Final Battle

The war still continued to rage on and it got to the point that some of the doctors and nurses had to run into the battlefield to administer emergency procedures to the men while the fighting went on around them.

Rosalind followed everything Louis instructed her to do. She may not have that well of knowledge she did but she still knows most of what is needed and she remembered from the other patients she took care of.

A grenade blew up in front of their tent once while Rosalind was removing bullets from a man's torso, killing some of the men and doctors.

They didn't have a second of rest with everything going on around them. Rosalind was impressed that no one collapsed out of exhaustion.

Dragging the men from the field got many of the nurses killed and Louis forbade her from stepping out of the tent. Ralph would help to bring some of the injured men until he became one of the ones that needed to be treated.

He rushed into the gunfire and pulled one of the nurses that got shot back to the tent, as he did that, a few bullets hit his spinal cord and he lost all feeling in his leg.

Louis ran out there and dragged him back, narrowly missing the bullets. They had to send him back to the camp to be treated along with some other patients and bodies. He will have to be transferred to the hospital they worked in.

A vehicle came from the camp, right at the back of the battlefield, in a cluster of trees and some of the nurses carried the patients to the designated location, helping them to enter and accompanying them back. The vehicle also brought some more nurses who had just arrived at the camp to relieve them.

"I can still do this." Ralph groaned in pain, beads of sweat running down his face as he tried to pull himself up.

"You did all you could. You have to rest now." Louis told him, gently pushing him back down onto the stretcher.

"I can help." He stubbornly insisted, unable to even move without pain coursing through his body.

Rosalind balled her hands into fists, shaking. She could heal him. She could do it.

"NO!" Louis shouted at him, voice thick with emotion, "I won't lose you too. You will go back to the hospital and get treated there with these other patients. You will make it and you will live. Got it?"

"Fine! Only if you promise to make it back as well so that I can smack you across the face." Ralph shouted back at her.

"Fine!"

They both shook hands and turned their attention to Rosalind.

"I know that look, Rosa. Don't you dare do anything, Ralph promised to live, now I need you to promise the same to me." Louis told Rosalind, determination in her face.

"What do you say, Rosalind?" Ralph asked, smiling through the pain he felt.

Rosalind looked from Louis to Ralph then sighed, "You both are asking too much of me. But, I promise to stay alive." She smiled at them.

"Good. We still have to discuss some things." Ralph grinned, "I'll see the both of you when this is over. Let's go see Rosalind's hometown too, ok Louis?"

"Sure." She smiled down at him, swallowing the fears that kept rising to her throat. She tried to put on a brave face as they drove away in the darkness.

"They will be safe," Rosalind reassured Louis. "He's wearing the ring I gave Vincent."

"Ring, Rosa?" She asked as they made their way back to the tent with the other nurses.

"Yes. It is a ring that, when enough bad luck is collected from the hosts, it converts those bad luck into good luck. I thought Vincent had it but he gave it to Ralph the day of the fire. If only he wore it then maybe-"

"No, Rosa. No maybes. It happened. There's nothing we can do about that. Ok?" She smiled at her, dark circles under her tired eyes.

"Ok." Rosalind nodded trying to smile back at her.

"Good. Now, let's get back to work."

The war raged on for another five days with each side giving it their all but at the end of the fifth day, something happened. Everyone held their breath as they watched the white cloth dance in the wind.

"Did we … win?" a nurse whispered, exhaustion in her voice.

"Not yet," Louis replied, she frowned but the relief was in her eyes. "They still have to negotiate the terms of surrender."

Rosalind and Louis exchanged smiles.

"Good job, Titus."

----------------

One week ago,

"What news have you brought?" Titus asked the assembly of generals gathered around him.

"My men have taken care of them along the Eastern borders." One man said.

"So have the Northern borders."

"And Sothern borders."

"The only place left is here. We can cut them off at the Pass to Rinht, I have more of my men on the way here as we speak." A general smiled up at Titus. "We will win if we follow the strategy you came up with but I am not risking my men for that."

"You don't have to use your men. I have chosen the men to go with me, all you have to do is be on standby." Titus told the man, his black eyes shining with the reflection from the lantern. "But, we will need them to let down their guard."

Another general spoke up, "We will take care of that. Infiltrate the moment you feel is right."

"Thank you, general." Titus nodded at all of them, gratitude in his voice.

"This is our country as well. We are doing only carrying out our duty."

They grinned at him as general Mattes patted him on the shoulder. "This war has been going on for too long. They think they can beat us. Go end those motherf*****s."

-----------------------

One day ago.

Titus and the ten men he chose, had moved in secret while the battlefield began to be stained in blood.

They were making their way to the main camp and, fortunately, their enemy had put all their attention on the battlefield. They were so confident that they will not survive another week because of the ambush, unaware that they already got reinforcements.

Titus felt his heart drumming against his chest, this was a new feeling. It could be because if they make a mistake, everyone he ever cared for will die.

He couldn't fail not with how much Rosalind sacrificed for them. He looked at the chain on his neck, the only thing he has from her.

"Lieutenant General Hangzo, are you ready?" A soldier standing beside him, gun in hand, asked. They hid in the forest, overlooking the main camp.

He looked at the faces that looked to him for assurance, there is a hint of fear in their eyes.

"I do not know if we are going to make it out of here alive." He said to them, "But remember why we are here in the first place. If they win what will happen to everyone we love. We are the final line of defence. There are men out there getting killed so that we will be able to get this far. Are you ready?"

"Yes sir!" They cried softly in unison.

"Let's show them how much of a mistake they made attacking us."

-----------------------

Titus, light as a feather, took out the men guarding the camp in the blink of an eye, sneaking into the camp while his men took out the other soldiers.

Their main camp was anything but a camp, they had slaughtered all the people in a village and settled there. There were still quite a number of men in the camp, injured and otherwise. They were already celebrating their victory in front of a fire and drinking.

Taking some tips from the man, they started by setting the tents on fire by dousing them in kerosene and stealing their weapons.

The camp was thrown into a panic as they tried to put out the fires and instead got hit with a rain of bullets.

When they finally realized what was happening and begun to take cover, reaching for their weapons; most of them had already died.

Bullets flew all around the camp, no one knew who they were shooting at with the smoke and the fire raging all around them.

However, some of the men spotted Titus shooting to their comrades and opened fire, throwing grenades at him. He barely made it to cover when the grenades blew up. Still able to get a few bullets into the skull of some of the men shooting at him.

Titus gasped as he felt all over his body for injuries. He only had third-degree burns on his torso, neck and face. He also had only a bullet wound on his arm, which he took care of tearing the hem of his shirt and wrapping it to stop the blood loss.

He couldn't open his left eye because of the burn, but he wasn't concerned with that at the moment.

What's going on? I should be dead by now.

He felt something hot around his neck and reached in, pulling out the chain Rosalind had given him, just as it broke and disappeared.

"What is this?"

"Good luck charm. It'll keep you safe. Promise me you'll wear it."

Titus chuckled.

Even now, she's still looking out for me.

He heard gunshots behind his hiding spot, gripping the gun harder, and his finger in the trigger. The heat from the burning camp was getting closer to him.

"Lieutenant! Are you alright?!"

Titus relaxed a little bit, the burns on his face blurring his vision as blood trickled down his damaged eye.

"I'm fine. Watch your back.' He called out to him, releasing another deep breath.

"This ends here."