Chapter 05 - A Challenge

“You’ve been asleep for three days” Delia says as he wakes up. “Doc said you weren’t in any danger of dying…if only that wasn’t true” she curses

“I’m not that easy to kill” he states as he gets up to find that he isn’t in his uniform

“You were constantly shaking and sweating in your sleep”

“Where are my clothes?”

“Would’ve been a lot better if you just died.” She points towards the cupboard “Been cleaned and dried…Rare to find that type of uniform”

Moving over to the cupboard he opens it to find his uniform neatly hanged up on a coat hanger.

“It’s hard to believe that you’re really Zulu” She says exiting the room “I’ll be on the roof”

Changing in front of the mirror he takes a good long look at himself. Standing at 6 feet 2 he is lean and well-muscled. The burn marks on his chest are no longer present but an X scar still runs across the right side of his abdomen. He got it before he joined the unit. His face looks young, like that of an 18 year olds. He wasn’t 18 though, he was much older; he just always looked young. With short black hair and the look of innocence in his eyes he reminded himself of someone who just got out of boot-camp and didn’t know the horrors of war yet, some fresh new recruit out of training, but he did know war. He knows it too well.

Frowning at himself he looks away from his face and down at his uniform, making sure that each line was perfectly creased. He was on base now and any error was unforgivable as he knew he represented his lost friends; he needed everything to be perfect. He was the youngest in his unit at the time, but he was equally skilled as the rest of them, more skilled the others told him, he was the best his teammates stated; but he didn’t believe it. Finally happy with the way he looked he turned around to find his backpack and fins it open in a corner of the room. His pistol, cleaning kit and knife however were on the table.

Taking seat at the table he went about cleaning the pistol again. Something drilled into him. Clean it every chance you get, twice a day if not fired, thrice if you did. He knew that there was no firing pin, but it was still something that represented him and what he looked like on base told others what he expected of them. Perfection and nothing less.

As he knew the procedure by heart he looked outside the window at the underground town. He was now in the civilian and living section. Families lived here, children played on the streets; politicians were live and happy. Nothing here even hinted that people were at war. Maybe they weren’t though and maybe that base he saw before was just subjected to a raid? He cast these thoughts out though, they were too bright. Reality is never bright.

Looking back down to his dis-assembled gun, away from outside, he knocks his cleaning kit, making oil spill across the table. Sighing he folds his sleeves to his elbows and wipes it up best he can. Dirtying his arms in the process. His friends would never have been that clumsy. Though one good thing happened with the accident. He finds the firing pin for the pistol amongst the oil. Smiling he moves it to the edge of the table, before continuing to wipe the table down as best he can. Soon finishing that and re-assembling his pistol, he holsters it and his knife and exits the room after he unfolds his sleeves, leaving no creases where they should not be.

[Equipment update]

[Knife]

[Pistol]

[Pistol Ammunition – 11 shots]

“Bring me to Headquarters” he tells Delia upon reaching the roof.

“No”

Stunned at the answer he received he stares at her blankly.

“They are in a middle of an Op and won’t be able to help you until it’s done”

Nodding “Cafeteria then”

“This way” she says as she takes a step back and falls off the roof.

Moving forward he sees he get caught in some kind of invisible wave? Something he doesn’t understand, and moves to sit in a vehicle.

[Safe]

Jumping instead of stepping of he too lands safely, being caught by the same thing and joins her in the vehicle.

Her hand was still upon a knife and neither of them spoke to one another as they were driven to the town centre. Passing through the town though, Zulu confirmed one thing. It was peaceful here. People would jog in the street, children played with one another and there were old people, as in old people that required the support of others. Something he had never seen before. Nobody lived to old age from his memory, nobody.

Upon arriving at the town centre they entered something much like a Café and took a seat outside. A waiter takes their order and when their food arrived neither of them spoke but they garnered much attention. Women kept stopping by to say hello but Delia just chased them away. She ate some form of noodles whilst he ate bread with soup. Something he knew the taste of.

