Dulce Et Decorum Est.

The parade had ended. I watched as Rian strolled casually over the the pretty girl who had caught his eye earlier. Zack, Alex and I cheered him on childishly, he looked over his shoulder and flashed us a cheeky grin. 'Come on, they're giving us free drink and it's not going to last forever!' Zack whined, stamping his feet a little. 'Race you!' he grinned. We dashed off towards the nearest inn. Zack won, unsurprisingly, he was as fit as a horse.
As soon as we stepped in the pub, it was chaos. I clung tightly to the back of Alex's clean new uniform jacket. He turned his head around, confused. I looked at him guiltily and he playfully rolled his eyes. When we got to the middle of the building, I could see some more soldiers from our platoon. We joined them by the bar. I was immediately handed a pint of cider, which I chugged down thirstily. 'Whoa, somebody's eager!' Alex slapped me on the back. 'You should try some of this stuff, though. He raised his arm and showed me a glass filled with a clear liquid. 'Vodka? That's supposed to taste like acid, isn't it.' He shrugged. Raising his voice, he announced proudly 'My friend, we do not drink for taste today, we drink to get drunk.' The soldiers around cheered loudly and aggressively, raising and spilling drinks everywhere. I picked one of the small glasses off the top of the bar and downed it without hesitation. I was right, it tasted like acid and it burned like it too. I opened my eyes and I could see Alex laughing in my face. I playfully pushed his chest 'you set me up to so that you could laugh at me!' I cried. He leaned in to whisper in my ear. 'I'm not denying it.' he murmured, directly quoting me from last night.

I found myself surrounded by people I didn't know. Most of the people were great, but there were some obnoxious bastards who kept ranting on about how much they were looking forward to killing. Before I could run my mouth and make unnecessary enemies, I got up and stumbled towards my room. On my way I encountered Zack. 'Whurrs Rian?' he slurred. 'Um...um... I don't know Zack he's probably still with that girl remember.' My words crashed together. Zack walked away, towards the people I had just left. Suddenly, it occurred to me that Alex had just disappeared. One minute he had been sitting beside me and the next he just wasn't there and I had forgotten about him. What if I had said something I didn't mean to and he had been disgusted? I had to find him. 'Alex? Alex!' I called, taking the stairs slowly. I came across the door that had been appointed to me, Rian, Zack and Alex earlier and rushed awkwardly through it. Alex was asleep on the bed. I walked over and sat beside him, just so I could look at him for a while. I studied his face. A line of moisture ran from the apex of his eye to his chin. A tear. What could he be crying about? A sea of emotion washed over me and I just wanted to hug him. He looked so peaceful in his sleep so I couldn't bring myself to wake him. Instead, I lay down beside him in the tiny bed and wrapped my arms around him tightly.