Chapter 6
Chapter 6
The following morning, I woke up with my helmet in front of me and I was hugging my duffel bag. I wasn't quite ready to open my eyes and face the morning light just yet, but it felt good being wrapped up in the equipment.
Wait a second… My helmet is still attached to my head. And I don't even HAVE a duffel bag!
…Uh oh. At that moment I was too afraid to wake up and see what I was hugging. It felt warm, and it was made of fabric, so it was hopefully a big bag with a heater in it. Scared half to death, I started easing my eyes open to see what I would find. Sure enough, Kira was right in front of me, my hands were wrapped around her waist, and my nose was tucked gently behind the back of her head. A lot ran through my mind at that moment. Had anyone noticed? Is Kira really awake, but she doesn't want to say anything? Or is there any military policy against spooning with your superior?
Aragau walked by and caught sight of us. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the strange scene, and I glanced up at him. His jaw was hanging open, and he seemed immobilized by shock. He shook himself out of it and walked on, pretending like he never saw anything. I sighed with relief.
"You don't think I'm asleep, do you Private?" a voice said.
"OH GOD!" I screamed.
I quickly jerked my hands from around Kira's waist and rolled across the foxhole awkwardly. The entire platoon peeked their heads out of their foxholes to see what had happened. As I lay there, with half of Charlie Company staring at me, I could only smile sheepishly.
"Corporal Chigiri, I can explain! I-… err… you… there was-… your ammo belt…" I stammered.
She smiled. Not a word was said, she only smiled as I tried to explain myself with what can only be described as a bad case of verbal diarrhea. It might have been just my imagination, but as she was smiling, she was blushing a bit too. I turned away, watching the line without saying anything further.
Later that day, Aragau, Dangan, Bijon and Kutabare were bunched up outside the mess hall. I joined in, and they all looked at me and started laughing. Confused, I looked around at them and asked:
"What are you laughing at, guys?"
Just then, Corporal Chigiri walked by and smiled at me. The entire group erupted into loud laughter. I blushed and tried to hide myself.
"Waffuru here thought the night was a bit cold, right guys?" Aragau said.
"Yeah, but it didn't take long for things to get hot!" Dangan finished.
The crowd laughed again and pointed at me. I was so embarrassed; I didn't know what to say. It was then that Aragau did one of the dumbest things I ever witnessed in my life.
"Hey guys, maybe I'll get some of that for myself, huh?" he chuckled.
Aragau walked out of the group, the rest of us watching him curiously. Corporal Chigiri was adjusting her rifle, unaware that Aragau was coming up behind her. As Aragau approached her, he gave Kira a spank on the ass. Corporal Chigiri jumped, startled, and quickly turned around to find a smiling Aragau standing face-to-face with her.
"Hey baby, mind if I spend the night in YOUR foxho-"
Aragau was unable to finish his sentence. See, Corporal Chigiri had swung her leg up and the tip of her boot happened to connect with the underside of Private Setsu Aragau's groin. Setsu crumpled to the floor, coughing and wheezing, lying in fetal position. We all stood with our mouths hanging wide open as we watched Setsu roll about in unbearable pain. Corporal Chigiri looked up at me, winked, and walked away without saying a word. Setsu was still on the floor.
"Right… in the… balls…" he wheezed.
It was me who started laughing next.
--
As Kira and I were watching the line, Sergeant Kyoukan walked up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and me motioned for me to come with him.
"Raito, get up. The Lieutenant wants to see you, let's go."
We walked together back to the CP. The wind was softly blowing and the gray skies seemed endless. It looked like a rainstorm was headed our way. As we entered the tent, we saw Lieutenant Bryant, inspecting a map. He looked up and motioned for us to come over and look at the map. We both looked down at the map of our area.
"Morning, gentlemen."
"Morning, sir." We responded.
"As you know, we're dug in along the line here." He pointed at a forested area on the map. "There is a clearance along the side of our position that runs to the side of the enemy lines. This small valley along the clearance should provide cover to anyone that's advancing on the way to the enemy lines. It's the same maneuver as if we were going to flank the enemy position. Follow this clearance to the right flank of the enemy." He said.
I looked at the sergeant and scratched my head.
"Sir, are we sending in the entire Company to flank the enemy?" I asked. "I thought we were assigned to dig in here."
"Not quite, Private. You see, we have no idea if we're up against a larger force or a weaker force. We need a small group of men to move along this valley and report back to give us the approximate number of men the Haisou forces have on the other side." He explained.
"If they have surveillance of this area, wouldn't they have defended their flank, sir?" I asked again.
"Our surveillance shows that their right flank has no defensive positions set up, you shouldn't encounter any resistance. You need to get in there, get the size of the enemy forces, and get out without being seen. The key is speed, don't pop the first thing that moves." The Lieutenant said.
"Raito, round up Chigiri and Dangan. Us four are going on this patrol." He said.
"Yessir."
--
Kira, Genzou, Keikan and I were moving out of our position. While we were away, we put Corporal Kutabare in charge of the squad. Sergeant Kyoukan was leading the patrol. Before we headed out, he went over everything.
"So the roster here is Corporal Kira Chigiri, Private First Class Zetsumei Raito, Private First Class Genzou Dangan and of course, me. All right, so there's a ditch off the in the distance, past the clearing that should pass right into the Haisou's right flank. We're going to follow this ditch to their lines and gather intel on the size of their forces there. No one opens fire; we get in, get the intel, and get out. Questions?" he said.
No one said anything.
"Let's get going."
