Chapter 5
I squeezed the trigger, and a 5.56mm round burst out of the front of my gun. My rifle kicked back at me as the bullet left the barrel. When an M16-A4 rifle fires a bullet, the bullet streaks out and cuts through the air at speeds upwards to 3,200 feet per second. That's 975 meters in almost the blink of an eye. Upon entering a human body, it turns sideways and tumbles around, ripping apart tissue, then it shatters.
BANG!
I wasn't even aiming, my rifle was pointing into nowhere and I randomly squeezed out shots, hoping not to get hit. Bullets smacked right into the dirt in front of me; they bounced off of things left and right. All that we could hear was whizzing of bullets and the constant sound of gunfire. I felt a hand grab me on the shoulder and shake me. It was Kira. She turned to me and started yelling something.
"Waffuru! …Rifle! …. Hit!" was all I could understand.
"What?!" I yelled back. She leaned closer and yelled again.
"AIM YOUR RIFLE AND HIT SOMETHING!" she yelled.
I turned my attention back to the battle. The rifle was in front of me, and I raised it to my eyes, lining it up with one of the distant soldiers in the field. My hand wobbled slightly, and it was hard to keep the sights on a target so small. Finally, I pulled the trigger and my gun lurched back and threw me off target. When I tried to pinpoint my target again, I found that he had crumpled to the floor. I just killed someone. Today, a Haisou family lost their son or husband, and it's all to blame on Zetsumei Raito.
Suddenly, there was something that I didn't expect. Explosions started showering us with debris. We were under artillery fire, and it was landing so close next to some of us, we were afraid to put our heads up. Suddenly, I heard screaming coming from behind us. It was Lieutenant Bryant- err…. Shanks. He was screaming something to our platoon leader.
"1st platoon, on your feet! We're flanking left!"
"3rd squad, let's move!" Kyoukan barked.
Kira and I scrambled out of our foxholes and we ran down the line, following our platoon leader. I had never met the guy, and now I'm following him in the midst of a storm of bullets and explosions, trusting him with my life. As we continued down the line, the Lieutenant was managing things with the other soldiers.
"2nd platoon, suppressing fire! I want those mortars pulled in here as soon as possible!"
We pulled out of the forest into a clearing, to the left (our left) side of the Haisou advance. We kept low behind shrubbery to avoid being spotted. We were given the order to hold up and we all stopped. Sergeant Kyoukan spoke with the platoon leader for a second, and then motioned for the rest of us to come with him. As we crept our way to him, he started revealing the plan.
"Alright, 1st and 2nd squads are going to lay down suppressing fire while we make our move. Dangan, Bijon, Houka and Kutabare will be laying down a base of fire while Raito, Chigiri and I will be flanking them along the sides. No one fires until I give the signal, any questions?"
We all remained quiet as the sounds of gunfire and explosions came off in the distance.
"Go."
We all moved out, staying as low as we could. Dangan moved ahead and scouted it out, along with the others. When they checked the area, they gave us the signal to move up. We scurried pass them and took cover along the side of a wall, facing The Haisou force's right flank. Kyoukan whispered to us.
"Right now, we're forming an L around the enemy position. Lieutenant Bryant called in elements of B Company to move up their left flank to the back. It's our job to lay down enough fire to make them fall back into that position. We're pushing them right into a trap.
Kira and I nodded. I glanced over at Houka, Kutabare, Dangan and Aragau. They gave me a thumbs-up and I nodded. I turned to Sergeant Kyoukan and awaited his instruction.
"Fire!"
Immediately, we all picked our targets and started dropping them. The enemy was so surprised; many of them didn't have time to react. They fell to the floor as we killed dozens of them. As they started to pull back and flee, we erupted into cheers. One of the Haisou soldiers got up from the floor and sprinted away, cowering in fear.
"Raito, finish him off."
I raised my rifle and steadied my breathing as I lined up my sights with the back of his head. I closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger.
POW!
When I opened my eyes, where there used to be a fleeing soldier, there was now a corpse with a bloody hole in the back of his helmet. Unfortunately, as the last of those forces pulled away, another platoon of soldiers ran at us, charging right at our position. Taken by surprise, we all quickly raised our weapons and opened fire, but we failed to kill more than a few. They began to storm our position, and the others held their fire in fear of hitting one of us.
WHAP!
A bullet caught the side of my helmet, and the force threw me onto my back. For a second, I wasn't sure if I was alive. Unfortunately for me, Sergeant Kyoukan decided that I had been killed, and grabbed Kira. The two of them sprinted back to their original position, leaving me behind, confused and dazed. As Kira was being dragged off, I could hear her screaming.
"Zetsumei! ZETSUMEI!" she yelled.
My vision was blurred, and my head was spinning from the force of the bullet. I reached up and felt my helmet to find that a piece of it had been chipped off by the shot. I was still alive, and I quickly came to that realization as I found Haisou troops coming at me. My weapon was out of reach, so I recalled that one story…
I had no time to grab my sidearm; I quickly went for my combat knife…
I grabbed my knife and sprang up, jamming it into the head of the nearest Haisou soldier from under his chinstrap. I wrenched the bloody knife out from his chin and turned around and slashed open the throat of a soldier running by me. Blood spurt out of his open throat as I grabbed my pistol out of its holster and shot 2 Haisou soldiers in the back. The last soldier, as he was climbing over the wall, came face to face with me. Quickly reacting, I rammed my knife into his face, in between his eyes. As blood gushed out of the wound, and he screamed in a horrifying manner. I ripped the knife out of his head and quickly spun around, striking him with the side of my pistol. As he fell to the ground, I unloaded a round into his temple. I was a bloody mess.
"Waffuru! Are you okay?" Dangan called out.
What was I turning into? I was becoming an animal, and I ended the lives of five men in a matter of seconds with such savage ferocity. I put my pistol back in its holster and put my knife away and stood there, shocked. Kira crept out of her cover and walked up to me, looking concerned. She placed her hand on my shoulder gently.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
I could only shake my head.
"I don't know." I said.
--
That night, Kira and I were back in the foxhole. We both huddled up next to each other and started talking about the day. I told her a bit about my life and she told me a bit about hers.
"Why'd you join the military, Zetsumei?" she asked.
"I wanted to make a difference in the world. I wanted to feel like that in my life, I would have accomplished something to make the world a different place."
We both stared up at the stars and continued chatting. It was so peaceful, and we used this time to grow closer. I was making a true friend, right in the midst of a battlefield.
"I saw you handle yourself when our position got stormed, Zetsumei. That was pretty impressive." She said.
I turned away.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Kira, I never killed anyone before today. Today, I murdered 5 men viciously, without mercy. I'm barely human anymore; I'm becoming an animal with a horrid bloodlust." I said.
I stared at my hands.
"No matter how many times I clean these fingers, their blood will forever be on my hands. No matter what I do with my life after this war, I will never be as good at anything else as I am at killing people." I continued.
As I curled up into a ball, she put her hand on my shoulder.
"Try and get some rest, Zetsumei." She said softly.
She fell asleep with her hand on my shoulder. I fell asleep with my rifle on the other side of the foxhole.