War Is Hell

by White wolf of death

War can change many people. Losing those close to you and making family with those around you. Death is nearing many, will death be right on your shoulder, or will it be behind enemy lines?

2. Lucky Bastards

(Violet's Pov)

I look at the dog tags in my hands. They were shaking as I tried to read the name over and over again. I place my hand to my mouth to keep quiet and I take some deep breaths. I had to keep calm, I have to stay alert, I can cry after this is all over. I take another breath and put the dog tags back into my jacket. Why the hell did they give them to me? Why the hell did I not give them back? I wiped my face and picked up my rifle as I get up and take watch.

"I got watch tonight." I hear and look to Mitch.

"Mind if I stay up with you?" I asked.

"Sure… I'm sorry about Minerva." He says and I nod as he takes a seat next to me.

"It's fine… oh shit." I say and hand him a cigarette which he takes.

"How many packs you got?" He laughed as I lit it for him.

"Three more left till I trade for some." I tell him.

"Damn… need to see if we can get some more explosives from that bridge." He mutters and I look to the sky a bit.

"Doubt the bridge is still there, enemy sees to many people heading that way… boom." I say moving my hands making an explosion.

"All we can do is hope." He says and I nod and I sniffed the air a bit.

"God we stink." I joked and he laughed.

"Would be nice to get all this muck off." He says and I chuckled. We sit in silence and I feel a bit tired as I look around a little.

"Get some sleep." He says and pats my back a bit and I nod as I lean against the rocks and close my eyes for a bit. I could hear the screams of many people. Crying for their mothers, I don't think I've heard one cry for their father, only their mothers. I could even smell burning flesh in my sleep. How can one smell in their sleep, in their dreams? I woke up to early for my liking and I see the others waking up as well. I shut my eyes again as I take a few breaths and I slowly get up and opened my eyes as I smell some coffee and I see Omar next to me holding a cup and I take it.

"Thanks." I say quietly and he nods. I take a sip and lay my head back once again. I started to feel sick to my stomach.

"Hey you alright?" I hear and look to Luke and I nod.

"Stomach just hurts a little, but I'm fine." I say as I sit up once more and finished the coffee. I get up from the ground and we get ready to head out so I sighed as I grabbed my rifle and we begin walking once more. I grew tired of all this walking. Is the bridge still even there, why were we going there anyway?

"So… how'd you become a sniper anyway?" I hear and turn a bit to look to David then to the ground a bit.

"Saw I was a great shot." I tell him.

"You ever go hunting?" Luke asked.

"No… never touched a gun till basic." I tell them.

"Really?" Luke asked and I nod.

"Yeah… wasn't much of a gun person anyway." I tell him as we come up to a battlefield. It looked abandoned but we stop and look around.

"Take some cover." David says and we do just that jumping into a trench and I turn to see a body next to me rotting and I turn away feeling sick. I feel a hand on my face as my eyes were shut tightly and I open one eye slightly to see Clem who nods upward a bit and I nod slightly as I slowly move up a bit to look over the trenches.

"I don't see anyone." Louis whispers and I look to him and I grabbed my rifle scope and take a look.

"Shh." David says and I look around a bit then there was a gunshot and a metal tink sound. I look to the side to see Louis fall back and I hurry down to him as he grabbed his helmet.

"Jesus fuck you are one lucky bastard." Marlon says and I look up and grabbed my rifle.

"Fuck." I hear Louis say.

"I didn't see where it came from." Clem says pissed and I think as I lower myself from their sight. I looked to the body next to me and grabbed their helmet and I look to Clementine.

"I'm going to throw this up, you look to see if you can find where they are shooting." I whispered to her and she nods as I get the helmet ready to be thrown.

"Now." She says and I throw the helmet up and it gets shot at. We then hear another shot and I look to Clem as she reloads the rifle and I look to her.

"Got them." She whispered then there was another shot that rang out and we take cover.

"Fucking hell." David says and I look down the trenches a bit.

"That way, I see a hidden bunker." David says and we all get ready and follow him. We get to the bunker quietly and try to hear if anyone was still in there.

