8 years ago somewhere in Iraq.
Ahmed: "الصبي! أين أنت؟" ("Boy! where are you?") a middle east guy shouted while going upstairs, carrying an AK 47. The situation is frantic. Gunshots from Ak's can be heard outside of the house. Bullet whistling and hitting the house mud wall. There's rubble, dust, and bullet casing all over inside the house. The smell of gunpowder envelopes the upstairs room where 11-year-old Jack is shooting from a window with an SVD towards the enemy who is only a few hundred feet away. Beside him, there's the body of another middle east guy. It looks like the guy was shot in the head by a sniper.
Ahmed: "الصبي! نحن بحاجة للخروج من هنا!" ("Boy, we need to get out of here!") the middle east guy said to Jack. Suddenly a bullet came whistling through the window. It flew over Jack's head and almost hit the middle east guy. The guy quickly ducks down, realizing that he could get shot from the window. Ignoring the whistling bullets that flew inches away from him, Jack calmly took aim and shot the American who was shooting at the window hundreds of feet away. DOR* Jack fired, the recoil of the SVD pushed his body a little. The SVD ejects the bullet casing onto the floor where there are dozens of other 7.62 casing that were already on there.
Ahmed: "الكفار قادمون ، يجب أن نركض إلى الجبال قبل أن يتمكنوا من اللحاق بالركب." ("The infidels are coming, we must run to the mountains before they can catch up.") said the middle east guy to Jack.
Jack: "فقط اذهب ، سأبقى هنا." ("Just go, I'll stay here.") Jack said while he reloads his SVD.
Ahmed: "لا! عليك أن تأتي معنا" (No! You have to come with us.") The middle east guy insisted. He grabs Jack's feet and tries to drag him. Instead of complying, Jack pulls out his small knife and stabs the middle east guy in his hand. The guy quickly let go of Jack. He screams and curses at Jack. Jack turns around to quickly take his SVD, reload it and point it towards the middle east guy. But alas, he wasn't fast enough. The middle east guy is able to stand up and point his AK towards Jack. Just before the middle east guy pulls the trigger, a rocket hits him, blowing him up into tiny pieces. Jack was also affected by the blast, he got thrown into the other side of the room and immediately passed out as he hit the wall.
Jack opens his eyes, awoken from the memory of his past. He looks around to see that there's no one else besides him in the hospital room. It's silent inside the room, the only thing that can be heard is the tick of the clock, the IV drip and the mumbled crowded step of the hallway hospital. Jack looked at the clock. It's already 9 P.M. He realized he was sleeping for almost 20 hours. He recalls he instantly fell asleep yesterday after being told that Mike will come to visit him and bring him a Pizza. He wonders if Mike will really come to visit him. Knock*knock* someone knocks on the door. Jack looks at the door that is slowly opening.
Mike: "Heyo hotshot, how are you doing? I brought a pizza like I promised yesterday."
In an instant, Jack's mood rises up. He's really happy to see Mike. But that smile doesn't last long. He noticed that there's a couple of bruises on Mike's face. His smile quickly turned to an expression of concern. He just looks like a parent who just found out their child uses a napkin as toilet paper.
Jack: "What happened to you?" he asked me.
Mike: "What? Is there something wrong?"
Jack: "Those bruises, how did you get it?"
Mike: "Oh, you don't have to worry about these-"
Jack: "Who did it?"
Mike: "It's just a bunch of retards. Relax dude, It's not a big deal."
Jack: " ... I'm sorry Mike." he said to me.
Mike: "for what?"
Jack: "I'm sorry that I'm not there for you."
Mike: "The hell are you apologizing for man? You didn't do anything wrong."
Jack: "It's all my fault, all of this would've not happened if I listened to you that night. You already warned me not to buy any liquor, but I didn't do that. If I were not drunk, I could've done a better job to protect you. I wouldn't have ended up being hospitalized and I would've protected you from the people who beat you up at the school ... I'm sorry."
Mike: "Ey-ey, listen, man, you're taking it way too far, literally. I know you really shouldn't drink as I told you, but still, I won't blame you, I mean who the fuck can predict what happened last night? No one knew that we would meet a cold-blooded motherfucker who's looking to whoop my ass to get a fucking revenge. It's out of your bound man, there's nothing you can do about it."
I can see Jack still hasn't accepted that he isn't to blame.
Mike: "Look, Jack, what's done is done, the coca already turned into cocaine. You already saved my ass, I'm alive and you're still alive, there's nothing to complain about right?'
Jack slowly nodded. I know that even though he is listening to my advice, It doesn't mean he will stop worrying. As always, I just smiled lightly, knowing that there's no use telling him not to worry about me over and over.
Mike: "Dude, rather than stressing yourself out, why don't you fill your stomach with this wonderful pizza that I brought you? You've been craving for one right?"
Jack: "... yeah." Jack slowly gave me a light smile expression. I open up the pizza and
Mike: "By the way, I got something else that I want to give you." I open my bag and pull out some books.
Mike: "Lo and behold! physics homework!"
I can see Jack quickly lose some of his interest to keep living.
Mike: "Hahaha, relax man, you don't have to do it now, the due date is for next week. I already marked some of the questions with the chapter that's related to it. That should help you find the solution to answer the question. But if that doesn't help you, you can always ask me."
Jack: "Thanks Mike." he said unenthusiastically.
Mike: "No problem. Oh yeah, there's one more thing that I want to give you."
Jack: "Is it another homework?"
Mike: "Nope." I pull out a jacket from my bag.
Mike: "Here, this is for you. I reckon you need a new jacket since the one you got already got torn apart by the shotgun pellets." Jack grabs the bomber jacket and pulls it up. He sees the logo on the back of the jacket.
Mike: "Looks sick right?" I asked him.
Jack: "Where did you get this?"
Mike: "That jacket and the outfit that I'm wearing right now belonged to my dad. I found all of this after searching for a different outfit other than what I used to wear since, you know, the cops already got my sketch."
"Are you sure you're okay giving me this jacket?"
"Chill man, I'm sure my dad would be pretty happy if he knew someone who saved his son's life is wearing his jacket."
Jack smiled after hearing that.
"Thanks, Mike. I'll be taking care of this then."
"No problem dude."