High School Soldier
Inner war: chatting with doctor 1

Nio opened his eyes slightly when he heard a rowdy sound from the house next door, the Nike residence. The first thing he saw was the white ceiling. In his dream last night he was chased by a hunting dog. He tried to escape desperately, but the hunting dog would pounce on him.

Nio woke up with cold sweat running down his face, he turned his head to look around the room. He was alone in his room and at home. The girls, including Zefanya went to Nike's house when they planned something on the girl. The quiet atmosphere filled the house in the morning, of course Arunika had gone to work.

He felt his stomach nauseous from a day of not eating, and the head ascit attacked him. Nio crouched down in front of the living room window.

Looking out the clear window, the neighbors were on the move as usual. She could hear the mothers talking about the girls who lived in her house while shopping at the traveling vegetable vendor. The gossip of the mothers could be a source of important information for the other party, but Nio let them as long as it did not harm him. He turned around, and felt his left eyelid feel heavier than when he was sleepy. The nausea he felt was getting worse. Looking at the time on his phone, the clock shows at 8 am. He's only been sleeping for half an hour since yesterday.

Having not eaten anything since yesterday, except for the cilok he bought with Edera while shopping, Nio felt his stomach ache. But, he was not in the mood to cook for today. With his blurred vision and head swirling around, Nio walked like a drunk to the fridge and found a full bottle of mineral water and drank it to the ground. He choked, and almost vomited after finishing the contents of the bottle of mineral water. He then chewed on some cucumbers and tomatoes like a severely starving person. Nio was fully aware of what he was doing right now like a barbarian.

After feeling himself filled with energy, Nio walked into Arunika's room and the girls to pick up the scattered clothes. Unlike Nio who even changed clothes once every three days, the girls had many of the latest fashion outfits. They like to show off their best clothes, and pose in front of Nio with seductive expressions – except Arunika and Nike – while saying, “Am I cute, cute?” or “Who will you take ‘play’ tonight?” Of course Nio would rather go to the nearest angkringan than see a scene that tests his faith.

Nio took out the medicine box he had stored in his desk drawer. Inside was a blue pill. Realizing he has not taken his medication, Nio begins to fidget. Nothing would have happened if he had missed it a day or two, but if he had not taken the medicine for more than four days, the level of anxiety and uneasiness resulting from going through many battles would gradually increase and make him suffer.

It takes several hours for the effects on the drug to work. That was why Nio remained feeling uneasy as he recalled his encounter with Darsono.

“Job!” nio said and gripped his head firmly with his left hand.

Before the war, he and Arunika went and went to school every day together, and when they came home they would either snack or cook together at home. Although Nio knew that the salary and benefits Arunika received were not enough for daily living expenses, he tried to be ordinary. Until he finally realized the Arunika family often provide help. Arunika is quite critical of all her deeds, and always motivates her to be better.

But, that life had been shattered into pieces. Someone took his family, and only the current existence of his lover and friends was able to reduce the bit of anger and sadness that was in his heart. He doesn't know what to do today. He and his subordinates gained leeway in working a month longer, although he could not abandon the mission of helping the journalist team.

Losing his motivation to work, Nio headed for the headquarters of Company 406-32 in the underground city. He makes reports and plans to train company members for him every day, but he calmly makes the most of the correct vacation time.

As he went through various processes before entering the underground city, he finally obtained a permit. Major Herlina went to the Headquarters when they received news of a witch opening the Imperfect Gate without permission, and caused the sudden exit of dozens of Alliance soldiers. The underground city doctor, Dini, just came out of the operating room of the underground city hospital. The subterranean physician queen smiled towards Nio, and threw her headgear and mask into the trash before putting her white suit back on.

“You just finished doing the operation?” Nio asked.

“Yes. Early this morning, a company member nearly died when he was attacked by someone while on patrol. According to his confession, it was a woman who attacked him. The wounds he received came from the attacks of sharp weapons, and were extremely deep. Looks like this includes actions of*or.”

Dini replied with an unpleasant expression. The aromatic in the corner of the room only serves to calm the patient and cover the scent of blood from the operating room that Dini referred to as ‘kamar’.

“You don't look okay. But, I hope you come here not because your mentality is disturbed,” said Dini.

Nio stood in front of the bookshelf that was in the Dini workspace. The woman was a book maniac, and she crammed hundreds of books on the shelf, until several books were scattered on the floor because they were not accommodated. Nio wasn't sure if Dini was the type of person who bought books that had attracted him, and made his bookshelf full. However, one of Dini's books titled ‘Shell Shock: dealing with a crazy army’ made Nio put on a scared expression. It was not because of the book cover that featured illustrations of a soldier with a crazy smile, but he was afraid that mental illness syndrome was suffered.

“You really think I'm mentally ill, Doctor,” Nio said.

“Difficult to keep mentally awake in battle. Moreover, many commanders vied for the target and many victories despite sacrificing their subordinates. Of course for the sake of rising through the ranks and being recognized as a hero. Stress is inevitable.”

Early smile small, “Thinking about the target is important, one of them is the target job. Taking action is better than imagining a sudden victory without effort. If you have a target of only carrying out the duty until the day of withdrawal, it is no different from a person without a purpose. Without a target, people will very easily lose motivation to do something, but being too motivated is not a good thing. What is needed most is dedication. Even if you don't want to, even if you do the work without passion, that's dedication. You still force yourself to work, even if you feel tired. But, because you have dedication, you still obey orders and ignore your condition without motivation or the atmosphere of a battlefield that is like hell.”

“I don't understand..”

“Do not pretend to be a fool or I will dissect you without anasthesi.”

“I understand, so please don't do that, Doc. The point is, if I don't have dedication, even though I have a lot of motivation, I will still die?”

“Yes, like that. If you have the right motivation, like wanting to watch the latest porn right away, that's great. Doesn't that sound like your motivation?”

“Do not talk about it!” Nio put on an expression of disdain as Dini spoke of her old habits that were very difficult to leave behind. Why do people always talk in a seductive tone when others have a habit of watching adult videos?

“I'm just kidding, don't take it seriously, you stiff base. I don't want you to lose motivation. By the way, I heard you got an offer to be part of the next Super Army project.”

“No, I don't know that. How do you know, Doc?”

“Yes, since I once helped with your bionic hand-mounting operation first, one of the defense companies contacted me whether the target would accept the offer.”

“I'm still hesitant to accept that full-risk offer.”

“Why are you hesitating? The company that is now refining the Super Army project independently is the largest private defense company in Indonesia, right?”

“Yes, I know. But, I'm just not ready to accept that half of my body will be replaced with a machine. If the system suddenly errors, maybe the weapon on the bionic hand will shoot itself or worse explode and destroy my body.” Nio stopped his words suddenly.

The private company that now holds the Super Army project is the one that gives TRIP members a system of combat clothing, weapons, and ammunition for free.

It was natural for military organizations to cooperate with arms companies for certain projects. For example, the TRIP personnel wear advanced combat uniforms, the latest rifle made by the company in question Dini. By supplying weaponry for TRIP and having its members use and become testers of their products, the company can say “Our products are used by teenage heroes!” in marketing advertising. So it is quite natural for a company to do such a thing to find potential customers. The largest private company in Indonesia wants Nio to be part of their Super Army project because the man is well known to many people, to allied countries.

“What do you think is the reason that company made me part of that project?” ask Nio.

“Easy to do; you know a lot of people, you have a pretty handsome face if your broken skin is stopped by a high-tech artificial skin.”