Quantum Hearts

Chapter 2: On Deaths Shore

Setting sun on the horizon of the vast rocky desert, chopper blades swirling as thick brown dust began to rise. They've touched Base in Iraq minutes before, and now, here they are, just at the mouth of the enemy territory. Ropes were let out from the chopper, and their mission objectives were reread aloud one last time.

“Go! Go! Go!” Was the command the pilot gave as the soldiers slid down the ropes.

“Adam, your priority is to make sure we have excellent communication, foresee threats, scan enemy territory, maintain our weapons for maximum performance, and stay alive! Do you copy?” Screamed Bill Lawrence, Leader of the covert Search and Destroy operation.

“Yeah, I copy,” Adam screamed back, as the noise from the chopper forced them to speak at the top of their lungs.

What happened next was totally unexpected. Radio from the chopper echoed,

“Contact! Contact! Enemy missiles approaching!”

In seconds the chopper was hit by an approaching missile, exploding and killing the two pilots, three soldiers, and two mortally injured, and leaving the rest confused.

“Take cover! Take cover!” Roared Captain Bill as the men raced towards higher ground, fleeing from the sounds of fast-approaching caravans and gunshots. Bill immediately ordered Adam to set up the coms as he reached for his radio…

“Come in, command, this is Desert Priest, Captain Bill Lawrence. Echo 436K197… We're under attack. The chopper is down, I repeat, chopper is down! Three KIAs, two mortally wounded. Standby for mission response and prepare for immediate evac, over!” Bill Lawrence said.

“Copy, Desert Priest, locking in your coordinates and standing by for immediate evac. Over!” Said the voice from the radio.

In less than a minute, there were counter missiles about 100 yards (ca. 91 m) away from them, and soon enough, the sounds of vehicles and gunfire receded as the Taliban retreated from suffering further casualties.

Adam was shaking, in a state of deep shock. He's been in danger many times, but none of them had this kind of magnitude or fierceness. It's easier to feel you're a badass during shooting practice and martial arts training than to run for your life with bullets and missiles flying after you, not to mention the gory injuries he was seeing from men who were trying to hang on for dear lives, but those around them knew they wouldn't make it.

Captain Bill knelt beside both men, holding their hands and assuring them, “It's going to be fine, I've got you…”

Even when he knew he didn't. The injured men were in their final moments, and Bill did not want them going beyond, scared or alone. Slowly, Adam saw as both mortally injured men breathed their last and gave up the ghost. They covered the bodies with stone, sticking the dead men's rifles just above their graves as they drank whiskey and shared a few parting words to the lost souls.

Captain Bill wasted no time charging the rest of his team to advance towards their objectives. With five men dead on arrival, Adam's role was now more than their tech wizard.

“Hey, did you ever learn to use a rifle?” Asked Bill, “Yeah, I do, sir.” Adam responded, and he was given a rifle, an armor bag, a combat knife, and a pistol. This is now beyond Search and Destroy; it is survival, and improvisation is an asset.

Captain Bill Lawrence maintained their mission objectives but changed tactics since his ten-man team was now reduced to half. Their objective was simple: search the targeted Taliban base for bioweapons, retrieve what they can, and destroy the enemy base. Now, to achieve this, they have to be as stealthy as possible, fast, and precise.

The new tactic was to surround the enemy base on four sides, create an explosive distraction, infiltrate, steal enemy bioweapons, and plant C4s. Adam was to stay back and be the sniper watching out, giving warning calls and maintaining the coms.

All five men proceeded with the plan and executed it with precision, met at the rendezvous point, and called command; now they awaited extraction.

The Taliban reorganized and pursued hard after them; it was a fierce fire exchange. They were almost at their last, exhausted, used up, staring at death in the face when the evac chopper arrived to their rescue. Dashing in, Captain Bill noticed Adam was growing pale. “You alright, soldier?” Captain Bill called out as Adam hit the ground, collapsing hard. He's been shot multiple times but is still hanging on to life.

They laid him on the stretcher, using available medical tools to stop the bleeding. Captain Bill held Adam by the hand and told him, “It's alright, Adam; you're going to make it.”

Adam, barely able to speak, responded in a very weak but hoarse tone “No, I'm not; you said the same to the two men who died some twelve hours ago…” The veteran medic who came with the evac chopper looked Adam in the eye and assured him, “You're going to make it, son…" He further encouraged him, “Just hang in there a little longer.”

After about thirty minutes, they touched Base, and Adam was put on life support and taken on an immediate flight back home. He was in an induced coma.

Adam was now in some panorama state. Opening his eyes, he saw bright lights and awakened to a world unlike anything he's ever seen or known. It was light-years more advanced than the life on Earth he knew. Large ships and ultramodern cars flying around—it was truly a utopian world. Houses were stacked stories upon stories, construction unlike anything he'd ever imagined. The entire place was neat, as though it were built by a community of germophobic psychopaths with acute OCD who triple-checked to ensure not a hint of dirt or waste of any sort was seen on the streets or in the air.

Adam thought to himself, “Is this heaven? Heaven really exists? Am I dead? What is going on with me? Where am I?” Just before he could slip into losing it, he saw an advertisement on a building with information stating 4084. No, that's not an address or a secret military code; it was the year 4084.

Just before he could get to speak to anyone, he was withdrawn from the entire scene. It felt as though a giant hand held the collar of his cloth and was pulling him rapidly backwards in some almost never-ending white and brilliant train tunnel.

He opened his eyes, and here he was, back to earth, in a hospital. He was finally awake after four months in a coma.

Hearing indistinct sounds and seeing things blurry and in slow motion, he tried to stand up from the bed, pulling the drips off of him. Nurses and doctors rushed into his room, checking his vitals and getting him off the life support system, the monitor beeping and that sickening hospital smell. It dawned on him… He is back to this world and to his miserable life. He sank back into his bed and shut his eyes tight. “What the hell…" He muttered just before he was sedated.