Intuitions of War- chapter 5

Intuitions of War

Chapter 5: Admitting

After running for quite a bit, Harper realized that the footsteps behind him were beginning to catch up. He tried to run even faster, but he just didn't have the energy to go any faster, as he barely had the energy to go on as he was!

"Screw off!" Harper yelled behind him. He just wanted to leave here alive, that's all he wanted. However, the man chasing after him didn't seem to have any intent to give up, so Harper continued to exhaust himself.

Finally, the man got so close that Harper could actually make out his face, and as expected, it was the French translator from before. However, Harper also realized another thing. The man was bleeding profusely, and it didn't look like he would make it far.

'How in the hell is he catching up to me with those injuries?!' Harper seriously admired the military's power, or at the very least, this man's power. He could blame them all he wants as the causes for his sorrow and pain, but they were extremely powerful.

"Kid, just stop for a bit and let me talk, before I die, please!" The man seemed extremely desperate, even more then before. Though, Harper didn't know what to think of it. Harper, acknowledging the man's injuries and issues, realized that the man wouldn't live long, so he stopped running like a mad man.

The second he stopped running, the man chasing him slumped over, and put his back against the wall. Harper, realizing even more then before that the man was basically on his deathbed, began walking back towards him, but knew to keep a safe distance from him.

"Thank you… thank you…" The man kept repeating thank you, while tears and blood poured from his face. Now that Harper took a closer look at the man, he realized that he must have been stunningly athletic, even for the military.

'This man's a special case.' Harper immediately began to admire him, amazed at the type of power that an injured man had to chase after him so far. However, he realized the man was literally about to die, so he shut up and let the man talk.

After a while, the man finally stopped sobbing and saying thank you long enough to say something to Harper.

"Don't blame the soldiers, they're for- *cough cough* forced to fight the war. It's the s-s-same no matter whi- nation you go to. If you want to end the *cough cough* war, g-go for the co-commanders who're directing the soldiers, and then at the end, strike down the l-leader of nations."

Harper was confused at the words of the French man, at everything just in general.

"No, it's not just the leaders. Even if we eliminate the leaders and the commanders, there are surely even more people who want to carry on their will. It's basically impossible to eliminate everyone, as even the soldiers will begin to-" Harper began to explain to the French man the issues with his ideas, but the French man seemed to be getting angry, and finally interrupted Harper.

"Y-you idiot, how will sol-soldiers let each other become the le-leader? They'll kill ea-each other before they let o-one another become leader." The French man finished off his explanation, and Harper widened his eyes in Realization.

'So… If I can just get the heads of everyone related to the leader, it'll just be the soldiers left, and they'll fight each other to become leaders…' Harper began to think, but abruptly stopped his train of thought, realizing something.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Harper raised his guard up, his suspicion hanging around him.

"I di-didn't want to fight in this w-war, life was peaceful before, t-then my family left me… At the very lea-least, I've left my w-will to someone… y-you." The French man uttered these final words, and closed his eyes. Harper realized that the man was straining himself to talk, when he could have just died a peaceful death.

'That's right… it can't just be me that's affected by this war… there's more people out there, somewhere, who are experiencing something similar to me, this man, or someone else. In war… nobody benefits.'

Harper's mind was in chaos while staring at the man, who's breath was slowly becoming quieter and smaller, until he couldn't hear it anymore. He looked at the man's chest, and saw that it wasn't moving.

The man had finally died.

"So all you wanted, was to leave the ideas in your mind in someone else's hands huh…" Harper, realizing that he was just used by the French man, smirked.

'You only relieved yourself of this life, and left everything in my hands. What would you do if I choose not to follow your words or don't hand them down to anyone? Your will would be dead.' Harper sighed, and turned around. He continued walking, trying to find the exit of Newgate.

He was going to get out of here, and do something. Preferably, something he wanted to do.

--- sequence 2 ---

*Two days later*

"It's so waaaaarrrmmmm...." Harper moaned, while walking through the country of Scotland. He had made it out safely, and managed to hitch some rides here and there. However, it wasn't as if he made it out of there perfectly, just safely.

'I have nowhere to go, nothing to do, nobody who knows me, or any relatives.' This was almost the worst case scenario, the worst case being him dying. However, this was a very close second.

'What am I going to do now? At this rate, I'll have to spend the rest of my life tending to some pub in Scotland, and even if I did decide to do that, I can't just act like it won't get involved in the war as well.' Harper, after learning the real truth of war a few days ago, was beginning to change mentally.

Nowhere was safe, not during war at least. No matter where he ran, that country would likely be involved in the war as well.

'The whole reason this war started was just because of the French's greed too, why would we hand over the princess and the prince for political marriages if we don't want to…' The war had begun for as dumb a reason as it could be as well, so that was something.

"Still, I don't want to just work at a pub or something, not after everything I've experienced. I want to do something… somewhere… just to get the war closer to finishing. It doesn't matter which side wins, as long as the war is over and the innocents stop being hurt…" Harper sincerely hoped that the war would end soon, no matter the outcome.

