Dismal Reunion

The granite house turned out very clean so he let her seated and somewhat conditioning his wife.

" Guests would like to meet you today, the two of them. We'll welcome them in and prepare for yourself, they're special persons in your life. I've already met them both. So, is there any problem?" George smiled as he kissed her hands so gently and nestled them on his chest.

" Troublesome heartbeats, such a wrong timing, this heart's getting crazy again." He bowed down and smiled.

" You...told me to prepare to meet our guests. George, you've got a problem." Then she paused and smirked while he slowly pulled her on his arms, succumb with their lovely chemistry and they were lost once more.

Meanwhile, at the wooden house.

" George's shadow was lost on his way, where did he go?" Baldur stood up and even tried opening the secret door behind the cabinet. But found no one, not even his footsteps. Later, he got back to the receiving area and walked to and fro in front of Sibal and Edward. The folks just looked at him while Edward stopped and pacified him.

" Hey, just calm down son, he's just delayed, let's just wait and he'll gonna fetch us around." But minutes turned out hours and Edward has almost consumed a bowl of his peanuts that later Baldur removed it in front of him.

" Hey, hey...Baldur, my peanuts." The Captain complained.

" Dad...you kinda plan of consuming it all then afterwards your knees and joints all over will be in pain, just a taste of craving is enough. I can't even count the peanut shells on the table. Next time again. Just a little of everything." Baldur explained.

Edward was just silent while staring at the door, sensing the movement of it till someone showed up - its Amado that later collapsed after fully opening it. Sibal ran and put Amado's arms on his shoulders and he laid him down on a long wooden chair at the receiving area.

" Amado! Amado! what happened to you!" Then Albrecht came running, bringing his medical kit. In a while Baldur brought a pillow, lifted Amado's head and put the pillow for his comfort.

" He must be very tired." The Captain whispered.

" Magee...Magee..." Amado's words.

" Oh my!" Albrecht stood up and instead of rescuing Amado he almost kick him.

" Hey! hey! c'mon! don't be too aggressive right away, let's find out first. Me too, I'm kinda feeling stressed but look! look at him!"

While in that scenario George arrived and right away moved closer to Amado.

" Magee...Magee..." Amado whispered again.

"What?" George stood up and his blood was rising. He walked outside the house and had a deep breathe. Baldur followed and pacified him.

" George...he may never be on the right mind these days, let's try to discover this fuzz, just be okay." Baldur then tapped his shoulder while seeing Narciso and Sibaya running towards them.

" Sir, we'll pick out Amado. He must be very tired and for days he hadn't eaten yet. He also lacked sleep, don't mind him mentioning your wife's name, he's...not into her. We're also confused. But Amado's a good man, I can attest." Then Narciso sat down on a driftwood where the lieutenant has seated while Baldur and Sibaya went inside the house.

" Why he kept mentioning my wife's name? Did he share to you the reason why? Did he...like my wife that much? I'm a man. I can understand if..." He was forced to stop from talking when Narciso intervened and spoke.

" Your wife is beautiful he said, but, ." Narciso stopped with tongue tied.

" What?" George raised his voice.

" ...ah...Sir, if you want you can interrogate him when he's in his proper mindset. Sibaya and I were just worried that's why we came to bring him back to our place. We wanted to feed him some food and get rested, he hadn't slept too and kept mentioning of "manong". In our dialect 'manong' means "brother", elder brother to be precise." Narciso ended, stood up and excused himself to get inside and followed Sibaya.

" What's wrong with him." I don't like him to keep looking and mentioning my wife's name. It annoys me." He then tried to calm down himself by watching the main spring and its lovely noise flowing to the river.

A little while, Sibaya and Narciso went out, carrying Amado heading to their place. George then got back inside and blankly joined with his family in the receiving area. George was sitting next to Sr. Sibal so the old man patted his shoulder.

" Hmm, you may go back first to the granite house. We can't visit there right now when you're not feeling well, we understand." Sibal comforted him.

" Ah, it's okay amá, anyway, Magee is waiting. She was even drying up some pillows and big blankets above the house, passing through the daylight optic. Accordingly, even if she never knew yet if who's coming to visit her but she said you'll gonna stay there and may sleep, for a longer chitchat.

" That sounds great." Sibal stood up and grabbed Edward's hand so to go up to the granite house.

The three started to get inside the tunnel's entrance and glided down. Minutes after, they reached the doorstep and to their dismay they found the center daylight optic hole open and the bar as secret door going down was opened. George ran to get down to the spiral staircase till he reached in front of the door. But there were hurrah of the Japs' voice outside. He was in trouble, quickly ran up to the staircase and wore his uniform with complete stuffs on it. Sibal attempted to ask but Edward opted not, instead, they returned to the wooden house. George on the other hand passed through the daylight optic hole and crawled to look down, following the direction of the opponents' voices. His blood almost blasted and sweats pouring on while seeing his wife held by almost four young soldiers, laughing and holding his wife's long hair. Noticeably, Magee did not complain and he presumed she'd plans of escaping prior to reaching the barracks. But still, his anger seeing her shoulders and hair touched by men was ultimately madness on his part. Later then, he noticed one among them brought her behind the narra century old trees while the three were waiting under. He felt a little relaxed, a bit reassured that man pulling her wife behind couldn't get out alive. But he was still worried, considering if she has her dagger.

" She stopped tagging it below her when...oh God! Hope she had it. It's almost half an hour when nobody got out so the three got bored. George continued to observe with tension as he never experienced within the battle ever since, but seeing his wife with that situation brought him a heavy heart. Then he saw the two soldiers followed to the place where he brought her then the two angrily shouted while moving out the dead body of the soldier who brought first his wife. He smiled and a bit pacified.

" That's my wife. The problem now is where did she run through, which direction?" In a minute, from the vantage above, he noticed the birds were disturbed north-west. It's going to the Tikaban river fronting Gabok. He noticed the one soldier headed back to the river, the second followed below the place and the last one going to the barracks. If he would use the exit door it would be the fastest but he thought of the risk so he just ran above and slid down using the rope he was tagging along with him. When he was already on the ground, he covered up on a big tree and threw a stone to the soldier he was following. The young soldier turned his head and was citing his gun. His fierce heart pushed his courage to attack the opponent with his bare hands and turned the soldier's neck into another direction. It's already double kill if he stab the soldier so he just pulled the dead body along the river, fronting Gabok. Then he shouted.

" Mag! Mag!" He was still worried, looking for his wife.

" George! I'm here." He found her with the right leg filled with blood.

" Were you stabbed?" He pityingly whispered looking at her, still smiling despite pain. He quickly carried her on his arms and when they we're about to get back they've heard footsteps going them so he put her down safely beside the tree and waited for the footsteps to draw closer on him and when it happened, he attacked the enemy using his dagger. It was extremely a full paced attack where Magee had witnessed again.