"Alright, Aldon, Everett, we need you two to go separate directions so they don't get you both at the same time. Luke and I will head up to the second trench ahead of us to see if we can get close to them and figure out how many we are dealing with… Ruby you stay here with Louis, Marlon and Aasim we need you two to see if you can get anyone on that line, inform them of where we are, and that possible enemies are headed where we want to go." David says and I nod as I head down to the opposite direction of Clem. I found another bunker and went inside and looked around to see no one. I poke my head up a bit through the hole and looked through my rifle scope.

"Blessed be the lord-." I say and there was a shot at me and I cover and grabbed my helmet as I ducked quickly.

"Fucking fast fucker." I mutter as I quickly get up again and try to find anyone. I see a bit of flashing to the west and look to the side a bit.

"Left, tree trunk." I whispered and looked to that direction and saw someone. I put my hand on the trigger and take slow breaths.

"My strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." I say and then take the shot hitting them in the head and I hear another shot and look around.

"My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield." I say as I see the bastard and take the shot missing and I reload my rifle and signal to Clem before I was shot at again.

"Fuck." I mutter as I duck down again. There was another shot and I quickly get up and look through my sight to see they were still there but slumped and I sighed. I look around again and see no one but there was another flash and I hurry down and grabbed my pistol as I look to the door. I waited and waited as I looked to the door. I take a breath as the door opens a little and then shut quickly as I see a grenade. I grabbed the body on the side and place it on top of the grenade just in time for it to go off but it blasted me back into the wall and my hearing rang. The door opened quickly and I grabbed my pistol and took the shot. The man dropped dead and I take my right hand and place it to my forehead then to my breast and both my shoulders and I take a breath and hurry to the door shutting it just as I hear multiple shots hit the door and I cover my head.

"Fucking hell." I mutter and I look around a bit and my ears still rung. There were more shots and I quickly grabbed my rifle and strapped it to my back and I kept my pistol out as I slowly opened the door. I see two bodies on the ground and I open the door more and quietly as I looked around.

"GET DOWN!" I hear and there was another blast as I fell forward and into the mud. I move my head to the side a bit and there was an enemy coming right at me and I look for my pistol but they jump on me brandishing their knife. I grabbed their arm as they tried to jam the knife into my chest, their sweat dripping on me.

"Just let it happen, let it happen." They say quickly as I tried to keep the knife above and away.

"Stop, don't just stop." I say to them as they keep trying to stab me and I was able to twist my body enough to roll them over. They yelled in my face as I was able to take the knife out their hand and they punched me and I fall to my side.

"ALDON!" I hear just as I looked up to see the man get shot and I look to the sky as I lay my head back and take some much-needed breaths.

"Jesus are you ok?" I hear and I nod and lay my head to the side as I see Ruby run up to me.

"Are you sure you're, ok?" She asked and I nod a bit as I get up slowly and look for my pistol. I find it covered in mud and I sigh as I wipe it off as best as I could and we head back to the others.

"You good there?" Clem asked and I nod.

"Fucker almost stabbed me… thanks for the warning." I say and she nods and I see Luke run up to us.

"No sign of anyone else, we're good to go." He says and we all hurry across the trenches and past the dead bodied. We end up back into the wooded area and I slow down as I throw up what little food that was in my stomach on the side of a tree.

"Hold up." I hear and I throw up again and wipe my mouth with my sleeve and I take a few breaths.

"I'm good… sorry I'm good." I tell them and I get back up to the group.

"Everyone gets sick." I hear and I nod as we keep walking.

"So, what made you become a nurse?" Clem asked Ruby who walked beside us.

"Our old nurse back at the school taught me a lot about medicine. I was fascinated by it that it made me want to study more. I was just going to be a nurse back home but, instead I came out here, why not help those in battle." Ruby tells her and I grabbed a cloth and started to clean my pistol as best as I could.

"What about you Louis? You said your dad made you join?" Clem asked.

