n

n

n“Easy boy, just breathe,”

nI coughed and coughed until I had no more breath and once everything had escaped my lungs, I took in a deep gasp.

nStupidly, I quickly looked up but Simo beside me dragged my head back down, allowing a bullet to fly over my head.

n“Sorry,” I muttered after just managing to catch my breath.

n“It’s fine. You did pretty well with the breathing technique, but you haven’t trained much with it. Your lungs and heart definitely haven’t met the capacity needed to maintain it for that long, but I’ll tell you that you have talent,” Simo said and his compliment felt good.

nIt made me a bit more motivated… or it could’ve just been the adrenaline influencing my thoughts since my shoulder had basically been shattered.

nOne of the other men who were still alive was attending to my wound but judging from the expression on his face, it was obvious my right arm was now unusable.

n“Shit… Seems I’m going to be a lefty,” I muttered with a weary smile.

nGoing home now will be impossible since the enemy knows of our position as well… and,

n“Hey… Sir, how many confirmed kills do you have?” I asked Simo who scouted the surrounding area which had basically been cleared.

nI did a good job at pushing them back and building up more momentum after dragging everybody’s eyes away from my unit.

nIt might’ve been unintentional, but it helped out a lot.

n“I don’t know. I lost count at three hundred,” He shrugged and my weary smile continued to persist.

nThis means he’s definitely a target for elimination… a sniper with that many kills would definitely have a name given to them.

n“I’m really not leaving,” I muttered, laying back on the snow after feeling my shoulder had been properly treated.

nMost of the bleeding had stopped, but we’ll probably need to extract some of the fragments and pieces of bone later.

nDon’t want any internal bleeding.

n“You probably could’ve gone home if we managed to kill all the attackers, but some managed to escape and even though they were wounded, I’m sure they have a camp nearby. We have to start moving immediately once everybody has finished attending to themselves,” Simo said.

nI scanned the area once again and noticed the one man proficient in medicare was still alive, so I breathed a sigh of relief.

n“I can take care of my wound myself, help the others,” I directed the man beside me, and reluctantly, he left to go help his comrades.

nGeez… I’m not your kid.

n…

nFor the next few days, we were on the run with some very close calls and even more casualties within our unit.

nEverybody’s spirits were down as we were on our last legs.

nOur original unit of fifteen strong was now a pitiful four weak, and everybody had basically accepted death.

nMy right arm was practically useless so during night watches I had been practicing to work with my left hand, but I severely underestimated how hard it would be.

nI have of course been practicing the breathing technique as well, but the progress has been very minimal.

nEventually, during the night watch, the one man sitting on the snow beside me gave me his chocolate and he said,

n“I’ll be back,”

nBefore disappearing into the woods, never to be seen again… well, until the next day when we found his will and his body hanging from a tree.

nThe one last soldier beside myself and Simo threw up and realized how hard it was to come to terms with death, especially after seeing it happen to the people you are close with.

nDeath was inevitable on this trip, and he was already shutting down.

nI went through the same process when I was drafted into the army, during basic training, and I’ve also seen it happen to many others.

nEither this makes you stronger or it breaks you down from the inside and eventually kills you via your own hands or your fear during a life or death scenario.

n“I can end you if you would like,” Simo suddenly said as the man covered his tear-dried eyes while crouching on the ground.

n“Sir, it was an honor to work with you,” He said before taking out his submachine gun and pointing it directly at the roof of his mouth.

nHe gave me one more pitiful glance, but all he received was a cold stare from me… and strangely, he smiled with eyes just a bit, before pulling the trigger.

n“Would you like me to end you as well?” Simo asked me coldly.

n“I’m fine,” I responded.

nThe brotherhood is gone… Some people say it lasts even after death, but I only saw them as extra baggage which allowed us to have more sustenance to keep living.

nWe were running very low on everything, so we’ll take any rations, drops of water, or anything we could get.

n“Do you still have the map?” Simo asked me and I took the small paper map out of my pocket.

n“Here,” I said as I handed the unfoldable piece of paper to Simo and his eyes scanned the entire thing.

n“We’ll continue down this way. I hoping we could set up camp a few days before the meeting, but I guess we’ll only have about half a day. Not that optimal, but it’ll have to do,” Simo said before handing me back the map.

nThat’s right, we’re still following through with the mission, due to the importance of it.

nAlso, I had sat on it for a while, but I think I found out how they managed to find us.

nWe had covered up our tracks after that first time and continued to do it even after being ambushed, but I think they found us via the dog.

nIt’s not like the dog intentionally gave away our position, but the enemy’s stealth was just too much for the dog to discover.

n“You think he’s still alive?” I asked Simo and he immediately understood my question.

n“I’m sure he’s already been captured and they’re probably going to try and retrain him… It’s a shame, but we’ll meet again and I’ll have to kill him,” Simo responded before we packed up all our stuff and continued to trudge through the snow.

nA shame huh… I guess.

n