C.R.A.N.E (Strange Editing WiP)

Chapter Twenty Three: Snowfield

Joe sighed, and Apollo actually convinced him to speak.

"Joseph Sonstelie, according to you guys, an old piece of flesh that can walk and talk. Was in the army in my youth days."

"See, was that difficult?" Aatu retorted.

"No." Joe said under his breath.

"Aatu Meek, raised in an orphanage. Met this idiot there." He said, pointing to me. "Worked for a real estate agent for a bit, then teamed up with Roukan when the wint-"

Aatu suddenly slipped on ice and fell hard onto the ground on his ass. There was curse followed by a loud thump. We couldn't help it but all laugh, even Joe.

"C'mon Aatu. At least one flat foot while walking on ice. Didn't six years of playing ice hockey teach you anything?" I said, looking at him disappointedly.

"I know that six years of playing ice hockey taught me to tackle you down like a rhino easily on ice." He retorted.

I offered my hand to Aatu and helped him get back up onto his feet. We continued walking.

"Speaking of walking like an idiot, why the hell do you limp so much? Do you have one leg shorter than the other?" Joe said.

Aatu twitched at his question and put his head down slightly.

At that point I knew that Joe had taken it too far. I wouldn't have been surprised if Aatu suddenly punched him right in the mouth at that moment.

I knew exactly why he did limp and it was an issue that we both hated bringing up. It was dark times for him during those years. We promised not to speak of it. Ever.

"C'mon Aatu. Tell us. We don't care if you have an extra toe or something. Speak." Joe said rudely.

Now he had done it.

"Listen here Joe, you have no right to-"

"Shut up Roukan. It's fine..." Aatu quietly said, interrupting me.

He did not stop walking, but turned to where Joe was.

"It's funny how insensitive you can really be, Joe. Even if you were in the war and served our country, you are still an ass in my eyes."

"Oh c'mon. It's just a limp. What, it's not like you had cancer or something?"

"Actually, I did."

Everyone was dead silent. Even Joe realised what he had done, and I'm pretty sure he immediately regretted asking him.

"It happened...a long time ago." Aatu said. He took a deep breath and told them what happened.

"I suddenly wasn't able to walk at one point. I went to the hospital and I found out I had a tumour growing on my spine which was cancerous. I was lucky because it was found in its early stage. They removed the tumour; however it damaged my nervous system on my legs, so I couldn't walk."

I really couldn't believe that Aatu was brave enough to talk about this. I remembered the pain he had to go through and never would I have thought that he had the courage to talk about it.

"I was in a wheelchair for a year, and then I slowly learnt to walk again. But, I still have some permanent nerve damage. So that's why I limp, Joe." He said, emphasising the 'Joe' with aggression. "Those were years which I will never forget. But I wish I could..." He said.

Aatu turned back to the front and ignored Joe. He sure wouldn't have forgiven Joe at that moment.

"How foolish of me..." Joe said. "I know you won't accept it now but, I'm sorry."

Aatu completely ignored him and kept walking on.

"I know I'm a jackass most of the time. But I wasn't always like this." Joe said.

"Of course you weren't." Aatu said sarcastically in a bitterly tone.

Everyone was quite shocked at what just happened. We were all so silent that a snowflake falling onto the ground could be heard.

"I don't think this was a good idea." Apollo said. "From now on, don't take any advice from me, okay?" He said, snickering to lighten the mood.

"I need to figure out where we are." He added skimming through his map, pretending not to be part of this.

The snow beneath our feet suddenly became harder. We found out we were actually standing on ice this whole time. It was just covered with a layer of snow.

"Where the hell are we?" I mumbled to myself.

I looked around and it was just miles of ice in the distance, front and back.

I looked at Apollo and he had a worried look on his face.

"ehehe, want to hear something funny, Roukan?" Apollo laughed unconfidently.

"What is it Apollo?"

"I can explain what this huge land of ice is."

"And?"

"...It's the Arctic Ocean."

At the sound of the word ocean, Aatu went completely frozen. At that point I knew, this was not going to be good.