'Attention!'
We're called out to without warning, making me jump at the sudden loudness. I scramble off the top bunk of my shared bed and stand at attention, my fellow soldiers doing the same. Our leader (we call him Sarge) and his second in command turn the corner and walk past us, only to stop and stare at us all at the end of the room. He narrows his eyes before yelling again.
'At ease soldiers.'
I relax my body, spacing my feet apart and placing my hands against the small of my back alongside everyone else.
'Tomorrow, we go into battle,' he continues shouting, 'I hope you have your blades sharpened and your boots shined because we need you all to be ready in the hours of early morning.'
'Sir, yes sir,' we say in unison.
'Wilson here will help you all to wake up tomorrow morn so make sure you can get up bright and early,' he says, motioning to the soldier nearest him.
'Sir, yes sir.'
'If you're not a morning person too bad, we've got a war to win and you're taking part in that victory.'
'Sir, yes sir!'
'Good,' he walks back through the aisle between the foots of our bunk beds, his second in command following behind. They're such loud assholes.
As soon as they're around the corner we retake our positions throughout the building. I haul myself back up the thin ladder so I can lie back on my bed, hoping that I won't die tomorrow but knowing that I probably will. Odds aren't in my favour. I look around at the rest of my section. Jordan, code named Kootra, is playing some card game with James or as Sarge calls him "Wilson", code named Nova, and Daniel, code named Danz. Steven, code named Ze, is talking to Anthony, code named Chilled. Eddie, code named Sly, is lying on his bed reading some papers. Maybe it's a letter from home. I'm not sure when I drift off to sleep but it's not too long after that.
I wake to someone roughly shaking my shoulders. Fuck. I have to go into war today. I have to fight until either I die, we win or we surrender. Honestly, it'll probably be the first option that ends it.
'Get up assholes. Sarge is gonna be here soon so get the fuck up!'
James is yelling at us. I guess he was appointed to that job and nobody disobeys our leader. He calls us all by our surnames, code names or a mixture of both. Never our first names though.
'Immortal! Get your lazy ass up!'
It's no longer James shouting at me but Chilled. He's not a morning person yet he's actually awake. What is this madness? I groggily push the thin and scratchy covers off my body and rub my eyes of sleep. The well needed and I'd say deserved rest that I'm not going to be able to have again after today. This is it. I'm going to march into that battle and I'm going to get shot. I know that and I've come to terms with it. I think.
I jump down from my bed, nearly losing my balance and falling backwards onto Ze who sleeps below me. I recover and mutter a short apology before grabbing my uniform and starting to strip off my night clothes. The rest of them are changing too so I'm just copying really. I run a brush through my hair quickly, not bothering to make it neat like I usually do, it's gonna get messed up out there anyway.
I wait until one of the others is ready to make my way down to the base's cafeteria. Eddie. Sly. We've become quite close actually. If worst comes to worse I'm really gonna miss him, and I think vice versa. We silently walk to the building, not even looking at each other as we get closer. Only when we're through the doors and in line for food does he speak.
'Do you think we have a chance?'
My head snaps up. Did he really just ask me that? He's the most happy-go-lucky person in the world! Why is he the one to ask that? 'I don't know,' I reply truthfully.
'I hope so,' he sighs, 'I wanna see my family again ya know? Travel the world, see the sights, meet an awesome girl and get married. Settle down and all that shit.'
I nod, 'It'd be nice.'
'I just want a little reassurance that it could happen,' he says, slurring a little through both tiredness and his Puerto Rican accent. This is a big shift in character to the loud, bubbly guy I've learnt to expect. This is very different indeed.
'What do you think then?' I ask, 'Do you think we have anything close to a chance?'
He shrugs as he receives his food and flashes a quick smile to the old lady behind the counter. 'I dunno homie,' he replies, 'I hope so otherwise what I just said is out the window.'
'True,' I somehow manage a chuckle, also taking my food from the lady and following him as he makes his way to a half-full table.
