Memories
I sit here, on the train, trying to count the trees as they zoom by almost as fast as the
planes constantly going over head. 67, that’s how many trees I count. What comes after? My thoughts get interrupted as the screeching sound of the brakes startle me.
“What is that?” asks the soldier behind me as he looks out the window at what seems like black clouds covering the already grey sky.
The word bomb comes to my head, confused, I don’t say anything. I don’t know where I got it from, I don’t know what it means. As the train slows down the heads in front of me start moving towards the windows looking outside.
“Something’s in the way,” says the old man sitting next to me.
“What is it?” I asked stupidly since neither of us has access to a window.
“This is where we get off!” yells a soldier from the front of the train.
I follow the old man as we get up from our seats and get our bags from underneath the seats. The old man struggles to strap his bag on his shoulders; I wonder how he manages to shoot his rifle with his shaking hands. I want to offer help but rules are rules, everyone for themselves. We get off the train and I can finally see the forest of trees fallen over blocking the tracks.
“Enemies cut the trees down, they know we’re coming.” whispers the old man, only so I can hear.
“How are we going to move them?” I ask.
“We won’t.” he says, “We’re walking from here.”
I wonder how he knows all this, the only one with this much information is Sergeant but he only gives orders to the receiver through the hologram. The receiver from the front confirms that we’re walking from here.
We follow each other through the woods in two lines, walking over the fallen trees still smoking from the morning fires that spread all the way here from the horizon. We can hear the sounds of the cannons from miles away, getting closer and closer as we trail through the forest. The scene was that of a bad storm; The dark smoke resembling dark clouds, the flashes of light as the planes flew blindly into the clouds, and the loud thunder coming from cannons. The flashes get brighter, the thunder gets louder. We’re entering the thick clouds of smoke covering the forest like a blanket.
“Halt” yells the front of the line, we all pause, waiting, listening to the sound of the thunder. The ground shakes as a blast goes off to the left, we hear screams, screams no man should hear, screams no man should make; pure agony.
“Cover!” We all drop as a drone flies above, barely missing my head. I drop to the ground as my helmet rolls towards the old man beside me, the soldier behind me shoots the drone causing it to explode as it hits the ground behind us. A blast of heat hits us followed by another blast of light to the right as a plane flies overhead, dropping rocks that blow upon impact with the ground, blowing debris and soldiers everywhere. Bombs, that’s what they are, not rocks. I don’t know how I remember, but I just know that’s what they are.
“Follow me kid!” Yells the old man, handing me my helmet.
I follow him as we make way through the thick clouds of smoke, choking with every breath we take, my chest burns with every gasp.
“I can’t see!” I yell to the old man as I nearly fall over one of the soldiers laying lifeless on the ground. Such a familiar face yet I can’t remember who he is.
“Goggles!” I can hear the old man say, “Put your goggles on!”
Until this moment I had no idea what the goggles in my bag were for, I slip them on and can see red from the heat and a silhouette of the old man as the goggles detect his heat. I can finally see. We run for what seems like a hundred yards before we stop inside one of the craters left behind by one of the planes that crashed there. We sit there patiently waiting for an enemy to come between our crosshairs, while ducking after every explosion we hear. Things begin to settle down, no more deafening explosions going off nearby, for now. The only noise is the steady beat of gunshots matching the fast staccato beat of the drum in my chest.
“Follow me” whispers the old man as he crawls over the mound covering us.
I follow, scared of what lies on the other side. Crawling over the dirt slowly, making sure no enemy can detect us. As we get over the mound, we crawl towards bushes hiding behind the tall pines. We sit there for a good minute or two before we hear someone running on the other side of the bushes. The old man quickly stands, takes aim and shoots but his bullets go through the hologram as it disappears followed by the sound of bullets hitting the pine’s next to the old man. It was a trap, they knew where we were now. The old man drops to the ground shooting; as he hits the ground I quickly pull him towards me, seeing the ground get shot up where he was just laying.
“They’re in the trees!” he yells just as a bomb gets thrown 3 feet away from us. He quickly stretches his arm towards it grabbing it and throws it back, the bomb blows mid air blasting us with a blinding flash, leaving my ears deaf and ringing.
Im dead, I think to myself as I sit there clueless to what is happening around me, I can see the trees around me getting pierced with holes by bullets that seem to be coming from everywhere, another blast a couple yards away sends me back to an image in my head, a memory. I see colorful blasts in the dark sky, as the people around me are cheerfully clapping with there mouths open in awe as a red blast goes of in the sky, I can see the people around me looking towards the sky, when a familiar face looks down at me, the old man. He’s younger though, years younger, a lot taller too, I realize the memory is from when I was a child. A blast goes off next to us as I get pulled back into reality, ears still ringing. The old man pulls me close yelling and shaking me, yet I can’t hear him, I check my ears only to find blood on my fingers, I can hear the gunshots coming back, and I began to hear what the old man was saying.
“Run towards the clearing!” he yells pointing towards the opening in the woods, “I’ll cover you!” he yells as he pushes me.
Confused I begin to run, shooting at anything that moves. I can see the open field getting closer and closer, I run for my life as I see bullets flying past me, racing me. I’m afraid to look back, so I wait until I get past the tree line. The old man is nowhere to be found. I look back at the open field seeing familiar faces of soldiers that were on the train with us. I quickly drop behind the covers they had set up, and look back and see the old man running towards us, by now everyone is shooting towards the enemies. Come on! I think in my head as I see the old man running, come on!
He finally makes it past the tree line only a couple yards away from us. I begin to smile as he gets closer, knowing he made it when suddenly a blast hits him from behind, sending a wave through his entire body, he falls to his knees only a couple feet away from us.
“No!” I yell, tears coming from my eyes.
I find myself running towards the old man, towards the enemies to save this old man I had just met on the train, this old man I had known for only an hour. I risk my life for him. I drag him behind the cover and lay him on his back; blood coming out of his mouth. I hold onto his hand tightly, holding him so he doesn’t slip away, staring into his familiar eyes, staring into what seems like my own, the memory comes back, confused, I realize I’m looking into the familiar eyes of my father.
A pat on my shoulder brings me back.
“It’s over,” said the soldier, “we won.”
I look over my shoulder and over the cover, only to see our enemies bodies on the ground, I turn and look back down to the lifeless body of my father.
“Time to go back.” the soldiers says to me.
I look back at my father, and let go of his hand that I had been holding on to so tightly, it hurts to let go.
We trail back through the forest in a single line, stepping over the dead bodies left behind from the god awful war, my thoughts are a mess, how did I not remember my own father I thought. We finally get out of the forest and we can see the train in the same place we left it, only this time the tree’s are out of the way.
We start heading inside, I sit down in the same spot I sat when we first got here only this time I’m alone. The train starts moving, slowly, we start heading towards our next location. The Caregiver starts from the front of train walking back giving us our daily vaccines. I don’t even pay attention, I can’t, all I can think about is my father. I can't help but question what just happened, it hasn't processed in my head yet.
Before I realize the caregiver is asking for my wrist, I flinch as the needle pokes through my skin, an old familiar sting. I sit there in a daze, staring out the window. Planes are zooming above, for a moment I think the train is going the same speed, but the plane zooms by, always winning. I lose the plane as we enter a thick forest and it hides behind all the tree’s, I wonder how many trees there are, I start trying to count them. 67, that’s how many trees I count, what comes after?