Na'eem looked up to Yuxi, his shoulders relaxed just a little. Just seeing her, breathing, eased his worries.

  He furrowed his eyebrows.

  'S-So do you still want to leave?'

  To this, she laughed again. Her arms were so thin and her face was thin. She leaned against the wall of the medic's office.

  'You've already left.' she said, shaking her head, 'I heard what they said to you, and I felt what you felt.'

  'So you're coming with me then?' Na'eem felt his heart grow lighter and lighter. This was it, this was all that he wanted.

  'I can't Na'eem.' Yuxi said, and Na'eem felt his body grow heavy again, 'We have a war to win, don't we?'

  Na'eem shook, 'We're not winning this war.'

  His whole body shuddered, 'You're not the one doing all the killing.'

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  His hands shook, 'You don't have blood on your hands.'

  Yuxi looked at him, her gaze gentle. It was starting to annoy Na'eem now. She was the perfect soldier, always following orders. But the perfect soldier isn't a human being.

  'You heard them all,' Na'eem continued, 'We're not even human!'

  'Na'eem... you don't understand,' Yuxi said, her voice airy, 'This is so much bigger then anything we could ever contribute to. We, who never had a chance to do anything more, saving the world.'

  'We don't need to save the world,' Na'eem buried his face into his hands, 'We just needed to save ourselves.'

  'I just wanted to save you,' he choked and this time he knew she didn't hear him, 'In more ways then one.'

  She'd been safe from the violence, separate from the burning. She'd been there but not there. Not the way he'd been. And that's why he saw something in her that he couldn't see in the rest of his platoon.

  Maybe he'd been wrong.

  His heart hurt, he didn't know what to do with that. There was a strange and painful feeling in his chest. One telling him to run, one telling him to stay.

  But he didn't get to decide that.

  The door burst open, unnecessarily seeing as it was unlocked, and someone entered. Na'eem was put on guard, gripping the hilt of his knife. This man wore a dark black scarf wrapped tightly around his entire face, leaving only his eyes untouched. Na'eem didn't like it, but he felt that he recognised those eyes.

  'What do you want?' Na'eem asked, narrowing his eyes at the intruder

  'We're taking you home.'