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Jackson's POV

I thought about the options presented to me for a long moment before finally making up my mind. I would do what he said because it made a lot of sense. What would being a coward accomplish right now? Even if it was just one child held hostage, I would do my best to release them, so it was better that the soldiers didn't even get access to the place in the first place. We would guard it from outside and hold the battle line against them to make sure they never got access to the village.

It was a purposeful suggestion on his part, and I was very glad that I had brought Robert, a veteran, along with me. At least that would make things a little easier for me, especially if he kept giving crucial advice like that. Maybe this mission wasn't such a failure after all.

I stood outside the tank, waiting at attention as I looked ahead for anybody that could be coming. I knew that if anybody came right now, it could probably be an enemy. I wanted to be up and ready, standing instead of staying inside the tank because I didn't want anything to disturb or distract me. I wanted to be very agile and ready to fight the physical part of the battle instead of just shooting from the tank. Staying in the tank was definitely limiting myself to long-range attacks, and even though they were going to be pretty powerful, I wasn't up for some tactical shootouts. I was going for the main action, and that was exactly another reason why I had taken the mission in the first place.

I waited patiently but didn't seem to see anyone at all even after spending up to one hour waiting. I was about to complain to my friends beside me—which were only Damien of course, but I could also consider Robert as a kind of friend—when suddenly I saw the rustle of bushes in front of me. I glanced at them and noticed that they had seen this also, but Robert didn't seem disturbed by it at all. It was as if nothing had actually happened, even though his blame indicated that he had seen it.

I glanced at Damien and noticed that he had gotten into a stance, getting ready to strike. I was the same, but suddenly a rabbit burst out of the bushes, pulling down my hopes along with it. I put out my gun immediately in anger and shot it down, killing it on the spot with my very accurate precision and aim. I went over to it and picked it up, coming back to my men and waving it in the air like it was some kind of spoil of war, but my tone of voice when I spoke indicated the opposite.

"What the hell is this?" I questioned. "Why isn't anyone here yet? Nobody has come to strike us or to give us any kind of fun at all. I'm really starting to wonder whether this is a waste of time after all."

"Patience," Damien said in response, surprising me with the calm tone of his voice. I saw from the look in his eyes—the look that I could never miss—that he was burning out of his skin already, but yet he was saying "patience" to me like he was some kind of old sensei.

"Patience for what?" I asked him, glaring at him and wishing he would drop the act. He was being a hypocrite because he wanted exactly the opposite of patience. He wanted action at this point, and he wanted it as soon as possible, but yet he was preaching patience to me.

"We have to wait and keep to our post," he said. "It's the mission, and that's the only way that we can actually accomplish it," he said slowly to me, giving me a look of resolution.

I looked into his eyes to see the sincerity there. I couldn't comprehend it. Either he was faking it, or he was actually sincere, which I didn't think was even possible in this situation that was frustrating me. The only explanation for why it wouldn't frustrate anyone was that that person was pretty experienced in the art of waiting and being patient, and the only person that description fit was the veteran among us, Robert.

I shook my head at him, deciding not to think too much about it anymore. This wasn't going to work, but maybe I could simply rest and wait for something to happen, unlikely as it was. I was tired of waiting already, but the man beside me gave me a reassuring look. It was as if he was pretty certain that it was going to work out, but I couldn't comprehend that at all.

"Why do you think that they're going to come at us with the other rogues and try to attack the city?" I asked. "It was just analysis on their part, and I am pretty sure that they didn't even have any basis of truth to back it up," I finished, looking at him and waiting for his response.

"That's the point of this," he said. "It's a form of training. You have to obey the orders of your superiors in order to be a good soldier. If you don't do what they said you should do, then it's going to be very difficult for you to progress, and you might not even be able to progress at all. Do you understand? We have to simply obey the instruction. They did their analysis and decided that they were going to come here. It can be true, it might not be, but at the same time, it doesn't matter. All you need to do is accomplish your mission and stay here till the end of today's training. And maybe even tomorrow, we're going to come here for as long as it takes for us to get a message from them to come back."

I looked at him in disbelief, not knowing whether he was actually kidding or telling the truth. "I'm not even going to be a soldier," I told him. "I'm going to be the alpha, the leader of the soldiers and the one giving the orders, not the person following orders," I said, glaring at him and angry that he would speak to me in such a way.

"I know," he said, "but you have to go through this process. You have to know what the soldiers feel before you actually get to the leader part. You need to go through it step by step and climb the ladder slowly. Finally, in the end, you get what you want and become a very good, effective leader. That's a part of the training that I'm pretty sure your father wants to give you, or maybe it's the chief of army. Whoever sent you here had a very good reason, and I'm pretty sure that if you finish this mission successfully, you're going to get the results and learn a lot of things in the process."

I looked at him, still frowning while deciding that I really didn't have a choice in this. The reward for actually getting to catch the rogues and teach them a lesson was immense. I would be considered a hero, and my dad would be so proud of me. I could see him waving from the window again like the last time, and knew that he would display much more excitement if I actually completed this mission. That was one reason why I would stay and complete it—not anything concerning what Robert had just said.

I didn't say anything else to him but instead turned to look straight ahead as I waited for something to happen. I was getting tired, and soon I knew that I would have to go into the tank to rest and simply relax. But for now, I decided that I would do my job as much as I could before that happened. I started waiting for what seemed like forever. It finally happened. I felt so tired of standing that I felt like I would fall any time from now. I looked at my best friend Damien and if he felt the same way I was feeling, he didn't show it because he had the same stoic expression on his face and he looked like he was enjoying every bit of this tedious exercise. Shaking my head and deciding that I couldn't do this any longer, I walked up into my car, into the tank, and then took out my phone in order to entertain myself a little. I was pretty sure that my men would tell me if anything started happening, but it still felt uncomfortable for me to be playing and using my phone when I had a group of people to lead and needed to be alert. I was about the strongest here and therefore it was the good and natural thing to do for me to be at the front line and for me to be the first person to launch an attack because that would give us the initiative in order to fight.

I shook my head knowing that it was going to be much more difficult for me to adjust to this and decided that maybe I should just relax for this time around. I didn't see any sign of them coming either way.

I would stand and wait. Hopefully, they would come, and it wouldn't be a waste of time.