When It's Time to Move On

Door 2 - Chapter 17 - His Story

"Then how did you end up here?"

"You can't stand on a tower of bodies for too long, it's bound to collapse some time, and it did," Jake said sadly. "The infiltration lasted for months. During that time, I became friendly with one of the government workers, Sergio, my intention was to gain as much information as I could but he became my friend. But my task was still on and I passed that classified information over. Eventually, the time had come, a full-scale invasion was in progress."

"Is that when you left?"

"I wouldn't have hated myself as much if I had, but I didn't. You see, I was a special class of coward, I knew it wasn't right, every part of me knew that, I saw it all happen in front of my eyes but didn't act, even when I could do something about it," said Jake in disgust. "At that time, I thought it was what was supposed to happen and it didn't matter what my personal feelings about it were, this was my job, and I was nothing but a mindless soldier. They made us pillage banks, destroy houses, tear apart families... and I did it with such ease, I can't even... I never gave it a second thought."

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Because it was so easy to turn a blind eye to the harsh realities I was a part of. I didn't want to face the consequences of my actions, it was simpler to ignore them and just continue with what I was doing."

"Then how did all change?"

"Because of Sergio. I needed a cruel awakening from the slumber of indifference. Around a month had gone by since our invasion, I'd made sure to avoid venturing into where Sergio lived. I thought once it was done with, I'd forget about him, but that wasn't the case." Jake continued. "One day, I was deployed over to a side of the city that seemed familiar, but it was all ruined so extensively, barely recognizable. I was in charge of my squadron, we were supposed to ransack the houses, apparently, they were supposed to contain some important schematics for a weapon the Invians had been working on, or so we were told. This day was different, the people were different."

A dark shadow came upon Jake's features at this point as he stared intently into the fire.

"I stepped into one of the houses. I was what you would call a 'fixer' of situations. I went in intending to do just that which is when I saw whose house it was."

"Sergio." Harris understood.

"They had him restrained, tied down. As soon as our eyes met I realized everything I'd done, the transgressions I'd committed were all on me. Sergio understood I'd been in on it from the start and yet, he didn't utter a word, I was right in front of him but he just laid there, his eyes silently accusing." Jake stared fixedly into the fire as if reliving the scene over again. "But I knew why he was silent, it wasn't because of shock, it was fear. He wanted me to take him in without resistance so that we could be as far away from the house as possible. But it was too late, I'd given orders to sweep the entire place, and then... they found them."

"Who?" whispered Harris, Jake's eyes shifted from the fire to him.

"His wife and child," he said wretchedly. "I still can't believe it, how could I have forgotten about them? My squadron asked me what to do with them, I told them to turn back, that we'd had a mistake in our orders but it wasn't my day, the brigadier had arrived as well. He caught my lie but gave me a chance to redeem myself... He told me to kill them."

"My God," Harris exclaimed. "What happened?"

"In that one moment when I'd pointed my rifle at Sergio's son, I saw what Invio had been reduced to. This wasn't peace, and I turned on my supposed brothers in arms, and killed every one of them." Jake revealed. "But it wasn't soon enough, Sergio had been taken away already by the brigadier, he's in captivity. I released his wife and son, Adra and Salem. They'd been with me all this time, I promised to take them to safety. It's because of me they're in this mess in the first place, each Invian there is. It's my responsibility to drive these invaders out, I don't know how I'll do it but I don't intend to die before I do. Adra and Salem need to be safe, and I need to find them."

Jake ended his story and fell back on the ground. Harris recalled the utter destruction, the numerous bodies scattered in the desolate streets. The reason for the accursed city of Invio lay right beyond the fire. Jake was in pain, no doubt about that, but Harris had no reason to be sure of his repentance. If it hadn't been for his friendship with Sergio, he wouldn't have even batted an eye before killing his family. Jake had been right before, Harris wasn't sure if he wanted to carry on with him now.

"So tell me, what do you plan on doing from here, then?" he asked.

"I'm going to find Adra and Salem and take them to safety."

"How do you plan on doing that when you don't even know where they are?"

"What else can I do?"

"We know where Sergio is, you should look into rescuing him first."

"I don't know how I can get in that base undetected."

"I can help you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, but then I'm gone," Harris told him clearly, an image of a charred corpse of a young boy with a knife in hand flickered in his mind, he was almost certain the boy and his mother were no more, but there was no changing Jake's mind. It felt like a duty to help Sergio, the one whose only mistake had been to trust a friend.

"I get it," said Jake looking at Harris carefully, "You don't trust me, and you have a right not to."

"I know what you've done, but I don't know who you are. That's why I don't trust you. We should figure out a way to get out of here, but we'll worry about that in the morning."

"All right, get some rest. I'll take the watch."

"No, I'd rather I do the looking out... you get it, right?"

"Yeah... I do," Jake complied but Harris saw a flash of disdain in his features.

It wasn't what was outside he wanted to watch out for. Jake had entrusted his story to him all right, but there was no chance of Harris putting his trust in him, not just yet at least. The fire wavered in its place for the rest of the night but Harris's eyes never did.