(I DO NOT own The Walking Dead, Code Lyoko, or any names/brands that might appear in the story. Any references to any person living or dead is merely a coincidence, and should NOT be taken as intentional. All of that being said, I hope you enjoy the story!)
THE ISLAND OF OKINAWA, APRIL 1945
It is late in the Second World War.
Tens of thousands of troops of the United States military have descended upon the Ryukyu island of Okinawa; a major stepping stone in the strategic Allied island-hopping campaign against the Japanese Empire.
If the Americans capture it, Okinawa will go on to provide airbases for U.S. Army Air Force B-29 Superfortress bombers to conduct massive air raids against Japan. The island's airbases will also provide critical land-based bomber support to further aid in Operation: Downfall - the planned Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands.
Casualties are expected to be extremely high for both sides in the upcoming Battle of Okinawa.
The Japanese garrison on the island will not give up an inch of their soil willingly. The soldiers of His Majesty the Emperor will not dare attempt any surrender nor even think of retreating from the western barbarians. They are each determined to give their all in protecting their homeland and repelling the foreign invaders no matter the cost. They are all fully prepared to die for their country and their god-emperor if need be.
But the men being sent in to fight them are both hardened and battle-tested. They all know the risks, they all know what to do. They are truly the very best that America has to offer against its enemies.
Even so, the Americans are going to need to use every last advantage that they have at their disposal against the Japanese. Because the fight for Okinawa may go down in history as one of the most important operations of the entire Pacific War...
"-KEEP UP THE FIRE!!! GODDAMMIT, I SAID KEEP UP THE FIRE!!! DON'T GIVE THESE BASTARDS A FUCKIN' INCH, MARINES!!!"
Captain Bradley Enheart and his men were in trouble.
While they advanced upon the Aja River in the southern part of Okinawa during the dead of night, Captain Enheart and his company of one hundred marines of the U.S. 1st Marine Division were suddenly ambushed by several hidden Japanese machine gun emplacements throughout the trees on the other side of the river. One minute everything was fine for the marines, and in the next it seemed like night turned to day due to the sheer amount of Japanese gunfire.
Faulty intel fucked them over. They were told that the area around Wana Draw was clear. Whatever the case, Captain Enheart now had to focus on one objective: survival.
Bradley had no idea how many of his marines were cut down in the first volley of Japanese machine gun fire, but the survivors managed to get in defensive positions and the Japanese guns eventually ceased. However, moments later, hundreds of Japanese troops suddenly came rushing from the other side of the river in a massive banzai charge against him and his men.
He had to think of something. Fast.
Wave after wave of Japanese troops charged with bayonet and sword and gun against their enemy's position, but with each wave they were getting cut down over and over again by U.S. machine guns. But even so, with each wave they were inching their way ever closer to Captain Enheart and his men. It was only a matter of time before the Americans would get swarmed. And within moments they were.
As the crew of one of the American machine gun emplacements emptied a box magazine and began to reload their weapon, a Japanese soldier with a pair of grenades in his hands rushed the two men manning the gun. The G.I's didn't have enough time to ready their sidearms and shoot the suicide attacker, and the grenades exploded seconds later - instantly killing both the Japanese attacker and the two marines. After that, dozens of Japanese soldiers rushed through this new hole in the American lines and they began to shoot, stab, club, strangle and slash any Americans that they could find.
Captain Enheart fired upon the Japanese attackers with his Grease Gun until he ran out of ammunition in his magazine. As he tried to reload he saw that one of the Japanese soldiers was rushing straight for him with a bayonet on the end of his rifle. Enheart was forced to drop his weapon as the soldier approached, but he dodged the blade just in time and then he shoved the rifle out of the enemy's hands before he punched him as hard as he could in the jaw. The Japanese soldier was then hit one more time, sending him down onto his hands and knees in a daze.
While the Japanese soldier was stunned by the punch, Bradley readied his M1911 handgun and aimed it at the base of the enemy soldier's skull. Before the Japanese soldier could try and do anything to stop him, Bradley had already pulled the trigger and splattered the guy's brains on the dirt below them. Another Japanese soldier tried to rush Bradley with a bayonet but two bullets to that guy's chest stopped him dead. Literally.
Bradley growled as the two dead soldiers fell at his feet. "KEEP FIGHTING THEM OFF!!! WE CAN'T LET THEM TAKE THIS POSITION!!! IT'S US OR THEM!!!" He barked an order at whatever men under his command were still alive as he picked up his machine gun once more, holstering his handgun for now.
The U.S. troops bravely fought against the Japanese attackers as hard as they could, but alas they were losing men one by one. Bradley saw a private get his throat cut open by a Japanese combat knife, and a corporal take two bullets in the chest from a Nambu pistol. A sergeant was being clubbed to death by the butt ends of two Japanese rifles, and, horrifically, he heard the far-away screams of a young private first class as he was slashed to death with katanas.
Captain Enheart was running out of options faster than he realized. The Japanese seemed endless and he was losing more and more men by the second. As their position was hit hard by the Japanese onslaught, the Americans slowly began to be pushed down a hillside and away from the Aja River. The Japanese were still hot on their tail and they were killing anyone who had the misfortune of being slow or being unable to move. The screams, explosions and gunfire was striking for all of them...
The position was quickly lost despite the Americans best efforts. They needed to get the fuck out of there or else they were going to be overrun in seconds. "GODDAMMIT, FALL BACK TO THE NEXT DEFENSIVE LINE!!! FALL BACK!!!" Bradley shouted to the surviving marines under his command.
