The day is dreary, 'as usual' Daniel thinks to himself as he looks up into the sky, the years of war have all but smothered out any blueness, and has done so for a long time.
Making his way through the seemingly endless puddles of sludge and debris, Daniel takes a moment to rest up against a fallen tree.
The distant sound of bombs dropping are but all too familiar, and a little too close for comfort.
He lets out a sigh, before forcing himself up off the fallen tree, and heading in the direction that the bombs are coming from.
The firearm hanging loosely from the strap around his neck weighing him down as always.
Reaching a ridge, he takes a look down into the valley and the city that lies within it. A city in ruins that is, the bombers are flying overhead releasing their payload.
Daniel makes his way down the ridge as anti-aircraft guns begin firing shells high up into the air.
The odd plane that is struck hurls downwards crashing into the ground, some hitting other bombers as they descend causing an eruption of flames.
None of which fazes Daniel, he's far to used to all the warfare at this point, even so, he is still constantly terrified.
"Mr Daniels, about fucking time" a female soldier snarls at him as a house explodes behind her.
"Sorry I'm late" he replies, crawling back to his feet having been knocked backwards by the blast.
"You'll never guess what I heard on the radio" another soldier announces excitedly as he helps Daniel to his feet.
"What's that Tom?" He asks.
"There are ships taking refugees to Haven" Thomas replies.
"We're to hold the enemy off to allow them to do so" the female soldier informs them.
"Are they taking … Is anyone allowed to go?" Daniel asks nervously.
"If you can make it there" Thomas replies.
"INCOMING!" a soldier shouts as a plane comes hurling towards the ground.
"Oh my gosh, kid! Hey kid! get out of the way!" Daniel yells seeing a young boy directly in the path of the falling plane.
"NOOO!" He shouts in dismay, watching as the plane spirals ever closer to the ground without control, and engulfed by flames.
A figure appears, jumping out of a window ledge close to where the boy is, and grabs him, pulling him towards himself.
The plane crashes down with a great explosion taking half the building out with it.
Daniel hurry's over to the crash site along with the other soldiers that have seen the boy and this other person.
Kicking down a door, whilst shifting some rubble and fallen wood out of the way, the figure appears with the boy in tow.
A gasp can be heard from the crowd as they see the uniform the individual is wearing.
"A Haven soldier, isn't he a bit far out to be here with us?" Thomas asks turning to Daniel.
"He's wearing a metal mask" Daniel points out.
The soldier walks straight past the pair of them, but takes a double glance at Daniel and stops in his tracks.
He takes out a photo from his pocket, looks up at Daniel, then back at the photo, and then back up at Daniel again.
"This is for you, sent with love, from Mikey" the soldier informs him and hands over the picture.
Daniel stands there in disbelief at what the soldier has just told him, holding the picture in his hand, not able to take a look at it as he is in that much shock.
Slowly he looks down at the photo to see himself, and the one called Mikey, it's a picture of Michael kissing him on the cheek
At the back of the picture as he turns it around is written, 'Hey Danny, I am at bridge eight in the front lines, I don't know if I will make it, so I wanted you to have this'.
"Is that your friend Michael?" Thomas asks.
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"Um yes … Yeah it is" Daniel replies as he wipes away the tears that have started to roll down his cheeks.
He suddenly realizes that the Haven soldier is no longer next to them, and frantically looks around for him.
"Hey wait! Come back!" He demands seeing the soldier off in the distance.
"Daniel get back here!" The female soldier yells after him.
"Go get him Tom" she instructs him.
"Why do I always have to chase after this idiot?" He asks rhetorically whilst chasing after Daniel.
Running after the Haven soldier is a lot more difficult than it looks, bombs are still going off left right and center, to make matters worse, on the other side of the ridge tanks and large war machines are pelting down shells and rounds onto the city.
"Daniel! You can't just run off like that you fucking idiot" Thomas yells at him.
"Wait! PLEASE WAIT" Daniel shouts at the top of his voice whilst clenching his fists and closing his eyes, almost as if he is afraid the answer will be no.
The Haven soldier turns around as Daniel opens his eyes, and for a brief moment a smile starts to form on Daniels face, until he realizes that the soldier is pointing a gun directly at him.
BANG
He fires a single shot that wizzes past Daniel, much to his disbelief, piercing the arm of a soldier who has a blade aimed straight at his face.
"Ahhhhh" the soldier yells out in pain holding his arm as blood runs down his uniform.
"Fucking hell Dan" Thomas states as he points his gun towards the soldier on the floor.
