A Quarter Life

The Lone Risk

The night rose from the dark.

He was there, driving alone, on an alone road, in an alone night.

The night roads were always crippling, waiting to be helped. He knew that, maybe.

He had some cigarettes in the car. The puffs would be, maybe, beneficial for the night drive.

He lit up one, the smoke took the bad breath out of him. Was it intentional? He didn’t know, maybe.

The nights would have been less pathetic, if Robert wasn't there to bother. He really didn’t remember for how many hours he was unconscious.

He inhaled some more smokes, just to feel obnoxious. Why? Who knew?

The car was like new. The mechanic sure knew a lot about cars. Come on, he was a f*****g mechanic, this was his field.

What was his field? What did mike knew about, a lot?

Whiskeys? Maybe, the whiskeys are keen to him, knew him. He knew them, but not a lot. He drank quite a lot, but just drank, never tasted. Once, once he tasted, tasted from his heart, twice, two times he drank Bourbon, after shaking.

Writings? Yeah, he knew it. More than whiskeys, surely. He had his novels, but yeah unfinished. Because, he didn’t know a lot.

Nothingness? Yes, at last. A perfection for him. A thought novel, finished, criticized, improvised.

He looked at the roads. They were leading to the sanity. He was following them, unknowingly. And at last, what could be greater?

He could see the hospital building, from far. The night surely made the hospital more subtle. The sky was a suitable background for the pale silver hospital building.

He went on to the garage. The garage looked old, as well. He got out from the car.

The hospital didn’t look familiar, every room, every lane, every worker, looked strangers. He could see the dim white lights, and still could feel unfamiliar.

He went to doctor's room. The door was open.

Entering the room, he could see the doctor, distressed.

The doctor saw him, 'My my, what has happened to you?'

He sighed, 'It’s nothing, got into some accidents. By the way, how's Jenny now?'

The doctor replied, 'Janet? Well, she is quite better, yet not exactly alright. But...'

He could see the distress in his eye, 'But what, doctor? Any problem there?'

Doctor sighed, 'A person came, to see Janet. We told him that we have to get your permission first. The man is quite a raging bull.'

He could guess the guy.

He went outside, in front of the waiting room. The guy was sitting there, in tension, lots of tension.

Mike went near him, 'Hey Bruno, sorry, was stuck in roads.'

Bruno looked up, saw him, hugged him with all he could. He could feel the pain he was going through.

Bruno said, with broken voice, 'I am really sorry, Mike. I never had any idea that you would be there. I knew there would be there.'

He grinned, 'Me neither. Actually everything happened so quickly, I was in total confusion.'

They sat, Bruno was sad, 'How did it happen? She never tells things.'

He couldn’t say anything. He himself was helpless.

The doctor came. He said, 'Doctor, he is her cousin. They surely can meet.'

The doctor felt relieved, 'Okay then, let me check now.'

He went away.

Mike looked at Bruno, 'You didn’t tell them you're an army?'

Bruno sighed, 'No. Firstly, they would panic, thinking it as a investigation.'

Mike frowned, 'Secondly?'

Bruno said, 'I got, suspended. Because of information archive breaching.'

The doctor came, and took Bruno to visit her. Mike stood still.

Everything around was falling apart very quickly, just because of a goddamn dream.

“I was shocked. I still couldn't believe my eyes.

Reeve, the guy, for whom war was a cherished fantasy, fled away from the battlefield, with one of the most elite weapon in our collection.

Lieutenant was shouting, chattering indistinctly. I could hear him on radio, 'Reeve, you motherfucking w***e, how could y-'

I turned off the radio. I had no gut to take my superior chattering. Or maybe not that, maybe I had no emotion left, to show, to match in this situation.

The guy, who saved me once, taught me twice or thrice, protected me every f*****g time, was a coward. Who on the earth could have thought that?

The radio caught watchtower signal, 'Soldiers, we have an alert. There’s an unexpected movement in enemy bunker. They are adapting attack position, code A4. I repeat, code A4. Everyone, cover your position.'

I connected to Lieutenant, 'Sir Lieutenant, Charles speaking. Who is the air in charge.'

Lieutenant sighed, 'Nobody.'

Everybody listened to that. Some panicked, some were confused.

The watchtower connected again, 'Sir, they started the line. A 17 member group, running towards base 11.'

I was reconnected. I pull up my rifle, 'So, we kill them on the ground, right?'

I fired, seeing some in my range, and in some close bases. The bodies started falling already on the ground, I saw them fallen, like the meteors from the skies.

The Nazi flag covering their upper soldiers, were colored in blood. The blood was red, sometimes dark orange, I couldn’t care more.

The Germans started the cannon firing. The rainy cannons were everywhere. Base 9 was blasted, destroyed by some cannon firing.

We never stopped firing, but we had cannon shortage. That was why we kept the planes. But they were useless, again.

After some time, the cannon stopped, the watchtower reported nothing. Well, they maybe was of shortage, like us.

The watchtower connected, 'A new troop incoming. Number? Undefined. Maybe nearly one thousand, or more.'

One thousand? This German autocrat motherfucker sent a thousand here? We could see the big giant troop, running along, with everything they had.

I pulled up the magazine. These motherfuckers should have a taste of American bazookas.

I started firing randomly. Inmates in my base was also firing, risking the gateways with what they had.

A large amount of them was killed very quickly. I didn’t realize, maybe it was from base 5. Seemed to me the heavy shots came from that direction.

There were few left, very few. They were killed by the nearest base.

A soldier came very near to our base, he was using his movements of hands very technically. We couldn’t shoot him from a safe position, he was utilizing the dead bodies very well.

I thought for a safe, rather systematic attack. I threw an empty grenade shell at him. The fake move worked fine. He hid himself in some bodies.

That was my chance, I jumped on the battlefield, to grab him by the hands. Some inmates came following me.

But the bastard got it eventually, he pulled a shotgun from a body, and shot me in the thighs. I fell on the ground, seeing my inmates capturing him.

Well, that was all for me, I was happy, we at least won this mini battle.

I could see the German bodies falling on the ground. Surely they had families, kids, some reasons to stay alive. But they were sent to fight, fight to win or fight till death.

I could see the empty shell I threw. It really helped a lot. Sometimes, empty things are all we need to defend ourselves. I learned that. That grenade shell taught me that.

I could see a moneybag, fallen from a soldier, maybe. Some coins, German currency maybe, fallen on the ground. The valued, the powerful possession, was possessed by no one in that no man's land. Could I laugh? I couldn’t. Perhaps a little, to be alongside all the corpse, to be only one alive in the dead.

Then I saw a man, walking towards me. My eyes were faded by the sands, I couldn’t see his face.

He leaned towards me, whispered in my ear, 'Aye Charlie guy, let's have some Bourbon after all these.'

Fuck! He was here?”