"He's a dick, thought I needed to toughen up, said I'd thank him later… yeah real parenting that man did." He says and I look to him.

"Isn't your dad rich or something?" I asked confused and he nods.

"Doesn't mean he won't send me to what he assumes as boot camp." He says and I roll my eyes.

"Dick move on his part." Clem says.

"When I get back home, I'll call him Major Dick just for you two." He joked as he puts his arm over my shoulder and looks to me and I look to his helmet.

"It's just grazed, I'm fine." He says and I touch the graze mark a bit and sighed as I put my hand down.

"Need to stay alive moron." I say and shove him a bit.

"Will do." He says and we keep walking.

"So, you like blowing things up?" Clem asked Mitch.

"Yeah, almost blew up my fathers' workshop, funny as hell." Mitch laughed and I look to him.

"Need to find more supplies soon." Ruby says and I see her looking at her medic bag a bit.

"Whatcha need?" I asked as I grabbed some chocolate and passed it around.

"Need some more Morphine, sharper scissors as well and gauze." She lists off and I go through my bag and hand her some of my spare gauze.

"Don't have any morphine sorry." I say and she nods.

"That's fine, should find another medic soon." She says and I nod. I see a cloth be placed by my face and I look at the person who was Clem and I take the cloth.

"Your face." She says and I wipe it quickly. I look to the cloth to see some blood and I sighed as I wiped more blood off and shake my head.

"Need a fucking river or something." I mutter.

"There is a river about a mile out, should we head there?" Marlon asked and I look to David.

"Yeah, we need to fill up the canteens anyway." He tells us and we just kept walking. We finally hit the river and I go kneel down and wash my face as best as I could. Scrubbing the blood to the point I think my face was red.

"Guys." We hear and I look up to see Aasim and Omar as the point ahead and I stand up to see more bodies.

"There wasn't supposed to be anyone near here." Marlon says as he looked to the maps.

"We need to check it out." Luke says and I get up and we crossed the river and I look at the uniforms a bit.

"I've never seen any uniform like this." I say as I bend down and pat the uniform. I see the others do the same but there was nothing to identify the people.

"Nothing." I mutter and look to the others and thy shook their head.

"Maybe they were civilians?" Louis asked.

"That would be stupid." Luke says and I look to him and I rubbed my head a bit and looked to the body and I get up.

"But not unlikely." Ruby says as I go over to them.

"People did this before?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, except the civilians were alive and in enemy uniforms, it's…. fucked up." I say.

"You deal with this?" David asked and I shook my head.

"Met up with a group that did though, when I got there, they were taking the uniforms off kids, like… twelve-year-olds… Enemy was trying to keep their soldiers safe thinking we would shoot but, the civilians were from a different region, so different dialects." I explained and I see Louis look away.

"But these could be Allies." Luke says and I shrugged.

"Could be but they don't have anything proving it." I say and we walk up to the hills and see thousands of bodies littering the ground and I swallow a bit.

"Jesus fucking Christ." I hear Louis says and I slide down the hill with David and we looked around.

"See if there are any survivors, maybe they can tell us something." David informs us so we go looking around while keeping our guard up. I looked and looked until I hear something and look to Omar who nods and we go to the sound and find someone with their hand up and we run up to them.

"Fucking hell." I mutter as I see that their organs coming their stomach and I turn to look at the ground a bit.

"What happened?" Omar asked and I look to the person.

"El enemigo, t-nos hicieron… usar esto." (The enemy, t-they made us… wear these.) He tells us and I look to him as he put his hand on the uniform and then to his organs and I look to the side a bit.

"¿Por qué te hicieron usar esto?" (Why did they make you wear these?) I asked and I hear the others come over to us as the man cried.

"P-práctica de tiro llevó a mucha gente… m-nos obligó… a hacer una pelea simulada." (T-Target practice, took many people… m-made us… do a mock fight.) He cried and Omar whispers to him and I sigh as I look to the others.

"Target practice, big ole mock fight." I mutter.

"Those bastards." David says and I look to him then to the ground and the man grabbed my hand and I look to him.

