| Fan Fiction |
by elmo
Raymond slowly roused awake, as his hand moved to the thick bandage around his head. Medical personnel were hustling all over the place, attending to the young, old and injured. Some could be seen crying as bodies of their loved ones were being removed by the civil defense team. The memory of last night’s air raid still remained deeply etched in his mind. Getting up from the bed, Raymond went over to help another patient, whom was missing his lower left calf, to move over to the bed and got him some water as he requested.
“There she is…” Raymond murmured to himself when he spotted Myolie attending to a young child in another tent.
“Raymond!” Someone called out his name loud amidst the relatively high noise level, “Raymond Lam!” The person repeated again.
Turning around, Raymond realized that it was his colleague from the Airforce, Brendan. He ran up to Raymond, whispered some words to him, before both of them rushed off in another direction together. Bosco was on his way back to the medical camp from the Airforce headquarters, and saw both Raymond and Brendan, looking as if they were in some kind of serious discussion. Bosco had originally wanted to call Raymond, but before he could so, the two men disappeared around the corner. They’re probably going back for the briefing as well, he concluded, and went onto find Myolie.
“Bosco!” Myolie sounded breathless with a worried look on her face, “Did you see Raymond? I can’t find him at the bed.”
Bosco smiled and patted on her shoulder, “No worries girl, I think he’s on his way back to the Airforce Headquarters. He’ll be back soon.”
Nodding her head after hearing Bosco’s reassurance, she returned to her job, whilst Bosco stayed by her side to lend her a helping hand. Myolie was glad to have Bosco at his moment, since he not only proved that he was good in handling kids, he had a knack for getting the elderly patients to listen to the doctors’ and nurses’ instructions. Soon, it was nightfall already. Myolie decided to wait for Raymond first outside the medical camp, still feeling a little anxious about his head injury.
“Here you go – have some bread and milk. You haven’t eaten the entire day.” Bosco passed the sandwich and packet of milk, before sitting beside her on the huge rock.
Smiling gratefully, Myolie said, “Thanks, Bosco,” before eating the food hungrily.
“He’ll be back soon.” Bosco said, even though he was wondering what could take Raymond such a long time given that his briefing with Michael was only an hour long.
After what seemed like eternity, Bosco proposed to Myolie that he would continue waiting here for Raymond whilst she could return to the dormitory for some rest first, after seeing that she looked exhausted and drowsy. Unable to fight off the strong desire to shut her eyes anymore, Myolie could only agree to Bosco’s suggestion.
But then, Raymond still did not return for the night.
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“Where were you last night?” Bosco questioned Raymond when he finally found him in the bunker room at the Airforce HQ’s dormitory.
Raymond yawned sleepily, as he stretched out his arms, “I spent my night here. There was a curfew last night, didn’t you know that?”
Bosco had almost forgotten about it, “But then, what made you stayed here till so late? Is it about the next assignment?”
Raymond stared at Bosco for a long while, apparently pondering on his reply, before finally answering, “I don’t think we should discuss this privately now.”
From Raymond’s reaction, he could more or less be confident of one thing – Raymond was certainly hiding something from him and maybe, Myolie as well. Throughout the entire meeting later on, Bosco noticed that both Raymond and Brendan seemed to be seated separately from the rest of the platoon. As Michael gave them the details of their next assignment – retaliation on Hamburg city, which would be taking place 2 days later, Bosco found it difficult to accept the main motive behind this mission, after having witnessed many innocent people losing both their homes and loved ones. He would have found it easier to attack an armed German soldier than a defenseless German civilian.
“We’re placing a lot of importance and emphasis on this mission,” Michael explained to his subordinates, “It must only be a success for us. For Great Britain.” Before the meeting ended, Michael had requested for Raymond and Brendan to stay behind whilst the others were dismissed.
“What is it about? What is it about, Raymond?” Bosco chased after Raymond, after seeing him leave the Airforce HQ.
“Nothing, there’s nothing, Bosco,” Raymond retorted impatiently, “You’re just over-suspicious.”
“Fine, I’ll ask Brendan then.” Bosco said.
Raymond stopped walking, and turned around to face Bosco, “What do you want to know, Bosco Wong? You’re aware of the rules, aren’t you? We’re not allowed to divulge anything at all.”
“It’s fine if you don’t wish to tell me anything. But what about Myolie? Are you going to hide from her as well? Do you know that…” Bosco reasoned.
“Whatever happens between Myolie and I is none of your business,” Raymond cut in and took a step towards Bosco, “Don’t spout any nonsense in front of her.” With that, Raymond stormed off back to the medical tent, leaving a dumbfounded Bosco thinking if he had been too meddlesome.
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“We’ll be having another assignment tomorrow.” Bosco revealed as he and Myolie found seats in the cafeteria.
“That’s fast…” Myolie commented as she took a bite on her piece of raisin bread.
“Didn’t Raymond mention to you about it?” Bosco felt strange at Myolie’s reaction.
She remained quiet, lost in her own thoughts. Raymond had indeed not talked about it at all after he returned to the medical tent yesterday. Instead, he spent most of the time together with her, caring for and attending to the patients, and after a long day’s work, he took her to a small Catholic church located near the medical tent. Over there, he made a promise that he would love and take care of her forever, until the day he was supposed to die. “When everything’s over, we’ll get married,” Raymond pictured the scene in his mind with a blissful smile, “And then, we’ll have many little handsome Raymond and many little pretty Myolie surrounding us everyday. We shall watch them grow up bit by bit, see them have their own careers and then get married happily like us. After that, we can look forward to having many more grandchildren to love and dote on. Slowly, we can reflect on these memories one by one as we grow old together. Isn’t that perfect?”