Bradley and his surviving marines hurriedly ran back into the forest they came through before the machine guns opened fire. Some marines shot back at the Japanese as they ran, but others were unlucky enough to get shot in the back by them as they ran. The Japanese were hot on their tail, shouting cries of "Banzai!" at their enemies the whole way through.
Originally, Bradley had a company of one hundred United States Marines under his command. But now? After that mess back there? He did a quick head-count and he only counted forty-five men, including himself. Many of the survivors had been wounded by the Japanese.
But the other sixty men of his company were all either dead, missing, or worse... captured alive by the Japanese Army.
Captain Enheart had absolutely no intentions of becoming a prisoner of war to Japan. And he sure as hell was going to try his hardest to prevent the capture of even more of his men to those inhuman monsters. He owed his boys that much. All of the horror stories which he heard come from survivors out of places like Baatan, Guam, Corregidor, Manila, and Nanking affected him very greatly...
Babies being stabbed to death with bayonets... Women as old as ninety and girls that were as young as five being gang-raped by twenty, thirty, even forty soldiers at a time... The senseless and totally needless massacre of hundreds, thousands of innocents at a time... Wounded, unarmed prisoners of war burnt alive... And God knows what other evil shit that simply cannot be described.
The horrors that the survivors of Japanese atrocities spoke of also made sure that if Bradley ever ended up getting cornered... if he ever got cornered... then he would just take a couple of grenades, run to the nearest group of Japanese troops he could find, and die taking as many of them with him as he could. Suicide was a far better option than whatever hell would await Bradley in the Japanese homeland.
He wouldn't allow himself to be killed by thirst on a death march. He wouldn't allow himself to become a living target for Japanese bayonet practice.
He wouldn't allow himself to be starved and beaten like a dog. He wouldn't allow himself to be brutalized.
He wouldn't allow himself to be beheaded. He wouldn't allow himself to be cannibalized by a hungry Jap soldier.
He wouldn't allow himself to be forced to create war supplies in some dirty factory, helping the Japanese kill his fellow countrymen.
If he was at risk of getting captured by the enemy, Bradley Enheart was determined to end his own life. But just as importantly he was going to try and take with him as many Japanese soldiers as he could in the process.
There was nothing else to it.
The U.S. marines soon reached a new defensive position and they almost immediately resumed firing upon the Japanese. They had already killed scores worth of the enemy, but the bastards were relentless. For every one they killed, three more would take their place. It honestly felt like they were fighting the entire Imperial Japanese Army right now, if not all of Japan itself.
"Corporal Resnick! Private Harrington!" Bradley barked at two of the marines under his command. "You two take a .30-cal and help the guys over on the right flank! Hold it tight and don't let ANY of those bastards through!" he ordered the two men to hold the line.
The two marines, Corporal Resnick and Private First Class Harrington, hurried to the right flank and they found a Browning .30-cal machine gun to help them hold off against the Japanese. As Bradley kept firing upon the attackers, he noticed another marine running up to meet him. He recognized the marine as a young lieutenant named Burton Spiers, a guy who had just transferred from the 4th Marine Division to Bradley's unit only three weeks earlier. Poor guy...
"Captain Enheart!" Lieutenant Spiers called out to his commanding officer. He was forced to take cover behind a large rock when some Japanese started to fire upon him, but he was still close enough to speak with Bradley. "Sir, what the hell do we do now?! The Japs're fucking everywhere and we've lost half our company! Most of our guys are gettin' low on ammo, sir! Some of 'em are too wounded to keep fighting!"
"We're retreating, lieutenant!" Bradley called back to his marine. "We've gotta keep fallin' back and we've gotta call in some reinforcements! We can't take the Aja River with resistance like this! Get all of your men and get ready to run to the next defensive line! Don't leave anyone behind! You got that, lieutenant?!" he barked. No man left behind no matter what. No man left behind.
Lieutenant Spiers gave a: "Yes, sir!" to his captain and then he hurried back over to the remaining men under his command. He had been through some bad shit in places like Peleliu and Iwo Jima, but never anything like this. The Japanese were seriously bringing in hellfire with them this time.
The Americans held out at this second defensive line for as long as they could, but it was obvious that it was going to be a doomed fight. As soon as the Japanese looked like they would break through, Bradley gave another order to retreat. "FALL BACK TO THE NEXT DEFENSIVE LINE!!! FALL BACK, BOYS!!!" he loudly called out after having shot and killed yet another Japanese soldier.
Unfortunately, Bradley could see that Lieutenant Spiers was pinned down behind a fallen tree trunk by some Japanese gunfire. He tried to run over and assist him, but Spiers saw him coming and he waved off his captain. More Japanese were approaching. If Bradley stayed to rescue him then they'd both die...
"GO!!! GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE, CAPTAIN!!!" Lieutenant Spiers shouted to his superior officer. The last thing he wanted was for Captain Enheart or any of their other comrades to die trying to save him. They had to get out of here while they had the chance. "I'LL BE FINE, I'LL CATCH UP!!! NOW GO!!!" he lied to Bradley. He was sure that he wasn't going to be fine. He was probably either going to be killed, but he was going to make sure that it wouldn't be easy for them.
