Torn Between Two Worlds

by Alex Barkhorn

Chapter 17

Everything was dark. It was as if my eyes were squeezed shut behind a dark veil. I could hear loud, repetitive popping, intense bangs, and muffled yelling. My eyes burst open, and tried to adjust to the bright sun. It felt like I was in my body, just... I didn’t have control. I used my gloved hands to push myself up, and glanced at the surroundings: desert, mountains, and a crashed humvee a few feet away. I brought my hand to my head, then my ears, finding that they were bleeding. Red blood, covered in sandy dust, covered the fingers of my gloves. I reached for the M4 that was strapped across my torso as I took cover behind the wrecked vehicle. Two of my squadmates surrounded me, popping out of cover every now and then to fire off potshots.

"Multiple tangos, suppressive fire, suppressive fire!" A voice yelled, presumably mine, as it came out of my mouth, yet... not mine.

"When's support gettin' here?" A familiar voice asked. My gaze then moved to a very familiar PFC, with the nametag of "Barkhorn".

"So far, we are the support!" My voice shouted over the gunfire.

"They're closin' in!" One of the troops shouted from behind a fallen humvee door, getting tagged in the abdomen as he finished. "Gah! I'm hit!"

"Cover me!" PFC Barkhorn yelled, and I complied, popping up and using controlled bursts to take out an enemy. I glanced over, seeing Barkhorn prepare to carry the injured soldier to the better cover of the humvee. I then turned, upon hearing the sound of a Blackhawk helicopter approaching our position. Looking back at Barkhorn, he began to dash back to me, but got hit once in the leg, and again in the chest cavity. He stumbled down, and managed to toss the injured soldier over to me, before pulling out a sidearm and firing at the enemy. He got hit a couple more times, and I yelled out,

"Nick!" I shouted, bursting up in bed, only to hiss in excruciating pain, and clenching my head, feeling bandages wrapped around me. I gingerly felt along the bandages, and found a sensitive spot, presumably the place where I was struck with whatever weapon was used against me. I glanced over at the clock, seeing it was already eight that night. I sighed, wiping warm tears from the nightmare.

"The same nightmare..." I whispered.

"Alex?" A quiet voice asked. I hadn't noticed Applejack sitting on her knees, looking through my collection of movies and video games, being lit by the glow of the tv. "You awake? Who's Nick?" She then asked.
I couldn't answer that question with the lump that was growing in my throat, so I looked away.

"What're you doing in here?" I asked after a moment of silence.

"...Gray, Rainbow and I hefted ya in here after ya passed out from that nasty hit. Gray fix'd ya up best he could, and we put ya there. I volunteered to stay until ya woke up. The others are in the livin' room." She explained, turning to look at me.

"What're you doing down there?" I then asked.

"Oh, lookin' through these movies. I remember you showin' us one a couple days back, so I wanted to see what else ya got. And these video games, too. These, I liked." Funny, a few days back, when I played Call of Duty with them, Twilight and Rainbow were the only ones that picked it up with any speed. AJ took a while. I didn't think she'd get back into it.

"What's this one about?" She asked, holding up the cover of The Saints.

"Oh, that's my favorite. These two dudes go out and kill a bunch of crime lords and underbosses, taking the motto, "Kill all that is evil, so that which is good may flourish." It was a really low budget movie, but gathered a large fanbase after a few years." I said, carefully walking over to her. "Wanna watch it?" I asked with a grin. Applejack nodded her head in enthusiasm.

"Ah'd love to." She replied simply. I popped the movie in and pressed play, and we both sat on the floor, leaning back against the couch. Taking the occasional glance at her. Judging by the looks and expressions, she really liked the flick, which made me happy.

Next thing we knew, it was already nine thirty, and I shut off the DVD player. "Guess we kinda lost track o' time..." AJ commented with a slight chuckle.

"Ah, what's wrong with that? Long as we enjoyed the movie and each other's company, right?" I asked her, giving a smile. She looked at me for a moment, and returned the smile, nodding her head once.

"Yeah, you're right." She replied.

"Course I am. Now, c'mon. Let's eat, I'm starving." I said, walking out with her. We both entered the living room, where everyone was lounging about.

"Alex!" Fluttershy gasped, quickly standing up from the couch and approaching me.

"Are...Are you alright?" She asked. Flashbacks to the fight, then my dream, scrolled in my mind, but I gave her a confident smile and nodded.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I said in half truth, barely noticing AJ slip away to tell something to Twilight, who glanced at me.