"Ellos llevaban un parche… setenta y seis era el número." (They wore a patch… seventy-six was the number.) The man whispers and he lays his head back and I look to David.

"Seventy-six." David says and I nod.

"What?" Clem asked and I think a bit.

"One group on the enemy side is called the New Frontier, they have a patch with the number seventy-six." David says and I look at him.

"It's a group of people that don't care who lives or dies, they even killed their own that go defective in their eyes." He says.

"Like the Delta group?" I asked.

"No, the Delta group is on our side." Clem says.

"No, on the enemy side, they let anyone join, they aren't even officially part of the military, think of it as uh… a rouge militant, like back in America." I tell her.

"Like crazy people that hate the government?" Louis asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, but they will use the rights that America established to defend themselves even though it took the act of a government to establish most of those rights." Marlon says and I stand up.

"Regardless now we know the enemy that was here, Aasim can you radio Charlie to relay a message to the General, they might be to far but best to try." David says.

"On it." Aasim says and gets to work and I look around a bit.

"You think there could be some still nearby?" Luke asked.

"They could be watching us." Ruby says.

"And not kill us?" Luke asked.

"They like to play games, keep us alive to see how we do in battle strategize on what they find and when ready they attack." David explained.

"You dealt with them?" I asked and he nods.

"Was a POW with them before their camp was blown up." He says.

"And they made you stay here?" I asked as we walked to see if we could find any survivors.

"Wasn't there that long, only a month, they checked me to see if I was ok and I am, plus I wasn't going to leave back home when I'm needed." He tells us.

"How long did you serve before this?" Louis asked.

"Ten years, served over in Europe in the last major war, but nothing… nothing like this." He says and we keep walking and looking.

"Not a major World war?" Omar asked.

"No, it was contained in one area… went to France real nice place." He says and I nod at this and I take a breath.

"Went there for leave for a few days, cheese was good." I joke and he laughed.

"Wine is better." He jokes and I laughed.

"How'd you get leave in all this?" Luke asked.

"Been here for so long, they had too, to try and keep me happy… though right now they can't send me out." I tell him.

"When did you leave?" Clem asked and I look to her.

"Two weeks after my birthday… again almost two years." I tell her and wink then looked to the path ahead of us and found another bunker. David goes up to it with caution and we ready our weapons to the door as he kicks it in and nothing. We walk up to it and saw charred bodies and I back up a bit.

"Burned to death." Ruby says and I nod.

"Smells awful." Louis says and I nod.

"So, they sent you out here by mistake?" Luke asked as we walked.

"Yeah, I do have a pistol but… I personally can't take a life." He tells them.

"Guess they need those who can't kill to kill knowing they can't kill to save anyone." Luke mutters.

"There's more to helping than taking a life." Louis says.

"But you didn't kill anyone when we were caught in two fire fights." He says and I look to Luke.

"Hey least he still goes by his morals." I tell Luke and he looked to me and I raise a brow at him.

"Gonna try and take a jab at me?" I asked him.

"Well, I heard you say prayers before you kill." He says.

"So?" I asked.

"Doesn't your bible say not to kill?" He asked and I stopped and looked to him.

"I'm not as religious as you think, do not criticize me for that." I tell him and I shove him away from me and keep walking.

"It's just stupid." He says and I look to him.

"This whole war is stupid, there are plenty of religious people out here, you going to badmouth them?" I asked.

"Woah, we don't need any fighting." Clem says.

"Don't think you're high and mighty." Luke says to me.

"When did I say I was?" I asked. I waited but he didn't say anything and I nod and turned back around and started walking again. Someone runs up to me and I see Clementine and I look back in front of me as I go over a dead body.

"I'm sorry about Luke." She says and I sighed a bit.

"It's whatever." I say.

"I just… I don't want you to think ill of him." She says and I look to her a bit and I rubbed the back of my head.

"I won't this place will change people so… don't worry." I tell her and we walked some more still finding more bodies.

"How many people did they kill?" Louis asked.

"Looks to be in the thousands." I say.