Bradley ignored Lieutenant Spiers's words and he tried to rush over there to save him from the enemy, but alas for them both an explosion occurred between them and the marine captain was forced to take cover. As he did, he saw Lieutenant Spiers turn and run in the opposite direction deeper into the forest. Over a dozen Japanese soldiers were hot on his tail but he was hoping to lose them somewhere in the trees. Bradley didn't want to leave him all alone against the Japs but he had no choice. If he tried to follow him then he'd get killed.
Reluctantly, Bradley ran to rejoin the rest of his marines as they retreated towards the next defensive line. Hopefully, Lieutenant Spiers will outrun those bastards and link up with Bradley and the other marines again soon...
Meanwhile, the American marines finally saw their salvation and they ran for it: a hilltop defilade not far through the treeline. Captain Enheart knew that elements of the U.S. 6th Marine Division were somewhere in the area and he had a gut feeling that they were close by, but to send them an S.O.S. message he needed to find his radioman. He had six other radiomen in his company but they were all either killed in the opening barrage of machine guns or were killed as they retreated.
The last radioman was likely already dead or worse, but the radio he had with him was the important thing. But the last time he saw him was before the ambush. He only hoped that the Japanese didn't get him... If that radio of his was destroyed or captured then Bradley was out of options. They couldn't run forever.
The American marines eventually made it to the defilade, and after they took cover behind it they readied their weapons for another fight. Once they were sure that all of their guys were out of the way, they all started to opened fire upon the advancing Japanese troops as they came through the trees. Captain Enheart held his fire as he was busy looking throughout the ranks of the survivors to see if the radioman was somewhere in this mess. Unfortunately, he couldn't find him. He didn't see Lieutenant Spiers either...
A Japanese bullet hit the soil in front of Bradley, sending some of it up into his face and into his mouth. The marine coughed and immediately took cover again, spitting out the shit that got into his mouth before he looked over at some of his nearby marines. "Where the fuck is Corporal Grimes?!" Bradley called out to his fighting men for the location of his radioman. "Is he still alive?! If anyone's seen him then sound off now!" he ordered.
"We haven't seen him, sir!" a sergeant named Janovec called back to him as he reloaded his M1 rifle. "He was runnin' with us but we lost 'em back in the trees somewhere! There was dozens of Japs right behind us too! We can't see shit in the dark, Captain!"
"Private Ramirez! Go check up and down the line and see if he's lugging around somewhere! Look around and see if someone has his radio at least! We need it!" Bradley ordered to a nearby marine.
The marine Ramirez broke from the fighting to go and search through the line of U.S. troops for the radioman, Corporal Richard M. Grimes. Captain Enheart and the rest of the marines stayed to fight against the encroaching Japanese. It wasn't long before the next banzai charge hit, and within a few seconds they were right back in the same situation they started in. The Japanese literally seemed endless...
Somehow, one of the Japanese managed to make it through the heavy fire and he jumped straight into the American position and onto Captain Enheart. Bradley's machine gun was tossed out of his hands and before he knew it the Japanese soldier had grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and tossed him back out of the defilade. But Bradley grabbed his arm and pulled him out with him.
Both Bradley and the Japanese soldier rolled down the face of the defilade and they landed in a spot where the Americans couldn't get a good shot on the attacker. With more Japanese soldiers rapidly approaching their position in the darkness, all they could do was focus on fighting them and protecting their captain while he deals with the Japanese attacker himself.
Bradley was the first to recover from the tumble. He wasted no time as he jumped on top of the stunned Japanese soldier and started to punch him. Hard. "Fuck you!!! Fuck you!!! Fuck you!!! FUCK YOU!!! FUCK YOU!!! FUCK YOU!!! FUCK!!! YOU!!! FUCK!!! YOU!!! FUCK!!! YOU!!! FUCK!!! YOU!!! FUCK!!! YOU!!!" Bradley roared over and over again, his voice gradually growing louder as he punched the Japanese soldier's face as hard as he possibly could. He was more than likely about to be shot by one of this Jap soldier's friends but he was damn sure going to beat this bastard to death right then and there first.
The enemy soldier's face quickly turned bloody due to the punches, but he was still putting up one hell of a fight. In fact, he managed to get his hands on Bradley's face and he tried to gouge out his eyeballs. Bradley screamed as he felt a thumb dig against his right eyeball, but luckily he managed to yank the enemy's hand away from the organ before it could do any serious damage.
However, Bradley wasn't going to allow this bastard to get away with what he had just tried to do...
In what could only be described as nothing less than a barbaric retaliation, Bradley put his thumbs over both of the Japanese soldier's eyes and then he pressed down upon them as hard as his strength allowed him to - doing to the Japanese soldier what he had just tried to do to him. The soldier screamed in agony as Bradley started to gouge out his eyeballs right then and there. The soldier clawed at Bradley's arms and at anything else that was within reach, but it wasn't enough to stop him.
Bradley was also screaming thanks to the adrenaline coursing through his veins, and after a few more moments of effort his thumbs had broken through into the Japanese soldier's eye sockets and they completely squished the organs: permanently destroying the poor bastard's eyesight. Bradley could only stare down at the wailing, thrashing soldier as he realized what he had just done to him.
Suddenly, Bradley took a hard kick to his side and the force of it flung him a foot or two away from the guy who he blinded. As he laid on the ground, he looked up to see that a second Japanese soldier had arrived... a soldier armed with an Arisaka rifle.
The soldier aimed the rifle at Bradley, but after a moment of thought he simply shook his head tossed his weapon to the ground. He cracked his knuckles and allowed Bradley to stand up as if he was challenging him to a true warrior's fight. The blinded soldier simply continued to wail and thrash on the ground in total agony, being left completely helpless as his comrade ignored him.
