felt the pain in his head begin to grow, until he could no longer see a clear vision in front of him. Everything seemed blurry, until it eventually turned to darkness and his consciousness around him seemed to just fade away.
The gentle sound of rain from outside was the first thing to register for him. So weak. It seemed almost too much effort to even think of moving at that moment in time. So he stayed within the darkness of his closed eyes, listening to the rain. For a moment, he thought he could hear voices. He could only hear it faintly, but he guessed that they were male voices talking, although he couldn't make out any of the words being said. Then the voices stopped, and he was left once again with the comforting sounds of the rain.
He stayed like this for several moments, the smell of damp ground and what seemed like incense came to his senses. It was at that time that the thought of where he actually was entered his mind. He scanned his memory, thinking back to what had happened previously. The war. He vaguely remembered the feel of his metal gunblade within his hands as he thrust it into the stomach of his enemies. They had been losing, so they fled. Nida and himself had carried an injured man, along with two other survivors, until they escaped on a ship.
After that his memory was blank, there was nothing but the questioning thoughts in his mind. Did his men make it safely, or were they all dead? Mustering up all the strength he had, he pulled his eyes open slightly. The light blinded him as soon as it reached his eyes, making him close them tightly, once more to be enveloped by the comforting darkness. At least if he stayed like this forever, he would never have to know what happened to his men. Or even what happened to himself.
What happened? His eyes fluttered open, slowly adjusting to the light yet still phased by the scenery around him. For a moment it all seemed a blur, then his vision began to clear and he saw he was in a small room. Tilting his head to the side, he realised he was on a bed, but the scenery around him didn't seem familiar.
Looking around the small wooden room, he observed the few ornamental features around the room. A small window was open slightly to the left of him; letting droplets of water fall onto the windowsill from the rain outside. He felt a cool breeze blow through the window, sending small ripples through the curtains as they swayed backwards and forwards in a slow motion.
It was then he realised someone was watching him. His eyes moved away from the window, and towards the open doorway. A young girl, looking no older than himself stood looking at him with a soft expression in her eyes. She seemed to turn her gaze down to the floor and blush slightly as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing, before entering the room.
He watched as she briskly walked across the room, in order to close the window. She turned on her heels and approached him slowly, before taking a dressing off a table nearby and observing his head for a moment. In silence he stayed still while she changed the bandage that he realised was wrapped around his head. As she did this, he couldn't help himself briefly glance up at her every few moments. He noticed that she seemed distant, concentrating only on his wound as if he were nothing more than a lifeless person. He was alive, wasn't he?
Upon finishing his bandages, she turned and left the room for a minute, before returning with a glass of water in her hands. Squall watched as the raven-haired girl held her hand out for him to take the glass of water from her. Pulling himself in a sitting position, Squall held his head in pain as the world seemed to spin around. The thought suddenly came to his mind that maybe he should have stayed in a lying position. Staying still for a moment, Squall slowly lifted his head from his hands and took the glass on water as the pain began to subside.
"Thank you," he said with a hoarse voice, the back of his mouth feeling like sandpaper as the cool liquid made its way down his throat. He watched as the girl held out her hand with two small tablets inside, ready for him to take them. Squall gave her a suspicious look, his military instincts taking over as the silent girl offered a simple gesture. Pushing aside his thoughts, he reasoned that the girl had obviously let him into her home and cared for him. Taking the two capsules, he swallowed the tablets down along with the last of the water.
The young girl looked down at the man as she took the glass from his hands. She smiled slightly, thinking that she really should leave him be for the moment, yet a bigger part of her wanted to stay. He was an injured man, who probably had no idea where he was or the location of his comrades. She saw a slightly confused look within his eyes as she stayed silently staring at him, and suddenly felt uncomfortable. A thought came to the girls mind and she opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped abruptly when she heard footsteps coming from outside the room. Instead, she simply smiled slightly then made her way out of the room.
Authors note: I'm sorry if this chapter sucks and it's boring. Just bear with me, I'm promise it'll get better as it goes on. Thank you for all the nice reviews!