"We should head back to Aasim, see if he was able to get anyone." David says and I nod as we head on back.

"Hey you listen here-." Aasim says pissed and he sighed.

"They're civilians." Aasim says and I bend down to him and I grabbed the phone from him.

"Hey who am I talking to?" I asked calmly.

"Sargent Garcia." The man says and I look to David and I covered the phone.

"You got a brother here?" I asked.

"Javier?" He asked and I shrugged as I go back on the phone.

"We need you to get us in contact with the General or at the very least relay a message back to them." I say.

"About the civilians?" He asked.

"They were dressed up in some weird uniforms, and were used for a mock battle, one of the civilians explained it to us before he died, the bodies are in the thousands here and we really want to inform the General." I explained to him.

"Look, we can't be doing-."

"Sargent Garcia, right?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"Your brother David is with my group and he was the one to tell us to inform the General, now I think you and I both know he's well versed when it comes to battle tactics, and if we tell the General this, we might have a plan as to what they are up to." I tell him.

"Put David on." He says and I sit up and hand the phone to the man and then move away as he talked to his brother and I go over to Clem.

"… Javier Garcia?" I asked him and David nods and I nod as well.

"Wait the baseball player?" Louis asked.

"Seems like it." I say.

"Shit Javier is here?" Clem asked and I look to her.

"You a baseball fan?" I asked.

"A… yes but I know his nephew… personally." She tells me and I nod.

"If they have Javier here then his nephew might be here too." Louis says.

"Probably, but Gabe doesn't like to take orders well." Clem says and we laughed.

"And you think we did?" Mitch asked and she looks to him then to us and I smile a bit.

"Teens just suck." I joke and she laughed a bit.

"Oh, trust me… Gabe is just a weird kid." She says.

"Alright, thank you brother." David says and I look to him as he hangs up.

"Apparently the General knew this already, didn't think it was a concern because the New Frontier isn't really part of the battle, but he's going to push some papers through so it's on file." David sighed and I look around.

"We should head out." Luke says and we all agreed. We packed up and started to head out and I scratch my head a bit and look at my rifle a bit.

"Damn." I mutter as I see my scope cracked off from my rifle to the point, I couldn't fix it.

"Shit, that sucks." Clem says and I nod and I pull the scope off.

"I can try and fix it tonight." I mutter and I replace the scope and look down it.

"Is that one not zeroed in?" She asked.

"I used it mostly as a makeshift binocular." I tell her and sighed as I tried to fix it.

"Won't know till I shoot it." I mutter and set my rifle back on my back.

"Check mine." She says and I chuckled as she hands me hers and I look down it and hand it back.

"It's cracked." I tell her.

"Yep." She laughed.

"You shoot like that?" I asked.

"Had to learn, no spares." She says and I nod.

"Fair but it has to suck." I tell her.

"Oh, it does if I get a new one that would be a godsend." She tells me and I nod.

"Might be able to find one." I say and walk over another body.

"Might be." She tells me and I look to the side.

"So, you know David's son?" I asked.

"We… might have dated… once or twice." She says and I chuckled.

"What?" She asked and I think a bit.

"It's so… weird." I say to her.

"Weird how?" She asked.

"You dated the son, of this guy." I say pointing at David's back.

"And you're in battle with said guy." I say to her.

"It's not weird." She says.

"Fascinating?" I asked.

"No." She laughed and I look to her.

"You… do you not have anyone back home in a boyfriend way?" I asked her as we looked around a bit.

"No, I have a friend named Duck though." She tells me and I look to her.

"Weird name I know but he's a sweet guy, like a brother to me… annoying, talked a lot about comics, and I miss putting bugs in his pillow." She tells me and I chuckled.

"Sounds like fun." I say and looked to the side a bit. We finally got passed all the bodies and I look to the side a bit as we are in a wide-open field and I look to the side and then around.

"No woods." David mutters.

"Out in the open is not good." Luke says and I see some cows walking around.

"We might be on someone's land." I say quietly and pointed to the cows.

