Frontline

                                    

                                          
'WAKE UP! EVERYONE IN THE CAFETERIA IN 5!'
James opened his eyes. He hadn't been asleep. How could anyone sleep with this dread hanging over you. He got up and put on his military jacket and pants. No one spoke as they walked to the cafeteria. The atmosphere was tense and nervous. James quickly glanced over at the others. Adam's face was pale and he looked almost sick as he nervously sat down in the cafeteria. Jaiden was nervously messing with her hair. Chris was tapping his fingers on the table. Rush was biting his nails. And Zalinki was was messing with the pockets on his jacket. Everyone was nervous and scared. They didn't really know what to expect, but they did know it would involve a constant fight for your life. Any second that could be the last. 
'SILENCE EVERYONE AND LISTEN UP!' Officer Wolfkins called. He didn't have to wait for his silence. No one had been talking anyways. They were too nervous to let out any sounds.
'TODAY'S YOUR FIRST DAY ON THE FRONTLINE! THE SCHEDULE FOR WHAT TEAMS ARE IN BATTLE AT WHAT TIMES WILL BE PUT UP IN THE SLEEPING HALL AT THE BEGINNING OF EVERY WEEK! TODAY TEAM RED, THAT'S YOU GUYS, AND TEAM YELLOW ARE UP! I WILL BE WAITING BY THE STAIRCASE! EVERYONE WILL BE THERE IN 5 MINUTES AND STANDING IN TWO LINES! NOW MOVE!'
                          
The scared teens didn't hesitate to follow the orders they were given. In battle, they could fight for their lives, if they got shot here, it was automatically over. James stood next to Adam as they waited in two lines, just like they were ordered.
'What do you think is gonna happen?' James asked.
'I don't know.' Adam replied.
'I just hope that being good at shooter games will give me an advantage.' Chris said as he stood behind them.
Officer Wolfkins walked to the front of the lines and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
'We're about to visit the weaponry! Under no circumstances are you allowed in here without our permission! Don't even think of using the weapons against us! You will get shot by one us immediately! We have much more efficient weapons than you! Now, take a gun and a helmet and follow me!'
They quickly grabbed their stuff and followed officer Wolfkins to the top floor. Another group of kids was already waiting there with their officer.
'How many do you think will return tonight?' Rush asked nervously.
'Let's hope all.' James replied.
'That's all we got going for us... hope.' Adam muttered.
                          
The giant doors opened and they ran outside, ready for battle, but nothing was there. They were in some forest. The doors were actually pretty well hiden and if you didn't know they were there, you'd probably miss them. They followed the crowd and ended up near a trench. They followed the others down and slowly the kids spread around filling the entire trench. 
'Now what?' Jaiden asked as they waited for anything to happen.
'I don't know, maybe something is out there.' Zalinki said as he climbed up the wall a little to peek over the side. As soon as he was able to see something the sounds of dozens of gunshots blasted through the air and Zalinki immediately pulled his head back.
'Okay, let's not do that.' Chris said.
'Agreed.' Zalinki replied, his face pale.
More gunshots sounded as the children started to try and fire at their unknown opponent.
'Let's spread out a bit. All shooting from the same exact spot won't do much.' Rush suggested and they all agreed. They split up in groups of two. Rush and Jaiden, Zalinki and Chris and James and Adam. For what felt like hours, they tried to shoot their enemies, or at least, so it seemed. James didn't aim at anything that moved. Instead he shot at the ground, the trees and the sky. No matter how bad the situation he was in, he really didn't wanna kill another human being. He just couldn't do that. The blonde glanced over at Adam. He couldn't see what the dark haired boy was aiming at, but he had a feeling Adam was avoiding people too.
                          
