Art of Reality

"Enemy fire, enemy fire! Grab your gear and defend the base!" Someone ran out shoting. I grabbed everything needed for combat and started to run for cover. I paused briefly to think about the sketchpad with the drawing I was so happy about.

"No time," I told myself with disappointment.

The sound of gun fire filled the air. I could smell the gunpowder as the people covering me returned fire. I found a wooden crate next to a field tent and ducked behind it.

No time to be running... I threw on my equipment as quick as I could and took out a magazine. The click as I turned off the safety to my rifle made me realize something. This is what I had been trained for. Knowing it was best to stay out of sight, I kept to the shadows as much as I could.

I turned the corner and saw the only friend I had in my unit.

"Josh, get over here." I called to him. Friends come first I told myself. He snuck over to me, also remember to stay low. "Good, he knows." I said with relief.

"There you are," he said. "I was looking for you."

"Look man, you need to get to the bunker. It'll be safer there." I told him.

"What do you mean you? You mean we." he said.

"Knowing I won't get him to go without me, I quickly corrected myself "Yeah, I meant we".

Together we started off towards the bunker. When we got to it, we saw nothing but a bunch of flames.

"No..." I gasped. "Josh, we have to go. We need to find a vehicle."

"We can't leave everyone," he scolded.

"We're not, you are." I said

"But..." he started to argue.

"Now is not the time for this!" I shouted.

He nodded, knowing why I was doing it. I always put others before myself.

We got lucky. We found a jeep with more than enough fuel to make it to the next base. I practically threw him in the jeep.

"Look, you have to get to the next base. I doubt anyone saw this attack coming. Tell them the forward base has been lost. I'll meet up with you soon."

He wanted to argue, but couldn't. I wasn't talking to him as a friend as this point. I was talking to him as a soldier. I outranked him and that's all that mattered. The look in his face made me cringe on the inside. It was for his own good, or at least that's what I made myself think.

"If you can't find it, use the GPS." I told him. I gave him a pat on the back. "Don't worry about me."

"Roger." he said.

I turned and ran off, back to the shadows. I had a new mission, find and secure any survivors. Computers were always a secondary job anyways.

""Help!" I heard someone scream briefly before a gunshot. I picked up my pace, remembering to stay well out of view. Continuing in my current direction, I came to the middle of our base. An open area with a flag posted up in the middle. At the base of the flag, a bunch of chairs had been set up with prisoners tied to them. I knew some of them.

I counted no more than a dozen soldiers sitting there. Some with their head limp against their chest. Blood stained the ground beneath some. Other held their head high, ready for the fate. Defiance in their eyes.

I played out multiple scenarios in my head. It did not look good. There were three gunmen and one of me. I had the element of suprise, but I figure I might get two of them before bullets came back at me. I couldn't let this go on though.

I took aim, ready to pull the trigger at the right moment. Two shots fired off and hit the gunman who was closest to the soldiers. I had never pulled the trigger.

No! I thought to myself, but it was true. I saw him. No two building away, on the roof, sat Josh. "You damned idiot!" I said under my breathe.

No time to rehearse scenarios anymore, my reflexes kicked into overdrive and I struggled to stay focused as my adrenaline started to overcome me. I kept low behind the barrel I was using for cover. The gunmen were running in my direction in an effort to find the person who had shot one of their own.

Bullets began flying and Josh was doing his best to get off the roof. Sure enough, as I expected, the gunmen ran right past my barrel. I didn't even have to aim with how close they were. I started pulling the trigger. They were both on the ground in seconds.

I shot someone... I was thinking. I had never been put in a position like this and had never taken someone elses life.

It didn't matter though. It was done. Reliefe flooded me as Jos emerged from the nearby alleyway. It was wuickly replaced with fear as he fell to the ground not ten feet away from me.

I ran to him and began checking for injuries. It was not good. He had two holes in his lungs and at least three fractured ribs. Blood was seeping into the dirt around him.

"We...saved them..." he coughed. Red bubbles accompanied his words.

"Josh, I told you to go. Why did you stay?" I shouted at him. "Why didn't you listen?"

"Because you think...you have to....do everything...by yourself..." he pasued to gasp for air "Bur friends....don't leave...friends behind..."

"This is different damn it!" I exclaimed as I punched him directly in the jaw.

He tried to laugh, but all that came was more blood. "We'll always be...friends...Joe never...left...neither will...I...I prom..." his words cut short as he expended his final breath.

I wondered what he meant about Joe never leaving. Was he getting the same e-mails? Did he really believe Joe was still with us somehow? I didn't have time to solve it.

I ran to towards the prisoners, fighting the tears to stay where they belonged. If I had been able to see their eyes, I'd have known there was now fear there instead of defiance. My vision was blurred by the tears I was fighting so hard. If they hadn't been gagged, they'd have been able to tell me what they feared.

It was too late. Five feet away from them I felt a small tug at my ankle, then I was surrounded in white light and an intense heat.

That was the final memory of my past life...

///Koavu DaBrony\\