"We didn't pass a fence." Louis says and I look around a bit.

"Was it tore down?" Aasim asked and look around.

"Maybe but… we don't know." I say and we march up a hill and look around some more.

"No fence." Clem says and a shot rang out and I fall back and down the hill.

"VIOLET!" I hear and I look at the sky a bit and then around as Ruby came up to me.

"Where?" She asked and I just look around some more as I hear more gun shots.

"RUBY GET UP HERE!" I hear David yell and I look to her.

"SHE WAS SHOT!" Ruby yelled back and I wave her off.

"Up… up." I say and she helped me up and looks to my shirt as I groan.

"GET UP HERE!" Luke yelled and I look at her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, just go." I tell her and hold my side as she runs up.

"CLEM CAN YOU SEE THEM?!" I hear.

"NO!" I hear and I slowly get up and get over to Clementine.

"Jesus, are you ok?" She asked and I nod and grabbed my scope.

"Yeah just… I'll look you shoot." I tell her as I look through my scope and I feel someone to my side and see Ruby.

"I'll check, you keep working." She tells me and I look back and can't find anyone.

"Jesus fucking Christ." I mutter and then see a helmet and Clem shoots it and I drop her rifle down and looked.

"Remember that trick I used?" I asked and felt some pain in my side.

"Fuck." I mutter.

"Yeah, throwing the helmet." She says and I nod.

"They did the same." I tell her and I look again. I then see some movement in the west.

"West, that way." I point and she looks.

"Got it." She says and takes the shot and reloads.

"Got them." She says and there was an explosion.

"FUCK!" David yells and then I look to Mitch who grabbed his own grenade and then I feel pain in my side.

"Bullet didn't come out." She mutters and I groan as she stuck her finger in the wound.

"Fuck." I say and look back in the scope.

"See any more." Clem asked and I look.

"No… no I don't but there has to be more." I say and then look to the side and I see a few trees.

"Check the tree." I say and she does just that.

"You see anyone?" I asked.

"Sniper in the tree." She says and I look and then feel more pain and I shot up.

"FUCK STOP!" I yelled.

"I GOT TO GET IT OUT!" Ruby yelled.

"TWO IN THE WEST!" David yelled and I shove Ruby off my side and I held my side.

"Get your damn gun Ruby." Aasim says as he comes over and I look to him and so does she.

"She has a damn bullet-."

"And we can get it out later." I tell her and she looks to me and nods then grabbed her own gun and I put my hand to my side as I hear more shots and another grenade going off. I grabbed my scope and looked through it again and see no one as Clem shot the tree and move down a bit as David comes over to me.

"Think you can move?" He asked and I nod.

"Yeah, where?" I asked and he looked around.

"See that tree there, go behind that, Clem you stay here and Aldon you signal if you see someone for her to shoot." He says and I nod and I moved a bit. I head over to the tree and hear some bullets fly past and I quickly dive to the tree and take cover just as a bullet hits it. I pant a bit and put my hand to my side for a bit. I then grabbed my rifle and I take aim and see someone behind another hill.

"Be not that far from me, for trouble is near…" I say and I take the shot missing.

"Fuck… fucking god damn it." I mutter as I tried to zero in my scope. I look again but I signal to Clem to see if she could get the shot. I look through my scope and see them aiming at me so I moved when the shot was taken and I switch sides and take aim again. I slow my breathing a bit.

"Haste thee to help me." I say and take the shot getting the person right in the head. I take cover behind the tree again and I put my hand to my side a bit and groaned as I moved again and looked through my scope and signal to Clem about a man running straight in their direction. The man was shot to hell and I keep looking and see a few of the enemies with their hands up no weapons. I look to Clem as she looked to me and I tell her what I saw and I look back.

"¡PARA NO SOMOS ELLOS!" (STOP, WE ARE NOT THEM!) One of them yelled.

"¡PARA NO SOMOS ELLOS!" (STOP, WE ARE NOT THEM!) Another yelled as one of them had a white cloth. Luke runs over to me and I look to him.

