District 42-Chapter 191: Heading to death

The soldier found himself standing beside a truck. The truck bed was open, and his troops were entering there hastily.

Not just one of those vehicles were there, but four of them. About thirteen soldiers would enter each truck, and they would be transported to the local where they would start the operation.

The soldier looked behind, towards the Headquarters of the Yanke Forces. In its entrance, all the people working there were looking to the departure of those troops. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Some were crying because they knew that their fellow friends wouldn’t come back anymore. Others were just looking intently at the one leading that cruel mission, basically guiding his own comrades to death.

Even from far away, Casper could tell that their faces were distorted with fury. The soldier was even expecting to be shot before he could enter the truck.

Anyway, the pitiful atmosphere wasn’t just in front of the Headquarters’s entrance, but also among the troops.

The colonel was grateful for them. His friends knew what he tried to do, and what he was being forced to do now, and they understood him completely, some even thanked Casper.

To make things easier, they were trying not to show their fear and sadness, entering the truck beds with their heads raised and with strong expressions.

However, the colonel knew them for a long time. Some of them were his friends even before he entered the Yanke Forces. For him, it was obvious that they were forcing themselves to do so, and it was even more heartbreaking than if they afford themselves to cry, to curse, to yell, and fight back.

"Being honest, if just one of them turned to me and said ’let’s break this Headquarters and kill the Marshal’, I would take my gun and go for it." The soldier was serious when he thought about it.

Ana approached him. She noticed his troubled face, and that he was doing something that became a habit throughout the years of service in the army.

"If you hold so tightly your knife like this, you will break its grip, you know?" She joked, but it wasn’t funny, as her voice was more melancholic than sarcastic.

Anyway, Casper grinned at her, loosening his grip on the knife in his waist, and moving his hand towards hers. They held hands secretly, trying to find comfort in each other.

"It is just as you said before, Ana. They are ready to die for the country and the Yanke Forces..." Casper wanted to look at it as an amazing thing, but, personally, he preferred that they snapped.

"Yes. Never forget that you aren’t the only soldier here. Just because you do things that others can’t do, it doesn’t mean that you need to carry everything alone all the time."

She approached him even more, throwing the discretion away and hugging his arm.

Casper looked at her, startled, and confused.

"I think we will die anyway, so there is no point in hiding it anymore." She seemed to be enjoying her time there, showing off. "Do you want to kiss me? We never did it before, because of the military things and all..."

"I want, but I won’t..." He gave her a sad look. "If we go further here, I will change my mind."

Ana nodded. She understood Casper’s reasons, and she was just being selfish. In the end, the colonel would be the one left alive in the world, just with his memories. Ana wouldn’t miss Casper, but he would miss her. The less their feelings for each other grew, the less pain he would feel afterward.

"Okay, let’s go. Everyone settled already." Casper broke away from her hug, walking towards the truck he would be in. Ana made the same.

Everyone looked probably for the last time towards the Headquarters.

The trucks started to move, and that building was left behind, each time more distant, until they couldn’t see it anymore.

The sound of the truck engines was the only noise on that trip. It was the end of the afternoon, so the forest around there wasn’t as agitated as ever. The animals were going quiet.

Casper wanted to review the plan, just to be assured that everything would go alright. That was his responsibility, after all. He couldn’t let that mission go wrong, even for a little margin. The slight mistake he made would surely cost someone’s life.

That was a mission that would be based more on the individual skills of the troop. No one could count on the other all the time, and they should fulfill their designated roles.

The coordination of Casper was needed because of it. While on the battlefield, they wouldn’t have the opportunity the regroup, indent or revise the plan. The only thing they must do there was to keep pressing forward.

However, Casper wasn’t sure if it was good to open his mouth now.

The truth was that no one seemed to really want to talk about anything, nor hear someone speaking, even less about the mission.

"Those soldiers are mourning in anticipation because, after their death, they won’t have the time to do it... They are mourning for themselves, and their friends as well..."

The colonel decided to keep quiet for the entire trip until they arrived in the location where they would regroup and then start the plan afterward.

It was already night, nearly midnight, when they got there. The military camp they should invade, and annihilate, was in front of them.

"Non-named Operation, number 525. Invade and annihilate. It’s not investigative, nor infiltration, theft, recovery, track... Nothing like this..." He sighed. "That’s the third time of the entire Yanke Forces career that they order a mission like this. But now is different. We are invading the most secure military camp deployed into the countries’ terrain, AKA Black Widow."

Casper narrowed his eyes to that military camp, with black tents, and concrete constructions. Completely hidden into a dense forest, that place couldn’t be spotted by a helicopter, and hardly would be noticed by some passer-by.

He looked behind to all the fifty men gathered. They were analyzing their equipment to confirm if everything was good and working.

They were still dead silent and preventing themselves to look at each other. Their bodies were nearly disappearing into the darkness of that night without moonlight.

Casper straightened his back, and looked seriously at them, lasting a bit longer when passing his eyes by Ana.

"All of you." He called, his voice low, but clear enough for them to hear. They brushed off their insecurities and paid attention to Casper, looking at him in return.

"I am..." At this moment, Casper barely could follow his memories. It had been a long time inside that simulation, and be was acting just like living exactly that same day. At some point, his body just did everything automatically.

But, facing that harsh moment, he couldn’t prevent himself to falter for a while.

He prompted himself mentally and started to speak again. That was the quote he would always regret to have said at that time.

"I am sorry." That was the only thing he could bring himself to do, then stayed quiet.

The others didn’t reply. They even avoided their eyes again, looking to the ground, some pretending to check on their equipment, others crying silently, taking advantage of the darkness to not be seen doing so.

The colonel gulped as if trying to put those words again inside his throat, but they would never come back.

No matter how many times he cursed himself for that, it wouldn’t change.

However, on that night, maybe he was saying those words not because he was apologizing for making them go through that mission, but because he couldn’t take everyone with him after it ended.

He turned to the Black Widow again, preferring to look to his next challenge than to his own friends.

The colonel raised his hand and pointed forward.

"We will be going now. Remember the first step of the plan. We will be positioning, and the ones designated for the scout will take a look at the camp and inform how the situation is."

They didn’t answer, but Casper was sure that they heard it. So, they followed him once he started to go in the direction of the military camp.

In no time, the troops were already spreading throughout the forest, circling the Black Widow, hiding behind the thick trees, brushes, or some abandoned tents far away from there.

The scouts came after some time, to inform about how was the security and the positions of the nearest enemies.

"... That’s roughly their positions, we will be informing it for the others as well. Until now, things are just like we predicted they would be. We will progress as plan A demands, in this case. Also, we are going to need to settle the explosives first. I called for the Yanke Forces, and the hacking is going faster than they thought it would be."

Casper nodded for him, ordering him to reposition himself quickly.

The soldier sighed, raising his hand.

"Let’s go, then... Let’s do this... For the second time."