Short Story Intro


The blinding sunlight washed through the green and golden fields as it rose on that crisp October morning. The sun's piercing heat clashed with the tingly cold of the dawn. Up in the sky, stationary nimbus clouds spotted the blue heaven. Some miles below, small clusters of off-white smoke drifted away to the east, caught steady in the winds coming off the water some miles away.

Above me, somewhere between the smoke and serene clouds high up, a flight of birds made their way through the crisp air, seemingly unaware of the battle that took place the night before. The only sounds to be heard are the occasional call of those peaceful birds and the barely audible commands yelled by the enemy's search party, looking for me and my fallen friends.

As I lay prostrate in the grass with my rifle at the ready, I looked to my left, and a few yards off, my buddy lay motionless. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and quietly said a silent prayer for him. As I resumed observing what lies beyond me, I perceived a hill off the right, a little bit greener than the lower grounds around it. I thought that fact to be somewhat strange, but did not mull over it. As I turned my head slowly to the right, I had seen some ruins left by a civilization, possibly extinct or just migrated to another island, either way long before our armies landed ashore here. When me head was facing almost fully right, I heard the crash of the water against the beach, which couldn't be more than a half mile away.

I started to scan back to the left, this time not noticing my friend, but only the rocks on the hill just beyond our position. Straight ahead of me I started to hear the trill of an engine, probably a tank patrolling the basin just over the grassy ridge. As I rotated my head further to the left I took note of the gentle slope down towards the water.

Ahead of me I still heard the calls of the enemy regiment, this time a little louder, a little closer, and my doubts of survival began to swell. I barely took note of my massacred platoon, or the spots of blood blended in with the dew drops upon the turf, only because I was awake the whole night observing it happen. The sun was now fully up over the horizon, and the dew sparkled, sure to give away my position. To my rear, a few klicks away, my commander and the rest of my company awaited our return, hoping that we had overtaken that godforsaken hill.