“Jules, you okay?” 

The sound was literally echoes. The ringing in Jules’ ears wouldn’t stop, and every organ inside his body felt like yoghurt. His head was very painful, but no blood poured from it.

Jules touched his side. His palm met a smooth object pillaring his body. Bandage.

He focused with his sight. A couple of seconds later, his vision came back and he finally saw the cloudless blue sky above him. It was the morning sky, light blue and cheered. He grumbled and tried to move his body, but ache came hurling right after.

“Just relax, Jules. Your back must’ve hurt. Lean over the tree if you want to sit.”

Glenn helped him. 

“What happened?”

Glenn sighed. “It’s not the time for that. You need to rest. We’ll handle everything.”

Though Jules wanted so bad to ask questions, everything ached inside of him. His bones felt like they’d been torn one by one. His head had an inescapable migraine, and his unscratched arm didn’t feel like it was still attached.

So without his brain commanding, Jules closed his eyes. He slept. He drowned between nightmares of sadness and he was diving in to find joy, but none could be found.

Glenn didn’t move. He stayed right besides Jules as he slept.

And almost exactly one hour later, Jules jerked back to life with full enthusiasm. His body still hurt, but he remembered something from the day before. His eyes were wide open, and Glenn knew what would happen afterwards. Glenn knew what exact question Jules was gonna launch to him. Before Jules even opened his mouth, Glenn frowned.

“Where’s Rake?”

Glenn brushed his short hair with his palm. He hesitated and avoided Jules’ eyes. 

Jules started again. “Glenn, I need you to tell me, where the hell is Rake? Is he okay?”

Glenn put on ‘that expression’ by screeching his white teeth. 

“I’m so sorry.”

Just like that, a sorry, and Jules’ world collapsed around him. He witnessed with his only eyes, the trees falling in the background. The earth rumbled like never before, shaking uncontrollably without a clue of ever stopping. He saw the raging line of fire burning the leaves every second, producing more and more ashes. He saw himself standing in the middle of it all, untouched, but were blinded and deafened.

“I don’t understand.”

“He…” Glenn struggled finding the right word for him. He knew Rake was a friend since they were in Elementary school, and never parted once in their lives, including when the war happened. “He stepped on an active landmine.”

Jules sat straighter, every muscle clenched.

“That’s impossible,” Jules replied rather short-temperedly. “There is no landmine here.”

“Jules, I’m sorry.”

“But, but, that would be−”

“I’m sorry. It’s hard, I know. But he’s gone, and you cannot revive him. He’s gone, Jules.”

Jules leaned back slowly to the pine tree behind him. As his back touched it, he wanted so bad to just slam his head to it as hard as ever. He wanted to break his own back and destroy his own head, but the energy wasn’t there. All he could do was to escape the truth.

“You buried him?”

“We… yes we did.”

“I need to see.”

“Okay. Are you sure you strong enough?”

“No, but I need to see.”

Glenn reached for Jules’ shoulder and hopped him up. His legs were levitating in the sky when Glenn steadied him. He led his mourning companion to the pile of the newly shoveled dirt near the small swamp.

Jules realized that everyone was there, surrounding the grave. The grave itself was just dirt and twigs, and they used two branches and a small rope for a cross.

Everyone sat still, motionless. Blake played brown leaves on the ground, Hal stared into the nest of birds up above him, Asher did nothing but sit, Jai wanted to speak but urged his brain otherwise, Roger whistled but stopped when Jules came, and Ezra saw through Jules’ face the hundreds of lining miseries.

He almost toppled, but Glenn rebalanced his body and helped him sit. Jules sat at the center of all of them. He didn’t cry. His face was normal. His eyes…

Jules reached his coat pocket and pulled something from there. A stained, half-burned, white dressed doll with a crown on its head. The hand-knitted doll which belonged to Ava.

“Look, Ava. Rakey is on his way to you now.”

Everyone watched Jules.

“You and mom will not be alone anymore. Rake is going to take care of you two, I’m sure of that.”

Everyone hold their thoughts back. No one said a word, not even cold Asher.

“I’m sorry I still can’t join you, Ava.” Jules stared at the doll’s wool face. “I have businesses, but very soon I will return to you. I promise, Ava. I promise that I will meet you again. And we’ll have another campfire with Rakey. We’ll have so many epic times together.”

Jules wiped the dirt out of its face.

No one dared to talk to Jules.

They continued their marches for the day, but stopped every one mile for injured Jules to catch his breath. They stopped at probably eight o’clock while everyone rested between the thick trees of pine. They checked the area over and over again, and found no more of them landmines.

Asher and Ezra hunted with their rifles. They ate venison for dinner, but Jules took only one bite and left to sleep. The night was silent. No body made any jokes, no body pranked around each other, and no one talked to Jules.

−

Jules opened his eyes in a lighter rainforest with the dark sky above them. The fire was too big, so Jules put it out a bit.

Rake was across him, playing his guitar like a pro. He sang, and Jules sang along. The popcorn and barbeque were no more.

Ava came out of the tent with more corns, though. She split them to everyone.

Jules told a joke to Rake and Ava about his friend, Mike, and the stories somehow continued to be superstitious and full of fantasy. They let their own imaginations played, controlling their stories. After a while, the wind got harder and their fire almost ceased. They entered the tent, wrapped themselves inside their thick sleeping bags, and closed their eyes. They would sleep, and they would wake up in a fresh morning.

−

And Jules woke up to the sound of a gunshot. He jumped and wasted no second to grab his rifle next to him and aim. But it was just Glenn hunting another deer.

“No need to panic,” John was beside him. “Okay sleeping?”

Jules took a deep breath and settled. “Sure.”

Breakfast was served and the atmosphere was still queer and quiet. Everyone ate without speaking, without even commenting upon anything, and the strangeness needed to end.

Jules, who finally at least bit the meal, lowered his food and stood firmly on the ground. Jules tried to conceal any weakness at that time, trying as hard as he could to look professional and confident.

“Rake was a really good soldier.”

Jules’ words stopped everyone’s heartbeat. They paused their activities and turned to Jules with confused faces.

“Rake died, sure, but this is war. I’m lying if I tell you that the thought of him dying never crossed my mind. Maybe he died when I didn’t expect him so. It all happened so quick, breathless, and just like that, he was taken from us. But we need to move on.”

Glenn wanted to say something, but he stopped and let Jules spoke again.

“I always wanted to die. But the last thing Rake told me… was that we have to not look at our past, but witness the future. We have to act normal again. This… quietness is not healthy, and I don’t like it.”

Hal broke the moment of sadness. “Oh thank God. This all silence thing is getting really disturbing.”

And they continued their walks to march through the forest. They followed the sun and compasses, keeping their heads east, but they didn’t know what would happen next. Nobody knew what would happen next. They just have to witness.