"Then why not finish it yourself?" A new voice popped out of nowhere, and Harper whirled around, trying to identify the source of the voice.

However, what he was looking at surprised him. For it was a person he knew all too well, and in fact, lived with him his whole life, within his body.

"Me?" Harper said, before everything seemed to zoom out of existence, and all he saw was a deep black.

--- sequence 3 ---

"Crap!" Harper woke up with a jolt, lifting his head from the haystack that it was resting on. He was currently inside a barn, without anybody's permission, sleeping through the night. Or, at least he was trying to sleep through the night.

'What the hell was that about, damn it?' No matter how he stressed out about things, and no matter how much he worried, he knew that at the very least, he should get his sleep. However, his sweaty body seemed to have other thoughts, such as getting up and continuing on to wherever he was going.

He was currently making his way to Scotland, and stopped at the barn when it was beginning to become night. He was planning on just sleeping here and moving on, but as stated before, it seems like his body didn't have any intention of listening to him.

'Whatever, I should probably get out of here anyway, before the owner comes to check here. I can't have a pitch skewering me.' Harper, acknowledging that he would be putting himself at risk if he stayed here any longer, stood up and sighed. He walked to the barn entrance, and left the barn.

"If I can just forget my previous life and continue to live, it'll all be fine, it'll all be fine…" That specific line was becoming very common to his ears, however, it was probably the most ironic line he had. He didn't believe it at all, he was just trying to comfort himself.

'I was never made for open conflict or anything, and even if I were to be sent out to the battlefield to fight, I wouldn't survive a second out there. I have no experience in fighting, no muscle to be out there with, and no idea how to use a gun or anything else.' Harper, in all honesty, didn't know what to do. He was currently just walking through life and scraping by at the moment, trying to make something out of it.

"Who's out there!?" Harper heard a scream from the house next to the barn, and immediately booked it. However, there wasn't really any place he could hide, because it was all open fields around him, with no tree or civilization in sight, and a single hill that carried on it the dirt road that he was using to travel to Scotland.

'I doubt he has a gun, a farmer shouldn't be able to get a gun in anyway or shape. If I can just run and hope he doesn't see me, that might be the best idea.' Harper immediately knew what to do, and started running towards the dirt road.

*BAM*

A man came out of the backdoor of the house by kicking it open, and in his hands was a pitchfork. Harper simply grinned.

'As expected, he won't be able to shoot me, and he probably won't catch up to me.' Harper, who actually turned out to be lucky for once, was somewhat happy, until he remembered the situation and his smile disappeared once again.

The farmer seemed to have finally caught sight of Harper, considering that he was chasing after him. Harper just kept running, having no intentions of stopping and fighting the man. However, he wouldn't have a choice soon enough.

"What the-?!" Harper looked behind himself once again, and saw that the distance between him and the farmer was rapidly decreasing. The farmer was clearly strong in someway, or at least stronger than Harper.

'He doesn't have the pitchfork in his hands anymore!' Harper realized that the farmer ditched the pitchfork so that he could catch up to Harper easily. Within a few more seconds, the farmer was literally right behind him, and then finally tackled him.

Harper and the farmer hit the ground, although the farmer was on top. Harper began to struggle, but realized that he couldn't do anything. The farmer began to punch Harper in the stomach and on the face, while Harper continued to struggle for a while.

'Crap, what do I do?!' Harper was never a physical guy, he was a mental guy. For that reason, he wasn't really good in situations like these. However, he did know how to play dirty.

'I have had to fight like this my whole life because of how weak I am!' Harper thought within the cells of his mind, while pushing his knee right into the guy's groin.

"You piece of sh-!" The farmer began, before Harper followed up with a punch to the farmers face, shoving him off promptly. Harper scrambled pu from the muddy ground, and began running once again, while the farmer seemed to be in seemingly serious pain. Harper smirked, but not for long.

'He isn't going to be getting up anytime soon, even Mr. Mason took a minute or two to deal with it when he tried to beat me down!' Harper thought, as he finally made it onto the dirt path and continued running in the direction of Scotland, or so he thought.

However, the farmer was right onto him again, and slammed his fist into Harper's side. Harper immediately hit the ground, grasping for any breath he could get. However, before he could begin breathing again, he took a kick to the face, which sent him rolling down from the dirt path.

"God dam-!" The farmer began yelling, before Harper took off his shoe and sent it flying at his face. Harper, while barely being able to breathe, just started running, not having the slightest care as to where he would end up.

He was heavily injured, and he definitely couldn't run as fast as he could when he first began to run away. However, it wasn't as if the farmer was all well, he was terribly injured, in pain that is. Or, at least Harper assumed so, after that groin shot from the knee.

Harper looked behind him, and saw that the farmer wasn't chasing after him, but was instead walking back.

"Come back again, and I'll beat yer ass!" the farmer yelled as he walked away, while Harper just stood there, staring at the back of this man.

'I used to think that the physical body was useless because of guns and all that, but now…'