Daniel looks down at the soldier on the ground, he can't be any more than 19 years old.
"What do we do with him?" Thomas asks.
"Our orders … Our orders are to … Are to kill any enemy we come in contact with" Daniel stutters in reply, looking down at the boy sorrowfully.
"NOOOO! PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME" the boy tries to reason with them.
Thomas looks at Daniel and he returns an equally concerned glance.
"Nobody is going to kill you" the haven soldier interrupts them, placing a bandage on the lads' arm to stop the bleeding.
The lad reluctantly allows him to help panting heavily and turning quite pale.
"He isn't the kind of soldier you are all used to fighting" the Haven soldier informs them.
"What do you mean?" Thomas asks.
"Look at his uniform, he's from Flumina, they invaded them around three years ago" he replies.
"So you're not are original enemy?" Daniel asks the lad.
"Fight or die, those are the options … I'm so, so sorryyyy ahhcahuh" the young lad replies and bursts into tears.
"It's ok, you don't have anything to apologies for" Daniel tries to reassure him and pulls him into a friendly embrace trying to comfort the poor lad.
"Who are you exactly? I mean even for support, you're way too far out to where Haven soldiers usually are" Thomas asks curiously.
"I'm here information gathering, mainly on the ware bouts of a Sky Scraper" the soldier replies.
"Fucking hell, you're looking for a Sky Scraper?" Thomas continues to ask excitedly.
"That would imply I don't already know where the damn thing is, I'm also out here on reconnaissance" he remarks.
"Hey, how did you get this photo?" Daniel asks, frantically taking the photo back out of his pocket with shaking hands.
"He gave it to me, to give to you, if I came across you" the soldier replies.
"Is … Is he alright, is he ok?" Daniel asks in a quick stutter.
"He was fine when I left him" the soldier replies.
"Isn't he right at the front lines?" Thomas asks sheepishly in consideration for Daniel.
"He is" Daniel replies looking down at the photo with more tears streaming down his face.
"You talk about the front lines as if they are somewhere faraway" the Haven soldier remarks.
"Well, we are technically in a safer area here" Thomas explains.
"I've just gotten back from the front lines, how far away do you actually think they are?" The soldier asks.
"A few countries over" Thomas replies.
"Are your commanders not telling you lot anything?" The soldier asks clearly rhetorically.
"What do you mean?" Daniel asks in a concerned tone of voice.
"His country, the edge of that, is the front lines, all this that you are used to over here, this is just the enemy braking through every now and again" he explains.
Daniel stands up and looks into the horizon.
"Oh not a fucking chance, I know that look, snap out of it man, he isn't worth going all the way to the front lines for" Thomas moans, clearly trying to persuade Daniel from whatever it is that he has planned inside his head.
"I'm not asking you to come with me" Daniel snaps back.
"You can hardly look after yourself as it is" Thomas points out.
"What the fuck would you know?" Daniel begins to snarl back as he trips over some rubble.
"I rest my case" Thomas remarks with his hands out before folding his arms.
"You two wouldn't stand a fucking chance at the front lines" the Haven soldier interjects.
"DANIELS!" The female soldier from earlier can be heard yelling at him.
She is accompanied by a small troop of soldiers.
"Marissa, I'm tired of all this shit" Daniel remarks as she walks over to them.
"Refuge" the Haven soldier informs them all, pointing at the lad on the floor, who is still holding his arm in pain.
Some medics come over and begin to patch the young lad up properly.
"We're being sent to reinforce the front lines" Marissa informs the pair of them.
"Things are working out quite nicely for a change" Daniel mutters as he looks out into the distance.
"You have a got a warped view on things working out nicely" Thomas mutters back at him.
"And what will you be doing Haven boy?" Marissa asks loudly.
"Might as well come along with you lot, I need to survey this part of the front lines anyway" he replies.
"When are we leaving?" Daniel asks.
"Now" Marissa replies, just as some tanks drive past them heading up the road.
Daniel isn't really prepared for this answer, neither is Thomas for that matter as they begin to follow the other soldiers, along with tanks and planes that are flying overhead.
The Haven soldier sticks close by, walking alongside them.
"So what's your name then comrade?" Thomas asks him.
"Most people refer to me as Angel" the soldier replies.
"A real Haven soldier" Thomas rambles excitedly.
"Pretty hyper aren't you" he points out.
Thomas gives him a dirty look at this response before turning his attention to Daniel.
"So is this Mikey like your best friend or something?" he inquires.
"Yeah my best friend, he's actually the love of my life" Daniel replies with a small smile.