Side By Side

16

Warnings:
-War part starts again so

Clay's POV

~ A Few Hours Later ~

'EVERYONE WAKE UP RIGHT NOW. YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO PREPARE AND I WANT EVERYONE HERE IN THE FRONT OF THE BARRACK!'

I jumped up from my bed, gently pushing Sapnap away from me, and grabbed my bag, lifting it up on my back. I immediately ran outside and saw Sapnap do the same.

We stood in front of the sergeant who replaced our sergeant temporarily and I lifted my hand to my face to salute him.

'Welcome Clay and Sapnap,' he smiled as he looked at us, saluting back. 'Did you arrive tonight?'

'Yes, sergeant,' I replied. 'We walked for four hours at night with our old sergeant, sergeant.'

'Did you have some sleep?'

'Two hours, sergeant,' Sapnap replied. 'I think. We went days without sleep, it's okay, sergeant.'

'Where did you fight before? Because I know you're returning soldiers.'

'We fought in Belgium and France, sergeant,' I answered. 'I lost my hearing and my legs there after being shot twice and he lost his arm. We rehabilitated for a year and came back.'

'Do you have prosthetics?' the sergeant asked.

I nodded and lifted my uniform's pants up to show him my legs and Sapnap showed him his arm as a few people came back.

'CLAY AND SAPNAP?' I heard someone scream. He ran up to us and smiled brightly.

'Nathaniel!' Sapnap yelled out as he gave him a tight hug. 'How have you been?'

'I'm recovered again, I'm so happy to see you. I didn't know if you were doing alright and I see you have prosthetics now.'

We both nodded and then stood up straight because the sergeant started talking. 'Everyone, we will be leaving in trucks to a very dangerous area. It's an old street with a lot of houses, but people evacuated from there.'

'Yes, sergeant!'

'The area is filled with soldiers, we need to be as careful as we can!'

~~~

We arrived where we had to be and everyone stepped out of the trucks. We knelt down and walked further while bowing forward so no one would see us and randomly shoot us.

I focused on keeping my breathing down, but I noticed I was way more anxious than I used to be while walking like this right before a fight. I was holding my weapon with shaky hands, looking at my feet while walking slowly.

'Are you okay?' Sapnap whispered as quietly as possible. 'You're breathing very fast and you're shaking.'

I looked at him with a terrified look in my eyes and turned my eyes to the ground again while walking very slowly behind the others. I didn't even notice that I started breathing faster and faster and shaking more than ever.

As soon as we heard a gunshot, I jumped away and laid down on the floor with a heavy breathing rhythm. Within seconds the area was filled with gunshots and explosions and instead of fighting, I froze.

The platoon moved further away from me and Sapnap who waited for me as the platoon started shooting back.

'CLAY, WE NEED TO FIGHT!' Sapnap screamed at me. 'RIGHT NOW!'

'NO,' I yelled back, curling myself up on the ground. 'I don't want to fight!'

'CLAY, GET UP, RIGHT NOW! WE ARE GOING TO DIE IF YOU STAY HERE! THEY ARE SHOOTING!'

'NO, GET ME OUT OF HERE, HELP,' I screamed out of absolute fear. 'I WANT TO GO! I CAN'T, HELP ME!'

Sapnap crawled over to me as he shot a few enemies. 'CLAY, WE NEED TO FIGHT. LOOK AT ME.'

I looked up at him with tears rolling down my face. 'I'm going to die, Sapnap. I don't want to die, I want to see my parents, George and Karl. I want to go home, I don't want this.'

Sapnap grabbed my cheeks and then hit my face softly. 'THINK, IDIOT! LOOK ME IN THE EYES!'

I looked him into his eyes and shook heavily as I felt him squeeze my face.

'IT'S A GAME, CLAY! IT'S A DANG GAME AND YOU'RE GOING TO PLAY IT. YOU'RE DEAD ALREADY, OKAY? YOU'RE DEAD! DON'T BE A PUSSY RIGHT NOW, STAND UP AND FIGHT!'

He hit my face again to shake me back to reality and I suddenly realised what was going on again. I was dead, playing in a game. I needed to fight, NOW!

I lifted myself up and loaded my weapon.

'ARE YOU COMING?' Sapnap screamed at me, holding my shoulders tightly. 'WE NEED TO GO!'

I nodded heavily. 'I'm dead, I CAN DO THIS!'

'YES, THINK ABOUT THESE BULLIES! PROVE THEM WRONG! YOU CAN DO THIS, PROVE THEM WRONG AND NEVER GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANTED TO.'

'GO!' I screamed back as we jumped up, both running to the other side of the street since grenades were thrown in the house behind us.

We ran to the other side and knelt down on the ground as I started to shoot a lot on the enemy. Sapnap did the same and we saw a grenade getting thrown at us.

'RUN! NOW!'

We jumped up to run as fast as we could and managed to get away as we heard people scream in the distance.

I saw someone on the floor who was shot twice. 'MEDIC!' I screamed loudly. 'MEDIC NOW!'

'MEDIC!' Sapnap screamed too, shooting a few enemies. 'MEDIC NOW! HERE!'

The medic came running to us and knelt down next to the man who was shot. I lifted myself up and slowly walked up to the medic and the soldier to protect them from all the bullets.

We heard multiple screams behind us and the medic quickly took out the bullets and bandaged the wounds as he jumped up again to go to the man behind us.

'CLAY, RUN!' Sapnap suddenly screamed while I was taking the man on my shoulders. I managed to run away with the soldier before a grenade exploded and I laid the man on the ground in the door of a store.

I forgot all my emotions and pain and turned around again to shoot the enemies who were shooting from a high apartment building. I tried to hit them and managed to shoot one of them, hiding behind the wall of the half blown up store behind us.

Honestly... I had no idea why I was here again. I realised this was just a death sentence at this point, the chances I would ever come back became lower and lower...

1084 words