Brothers in Arms

Outskirts of KSA, somewhere in a desert village, 2023

A unit of 80 Saudi Arabian Soldiers were eating in their mobile barracks.

One soldier, no older than 17 years old. Sitting with him is another soldier, albeit three years older, being 20 years of age.

The 17yo soldier was in the middle of finishing a meal he was given by some of the locals for keeping them safe. However, his meal was ruined by a bully soldier who quote on quote "accidentally" dropped his shoe on it.

The soldier who did it was named Theo, and the young soldier who got his sandwich smashed was once named Khalid, his friend was named Isaa, and he was the young soldier's only friend.

Theo mockingly said "oh? How did my shoe end up on a little shit's sandwich? reaches out towards the shoe to grab it. aww man! It REALLY destroyed your lunch man! guess I over di-" before he could get his hands on the shoe, Isaa snatched it saying "nah, I don't think so" that made Theo a little angry as he wanted to smear Khalid's food all over the table he was eating on.

Isaa was just one rank lower than Theo, but he still stood up for his friend. They've been friends from kindergarten, and their families were close neighbors too.

But I digress, as Isaa cleaned the food off the shoe, he looked at the size and remarked "sheesh, you got fat or something Theo? shows Theo the number at the bottom of the shoe. this says 50" Theo snatched the shoe back threatening him "THE FUCK YOU SAY? YOU WANNA GO MISSING? I DON'T MIND TAKING YOU OUTSIDE AND SLITTING YOUR DAMN THROAT!" Isaa looked him dead in the eye and scoffed "you haven't got the balls to put down a terrorist, how are you gonna slit my throat? Get some of your wives to do it instead." (ooooooo, somebody get the milk, my man got burned)

Don't mind the man that talks in brackets, that's just the author hyping himself up for no reason. Nevertheless, we continue.

Isaa was referring to Theo's friends of course, not that Theo had a wife or more than one lover already. But in the end, Theo's pride as a man was hurt, and as to not look like a pussy in front of his aforementioned friends.

Theo balled up his fist and grabbed Khalid by the collar of his uniform, and tried to lift him off his seat, but he had forgotten, Khalid was 186cm (about 6.1 ft) tall, a freaking monstrous size when compared to him!

As he stood up, Theo's hand couldn't keep holding on, so he let go of him as he nervously claimed "i-I'm gonna kick y-your ass now!" A 4"11 20yo versus a 6"1 17yo, you can probably guess who'll win.

Theo prepared himself to throw a right jab at Khalid who just looked down on him with little to no emotion in his amber eyes, as if he didn't care about the fact he was getting attacked, and as soon as Theo threw the jab it connected with Khalid's jaw.

Upon impact, Theo could feel his knuckles practically shatter, he never fought before, he only uses his gang of bullies to intimidate and bully people into submission. thing is, what happens when he bullies someone who doesn't care what happens to their body? Khalid only cares about those close to his heart.

Theo gripped his own hand in pain, internally screaming as he looked Khalid in the eyes, he didn't even flinch, a bit blood did escape from the side of his lip, but he wasn't reacting like a normal human but more like a husk of one, he only wiped the blood off meekly uttering "that...hurt" and then Isaa proceeded to grab Theo's hand and pull him over his back and onto the ground with a loud SLAM!

Isaa warns Theo who wS groaning on the ground while holding his arms "don't do that again. for YOUR safety, first lieutenant Theo" and with that, he pulls Khalid away from the lunch table as Theo's friends ran to his aid saying "hey man, you okay?" and "you showed him what's good man!" and there's this one soldier who said "you got knocked on your back! Got your shit scrambled by that Lieutenant!" but Theo grabbed that soldier and pulled him in close to threaten him saying "you speak one word about this I WILL end your existence" and the soldier zipped his mouth shut afterwards, showing he understood.

Outside the barracks, and behind a rather large sand hill

Both Khalid and Isaa were lying with their backs on the sand, Isaa opened a cigarette pack and pulled one out admitting "lights it using an antique lighter. I fucking hate bullies. takes a lungful from the cigarette before blowing out smoke. Always picking on the weak and defenseless, Allah damn them all to hell" Meanwhile, Khalid was looking ahead into the desert before he sat upright to pour himself a cup of Arabic Coffee thinking "I should really stop drinking coffee, my heart feels like it's about to beat faster than desert lizards whenever I drink it, maybe I should drink tea instead", but he downed a whole cup in the matter of minutes before he himself even realized it.

Isaa blew another cloud of smoke out of his mouth asking "speaking while smoke comes out of his mouth. what's up with you K? You used to be more lively, fresh, alive and a little bit of a crybaby. What happened bro?" Khalid was already expecting that type of question, so he sighed in sadness as he told his friend "Dad died" that sentence was like a knife slicing through Isaa's heart like a butter knife slices through butter, he stood up;questioning him "what are you talking about? I spoke to Uncle Mohammed a few days ago, he was as healthy as a stallion! He even went swimming at a water park last month!" Khalid looked at Isaa with eyes full of regret, he failed to notice how little time he spent with his old man. I mean, the guy didn't even speak to his old man after finishing basic training, what kind of son does that?

Isaa noticed how remorseful and full of regret Khalid looked, and how his eyes seemed to lose their light. Like a star that faded out because it lost someone it truly admired, loved and wanted to prove how bright it can shine to. Now, he was just an empty husk, a zombie, someone who no longer cares about himself or about proving anything.

So Isaa comforted his friend as he offered his hand to him "I don't know how you feel Khalid, but you're like a brother to me, and if you're depressed, then I won't rest till i help you get back to your former self. smiles warmly." Khalid thought about what Isaa said and then he thought to himself, "i don't know how he can keep smiling after hearing that, I almost died when I first heard about dad, I wanted to just disappear or even go back in time to spend more those last moments with him. But Dad would have wanted me to keep going, He probably would have a great story to tell me about never giving up." Khalid began to smile subconsciously, and then he grabbed onto Isaa's hand repeating a promise they made at middle school "the sons of Arabia never fall low"

Isaa pulled him up and off the ground, finishing the last part of the promise "whether the sky rains or the sun falls" after that, they walk back into the barracks chatting about the newest dark souls' game.