Breathtaking

When I came to, I was in a sterile hospital room. An EKG monitor beeped steadily next to my bed. The first thought that crossed my mind was "I'm alive?" What happened to Fox? Dublin? Obviously someone got out alright; how else would I get moved to a damn hospital? I reached up to touch the place on my neck where I took the shot and felt a large scar on both sides. How was this already healed?

I scanned the room around me, trying to get my bearings and found nothing out of the ordinary. I had the window on my right letting in what I would guess would be a pleasant afternoon sun. The windows were open. I must be somewhere further south; it was cold as shit in Afghanistan during the winter months. I kept turning, a purple unicorn sat in the visitor's chair across from me reading a book, to my left was the privacy curtai- WHAT THE FUCK? A PURPLE UNICORN READING A BOOK!?

I quickly made a double take as the unicorn looked up from its reading and made a similar movement, as if expecting me to still be asleep. It started to smile when my vision was immediately replaced by pink. A pair of powder blue eyes stared back into mine as the pink mass gasped and practically yelled into my face.

"OHMYGOSHYOUREFINALLYAWAKEWETHOUGHTYOUWOULDBEHEREFOREVERLYINGINTHISBEDANDHURTANDNOTOK!FLUTTERSHYSHOULDBEHERETOHELPYOUSHESREALLYGOODWITHANIMALS!OHBUTYOUDONTEVENKNOWFLUTTERSHYDOYOU?!ORMEFORTHATMATTER!IMPINKIEPIEANDTHATSTWILIGHT!YOUREINGOODHANDSBIGGUY! JUSTHANGINTH-"

I groaned and pushed the pink creature away from me. Struggling against the plethora of wires and tubes surrounding me, I tried to get up and leave. That's when I started noticing the- OH MY FUCKING GOD THE PAIN. Remembering what happened was hard enough, remembering how to walk properly with several obviously broken ribs and an additional break below my knee in a cast while in some intense amounts of pain is worse. They must have beaten me worse than I thought. The formerly sitting purple unicorn was now up and yelling in a distinctly female voice. Yelling? She (just a guess) can talk?

"WHERE IS THE VETERINARIAN? THE CREATURE IS UP! SOMEONE HURRY!"

All of the sudden her horn started to glow bright purple and I couldn't move. She was restraining me! What the hell!
She looked up with a pitying expression. Could unicorn's feel pity? All of the sudden the orderlies trotted in (Yes, trotted in. Because they had hooves and were probably... yep, I'm gonna guess horses) to help restrain me. The doctor.. veterinarian... whatever came in with a syringe in her mouth. She stuck it into my right leg, straight through the patient garb they had me in. Where the hell were my clothes?! MY GEAR! MY GUNS! WHAT IN THE FUCK!? The vet opened her mouth and started talking.

"Its ok big guy! Shhhh, you've got lots of broken bones and you need your rest!" She turned to the orderlies and said "Restraints. We can't have it escaping before its completely healed and cataloged. Whatever it is."

Well, whatever they had in that syringe was fucking amazing. It didn't take long before I had a silly grin on my face and was letting the orderlies tie me down to the bed, no sweat guys I'll be good for ya. Just lay back and relax, hell yeah I can do that. The purple unicorn and her pink friend stood over the side of my bed watching my eyelids start to droop. It took all of my effort to look into the purple one's eyes and point with my finger.

"Hehe... Horsey."

They gasped as my eyelids closed again.

I woke up a few hours later. It was dark. Night. My friend. I peeked over at the corner where the unicorn was sitting before and saw nothing. Opening my eyes, I looked around the room, checking to make sure there was no one around to question me. There wasn't. Night time in the hospital was dead. I heard snoring coming from nearby. Probably from a few beds down. I tried lifting my arms, but there was no possible way to move; the restraints were still on and still snug.

I needed out.

Now.

Looking around at the room, I tried my best to find something. Anything that would be instrumental in my escape. The bedside table was to my left between the privacy curtain and myself. I guess the doctors were polite enough to pull the curtain so the other patient didn't have to look at the 'creature.'

Yeah.

The creature.

Me.

