My hands shook aflutter as I sat there, staring at the food I had previously eaten. The dry sands soaking up the warm liquid as if the land was thirsty. A strangle smell floated through the air, and the stench crawled its way through my nostrils. The vile smell making me recoil back, as I tried to shake it out of me. Snapping forward as I gazed onto the blazing fire, and slowly I crawled back into reality. My hands fell into the sand as I tried to stand, and couldn't just yet. Taking a deep breath, forcing myself to stand. Looking on, at the vehicle I had just been in illuminated the dark night. I stumbled forward towards it. I don't know what guided me forward, or what brought my hands into the flame trying to pull them out. They were ,but silhouettes in the red, and orange. With all my strength I tried to tug them out, not that I hoped I could save them, but I felt like I had to. I kept pulling, and pulling. Till I was pulled, straight back down to the ground, and away. What was dragging me away, why were they dragging me away? I need to be there, I needed to get them out. My body was flung forward, falling hard into a ditch.
"They're dead Corporal!" A large shadow screamed at me. Who was he? Was he death, why was he telling me they were dead. Was I dead too, and just didn't know it. Was this hell?
As more shadows surrounded me, and water splashed my face. I realized this wasn't hell, this was Iraq. I looked down at my hands they were burnt, and some of the sleeves of my uniform were singed and blackened. Slowly the events that had just occurred were piecing themselves together. People were talking to me, but I was lost. It took me a second to realize that the medic was bandaging my hands.
"Hey! Stay with me, man. You gotta snap back into reality." the medic said as he slapped the top of my helmet. Bright lights started flying over the top of us, they were beautiful. Then I remembered what they were.
"Whe...where is my rifle?" I managed to spit out the sentence, as one of my brethren handed me the cold black weapon. I clinched my teeth in pain, as I gripped it, then put the pain in the back of my head. I had to, I had to forget about the pain. I had to keep moving. With help, I stood up and nodded: "I am... I am okay now."
It was a lie.
Three months later, I stepped off the airplane. Family waiting for me elated with joy for me to be back. They hugged me, and kissed me and sung my praises. It was all bullshit, aside from my Mom none of them wrote me. None of them cared how I was for the past year. They probably never even thought of me. My friends were the same, when I met them at the bar later that night. They all talked about how they missed me, and it wasn't the same without me. It was a lie, all of it was a lie. They all told me how sorry they were about Annie, and how it was wrong that she left me. I didn't even know about it till then. To think I had kept her picture with me always to keep me safe, and keep me happy. While she was naked in some other guys bed. That fuckin' whore.
After I left the bar, and a friend dropped me off. I sat in my room, a place I hadn't been in what seemed an eternity. This place hadn't skipped a beat with me gone, in another world. I wonder if it was the same for the guys I left behind in the humvee. Jimmy's family, and friends they cared. They always wrote to him, they always talked to him, his wife must of sent him a million letters. We would always give him a hard time for it. I left him behind in the humvee, just like Carterson, Matthews, and Eric. I am sure their families, and friends missed them. Why was I the one that sat in the rear passenger seat, the one that was flung out of the humvee when the IED went off. I was spared, and they all died in the fire.
There was a loud popping sound, and my Mother rushed in. She was crying, I knew she would be, and I felt bad for her, but I knew no one else would care....
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Hm, I just kind of started writing that right on the spot. I kind of started with a basic idea, and it just kind of mutated into something completely different. I kind of like it. I actually wrote a totally different story, and then erased everything up to the "I am okay now" part, and just kind of did something else from there.