Chapter Six: American GI’s

* Hiiro looked at the men, trying to decide whether or not it would be a security risk to give them his real name. “Hiiro Yui.”

“Yui? Never heard the name before.” One of the Americans mussed. “Why’d you help us?” Hiiro didn’t answer. In all honesty, he didn’t very well know why he had helped them. He should have let them die, like all the other pathetic soldiers out there who were careless enough to get themselves shot down in enemy territory. Maybe that was why, because he had felt sorry for them. Who really knew?

“Buddy, we’re talking to you! Are you awake? Do you understand English?” Hiiro glared.

“Yes.” He acknowledged. “Put your guns away and get out of here.” Hiiro advised darkly. “The plane’s going to go any moment.” He watched the two Americans size him up.

“You’re a Jap!” One accused. Hiiro narrowed his eyes to slits and glared hard at the man.

“And you’re American. I fail to see your point. Get lost.” With that, he turned his back to the two armed men and began walking back into the forest towards where he had left that historian.

“Are you stupid or something pal? Don’t you know not to turn your back to men with guns pointed at you?” The two Americans dropped their guard and ran to catch up with Hiiro as he walked. Hiiro rolled his eyes and ignored them. Fine. They could follow if they wanted. How the hell did he get himself into these situations? Humans were such an annoying and mindless race. He wondered how they had even survived long enough to evolve into creatures with the ability to use tools and opposable thumbs. The two men kept up their chattering, and finally Hiiro had had enough.

“Shut up.” He stopped in mid pace. “The area is still being patrolled. Or did you want to be shot?” Instantly the two soldiers who had tagged along closed their mouths and stopped hassling him. Unfortunately, they were not deterred from following him.

A moment later and Hiiro stopped again. This looked like the place. “Historian.” He curtly called out, hoping she would hear him. “Come out.”

Serena, who had been laying low in the brush, had heard gunshot after gunshot echoing through the forest. She had assumed Hiiro had found the Germans whom had been searching for the planes, and had curled herself into a small ball on the dirty, muddy ground, hoping he would return for her. What if he didn’t? She hadn’t wanted to think about being stuck alone, in France, during German occupation. Then, out of nowhere, came Hiiro’s deep voice yelling for her. Never had she been gladder to see another human being.

“Preventer Zero?” She sat up timidly, shuddering and shaking. It was him! And… he was with two American soldiers?

“Come on.” Hiiro nodded. He could see her body trembling and cursed himself for bringing her along. A war was not the place for her, she didn’t have the constitution or nerves to deal with the stressful, violent, and dangerous situations that soldiers were often thrown into. In fact, Hiiro was incredibly disappointed in himself to find that he actually held pity for the frumpy woman whom he had dragged along.

“A woman!” The two men gaped. Serena flushed red and hid her head away from view.

“What’s she doing out here? She French?” One of the Americans asked. Serena didn’t know how to respond, and she desperately groped for a way to run away without answering their questions. Fortunately, Hiiro found a way to do it for her.

“No questions. Don’t talk to her.” He growled. The two American men looked momentarily startled, and then grinned more idiotically than before. It was obvious that now they were even more interested than they had been.

“So where’re we headed anyway?” One of the GI’s finally asked.

“Away.” Hiiro grunted. He wasn’t particularly sure himself. If they went south, they could probably find a French village willing to house them, or at least Serena. However, if they went north, they could cross the channel and stay in England until the war ended. But Hiiro had to admit, he didn’t know enough about the details of the war to make a decision as of yet.

Serena fully supported Hiiro in his idea to get ‘away’. No matter where they went, they had to live until they got there, and getting away would be the first step towards that goal. Already, though, she was tired. They had been hiking through the dense foliage all day, or at least, since noon, and had not yet paused once. She was not used to the physical strain that was being placed upon her, and if she didn’t stop soon, she felt like she might collapse.

“Hey, Yui, can we take a break? We’ve been hiking for nearly four hours. It’s nearly six, and it gets dark early around here. Not to mention we’re starved.” One of the Americans stopped. The other one stopped and stood next to him, nodding in agreement.

“Those Nazis can’t get to us now, we’ve gone far enough. I say we break and set up camp before it’s too dark to see. No fires you know, otherwise we’ll be spotted no problem.”

“Hnn.” Hiiro grunted. Weak men. These soldiers should know that they could never get too far away when the enemy was after them. Just as he was about to tell the Americans they could stay and he and the woman would keep going, he felt a tiny tap on his shoulder. Flicking his eyes behind him, he saw the homely woman with her head bowed down, eyes glued to her shoes.

“Please?” She asked. He barely heard the plea, but it did reach his ear, and that pity he had felt earlier for her grew. She hadn’t spoken one word since he had gotten back—not to the GI’s, not to him, not to anyone. No complaints, no annoying comments, nothing.

“Fine.” He nodded curtly.

“Great!” The two other men instantly dropped their packs and sat on the ground, using them as back rests. Hiiro sat down on a fallen log, and Serena joined him, sitting with a great deal of space between them both.

“Anyone else starved? What I wouldn’t do for some of my mom’s old fried chicken. Man that stuff was great. ‘Member those good old home cooked meals Jim?”

“Sure do. My momma used to make me those baked and stuffed potatoes… I could use of them. Sour cream, cheddar cheese, chives, butter and a little bit salt…”

“Sounds great.” The two men chuckled a bit, and one turned to Hiiro. “Didn’t your mom ever fix you anything like that?”

“Hnn.” Hiiro grunted. Idiots. They’d only make themselves hungrier thinking about it, he wasn’t going to fall into that trap.

