Chapter 11: Strength and Weakness
The old man stepped into the forbidden area alone, the middle-aged uncle who had just reacted wanted to step forward and pull the old man back, the old man turned back and waved his hand, signaling the uncle not to follow, the old man with a peaceful smile as usual, said "Allah bless" with his lips, said a final goodbye to them, and then turned around, turned the rosary in one hand and hit the road ahead with a stick in the other, and continued to move forward. The sound of an engine came from behind them, and they knew it was a passing soldier. He felt someone handed him something, he glanced at it was a G36, he didn't know how the people here got such a treasure. He felt the weight in his hand, and there was an inexplicable sense of joy, as if the recruits finally had the right to step into the shooting range. He subconsciously looked around and found that the eldest boy who was always around the old man also had a submachine gun, and he suddenly felt a sense of astringency in his heart, and he remembered the child he shot under the broken wall. They had already been spotted by the other party, and he heard the sound of bullets scurrying into the walls. As if to get rid of the same feelings, he shook his head and threw himself into the battle. They had to cover for the old man's parting.
In a few minutes, there were people around him who were sleeping forever on this once peaceful land, and several people on the other side fell on the pool of blood, with the current situation, the firepower on both sides seemed to be gone, the other party seemed to have the idea of a quick battle, and there was a posture of rushing over directly, the middle-aged uncle thought for a while, and finally took out the grenade that was now regarded as a scarce material, and was ready to kill the other party at one time. Just then, he noticed that someone had thrown him from behind and threw him to the ground, and then he heard two loud bangs, and then the place fell silent. When he cautiously looked around again, he saw that there were already corpses in front of him, he looked back behind him, and he saw that the old man's eldest boy was lying on his back, and he moved, and the boy slid to the ground, and he put his hand under the boy's nose, and the boy had no snort. The soldier in front should have been injured by a grenade thrown by a middle-aged man, and the boy should have died from the impact of the bomb from the rear. The boy chose to stand in his way at the last moment, he couldn't hold back anymore and cried, this was the second time, the second time a child died because of him.
The old man chose to move forward alone in order to help them find out the location of the bomb, and the wounded around him died on the battlefield in order to cover the old man and for the next way of life, and the child, who was also a teenager, chose the right to let a stranger live. He didn't know how long he had been crying, tears soaking the hem of the child who had been sleeping forever. It wasn't until he felt that the tears had dried up that he stood up and looked at the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man had already pulled the old man back to where they were now, the middle-aged man opened a kettle, sprinkled the water evenly on the bodies of several victims, and then each person held a side of loess and sprinkled it on the bodies of several people as burial. The remaining two children squatted next to the old man and his brother, trying to push them, but the middle-aged man hugged them to the side, they didn't know that the old man and his brother had left them forever, because they were forcibly separated, the two children kept crying, and kept turning their heads and calling "brother" and "grandma".
Some of them recited prayers for these people, and then they left, it was a cruel but realistic rule on the battlefield, and they could not stay here for long in order not to be detected. The two children were still sobbing and looking back, wondering why this time grandma and brother couldn't go on the road with them again. They continued to flee the way the old man had found, and that night they camped in a ruin, the only minor wounded like him took turns on duty, and at midnight he and Lauren replaced the middle-aged man and another wounded. Lauren looked at the moon and told him for the first time about the group's origins.
The wounded of the group were all middle-aged men and old men who had been rescued from the rubble, and most of them were mercenaries who had been abandoned because of their injuries, in other words, invaders who had suffered their own consequences. But the old man was kind enough to take them in and take care of them, and the rest of the old man's family was killed in an air raid, leaving her and her three children, who were rescued from the rubble by the middle-aged uncle. The identity of the middle-aged man is unknown, but the blow speculates that he should have been a mercenary like them. The old man and the uncle are helping them all the way, although they are accomplices of the invaders, but the old man is still kindly helping them, the old man believes that the real evil comes from the greedy demon under the guise of human rights, in the eyes of the old man they are a group of poor children whose souls have been devoured by the devil, and the old man prays for them every day, hoping that they will be forgiven by the Lord.
"Do you think we're strong?" Lauren asked suddenly.
was suddenly asked such a question, the man obviously didn't react for a while, but just nodded subconsciously, in fact, subconsciously he always thought that he was strong who survived in the law of existence of the law of the jungle.
Lauren smiled bitterly and shook her head: "If it was a few months ago, I must have the same thoughts as you." ”
"And now?" The man asked.
"Now, I feel like I'm a complete underdog."
"Why?" Lauren's answer obviously made the man stunned, with a little curiosity and a little anticipation, the man asked Lauren, he had a hunch that Lauren's next words would let him solve the doubts he had been having.
"The old man once said that what really makes you strong is not your strength, but your choice. You choose violence, you are just a weak person who tries to hide your inner fear, and you choose to save, and you become a strong person who overcomes the darkness. Old Man Moussa is the most powerful of us today, and so is Aziz. Lauren couldn't go on, and by the moonlight, the man saw him covering his mouth and weeping.
The man looked at the crooked moon, and for the first time understood his regrets, he had been rebelling against the voice in his heart, the voice that told him that he had done wrong. From the moment he stepped into this foreign country, he was captivated by the bounty, and he has been doing his inner deserter, using violence, covering his timidity with gunpowder, and escaping from the goodness of his heart. He regretted that he had never mustered up the courage to be a real soldier, a soldier who could be protected rather than killed.
They followed the middle-aged uncle all the way, and every time they came to the forbidden area, there would always be a person to explore the way, and this person was often the most seriously injured soldier in this team. Every time they cross a forbidden area, there will always be one or two people leaving, they will sprinkle loess for them in a safe place as a burial, the two children have seen too much, and seem to know that if they sprinkle loess, this person will sleep here, and they will not be able to accompany them down, they will not try to wake up these sacrificed people, but they will still weep for these people. Almost not far from the "heaven" in the mouth of the middle-aged man, they came to a forbidden area again.