SILENT BATTLES WITHIN

"You can never cross the ocean until you dare to lose sight of the shore."

The extract chopper that finally came to pick up Forty-Four and the others didn't take them back to an unknown island but instead to a hospital helipad in Mantahna USA (a fictional city by the way ).

Surprisingly there is an elevator that leads down into the hospital or better into an underground modern complex, where people can be seen moving around in black or blue uniforms. One of the people came with a trolley and asked them to drop their weapons in it which there did, before he rolled away. The pilot led them down to a large conference room where a man in a black combat uniform sat at the head of a long, wide ebony table surrounded by empty seats by the side how they got it in there was Forty-Four's first question in his heart before he saluted.

The pilot left them after saluting and the process of debriefing how their mission went started after motioning for them to sit down. Even though the Zero before them I've already seen the footage or at least most of them, he didn't show it but kept a quiet and unreadable expression as Twenty recounted everything professionally.

In a few minutes, the whole room was silent as the man in a black uniform processed everything, he took a deep breath later before looking at each one of them, "It is truly unfortunate that you lost a member or should I say your commander in this mission, but it isn't the first time, we have lost men on their first mission"

Even though Forty-Four wanted to say something as Five's death was being taken for granted as the man said those words in a matter-of-fact tone or better still a nonchalant one, he still kept his cool, knowing that a higher authority must never be questioned no matter the circumstances, PAX has drilled that into them in those nine years of hellish training. The only thing he did was to clench his fists under the table as the man who is a Zero continued.

"The crux of the whole thing is that you all completed your mission and have officially become Componeres, so congratulations on that." Even though he seemed to be praising and congratulating them, his voice still retained its nonchalant tone, "As you leave here someone will take you to the few living quarters we have you can rest there and tomorrow, you will be issued your badges, and discharged"

He paused and looked at their faces one at a time, "You all are dismissed, except Sixteen"

They stood up, saluted, and then made their way out as the door closed behind them.

Left alone now with Sixteen, the Zero suddenly assumed a more serious expression as he looked at Sixteen, "Go ahead and tell me the Intel you gathered from your mission."

Sixteen sucked in a breath of air before she began to speak, "Sir, at first it seemed that whatever......"

******

Outside the conference room, Forty-Four and the rest met a female expendable, standing by the door, she turned and looked at them and said only two words, "Follow me"

She started walking away with trained brisk steps after uttering those two words, they didn't dally much as they followed behind her. She led them to a hallway, which had presumably room doors by the side. Most of the doors had numbers pasted on them, while others were just plain silver metal. She stopped and handed them different key cards that had their numbers on them, which matched some of the num, "You can only open the doors that have your numbers on the door. Food will be brought to you later, rest and tomorrow you will be taken to receive your badges "

With that, she walked away, as Forty-Four and the rest looked at each other, a sense of compadre in their eyes or better still at least almost all their eyes as Twenty didn't look at anyone as quietly walked to the door that had his number on it and swiped his card in the scanner which immediately turned green and opened up and he made his way inside as it closes back up.

The rest just looked at him for a second, before doing the same as the immaculate hallway became quiet again.

Forty got into his room and looked around the not-too-big room, which was painted white as if acknowledging that this was a hospital building. It had a single comfy bed and a reading table and chair by the side, with a wardrobe close to it. On the bed, there was a well-ironed blue uniform resting on it. Forty-four sighed out loud, moved to the wardrobe by the side, and started removing his clothes till he was fully naked. A few minutes later Forty is standing under the shower, as the cool water rained down on him and cascaded to the ground. The cool water made him involuntarily close his eyes in contentment, but a few minutes later he started hyperventilating.

The reason for it was pretty simple, for he started remembering what he had done a few hours back, he had taken people's life without batting an eye. Five's death might have blurred that fact before, but right now everything came back hitting his psych really hard.

What was most unsettling, was that it seemed he was able to remember each of their faces, as each face flashed in his mind, it played over and over again like a CD player on repeat, he shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts, but it was all futile, as he can still see their faces and the dread in it as their life left themSlowlyly raised his palms as he opened his eyes to look at them and for a moment he could swear he saw blood on them dripping to the floor as he quickly shut his eyes again while taking in deep breaths.

Taking some time to calm himself, he slowly opened his eyes again to look at his palms as if he was afraid of what he would see, but what stared back at him was just plain clean hands as the water from the shower poured on it. Forty-Four let out a self-deprecating chuckle as fell on his butt on the cold tile of the shower room, his eerie chuckle and the sound of the shower were all that could be heard in the room.

Forty-Four wasn't the only one facing midlife Crisis, or the better word should be conscience Crisis, as the rest were also going through the same thing, trying to come to terms with what they had done.

Even though it was a case of kill or be killed and they know eventually this day would come and have ground, trained, and prepared for it, taking another man's life will always leave a dark hunting mark on someone's life and if your mental strength isn't strong enough, such guilt might end up crippling both psychology and physically, unless of course, so you are a sociopath with no conscience as Twenty, who was now on in his room enjoying a nice relaxing sleep, while the rest of his teammates are being haunted by their actions during the mission.