Sergeant Kyoukan walked off, Dangan close behind him. I turned to Corporal Chigiri and looked at the floor. I had the oddest feeling that something was going to happen on this patrol. My stomach was crawling.
"Listen, Corporal Chigiri… I have an uneasy feeling about this patrol and I think that maybe you should know my intents if anything happens to me." I said.
"What do you mean, Private?" she asked.
Without thinking, I pulled her to me, and our lips connected in a kiss. I held her there for a second, our lips together. She was so beautiful, I couldn't resist it. As I slowly let her go, my eyes opened as her cheeks turned red. She gently closed her eyes and smiled. I quickly turned and caught up with Sergeant Kyoukan. We started moving along the ditch.
--
It was a long walk. We walked for about 20 minutes before the lines came within sight. We all crept down low to the ground in order not to be seen. My weapon was on safety, but I kept my thumb on the switch just to be ready. So far, there was no resistance. We turned to our right as the enemy lines inched closer.
"Dangan, scout it out." He ordered.
He moved up and took a peek over at the enemy lines. No one had noticed, and we were getting closer to the frontlines. As we peeked up, we started looking at the amount of men they had. Kyoukan looked through binoculars. He mumbled slightly as he scanned the area.
"Looks like we're attacking a larger force." He said.
I sighed and turned around. As I stared off in the horizon, I could have sworn there was something a bit off in the distance. I looked through my binoculars and tried to spot what it was. As I zoomed in with my binoculars, I discovered with shock that it was an enemy machinegun position. It was aimed right at us, and the crew was loading it. We had been spotted.
I slowly lowered my binoculars in disbelief. I knew I only had a few seconds to react. The rest of the squad was focused on the enemy lines, only I was facing towards the machinegun. I had to make a move.
"LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" I screamed.
Machinegun bullets tore through the air above our heads and smacking into the dirt beside us. I urged the line to move faster, pushing and pulling the entire squad. Startled, my squad scrambled to run out as the front lines opened fire on our squad. Bullets were landing all around us, pinging off of the dirt inches away from us.
"Get back to the lines, move it!" Kyoukan yelled.
In the faint distance I could hear a whistling noise.
"Everybody down!" I yelled.
Corporal Chigiri turned around, confused. I quickly tackled her to the floor, and mortar rounds started landing on our position. Explosions went off left and right dirt and bullets rained about us. Kyoukan checked our status.
"Sound off, Goddammit!" He screamed.
"Dangan, here!" Genzou yelled back.
"Raito, I'm okay!" I answered.
"Chigiri, I'm fine!" Kira called out.
The mortars stopped dropping and we continued moving. As we started up again, an enemy platoon came up to our left and opened fire. As Kyoukan and Chigiri ducked for cover, I flipped the safety off of my rifle.
"Dangan, suppressing fire!" I ordered.
We both started firing on the enemy platoon until they were suppressed. While we kept up the fire, we urged the others to keep moving. As I peered back, I saw a sharpshooter taking aim at us… No, not at me. He was aiming at Kira! I quickly jerked Corporal Chigiri aside and warned her:
"Get down!"
Just then, a bullet ripped into my side. I collapsed immediately, my body went limp and I hit the ground. My side was stained red, and the pain was burning through my entire body. It hurt so much, I could barely move, paralyzed by the pain. I started screaming.
"AUUGHHHHH!! I'm hit!"
"Zetsumei!" Kira screamed.
I was clutching my wound. I lifted my hand and stared at it. My hand was completely covered in blood, glistening in the sunlight. The pain was too great for me to get up, I remained on the floor.
"Zetsumei! Zetsumei!!" Kira was shrieking.
"Dangan, get him up! We need to get the hell out of here!"
Bullets were still flying all about us. As I started coughing, blood oozed out of my mouth. Kira looked like she was going to cry, her hands were over her mouth. Dangan grabbed my arms and Sergeant Kyoukan grabbed my legs. My rifle was slung over my shoulder as they started carrying me away. The gunfire died down, but I began to fade in and out.
The entire way back, Kira was throwing a fit. She kept her hand on mine, applying pressure to the wound. She looked at me with teary eyes and kept begging for me to stay alive. She wiped off the blood trickling down my cheek as I was coughing up more. It was getting hard for me to maintain focus.
As we got back to our position, we found that artillery was landing on our position, causing complete havoc and chaos. Explosions brought trees down around foxholes as people scrambled for cover. Dirt shot meters into the sky and rained back down. Kyoukan and Dangan quickly dropped me and tried to find cover. Kira knelt beside me as artillery shells bombarded us.
"Medic!!" she called.
I spat up more blood and I looked at my wound again. It was still bleeding, not as much as before, but if someone didn't treat this, I would bleed to death. It was hard for me to focus and I was starting to black out. I tried to say something to Kira, but I didn't have the strength anymore.
"MEDIIIC! We need a medic here!" she continued to scream.
A man ran over to me with a red cross on his arm. He began to look at the wound and start taking out bandages. My vision was blurring.
"It's okay, Zetsumei. You're going to be fine. It's all going to be okay." I heard Kira say.
"Ma'am, I think you should find cover."
BOOM!
Artillery was still hammering our position, but Corporal Chigiri didn't budge.
"I'm not leaving Zetsumei!" she yelled. I could hear she was almost on the verge of crying.
As the medic was bandaging me up, consciousness slipped away from me. My view started to go black and my head went limp and slumped off to the side.
"Zetsumei!… ZETSUMEI!!" a girl yelled.
I didn't respond.