Chapter 446

"Captain!" The engineer's voice cracked with emotion.

Tears blurred his vision as they welled up in his eyes.

"Shut the hell up!" Andrew Smith barked. "Wipe those tears and fall back—now!" He wanted nothing more than to kick some sense into the kid, but he didn’t dare move an inch.

His legs had long gone numb, but he knew the slightest shift would turn this place into hell on earth.

To make matters worse, two wounded soldiers lay just a few feet away.

The first casualty had survived purely by luck—he’d collapsed in a cleared safe zone. But now, their luck had clearly run out.

Between him and the wounded, a mere two-meter stretch could be riddled with death traps.

Better he take the risk than send the engineer into that nightmare.

His gaze swept the area.

After three days of carving a path through this minefield with their lives, only five meters remained. Beyond that lay the safety of a stone bridge—impossible to be rigged.

The wounded lay at the heart of the minefield while he stood at its edge.

Perhaps today, their three lives would be the price for clearing this final stretch.

The chastened engineer trembled as he wiped his face and turned away.

Luna White grabbed his arm. "What’s happening? Why aren’t you clearing the mines? That’s your commanding officer!" She bit back her fury—none of this was the young soldier’s fault.

"Can’t be done..." His voice was raw. "A single mine, maybe. But this? It’s a fragmentation cluster... I... I—" He ripped off his helmet and collapsed into sobs.

Muffled weeping spread through the ranks.

Everyone knew the horror of fragmentation mines—lessons written in blood.

What their captain had stepped on was a death sentence.

The men’s tears fell freely. Soldiers weren’t supposed to cry, but this pain cut deeper than facing their own mortality—watching their beloved leader sacrifice himself for his men.

Slowly, Andrew pulled out a crumpled cigarette.

Love my country.

Probably his last one. His hands shook as he lit it, drawing deeply.

His eyes lingered on Luna, then each of his comrades.

Goodbye, my brothers.

However much it hurt, death gave no one a choice. Life’s cruelty lay in never knowing whether the next second brought hope or despair.

In the curling smoke, his face faded from view.