“Myolie?” Bosco waved his hand in front of her.
She snapped out from her daze, and quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes, before making an excuse to have some time alone. She was afraid of losing him after the close brush with death during the air raid a few days ago. Suddenly, she wanted to see Raymond so badly.
He entered into the huge tent, and walked past many injured comrades and civilians lying on the hospital beds. She was nowhere in sight. At that moment, he heard the chime of the church bell a distance away, and headed towards the small church up north.
“Myolie?” He called her name when he saw a lady sitting at one of the benches.
She turned around, and saw him. Standing up from the bench, they spent a minute gazing into each other’s eyes, before she ran towards him and hugged him tightly in her arms. He responded back by wrapping his arms tightly around her as well.
“Do you really have to go tomorrow, Ray?” Myolie asked, despite knowing the answer well enough already. Raymond was always ready to risk his life for the country.
“I’ll be back. For you.” Raymond answered, as he stared deeply in her eyes.
As her hands gently caressed his face, the tears of unwillingness and fear uncontrollably welled up in her eyes. She was afraid that she may not get to see his face again after tomorrow, so she made an effort to remember his every feature. Raymond sensed the uneasiness within Myolie, and leaned forward to peck softly on her forehead. Slowly, his lips traveled down to hers, and soon, they were smooching in each other’s embrace.
A short distance away, Bosco had unexpectedly chanced upon the couple in the church. He had originally come to look for her with the intention of giving her reassurance, but it seemed that she did not need him now. Taking one last look at her, Bosco turned away, walking back to the Airforce Headquarters. Tomorrow would be the start of a long battle…
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[The Following Day]
Bosco packed up his belongings and left the staff dormitory. Raymond was already gone by the time he woke up. He had expected it since he was aware that Raymond was definitely on an additional secret mission which the others had no idea of. Even so, Bosco was feeling a little upset and regretful over their dispute earlier on, since it seemed to have driven a rift between these two best friends. Originally, he had wanted to apologize to Raymond for being too rash through their normal way of communication, but they did not really have an opportunity to talk, much less the chance to play a game of baseball together. As Bosco walked past the medical tent, he saw that Myolie was also up early sterilizing the medical equipment at a corner. Hesitating for a while, he finally decided to approach her.
“Good morning.” Bosco greeted with a smile.
She looked up and smiled back in return. The dark circles under her eyes had already told him that she had a sleepless night.
“Take care of yourself while we’re away. Raymond won’t wish to see you fall ill.” Bosco gently reminded.
Myolie nodded her head, “Take care of yourself too…and if possible, Raymond as well…”
“Raymond will be fine. I’m together with him.” Bosco said.
“Yes, he told me that he’ll be back for me,” She replied with a weak laugh, “I know that he’ll keep his word.”
Bosco nodded his head to show his agreement, because other than that, he did not know how to comfort Myolie further.
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“Flaps. Checked”
“Fuel. Checked.”
“Radar System. Checked.”
“Communicative device. Checked.”
“Ammunition. Checked.”
“All’s good, Sergeant Wong. Your plane is ready to take off.” The engineer informed him.
Bosco put on his helmet, and got into his aircraft. Strangely enough, there was no sight of Raymond, or Brendan. Even Michael was missing in action. Instead, it was another officer-in-charge, Captain Roger Kwok, responsible for this assignment. Before that, he had done a brief introduction of himself to the platoon. Roger was someone whom was particular about discipline and teamwork, thus the air raid on Hamburg was going to be a sudden and quick, yet organized attack on the city. Starting the engine, Bosco maneuvered his airplane along the runway, waiting for more instructions from the control tower. This time, he sensed an ominous feeling clouding all over his mind…
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[26 Hours Later…]
Bosco quietly walked towards her. She was laying her head on top of her arms on the table fast asleep. It was pretty obvious that she was waiting for him to return, or at least, some news of him to return so that she knew that he was safe and sound, or so she thought he would be. Taking the seat opposite her, Bosco did not make any noises, merely sitting there in silence. The longer he gazed at her peaceful look, the harder he found it to suppress his tears from flowing down his cheeks as his thoughts lingered onto a piece of news he got a few hours ago. He felt as if there was something stuck in his throat, and just would not go away. Reaching over with his hand, Bosco gently stroked her hair, before he accidentally roused her awake. Getting up quickly, he shielded his teary face from her.
Rubbing her eyes, Myolie mumbled immediately when she saw the man in a pilot’s uniform, “Ray? Is that you, Ray?”
Bosco stopped in his track, but still did not turn back. Myolie then realized that she made a mistake after taking a clearer look.
“Oh sorry, it’s you Bosco,” Myolie apologized before looking around the place, “Where’s Raymond? Is he still at the HQ?”
Bosco clenched his fists tightly, taking in a deep breath before he turned around to face Myolie.
“Raymond…Erhm…He’s not coming back…” Bosco could feel himself falling apart as he broke the news to Myolie.
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yeah, you guys guessed correctly, something happened to Raymond ><"
thanks for all comments =]