Who I was part 1

???POV

The first memory I can recall was darkness. After that was a blinding light and something wet. It was a dog, a German Shepherd to be exact. I was then pulled gently from where I was by a large man in a red jumpsuit.

I looked around from his shoulder and saw what could be described as destruction incarnate. There were dozens of other people in red jumpsuits pulling people from the wreckage of quite a few buildings.

For all the chaos going on around me, there was no sound anywhere around me. The only sound I could hear was my own heartbeat. I started squeezing the man's shoulder worrying that was now deaf while having no idea who I was.

I was taken from thoughts when I heard the man grunt in pain. When I heard that, the sound of my heartbeat dulled and noise filled my ears. The man wondered out loud how a little kid could have hurt him or if he hurt himself some other time earlier during this disaster relief mission he was on. I asked where we were and he said we were in New York City about half a mile from where the World Trade Center was.

He took a gander at me and noticed I was covered in blood but I didn't look hurt at all. He then had someone hold me while he went to check the hole he got me from. After a minute or so he took me back and apologized to me saying that my parents died and asked if I had any other family. I told him I couldn't remember anything before the dog found me. I then passed out in his arms.

~Time Skip 4 Days~

I woke up to find myself in a hospital bed hooked up to all kinds of machines. I looked around and saw a mirror. I had taken most of the wires off me and went to see what I looked like. While the alarms went off, I saw that I was a young boy around 5 or 6 years old with ash blonde hair and grayish blue eyes with a large bandage covering most of the left side of my face.

A nurse, the large man that rescued me in a sling, and an old asian man ran in to see if there was anything wrong with me I guess. They rushed over to see if anything was wrong and told them I was just kinda hungry. The nurse walked out to get me some food. The man in the sling asked if I recognized the old man and I said that I didn't.

The old man then got on his knees and hugged me while apologizing saying he was an old friend of my family and that he was going to take care of me from now on if that was okay with me. I asked why. He told me that my parents died in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Since the only family I had left was my older brother and that he had just turned 18, the old man was the only person that was able to take care of me.

The old man was named Chen Li Jian or Brandon Chen and explained that he served with my grandfather in World War 2 and they were best friends to the point that he was the best man at my grandfather's wedding. He then explained that he also helped my grandmother raise my father after my grandfather passed away and essentially became his new father after my grandmother passed away as well.

He told me my father was a successful investment banker for Morgan Stanley and that my mother was a mid-level business lawyer for Harris Beach. He said that between my and my brother's inheritance and his career in the military among other ventures meant that we wouldn't be without anything that we could need in this life financially speaking.

I asked what my name was and he laughed saying that I was named after him with my name being Brandon Chen as well since my father was legally adopted by him making his last name Chen too.

I was released from the hospital a few days later. Grandpa Jian, as he told me to call him, took me to his home where we found a note from my brother saying that he joined the army to get back at the people who caused the death of our parents.

Grandpa Jian then asked me if I was alright since he saw no reaction from me. I told him that I felt nothing reading the note. That worried him since I was really close to my brother before the incident happened. I told him that I don't remember anything about my brother or my parents therefore I had no real connection to any of them in my mind. The only family I had was him.

A few months later we received word that my brother died in the line of duty allowing the rest of his squad to escape an ambush from the insurgents in the area he was stationed in. I thought to myself that everyone that was supposed to take care of me died and since I couldn't remember them, I wouldn't try to remember them, but I would remember the ideals that their deaths taught me. Grandpa Jian was my only family in my life and he was all I needed.

I asked him why he never had kids and he said that he couldn't have them after an injury he had as a POW during his service. We really were all each other had and even though we weren't blood we were family.