Bradley stood back onto his feet and he saw that his weapon was still up along the rim of the defilade... The Japanese soldier stepped away from his rifle and readied his fists, intending to deal with this American the old fashioned way. It was cocky, and surely very risky, but a warrior should always welcome an even fight with a formidable enemy, and he would ensure that either he or the American would die with honor today.
The two jumped at each other moments later. Bradley landed a good shot at the Japanese soldier's nose while the Jap kneed Bradley right in the stomach. Bradley tried to unholster his M1911 pistol and he tried to shoot the Japanese soldier, but as he pulled the pistol out the Jap soldier kicked Bradley's hand hard enough to send the weapon flying to the ground and their fistfight resumed.
By this point, dozens of Japanese soldiers had arrived and they were running past the two fighters in an attempt to rush the American positions. Two nearby Japanese soldiers stopped and aimed their rifles at Bradley when they saw that their comrade was in trouble, but the guy fighting Bradley shouted something in his native language at them and the two riflemen simply saluted him and resumed running. The attacker wanted the honor of killing an American officer all to himself.
Bradley's eyes widened as he saw the Japanese soldier abandon the fistfight by unsheathing a small silver dagger. Bradley frowned and he unsheathed his combat knife as well, and then the two men suddenly charged at each other and prepared for a fight to the death.
Bradley was the first to strike. He yelled as he charged at the Japanese soldier and then he slashed at him, but the Jap soldier skillfully dodged out of the way of Bradley's blade and then he elbowed him right in the face. Bradley's combat knife flew out of his hand and he was sent straight to the ground, feeling dazed and now with a bloody nose to show for it. Get up, you stupid bastard, get up before he kills you...
The Japanese soldier then pounced on him and he tried to stab Bradley in the chest with his dagger, but Bradley quickly recovered from the elbow punch and he grabbed onto the soldier's hands to stop him from killing him. It soon became a test of strength between Bradley and the enemy soldier for control of the dagger: Either the Japanese or the American would lose.
The two men used every last ounce of their strength to try and overcome and kill the other, but for the moment it was as if they were stuck in a standstill. It was only a matter of time before one of them would tire out and die...
As Bradley struggled for control of the dagger, the Japanese soldier laughed at him and shouted a battle cry into his face: "TENNŌHEIKA BANZAI!!!"
"I'm gonna take that fucking knife and I'm cut off your goddamn balls with it, you Nip motherfucker!!!" Bradley growled back, taunting the enemy and trying just as hard to stab him back.
The American marine and the Japanese soldier continued their struggle for control of the dagger, tossing and turning with adrenaline running through their veins. The other Americans up in the defilade were just barely holding the line. Despite trying as hard as he could to get control of the knife away from the enemy, Bradley's strength was starting to fade and he was losing the struggle against this Japanese officer.
The dagger slowly but surely inched its way closer towards his heart. Bradley could feel the very tip of the dagger pierce his skin right at the spot his heart was, and the Japanese soldier couldn't help but smirk as he prepared to kill his prey.
Suddenly, a loud bang rang out and the Japanese soldier fell dead onto Bradley's body, his blood and brains splattering all over Bradley's face and chest. It took Bradley a moment to realize that someone had shot the Japanese in the head, but he gathered his bearings quickly. He pushed the dead officer off of him and then he hurried over to pick up his precious M1911 pistol - not daring to leave his father's old Great War pistol as some sort of a war trophy for the enemy. He also made sure to grab his combat knife as well. He knew that he was probably going to need it again soon...
Bradley looked to see something running out of the treeline. He aimed his gun, but he didn't fire once he saw that it was an American who was running through the trees. It was the same person who had shot the soldier and saved Bradley's life just in the nick of time.
Bradley's eyes widened when he recognized this U.S. marine as Corporal Grimes, the missing radioman! However, the marine looked nothing less than terrified as he ran straight towards his captain... then straight past him.
"RUN, CAP'N!!! THE FUCKERS'RE RIGHT BEHIND ME!!!" Corporal Grimes warned his superior officer as he ran straight to the hill, hoping to climb it and reach the defilade.
Corporal Grimes rushed straight past Captain Enheart, who turned to see no less than a dozen Japanese soldiers running through the treeline guns blazing. With one loud cry of "HOLY SHIT!!!", Bradley wasted no time in hurrying after his corporal as the Japanese opened fire upon him too. As he rushed up the defilade, he made sure to pick up his submachine gun along the way.
By nothing less than a miracle, both Captain Enheart and Corporal Grimes managed to climb back up to the defilade without taking any bullets, and the pair quickly jumped back inside and felt relief as their comrades covered them with a shitload of gunfire.
Now that they were somewhat-safer for the moment, Bradley looked over at Corporal Grimes and he examined the radio he carried on his back. To his joy, he found that the thing didn't even have a scratch on it! Now all that was left was to radio the 6th Marines and to get some goddamn reinforcements...
"Corporal!" Captain Enheart barked to Corporal Grimes. "Get on your radio and send a message to the Sixth! Tell 'em we're under heavy enemy fire and that over half of our company is either dead or combat ineffective! We need support here as quick as they can send it, anything they can spare! Tell 'em to hurry their asses over here NOW!!!"
