TEARS and BULLETS

CHAPTER ONE

ALEXANDER EASTWOOD

Get the boy , kill him if you must. Bury him alive , burn him, do anything for him not to survive. His presence will threaten my position in the...

I woke up , gasping for air. I held my head with my both hands and started pulling at my hair. That the same dream, it felt too real.I can't even say if it was just a mere dream or a memory.

" Hey, Alex. The bell already rang twice , we need to go. " My friend, Nicolas, said , while quickly getting change.

" f**k it, we're doomed." I muttered under my breath while changing to my uniform , hurriedly.

" yeah, dead even. Didn't you hear the bell?" He asked , buckling his belt at the same time.

" No, I didn't. " I answered, while fixing my clothes.

" That dream again? " He asked while walking towards the door.

" Yeah."

Once we're both out of our room, we bolted like we're running after the time, because at this moment, we both are. Our general doesn't like his soldiers being late. His punishments are always unforgiving, merciless. He makes sure you'll be catching your breath, lying almost unconsciously, after the punishment. No one would dare to purposely disobey him.

When we arrived at the training ground, he was already there, standing brave and proudly with his hands behind his back, his deadly eyes caught us and I gulped, and Nicolas paled. We're dead. We're dead. We're dead. I repeated like a mantra in my head...

"EASTWOOD , JHONSON, YOU ARE LATE!!!" He yelled through his loud and authoritative voice, and Nicolas and I fought so hard not to look down. We held our heads high, as we always should.

" SIR, WE APOLOGIZE SIR!" We both answered at the same time , and the general went back o the center.

" You both will run fifty laps , with no stopping, after I'm done with the announcement. Understand?" He asked while staring at me , directly. What is wrong with this old man? He always do this, like I'm someone he loathes the most.

"SIR, YES SIR!!!" Nicolas and I , answered.

"Now , everyone listen, here is a message from His highness, the neighboring kingdom, Hiraya owes our Kingdom a lot , and he now wants a revenge, a life for every penny they can't repay, and their kingdom for the debts they forgotten."

War. That is what the King orders. Hiraya is rich and powerful kingdom, how and when did they borrow money from Sarouos ? But if that is what the King orders, questions shouldn't rise , OBEY and FOLLOW, that's the only option we got.

"Through my leadership , the strategy on how to enter Hiraya, has been planned. Our spy, got a copy of the newly painted map of Hiraya, and crossing their borders wouldn't be so difficult if you follow my orders, with no doubt and question. Understand?!!! " He continued

"SIR, YES SIR. " Thousand of voices become one, when we answered the general, who will lead us through this upcoming war. And we're doing the provoking. We are going to cross the border, we are going to pull the trigger first, we are the ones who's gonna shatter the silence and peacefulness inside that kingdom. Plenty of lives are now on the line. Blood will spill, screams and cries will fill the room and...

" ...WOOD, FIFTY LAPS NOW!!!" A command , broke the line of my thoughts, even though I didn't hear the complete command, I started running, and I saw Nicolas running after me, shortly after I started.

" f**k, Alex slow down, fifty laps, you'll die if you keep running on that speed." Nicolas said, his hand on my shoulder.

Realizing he's right, I slowed down. As a soldier, dying during a punishment is the worst way to die. I can't let that happen. I've been through worst, it's only fifty laps, that couldn't be too bad.

I was wrong, after running only twelve laps, I can already feel my legs cramping, my throat dry, exhaustion is slowly creeping on my body, I'm thirsty, my head began aching, I tried slowing down, and so did Nicolas. I looked at my friend , he's so pale . He must be so exhausted now, I also am,but we need to push through, we need finish this.

" Slow your pace down, eighteen laps done, thirty-two more to go." I said, trying to encourage Nicolas and myself, we're running beside each other, and I could tell, this man is beyond exhausted, he's not used to heavy training yet, and now he's being punished .

"Thirs-ty" Nicolas slowly muttered , while scratching his throat, I am too , but we are not allowed to stop, not even for a second. We are allowed to slow down, but we must keep moving.

We've been running for who knows how long now, my line of sight caught the setting sun, ohh we're running for that long now.

Slowing down , Nicolas spoke softly,

" I don't think I can continue anymore."

Fuck.

"Nic , five more laps , hold on, alright? "

I said slowly, while tapping his soldiers, I'm twenty six and he's twenty two. He's like my younger brother, I can't lose him .

After a while, he finally nodded. He held his head high , even though he's already catching his breath, with a slow pace , he continued. I smiled secretly , feeling proud of his braveness and determination. We are not going down just because of this punishment. We still have a war to win.

Finally, Fifty laps down, survived the punishment but Nic and I feel like dying . We leaned our back to the huge tree in the training ground. Deep and loud breathing filled our ears, and I closed my eyes.

Feeling Nic's head in my left shoulder, I sighed.

Even though I hate this kind of physical contact, I let him. Only this time. He did amazing.

" May I rest here for a while?" He asked , lifting his head from my shoulder.

"Hmm, drink water first. Then, you can rest, I'll stay with you ." I answered him with a tiny smile and he nodded, looking happy with my response. This kid, really.

" Thank you , Alex." He said, his head slowly dropping to my shoulder. He fell asleep.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice a presence behind us, until the said presence spoke...

" Eastwood..." They started

Pointing a gun at the stranger's head, I asked

"What do you need?"

" Hold the f**k up, Alex, it's me . "

" Damn it, Luke! You scared me." I said , putting my gun back in its holster.

" Bet I did." He said jokingly , his eyes went to the figure sleeping beside me and he smirked knowingly

" It's not what you think, he's exhausted and I let him rest for a while ." I explained to this punk.

" He survived the fifty laps punishment, I heard only three except for the two of you survived that punishment before." Luke said, feeling a little amazed at Nic.

" Well, I never doubted you. I know you could finish the laps, but this kid is unbelievably determined. " He said , while sitting down in front of me.

Luke and I keep talking about random things , until he suddenly asked about Hiraya, the kingdom we are about to attack in a few weeks.

" Do you know if the kingdom of Hiraya have an heir ? " He asked, why is he asking about the heir , prince or princess now?

" I don't know, that kingdom has always been secretive about their heir." I responded with a shrug.

In a few weeks, we're going to attack. We're going to find out if they do have an heir or they don't.