A Story To Tell

Origins

"UR-!"

~Thunk!

A loud crack sounded, followed almost instantaneously by a sick, wet thud, and two bodies fell to the ground.

"Who was that?"

My comrade looked over, smoking rifle still in hand and said, "Uh... We don't know him; must've been separated from his squad."

I looked down at the two corpses, both of whom were beginning to soak in their own blood and said, "Still, a shame."

After a few moments of silence, I took a deep breath,"Alright then, let's get-"

I never finished my fall-back order. Instead, a mortar round from above finished it for me. An absolutely penetrating, shocking wave of flames and compressed air slammed directly into my partner and I, throwing both of us into the ground, the steel-reinforced concrete roof and ceiling of the pillbox tumbling down upon us.

I was knocked down onto my back and had the air knocked out of me.

Even from under the rubble, the outside world suddenly became much louder. A cacophony of loud snaps, cracks, and booms invaded my senses, as well as an overwhelming stench of blood, sulfur, and urine.

"Oi! Red! You alive?" I shouted over the noise after I managed to re-gain my voice.

"Ugh... Yeah."

"And well?"

"My ears hurt like none other, but I'm alright. None of these rocks were sharp."

I chuckled. How could we be so calm, making jokes even, with such a terror unfolding not twenty feet away, down a slope? Such was the life of a soldier. You eventually get used to it.

Thankfully, the layer of rubble that had attacked me had not been very deep, mostly just dust and gravel, but a few of the chunks were a bit bigger. I blinked, trying to clear away the daze, and sat up, groaning as I did so.

"Red! Oh Red! Where are ya?"

"Same place as before, plus some rocks and re-bar."

I looked over.

"Oh... You're a bit more... Buried than I was. How are you alive?"

"I honestly have no idea."

"How are you so loud then? You ain't muffled none."

"I got me a little tunnel here! Hello!"

I looked up from the now-pit where we were and, once I saw that nothing imminent was on its way, I began to crawl over.

"Hey! This one?"

"Yeah! I can see you! Hello, my savior!"

"I can't see you..."

"Just... Start digging, please."

I sighed. This was going to take an undesirable amount of time. He actually seemed pretty comfortable down there... Safe, even. Maybe I could leave him and he could take a nap while I bag some bad guys. But no, one of 'em might come down and nap him while I did that. I needed to get him out. Besides, he might be wounded and not even know it. Things like that have happened before.

I stood up straight and put my hands on my hips as I looked around the chunks or gray stone and dust.

"Where to begin, where to being..." I asked myself.

I selected the first stone and pulled it away, uncovering more, which I also hauled away. After about a few minutes, I had myself a little pit.

"I'm getting closer!"

"Fantastic. But I'm still here!"

I snorted and bent over some more. Right as I grabbed the closest stone, the area two inches from my hand exploded in a pillar of dust. There was a sharp ping as the round ricocheted up from my little hole and into the sky.

I drew my pistol and whirled around, aiming and firing just as my attacker was about to let loose a second shot of his own. His head snapped back in spray of blood and he fell back.

"Aw shit man, you alright?"

"Uh... Yeah! I-I'm good."

"Be careful! I don't wanna be trapped here forever!"

"Want me to shoot you myself when get down there?"

"Fine, fine. But I'm not getting any younger."

A bored look spread across my face as I hauled the final stone away.

"Ah! Light!"

"Come on. Up and at 'em."

His hand clapped into mine and I hauled him out.

"Wow, I almost thought I was gonna be trapped under there forever."

He looked up and whistled.

"I'm surprised that only one guy attacked you. It must be total chaos up there."

"That's what I was counting on."

Just then, I heard voices coming from above, close ones.

I lowered my voice.

"Shit. Come on, let's go."

Red nodded and we both slunk down to the bottom of the pile, hurrying into the shadows.

After a few moments of tense silence, Red looked over at me.

"They gone?"

"Must b-"

A small device clinked as it landed next to us.

"Aw hell, grenade!"

Red dove away and I grabbed the device and threw it higher. It just bounced off the top of the pit and came back down.

I began to panic. "Go!"

Boom!

The little hunk of metal suddenly erupted in a massive bang, throwing shrapnel and flames in all directions.

"Ar-!"

"Red!"

My leg was knocked out from under me by something and I tumbled to the ground. I couldn't hear anything but a high-pitched ringing for a while. Quite frankly, it was as annoying as hell.

I squinted my eyes and shook my head. Once I could see again, I looked around from my position on the ground.

"Red? Oh no..."

He was slung over a single large boulder, his body armor blasted away and his entire back burned to nothing. The pungent scent of burnt flesh was suddenly inescapable, like a cage.

I tried to stand up, but couldn't. I looked down and almost fainted. My leg. My entire lower leg was hanging on by nothing but a thread of sinew. Blood was surging from the wound and out spattering onto the floor. The metallic smell was sickening.

I panicked again and began to crawl away towards the steel door that marked the way out. It didn't matter, I would be found anyway; I was leaving quite an obvious trail. But I tried anyway.

Just as I made it through the door an eruption of hot lead followed me, ripping up the floor and ending just before it reached my body.

I was filled with adrenaline and used my remaining leg to push myself forward. Just as I thudded down onto the ground again, the doorway shielded another bout of gun fire.

More voices, shouting, giving orders. Too bad I didn't speak German.

I quickly found another door and went through there. It was darker, and I made out a few bunk beds and chests. Eventually, I slunk over to a corner and lay there, losing heavy amounts of blood. I was getting faint.

When I picked up more angry voices, coming toward me, I drew my pistol again and aimed it towards the doorway.

"Er ist hier!"

I closed one eye and squeezed the trigger, tagging the intruder twice before he slumped to the ground.

"Nein! Gah, erhalten in there!"

More clinking as another grenade found its way inside. I chuckled; these guys sure liked grenades, didn't they?

I dropped my gun and leaned my head against the wall, waiting for the second  doom-bringer of the day to go off and end me. Well, it did the first part, that's for sure. I heard it go off, but... It was slow. I jerked up and my eyes widened. Everything was in slow motion, it seemed. I could pick out the individual bits of shrapnel that were emerging from the now-gone fragmentation grenade. My eyes widened even more when an orb of light suddenly grew and became visible.

It descended from its spot on the ceiling and drifted down towards me, where it stayed, right in front of my face. I squinted, trying to block the bright light from my eyes, but unable to completely close them, the fault for that laying in my curiosity.

It halted. For two entire seconds, it was still. Then it rushed forward, engulfing me. And all was black.