Midnight: 3-12-2010

I woke up with a start whenever I heard a rock slam to the ground. I grabbed my pistol and immediately pointed it at the where the rock had fallen from but nothing was there. "Gah, I'm getting jumpy." I said to myself as a lowered my gun and looked over at Alex. I was 2 ranks lower than him but he didn't seem to act like it much. I stood up and looked around for any Japanese enemies and finally concluded there were none. I took a good look at Alex and saw he was sleeping pretty soundly so I decided to go off and take a bath, since I hadn't had one in the last 2 days. I walked just down the stream and found a cove and I undressed to nothing but my bra and underwear and got in. The water was cold as all stuff but what would you expect in the middle of fall? I washed the blood and dirt from me and got out and wiped as much of the water I could from me and dressed in my uniform once again. I walked back to the camp we had set up and Alex had woken up and was checking his clips for his M-16 and 9mm when I came up. "Morning." I said. He replied by asking "Morning, have a good sleep and bath?". I thought for a second he had been watching me. "You were watching me!" I asked with a tinge of anger in my voice and he looked up at me and flinched back a bit. "So you were!" I nearly screamed. "Now hold on Midnight, I wasn't watching you, I just figured as much since you were gone and hadn't taken your stuff with you." He said as he went back to checking his ammo. "Fine, but if I find out you were watching me, I'll kill you." I said half jokingly. "I wasn't watching you, I haven't even gotten up from this spot ok." Alex said with a serious tone. I started to believe him, he didn't seem to be the kind of guy that would really care, I mean he's never even made an advance on a woman as far as I know. Alex stood up and put his gun case over his shoulder and asked "Ready to get going?". I shook my head yes and we started to walk even further down the canyon toward where DJ and Gene had landed.

About a mile down the path nothing was said so I decided to break the ice by speaking. "So what's the reason why you joined?" I asked curiously. "You know DJ right? He's the whole reason why I joined, for some reason partially unknown. Part for money and the other part I'm not all to sure why, I guess at the time it sounded like a good idea since I had recently been fired from my job for some bullcrap some little punk pulled and I was blamed for." He said not looking back at me. "Well, now that we're here we may as well get used to it." I said trying to offer a bit of comfort but it didn't seem like it did much since he didn't reply. Another quarter mile and the radio started to crackle and Alex picked it up and listened carefully. "Make out anything?" I asked.
We kept walking as he spoke into the radio asking if DJ and Gene if they heard him. He finally put the radio back on his belt and said "Nothing, knowing DJ he probably isn't up yet, he'd sleep through a tornado.". "That bad of a sleeper huh?" I asked and he gave a nod yes.

Another mile and we made small talk, stuff like what we liked and old friends and the current situation. Alex wouldn't make long winded answers unlike Gene. Alex explained what he meant and then would shut up. Maybe he was sorting through thoughts, or maybe he was planning something, I couldn't tell.

Alex finally stopped and sighed sitting on a rock saying "God dang it this isn't getting us anywhere.". I sat beside him and asked "Well what do we do now?". He gave another one of his extremely short answers "We go up.". I looked at him curiously and asked "Up?". He then replied by explaining what he meant. "We climb up the canyon wall and hike to the nearest US camp. While we look for DJ and Gene of course." Alex said as he took out his canteen and took a drink of water and I did the same since it didn't seem like a bad idea. We stood and we started to climb the wall nearest us after checking out GPS's and determining where the nearest US camp was. We were about half way up when I started to make small comments about my hands starting to hurt from the jagged rocks. He didn't seem to be bothered by them, but he also didn't say much either. My line was hooked around his waist meaning each others life was in the others hands. I didn't exactly like depending on others but I had no other choice, it was either fall to my death or depend on him to save me. And I'm glad he was there by the time we got to the top. About 3/4ths of the way the rocks seemed even more jagged than ever and I lost my grip when one cut my hand deep when I slipped. I fell and the line jerked and rocks flew as I dangled hundreds of feet above the canyon floor. I gulped and he asked if I was ok and I said yes. Alex turned and grabbed the line beginning to swing me towards the wall again and I finally caught my grip, even if it was painful. Alex looked down a few times making sure I was ok. A few minutes later a cloth fell on my head and I grabbed it. "Use it to climb." Alex said turning his head back upward.