“Hey Delia” a male walking to them says “Finally left your home?”

“It’s been a while” another male says

“You guys still alive? I thought the last mission was definitely going to get you guys killed” She joked

“Ha you know us. We’re indestructible” says an approaching female holding a cup of coffee.

Eating his bread and soup, Zulu stays quiet as they were not addressing him and just listens to their conversation, he knew he would be included soon enough if they wanted to talk to him.

“Hey did you hear about the rumours?” says the first male

“What rumours?” says Delia.

“You haven’t heard? That’s impossible, what have you been doing the past few days?” says the second.

“I’ve been stuck in my room as you guys kindly pointed out”

“Oh, right, that must have been fun” Says the first

“Well then, apparently there is a Zulu on base” the female says.

“Can you believe it? A Zulu!”

“And I here thought they were nothing but military bullshit to scare us, digitally made for entertainment.”

“Do you believe the things they can do though?”

“Like that bullshit story of how they could just disappear into the background even if you were looking at them.”

Hearing the last statement Zulu smiles unconsciously. Disappearing in plain site was one of their favourite things to do to scare new recruits. Good fun making them shit their pants when you appeared right next to them.

“What are you laughing at greenie?” the bigger of the two men agitatedly asks.

“Nothing” He replies, still smiling.

“Nothing?” the man repeats “Then stop smiling”

“Don’t worry about him” Delia speaks out

“No Delia, Greenies must be taught to respect their seniors. They mustn’t just randomly join laugh at nothing”

“AHAHHAAHAHAHA” Zulu breaks out laughing. The fact that he was called the junior was too much for him to stifle it.

“He’s the Zulu” Delia shouts putting her hand on the man’s shoulder.

“What?” the man says “Him?!”

“Yes, He is the Zulu” Delia repeats herself.

“But his face, he’s too innocent. Just look at him!”

“Well I am” Zulu speaks with no hint of emotion, hiding his agitation that they brought up his looks. He never liked how he didn’t get scars, or how he always looked like the perfectly home grown man who didn’t know conflict. Lean and well-muscled, he was good at doing what he did, He was a soldier; he was Zulu.

“Ha, if that’s true, then you wouldn’t mind proving it?”

“Sure then” He replied drawing out his knife. He was fully recovered and he knew that he could take anything this big man could throw at him.

“I challenged you to the battle grounds then, do you accept?” the man asks recording the challenge in some kind on machine.

Eyeing what the machine Zulu realizes that the man did not mean an outright brawl. Apparently there a procedures now? Looking at Delia, he notices that she doesn’t do anything, she seems impartial to the challenge. The two people this man came with though look happy and seem confident that the man would win the challenge. Having nothing to lose and knowing that he would win a fight with this man Zulu calmly replies.

“I accept.”

“Ha, Good!” the man replies “You can’t back out now. The challenge has been sent to the grounds.”

“Right, when’s the match taking place?” Zulu asks

Checking his pad “In 3 hours” then looking back at Zulu “We’ll see you at the ground in three hours.”

“We?”

“Yes, We.” He smiles. “It’s us four” he gesture to himself, the other male, female and Delia “Against you and your team.”

“Wait, I thought you said you were challenging me!”

“I am, it’s just this challenge requires a team of four. You will be alright yes? Or do you want to back out? If you do, everyone’ll know! The data has already been sent!”

Grinding his teeth and annoyed that he had been tricked he clenches his fists “No, I’ll be fine.” Then forcing himself to relax, and removing all emotion from his voice “just got to get a team together” he smiles as he starts to make a plan, stands and leaves with Delia following him closely, she was, after all, in charge of assisting and monitoring him.

“SEE YOU SOON GREENIE!” the man shouts and laughs from his seat.

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A/N

COULD SOME ONE PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT ON WHAT THEY THINK OF THIS SO FAR!

I feel so lonely T_T

Nah, but truthfully, it would help if i knew what people thought of this.

Thanks for reading by the way.