In a war-waging country's secret bunk,
A relatively young woman named Amanda, walking with an old man that is me, was going with my walking stick.
"You shouldn't force Erwin that much," She told me as she helped me sit on the bed."Amanda, I am not forcing him, I just believe in him," I said with a smile. "I mean even if… why shouldn't I? He believes in himself, He can do it."
"Because Erwin's motivation is not for the defense of the country but for revenge for his village," Amanda argued. Sometimes I forget how innocent she is.
I scoffed at that comment and said "Let it be!"
Amanda face got angered.I continued, "It is not about motivation but invention itself. Imagine a war where only drones shoot. No humans will die, and humans don't have to go to war. It is a win-win."
Amanda sat on the chair near me as we heard the explosion coming from the far west. Amanda panicked a little."Border control," I assured her, but Amanda still looked worried.
"Will the war never stop?" Amanda asked."Nope. Humans will always get influenced by the devil and that always leads to war… but God always wins because human tendency is to be good," I shared the life lesson with her.
There was another explosion in the same direction. I sensed danger. I was about to stand and go look, as it was unusual for it to last this long, but my body is so patheticly weak that my hands started shaking. Amanda noticed my hands trembling as I tried to get up.
Amanda took her communication device and said, "No signal for reinforcement, but I will send a message to our backup just in case."
I relaxed. "Yeah, Richard will take care of it." I nodded as I laid my head on the wall. It was unusual for things to last this long. Is this another invasion? I thought to myself.
"So, with your philosophies," Amanda asked a question to distract me, "I bet you bored women to death." Amanda snickered. I decided to play along.
I scoffed at the comment. "I got the richest bitches lined up to marry me. Believe me or not, many from even opposing countries." Now that I think about it, they were ready to do anything to get me. I decided not to tell about things that happened in my younger age as it would severely affect my image as a gentleman now.
Amanda raised her eyebrows as she nodded her head. "Hmm, too hard to believe though."
I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, you have to believe me. It's not like I could ask them to prove it. I'm sure most of them are dead."
"Why didn't you marry one? Would have gotten you security," Amanda asked.
"Hmm, it would be nice, but political marriage isn't my thing. Also, I did not have much time when I was young to do one," I told her.
"Yeah, I bet you didn't have time. You helped me in the bio-engineering, Erwin's weapon manufacturing, and Richard's physical training, and who knows what other apprentices you trained before. No wonder," Amanda said.
"Working as a scientist was big back then, so I studied to become one, but war came and everybody had to fight.I just picked what I could for my survival. Also, it's not like I know more than you guys." I got interrupted by the sound of the door.
Erwin came into the room with guns in his hands.
"We gotta go!" he shouted as he came near me and lifted me up.
"What happened?" I asked him. Erwin said with teary eyes, "There is an invasion. Those fuckers… killed Richard."
Amanda was shocked, lost for words. Why, why now? I thought to myself. Erwin wrapped my hand around his shoulder. We left the stick behind as it would slow me down. We both moved toward the door where other soldiers were waiting.
Amanda was still there, expressionless."AMANDA!" Erwin shouted. Amanda took the gun, and as anger filled her face, she gripped it hard and started following us.
As I thought, Amanda and Richard were in love, I realized as I saw Amanda full of rage, gripping the gun so hard while we went into the corridor.
She was not stable, so I decided to talk. "Richard died for us, don't let it go to waste," I said, looking at Amanda. Amanda nodded as she tried to calm down.
We all entered the lab."Collect every data to hard drives and destroy all the prototypes," Erwin announced as he gave my hand to Amanda. She wrapped my hands around her shoulder. I felt a real burden being alive. "Did you test it in the air?" I asked Erwin.
"No," Erwin replied as he stepped on a drone. Then what would they need from here? The government made sure they gave us a wasteland to use. Not even they knew what we were doing here.
We could hear people walking toward us. We did not have time to copy; we ran. I wasn't able to catch up to their speed. I felt like shit as Amanda piggybacked me.
"Amanda, did you give anyone your medicine from outside?" I asked.
She was silent for a second. We all knew what went wrong.