The young marine nodded at his captain and he sunk further, trying to take cover as best as possible so that he wouldn't get shot as he transmitted the message. As Captain Enheart and the other marines covered him, Corporal Grimes readied his radio telephone and he tuned to a frequency used by the 6th Marines. Japanese bullets flew above him as he tried his hardest to keep his head out of the line of fire.
Corporal Grimes cleared his throat and brought the telephone to his ear. As he radioed the 6th Marines, Captain Enheart and the other marines continued firing at anything that moved in the trees. The banzai charges from the Japanese were endless, and Captain Enheart was worried that he and his men may just run out of ammunition before the enemy ran out of soldiers.
Bradley and the other marines kept up the fire and they killed all of the Japanese troops they could see. But the bastards just kept coming. It seemed like two Japanese soldiers would show up for every Japanese they killed. Enheart and his men were going to need a miracle if this nonsense kept up...
"-Roger that, sir! Thank you!" Corporal Grimes said into his radio telephone as he finished sending his S.O.S. message to the 6th Marine Division. He hurried over to his captain to inform him of what was going to happen. "Sir! The Sixth are sending men as quick as they can! E.T.A is about twenty minutes!"
TWENTY MINUTES?!
Captain Enheart would've been infuriated at the news if he wasn't so terrified.
"CORPORAL, WE AREN'T GONNA BE HERE IN TWENTY MINUTES!!!" Bradley shouted at Corporal Grimes as he emptied another magazine worth of ammunition at the Japanese. They were getting very close to their position now. Bradley and his remaining men couldn't hold out forever against these bastards.
The 6th Marines needed to hurry! If they didn't get here quicker and save them, then all they'd find in twenty minutes would be a hell of a lot of American corpses. "THERE'S SO MANY JAPS THAT IT LOOKS LIKE FUCKING TOKYO DOWN THERE!!!" Bradley roared to his radioman. "NOW GET YOUR ASS BACK ON THAT RADIO AND TELL THOSE SIXTH SONS OF BITCHES TO HURRY THE FUCK-"
Suddenly, Bradley could hear the sound of a thump land under him. A metallic, heavy thump.
Captain Enheart stopped in mid-sentence and he stopped firing his machine gun as both he and Corporal Grimes glanced down at their feet. To their shock and horror, the two marines discovered that there was now a live Japanese hand grenade right under their feet.
Corporal Grimes dived for cover as quick as he possibly could in an effort to save his own life, but Bradley was simply too stunned to move. As he stood there like a deer that was caught in headlights, the Japanese soldiers all let out another loud battle cry for their country and their emperor, and then they began another powerful charge against the weakening American defenses.
Before Bradley could snap out of it and do anything to save himself, the grenade exploded and the world around him suddenly turned black.
...Silence.
...Utter silence.
...But somehow he was still alive.
Captain Enheart was hurt bad from that grenade blast, but he wasn't dead just yet.
The bloodied and terribly wounded marine weakly opened his eyes and caught his breath, wondering what had happened. After a couple of moments he remembered that an enemy grenade blew up right under him, but did the blast tear anything off of him? An arm? A leg? Was he bleeding to death at this very moment? And why was everything so quiet now...?
His entire lower body felt like it was in agony, but he was tough enough to hold back his screams. He managed to find the strength to raise his head, but the sights that greeted him was something that only greeted him in his nightmares.
There was so many corpses that surrounded him. Some Japanese, most American. Many of them mangled, many of them full of bullets. A couple on fire. So much blood and bullet casings and body parts littered all over the ground. Severed arms, severed legs... and then there was the distant sounds of many hurt young men calling out for their mommas or Jesus or whatever else.
Bradley turned to look away from the horror around him, but a dead marine with his face caved in from a Japanese bullet was all that greeted him. Bradley almost vomited at the sight of his dead comrade. He recognized the poor fella as Ramirez, the guy who he had ordered to look around for that radioman Corporal Grimes earlier during the fight. He remembered that the kid was only nineteen...
Hearing the all-too-familiar sound of Japanese, Bradley immediately went motionless and he tried to appear as dead as he possibly could. A few seconds later he could see a Japanese soldier walk over the trench. And then another. And another. And then twenty-fucking-more of them. Bradley literally had to hold his breath so that he wouldn't get noticed and killed by these animals. Or worse... captured...
"Saitō! Ishiyama!" he heard a distant Japanese sergeant call out to two of his men. "Futari wa korera no yankīsu ga subete shinde iru koto o kakunin shimasu! (You two make sure these yankees are all dead!)"
Bradley heard two Japanese soldiers acknowledge their superior as most of the Japanese soldiers resumed walking through the battlefield, trying to find any other surviving Americans. But then he heard gunshots. The bastards must've been executing any survivors they were finding among the dead...
He wasn't going to let them kill him this way. Not on his back. Not defenseless.
As the two Japanese soldiers kept searching through the corpses for anyone still breathing, Bradley could feel the beginnings of rain drops landing on his body. It was only a few moments later when it began to pour rain all around him. Okinawan weather was unpredictable sometimes...
One of the Japanese started walking towards Bradley, using his bayonet to stab at the corpses to check for survivors. If any of the bodies made sounds, the soldier shot them with his rifle. The other Japanese soldier did the same process but in the other direction. Bradley had to hold in his rage as he heard the sounds of bayonets entering flesh, an occasional scream, and an occasional gunshot.
The two Jap soldiers talked to each other as they executed surviving Americans. Bradley's Japanese was terrible, he couldn't tell exactly what they were saying. But from the laughter he heard he guessed that the fuckers were joking with each other as they killed his surviving men, all of whom were defenseless and wounded and totally unarmed. War crimes meant nothing to the Imperial Japanese Army.
