Chapter 5

Chapter 5

YEAR 2045

[Tezuka Kejinto (Falcon) - 19 years old]
[Skylar Lawrence (Nightingale) - 23 years old]
[Ryu Mitsukai (Owl) - 19 years old]

Tezuka can clearly feel a suspecting stare on his back. Trying to keep his temper in control, he spins around to face his comrade. "What?" He asks, slightly annoyed.

"You are acting differently," Ryu says, raising an eyebrow. "Is your guilt eating you away just because you are not going to save Nightingale?"

"Whatever. You will be held responsible if the mission fails," Tezuka snaps. "You lead."

"Fine," Ryu walks past his so-called comrade. He takes one more look at the compass. As long as Sky is still nearby, they should be able to find him anytime soon. He saw where the medical soldier ran off to, and noted mentally to himself that he went southwest.

It has been three hours since they got up and continued their search. The track of footprints is long gone, and they are about to give up just when they spot something. 

It is an eaten banana.

"What if it's just one of the monkeys that ate it?" Tezuka rolls his blue eyes. "How'd you know that it's Nightingale?"

“Look,” Ryu points at the certain area of the tree’s bark.

Tezuka takes a closer look at it. He widens his eyes in surprise when he realizes that he is looking at a few trails of blood. “Has he been found?”

“If he gets caught by the enemy, then we are in deep shit,” Ryu grips his own hair. “What are we supposed to do?! We are not supposed to be spotted or get caught! And, so Nightingale got himself caught!”

“Calm down,” Tezuka glances around the area. He sighs lightly as he runs his hand through his lavender hair. “We don’t know if it is Nightingale’s blood or not. It is possible that he fought back and escaped. But, either way, the good news is that the enemy must be nearby.”

“You’re right. It looks like it’s at least 2 hours old,” Ryu looks over at the bloody bark again. “Whoever it is, they can’t be too far.”

“Hmm,” Tezuka is thinking to himself with his forefinger and thumb on his chin. “Okay, let’s split up. We will find him faster this way.”

“For once, we agree on something,” Ryu smiles at him. “You weren’t too into saving Nightingale before, but now you’re reconsidering it?”

“Oh, shut up. As long as we are not caught, the mission of discovering the weapons can wait a little bit longer,” Tezuka turns away from him. “We lost way too much time. I’m going southeast. You go southwest.”

“Yes, sir!” Ryu flashes a big grin.

~*~

It takes Tezuka about one more hour until he finds the exact track he needs. He smirks lightly when he spots faint footsteps. It has to be at least four people. That means... Sky can be one of them, but that also means he may have been captured. Silently hoping that the capture did not happen, Tezuka begins following the footprints.

The farther he goes, the more clear the footprints become. Before he knows it, he is standing about 50 feet away from what it looks to be a tiny village. Actually, it is a warrior village because of all the cargo and weapons present.

He climbs up the tallest tree he can find and takes a seat on a long and thick branch. He takes a binoscope out of his duffel bag and gazes through it carefully at the village. He is already thinking about which route he should get through without getting spotted.

He is considering using one of the small flying drones to scan the area, but he is worried that it may get caught by the enemy. So, he decides not to use it.

Sky isn’t anywhere in sight, but Tezuka is thinking that it’s possible that he is in one of the tents. There are at least ten Chinese soldiers standing by on the lookout.

“Hummingbird, this is Falcon,” Tezuka says after turning on his radio device. “Enemy area found. Owl and I split up a while ago, but I found it. About ten enemies are on lookout, and...  I would say it must be around fifty soldiers in total.”

“That’s great, Falcon! Have you found Nightingale yet?” Lt. Colonel Danielle Medina asks, slightly pleased with the progress the Sunny Wing Squad has made.

“No, but I think he may be in the area. Owl and I are thinking that he may have been captured by the enemy,” Tezuka says, still having his binoscope on his eye level. “We are hoping that it is not the case.”