"There was a small child suffering from cancer," Amanda responded hesitantly. I couldn't even blame her after all, she had seen many cancer patients die before her eyes, all because of nuclear explosions.
We heard gunshots. They were nearing us.
"Go to the main bunk," I commanded. They still didn't know what was here in this bunk. We couldn't go outside. We needed to destroy it from within. My students can recreate it again afterward.
"Soldiers, defend it!" Erwin ordered. His soldiers stood and defended us despite knowing they all would die just like Richard did.
Seeing comrades die was not a new thing. Only later does one realize that in war, we don't have the privilege to grieve for a dying comrade. instead, one should tell his tales so he lives on.
We entered the bunk. We looked at the entrance corridor, hoping someone would survive. We were relieved to see two survived. We immediately closed the door. Now, it was just me, Erwin, Amanda, and two of Erwin's soldiers.
"I will give the override. Destroy the lab within," I told him.
"Yes, sir." Erwin did the override and entered the command for self-destruction.
They came from above that meant they must have killed all workers and patients. At least I hoped so. Even if someone survived and hoped for us to come and save them, I prayed to God they would forgive us.
I closed my eyes to pray. I was expecting a blast, but nothing happened.
"What happened?" Amanda asked.
"System failure," Erwin said with shock as he kicked the control panel in frustration.
We heard gunshots at the door. We looked at the window.
One of the gunmen outside mouthed some words, as it was soundproof. They all showed a damaged device. Erwin and I both realized what it was.
"It is the self-destruct bombs," I told them.
"How did they get it?" Amanda asked. Erwin sat down with his hands on his head as reality sank in. The two soldiers looked at me, confused.
"They are from our government, and for some reason, they don't want us now." I figured it out when the gunman mouthed the words I just didn't want to believe it. Amanda dropped me down and stared at the ground.
There was dead silence in the room. It was hard for me to comprehend it myself. I knew the government would try to get rid of people who no longer proved their worth. It was cruel but a necessary decision well known in war.
But why them? Was it because of Amanda's cure? I made sure everyone would survive. I had made them all suffer just for this. I tried to control my tears. The assassins outside didn't bother us they themselves understood what it feels like.
Amanda and Erwin stood up and looked at the soldiers inside. As if they knew what to do, they both removed their helmets and looked at me.
The one with batch A105 said, "My name is Ruby, sir."The one with B007 said, "My name is James, sir."
"What? Why?" I was about to ask.
"My name is Erwin, sir," Erwin said. It suddenly clicked.
"No, no, wait. I didn't order"
"My name is Amanda, sir," Amanda said.
"Thank you for letting us into your squad, sir. We are grateful," they all announced.
"Who gave you permission?" I screamed as my eyes filled with water. It is custom among officers to tell their names to the survivor before they die.
"Please, let us be. What kind of apprentices are we if we let our master die first?" Amanda said as they all took their guns.
"No, I beg you all, please!" I cried as they left me alone in the bunk and locked the door.
I closed my eyes tightly as I heard grenade launches. It was going on too long for me to bear. I looked up, hoping to see what was happening from the window.
I dragged myself with trembling hands, using the friction of the concrete. By the time I reached the window, the sound has stopped. I grabbed the frame of the window with my bloody hands to lift myself up. It was the worst decision of my entire 87 years of life.
I saw the bodies of James and Ruby, exploded. Erwin was already dead, blood oozing from his chest. The gunmen started planting something on him.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Please don't do it to him! Anything but that." Erwin's village had the custom of burying bodies so that souls would be freed by the earth.
I had met Erwin in a ghosted village when he was in his teenage. He was going insane, trying to find whose chunks of flesh belonged to whom so he could bury them. He never had leisure in his life, and I wasn't letting him either. Now, all I could do was watch him explode. I tried to track where his pieces went but couldn't because of the smoke.
Then they went to Amanda, who seemed alive.
"Amanda!" I screamed. I needed to distract them, I thought. I used one leg to land on the door handle, trying to wiggle it. Even though it made them look, they didn't care as they started removing Amanda's clothes.
"No, God, please leave her. She did nothing wrong. She only wanted to save a child," I cried, hitting my head on the window. I fell down.