The Raiders and The Princess

by FIRE FLASH 3

Chapter XI: Goodbye... Part 1

Chapter XI

Death.

Something natural that people fear. And I wander why they fear such a natural course of life? I have seen much in my lifetime. And even I know that there are things that man should fear, and others that fear is an emotion that is not required.

As I always say, if you don't want to be afraid of Death. Live your life.

These are the thoughts that I have when I watched the young Sargeant, stumble in through the entrance of the shelter. We were all sat there, looking at him surprised to see the angry expression on his face. Though some of us showed more surprise than others. As Lou sat down, he could only look down at the ground. His vision locked on a specific point.

“Sooo... what's up?” Mark asked, his tone questioning Lou as the latter kept staring at the ground. After a few minutes, he replied.

“I just had a rough encounter with the Colonel.” He said, his eyes slowly coming to contact with everyone in the room.

“We guessed that, but why the long face?” Jack asked. “And why is everyone leaving? The camp's almost empty!” He continued, cutting Lou from his trance.

“Because of last night's attack. Top brass has ordered all units not currently engaged on the front, to help defend the line and plug any gaps that appear in the line.” He replied, causing all the others to sit up and listen even more closely than before. “The Battalion has been given the task of running ammunition to the line. We've been tasked with Baker company, in the same area that we cleared out the other day.” He finished, causing the others to shift uncomfortably in their seats.

“What does that mean, in short.” Mark questioned. Lou could only have the same reaction as the others when he finished his last sentence.

“In short... We're all moving out to a depot behind our line. And we're going to have to resupply our lines. At night.” He concluded. We looked at each other, but I dare not say anything. Anyway, its not like anyone's going to listen.

“So... we're all going out there at night, just the four of us?!” He exclaimed loudly. Twilight looked at us in surprise. She was about to say something but Lou said something that caused everyone to freeze in shock.

“Five of us.” He said before continuing. “Twilight's coming too. The entire group is needed.” He said. Sending chills down our 'spines'. I had long since known what was coming, before any of us could argue, we were grabbing our stuff. I had decided to stay with Lou and Twilight while we got our gear ready. Lou was helping Twilight get her rain coat back on. He then handed her a belt with a holster. He then lent forward and opened the holster. Pulling out a M1917 pistol, he pushed out the loading cylinder. He took a quick look, taking his time to check the six rounds that were placed within the cylinder.

Pushing the cylinder back into the chamber, he grabbed Twilights arm, held her hand open and placed the weapon into her hand. He gave her a stern look. His eyes showing a fear of the meaning his action. Twilight took a moment to look at the gun before raising her head to meet Lous gaze.

“I hope you won't have the need to use this.” He said to her, trying to sound calm. “But seeing how dangerous this mission will be... I'm not taking any chances.” He continued, showing Twilight the features of the weapon. “I'm gonna pull the Hammer back. All you need to do is push this little switch down. This is the safety. It will prevent the gun from firing, just push it down so that you can fire.” He concluded. Looking straight into to her eyes. But there was something I his eye that caught my attention. They seemed to show a begging man. Begging her not to find the need to use it. She nodded, before Lou placed the weapon back into the holster.

As he continued to get ready, I continued to get myself ready. I was already dressed in my combat uniform. All I was missing was a weapon. But as usual, I always go out there with nothing more than the most pointless weapons in history. Lou then turned to face me, he took a second to check me over. Seeing me dressed in my gear, he gave Twilight one last look, seeing her in her raincoat with the belt around her waist. He then led us outside.

There we found Mark and Jack. They were dressed and geared up. They had also run down to the supply sargeant to get some more ammo. Six, ten round clips for the M1941 Johnson rifles. Two, twenty round magazines for Lous fixed Johnson LMG. And two, fifteen round mags for the M1 Carbine.

Two grenades were passed out. Lou had decided that one should go to Mark and the other to himself. He said that it was in the event that they would have to split up, he would put Mark in charge of the second half of the group. Taking one last look around at our surroundings, we all looked up at the darkening sky, before we turned East and slowly, marched our way into the jungle.