"Glad to see I didn't mess up with that," Gray said with a chuckle, standing up and observing the bandages. "You alright, man?" He then asked.

"C'mon, Gray. It's gonna take more than those mooks to keep me down," I replied with a scoff, smirking.

"Well, lookit you, hotshot." He teased, going to the phone. "I'ma order chinese." He said, dialing a number on his cell.

"This late at night?" I asked.

"Got a better idea?" He asked me with an annoyed look.

"...Point taken." I replied.

Twenty minutes later the chinese arrived and we tore into it while watching tv.

"Alex?" AJ began, who was sitting at my right, slightly leaning against me. "Who's Nick?" She then asked. I almost furrowed my brow in anger, but simply shut my eyes.

"Nick's my brother's first name." I replied quickly.

"Oh. Oh, your brother. Right..." She replied silently. "Didja have a dream about him?"

"What makes you say that?" I asked dryly.

"Ya woke up and shouted his name." She replied matter of factly.

"We're done talking about this." I huffed, standing up and storming off to my room. I paced around my room for a few minutes, before looking at a turned-down picture frame on my dresser. I was about to approach it, when I heard a knock at my door. "What?" I called out.

"Alex, it's me." Applejack said from behind my door. "Can Ah come in?" She asked.

"Fine." I answered, facing the door with crossed arms.

"Look, Alex," She began, closing the door behind her. "It was wrong of me to bring up such a sensitive subject, and Ah'm sorry. But, you know, it ain't good for ya to keep your emotions all bottled up like that, y'hear? It ain't healthy..." She said sadly.

"If you haven't noticed, AJ, I'm not entirely the healthiest person around." I said, pointing at my head and tapping it a few times. She winced lightly, and nodded.

"I wouldn't entirely say that. Just...More like, ya need-"

"Don't you dare say I need help!" I hissed. I realized just how I sounded, and sighed, stepping away from Applejack. "I...I'm sorry, AJ. It's just hard for me to accept... That kind of help." I admitted.

"No, no. It's understandable, no need t' apologize." She said quickly, but I shook my head.

"No...It's just...Hard for me to talk about Nick. To remember...Think back at all he did for me..." I continued on, and my voice began to shake the more I spoke.

"You really miss him, don'tcha?" She asked gently.

"You have no idea, AJ. You really don't." I whispered in reply. She slowly approached me, wrapping her arms around me in a comforting embrace, one that I happily accepted.

"It'll be alright, sugar. You're not alone here, ya got us, now." She assured me. I sighed, and pulled away, sitting down on my bed. "I think I'll be the one to bunk with you tonight." She said.

"Thanks, I'd like that. We can watch a movie while we fall asleep, too. Sound good?" I offered.

"Sounds good. Ah'll go n' get my pillow and blanket." She said, exiting my room. Smiling a bit, I took a moment to look back at the fallen picture frame.

Minutes later, she returned, and we turned on The Saints again, watching it as we fell asleep. We conversed and laughed quietly as the movie continued on, but soon enough, she stopped replying. I looked over and saw she had fallen asleep with a content smile on her face, and she gripped my sweater that I had allowed her to wear for the night tightly. I smiled, and it grew wider when I looked above her at the picture frame. Nick's arm was draped around my shoulder, and we were both smiling and laughing in the backyard, a week before he was deployed. I could hear his laugh now, and it brought back a flood of good memories, conversations, and even a few arguments. That night, I didn't have that same nightmare. Only peaceful sleep.

( Enjoying your chapters, bronies? :D
Anyway, thank you all so much, again, for supporting me. You have no idea how much it means to me :]
Thanks again to Pissfer for editing my crap xD
Remember to follow me on tumblr, kiddies! ;] Also, I'm on Ponysquare now >.> )

Comments

[The Author]

Double first?

Anyways, awesome chapters as usual.

[Iron Sides]

Good chapter. What else is there to say?

[Guardian]

Touching chapter. Keep going!

[Silver Sea]

This is getting better, and it was already great.
Also, there are multiple possible shippings, but it seems that it's either Fluttershy or Applejack

[Spiffers]

499085 ya, if anything happens. I don't see anything happening any time soon though (If this goes on to like... 75 chapters and we go half a year in the future... maybe)

[Silver Sea]

500149 Oh, come on.
*sigh*

[Spiffers]

500471 I just think he has too much respect for the girls (and fear that they'll be taken away) for anything "real" to happen between them until some serious amount of time has passed. Because as much as it's apparent that the girls are "independent", they're still very reliant on him, and he understands that he is essentially their father figure for now