I nod to the few people I recognise sitting here. Some of Chilled and Ze's friends. Two girls, two guys. Speaking of which, Steven and Anthony practically fall into the seats in between us and their other friends with breakfast in hand. Chilled gives a small smile and raises his eyebrows whilst Ze holds up a hand and starts talking, 'Smarty, GaLm, Minx and Krism. How's your morning been?'
~~~
'It's morning bitches!'
That's what I wake up to, of course it is. I let out a groan and sit up slightly, rubbing at my eyes. What the fuck even is morning?
'Rise and shine!'
'Get the fuck off me,' a British accent says.
'Ha! Shut the fuck up,' American follows.
'Get the hell off! You're hurting me.'
'Oh, sorry.' The sound of bed sheets shifting as somebody moves around on top of them follows.
God damn my squad is annoying. Jake and Jamie seem to have been having a wrestling match on top of one of their beds. That's a great thing to do at the fucking break of dawn right before we head off to fight in a war I'm pretty sure we can't win. That's just fucking fantastic. At least Dexter and Seamus aren't complaining yet and Joe seems to be in his normal overly excited mood. Spencer isn't here that I can see but that's not unusual for him. He always gets an early start compared to us, and we get an early start compared to the normal world but there's not much to be done about that.
I pull the covers off of me to find that it's really fucking cold this morning. That just adds to the fabulous dawn I'm already having, doesn't it? I climb off of my bed, nearly hitting my head off the metal of Seamus's bed frame above me. Bottom bunk... it's the best place to sleep... I hear a groan up top. He's awake. I slowly take my uniform out of the trunk at the bottom of our beds, stripping off my night clothes and pulling the dully coloured fabric and thick leather boots. I drag a comb through my black hair before making my way out of the cramped building and away from my fellow idiots they've labelled as soldiers.
I don't want breakfast this morning, I'm not hungry. Instead I make my way to my favourite place in the entire base. A willow tree positioned a little behind our meal hall. I sit on the surrounding grass, leaning my back against the rough bark of the trunk and hugging my knees to my chest. I take the small notebook I keep from my pocket, pulling the lid off of my pen. This little book is full of unsent letters to family and friends. When I'm inevitably gone from this world, this might get given to one of them. Hopefully I live to keep writing these. I don't want to die, especially not today.
'Okay,' I mutter quietly to myself, keeping calm. 'You'll be okay. You know that you'll be fine.' I open the little book to a blank page. Who should this be for? My mum, dad, one of my siblings? Or maybe a friend, Aron or the other Joe that I know. The artist, not the soldier. I shake my head, pitying myself. What am I doing? Writing letters that won't be seen until I'm dead... What the hell is wrong with me. It's not until a small splash hits the paper that I realise tears have made their way to my eyes, spilling out past my eyelashes and falling to the ground below. I wipe my arm across my eyes, getting rid of the tears.
It's a few seconds later that a thud sounds from beside me, making me look up slightly to see who was here. Joe. It's my short soldier of a friend who never fails to smile, no matter how bad it's become. 'You okay Kev?' he asks, concern woven through his voice. It's strange not to hear the complete happiness he usually gives out.
'I don't want to die,' I whisper out. I'm hardly able to hear my own voice.
Joe doesn't seem to be fazed and moves closer to me, slinging an arm around my shoulders. 'You'll do great, I know it. If anyone's getting killed today it'll be Dex, it's just that it'll be Seamus's shotgun to his head, not the enemy side's.'
A choked laugh makes its way from my lips, 'Wouldn't be surprised,' I say.
'You'll do great Kevin,' he smiles, 'For America, Japan and Germany!'
The alliances made between our countries have turned into war. Dexter and Jamie are considered traitors to their homeland, England. They are fighting for us instead of Great Britain though. Half of America is on Japan and Germany's side, the other half going with the UK and Russia. This is the way wars start, or at least that's how World War 1 began. It probably triggers a lot of them actually, stupid conflicts turned into full blown battles. Maybe this will be the one that I help to win. Maybe I can return home a hero. That's what Joe says anyway.