The road was just as rough on foot as on the back of that truck that we used to get down here during that rather 'dangerous' patrol. The dark jungle was all around us. It seemed to twist and turn around us, just like this road twisted through this jungle. The jungle on Guadalcanal was considered impenetrable. It was true for the most part. Only that... the Japanese was rather notorious and renowned for using any possible means to catch the Marines by surprise.

For that matter, all eyes were on the jungle. Desperately hoping that a Jap wouldn't come jumping through the foliage and... Never mind.

The walk along the dirt road was quiet, neither of us saying a word. Silence was the key to survival as Lou would say. Whenever we heard a strange noise, we would duck for cover. Sometimes we would run into other squads, patroling the road on the lookout for Japanese troops. After a while, Twilight lost her nerve and rushed over to Lou, begging him to give her a hug. We all looked at each other in a knowing fashion as Lou graciously opened his right arm and pulled her in. Resting her head against his chest. I couldn't help but smile at the young love birds.

We walked for over an hour before we reached civilisation. The depot was one of my... many visits to the front line. Men were running all over the place. There we met up with the rest of First platoon. Lieutenant Stone was standing there giving out orders, around him his men circled him as he continued his speech. Lou had feared that we were going to arrive late and couldn't understand why the Battalion hadn't moved out all together before going our separate ways. The only bright side he came up with was that we were able to get Twilight here without any serious questioning.

We had all questioned Lous reasoning with Twilight's situation. I mean, was it realy worth the risk to bring her out here? But Lou remained inflexible. And in some ways, he was right. Twilight and her powers could be of great use to us while we resupply the Line.

The moment we were ready, Stone immediately took us over to a stack of boxes and crates. Each was stamped with the type of ammunition that it contained. Lieutenant Stone pointed at the most important crates that we were to be taken first. And then... he left, and we never saw him for the rest of the night.

Lou set aside a pile that was to be Mark and Jack's priority. The rest, was for us. Lou took Twilight by the arm and put a box of 30cal machine gun ammunition. She held her arms out, expecting the box to be lighter as Lou made it seem. But as he placed the box in her arms, Twilight tripped forward. Lou placed his hands around her to hold her up.

She smiled up at him, before making her right hand glow in her magic. All of a sudden, the box that Lou had just given her began to glow and float a center meter from the palm of her hand. He gave her a stern look, causing her smile to fade slightly. After a few more seconds of glaring, Lou's smile returned. He patted Twilight on the shoulder with his right hand before he turned his attention to us.

We were all smiling at both of them. Lou raised an eyebrow in confusion. Mark then wiggled his brow making Lou roll his eyes. We all laughed, except Twilight who was looking between us and Lou in confusion. Wondering if she'd missed something.

We all grabbed four boxes of ammunition. Two under each arm. Mark and Jack went over to the path that Lou had assigned them to. Meanwhile, we went down to our path. The paths were few and far between. The rest of the platoon was farther away, already running ammunition down to the line. It was our turn to do the same. Taking one last look at each other, we took our first step into the jungle of peril.

Carrying four heavy boxes in an enclosed area was causing torrents of sweat to pour from our bodies. Twilight had started the journey holding the ammo in her arms. Less than five minutes in, she'd given up and decided to use her magic to hold the crates magically in mid-air. Every time we ran into sentries, posted on either side of the jungle, Twilight would place the cans just above her hands to make it look like she was holding them. But in reality, she was saving her energy for the horrible journey through the winding path.

It took us at least fifteen minutes to reach the front. As we approached the last few trees before the clearing, Lou asked Twilight to stay just behind the tree line. She nodded and did as she was told. Lou took the two boxes Twilight was carrying, before heading out into the open. The moment we left the trees, the cool night air brushed over our faces. We were content on just standing there and letting the evening breeze refresh us up a bit. We were so relieved to feel the cool breeze that none of us noticed the Marines in front of us were all pointing the rifles at us. When we looked down, we took a step back.