I turned to look at the table next to my bed and saw nothing. Nothing except for a picture in a frame with a glass pane in front of it. Glass. Now we're talkin'. I leaned as far over as I could without help from my hands. I inched closer and closer to the picture frame, until I felt a stabbing feeling in my chest. The broken ribs. A sharp gasp escaped my mouth and I fell back into the bed. No. You've been through worse, John. Remember SERE. Remember when you actually gave the Army PERMISSION to break bones. I gathered myself and leaned again. The stabbing feeling intensified, but I kept leaning. Moving closer. I finally was able to grab the picture frame with my teeth and lay it over.

Thank God these beds were narrow and I was flexible. Most other folks probably couldn't do this in a normal bed, broken ribs or not. Giving myself a couple of seconds, but not daring to relax lest I give up on fighting the pain, I listened to the other guy in the room. His soft snores still coming from the other side of the curtain. Good. Gathering what strength I could muster, I smashed my forehead against the glass pane, doing.... exactly nothing. I hit it again and again, coaxing a snort and a rustle from a couple of beds over. I froze. I can't wake it up or else I'm screwed.

I prepared myself for one last hit. When I heard the snoring again, I swung my head as hard as I could. Crack! The glass broke. Excitedly, I chose the largest shard, carefully lifting with my tongue and manipulating it with my lips. I could feel it cutting into the sides of my mouth, but it didn't bother me. I was so close. Turning and relaxing in bed, the shard of glass still in my mouth, I carefully spit it out onto my lap. Some blood went with it. No mind, just concentrate. Turning my hips to the left, the large shard of bloody glass slid off my lap and into my open hand. YES! Immediately I began sawing on the cloth restraints. It wasn't perfect and it was slow work, but it still severed fibers. Each one was a step toward freedom.

Fifteen minutes passed. I was still sawing.

Twenty minutes. Tenacity at work.

Twenty-five minutes. 'Constant dripping hollows out a stone.'

I was almost completely through the restraints when a light came on in the hallway and I could hear hoofsteps. The hoofsteps got gradually closer and closer. Clop Clop Clop. The overhead light just came on. They were in the room. Panicking, I hid the glass under my ass and pretended to be asleep. Oh shit.. the blood. Throwing myself forward, I grabbed the blankets with my teeth, ignoring the pain, and pulled hard. when they were up far enough, I leaned back forward, effectively turning down the sheets and covering the bloody patch. I laid my head back down quickly.

The hoofsteps got louder and closer until they arrived next to my bed. I heard a shuffling next to the EKG and ventured a quick peek. Another one was in here. Not a unicorn, just a horse. I was sure they were horses, now. White with a pink mane and tail. This one also had a red cross tattooed on her hindquarters. She must have been the resident nurse here at the hospital. She continued to check the monitors and look busy. I closed my eyes again and started a soft, fake snore. It sounded like she jumped a little. I could feel her eyes on me. Just watching. After a moment, she chuckled and spoke a little to herself.

"Such a strange creature... Hands like a griffon or a dragon. No fur except his face. A short mane. You're a strange one, you are. Can't wait to find out all about you."

Yeah, I'll bet you can't lady. I'll bet as soon as I'm all better I'll be transferred to some random prison. Never heard of Carcel Modelo in Panama? Yeah. 'Model Prison' my ass. That place was a fucking hell hole. Kwan-Li-So number 22? We pulled a guy outta that place a few years back. Worse than the stories I heard of Carcel Modelo, and I'll be damned if I find out what horrors they have in place for me here.

She turned to walk out. Satisfied with her equipment checks and procedures, she turned the light out and went back down the hallway, her hoofsteps growing faint with each passing second. After listening for a minute or two to make sure she didn't come back to check something else, I retrieved the glass shard from under me and resumed the cutting. Just a few fibers more. Another two minutes of cutting and I would be done. Half an inch of fabric, COME ON. Finally, the restraints gave way and I had my left arm free. Oh, thank Jesus.

I reached over to my right hand, grabbed that restraint and untied it before removing what was left of the other one on my wrist. Hands free, I leaned forward excitedly, undoing the straps holding me at the ankles. I threw the covers off, swung my legs out of bed and stood up once again.

