Introduction: This is the third chapter of my short story “Message & Warning”. If you haven’t read chapters one & two yet or the ‘introduction’, you can do so here:
I hope and pray that you will read the story and feel the message that is meant for you. Then share the story with others as you feel prompted to do so.
Chapter 3
I opened my eyes to virtual blackness and pain as I have never felt before. Every part of my body hurt and I couldn’t focus my eyes. I also had a hard time focusing my mind on anything around me, as if I was in a haze but conscious…the pain almost overwhelming and difficult to bear would be an understatement.
“He’s awake and breathing!! Give me hand over here!!” A voice some distance from me but near at hand, possibly far way…I didn’t know, I just heard it. Next I felt hands on me, I was being turned on my side, I heard someone say, “Keep him on his side, let it drain out.”
It was then I saw my wife close by, pale gray, and lifeless. I saw too Ann, slightly less pale, eyes open, just as lifeless, her body riddled with bullets. Surprising me, she actually looked as if she was smiling and peaceful; confusing to me. My body screamed with pain, every muscle, every bone, even my blood hurt as it flowed ever so slowly through my body. Then blackness enveloped me again.
It seemed a few seconds later I opened my eyes and it was white all around me except the walls and ceiling which were tan colored. My mind was still a bit hazy but clearing quickly. My body hurt but only slightly, a mere fraction of the pain that I had endured before.
“Glad to see you are back among the living.” That came from an attractive but very unkempt, almost dirty woman…she needed to brush her hair, she had bad breath. I began to recognize she was a paramedic or nurse, there was also blood on her clothing, which in turn was also dirty and wrinkled. “Yeah, this ain’t some beauty pageant mister. But, I can get one of the gorilla medics over here if you would like.” She smiled, tired but mischievous. I liked her attitude immediately.
“You’ll do,” I weakly replied with what I hoped looked like an impish smile.
“Ah, a sense of humor. I like that. Looks as if you’ll live,” was her reply.
“How long have I been here?” I figured a couple hours tops for transport and maybe a couple hours laying in bed.
“Well, they say they treated you in that field of horrors for an hour to bring you back. Then they hid you for three days while treated you just to keep you alive. Then it took them four days to get you here. So that comes to about a week give or take.”
I fell back asleep trying to understand what she had just said…a week? That couldn’t be possible, my mind told me that I was only unconscious for a few hours at most.
Sometime later I awoke in a haze that cleared quickly. It was dark outside and I was famished. The same disheveled nurse came over and shined a light in my eyes, took my blood pressure, and pronounced me ‘alive’ with some amazement in her voice. “Ah, took a little three day nap did we?” as she walked away.
What? Three days? Impossible!
A few minutes later she reappeared with a tray of food that smelled utterly amazing. In front of me it looked a little less than amazing, I recognized the contents of an MRE immediately. As far as I was concerned is was a five-star meal! I heard her snicker as she walked away…something about I was so hungry I could eat a skunk and say thank you for it. She was right.
Two days later, and seven MREs ingested I was up and walking around, a little unsteady but improving each hour, a virtual miracle if truth be told. I found out that almost all their food was in-fact MREs that had been ‘acquired’ one way or another from local military units. MREs never tasted so good…except the vegetarian omelet…horrible as ever…but I still ate it.
The most amazing thing I learned…the medics that saved my life, then hid me, and then got me to this field hospital were from the same unit that had shot everyone. The medics and a few others were so horrified at what happened that they deserted as the unit pulled out. Then they searched the scene for survivors. I was the only one. And they couldn’t believe I had survived as badly wounded as I was. They were even more surprised that I lasted till I got here. Once here, they knew I could survive just about anything.
They were gone now, back into the field. They had formed several teams that followed the killer units, when they could, and rescued who they could, often no one.