Bradley unsheathed his combat knife and he hid it as best as he could. The rain poured all around him and left him laying in a puddle of mud and his own blood, but he was far more focused on the approaching Japanese soldier rather than the Okinawan weather.
A couple of more moments passed before he finally saw one of the Japanese soldiers out of the corner of his eye. Luckily for him, the Jap didn't try to bayonet or shoot him right then and there. The would-be executioner saw a souvenir that had his name on it...
Stepping right over Bradley, the Japanese soldier reached down to pick up the American's M1911, Bradley's precious family heirloom. The Japanese soldier thought that he could take a moment or two to aim down the sights and admire the American handgun that he wanted to take back home to Kyoto as a war trophy, but alas for him that moment of letting his guard down was enough to end his life.
Before the Japanese soldier knew it, Bradley had already shoved his combat knife deep into his back. As he stood there with a knife in his back, the Japanese soldier felt a hand cover his mouth to keep his screams quiet, and then he felt another hand snatch the pistol away from him.
Captain Enheart coldly frowned as he took back his handgun from the guy he just stabbed. "...That's mine." he quietly told the Japanese soldier.
Bradley then pulled his knife out from the Japanese soldier's back, then he slit his throat from behind. He let the Jap fall out of his arms and onto the ground, where he started to massively bleed out until he finally died face-first in the mud. Bradley didn't bother to watch the soldier bleed to death, he was just relieved to know that his father's precious pistol was unharmed.
Suddenly Bradley heard the other Japanese soldier start to look around for his now-dead friend. The marine immediately went to hide again as he heard the second Japanese soldier start scouring the area. This one was more alert than his buddy was, so Bradley knew he had to be careful.
"Saitō! Anata wa doko ni ikimashita ka? Koko ni imasu ka? (Saitō! Where did you go? Are you over here?)" the second Japanese soldier, "Ishiyama", called out for his comrade as he looked through some nearby American corpses.
This second Japanese soldier readied his rifle after his friend didn't respond. Something was wrong. Where the hell did he go? The soldier carefully stepped over and went around the bodies of Americans and fallen comrades as he looked around for his friend. The rain and the darkness made it very difficult to see anything that was two feet away, so he was very cautious as he searched. He had no idea that something was approaching him from behind...
"Over here, Tojo!"
The Japanese soldier turned towards the direction that he heard the whisper came from. Before he could fire his rifle, Bradley had already hit the soldier in the face with the butt end of a destroyed rifle that he found. The Japanese soldier immediately fell down onto the ground and went unconscious, having never seen the face of the man who had killed his comrade.
Bradley dropped the destroyed rifle and he readied his M1911 for what was essentially an execution. He aimed it down at the Japanese soldier's head and prepared to fire, but he suddenly realized that if he shot him then other Japanese troops in the area would hear the gunshot. He did think about taking his knife and slitting the Jap's throat while he was unconscious, but for some strange reason he simply couldn't bring himself to act on that.
Reluctantly, Bradley moved his finger off the trigger and he started to walk away, leaving the unconscious Japanese soldier behind for whatever fate awaits him. If it was any other circumstance then he definitely would have shot this son of a bitch without a second thought... If this Jap somehow manages to survive the rest of the battle, then his kids and grandkids oughta thank him for sparing his life like this.
Captain Enheart's wounds pained him very greatly, but he kept moving and he tried to ignore the pain as best as he could. He had to find any of his surviving men and he had to get them to safety, wounded or not. However many were left he couldn't allow them to become prisoners of war to the Japanese. Bradley honestly didn't care if he lived or died so long as he saved what was left of his company.
The sound of further gunfire in the distance got his attention. The marine hurried through the rain and the darkness and towards wherever the gunfire was coming from. It was difficult to guess which direction he was heading, but it was the right way since he could hear the gunfire gradually growing louder and louder.
Bradley eventually made it to the top of another hill. He looked off to the west and below him he could see a firefight going on between the Japanese and around a dozen of his surviving marines. All of them looked like they were wounded or hurt in some way, but they were all still fighting in what Bradley could only assume was a last stand of some kind. There was so many Japanese trying to kill him...
He had to save them.
His life didn't matter if it meant saving twelve men from certain death.
In desperation, Bradley looked around for anything that he could use to draw the enemy's fire away from his marines so that they could have a chance to escape. There was several dead Americans and Japanese in the spot he was standing, so he looked through the remains for anything that could help him. Bradley struggled not to vomit at the terrible stench from the bodies, let alone the sight of them alone. A few of them were so badly mangled that their innards were splayed everywhere...
Luckily, he found something that could help him attract the attention of the Japs - a Browning .30-caliber machine gun with hundreds of rounds worth of bullets in an ammo box next to it. He recognized the gun as that which Corporal Resnick and PFC Harrington had used earlier, but they weren't among the dead bodies. It was pretty hard to see through all of this rain, but he thought that he could see the two marines were with the others in the group below him. They must've been forced to abandon the gun as they retreated...
Though his wounds sent searing pain throughout his body with each little movement, Bradley hurriedly picked up the 31-pound gun and set it down in a good position that overlooked the firefight. He set the ammunition box next to the gun and then he loaded up a belt of ammo in it, and within a few more seconds he was ready to open fire. Bradley took a moment to give a silent prayer to his lord for good luck, and then he aimed down at the closest Japanese soldier to the group of marines.