The pain in my leg wasn't as bad as before when it was relatively non-medicated, but the after effects of the liquid Ms Vet shot into my leg must still be goin'. Detaching tubes and getting used to the pain of walking, I looked around one more time to figure this place- What the fuck was I wearing? Looking down and finally realizing what the hospital gown looked like, I almost gagged. It was a light blue with rhinestones around the hem and some kind of elaborate pattern on the front. The sides were open, presumably for easy access.

It was expertly sewn for a custom job. At least I'm assuming it was a custom job. Like the nurse said, there ain't never been one of me here before. I flung it off in disgust and headed towards the closet. Inside, hanging up, were my jeans and on the floor were my socks tucked neatly into my cowboy boots. What in the hell? What happened to my khakis? What happened to my shirt? My gear? Where the fuck was it all? Why was THIS shit here? I hastily pulled on the jeans and socks. No underwear. Just as well, it probably would have smelled like shit. I took great care to shift.. ehem.. myself... to the side so as not to rub against the zipper on my fly and turned to sit down. I pulled the socks on, but left the boots off; no sense in announcing my presence to everyone with the usual clunk-tap. I gave one last look around my area and took off in a crouching run.

As I came up to the door, I noticed the hall light was off again. Excellent. Like a cat stalking through a barn, I was stalking through this hospital. I passed doors leading off to other rooms on either side of the long hall and I looked for an exit. As I neared the end of the hall, the lights popped back on. FUCK! I started with a half sprint- half limp, ignoring the increasing burn in my leg and the pain in my chest from the exertion of my lungs.

"WHAT THE BUCK!? SECURITY! SECURITY, ITS ESCAPING!!!"

Casting a glance over my shoulder, I spotted the good nurse flanked by two rough lookin' horses with badges galloping hard for me. Dammit, I can't outrun them. Not unless I can get to a place where agility means more than speed and stamina. I hooked a hard right at the end of the hallway and found myself in an identical hallway. I could start to hear shouts of patients in other rooms, calling to find out just what in the hell was going on. I had to decide. Right or left? Oh, now wasn't the time for guesswork, but it damn sure wasn't the time to sit and think either. The sunlight was coming in on my right earlier.. I just turned right.. Damn myself for not looking out the window when I had a chance.

Hoping against hope there wasn't some kind of courtyard in the middle, I turned hard right into another room before the trio of pursuers could catch sight of me. Sprinting through the length of it, provoking angry shouts and gasps of fear from the occupants, I made a wild dive through the window. Oh, sweet Jesus, please don't be on an upper floor. All goes back to looking out the fucking window when I had the chance. Dammit, John, don't tell me you're already dull again.

I landed softly on the grass outside with a slight thud and an 'oomph.' OH, THANK YOU. I kissed the ground several times and struggled to my feet, looking around the area with purpose. My leg gave another painful twinge. There, the woods. Freedom! As quickly as I could, I made for the treeline. Alarms triggered in the hospital as other staff members were alerted to my escape and joined in the search for the hairless wonder. I made it into the treeline, thankful for the extra cover and concealment.

I continued my run, further into the forest wanting to at least make it a couple hundred yards in before I stopped to make some camouflage and bed down for the rest of the night. Finally, I couldn't take it any more. The pain I felt in my side was too much to bear and I let myself fall into the grass and leaf litter, panting and cringing from exertion. After a few minutes, I struggled upright to look around. Finding a stick, I stuck it into the ground, a jutting branch pointing in the direction I entered the forest. Hopefully. I did an awful lot of running, but I was relatively sure it was in a semi- straight line. I finally pulled on my boots as I thought about what to do next.

First order of business: defense. I didn't want to be without a weapon if a wolf or something happened along and found me all tasty lookin' and shit. Looking up into the tree I was under, I found the perfect candidate. A slender limb, about 7 feet long and already falling off the tree was calling my name. I took a flying jump upwards and grabbed the end, bringing it all down to my level. Quickly breaking off the extra branches growing on the sides, I hefted the limb. It was good sized, but too long. I leaned it against a tree and delivered a solid kick with my good leg. I could work with 4 feet. Picking up a good, flat rock, I went to work turning the stick into a simple spear. Not much, but it'll have to do.

