No peace for the weary

I looked at Dash, her once cyan hooves had been dyed a deep, sickening crimson. She was shaking and clearly terrified. Tears flowed freely from her large Magenta eyes as she observed the carnage around her. I noticed a distinct lack of both Jerry and my rifle. Needless to say I was more than a little worried.

And that was just me. The Tutsi girl next to me was so surprised at the sight of Rainbow; I could have sworn I heard something snap. Dash looked up at me with teary eyes.

“D-Dash, what are you doing here? I told you not to come; I did not want you to see this.”

She sniffed rather loudly and then began to speak. “I-I s-shot Jerry… I was messing with the gun and I-I shot him…I tried to fix it but then he started to bleed even more and shouted at me to get you.”

“Dammit, come on we’ve got to get to him before he bleeds out.”

Grabbing both Dash and the Tutsi girl, I ran as fast as I could over to where Jerry was dying. It took a good five minutes to get there, and when I got there, it was not pretty.

Jerry had been shot in the gut, a relatively non-lethal wound, but it’s excruciatingly painful and bleeds like a sieve.

Jerry lazily looked at me “Hey Messiah…I got shot by the blue bitch.” He glared at Dash who was looking to the ground in shame. Evidently neither of them was happy about what had occurred.

I grabbed my small med kit and pulled out some gauze, it would help control the bleeding. I then fished for some bandages and wrapped the last of them around his wounded torso.

“There, now no one can get hurt, we’re pretty much out of medical supplies. I couldn’t even clean Jerry’s wound…sorry about that.”

“Whatever, not like I never been shot before.”

“Doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been shot, still hurts like a bitch.” I don’t usually swear, but I felt that being colloquial with Jerry might make him feel a little better.

I looked at my small party. There was a wounded South African mercenary, a Tutsi rape victim and a traumatized, innocent blue pony. Rwanda certainly was not what I had expected it to be. Not by a long shot.

“Jerry, you speak Kinya-rwanda?”

“A bit” He grumbled.

I nodded “Okay this is what we’re going to do. Jerry you calm the girl down and just sit tight here for a bit. You’re stabilized and even if it hurts, you’ll live. Okay?”

He gave me a thumbs up.

“Good. Now Dash, you and I are going to go find a vehicle of some sorts to get Jerry and this girl to Kigali. I’ve got a safe house for you, me and the girl, and we can drag Jerry to the hospital. Okay?”

“A-alright…”

Dash was digging her hoof into the ground, staring at the dirt, almost afraid to look up for fear of what she would see.

I got to one knee and raised her head to mine and looked directly into her eyes.

“Dash listen, you have got to get over this, It’s my fault Jerry got shot. I am the one who gave you a weapon that you had no idea how to operate properly. That said I need you to get your head in the game. We are in a hostile country crawling with soldiers who want a piece of us. If you don’t drag yourself out of this funk, you are putting not only you life, but my life at risk as well. Do you understand?”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Yes.”

“Good, now let’s get moving, it’s going to be daylight soon and I don’t want to be spotted now that I know there is a heavy military presence here.”

I grabbed my weapon, racked the charging handle and started walking away. Rainbow seemed a little hesitant, but with a motion of my hand she picked up the pace and was soon walking next to me.

We walked in silence for about ten minutes before either of us decided to try and strike up a conversation. It was idle talk at best, nothing with any substance.

“So you like flying?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

“I would assume so.”

I was about to try and strike up another ever so insightful conversation when I heard the low rumble of an engine approach. It was dark, and I could see the headlight from a good distance, giving me and dash plenty of time to hide underneath some large ferns that littered the sides of the road.

As the vehicle got closer, I could see that it was a military transportation truck. The back was filled with soldiers, all holding automatic rifles. It was driving towards the village that I had left filled with the bodies of their comrades. It was also driving towards the girl and Jerry.

“Uh oh.”

I couldn’t really go back, they would decimate me. I had a rifle and a handgun with a few magazines. They had nearly twenty soldiers, all with fully loaded rifles. The only reason I was able to take on as many as I did in the village was I had stealth and surprise on my side.

Despite the logical portion of my mind telling me that it was suicide to go after the truck, another part was telling me to chase after it and help defend Jerry and the girl.

Wait a minute; Jerry is an experienced mercenary who has worked in the jungles of Central Africa for a few years. The girl literally lives here and knows the place like the back of her hand.

They’ll be fine, they will have ample time to see and hear the truck before it even gets close to them. By that time, they will have hidden somewhere.

“What’s wrong?” Dash asked, literally minutes after I said uh oh.

“Nothing, I just wasn’t thinking properly. It’ll all be fine.”

“If you say so…”

It was at that moment that gunfire erupted in the distance. The unmistakable clatter of automatic weapons ripped through the silence that had encompassed the night. More rifles joined the chorus of gunfire as they too started to fire their projectiles.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. Jerry was dead, and it was my fault. The girl is dead, and it’s my fault. My team is dead, and it was my fault for trusting that piece of shit General Mubutu.

“What’s going on, I thought everyone in the village was dead?” Dash asked curiously.

“They aren’t shooting at the village. They’re shooting at Jerry and the girl.” I stated somberly.

Dash jumped up at this, “Well let’s go help them! Come on, let’s kick their flanks!”