He caught the fuckers completely by surprise when he started shooting.
The Japanese soldiers down below were cut down one after another. None of them knew what was happening until it was far too late, and Bradley was mowing them down both to their astonishment as well as the astonishment of his surviving marines.
As Bradley unleashed heavy fire upon the Japanese, the trapped U.S. Marines realized what he was doing for them. Although they wanted to stay and help their commanding officer fight the Japs, they knew that they were in no condition to keep fighting, so they all hurriedly began to retreat west in the direction of the U.S. 6th Marine Division as Bradley bought them the time they needed to escape.
He was sacrificing himself for them. He hoped his mom and dad back home would understand.
Bradley unloaded round after round upon the Japanese as he watched his men make their escape. He wished he could tell them how proud he was of all of them. How much he hoped that they lead great lives after whenever this terrible war ends. How much he loved each and every one of them... but he can't. All that he can do is keep fighting. All he can do is keep killing.
The marine didn't dare stop shooting even after his remaining men had escaped. By saving his men, Bradley had been cut off from his avenues of escape. All he could do now was hold out for as long as he possibly could.
It was kind of funny... Bradley Enheart always thought that he'd live a great, long life. He always figured that he would find a pretty girl and marry her, maybe they'd have a couple of kids... maybe even some grandkids if they were both lucky enough. A white picket fence. A dog. A pretty green lawn... He figured that someday decades from now he'd die as an old man laying in a comfy bed with his loved ones all around him.
But none of that was going to happen now...
No, Bradley wasn't going to die as an old man God only knew years from now. He wasn't going to get to die content, happy, and full of peace after getting lucky enough to live a long, full life.
Instead, Bradley was going to die young. Bradley was going to die angry and full of hate. And Bradley was going to die today, here on this hellish Pacific island too far away from home. He was going to die covered head to toe in Okinawan mud, his own blood, and the blood of others...
But there'll be a mountain of Japanese dead around him by the time he does.
"COME ON!!! COME ON, YOU JAP MOTHERFUCKERS!!! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?! I'M RIGHT HERE, I'M READY FOR A FIGHT IF YOU ARE!!! I'M READY FOR ALL OF YOU BASTARDS!!!" Bradley shouted as loud as he could at the Japanese as they kept trying to advance upon him.
One of the Japanese managed to make it through the heavy fire with a rifle in his hands. As he stood up to aim at Bradley, the marine quickly pulled out his M1911 and he put three rounds in that guy's chest and face. The soldier fell backwards and rolled down the hill, now a lifeless corpse. By this point there was dozens, maybe even hundreds of Japanese reinforcements arriving at the battlefield to fight Bradley. It was going to be a last stand worthy of the history books.
Bradley fired his handgun at another Jap soldier that got too close, and then at a second soldier as well. Then he went back to firing his machine gun at any Japanese that he saw moving down below him. He made no distinction on whether they were able to fight or if they were helplessly wounded. If they were Japanese Army, he was determined to take them down with him.
These fuckers like their war crimes, huh? He'll give 'em some...
The marine roared at the enemy as he kept firing upon them. "KEEP THEM COMING, YOU BASTARDS!!! WHAT'S THE MATTER?! YOU CAN'T HANDLE ONE GODDAMN MARINE?! I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU ANIMALS FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO MY MEN!!!" He wanted every last bit of their attention focused on him. The more Jap soldiers that were focused on him, the less that were looking for the marines who escaped.
His plan was working. He had lost count of how many Japanese soldiers he had killed today, but there was many more on the way. Their bullets kept missing, their soldiers kept dying. He could hear things exploding close to his position, likely from enemy mortar teams or from grenades or something, but he didn't flinch from the sounds. The white noise that was building up in his eardrums blocked all of the sounds of war anyway.
A nearby explosion from a mortar finally was enough to push Bradley away from the machine gun. The U.S. marine was caught by the shockwave and he landed with a hard thump against the ground, barely conscious. His anger was literally the only thing that kept him awake and alert at this point. It was only a few more seconds before he was back on the machine gun and shooting anything that was in sight again.
The screams of dying men... the sight of blood and death... shit that no man should ever have to see... Honestly, a small part of him felt a little bite glad to die here and now. Because otherwise all of this and so much more would haunt him for the rest of his life if he didn't.
Suddenly, Bradley could feel a Japanese bullet shred through his right shoulder. He screamed from the terrible pain, but he didn't dare take his finger off the trigger. The blood from the wound on his shoulder dripped its way all the way down the length of his arm. The pain was incredible, but he tried to ignore it as best as he could. If he could just keep this up for a little longer then his remaining men would survive...
The barrel of the machine gun was glowing red-hot from how much he was firing it. He didn't dare stop now. The Japanese were everywhere, and if he was going to fight to the end then he was going to make sure they'd never forget it. "MY NAME IS CAPTAIN BRADLEY EDWARD ENHEART!!! FIRST MARINE REGIMENT, FIRST MARINE DIVISION!!! I'LL DIE ON THIS HILL TONIGHT, BUT I'M TAKING ALL OF YOU WITH ME!!!"
Bradley saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned and noticed that a Japanese soldier had flanked him and that he was now raising his Arisaka rifle to fire at him. Bradley stood up and tried to get his pistol to shoot him first, but the soldier was quicker than he was. Another Japanese bullet went through Bradley's side and the marine screamed with pain yet again.
