Bye, Bess

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      "This is it, ain't it? We're going to bloody die in here, aren't we? In a bloody tank?" Arthur glanced towards me, his eyes tinted with a mix of fear and utter anger. "They'll come marching down that road... their weapons in hand... ready to kill us as soon as they lay an eye on us! And it'll be this bloody machine's fault for blowin' on us!" I watched as he kicked the interior, letting out a sharp hiss of pain as he felt the sudden shock. He leaned against the place he had recently booted, laughing hysterically. On the outside, our mate Allistor was looking at the exterior, mainly the tread, to try and figure out if something had gotten stuck.

      Soon, Allistor opened up the side and climbed in, "Aight, let's go over what I think has happened," he cleared his throat and stepped over to us. "The engine is blown."

      "What?" Arthur stared at his brother, his voice cracked as the ill-ridden words left his mouth. "Blown?... Don't.. Don't we have parts?"

      "Nope. Threw 'em out because Alfred here didn't think we would need them." He slapped a hand on my shoulder and shook me roughly. "So now one of us 'as to go out there and find a village, hopefully with parts!"
"And if it's occupied with Fritz boys?" I counter, "If whoever goes out gets killed?"

      "Your fault." He simply stated, his gaze digging into me like daggers. "But hey, we need a volunteer, and I know I'm not goin' out there. Which one of you is headin' on out?"

      A moment of silence replaced the rambling and Arthur and I shared a glance. I knew he wasn't going to go, and it was my fault in the first place. I slowly raised my hand and nodded, focusing my eyes up at Allistor. "... I'm going. It's my fault. Plus, I'd rather die for the machine than die in the machine. Reasonable answer?"

      "Sure, sure," Allistor gave me a smile, walking back to the exit. "Then it's settled. When you're ready, head to the village that's up ahead. It's marked on the map. If God gives us luck, we've already captured it." He jumped out, but before he finally shut the doors, he leaned in. "Though I may regret goin' and sayin' this, but dying for a hunk of metal on wheels? Crazy, mate!" Allistor lets out a rough laugh, interrupted by a few coughing fits. He closed the door, Arthur and I still being able to hear his cackling from the inside.

      "How are you two related?" I broke the silence within the tank. "He's rowdy and high-spirited, has somewhat very little anger problems, while you here have a very high temper and try to act like a high-class man."

      "At least I wasn't the one to throw out the extra parts we needed," Arthur let out a huff of annoyance. "But, I see your point. Though you obviously haven't seen him overly aggravated." He slid down the wall to a sitting position, running his bandaged fingers through his dirty blonde hair. "Mum was English, dad was Scottish, you can see who hung out with who. Personality, appearance," as it fell dead silent, again the one thing we could hear was the small banging of what sounded like metal outside. I believed it was Allistor just banging two tools together for entertainment. He did that when we had breaks.

      "If I die while I'm out there, I'm sure gonna miss the two of you." It ached me to say those words. It was true I didn't know what was awaiting me out there, in the next village. Maybe we didn't capture it and Germans were there waiting for ignorant soldiers like us to come waltzing in unannounced. "I'll miss you, my family, my girl.."

      "Stop acting like you're writing your will," Arthur puts a hand on my shoulder, "It's not the end of the world until Britain gets bombarded by Germany."

      "And America." I chime softly. "When that happens, dear lord," I shake my head.

      Arthur just laughed, shrugging it off. "Yeah, and you bloody colonies. What a joke."