They would tell everyone they met about our entire group surrendering without a single weapon among us. At first they thought we were nuts, crazy to do such a thing. But as time went on, they began to recognized what we had done and realized the deeper meaning to it. More and more groups of so-called rebels were doing the same thing. And more and more soldiers, especially medics, were deserting from the military units all over the country, especially from the occupying units.
As a result areas without suppression units were growing and the iron fist of the government was weakening by leaps and bounds. Some even said it would be no more than a year and the federal government would fall altogether. Amazing! Maybe meaning a fresh start…a new beginning to a Constitutional Republic…maybe.
∞
Three months passed and I had been going from house to house, group to group, town to town telling whoever would listen about my experience. Some folks thought I was telling a story to get money, but I wasn’t. Some people politely listened to me but sent me on my way. Quite a few families believed me, invited me to stay in their home and fed me well. I didn’t stay long in any one home…I had a message and a warning to share…I had a mission and had to keep going.
Month four brought me word that the medic unit that had saved me had been ambushed and all killed. I was not sad. Inside of me I saw that curtain part for them and their beloved family members waiting to greet them. I had no doubt about them…or that their mission here on earth was fulfilled.
Month six found me walking alone through a beautiful part of a mountain range in Arizona on an amazing spring day. The day before I come across a family of eight squirreled away in a stunning mountain clearing the size of a football field. I shared my story with a feeling I had never had before. As I told my story the mother and father began to cry, the children soon after were all shedding tears.
A week before they had been praying for help from God. They had started to lose faith that the country would turn around and doubted they would survive much longer. And if they didn’t survive they were frightened at the prospect there was no heaven; or if there was a heaven, it was not for them. They also shared their fear that if there was a heaven, and they made it there, the torture it would be if they would not know each other. My message dispelled all those fears and doubts. Peace settled over that wonderful family that spring day.
We prayed together in that little cabin for a long time, each offering up part of it. A meal was shared and they invited me to stay the night. The feeling swept over me like a wave that could not be stopped…the answer was clearly ‘no’. I politely declined their offer and took my leave.
Hours later under a full moon I slept soundly under the stars in my sleeping bag. I dreamed and dreamed of my family, my wife, my childhood, all those that I had served with, and those who had accepted my message and warning. But most of all, I dreamed clearly of my time in that glorious room so many months before. The warmth of it, the love that I had felt, so much joy and happiness that I had seen. I didn’t want to wake up. I longed for that room.
Just after sunrise I did wake up. The dew was heavy and a chill was in the air. I ate the last of my granola bars and heated up a hot chocolate to enjoy before I set off. Most mornings when I arose I knew exactly what direction to head, and usually a general destination that was to come. This morning was different, very different. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy, fed, enjoying the last of my hot chocolate but I didn’t have a particular direction to start my day’s travel. And there was no indication of any particular destination, none. It was all blank. I was not worried, I had a mission, and it would not be denied.
I drank the last dregs of my hot chocolate enjoying its rich flavor. I picked up my canteen and had sprinkled a bit of water on my small fire to ensure its extinguishment. Just as the steam hissed with a tiny wisp of smoke rising I felt it. It felt like a sledge hammer hitting me in the back. I fell face forward with my chest landing in the smoldering fire. My arms had not caught me, nothing stopped my fall. I remember thinking that my coat would be ruined. Then time seemed to stop, a very odd detaching feeling.
“I’ve tracked you for two weeks, got you this morning. You should never have built that fire.” It was a voice that was distant but close to my ear. I heard another shot…and all went black.
Oddly, I was standing there looking at my body laying in the last of the nearly out fire. The man bent over my body and cut off my ear, it didn’t hurt, no pain registered. A weird unsettling smile, almost as if a sense of satisfaction, was on his face as he tucked the body part in a pouch hanging on his side. Actually he had cut off the ear of my body that was laying on the ground…not the body from which I was observing the scene. As he walked away, “And I don’t even have to put out the fire. Wouldn’t have anyways.”
My senses went black for a moment, but I was conscience of something happening around me. But I knew not what.
Chapters –
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