Now even more enraged, Bradley didn't waste any more time trying to ready his pistol. Instead, the pissed-off American took off his metal helmet and he threw it as hard as he could straight at the Japanese soldier, hitting him right in the jaw.
"FUCK YOU!!!" Bradley shouted at the guy who had shot him. The hard hit from Bradley's helmet made the guy stumble back and lose his balance, immediately making him fall over and tumble down the side of the hill they were on. The marine hurried back to his machine gun after that guy was dealt with and he started shooting at the Japanese soldiers again.
Shrapnel wounds. Bullet wounds. God only knew how many cuts and bruises... but even after all of this, Bradley didn't dare think of surrender. If they captured him alive then all of this would be nothing compared to what they'll put him through...
He saved his remaining men. He did his duty as best as he could...
Now he needed to die.
"YOU WANT ME?!" Bradley challenged all of the Japanese soldiers who dared to keep trying to advance on him. Although he was still putting up a hell of a fight, they were gradually getting closer to his position. There was so many bullets flying through the air now, both back and forth. "THEN FUCKING KILL ME THEN, YOU BASTARDS!!! KILL ME!!! BECAUSE I PROMISE THAT YOU WON'T TAKE ME ALIVE, YOU-"
That's when something extraordinary happened. Something that Bradley Enheart could never have predicted, something that he never would've expected in a million years...
The machine gun disappeared from his hands, right out of thin air...
The color left Bradley's paling face as he realized that his machine gun was gone. In his shock, he stood up and he looked around for it, but it was gone. It just... vanished? B- But how?! Where the fuck did it go?! Was he seeing-
Another bullet hit Bradley right in the knee while he was distracted. The marine screamed as he fell down onto the ground again, bleeding heavily from all three of his gunshot wounds. To his horror, he could hear several Japanese voices growing ever-louder as they carefully went up the hill to approach his position. All of those Japanese troops down there would be on him in the next few seconds if he didn't do something now...
Shakily, Bradley reached for the grenade that he kept on his harness. He only had a few moments to do what he needed to do. Not enough time to say a last prayer to his Lord, not enough time to curse the Japanese forever, not enough time to do anything else... All that he could do was just pull the pin and wait for the end. He did what he needed to do for his men, but now he had to do one last thing...
Stop shaking.
Stop shaking.
He had to do this.
He had to do this.
If Bradley didn't, then those monsters down there would make him wish that he did...
He pulled the pin. It wasn't easy to do it, but he did. His heart stopped for a moment when he heard the sound of the pin leaving the grenade, the safety lever being launched away from the metal body...
Bradley held his breath and he tightly shut his eyes, pressing the grenade to his chest and thinking about good memories as he waited for the end. A picnic up in Wisconsin with his parents when he was five... a trip to Navy Pier on his eleventh birthday... his high school graduation, a few old lost loves of his... his whole life flashed through his mind, but above all else he focused on one last thing. He thought about his mother singing an old Irish lullaby to him when he was little...
His mother singing to him was the last thing that he ever wanted to hear before eternal darkness...
......no explosion?
The marine cautiously opened his eyes and he glanced down at his chest, wondering why he wasn't dead yet. To his horror, he saw that the grenade had vanished just like how the machine gun did. The grenade was gone! THE GRENADE WAS FUCKING GONE!!!
They were going to capture him. Alive.
They were going to do terrible things to him.
He was defenseless...
Oh God...
OH GOD...
Bradley began to panic as he could hear the Japanese get closer. He had nothing left to fight with. No machine gun, no knife, no grenade, no nothing... He desperately looked to his handgun holster to see if his father's M1911 was there, but that gun was gone too! Where the fuck was his weapons?! WHAT WAS HAPPENING?!
Suddenly, it seemed as if the entire earth began to shake under him. He could hear the Japanese soldiers down below start to shout "Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!" over and over again, endlessly, as if they were cheering on the arrival of something. The trees in the distance started to shake and birds hurriedly flew out of them, as if they were fleeing for their very lives.
Something was coming... and it wasn't help.
The world around the battlefield began to glow, wildfires blaring out despite the heavy rain. The tress in the distance finally were broken down and they revealed what was coming to the battlefield. Bradley gasped as he could see a towering figure step through the remnants of the forests and start walking towards him. A towering, raven-black figure with glowing, blood-red eyes. It looked as if it was a silhouette of an ancient samurai warrior...
Whatever this thing was, it definitely fit the part of a samurai. It had a katana, it had all of the legendary armor of a samurai warrior... and on its chestplate it proudly beared a gold, glowing emblem of the Japanese Rising Sun. The samurai creature was taller than anything Bradley had ever seen in his life. It easily stood 190 stories tall, perhaps even more than that.
This couldn't be real. This had to be a hallucination. A nightmare. Something not of reality...
Wake up...
The samurai continued to walk up to the hill Bradley was on. It looked angry, but it didn't say a word to him. Bradley's heart felt like it was going to explode from how hard it was pumping. He was completely panicking...
Wake up...
As Bradley lay helpless on the ground, the creature stopped just in front of the hill and it stared down at him. The towering creature was still completely silent as it seemed to stare deep into Bradley's very soul, but then it raised its hand and it reached down towards him... To Bradley's horror, he realized that he was indeed going to be a prisoner to the Japanese, and there was absolutely nothing that he could do to stop it.
WAKE UP...
However, just before the fingertips of the towering creature could touch him, something remarkable happened...
Bradley Enheart finally woke up.