The Healer, The Thief, and the Painter. Act 1 The Healer

The smell of burning flesh filled my nose and smoke obscured my vision, I was lying on the ground with rocks digging into my ribs and face. “Where am I?” I croaked as I stood up and looked around the sun glared bright and high in the sky and forced me to look down at my feet. I then realized that I was wearing old combat boots and dusty desert fatigues with a red cross emblazed on my right shoulder. “What the?!” I cried exasperated pain and horror rising in my chest like a balloon. Yet I knew this was my old life again, the one that I wanted to leave behind forever. I turned around and saw a horrifying sight. A torched battlefield lay before me, dotted with fires and wreckages of vehicles and army buildings. Craters were everywhere. Then there were the corpses. Hundreds of them lay in the wreckages with carrion birds and maggots already eating at their decomposing flesh. They all had on different styles and makes of desert camo. As I looked on horrified, I saw a lone figure hobbling towards me. He was a head shorter than I was and was wearing the same uniform minus the red cross.

His leg was in a splint and he was hobbling along as best as he could on his crutches. I ran out to contact him, my brown hair blowing in the breeze. As I neared the lone soldier I recognized him.“Alex!” I called out. The soldier looked up and indeed it was him, I could see his cinnamon hair poking out from beneath his helmet. As I ran closer to him, I could see the terror in his wide green eyes. As I came to his side I placed a reassuringly hand on his shoulder.“Soldier,” I said“where is the rest of your squad?”

“They're dead sir,” replied Alex with tears forming in his eyes, “the enemy came in with something different than we have ever seen and destroyed the entire base; I only survived because I was in the underground medic cabin.” “My doctors went to investigate the first hit and were killed by a second barrage. After the rumbling stopped, I picked up a pair of crutches and headed out here, where I saw you.”

“It is good to see you soldier.” I said as I gave my old friend a tight hug. As I released Alex, I heard a slight rumbling sound emanating over the sand dune to our left. I picked up an automatic rifle from a nearby corpse and aimed it towards the sands as the minutes stretched on I ordered Alex to get behind me. He leaned against one of his crutches and pulled a Desert Eagle out of its holster and aimed it where I was aiming my automatic rifle. Silent seconds passed and the engine rumbling grew louder. Then eight ATVs roared over the sand dune and circled us, coughing up sand and grit reducing our vision to nearly zero. The engines stopped and the sand slowly settled back down again. We observed our guests with horror. There was one man to each ATV and there was an AK-47 strapped to their back and .45 caliber pistols strapped to their legs in holsters. They yelled angrily in Arabic and jumped off of their vehicles and strode towards us with their rifles withdrawn.

“Sir,” Alex said with fear in his voice, “sir, what do you suggest we do?”

I looked down at his Desert Eagle, which was shaking violently. “Drop you weapon.” “What?” he said questiongley. “Drop it” I said slowly as the enemy raised sights on us. As he did we both raised our hands up in surrender. 5 minutes later Jenkins and I were blindfolded and tied by our wrists and ankles, each riding on the back of one of the ATVs with the sun burning the skin on our neck slowly but surely. After what seemed like forever, we were hoisted off of the vehicles and thrown onto the scorching sand. “Well, well, well.” Said a very unfamiliar voice, “What do we have here? Intruders?” My blindfold was ripped off and I was left staring into a face that I would most apply to that of a wolf. Piercing stormy grey eyes stared back at me. The man was very thin and very tall, wearing an expensive black suit with red fringe and golden buttons. These buttons were undone just enough to spot a red undershirt peeking through the suit. His short scraggly black hair was combed over fancily. His mouth was curled up into a barely sneer that struck an pick of ice into my very soul.  “Well we should welcome our guests boys”, said the mystery man “bring them into the facility; I want to know exactly what they know.” He reached down and re-applied my blindfold and barked a command in Italian.

Strong hands picked me up by the waist and slung me over their backs like a sack of grain. And based by the whimpering to my left they also had Jenkins. We started moving and as our captors walked an unexpected rifle but slammed into the base of my skull and rendering me oblivious to the world.