“Password?” A guy said, his tone questioning in amusement.

“Lucky.” Lou replied, waiting for the guy to answer.

“Bell.” The guy replied, letting us know that it was clear for us to move forward. We didn't descend into the trenches, we only bent down onto our hands and knees and passed the ammo down. There was a path that descended down into the trench on our side of the trench. Roughly a meter to the left. The guys on the line asked no questions as we gave them the ammo, got up and left. We joined Twilight who was sat on the ground waiting for us to return. The moment she saw us, she jumped up and ran to our side. Once we were all together, we began to walk back towards the depot. As usual, we walked in silence. None of us said a word as we walked back. It was the same thing for the three remaining times that we did our little ammo run.

After the fourth trip, we all collapsed down onto the reasonably shortened pile of ammunition. Mark and Jack joined us not long after. By now, the day had turned into night. Lou and Twilight were laying next to each other. Twilight was telling him about how much the night sky look like those of Luna's. I can't begin to understand what Luna's night sky must look like in its creation, but as far as I was concerned, It wans't my job to know. All I had to do was... 'pick up the corpses'.

The Sun was gone completely now. The sky was only light by the dim light that the Moon offered. And we continued to lay there, staring up fearfully up at the sky. It seemed like forever that we laid there. After a while, we began to say that there probably wasn't going to be an attack. According to our watches, it was now one in the morning. And though we were trying not to admit it. There was still plenty of time for an attack.

And that was when it happened. At two thirty, a great silence filled the air. This caused all of us to get up. Even Twilight understood the unnatural silence. And so we stood there... staring out into the jungle...

Suddenly, screams began to echo throughout the night. From behind us.

We stared out in the opposite direction in confusion, at a sound that we had heard countless times before.

“SCREECHERS!” Lou yelled, throwing us to the ground. Twilight didn't understand until Lou jumped on top of her. The moment they hit the ground, mountains of earth erupted from the ground. Massive explosions threw people off their feet and blasting people to the ground. I took a look at Twilight who was under Lou on my right side. She glanced at me. As if she could actually see me. But only for the briefest of seconds.

Shell after shell fell among us for another five minutes. Finally, the bombardment ended. Lieutenant Stone was running around, yelling at us to get up and grab boxes. Marines ran around in all directions. Grabbing ammunition and running it down to the line. Us on the other hand, continued to stare out into the devastated depot. Only a few boxes left. We hadn't even noticed that our pile had been hit and blasted with the little ammunition that we had. We were about to gather what ever ammunition that had survived. But to our surprise, the night sky was light up in a multitude of flares. We continued to stare at them for a moment before Lou yelled at us to grab boxes and run.

He shoved two boxes into Twilight's arms, before grabbing his own boxes and running off into the night. We followed suite and soon caught up.

The path was covered in fallen trees, but we kept on running. Twilight never stopping, even because of her exhaustion. Instead, she continued bravely forward as we continued to run. Run. After what seemed like a minute we reached the front. Even as we approached, we could hear the gun fire. As we closed the last fifteen meters, we all had to duck for cover as a salvo of tracers flew past our heads. The trees provided significant cover while we left Twilight there. As we reached the rim of the jungle, we were forced to crawl on our bellies. Lou crawled into the small descent that I had seen when we first arrived. This time, no one asked for a password. A guy just grabbed the ammo from us and took off, and we did the same. We crawled back into the jungle, so many bullets were slamming into the trees that many collapsed from the amount of bullets they had taken. We continued to crawl until we were sure that we were safe. We got back to where we left Twilight. There, we found her on the ground covering her ears. At first, we had feared that she was dead, but we sighed in relief as she jumped up and gave us a worried look.

We ran back to the depot and found that someone had put together whatever was left of the original pile. We grabbed as many boxes as we could and ran back into the jungle. We continued doing the same thing so many times that we knew exactly what to do each time. Though we would have liked to remember the path better but each time we came back, we found that more trees had been knocked down onto the path.

