1 A Second Shot

As the boat was almost close to shore, the young men in the ship started to shake, and the others praying to god to have mercy on them, others began to vomit.

When the boat comes to a halt at the shores, the sound of metallic piercing of Caliber rounds leaves marks across the ship.

Everyone duck down! Someone shouted as all the men in the boat ducked themselves even lower. Blood and other bodily fluid started to join the seawater on the bottom of the ship. The vomit and other humanly fluid submerged in little seawater.

The entire boat comes to a sudden halt, and seconds later, the sound of a pound ramp at the front hits the ground.

In the process of moving forward, some soldiers slump backwards into a fort on the hill as they reach the shore; others face a surge of bullets as each scramble for cover, and the others go forward only to be hit by heavy machine guns.

One in particular soldier got shot in their left waist as they got pushed away by the impact of the bullet going through their body and fell on the sandy ground, as he agony in pain. A comrade saw their fellow brother on the ground and sprinted towards him.

As he runs on each over and finally comes to the wounded brother, he drags him to nearby cover,

"Y-You'll be alright just hanging in there," Edward said as he tried to put pressure on his comrade's wound. His comrades then grabbed his right arm and said seawater.

"No, don't mind me, you take this Bangalore and go to the seawall, blown up a path to the bunker."

"B-But…"

After that, Edward was given a 5-foot torpedo and given orders. Before passing out, the soldier gave Edward a last push on the back. Reluctantly Edward began to run towards the seawall while dodging an incoming bullet and taking cover from left to right.

its been seventy-seven years. since the whole world comes to a time of peace as japan surrenders to the allies long after the war.

Edward is now attending one of his fallen comrades' funerals and paying his respect to them and their families. The man named Edward finally decided to settle; however, life didn't give him a chance.

"Sir, Hello, are you there?"

"Huh?"

Edward snaps back to reality as the cashier calls him at the convenience store counter.

The cashier was who has dark hair; his eyes were grey as a silver coin, and the cashier counter held a paper bag towards Edward.

"Your payment, sir…."

"Oh yeah, right, here," Edward said as he pulled a wallet from his and proceeded to grab some cash from it and gave it to the cashier,

*Cling*

The cash register made a sound when it opened; the cashier got some change and the receipt and gave it to the customer. When Edward is about to leave the convenience store, the cashier bows and says, "thank you for visiting."

Edward is stunned as he walks outside. The heat of July swept through him, and the weather was hot but not too cold. It was great weather for newcomers coming to the city, Edward counties, to walk through the shopping district; he stopped at the main street.

As the green traffic light turned red, many cars went by, and pedestrians were now allowed to walk through the street. Edward walks to the pedestrian line and sees a girl holding her phone. As she walks through the line,

Look out! Edward says as he sees a truck at full speed as if in a race contest; this even trigger's something in Edward's mind without hesitation.

He then quickly moves into action, sprinting towards the oblivious girl; as he comes towards her, Edward drags her out of the way from the street, making the truck completely miss them.

"Ah? Th-thank you?"

"No problem, better look at the street next time, alright,"

Edward said as he gave a bit of advice to the girl and pat her on the head before he left the scene, without making any more ruckus, the girl.

Who is clueless about what happened to her? She looks back at the man who had to save her before disappearing from her sight as Edward leaves.

"I told you, Amia, stops using your phone! Just look what happened?"

An older man with a cane in their hand finally caught up to the girl and called her out; the girl named Amia saw this older man,

"Hey, gramps,"

"Don't hey gramps me! You almost got yourself killed."

"Urk sorry," Amia Apologized to his grandfather beside him, as they both waited until an emergency arrived to check on the truck driver, who collided with a nearby poll,

"Still, Thank god that you're alright. Did you have any scratches?"

"No, pa, I promised you I didn't get any scratches, thanks to the man earlier, which saved me," Amia.

Said as she looked back in the direction Edward had gone. "Well, I guess you are right; that man certainly saved your life…. not going to lie; I feel like I have seen that man from somewhere?" Amia's Grandpa looks in the same direction as Amia is looking. The grandfather shrugs as the ambulance finally arrive.

The next day, at 10 am, Edward moves his curtain aside and opens the window. He then removes his worn shirt and throws it at the basket.

Edward does this to the rest of his clothes and heads back to the shower. A minute later, he returns to his room and gets some new clothes from his small closet.

He then changes to his new clothes, and finally, he gets his towel back from his chair and tries to dry his long dark brown hair; he then grabs his blow dryer, plugs it n and turns on the switch, and begins to dry his hair out.

Edward sat on the couch and opened the TV with the remote, changing the channels from the news to the sports event. Just then, a doorbell rang from the outside of his front door. Edward chose to ignore it and continue on his watching the tv.

*Ding dong*

The doorbell rang for minutes, which irritated Edward, and he finally decided to stand up from his couch and begin his walk towards the front door.

He then opens it and finds an older man wearing a yellowish shirt and brown pants going to his shin. The man wore a white shoe with a shoelace tied up and a cane in his right hand, standing in front of Edward's apartment.

"…"

Edward grew silent when he saw the older man at the door of his apartment; he pulled the doorknob to close it, but it was held back by a cane.

"Okay! Who are you, and what do you want?" Edward said as he opened the door fully wade and finally looked up straight to the older man's face,

"Hey, it's been a while, Edward?"

"Wait, is that you, Ryan?"

Edward stops as he sees the older man's visible face, and a second later, he hugs him. Ryan then hugs Edward back. After an extended reunion. They both went back inside his apartment, and the smell of a cigar then greeted the guest,

"Urk, what is that smell? You still smoke after all of these years?"

"Can't be helped," Edward said as he pulled out a cigar box from his jacket, and grabs one, and lit it up, as they both sat down at the small tea table on the floor.

Ryan glanced around Edward's apartment to see the place a mess, and he saw a pile of six-inches wide and 9-inch tall books socks up like a tower. Five of them, to be exact. He then sees a canned empty beer lying around Edward's apartment.

Edward then offered him a cigar box, but the older man raised his hand, refusing,

"I don't smoke anymore,"

"fair enough; since you're getting old, you have to keep up with good health,"

"Hey, well, at least I'm not in bed!" Ryan exclaimed as he protested what Edward had just said.

"Then how old are you?" Edward asked the old man, "I'm 86 years old."

Ryan replied as he looked around the room, and something particular caught his eyes on the bedside table; it had two picture frames. The first shows a group of men in soldier uniforms smiling, while the second shows Edward with a woman beside him.

This picture reminded Ryan of something, and he looked back at Edward, who put down his used cigar ashtray and grabbed a beer beside it, Edward opened the beer, and Ryan took notice of his tired expression and said,

"You know, I didn't come here just to meet with you,"

"What did ya come here for?" Edward said as he proceeded to drink the beer.

"Do you want to come and join my school?"