Wolf

Chapter 26: Operation Easkerton Fortress

"Sure."

"Do you have very bad nightmares, Lieutenant?"

I searched his face. "Yeah."

He looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but he was refraining himself, and I wondered why. "If you need someone to talk to about your nightmares, you need to talk to a psychologist," I pointed out. "We have therapy courses back in HQ, and it's good for your health."

He said nothing but he nodded.

"It's better if you start now than later," I offered. "Or you'd end up like Lucas."

He didn't laugh at my statement, so I knew he was being serious. We both knew how the wars have affected Lucas and his young family, it was something all of us didn't want to happen. Hoping that he'd take my advice, I patted his head and we returned to camp together, going back to sleep almost immediately as we had a mission.

.

It has been five weeks since I have returned home, and since I had spent four months recuperating, I felt the wave of homesickness stronger than I ever felt before. I missed home, my sister and my so-called lover. Since international calls were hella expensive, I tend to stick to online messaging and now recently, I was using voice messages.

I sent a simple message, about three seconds to both my sister and Kirishima. It was a quiet moment, so I thought of sending a message before I headed into battle. It was three-thirty in the morning, and I was not expecting a reply back home, but I did get one from Kirishima.

Huddled behind a tree trunk and trying to diminish the glow from my phone, I opened the chat to see the new message from him.

I miss you too. When are you coming back?

Can you send me a photo of you?

I couldn't get his reply in time as I revived my orders to move. Pocketing my phone, I left the cover of the forest to join the rest of the members in the clearing, squaring my shoulders to release the tension there. Dispelling any wandering thoughts, we huddled up and got our orders. We were gathered by the foot of a cliff – twenty clicks north from the target location, the castle, made out of white marble and reeks of oppression.

"We got a castle to bring down," Captain Frank explained as he rolled out the ground map and used a torchlight to show us the important routes. "This castle is an image of the oppression that's bearing down on the country. We got orders to drive out the insurgents and take this place down."

Earlier, we received reports about insurgents attacking the town at dawn. The town is littered with bodies, wounded fighters and destruction. The army came down to fight and they fought for hours. Both groups were equally matched, and they had called for a ceasefire in the meantime, as they both gathered their dead and wounded. The faces of the fighters are grim with sorrow and exhaustion, but they ploughed on despite the odds.

"Take out the sentry guards out on patrol. Kill whoever crosses your paths. Ensure minimal contact. We do not want them to know we are coming. Plant all the C4s that we have. We want to make sure the place fucking blows. Amelia, you got your roost here. You got twenty minutes. Let's get this."

"Yes sir!"

As we scrambled about to get our gear on, the seniors stayed where they were to admire the view before us.

Eight broad, round towers dominate the sky line of this massive castle and are connected by reinforced, firm walls made of brown stone. Crude windows are scattered here and there across the walls in an asymmetric pattern, along with small holes for archers and artillery. A sizable gate with enormous metal doors protects them from the treacherous lands outside.