By now, we were at the very limit of our endurance. We were all covered in sweat. But neither of us were letting up. Even Twilight remained stead fast. Even when we told Twilight to stay at the depot and rest up. But she refused, she continued to push herself further than any of us could have asked of her.

We were now on our tenth run. And we were almost out of ammunition to carry. But this time, we were about to find out that this repeating action will end.

As usual, we left Twilight in the same spot while we crawled the rest of the way to the line. Again, bullets whizzed over our heads while we continued to crawl into the trench. The same guy was still waiting for us to arrive with the munitions. But this time, he grabbed Lou and looked straight into his eyes.

“Our central mahine gun's outta action. We need reinforcements or a new gun!” He yelled. I passed down the ammunition that I was carrying. Lou took a look at the jammed machine gun. He took a look from under neath, he probably saw a jammed bullet in the firing mechnism before sitting up.

“Tomy, go back to the depot and get some more ammo.” He said, grabbing his LMG and deploying the bi-pod. “I'm gonna stay here and give whatever hand I can.” He said, getting onto his knees and firing a few short bursts of 30cal LMG fire.

I crawled my way back into the jungle and ran back to Twilight's hiding place. She was reluctant at first, asking where Lou was. But in the end, she picked up the pace and ran down the track. We continued to run, the amount of sweat that was running from our bodies was incredible. We were drenched in our own sweat.

And we continued running, never stopping for the slightest moment. But for some reason, this trip felt different.

The first few trips that we made, allowed us to notice guards along the path. Rifle pits placed on either side of the track. They ould always stare at us, probably because of Twilight and the incredible sight that she offered. She was certainly an 'angel' in disguise.

But this time, there were no guards. They were normally placed near the front. Ready to hold up the Japs while the rest of our guys retreated back to the second defensive line. But we encountered no one on our trip back. The rifle pits were empty as far as we could see.

A strange silence filled the area around us. Sure the blazing fire from the front was still audible, but a strange calmness descended over our path.

That was when I heard it. A twig snap.

Everything happened in a split second, all at once. Ahead, Twilight was still running, she was to focused on her stamina than what was going on around her. We'd probably been running for about ten minutes, suddenly we came to a clearing in the jungle around the path. It wasn't a large clearing, roughly five meters in length and another five meters in diameter. But here, on this small stretch of space, a great tragedy would unfold.

As Twilight continued to run, there was a loud crashing sound to our left. The sound of something breaking. It was then that we turned our attention to the left side. In that moment, we saw a man crashing through the trees. He wore tan like clothing, unlike our khaki green. I was able to make out this detail because I can see these sort of things. Even in the darkest of nights.

This man landed right next to Twilight, lifting his head, he didn't even take a proper look at who he was attacking. Instead, he raised the butt of his rifle, and slammed it against Twilight's head. She let out a pained scream as the force of the attachers strike sent her crashing to the ground and rolling into the ditch. The Japanese soldier then looked at me. A strange sensation filled my body. Fear.

The man charged directly at me, I didn't close my eyes. I just continued to stare at the man as his bayonnet ran straight through me. As did the rest of him. I spun around to see him charge his next target.

Tomy had already unsholdered his Johnson. He used his rifle to deviate the Japanese bayonnet by placing his rifle just under that of the enemy. Then he pushed his rifle up forcing the bayonnet to fly just over his head. With his right foot, he pushed the Japt to the ground and fires two rounds into the man.

Another jap jumped from the bushes and ran towards Tomy. The young Australian turned to face his enemy, but was to late. The enemy had already reached him. By the time he spun round, the Jap planted his bayonnet into Tomy's stomach. Tomy face turned from anger, to that of worry. The jap had his teeth bared and he was panting heavily. Tomy dropped his rifle and reached for his 45. He placed the barrel on to his adversary's heart. One round was all it took.

Tomy began to stumble, I saw him stumble against the right side of the path. I cried out in vain as Jap after Jap jumped from the bushes and on to the offensive. They all landed on him at once. I watched helplessly as e screamed with his all his might. He fired as many times as he could. Three out of Seven attackers fell to the ground. They but they never let up, they had long since forgotten Twilight.