"They say they aren't one of them." I tell him.

"They could be lying." He says and I slide up the tree a bit.

"¡LEVANTEN LAS MANOS, PONGANSE DE RODILLAS Y PONGAN SU ESPALDA HACIA NOSOTROS!" (RAISE YOUR HANDS, GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PUT YOUR BACK TO US!) I yelled to them and they do just that. I see David and the others rush over to them and Ruby hurries over to me.

"Let me check now." She says and I nod as the pain started to get worse and I sit down.

"Fucking lucky, that's all we have been with you and Louis." She tells me as she gets to work.

"Danger loves us remember." I tell her and groaned a bit as she put her finger back in the wound.

"Found it." She says as she kept her finger in and then grabbed some type of plier and then gets to work. I see Clementine run over to us and Ruby was able to get the bullet out and I look to the ground as I take a few breaths.

"She good?" Clem asked.

"Yeah, need to patch her up." Ruby says and I wave it off.

"Don't waste bandages." I tell her.

"Stupid." Ruby mutters as I see her grab a patch and I roll my eyes as she works on me.

"Your group… Lucky bastards is what you guys should be called." Clem laughed and so did Ruby and I.

"Should have seen us when we first got here, Mitch almost got blown up, Aasim was almost set on fire." Ruby says and I chuckled.

"Seems like, Aasim and his arson issues and Mitch with his bombs tried to get them." I joke and they helped me up. We go over to the others as they talked with the people.

"They say, the enemy made them wear their uniform." David tells us and I look to them.

"Hoping we'd shoot them." Ruby says.

"Are you good?" David asked.

"Yeah… fucking great." I mutter.

"Are you sure?" He asked and I nod.

"Yes, I'm good… just… need to find the next rest stop." I tell him and he nods as he goes and talks to the people.

"How do we know they aren't the enemy?" Louis asked?

"Enemy doesn't surrender like they did." I say as Clem and Ruby help me sit down.

"How's the wound?" Louis asked.

"… Just glad Ruby was here." I tell him.

"Is it that bad?" He asked.

"Not shot in the liver or kidney." Ruby tells him and I chuckled.

"Thank the lord." I joke and I rubbed my head a bit. I look to David and the others as they take the enemy jackets off and then blindfold the people.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Blindfolding them so they can't see where we are going, and taking the jackets off so they don't get shot, but judging by the pants they might get shot unless the next group has a translator like us." David says and I nod.

"They have to be the enemy." Luke says.

"They aren't." David says and Ruby and Clem helped me up. We head over to the hill they were at and we see a few guns on the ground and David picks one up.

"Is that a Mauser M712?" I asked and he hands it to me and I look at it.

"Yeah, looks like it." He says and I look to see that not all of them had stocks on them.

"Shit, they wouldn't have been able to shoot right at us, least not well enough." Aasim says.

"Take the clips." David says and we do just that and I look around and see a crate so I go over to it.

"HEY MITCH!" I yelled as he looked to me and I wave him over and he runs up to me and show him the crate.

"They wouldn't leave all this." He says as he grabbed a grenade and then shakes his head.

"Fake." He says and I look to him as he points to the pins missing and I sighed.

"Damn." I mutter.

"It's fine, wish these were live." He says and I nod as I get up and place my hand on my side and we go back over to the others.

"Alright, let's head out and find a place to set up camp." David says and we walked. Clem walked with me and look to her as I take a breath.

"You sure you're, ok?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm great." I tell her and she stopped me.

"Are you sure?" She asked and I chuckle.

"Yes, I'm fine, if you're worried you can slap me if I don't wake up." I tell her and she looked to me.

"I'm fine." I tell her and we look to each other. I sighed and began walking again and she follows me.

"Do you hate your mom too?" She asked and I look to her.

"You said you hated your dad." She says and I nod at this.

"I… don't hate her, I dislike her, but I don't hate her." I tell Clem and I look at her as she looked to me.

"Why?" She asked and I think a bit.