We finally reached the top of the cliff and the cloth was covered in blood from my hands. I handed it back to him saying "Thanks. Once again I owe you my life.". He looked at me with a stern look and turned back around and started to walk and he said "You owe me nothing Midnight.". I followed him and as he walked, I watched his feet and noticed a few drops of blood drop from his hands. I hadn't noticed it until now but the rocks I was climbing on were redder than usual. It wasn't the rocks that made it red it was his blood. Whenever he held on when I slipped his hands were cut deeper than mine were. I started to say something but decided not to remembering the stern look he had just given me. I didn't know if he was mad at me or not. If he was mad then he wouldn't have said that I didn't owe him anything. Alex flung the blood from his hands and looked back at me and I looked away. His eyes went wide and he pulled out his pistol and I ducked and he shot 3 bullets and I heard a scream and a thud. Alex kept his gun at the ready and walked over to the man the had just shot. "Not dead yet I see.." Alex said as the Japanese man grunted in pain as he reached for his rifle and I came running up with my pistol at the ready and I looked around for more but didn't see any. Alex kicked the gun away and looked down at the man and the man said something I didn't understand, it was Japanese. Alex lifted his gun and pointed it at the man and responded in Japanese saying "Giseisha no senso." and Alex shot the man in the head and I looked away quickly. The statement that Alex made wasn't English of course it was Japanese and when translated it means "Casualty of war.". Alex picked the dog tags of the man up and read and then snatched one off the chain and put it in the man's mouth and he took the other one. "What's that for?" I asked half curious, half not wanting to know. Alex walked by coolly and responded "I need it for retribution.". I had no idea what he meant but I had a feeling I had better not ask.
I followed Alex to the nearest camp or what we thought was a camp. It was nestled in the middle of the woods by a nice sized stream. We got there and the tents had bullet holes in the tents and we could see signs of a struggle and blood splatters all over the camp but no bodies. Alex frowned and said "Bet they took them as examples.". "That's horrible, you mean some of them were still alive?" I asked. He shook his head yes and bent down and looked at the amount of blood on the ground. "Its fresh but its not enough to die from." Alex said as he stood back up and walked over to the medical tent and walked in and came out with a bandages and he threw me some and I put them on my hands. He bandaged his own hands and then looked around and said "No wonder they were wiped out, this is a horrible place for a camp.". The camp had a stream by it but was surrounded by hills. "Whoever picked this place is an idiot." Alex said as he put his hand on the table beside him and it happened to fall on a pump action 20 gauge shotgun. Alex checked to see if it was loaded and it was. A voice came from behind us saying "We live with…geniuses.". Alex and I whirled around and I pointed my pistol at the man that spoke. He was standing holding his bleeding shoulder and leaning against the medical tent's post. Alex had whirled around and pointed the shotgun at the man but then soon lowered it, I didn't put my pistol down though. The man spoke and said "Lady, I'd like to keep my nads ok. I've been shot before by this jack$# once before." the man smirked a bit as he spoke. "Bite me Zach." Alex said with a smile and he put the shotgun on the table and walked over to him and I lowered my gun. "So you know this guy Alex?" I asked. "No dip Sherlock." The man said. Alex let out a "Heh" and then explained saying "I don't know him, I'm kin to this smart$#. He's my 2nd cousin but we feel a lot like brothers. His name is Zach.". "Oh ok." I said as a put my gun away and walked over and handed Alex the bandages he had given me. Both of them walked over to a table and Zach sat down and Alex wrapped his shoulder. "I almost lost…" Zach said with a somber tone. "Almost lost what?" Alex asked. "A rapier fight." Zach replied. "Cant win 'em all I guess." Alex said as he stepped back once he had finished wrapping the wound. "So you're a rapier fighter Zach? Are you good?" I asked. I was interested in swords but I didn't compare to these two as I soon found out.

"Alex and I used to practice different types of swords when we were younger. My favorite was rapier, his was katana and broadsword. It didn't matter how fast I was I could never beat Alex, it didn't matter, I don't know I guess he's just tougher or something. But I fought other people with rapiers and I could always win and never lost." Zach explained. "So you lost just now then. But to who?" I asked. "Don't know, I just know it was a Japanese rapier fighter. The only way I won is I got a hold of a gun and shot him. Hey if it works use it I say." Zach said. "So let me guess, you tried telling these idiots that this was a bad camp ground, they didn't listen, and they got attacked and you barely survived and got away. Am I right?" Alex asked. "Dead on. Bet most of them like Spiderman too, that would explain why they are so stupid." Zach said as he looked back at the rubble of the camp.