The sun is beginning to set, Brakus paces back and forth impatiently and kicks at a small rock at his feet next to Haru's old-school vehicle as he waits for the old man to arrive.
He picks up the rock he was kicking around and tosses it into a tree and it bounces off flying straight back at him, hitting him in the face "Oww!" he says as he angrily rubs his eye from the impact. He moans with boredom and then drops to the ground; his butt hits the ground with a muffled thump. He slumps onto his back, and sighs once again but after a while, birds begin to land all around him to peck around for food. "it's been a reeaaallyy long time!" a low grumble escapes from his throat which causes the birds to jolt into the air and fly away; leaving him alone once again.
[Haru's location]
The soldier's eyes pop open , there is an old man standing over him intimidatingly. He attempts to escape in his confusion by rolling away from him and hopping to his feet. He nearly escaped a dogfight earlier today and he couldn't allow himself to be captured. He dashes towards the trees, desperately looking for cover inside of the forest. After a running for a short stretch of time, his adrenaline wears off and his injuries cause him to collapse onto the leaf-covered ground.
Haru catches up to him shortly after this occurs and when he notices the soldier collapse, he strides across the forest floor worriedly. "Damn! He might have reopened the stitches I gave him...." Haru sputtered. When he reaches the man he takes a long look at him and inquires on the complete ridiculousness of it all, 'I'm amazed that he made it this far in his condition, next time he awakens ill have to explain myself to him. and he shows signs of shell-shock, his mind is haunted by war....just like me.' He bows his head and covers up his eyes in shame; saddened by this thought, he shakes his head in disapproval. "Another young mind that's been poisoned by the evils of war.."
After giving his wounds a quick check, he determines that the soldier's wounds were still sealed and once he is completely sure of this, he attempts to awaken him. First he grabs the man's shoulders and gives him a firm shake but there is no response, so he scans the area to look for a nearby water source, "He'll definitely wake up if I splash his face with water, I need to find out what he knows." Haru says, as he deliberates on how he is going to approach waking the soldier.
Before Haru can walk away, there is motion coming from the soldier who is attempting to drag himself away. Haru sees this and calls out to him to stop, "Hey! I'm trying to help you, you don't need to run anymore you're safe now." Once he hears this, the soldier stops In place and turns to face him and stares with a fire in his eyes, but the fear underneath was impossible to hide.
The soldier scrambles for his holster to draw his gun, but it's gone. Haru waves commanding him to stand down, "There's no point in doing that, I'm not your enemy, its okay " he reassures the man in an effort to calm him down, he is frantically glancing back and forth still searching for a path of escape. Once he has discerned that there is no where to run,he gives in and concedes to his helplessness , deciding to speak, "W-who the hell are you!?" he stammered, his voice was unconfident and he glared at Haru apprehensively. Haru wasn't offended by this look, he actually gained respect for the young man, he understood his distrust and a good soldier should always keep their guard up in unfamiliar places ; a small smile appears on Haru's face in a moment of admiration.
He reaches his hand out to the man on the ground as he says, "I'm Haru and I'm also the man who saved your life, you should be grateful" then he bends down to take a seat on the forest floor, dirt puffs up in a small cloud of smoke as he plops to the ground.
"So what happened here?" He says as he lights a cigarette and offers one to the soldier, he holds out his hand in the man's direction; in his palm is a metal lighter and a cigarette.The man peers at the cigarette and lighter curiously, debating on whether or not he can trust the old man but eventually shrugs he shoulders and sits up, plucking the lighter and cigarette from Haru's outstretched hand. He lights the cigarette and takes a long drag from it, letting out a smooth stream of smoke with an auditory exhale and coughs softly.
He is relieved that the unknown old man isn't an enemy and he is finally able to relax, his stout shoulders slowly untense as he continues to smoke. The young man pushes his hair back revealing his inquisitive deep blue eyes as he says, "I can't reveal that information to you it's classified! but to be polite I'll at least give you my name, it's Matthew. But, I won't be here long I've already called for a rescue team before I lost consciousness" he face lights up once he begins talking, he has a kind face when he was no longer scowling at Haru.
"Were you a soldier too? there is a particular vibe I get from you, only a field medic would have the expertise to have rescued me, I was basically a corpse" he inquires, Haru gleams an impressed smile towards him and replies, "Quite perceptive I see... Yes, as a matter of fact I was. I was ground infantry, but I can't get into specifics". Matthew is bewildered by this, he twitches his eyebrows with a curious stare and questions him, "Can't..or won't?" he gives looks at Haru as if he is expecting something from him; there is an awkward silence which felt like it had gone for a entire minute. Haru remains unresponsive and he quivered slightly, clearly bothered by his questioning.
