Day 1: 1900 Hours

Night quickly fell on the exhausted group. They had been through so much in just one day, none of them thought that so much could go in the course of 24 hours. Especially with the encounter of the new reinforcements. As moon began to rise the group began to set up a small camp in a dense patch of trees. As they waited for the darkness to enve;op them, they decided to find out a little bit more about their new companions. In particualr, Blackjack.

"Where did you learn to fight like that," Humphrey asked in awe.

"The real question should be where didn't I learn to fight. Before I joined the military I traveled the world learning just about every single martial art on the planet. I inherited my parents wealth so traveling abroad wasn't a problem. I went to Japan where I learned everything from Aikido to Jui-jitsu. Thailand, South America, Africa you name a country I've been there. But by far my favorite trip was to Israel, where I learned most of my Krav-mgaw," he replied as he pulled a small brown package from his backpack, which he recovered from a smoldering shed.

"I gotta say I've seen a lot of kung-fu movies, but that beat them all. Especially when you blew up the fuel tanks," Mooch commented. Blackjack smilled and even laughed as he opened his M.R.E.

"I will admit that part was just luck, if that first shot would have missed I would have emptied that pistol into those fuel tanks," he laughed as he examined the meal. "Nice, chicken quesidillas." he said with excitement as he readied his meal.

"I'm a little curious about something, how did you guys meet Lilly," Kate asked, finally calming down after the earlier events.

"Well, we actually met when she first came in to the recruitment center. Most of the guys just kinda laughed at her, so we took her in as if she was our little sister," Midnight explained as he roughly rubbed her head playfully causing her to giggle.

"I don't know what I would've done withought these guys," she laughed as she uselessly tried to fend off Midnight's ensuing noogie.

"She's told us a lot about you guys, whenever we would go out on overnight excercises she'd keep us entertained with these great stories," Ricoh laughed. After a few more minutes of conversation they finished their dinner and stowed away into their tents to rest up after their long day. But only most of them, would sleep soundly.

Day 2: 0200 Hours

Humphrey practically jolted awake in his tent. He had been through enough of a struggle trying to get to sleep in the first place he should have been expecting it. All he could think about was Blackjack's display of strength. It made him wish that he could impress Kate that way, that easily. He sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes as he let out a wide yawn.

He got up and left his tent to get some fresh air, finding everyon else asleep. He looked over to see Kate snoozing away happily. He sighed and shook his head as he walked away from the camp so he wouldn't disturb anyone. He blindly sat down on a fallen tree and placed his hands on his forehead. Little did he know, he was not alone.

"Good morning Humphrey, what's bothering you," Ricoh asked. Humphrey jumped out of his skin, completely unexpectant of his companions apperance.

"Jesus Ricoh you scared me to death," Humphrey said startled. Ricoh laughed and placed his finger over his mouth.

"Shh, you'll wake the others. But sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, now back to my original question, what's bothering you," he repeated. Humphrey sighed and sat back straight.

"Well, you see, I really like Kate, but she doesn't like me back, and, I just wished that I could be like Blackjack, then maybe she would notice me," he explained with a small tear in his eye. Ricoh didn't seem to be surprised, in fact he nodded as if he were expecting.

"Humphrey, there's a lot you don't know about Blackjack. You probably think that he signed up just to be a complete bad-ass don't you," Humphrey blushed and shamefully nodded his head. "Well, it's not like that. I've known him for almost five years now, and believe me, he's nothing but a big teddy bear, unless of course you piss him off. Anyway, Blackjack had been alone for most of his life,"

"I can tell the rest Ricoh, you should get some sleep," the two were startled by Blackjack himself, who acted as though he was wide awike. Ricoh nodded and returned to his tent, freeing a seat for Blackjack.

"Humphrey, it's no secret that you love Kate, but you don't need to be like me to impress her, in fact, you don't want to be like me at all," Blackjack said sending Humphrey into a wave of embarassment.

"But, what you did back there was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I just thought that, maybe if I could do it to, Kate would like me," Humphrey said as small tears swelled into his eyes. Blackjack sighd and placed his hand onto Humphreys shoulder.

"Let me tell you a little story,"

*Blackjacks words*

Many years ago, there was a little boy, who was a lot like you. I know that sounds a little corny, but it's true. He idolized his father, and always wanted to impress everyone. He was madly in love with his long time best friend who lived a coupld of houses away, and would walk her home every single day from school. Of course, he would never actually admit that he liked her, it was his secret to stay. His parents always bought him what he wanted for ever holiday and birthday that passed. But they never gave him what he truely wanted.

He always wanted to be able to impress others. For once, he wanted them to look upon him, to think of him as an idol, as a role model, as a friend. He asked them many times to let him join a sport. Karate, football, basketball, baseball, soccer, wrestling, you name it he wanted to try it. But his parents, were too strict. They didn't want anything to happen to their little boy, and so time and time again, he was denied.