“Okay, fine. What about you, baby doll?” The men teased Serena. “Your momma ever cook you anything good?”

“No.” Serena whispered, blushing. She wanted to scream for them to leave her alone, but knew it wouldn’t do any good.

“You know, I don’t think we ever properly got to introduce ourselves.” The men grinned. “What’s your name doll?”

“Didn’t I say don’t talk to her?” Hiiro grunted. The men glared.

“You can’t stop her from talking.” One pointed out.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you.” Hiiro indicated with an eye roll. Then he shut his eyes and crossed his arms. The two GI’s looked at him for a moment longer, then shifted their attention to Serena.

“That true doll face? You don’t want to talk to us?” They grinned doggishly. Serena looked up briefly at them, and nodded, afraid to speak.

“Alright then. Just so you know, though? My name’s Kerry, and this is Jim.” Serena nodded once again, and took a good look at the men to make sure she knew which was which.

Kerry was a taller, thinner man with a buzzed head of blonde fuzz. Pale, white skin made his watery blue eyes and faint freckles more pronounced, and his mouth was turned into an interesting smirk. He wore the camouflage uniform same as his comrade, but his flak jacket was left open. Jim, on the other hand, was a little shorter and not as gangly. He had the same buzzed hair cut, but his short hair was a little longer, and decisively darker. He also wore a stubbly beard of brown hair, and his eyes were a light hazel.

“Do we get a name from you?” Jim asked, lips curled into a small smile. Serena just looked down and towards Hiiro, hoping he’d say something once more. He did not make any move to, so she was forced to speak.

“Serena.”

“One word answers aren’t much help.” The two men laughed again, but Serena remained silent. She was hungry and cold and didn’t want to talk. What she wanted was a nice, warm meal, a warm bed, and a god history book to curl up with, maybe one about something random, like the history of pizza… oh, she wanted pizza! No, she wouldn’t think about food; that would only exacerbate the situation.

Hiiro had spent the last few minutes thinking. He couldn’t very well ask Serena about the history of the war with the two GI’s present, but he needed to know which way they should begin to head. Not to mention he would have to stop calling her historian and begin to use her name so the two didn’t suspect anything.

How could those two be hitting on her? He felt pity for her, but more so for the men. That historian was a self-proclaimed old maid in her youth, a mousy, homily, frumpy woman who was just not attractive. Even he had noticed her messy appearance—it was hard to miss it was so bad. And here these two men were trying to impress her and flatter her. Hiiro shook his head. He knew it must have been a while since they had seen any other women, but he had never had that problem. Hiiro was beginning to wonder how the Allies could have ever triumphed with such idiots working for them.

His empty stomach groaned softly, and Hiiro knew it was time he broke out the rations. He hadn’t expected to need them, but years of preparing for missions had trained him to prepare for anything no matter what was expected. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out one bar. Looking at it, his stomach groaned again—only this time, it wasn’t out of hunger. He couldn’t eat and not give the others anything. Reaching back into the bag, he pulled out three more bars of compacted nutrients and tossed them to the GI’s.

“Hey, what’re these?”

“Food?”

“Eat.” Hiiro grunted. Then he passed one to Serena, who nodded a silent thanks, and then ripped the wrapper open and took a bite. She was surprised to find that the bar tasted pretty good, almost like granola. She had the fleeting urge to ask Hiiro why he had packed the bars to begin with if he had thought they were going to the fifties, but dropped it.

“So do we have any idea where we are?” Jim asked as he bit into his bar. Hiiro stared into the distance over his shoulder.

“His—Serena?” Hiiro asked. The mousy blonde looked up with large, fear-filled eyes. She wished his voice wasn’t quite so dark and murderous when he spoke to her.

“We’re a lot closer to the northern coast than the southern one.”

“How do you know that?” Kerry asked her. She looked down at her feet.

“Answer.” Hiiro nodded.

“B-52’s can only carry so much fuel. It wouldn’t be worth it to risk flying them too south into France of all places. If the B-52’s were sent here, it means we’re more northern and it isn’t a big waste of fuel.”

“She’s right. The question is, how does she know about our plane?” Jim questioned.

“Brother was in the army.” Hiiro answered instantly. Serena nodded gently. She understood what Hiiro wanted.

“So we’re going to head…?”

“We,” Hiiro emphasized only himself and Serena, “head north until the channel.” Hiiro answered. “You do as you please.”

“We’ll head with you, if it’s all the same. We’d rather get back, you’ll understand. Our comrades will want to see us soon.”

“We’re not slowing for you.” Hiiro warned darkly settling in. It was already getting dark. “Serena, come here.” He ordered. The tiny woman stood and made her way over the Hiiro. “Sit down and get comfortable. You’re next to me in case of a night raid.” Serena gulped, but nodded. Hiiro saw that she was shaking again. Once he was sure she was comfortable, he settled down beside her, gun out and ready.

“Serena, anything else you think I should know?” Hiiro asked her underneath his breath.

“No. The channel should only be a sixty or so miles away. That isn’t bad.”

“We’ll be there in three to four days.” Hiiro nodded. “We can catch a boat across?”

“If we’re lucky.” Serena nodded.

“Good. Sleep.” Hiiro finally ordered. Serena nodded, unable to speak at his tone. She settled in and closed her eyes. Sleep did not come for hours, but when it finally did come, Serena slipped into the abyss of emptiness. She was cold, hungry, and in the middle of a war, not to mention trapped in close quarters with a man who scared the hell out of her. Oh yes, there were a great deal worse things than dying every moment of living. *