Heartbeats

Chapter 2: A soldier's heart

He opened his heavy eyelids and greeted the soft light of dawn. He was grateful that he got to live and got to wake up today as well. There was the smell of coffee hanging low around the room. He moved and surely he felt the scattered papers around him. He had fallen asleep last night from reading. He shook his head and noted that he should not read in bed next time.

He stood up and prepared for the day ahead of him.

His name was Gavril and he is the newest Captain of the third reconnaissance squad.

The recon squads were the ones responsible for scouting the dangerous world outside of the Communities, the established safe haven for humanity. These squads were tasked to look for survivors, to search for safe places where they could build new Communities, and to eliminate threats around their Community.

Gavril looked at himself in the mirror, he could not believe that anyone would trust someone with such a face with their lives.

He never looked like an ordinary man.

He had prognathism, a deformity where his jaws are protruding, in his case his upper jaw slightly even more. His canines were also pointed and sharper compared to normal. All of these combined with his keen sense of smell, had earned the nickname "The Dog".

Gavril did not really mind what people called him. His dog-man abilities had saved his life a lot of times in the past; he might not be good-looking but at least he was alive. Besides, looks weren't really important once you put on your helmet and fight.

Unfortunately, he did accept the fact that it made people anxious around him. Due to this, he would make sure to wear a face mask and hide behind it, his side safe from the ridicule of the world and their side safe from having to look at him.

"Captain!" A bulky man taller and older than Gavril, Borian as he is called, approached the Captain.

Borian was the friendliest guy in his squad and Gavril never approved of such an attitude. It was 'not fit for a soldier' as he told him countless of times. But in spite of that, he still trusted Borian with his life. He could not completely treat Borian as one of his underlings mainly because they were newbies together. They were batch mates who started and rose to ranks almost at the same time. Well, now Gavril was one position ahead of him but it still felt the same between them. Gavril could not really feel superior over the man whom he once scrubbed the bathroom floors with. The embarrassment of their days as young cadets never failed to haunt him. It was just him and Borian, naive and completely naked versus the putrid common bathroom of the training camp.

They were preparing for yet another mission to go outside. Gavril thought seriously of it, even reading the mission a hundred times last night, while Borian treated it like a field trip. Borian enjoyed going outside, something that Gavril noticed from the years they had spent together.

"We're going out. Wipe that smile off your face." Gavril said quite stiffly as he secured the mask around his mouth.

Borian gave a small chuckle, "And you shouldn't hide your smile Gavril. This is the reason why girls avoid you."

"Girls avoid me because I am hideous." Gavril then put on his helmet.

"Why are you always so serious?" Borian followed suit.

"We're going to another deserted town with probably no survivor... if there ever is one I bet the last thing they would want to see is your smiling mug."

Borian shook his head and dropped the subject. He did not know what to say and Gavril seemed to be in a bad mood. Although, as Borian thought about it, Gavril was always like this. He had seen him smile whenever he was with friends but you would never expect him looked any bit happy during any of their missions.