Finally breaking the complete quietness that surrounded them, "Hmmph..fine, if you choose not to speak I won't press on" Matthew utters hesitantly, he tries to hide his frustration but Haru can see straight through it, his eyes are piercing Matthew like a hawk.
"I just find it strange that a deployment plane would be so close to a peaceful territory, it doesn't make any sense..." Haru scratches his head in confusion.
Matthew clears his throat and retorts defensively "We were escaping from an enemy attack, I don't have much of a reason to lie, now do I?" he raises one of his eyebrows.
"You also don't have any reason to tell me the truth" Haru remarks with a sly expression. He pauses for a moment and then finally continues to talk, "I have a question, do you have nightmares? or have you ever regretted your decision to fight?" his voice drops to a low tone as he asks.
"Where is this question coming from? of course I've never regretted my service, the nightmares are worth knowing that I fight for peace" Matthew replies.
Haru shows a subtle smile before responding quietly, "I used to think that way, but some things you just can't unsee.." he bows his head in sorrow, the smile that was on his face disappears and is replaced by a grim expression.
Something about this caught Matthew's attention, his ears perk up and he turns his entire attention to Haru. "What could have caused that mindset? I've only been fighting in the war for a few months, so I apologize if I'm being shallow" he asks with a direct tone.
Haru recounts the story of his deadly encounter with the Shade group, leaving out a few small details because he didn't quite trust the young man yet. Matthew sits and listens respectfully to the old man's story, he even asks a few questions during the explanation. They continue to talk for an hour or so until Matthew is finally satisfied.
"Could the Shade group be responsible for shooting us down.." Matthew mumbles to himself.
"I believe, but I don't know for sure... I just saw the plane coming down and ran towards the smoke and that's where we found you" Haru replies to him, his ears were sharp and he could hear what Matthew said under his breath.
"We? who's we?" the soldier whips his head back and forth, expecting to see another person. After he was sure there was nobody else there, he had a bizarre look on his face like he thought Haru may have been crazy.
Haru waves his hands in front of his own face and tries to reassure him that he is safe, "Relax he's just a harmless kid and he isn't here right now." Haru puts out his cigarette and flicks it into a patch of grass next to his foot.
Matthew starts frantically patting his uniform, searching for something. Realizing it's not there his heart drops and a lump forms in his throat. "Where is my walkie talkie at? they should have arrived by now to search for me" he panics.
Haru closes his eyes to think for a moment and then he finally speaks, "Back there"- he points his thumb behind himself, towards where they came from- "but I doubt anyone will come for you in the middle of neutral territory and it is technically a war crime that you're here."
"How about we go and pick up your walkie talkie and we can find a place to hold out for a while? You can also meet my friend Brakus" Haru suggests.
Matthew agrees to the plan and they get ready to head back, he limps behind Haru who is leading the way back towards the clearing from earlier to retrieve his communication device.
[45 minutes later]
The car comes into the two men's view, Brakus is taking a nap with his arms behind his head to prop it up on the hood of the vehicle. As they approach, he waves at them with a huge smile on his face.
"I'm glad you are still alive"- he outstretches his hand to shake Matthew's hand- "I'm Brakus, whats your name?" Matthew is surprised to see a fifteen year old boy.
He replies as he shakes Brakus's hand, "I thought the old man was exaggerating! Hi, I'm Matthew, you can call me Matt."
Brakus giggles, he is elated by the fact that Matt survived and he can finally relax after all of this time. They small talk for a while before they get in the car and drive off, they're headed to Haru's shop so they can regroup and figure out how to get Matt back home.
Once they arrive in the shop they head into the backroom. After they reach the room Matthew is messing with his radio but the only noise heard coming from it is white noise. "You still messing with that thing? you've been trying to get a signal since we left the woods" Haru says as he shoots a glance in Matt's direction.
"It's my only way back.. they may think I've went awol and discharge me" Matthew panics, beginning to hyperventilate.
Suddenly the walkie talkie begins to buzz and a voice comes through the radio saying, "is anyone there? if you can hear me we're unable to send help, I repeat we're unable to send help" the sound of gunshots can be heard in the background and then bloodcurdling screams followed by silence.
Matt drops to his knees and begins crying hysterically, assuming the rest of his company was just completely wiped out. He could no longer stand under the overwhelming cloud of grief that has just overtaken him. "They're all dead" he whispers, his voice cracks as he chokes on his tears. Matthew's screams with sadness as Haru and Brakus stare, concerned but at a loss for words.