I admired her attitude, I really did. But being a glory hound and a hot head got people killed in a place like this. Time to squash this.

I ripped Dash to the ground, “Listen, there were at least twenty men in that truck, all with automatic weapons. I have one rifle and one pistol. In other words, unless you’ve been hiding a minigun, we are going to die if we try to fight them. Do you want to die? I sure as hell don’t! Jerry and the girl are dead. There is no going back for them. We just move on, it’s the only way we’re going to get out of this.”

“Buck that! You saved that girl, and you took responsibility for Jerry!”

“It doesn’t matter, they are dead. There’s no point in going back.”

“Don’t you have any loyalty?”

“Yes, to the living.”

“But what if they are alive?”

“Twenty men against a girl and a wounded man, they are dead.”

“How can you be so emotionless, don’t you care about peoples lives?”

I snapped.

“Yes I do, and that is why I am not going to throw my life away over some dead bodies. Emotions get you killed in a conflict zone. You do your job, you do it well and you don’t let your fucking emotions control you! This is a war! People die! This is not your little happy equestrian anymore!”

Tears were starting to form in Dash’s eyes. Sure I was being rough, but it was time to let her hear it.

“And how dare you tell me I don’t care about peoples lives! Do you know what I do? I risk my life to save people who I don’t even know! I kill people to save innocent ones! I have devoted my entire fucking life to the keeping people as safe as can be! Am I a little jaded, yeah I am, you would too if you’re best friends were all killed in front of your eyes and you’ve killed as many people as I have. This is earth and you better smarten the fuck up or you’re going to end up like Jerry.”

I was breathing heavily; I hadn’t realized how loud I had been shouting. Was I being harsh? Yes. Did it feel good to vent? Yes. Did I feel like crap for taking it out on something that didn’t understand how this world worked? Yes.

Dash was crying now, clearly she had not been prepared for my outburst, and I don’t blame her. I wasn’t really ready for it either.

“Come on, let’s go.”

She sniffed a little and then started to nod.

We started walking in silence again. It was not awkward; there was just no point in talking. I had pretty much vented al I wanted to say, and Dash was probably feeling bad after I tore into her like that.

I thought about apologizing, but I shot that idea down almost as soon as it popped up. I was not sorry; I said what needed to be said. So what if it hurt her feelings? Her friends aren’t dead, and her attitude was going be a problem so I figured I would fix it right now.

The sky had turned from black to a very dark blue; the sun was going to start coming up, and soon the whole country side would be bathed in the warm glow of the sun. I checked my watch, it was 4:00 AM, and we had about an hour or two before we would have to find some cover to hide.

We walked for about and hour without a single word between us. The sun was starting to come up so I had to speak up.

“Come on, the sun is coming up, we’ve got to find some shelter to hide in.”

“Okay…”

I looked around; the jungle was too far west to make it before the sun came up in full force. In the distance, about a mile away I spotted a shack that looked deserted. There were no others around it so I figured it had been abandoned. Perfect.

“We’re going to go to that shed over there,” I pointed at the shed. “Lets hoof it; we want to get there before the sun comes up.”

Dash just nodded.

I jogged towards the shed and Dash flew a few inches above the ground and flew at my pace. I started to sweat profusely; the sun had not come out but it was still insanely hot. That’s Africa for you.

We reached the shed after about fifteen minutes of jogging/flying.

I walked up to the door with my rifle raised. I motioned for Dash to stand behind me. I kicked in the door and rushed in, ready to kill anything inside.

It seemed something had beaten me to that. There were three bodies inside, a man, a woman and a boy. They stank and the smell was overpowering.  I had to step out to take a breath of fresh air.

“What’s wrong?” Dash had yet to enter the shed.

“Don’t go in there, I have to clean some stuff first. Go hang out on a cloud for fifteen minutes or something.”

“Okay.” She flew up and lied down on a nearby on a cloud.

While I wanted her to realize the reality of the situation, even the most hardened warrior would have qualms about sleeping in a shed filled with dead bodies. If there had been a single other hiding place, I would have taken it over the filthy, foul smelling shed.

I looked up and saw that Dash was out of sight, she wouldn’t be able to see what I was going to do. I took the bodies and hid them under some rotten hay that lay nearby the shed. With the bodies out of the way, I entered the shed and was once again greeted with the scent of death. Bullet casings littered the ground and I kicked them into the corner of the shed.

There were still some blood stains on the ground and there was nothing I could do about that. At least it was dried, and wouldn’t stain my clothes or Dash’s coat.

I returned outside and called for Dash to come down. She came down rather lazily and I ushered her into the foul smelling shed. She held her hoof to there nose, but made no comment as to the source of the stench.

With Dash inside the shed, I entered and closed the door behind me. I sat in one corner and she sat in another.

“Get some sleep; we’re going to be moving by night now. We can’t risk being out in the open anymore.”

“Alright.”

I closed my eyes and felt sleep creep up on me. As I was on the precipice of slumber I heard Dash speak up.

“I’m sorry about your friends.”

I  exhaled loudly. “Don’t worry about it.”

“And thanks for taking the bodies out of the shed.”

I searched for a response, something, anything to say.

Sadly nothing came to mind, and I just fell asleep.