I continued to watch as I approached the massacre. I wasn't afraid of anyone seeing me, no one ever does. Tomy had long since stopped screaming. By now, a river of blood was running down at out there feet.

Suddenly, an ear piercing yell echoed around the clearing. There was another loud crash, the same sound of someone bursting through the foliage. I turned my attention to the new arrival. There, standing half crouched, was Lou. I don't think he even looked before he opened fire. Violet tracers flew at the only standing men. The burst from his LMG lit up the area, and his face. Pure anger was present, anger so painful that it almost shocked me.

Almost.

He continued firing at the men until all of the attackers were on the floor. He never stopped firing. He used up whatever ammo there was left. Smoke and a violet glow faded from the end of the barrel as he dropped his weapon and rushed over to Tomy.

The poor young man was still holding his pistol. Still pulling his the trigger, the eery clic from the weapon echoing through the air. Lou and I approached the poor young soul. I saw a sight that would make most people vomit. Tomy had been ripped open. His entrails and guts were all over his lap, I took a glance at Lou who dropped to his knees next to Tomy.

Blood was pouring from his mouth like a fountain. He then looked at Lou.

“Mmmhhh... I...I...I-I-I... tried to-” He gurgled. But Lou grabbed his arm.

“Don't worry Tom... You're going to be fine.” He said, tears running down his cheeks. “You're gonna be okay” He mumbled. I myself sometimes wonders if that last sentence was an attempt to calm Tomy... or himself.

Tomy, tried to move, but even more blood spilled from his mouth and his wounds. Lou pushed him back down.

“Ssshhh... don't move. I'm gonna get a medic.” He said, his voice just as shaky as the rest of his body. Tomy didn't reply at first. Instead, he looked up at me. I knew this look too well. All of those that I take give me that look. A look that would plead into your soul, and mine.

If I had one.

I slowly bent down by Lou's right side. Tomy trailed my movements with his eyes.

“Mmm... Mummmhhh....Mumm?”

His final words, taking one last glance at Lou. A tear ran down into the blood from his mouth. And with that final act, I reached out my hand, and placed it on his heart.

Silence...

Time stopped, as his last breath faded. His old body limp. I grabbed his hand and pulled him up. He looked at me for a moment, before glancing down at his own body. Lou was still sat there. The last dying second stretched out into eternity. The distant screaming had stopped, as a new death took place. I slowly took Tomy farther down the path. Both of us taking one last glance at the remains of a family long since shattered.

I took notice of Twilight's body, lying on the side of the path. Her time had not yet come as far as I was concerned. She didn't belong here. It was for her Universe to decide when her time would come. Slowly with a careful huff. We both walked into the dark.

I remember that time when Lou got hit. She had used her powers to save his life. It appears that my thought of her as an angel wasn't that far off. She was the absolute opposite of me. My power was to end peoples suffering, her power was to save.

I doubt that we would ever meet again. But I do believe that the young Conlin and I would meet. Never in person of course. Maybe later in his life. Or maybe... just maybe... he might never be the human that I get to take to the other side.

For the first time, Humans had managed to bring me closer to life than ever before. A group of normal people, trying there hardest to survive. Deep down, I am greatful for their deeds.

And I only wish I could tell them that, in the end, I am never really as scary as I am described.

Author's Note:

This is a chapter that I have been dreading to write. I've become rather attatched to all my characters no matter how unimportant they are.

Comments

[Silent Echo]

Wow this almost made Me cry.

[FIRE FLASH 3]

8322187
When I finished writing this chapter, I recited the story to myself during a walk round my village. And I cried

[Silent Echo]

8322431
*hug* i Know i loved all the caracters to.

[p61blkwidow]

this was so powerful and heart breaking!you makeus care so deeply for the characters its like they are family.well done to you for such powerful writing!

[FIRE FLASH 3]

8325821
Thank you sooooooo much, it means a lot to me. I have done to the best of my ability to ake these characters as 3 dimensional as possible