3 Judgement day (1/2)

However, over time Lazar's patience was running out more and more quickly with girls. He no longer wanted to waste his time taking into account the feelings of those around him. After a while, he didn't content himself with ignoring them. He showed them without ambiguity that he wasn't interested.

'I seem to have been too subtle. Maybe she fell too hard earlier not to have noticed that I have been ignoring her since we got on the bus? Well... it will calm her down.'

He showed her his middle finger with an expression that expressed nothing but disgust for her. She remained frozen and speechless. Being particularly sure of her charms she began to make ridiculous conjectures.

'What just happened!? To get you I went so far as to dirty my clothes, asshole! No, I need to calm down, I'm sure there is a logical explanation for his behavior...

3 minutes later.

…He's definitely gay.'

Lazar on his side was listening to music while contemplating the landscapes of the Georgian countryside through the window, after a few hours those of South Carolina. There were some resemblances to where he grew up with his grandfather...

Around 8:00 pm, they arrived in Charlotte. The largest city in North Carolina, the journey from there was of around 13 hours to Boston if they were lucky not to be slowed by traffic jams the next day.

The bus driver stopped in the parking lot of a 4-star hotel. The night here was included in the trip because the company didn't want their buses to run at night. Lazar went down last to take his bag and went to get the magnetic card of his room at the reception of the hall.

He didn't go to the hotel restaurant for dinner like the others. He preferred to go directly to his room and eat the combat rations he had taken from the base. He was stopped by the bus driver while he was waiting for the elevator to the third floor.

”We leave at 7:00 am tomorrow morning, no delay.”

”Okay.”

Discreet, not very talkative, the kind of guy that Lazar likes.

Barely arrived in his room, Lazar took a shower. He no longer wished to bathe in his own sweat.

Lately, he felt particularly nostalgic and thought a lot about his grandfather.

The scars he saw in the mirror on his abdomen was a trigger, their origin dates back to one of his first hunting trips. He found himself face to face with a wolf and had succeeded in killing it with his knife but only after being deeply scratched. Thereafter he had to stay in bed for 3 days to fight the fever caused by the infection.

His grandfather didn't leave his bed and looked after him during this time. Since they lived in isolation and therefore he couldn't take him to the hospital.

While he suffered in his bed, his grandfather had a smile on his face most of the time. He never thought that Lazar would be able to take care of a wolf the way he did, at such a young age furthermore.

It was the first time that Lazar saw someone be proud of him. He was so happy that after a while he even began to like these scars there.

His feeling was much less positive when he thought about the ones he had on his back.

He dressed and began to swallow a third of a 'first strike ration'. A combat ration of 2900 calories eaten cold and designed to last the first 72 hours of a conflict.

'Surely not as good as the buffet downstairs but much quicker to eat.'

He took out of his bag a book on parkour and something very unusual for him happened. He fell asleep after barely an hour.

Lazar woke up with difficulty, suffering from an intense headache, but he was lucid enough to see that he didn't recognize what was around him. He wasn't even in a bed but on the ground, well let's say rather a hard surface for what he knew because all that was around him was mist. Having the curious impression of recognizing this place, he couldn't help mumbling.

”It's not the first time that it happens I am convinced of it, but my memories are blurred...”

Coming out of nowhere a raucous and powerful male voice answered him.

”Indeed! You know, I didn't think you would realize that someone was messing with your memory.”

Although he felt that this wasn't a hallucination. He couldn't help wondering if he hadn't been given drugs in his rations hearing this voice.

”Congratulations! Lazar, you exceed my expectations!”

It wasn't a prank and it was far too real for a dream, being someone rational what was going on had become incomprehensible to Lazar. He tried to regain his calm before asking a question. The voice didn't seem hostile and on second thought it was surprisingly familiar, even friendly.

”Who are you?”

It was the only rational question to ask yet.

”You asked me this question last time and I still can't answer it, unfortunately. But you will know very soon who I am if I am not mistaken about you.”

Lazar frowned.

”Have we seen each other before? Is that what you meant by playing with my memory?”

”Yep, still as quick to understand.”

'Isn't he even ashamed?'

”Stop wasting our time, I guess you brought me here for a reason and I have an intuition that this is all real.”

”Ahahahah.”

'He's starting to piss me off.'

”What's so funny?”

”Nothing, I just like the fact that you are so direct. It was more difficult to convince you of my existence the first time.”

'It's very annoying when someone tells you about events you don't remember.'

”I can't say the same thing about you right now. Except that you're having fun erasing my memory, you haven't taught me anything.”

”You're right, let's get down to business, we don't have much time left, you will miss your bus.”

'How does he know about this!'

”Damn, couldn't you have brought me here earlier?!”