“He better not,” Danielle says a little bitterly. “Good work, Falcon. Remember your first priority. That’s to find the nuclear weapons. You are the leader of this squad, so I hope you make the choices that are best for our country.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tezuka says softly, as the link gets cut by the Lieutenant Colonel. He takes one more look at the area. He wishes that Ryu is here with him. There is the exact reason why Ryu is called Owl as his codename. After all, he is the sniper of the team. With his precious Barrett M82A3 rifle that he has been carrying, he can easily take out one by one at a time. But Nightingale is not in danger himself but he is still at risk of leaking information to the enemy. And the discovery of nuclear weapons is also at the stake.

He has been thinking of different tactical plans in case someone spots him, catches him, or countless possible risky situations. When he thinks of one, he begins climbing back down the tree. 

Luckily, he is really good at memorizing the area, and he has always been excellent at school. Thanks to his big brain, it is very, very helpful in situations like this.

He makes sure to hide his duffel bag in one of the large bushes and mentally notes to himself to remember where exactly he leaves it. He carefully places his M9 pistol into the gun holder. Not only that, but also a large dagger he may use just in case if he runs out of ammos.

He puts his camouflage helmet on, so most of his obvious lavender hair is hidden. He decides to take a few yards around the campsite until he finds the opening, as he predicted. If this area is poorly guarded, then the enemies are not definitely expecting an unexpected visitor.

He carefully tiptoes into the enemy area, trying to use the cargos to hide himself and to stay out of the enemy's sight. He stops at the fifth cargo because he knows that one of the Chinese soldiers is just right around the corner.

But Tezuka has a good reason why he picked this route. He chose it because it gives him a better chance to sneak by easily. This first Chinese soldier he is trying to sneak past is snoozing off on his stool. His sleeping posture looks uncomfortable to Falcon, but hey at least he is sleeping on his job!

He just glides by to the next cargo, which is right next to one of the tents. He is about to go to the next large cargo when he hears the approaching loud footsteps. Shit!

He dives into a dark and empty tent. He waits patiently while he hears some yelling in Chinese. Apparently, the sleeping Chinese soldier gets busted by, possibly, his superior.

Suddenly, he hears light gasp. Startled, he whirls around fast, taking out his pistol and aiming at whoever made the noise. He widens his blue eyes when he realizes that it is not who he expected to see.

It is a woman, who has her hands up in the air. Small, petty, and beautiful woman with long straight black hair and dark eyes. Tezuka’s eyes begin to move downward, taking in the sight of the woman’s military uniform. He is surprised to find a Chinese woman here, seeing as there is a ratio of 4 men to 1 woman due to the old 1-child policy a long time ago. So it's quite rare to find a Chinese woman who is in the military.

All of sudden, they both hear a man speaking in Chinese right outside the tent.

If it wasn't for Tezuka’s quick thinking, he would have turned around and shot the bastard. Instead, he decides to keep his weapon still aimed at the woman. He does not know if she is armed or not. As he learned in his training back then, do not underestimate anyone. Not even a woman.

The woman shifts her eyes at Tezuka, showing an unsure look on her face.

“Say something back,” He says very quietly. His voice is so quiet that she almost does not catch what he just told her.

The woman nods her head and then yells back in Chinese language. They wait patiently in their frozen poses until the footsteps fade away from their hearing range.

“You understand me?” Tezuka asks, quite surprised and impressed by how calm and quick-thinking she is. His pose relaxes a little bit.

“Yes, I do, you blockhead,” the woman snaps in English. “You’re not going to shoot me, are you? You men are exactly the same -- you always underestimate a woman like me.”

“Dare to test my patience?” Tezuka angrily tightens his grip on his pistol. “Do you have anything on you?”

She shakes his head no. “I recently woke up. Thanks to you.”

“Well, as long as you do not move, I will not shoot you. I’m trying to hide from them.”

She scoffs. “Why didn’t you shoot me? Or him from outside? We are your enemy, aren’t we?”

Tezuka is about to open his mouth when he realizes that he is about to leak significant information.

Oh, for god’s fucking sake. He is not supposed to be wasting his time answering this woman’s questions when he should be looking for nuclear weapons and Sky! Besides, he has been spotted by the enemy. The sooner he gets out, the better.

“Where are you going?” She asks.

He takes a few back steps until he reaches the exit. Still having his pistol pointed at the female soldier, he pulls back the curtain a little to check if any more enemy is still around outside or not. When he confirms that the area is clear, he turns to the woman. “Pretend you never saw me.”