Fallen Angels

Chapter Nine

I woke up to a light slap across my face. I woke up instantly and saw Baker standing over me. He smiled once he saw my eyes open.

"God man, you've been sleeping forever!" Baker yelled. He was in his dress uniform, his Purple Heart medal shining though the little sunlight there was. I grunted and sat up in my bed, my legs hanging off the edge. I was still in my dress uniform, so I must've fallen asleep in it.

"Ugh, how long have I been asleep?" I said, rubbing my eyes. Baker laughed.

"Two whole days, man. Two fucking days." Two days? God, it seemed like I fell asleep just seconds ago. Two days? What's happened since I was gone? Have we taken Bolivia? Did we defeat china? I knew I was over exaggerating. We probably haven't gotten any territory yet. I got off my bed and looked on my desk. There was a hat there, the traditional officers hat. I walked over to it and put it on, looking at my small mirror and admiring my own uniform.

"What has happened?" I asked.

"What?" Baker said.

"What's happened since I was asleep?"

"Some Chinese forces have been spotted near the Peru-Bolivian border, which is weird since they should only be in Bolivia. They might be starting their own offensive."

I yawned and stretched my arms towards the sky. 

"What time is it?" I said to Baker. Baker shrugged. 

"I guess eleven o'clock." He looked at me. His eyes were bloodshot and a black eye showed from the previous torture he received. I looked at my hand, the two fingers clearly missing. Blood stains through the bandage I still had, but it didn't matter. It no longer hurt. I just wonder what everyone will think when I get home when they see fingers missing? Even though I didn't have a family, what would others think?

Baker noticed me thinking about this and approached me, patting me on the back. 

"Come on, I'll get you some breakfast." He then started leading me to the mess hall.

The mess hall here wasn't even that disgusting. The food was nice, in fact I had never had Peruvian chicken before. It was delicious, anyways, and the people seemed very nice. Only then was I told this food wasn't even from the mess hall. Apparently the army bought a whole bunch of food from a Peruvian diner, then put it in the mess hall and heated it up. I need to figure out what diner this is, they need one where I live. 

Then Baker lead me towards Lake Titicaca. People there were cleaning up the burned up bodies from the attack two days ago. Soldiers at the docking area were trying to clean oil from the attack. Baker pointed at one of them, who was currently trying to use a hose and spray the oil into the river. There were a couple of smaller ships in the lake, probably coming back from their own horrors. 

Baker sat down and took out a small granola bar. He peels it open and begins to eat it. He takes one bite and stares towards the individual boats. Each boat had about five people on them, one driver, one gunner, and the rest passengers. The boats themselves were fast, but it would take a few minutes for the to reach us even though they were about three quarters of the way across.

"Frightening, isn't it?" Baker said as he took another bite out of his granola bar. 

"What is?" I replied. 

"That these people here have gone through hell, and yet manage to survive only to be sent once more." He snickered and took another bite, then turned to face me. 

"That's what is going to happen to us, though. Eventually we are going to be sent back." I didn't say anything else. Baker then tried changing the subject.