Chapter 50: Frypan Medic

Peter tried to sit up, but Sharon pushed him back down and gave him some water to drink. He drank it quickly and lay back down. His body temperature had dropped, and his fever had broken. The wound in his shoulder still hurt, although Sharon had treated it the best she could.

"Are you alright, Peter?" She asked him.

"Yes, I'm fine now. How long have we been here?"

"Two days! You were badly wounded, and you've been unconscious since we got here," Sharon told him.

He surveyed around and noticed that there was power in the bunker.

"You managed to put on the generator by yourself?" He asked, impressed.

"It wasn't easy, but I did it," Sharon said modestly.

"You never cease to amaze me, darling," Peter said, and gave her a quick kiss.

He started to stand up.

"Peter, don't! You're still hurt and need to rest some more."

"It's okay, dear. I've been down for too long already. Now's not the time to lie down and wait. We have to prepare. This place might be safe and almost undetectable, but we can't stay here forever," Peter said and stood up.

He stumbled a bit but found his balance. He took a chair and sat in it. He held on to his shoulder and winced in pain.

"Damn this stupid wound!" Peter cursed.

"I think I need to change the bandages," Sharon said, walked over to him, and started to undo the bandages.

As she cleaned him up, Peter stared around the bunker. He hadn't been down there in years and everything seemed like a shaded memory finally getting some rays of sunlight.

Sharon's voice suddenly pulled him out of his trip down memory lane.

"Now I understand why you are so good with a gun," she said.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, and she pointed at his pictures hanging on the walls of the bunker.

Pictures of him and his comrades when they were still in service, clad in their soldier's armor with smiles on their faces.

"You look happy in those pictures," Sharon pointed out.

"I **was** happy. It was a thrilling experience at first. But it slowly became a nightmare that just wouldn't end, and it felt like I could never wake up."

"Were you scared... when you first joined?" Sharon asked.

"No, I wasn't. I wanted to go. I was ready to fight, eager even. But that changed after my first battle. I realized that it wasn't all fun and games when I saw the life run out of the men that had become my brothers."

Sharon finished changing the bandages and Peter stood up and walked over to one of the pictures and stared at them with sadness in his eyes. Sharon noticed his sudden mood change and went to him.

She stared at the same picture he was looking at. The very first picture he took in the army with his comrades before they attacked the invaders.

"Who are they?" Sharon asked.

"They were my brothers for a year. They were some of the bravest people I ever met. That's James, and that one is Martin. The one with the terrible teeth is Harry; we called him Omega. That's me and that's Chris. He was my best friend," Peter pointed out.

"What happened to them?" Sharon asked, already fearing the answer.

"They died in our very first battle," Peter said with a heavy heart.

"All of them?" Sharon asked.

"No, not all of them," Peter answered, and the memory took hold of him again, back to the battle against the invaders.

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**THE BATTLE AGAINST THE INVADERS...**

*"Chris! Watch out!!" Peter screamed, trying to alert him of the invader about to shoot him.*

*Chris turned around and saw the gun pointed at him, but there wasn't enough time to get out of the line of fire. From where Peter stood, he pulled out his weapon and aimed at the invader who was on the ground. Peter shot at him almost a second before the invader pulled his trigger.*

*In that split second, Peter's bullet travelled quite a distance and struck the invader right in the head just as he fired his gun at Chris.*

*Chris screamed in pain when the bullet caught him in the eye. He fell off the truck and landed on the muddy ground.*

*"Noooo!" Peter screamed, horrified by what had just happened.*

*He ran to his friend and turned him around, only to find his left eye destroyed.*

*"It hurts, Peter" Chris cried out and held on tight to Peter.*

*"You'll be fine, Chris. They'll fix you up, okay?" He assured his friend, "Medic, Medic!"*

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***Peter returned to the present and was feeling anger towards himself.***

"Why can't I protect the people I care about?" He said angrily to himself.

"Peter? You're being too hard on yourself. You saved Chris' life. He may have been partially blinded but he's alive because of you and so am I," Sharon told him.

"But not my daughter and my wife. I couldn't save them. I failed them just like I failed my brothers on that battlefield."

"Look at me, Peter", Sharon ordered, and held his face in her hands, "You didn't fail anyone. You did all you could for your friends and for your family. What happened to them was not your fault. You have let go of this guilt that you've been carrying," Sharon told him and comforted him with a hug.

Another day passed by with Sharon and Peter still hiding out in the bunker. Peter's shoulder was still badly wounded but it hurt less than before. He was now able to stand and walk around without any assistance from Sharon, but he was getting impatient. He felt like a sitting duck waiting to be attacked, so he decided to gear up.

He grabbed a crate hidden in a compartment and opened it. It was filled with military-grade weapons and he began cleaning the dust out of them and loading them up.

Sharon could notice how tense he was so she decided to ease his stress a little bit.

"Peter. You need to rest and get back your strength. You have to relax," she said worriedly.

"I can't relax. And I don't understand how you can be so calm," Peter said to her.

"I seem calm, don't I? But the truth is I'm not. Addicus has been trying to kill me for three years now, and he's gotten close to doing it multiple times. I've always been frightened and did that ever help me? No, it didn't. I'm not going to let my fear drive my actions anymore, the way it did when Addicus first found me in the art shop," Sharon said and her mood suddenly became droopy.

"How did you get away from him that day? From what you told me, it seemed like there was no way out," Peter asked, and sat down beside her.

*Sharon's mind travelled back to a year ago when Addicus had finally found her at* ***Imaginación***.