The Expatriate-the story of a Prodigy

12. Andrew

  Alex Mars had never felt uneasy-at least for more than an hour. So this was his record as he lay in bed, fists clenched under the covers. He had asked discretely if there were any Prods in the back of the Jeep, and the general had shook his head, as if he was disappointed by that fact. Good, Alex thought, no deaths once more.
But that didn't tranquil his stomach down. He felt nauseated and wanted to throw up just like yesterday.
He felt hopeless. And Alex Mars was never hopeless.
He finally decided to quit his job that night.

However, when he made the long walk to the generals' office from his room, he just...couldn't do it. No one else had ever held such a position at a young age, and the general wanted him, in particular, to do it. Though Alex's feelings toward the general had gone from satisfaction to hatred, being the appealed of a respected general was very important and a rare, and everyone, even people not in the military, knew that. And Alex had achieved that so easily...
For once, his greed won over his ethics, and he retreated back to his room and buried his face in his hands, defeated at last.

Andrew Stewart woke his friend up in the middle of the night. Alex didn't thought it was him, since Andrew never woke up at night but rather drew maps on his pillow with drool. But when Andrew poked and prodded his shoulder, he had to open his eyes to take in an image of a frightened Andrew. 
"Hrmm?" He grunted, unhappy to be disrupted in his own fitful sleep. Andrew looked apologetic, but clearly wasn't regretting it.
"Sorry, but I kept hearing... strange stuff out there," Alex sniffed, eyes opening wide. "Sounds?" He let his ears prick alert and put a hand on Andrew's finger which was about to prod him painfully once more than waited for 5 seconds.
There was running, then walking. Not normal, either-solid, measured sounds of soldiers.
"Maybe the night duty guards were asked to see if anything's wrong," Alex said, sleep threatening to take over. "Yeah, I guess. I just felt scared, and you're the guy to stay with when things happen. Sorry if I overreacted. Erm, go back to sleep," Alex nodded and watched Andrew's finger slip away on the covers to disappear beneath. He heard his friend slip into bed and pull up the covers up to his chin for sleep.
Right after, he was in for sleep himself.

Alex woke at 5 in the morning as usual and rubbed his eyes out just as his mom used to do. But when he swung his legs directly over the wooden board to drop himself to the ground as usual, he immediately knew that something was wrong. He didn't feel the usual presence fo Andrew, his sleeping snores, his heat.
He was right-Andrew was gone.
The sheets were twisted and piled on one side of the bed. No drool even on the pillows. Alex jumped down and crashed down onto the floor from his extra-high bed. Mark and John's eyes snapped open and they jolted up in a start. Alex was up in seconds, and he stared at Andrew's vacant bed for seconds. To be exact, 7 seconds.        
Mark yawned.
"Where's he?" Alex almost shouted, voice cracking once.
Mark's eyes grew big. "We did nothing! Where'd he go? Johnny, you know?" "No," John said calmly. Alex was infuriated by their tranquility. A growl tore from his throat, and John and Mark cringed back a bit on their beds, eyes alert suddenly. Alex, in a flash, was at the door of the room and banged it open, confused and frustrated. Andrew migt be bad at training and fighting, but he was still seldom bad at staying in bed till at least 5:30, and he knew the route from most of the places on the base back to the room.
Alex ran throuh the halls to the generals' office which he had not made it to yesterday. He banged open the door. There was no one inside-even the generals were yet to be on duty at this time. Though it would irritate them, Alex knew this was an emergency, especially to Andrew, who could get in trouble daily and so easily, was worth it. He climbed the stairs to where he had discovered where the generals slept-well, he had discovered it secretly the week he had arrived at the base-and knocked on the door. Luckily, the generals all shared the same room, so there was no need to knock on at least 6 times to find out where Fawkes or Hale was.
He kept banging on the door until he heard some uneasy and slow footsteps on the bare floor-he observed that they were bare feet and prepared to not look surprised or mocking to the generals.
So he hid his amusement when General Hale opened the door with his bare feet, crinkled hair and wrinkled uniform, glaring at Alex with the energy to propel him into space.
"What, Mars?" He spat, face a bit embarrassed, then stern. Alex rubbed his knuckle together. "I have a problem, sir," He said, and the line on Hale's lips went completely straight. "At 5?" "Yes. Do you know where Andrew is?" Hale scratched his beard, eyes going to heaven for a moment. "Stewart?" He seemed to be restraint himself from cursing since the shade on his face went from pale to purple, then back to pale.
Alex Mars immediately knew that something serious was up. -And that these general dudes were trying to be secretive.
Alex nodded, and he sensed the others in the room stop their movements to hear the conversation.
"I don't know. But from what I have heard last night from a soldier is that Stewart got violently sick in the stomach and is now being taken care of," As soon as the words came out of the man's mouth, Alex knew that his words had little possibility. Andrew had come to him at night to report eerie sounds from outside, instead of turmoil in his stomach. And even if he had been sick, Andrew would have woken Alex up, pass out, and let Alex piggy-back ride him to the nurse's office.
"But that's highly unlikely, sir," Alex murmurred. He looked up to see that Hale had relaxed a bit, pulling out a lighter and a cigarette.
"Just find him at the nurse and tell Fawkes how he is," Hale said quickly, then backed up, lighting up his cigar. "I now have to prepare. And now, Alex Mars, do not come knocking at the door forever at 5 again," Hale smiled, then closed the door.
As Alex climbed down the stairs to where the nurse and Andrew was supposedly was, he knew that something really peculiar was going on, and the memories of Hale's retreating words and smile made him shiver.