"She… she worked a lot, to provide for me and my dad… wasn't home a lot when he was drunk and would beat me… but I couldn't tell her, she loves the man too much and… I never could show the bruises to her." I tell Clem.

"What the hell." She says quietly and I look to her then to the front of us and I see Ruby looking at us before she looked forward.

"He put them in spots I could hide them with a long shirt or a short shirt." I tell her.

"But to not tell your mom? What if he beats her?" She asked and I chuckled.

"He never beat her… He loves her just not me… because it was my fault, I was born… yeah he didn't want a family but that family was having a kid." I tell her.

"They were bound to have a kid." She says.

"Yeah, but at eighteen?" I asked her as I look down to her.

"It's not your fault you were born." She tells me and I rub the back of my head and I felt a pull to my side so I put my arm down.

"I know that… I think he was just jealous?" I questioned a bit.

"What makes you say that?" She asked.

"Before my granddad passed away, we spent way more time together than my dad did with him… think he was mad because my granddad joked that he wish he had a daughter and not a son." I tell her.

"Did you hear him say that?" She asked and I nodded.

"They didn't know I heard though, I was going in the house to get something to drink and they were just in the kitchen talking." I tell her.

"But your dad shouldn't be mad about that." She says and I shrugged.

"I mean I still did the same stuff as any boy would, loved getting dirty, one time my granddad and I walked down a small creek and I found something in the water… picked it up and it was an arrow head." I tell her.

"That's amazing." She says and I chuckled.

"He said I could be a uh… archeologist or something with how much I loved digging in their yard too." I tell her and chuckled.

"One time… one time I dug in my grandmother's garden, ruined her prized roses, right? But… I found my great grandmothers old wedding ring she had lost thirty years prior." I tell Clem.

"Oh my god was she mad?" She asked and I chuckled.

"Oh, very much, until I showed her the ring." I say as I think back to that day.

"Were you punished?" She asked and I think.

"I wouldn't say punished… she made me help in the garden and I wasn't allowed to dig in it again." And I laughed again as I made a round motion with my hands.

"She built a fence around the garden with a childproof gate, and one day I was a smart ass, as her and my grandfather were sitting on the porch, I go up to the gate with a can of water, and opened the gate… 'Violet, I sure hope you aren't going to ruin my flowers.'" I mimicked my grandma's voice and I look to the ground.

"told her… 'Why no grandmother, the flowers look thirsty.'" I tell her and she laughed at this and I smile.

"Hey, how do you make Holy Water?" I asked and she looked to me and shrugged.

"How?" She asked.

"You boil the hell out of it." I chuckled and so did she.

"Oh god." She says and I wipe the sweat from my face and see David and Luke stop. I look to see we were near some abandoned farm.

"Head inside, we can rest up and head out later in the night to cover more ground." David tells us and I nod as we head inside the house and I take a seat on a chair and I hear some groans.

"God so much walking." Louis says and I chuckled.

"This is nothing." I joke and he laughed.

"Right." He says and looks down and I put my hand to my side.

"Need Ruby?" Louis asked and I shake my head.

"Nah I'm fine just sore." I say and lean back a bit in the chair to try and crack my back.

"Wonder why this place is abandoned?" Luke asked and I look to him.

"War times, this place or well this area is a war zone." Marlon says as he set the map on the table and I sit up and looked to the map.

"What's that?" Louis asked as he points to a blacked-out area.

"That would be… no mans land, or at least the last update we had on it, I marked it in black to avoid going there." He tells us.

"Anyway this is the area we are in, lots of farmland apparently, and we need to get here." Marlon says as he points to a water area.

"Doesn't look so far on a map, but damn is it far." Aasim sighed and I nod.

"There are a few beds here, people will have to bunk, males and females." David says and I nod as I stand up and he takes us to the rooms. I set my bag on the ground and then took my jacket off.

"God damn." I hear and look to see the blood on my shirt and I sigh.

"Looks worse than it is." I tell Ruby and I take a seat.

"Just rest up as best as you can." She says and I nod then she leaves after setting her bag down, and Clem walks in the room and looks to me.