Next, I needed fire. Just something to keep me warm and cook over, nothing big. I can't give my position away or else it'll be the stockade, so I found some dried twigs and a couple good sized logs. Perfect. Reaching into my jeans pocket, I happily found my zippo (I wonder what the hell that's doing here) and my cigarettes. Eagerly opening the box, I was disappointed to find most of them broken, probably from the escape. Oh well, what are ya gonna do? I selected one that was badly bent, but unbroken and lit it. Oh, sweet nicotine, I fall into your embrace.

Happy as a clam, I was. Lighting the kindling I had gathered and holding my makeshift spear tight, I sat under the tree, watched the fire start and puffed away on my smoke, deciding what to do next. I could worry about food in the morning. That, and I really didn't feel like running down a deer at the moment. I stared into the flames as the sounds of the wild came to my ears. A wind began blowing the foliage above me and crickets began chirping in earnest. I couldn't sleep now, not with a fire lit and burning, but my thoughts took me away from the area anyways. Back to times and places best forgotten.

I hated guard duty with a passion. It was worse when you had to work checkpoints, and there I was, a lowly infantry grunt, so naturally, when there wasn't anything else to do, our platoon got saddled with this. The US Army operated quite a few of these checkpoints on the roads of Afghanistan, mostly to help cut down on the amount of weapons being transported around the country by vehicle. My squad never saw a whole lot though; we were mostly just surviving the heat.

This evening however, we were ordered to set up a little impromptu roadblock along some obscure road "The Brass" thought was being used to transport arms. Whatever. The road we were on was pretty dead that night; no pun intended. I stopped to eat an MRE when I spotted headlights coming down the road. My brow furrowed. Great. The first one of the night and it was interrupting my dinner. Standing up and setting the beef ravioli on the crate behind me, I hollered for attention.

"Hey, y'all. We've got us a visitor."

There were about 20 of us, give or take. Those that weren't already situated climbed up into their designated spots. Philips, a good guy out of my squad started walking forward, chem-light in hand. He was to stand out to the side of the road and swing it on a rope to get the driver's attention and direct him where to pull over. Someone else would flip on a spotlight and let the vehicle know we were there. Simple.

The vehicle got closer. It was a small car, moving at a good clip. I signaled to the man with the spotlight to flip it on and point it at our flag we set up. Hey, Americans here. Stop the fucking vehicle, please? Philips began swinging his chem-light. We could hear the car's engine pick up and increase in pitch. Shit, he was gonna run it. I grabbed our megaphone and started yelling what I could remember in Pashto.

"WADAREGA YAA DEE WULIM!!!! WADAREGA YAA DEE WULIM!!! STOP YOU SILLY SUMBITCH!!!"

The car still increased in speed. I turned to look at our .50 gunner.

"Warning shots."

Seven rounds left the M2, two of which were tracers fired directly over the vehicle. It continued its increase in speed.

"MOTHERFUCKER! STOP IT! TAKE IT OUT!"

As one, the entire group lit up the little car. Sparks flying, glass shattering, and smoke rising from the engine, the car careened off the road, hit a small sand hill and rolled five times before landing upside down a mere twenty-five yards away. Philips was still swinging his chem-light. I put my hand on his shoulder and stopped him. If the look on his face wasn't just fear, it was "I think I shit myself."

I grabbed four other guys to go with me to the car and search it. We started the slow approach; rifles at the ready and both eyes open. As we neared the vehicle, we heard a cough. I ran forward, not understanding why at first. Maybe because it didn't sound like a normal man cough? I leaned my head down and looked at the scene of chaos before me. A mother and father in the front seat. Both riddled with bullet holes from our barrage. In the backseat were three children. Two were dead. Same story as the parents. The little girl in the seat closest to me was still alive, but barely. I reached inside to pull her out and hold her in my lap. Tears streamed down my face as the little girl went slack in my arms. I woke up screaming in a cold sweat.

I wasn't the only one screaming though; a yellow horse with a pink, flowing mane and wings (wings now? Seriously) stood on the other side of the smouldering ashes of my fire, screaming in fear of the creature before her.