Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I Will Swallow Your Soul

I found myself in the desert. Wearing my fatigues. Training to defuse a bomb. My heart was pounding with such a force that I felt it vibrating in my head. My hands were more than slightly shaking. I reached out for the Sprite can - the explosive at hand. Gently, deliberately I turned the mouth of the can north knowing it would work. It had to. People would be hurt if I did not accomplish what I had been trained for months to do.

I remember relief.

And then sprinting. Hard. I had never run as hard in my life as I was in that instant. We were being overrun. But by whom? My legs were in the beginnings of fatigue. I recalled they were yelling at us. A foreign tongue. I could not; did not want to understand. What happened? What was going on?

Later, at the sound of their voices, I snuck down some stairs. I heard their commander giving orders, I pointed my weapon the green laser grazing his body. Their red pointing back. I yelled into my partners radio, "bring the rain!" Realizing how out numbered we were, we started to ascend back up the stairs. Only bringing commotion.

"Hide" was my only thought. My only way of surviving.

Behind the concrete stairway I was thinking this not enough to conceal me even masqueraded in camouflage. I could hear my heart again. I felt the blood falling from my face. Where was their night vision? Then came the screams. They were unbelievable and unreal. Their shrieking sounded "dead". Deafening. Each one pierced my soul deeper than the last. Crouched where I was I took a peek at what was to come.

Suddenly, one of the foreigners jumped over the counter. My scream matched the others.

Commandos jumped into their holes. All others were not forgiven nor spared. Those who had no hole had nothing left. Nothing. I dared not breathe. Terrified to be found until they left. I could not determine where to dig my hole. And, as God as my witness, I searched for that place to shovel. I had nowhere.

I became fearful. The hairs on the back of my neck felt it. The other commandos emerged from their holes, picked me up and told me to run. Run like hell and do not stop. I stayed in the crowd hoping to be safer in numbers. My eyes had told me differently. . . . .

******************************

. . . . I awoke with a jump. My heart pulsing just as fast as in my dream. With a shortness of breath I realized I just had a dream of battle. Are you kidding me? Me? Battle?

Do you think I may be watching the husband play his XBox 360 war games a little too much lately?

14 comments:

ETK said...

Whoa. that's some heavy shit. Maybe you should read a happy book or something? :) no?

Jen said...

etk: you're NOT kidding. It scared the crapola out of me. And, why oh sweet Jeebus, why would I dream such a dream? I'm not Rambo.

I need help.

m said...

As my dad always said: "Video games will rot your brain!"

He also said stuff like "eat your brussels sprouts", though, so maybe he doesn't know that much.

Jay said...

You must really be getting into those video games!

Rock Chef said...

Sounds like a great one!

Are you on anything special at the moment? If so, I want some :-)

Jen said...

Mindy: but I loves the brussel sprouts. . .

. . . maybe my brain is rotting?

Jay: something is wrong with me. Who dreams like that?

Chief Rock Chef: I knew if anyone appreciated this, you would! One would tend to think I've got something special in my pocket, eh? But I can't blame it on that - just a very wild imagination that I've grown up with.

Ian said...

Yay for video games! Call of Duty 4 or something else? I'm on a video game buying hiatus until I finish GTA IV, which, for some reason, I haven't had a lot of time to do recently.

Jen said...

Ian: you are my other reader who would appreciate the seriousness of playing video games!

I can't believe that Alasdair would keep you from playing . . .

Alex said...

Or maybe you're drinking too much Sprite... or writing adverts for them!?

Jen said...

Alex: Right? Right! Wrong! Why Sprite is an excellent question seeing as I don't drink much of any soda. But it was Sprite - I vividly remember that and having to turn the mouth of the can north! Weird.

P.S. I want royalties.

Tink said...

There's this theory that in the future, marketers are going to beam commercials into our dreams...

Maybe you were a test subject. ;)

Jen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jen said...

Tink: I totally hate that my shower sees me nekked. . . .and then tells the rest of the house about it.

tt said...

Step away from the xbox!!!! Lordie...MY heart started racing when I was reading this. Good gravy girl! I was thinking " is she in the reserves or something???Is she sharing a part of her past as a terrorist with us...???WTF?
Phewwww......slow down heart...The sprite can tried to throw me off....but I'm such a sucker.