The thing was, he never let the word no get him down. He always kept a high chin no matter what happened. To him, there was always a bright side to any situation. Unfortunately, this also made it all the easier on his parents to tell him no. Then one day, when he was turning fourteen, his parents allowed him to invite his only friend over. The girl who lived just down the street.

She wanted to surprise him with her appearance, so she managed to slip out of school early and race to his house where she eagerly awaited his arrival. He was caught back by a teacher who was commending him for his excelent work on a class project, and was a few minutes late leaving. As he left, he cheerfully walked home, despite the fact that it was starting to rain.

When he got home, his life changed forever. The door was wide open, nearly knocked off of the hinges. He rushed inside and started to scream for his parents, until he saw both of them, dead on the kitchen floor, blood covering the walls. Two twelve gauge shotgun shells layed empty on the floor, their contents buried into the skulls of his parents.

The next thing that he thought of was his friend, he was concerned for her. HE sprinted into the living room to find her cowering in a corner as two masked burglars held her at gunpoint. Throwing caution to the wind he threw himself in front of the barrel of the weapon.

"BACK OFF," he shouted as loud as he possibly could. The two men saw his act of courage and simply laughed. The man who was holding the gun lowered it and grabbed the boy by the collar and threw him across the room, sending him crashing through the table. Before he could move a single muscle the other pinned him ti the ground. With no thoughts for mercy at all the made him watch as they beat, and then raped the girl. Despite his struggles, he had no chance of breaking free.

When they were done they shot her in the chest with the gun, ending her life tradgically early. They were preparing to do the same to him, but he had suffered enough. There would be no more, he would make the two assailants pay for what they had done. He snapped, and printed them a one way ticket to hell, the price of admition, their lives.

It was as if all of his anger, his hatred, and his sorrow combined within him to form pure strength. With a single burst he threw the man pinning him to the ceiling, smashing the ceiling fan around his back. The boy rolled under the barrel of the shotgun and sprang upwrads, sending the shotgun aiming upwards right as the trigger was pulled, sending a hail of buckshot into the unarmed burglar.

The force of the jump was so great if proceeded to knock the gun from the murderers hands and it fell to the floor. Fortunately for the boy, the shotgun was a semi-automatic, and automatically loaded a new shell. as the stock of the gun hit the ground the sheer kinetic energy released the firing pin, blowing the purps brain all over the place.

When the massacre was finished the boy collected the three shells that had killed his loved ones, and cried. The girl he had loved he kissed gently on the forehead, and hugged his parents. It was over an hour before he managed the strength to call the police, who rushed to the house. Paramedics arrived shortly after, they announced everyone at the scene dead.

After that the boy never saw another happy day in his life. He was sent off to life with his aunt for four years, and each one of them worse than the last. His depression crept up on his life a flesh eating virus that consumed his whole body. Once he turned 18 he collected the money his parents left him in their wills, and left. From then on he traveled the world for four years, but he never found a comfortable place to live. He could never escape his past. He had lost everything, on his very own birthday.

*Back to reality*

Blackjack reached into the collar of his shirt and uncovered a necklace that was strung through three 12 gauge shotgun shells, the brass on each was begining to rust, and the color was fading from the casings.

"That boy was me Humphrey," Blackjack said. His voice was filled with pain and sorrow, but he didn't shed a single tear. Humphrey was practically speechless, he never thought that anything as bad as that could happen to anyone.

"My god, that's horrible. I-I'm sorry," Humphrey gasped lightly. Blackjack smiled slightly and shook his head.

"I'm not dead yet, and what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. That day may have been the worst in my life, but it brought me to these people that I consider my family. I learned to never take things fpr granted. Plus, I, I met my future wife," Blackjack said looking back at Lilly's tent. Humphrey's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped.

"You and Lilly are engaged," Humphrey asked semi-loudly.

"As of three days ago, yes. We haven't told anyone yet though, we we're going to wait until friday, because that will mark the day that our group has been together for two years," Blackjack whispered as he pulled a diamond ring from his pocket and smiled at it.

"Well, not to be rude, but what does any of that have to do with me," Humphrey asked with a small blush. Blackjack let out a slight laugh and looked Humphrey square in the eyes.

"The story has a moral, the moral is never lose hope. As quoted by a character in one of the greatest books ever written 'Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.'"

**Authors note: Sorry this chapter took so long to update, my internet went out and I haven't been able to do anything at all. Anyway hope you're enjoying the story so far. In case you didn't know the quote Blackjack uses is from 'The Shawshank Redemption,' written by Stephen King. It is a really good book, and movie, Morgan Freeman plays 'Red'. Well anyway before I start rambling it would be nice if you would take just a minute of your time to write a small review to let me know how I'm doing. It doesn't have to be much even a smiley face will be accepted. See you guys later, ReaperHunter000 signing off.