Magnus and Russel were enjoying their first meal in over a day. Their lunch was nice and relaxing, until a familiar face showed up.
"Hey, pretty boy! Glad to see you're still alive!"
John briskly slapped Magnus on the back, making him almost spit out the food he had in his mouth.
"Who are you?", Magnus asked after wiping his mouth off.
"What?! How do you not remember me, I..."
"That's enough, John.", cut in Russel, who was quite disturbed to see his idol treated this way. "Knock it off with the rough treatment. He's a soldier, just the same as us. Anyways, do you know where his squad captain is?"
John turned pale. "Hi-His coma-ma-man..."
Russel interrupted John's stuttering, saying: "Yes his commanding officer! Where is he, John?"
John turned ten shades lighter, and resumed stuttering: "His... His... His coma... Commanding officer was killed in the assault. I'm so sorry."
Magnus, not caring very much, as he understood the nature of war and not wasn't very close to his commanding officer, then asked, "So, who do I report to now?"
John punched Magnus' face with a great deal of force, almost as if Magnus were a hostile.
"How dare you say that! Your commanding officer just died and you have nothing to say about it?!"
John was running on fumes. John felt sick, delirious, hungry, and depressed. John started shouting, drawing attention from the whole camp.
"That man saved your live for God's sake! He did that for you, and you feel nothing when he dies?! I was right there, I saw him die! I was unable to help as that tank blew him up with an anti-tank shell! Look at my uniform! This is his blood! His blood is on my uniform, and you feel no remorse for what happened to him? Are you even human?!"
John was done venting his frustrations. John had turned his terror and anxiety into anger as a coping mechanism. When Magnus added onto that, John burst. John then collapsed on the ground, as he had not eaten or slept since the battle started at dawn the day previous.
Russel rushed to John's side immediately. Reassured that nothing was wrong after thoroughly scanning over John's body, Russel said to Magnus, "The stress of the battle was wearing on him pretty badly. That combined with the hunger pushed him over the edge."
Magnus now wasn't sure what to think. He had always been indifferent towards other people. Was this wrong? Was he hurting other people? Magnus racked his brain so hard for answers, his head felt like it was being smacked repeatedly, or being scrubbed against something like laundry against a washing board.
Magnus, unable to withstand the pain, decided to pitch a tent and take a nap. After all, sleep had healed his injuries, maybe it would stop his headache.
"I'm going to sleep."
"Alright.", responded Russel, resting John's head on a makeshift pillow fashioned out of a coat.
Magnus set up the tent as fast as he could. He thought to himself, "If only I had this kind of motivation during boot camp. Maybe I wouldn't have had to run so many miles, but maybe that was for the best. I would've been screwed today if I didn't have such immense stamina."
Magnus went inside the tent. He stretched his body across the ground, and dozed off.
Once he was asleep, his consciousness drifted outside his body. He saw only darkness until a plane appeared before him and slowly came into focus. He was seeing the battlefield from just a couple hours before, floating above it. Magnus knew the time and exactly where it was on the battlefield. Magnus knew everything about what he was seeing.
Magnus then saw John and his late squad captain, lying down on the ground, firing shots desperately at a tank.
"How much ammo do you have left?!", Magnus' squad captain shouted over to John.
"About 7 more shots, Isaac!", John replied.
Magnus thought, "So John knew my squad captain's name? Were they friends?"
After a second, a voice not his own popped into Magnus' head.
"They were the best of friends. Imagine watching Anthony or Emmanuel or Peter or one of you're siblings die in front of you. That is the pain that John felt when he watched Isaac die."
Magnus heard the tank fire and looked down. In half an instant, Isaac was blown into a million pieces. Magnus floated down to John to see his face. There was no reaction. This is what John meant when he told Magnus to prepare for the worst experience of his life. Once Magnus understood that John had to shrug off that loss in order to stay alive, he understood the hardships of a soldier. Magnus then feared for what would come to haunt him in his future, what terrible things that were planned for him.
Magnus then woke up. With his consciousness back in his body, Magnus realized that something had been off with that dream.
"Wait!", he thought, "Was that real? And what was with that voice?"
Magnus went over the scene in his mind again and again as he opened the tent door, becoming closer and closer to throwing up his lunch every time he saw Isaac's death.
Magnus went through the door and sought out John. Magnus knew one thing was real. Magnus knew that he was sorry for what he had said and how insensitive he had been.
Magnus stumbled on the snoozing man. Magnus wanted to wake him up, but refrained himself from doing so, as not to make matters worse.
"Magnus Licinius? You're being reassigned. Wake up John and head to the General's tent."
Magnus did as he was told, immediately betraying his conscience. Shaking John, Magnus said, "John, wake up. We need to go to the General's tent."
John didn't wake up. Magnus tried again. Still no luck. Magnus decided to pick him up and carry him. Tossing the sleeping body over his shoulder, Magnus moseyed as fast as he could to where the General was.
Magnus threw the flaps open and set down John.
"Sorry I'm late.", gasped Magnus, who was quite tired from carrying John all over camp as he didn't know where the General's tent exactly was.
"Magnus Licinius..."
Magnus was immediately submissive to the authoritative voice.
"Magnus Licinius what exactly happened to you?"
Magnus responded in all honesty, leaving out the parts he wasn't sure about, like dying twice and the dreams he had had.
The General stood up and said, "Magnus Licinius, you are a fine specimen of a man and a soldier. I cannot believe that you survived on your own and then helped my adviser make it back to me safely."
"Adviser? Who exactly is that, sir?", Magnus asked, fully knowing that there was only one possibility.
"Why, it's Russel Franklin!", the General said, laughing aloud that such a man could ask such a stupid question.
The General leaned in and said softly, "Look, boy, I am very appreciative of what you did today. If you will do what I tell you to do, I will make sure you get promoted and get honors when this war is over, because if you can survive today, you can survive the rest of the war. What you did today showed me that you're tough. It showed me that you have grit. I need a man like you doing important things, not menial tasks like stacking sandbags. I need you...", the General stopped, making sure that he didn't tell Magnus too much, and continued, trying to make the transition as smooth as possible, "... to report directly to a squad captain that is under my thu- I mean who has what it takes to lead a man like you."
Magnus, still being not the wisest man, immediately responded with a, "Yes, sir!"
The General than said to Magnus, "Then you are hereby promoted to Private First Class! Congratulations, soldier! Oh and wake up that one sleeping on the ground. He's going to be your squad captain."
Magnus then immediately asked, "He's the squad captain you were talking about?"
The General responded, "Yes, he is going to be the captain of a new squad. The Special Ops Squad!"