The Love Within The War

Day 1: I have a job to do

Leon's Pov

We are heading towards nightfall soon, and it's been 10 hours since we left the compound. I can tell that Alice is noticing me on guard, but she wasn't here the last time we all had to move like this. We were moving from where our first compound was near the office tower to where our second one is now. We had all our gear and equipment as some of us were in the 7-tons and others in the jeeps, and the rest of us had to walk.

Flashback

It was right before sunset when we thought it'd be the safest time to move out. It's dark, and the Russians had already moved back after our scrimmage and us trying our hardest not to let them get any closer to the front lines. "Sully, we have to fall back. There's too many of us injured." Ross yells at me. I look around, and he isn't wrong. we have been injured in the trenches, and we have bombs going down surrounding us. There isn't much we can do, but we have to try. We have innocents to protect, or I had thought.

As we stayed position fighting as well as trying to help the injured, as we started seeing our fighter jets and our bombers come down, we knew we were at least safe for now.

Once all the Russians started to fall back, we started gathering the injured on the 7 tons and got ready to move since our area was comprised. We were 3 miles out, and we heard a loud boom, and we saw the 7-ton get filled on its side and smoke coming up from the other side. "Fuck" I shout as I see what's going on, there's IEDs planted. This only means one thing the Russians or their allies are in this sector.

We see a little boy who can't be older than 11 and he starts screaming and yelling for help. We all look at each other still trying to figure out what to do with the 7-ton flipped over, luckily no one was injured just some minor scrapes. I see Cullen run up to the little boy, I'm sure he's just trying to see how he can help and then that's when we hear another boom, but this time it isn't an IED.

I get pulled out of my thoughts as I hear Xander talking to Alice.

Flashback ends.

"Hey beautiful, so how'd you end up here? A young lady like yourself should be back at home with her husband keeping her protected." I slow down my steps trying to hear how this conversation will go.  Ross looks at me with a smirk on his face, and I give me a hardened look. Peter looks at me, then looks at Alice and shakes his head in disappointment.

I hear Xander laugh, "Calm down crazy, I'm just trying to get to know you better. There is no need to get all threatened." He says. I look at them, and Alice gives him an annoyed face. She's cute when she's annoyed, her nose scrunches up, and her eyebrows pull together, making her eyes look small as well "Well, we're only going to be together for a short time. There's no need to get to know me, I already have someone." She says.

I look away, and there's a pit in my stomach. Get it together Leo it's been almost 6 months since you saw her. Why would she wait for you? You just uped and left her, without any word. I start walking a little faster, just looking ahead. I can't get distracted. I have a job to do.

I hear footsteps getting closer to me and see Ross catching up to me. "Yo, Leo, slow down. You're leaving Alice behind with Xander, I don't think that's a great idea." I look back and see Alice with Chole and Xander. "She'll be fine, Ross, I can't get distracted, I need to keep my guard up. I can't let what happened last time happen again." He puts a hand on my shoulder, which causes me to stop. "It wasn't your fault Sully, you couldn't have known what was going to happen, man." I shake him off. Just keep walking, scanning the area as we're getting closer to sunset.

I hear Gunny Kellin talking with Chris about where we'll stop for the night. He says there's an area with the locals around that we can blend into and stop for the night. I know from our meeting this morning that the place we're staying was conducted by Chloe. I look around us and see everyone's conversations have minimized due to being tired since we haven't stopped since we started. We couldn't risk getting found out or running into enemy lines.

I look straight at her as she's taking some photos of the night sky and also the very few street lights, lighting up the last remaining buildings that haven't been destroyed by this war. She catches me staring and offers me a small smile. I look away as I hear Chris say we're only a mile away from our destination.

We finally get to our destination, and it's a big building, and there's French police surrounding it. It looks like it could be a ballroom hall. As we open the doors, you can see that this is no happy place but a place for displaced children and families. I see a small girl running around two small boys chasing after her and a woman yelling at the children in French, probably telling them to slow down or telling the two boys to leave the little girl alone. Then I see a woman holding a baby rushing around people and turning around every man she sees, and she's saying a name repeatedly Adélard? It seems like she's looking for her husband or maybe her older brother.

As I look around, there's a separate room across from where we are standing, which is currently right in the middle of a lobby, it seems. I motion to Ross, and he nods, we both start walking to what we hope is a vacant room.