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Katrina listened intently to Thanh, she felt her heart stall for a moment as she heard that the promise between Thanh and his father to his mother had been already half broken. Her mind contorted to how his mother might feel learning about his father’s death and how painful that would be as she remembered her own experience during the fall of Manila. She felt a kinship with Thanh, they both had similar promises to their homeland and their people and though he beamed with every word, she could recognize the smile of pain and sorrow, as all too often she has donned the same smile – pain, sorrow, loss, and horror veiled in a smirk. She appreciated the gesture and it showed just how strong willed Thanh was. She respects him.

A red army officer then blew his whistle that resonated a shrill, high-pitched sound through the air – it was time to leave. The officers were shouting and directing the unit back into their respective carriages, that was when Thanh grabbed her attention again. He reached out his hand for a shake and said, [color=fff159]"Looks like they're calling us now. We all have promises. How about we promise each other too. To keep on fighting to see our promises becoming a reality. Promise?"[/color] she took his hand with both of hers and shook it once only to reply in her own tongue, [color=#4262B7]”Sige! Pangako natin sa isat-isa. (Sure! Our promise to one another.)”[/color] she donned a confident, determined expression as she let her mouth curve into a toothy grin and let Thanh return to his carriage. She turned to look at hers and marched up into it and back into her section.


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It had been a few hours since they stopped to resupply, the night sky was clear and the moon and stars hung bright over their heads. Katrina slept to the sound of the train and the vibrations of the tracks until they arrived at their destination. Katrina woke to the sound of boots and yelling – as usual. She stole a peak from her window only to see a sort of outpost and all around them were worn buildings and tents surrounded by a fortified perimeter. White beams from the various spotting lights danced around the area. She grabbed her things and slung it over her shoulder and stood from her seat to walk with the sea of people inside her carriage, marching out in order, each of them directed to separate buildings or tents. She noticed that not all the soldiers were wearing soviet uniforms, some of them looked like they were from Vietnam, some looked French, some looked Chinese, etc. There were other uniforms which she could not place but they were in the minority much like herself. As she finally got to the carriage door, she was greeted once again by tropical air.

One thing began to worry her – the mosquitoes. They are normally just a nuisance, but they’ve also been known to carry diseases. Malaria and Dengue were the ones that concerned her most. U.S. troops would suffer from Dengue fever or Malaria during their stay in the Philippines, Dengue being the more violent of the two. While Malaria was not deadly in most cases, the danger was either the [i]benign[/i] type of malaria or the [i]malignant[/i] type which was more likely to cause death usually result in the infected person being bed ridden and taken out of action – sometimes permanently. Dengue on the other hand which is particularly dangerous because it could develop into Hemorrhagic fever that results in low platelet levels and blood plasma leakage, or Dengue Shock Syndrome where blood pressure can drop dangerously low, both of which could cause death. Katrina had heard all of this from some of the American soldiers that were fighting in the Philippines. Many dengue casualties are due to soldiers thinking the disease is something else during its developing stages and when they are finally diagnosed it’s already too late, the disease would’ve developed into its more deadly stages and is harder to treat.

She was herded into one of the tents and luckily the sleeping areas were covered in mosquito netting, her shoulders slacked as she let out a deep sigh of relief. Other soldiers began to cram into the tent, men and women alike. They were ordered to get some sleep by the uniformed officers directing them into their designated areas. Katrina had already slept on the train, she didn’t feel tired, she stared at the people around her and as the lights went out she stared into the darkness. Before she knew it, she was asleep, it was as if her consciousness was whisked away.