After what felt like hours, things finally started to calm down. James sat down on the ground and put his gun down. Adam soon followed his example.
'Do you think anyone got hit?' Adam asked.
'I don't know and being honest, I don't wanna think about it either.' James replied.
'I'm sorry for bringing it up. It's just... I don't know what to say and I'm just scared at every moment.' Adam muttered.
'It's okay... what if we talk about something that just doesn't have anything to do with this. Just a little distraction.'
'Sounds good. What do you wanna talk about?'
'I can tell you about this one time me and my twin sister caught a moth and called it Harry.'
'Oh, was it a hairy moth?'
'Not really, but my mom didn't like it so she told us to take Harry to school and let him be the class pet. We were really young when this happened by the way. But my teacher decided to set him free because he was most likely not gonna make the end of the year and she didn't wanna explain to a bunch of little kids why their pet wasn't moving. So we all collect outside and set him free.'
'Aw, that's actually kinda swe-'
'And then a bird swooped down and ate him right in front of us!'
'Never mind.'
'Can you imagine the reaction from a bunch of little kids when that happened. My sister even ran up to the bird and demanded that he'd spit Harry out.'
The two boys started laughing and for a bit, they completely forgot where they were and what was going on.
'I don't have any stories about moths, but I can tell you about this dog I once found on the street. He didn't have a nametag or anything, so I took him home and called him Shorbi. Anyways, so one day a friend of mine was gonna come over and I had to clean before he came. I had about two hours before he'd get there so ofcourse I sat down and played Luigi's mansion.'
'As one does.'
'Yeah, I kept playing way too long and eventually I had to speedrun everything. But in the end I only had to take out the trash. Before I left though, I turned on the roomba because Shorbi really sheds a lot. I had like 7 minutes left when I got back so I wanted to continue Luigi's mansion but... there's shit everywhere. I learned a valuable lesson that day. That being, DON'T LEAVE YOUR DOG ALONE FOR THREE MINUTES WITH AN ONGOING ROOMBA BECAUSE HE MIGHT SHIT AND THE ROOMBA MIGHT PICK IT UP CAUSING IT TO SMEAR LITERALLY EVERYWHERE IN YOUR HOUSE!'
James immediately started snickering and even Adam couldn't help but laugh at the story.
'I had 5 minutes to clean up everything with nothing but water, toilet paper, a sponge and probably sprayed enough febreeze into the air to melt the polar ice caps. Somehow I actually made it and my friend never found out.' Adam finished his story.
The two boys rolled over the ground laughing.
'Man, I've been living with dogs for years, but none of them got me in a situation like that. I do remember this one time where my dog attacked the dog from this lady in the neighborhood. Her dog was completely fine, but she did threaten to call the police on us. That was a memorable situation because my little sister was home alone at the time and my parents were out of town and I was in charge while they were gone. But I didn't have anything to do with the whole thing. I was at improv. She called me while I was at improv and I figured the police couldn't do much if we didn't let them in because I heard somewhere they need a warrant for that. So I told her "If the police show up at our house, don't let them in". Now only a second later I realised that's one of those things you shouldn't say out loud in a crowded area. My improv didn't ask what happened though, but maybe they were just afraid to ask.'
Both boys continued laughing.
'That reminds me of the time me and my friend got in trouble with the police for spray painting at a playground.'
'Adam!'
'Hear me out okay, we were fixing a mistake we made.'
Adam started telling his story and after that more stories followed. 
The two started to completely forget the situation they were in as they told stories and laughed.
'So yeah, I didn't end up filing charges, I just wanted food.' Adam said.
'Man, I would've just waited there and probably starved.' James laughed.
'Yeah, I don't have the patience for that.' Adam replied.
'Hey, guys! We're heading back!' Jaiden called from nearby, suddenly snapping the boys back to reality. 
'I guess we're heading back then.' Adam said as he stretched his arms. As soon as his hand came above the edge of the trench, gunshots sounded, startling both boys.
'Did they hit you?' James asked worriedly.
'No, I'm fine, but remind me that I need to be more careful.' Adam said suddenly on edge.
The two started making their way back to the bunker in silence.
                          
'Hey... thanks.' Adam said after a while.
'For what?' James asked.
'For telling stories. It was fun. Made me forget this nightmare for a bit. I needed that.' 
'Yeah... me too.'
Suddenly they passed a group of kids that seemed to be a lot more panicked than the others.
'What's going on?' James asked. They got closer to the group to see that they were carrying two kids. One of them was Nicky, Lizzy's brother. The other one was unknown to them.
'What happened?' Adam asked.
'Nicky got injured really bad when a grenade was thrown into the trench. We're trying to get him back to the bunker for medical care.' One of the kids said.
'And Jake over here got shot. We tried to help him, but he didn't make it.' Another kid said. 
James felt the air get heavier as he looked at the body of the dead kid. He couldn't have been much older than twelve. His name was Jake apparently... But James had never had the chance to get to know him. His family didn't know what happened to him. Maybe they'd never know.
'I'll carry him. I'm a bit stronger.' Adam said as he took Jake from the others. They'd been carrying him with like four people because they were still pretty young and small. 
'And I'll take him.' James said as he noticed Nicky's carriers having the same struggle.
The entire time they walked back, James didn't dare to look over at Jake or Nicky. He thought of the close calls his friends had had that day. It could've been them. It could've been any one of them. 
'Are they alive?' Officer Wolfkins asked as James and Adam were about to enter the bunker.
'This one is, that one....' James couldn't get the words out, but officer Wolfkins understood what he tried to say.
'Top floor, first hallway on the left, last door is the hospital. Get him there and hopefully we can send him back in battle soon. As for the dead one, we don't have time or space to deal with him. Just ditch him somewhere.' Officer Wolfkins commaned.
'What!? But... but... he isn't just some dead flower! He's a child! He deserves respect!' Adam called.
'I don't care! Obey your orders or end up just like him. Maybe I'll ask your blonde friend here to ditch your body then!' Officer Wolfkins commanded. 
James looked over at Adam and he could've sworn he saw tears in the dark haired boys eyes. He was sure it was from anger rather than fear. 
James went inside and went to the hospital. Nicky wasn't the only one there. It was the first day and already there were multiple injured. It wasn't really a fancy hospital. There were two people running aroun in white outfits. One man and one woman. After making sure Nicky was in good hands, James returned to his own sleeping hall. He took of his muddy jacket and pants, still wearing the black outfit underneath. Adam entered the sleeping hall and did the same before sitting down next to the blonde.
'How's Nicky?' He asked.
'He's gonna be fine. What did you do with Jake?'
'I didn't really have the tools to dig a hole, so I layed him near a hill and covered him in leaves. I also carved his name in a nearby tree. I wanted to do something. You can't just treat the dead like that.' 
A beat of silence passed between the two.
'That was only day one... tomorrow this will happen again. The day after too. Any day we might get horribly injured or even die. People are already dying.' Adam whispered. When James looked at him he saw a shiver go through the dark haired boy's body as tears appeared in his eyes. James couldn't blame him. He was terrified. They all were. But now, victims were starting to fall. It all suddenly felt so much more real. And this horrible reality was gonna be every single day from now on.