Lost Soldier

Bullets whizzed all around me. Within 10 seconds about a quarter of my squad was dead or injured. I trudged forward. There was no way I could turn back. I remember my lieutenants words.

“IF YOU SEE ANY MAN TURN AROUND AND FACE YOU, THEN YOU RAISE YOUR GUN AND YOU SHOOT THEM DEAD!”

Shells started exploding around me. I saw a machine gunner up on the hill, he was the one thing stopping us from getting up on the beaches. I raised my gun and fired.

I had been practising my aim. My squad had built a makeshift shooting range in one of the trenches we overtook. The bullet hit its mark. The roar of a German machine gun died.

I paused for a second and my mind flashed back to that man that I had killed in my first battle. This always happened after I killed someone. The picture I remember especially. I had kept it in my pocket, I couldn't throw it away. It served as a reminder of how much of a monster I was. I saw his proud face and his 2 children's smiling faces. I tried to push it out of my mind but it stayed.

“CHARGE” I heard my lieutenant shout

Hundreds of men rushed up onto the beach. Swarming like ants they took down the few Germans on the beach with ease. I stayed back and picked off a German soldier on the top of a hill. My bullet went right into the desired target and the picture flashed into my mind again.

The whole operation was going as planned. We took control of the beach. My squad and I started to move up the beach towards the more heavily fortified areas. All seemed to be going well. There had been no gunfire for about half a minute.

Then someone got back on the machine gun.

All I heard was a series of bangs as my teammates and friends all dropped dead around me. I tried to duck down, but it was useless. There was nothing to shield myself with but the corpses that had once been my friends.

Then I got hit.

At first I didn't notice it. I was under too much stress to notice. I fired a few shots at a large squad of Germans coming over the hill. I glimpsed down at my chest and saw blood gushing out. I fell down on the beach and everything went black.

I don't know how much time passed by, but some point later I saw someone from my squad hovering over top of me.

“We got a live one here!” He shouted

Immediately I saw men that I recognized as medics hovering over me. They yelled instructions at each other but I was too dazed at this point to make out what they were saying. I saw a man carrying a stretcher over to me. Then I blacked out again.

Again I don't know how much time passed by but I woke up once more. This time though, I wasn't in a hospital like I expected. I was lying on the ground again and I looked up to see several buildings. I heard screaming around me. I felt my body being lifted into the air. Then I blacked out again.

I woke up once more. This time In a hospital. I cringed with pain. My chest felt like it had been sliced open. I looked down at myself. My uniform had been taken off and I was wearing a simple hospital gown. Looking under the gown and at my chest, I saw a large mass of bandages.

I sighed with relief, knowing that I hadn't died. I was safe now. I remembered that soldier hovering over top of me. I was sure that he was in a Canadian uniform, So I cant be a prisoner of war.

I could be discharged, go home to Toronto, and surprise my parents. I can just imagine the look on my mother and father's faces, Seeing me as I walk in the front door of her Toronto home. No more rats, no more fleas, no more fighting, no more guns, no more war. I smiled thinking of this.

I looked at the room around me. Something was not right. It looked like a normal hospital room. But it was much... brighter. It somehow didn't look like real life. Maybe I was given drugs to numb the pain and they were making me hallucinate? Then another possibility entered my mind.

Maybe I actually had died. This certainly didn't look like anything on earth. Was I in heaven? No, of course not. If there was a heaven I was certainly not in it. I had killed more people than I can count in all those years of that damn war; There's no way I could be in heaven after that.

I heard footsteps outside of the room. Immediately I tensed up, my heart rate went through the roof and I looked for my gun.

My shell shock had not worn off, In fact it had gotten worse as the war dragged on. Then I remembered that I was in a hospital. The people here are trying to save me, not kill me. My heart was still beating at a mile a minute but I managed to calm myself down.

The footsteps got closer and closer to the room until finally someone, or should I say something stepped into the room.

I rubbed my eyes. Standing in front of me was a bright green horse, or  pony. It was much smaller than most horses. And it was... very, very strange looking, to say the least. It was perfectly green, from head to toe. The only other mark on it was what looked like a picture of some sort of monitor on it's flank.

“Hey! Its awake!” I heard him yell at someone outside the door

Talking horses? The drugs I got must really be messing with my mind.

I must of looked extremely confused and frightened because the next thing I know the horse is standing next to me.

“Its OK, were gonna get you fixed up, You'll be alright” he said soothingly

I was still extremely confused. Best to ask simple things first.

“Where.... Where am I?” I asked

A look of shock appeared on the horse's face

“You can talk?” he said, astonished

“Yes of course” I said

He was silent for a few seconds

“Who are you? What are you?” He asked

“My name is John Davis, I am a Canadian soldier. Who are you and where am I?”

“I am Doctor Stable, You are in Ponyville hospital”

Ponyville?? Right now I am thinking that one of 3 things could be going on. 1. Drugs are making me hallucinate. 2. I am dreaming. 3. I have died.

I prayed that the answer was either 1 or 2.