unpleasant journey

Everywhere I turned, pools of blood stained the ground. The air was always filled with the deafening sounds of gun shots along with the defenseless cries of women, men and also innocent children. The intense heat of the sun trapping us in its web but it became slightly loose in the nights. There was never a stop to the endless war. The place was now a ghost town. I looked around and all I ever saw were cold lifeless bodies on the ground, some were of familiar faces, faces that brought laughter, now saddened and marred by bullet holes. Camouflage bodies swiftly switching positions and taking cover while using trained tactics to communicate with each other,all trying to kill the enemy while trying to protect their lives as well.  

The barbaric days continued and it seemed as if it would never end. It was like a cycle nobody would ever want to get caught up in. It was a battlefield where only the strongest, most skilled and the well prepared makes it out alive. It was like the jungle where the weaker creatures suffered death by larger predators or badly injured, and it was better off being dead than having to endure the intense pain of severe injuries. Fear was replaced with courage and determination in order to accomplish what had to be done. No matter how difficult the task might have been. The hardest part I had to endure was when my old pal Jerry got his legs blown off. His body fell, it slumped in my arms. Jerry’s now lifeless physique sagged like clothes left to dry. Was it of the enemy’s or of his own? Maybe it was both. Blood slid from his mouth onto the hard gravel as I closed his once smiling eyes.  We were there only to do one thing, to achieve one goal and that was to capture the dangerous warlord of Soighiu and take him back to our country. It was not to be a simple task. It was by far the worst war we have ever had to encounter. More men were ordered to come to our aid and even they died, this resulted in more orders of more brave men to risk their lives for their comrades. Eventually, the war had ended and we had failed to capture our target. I went to that city with many men walking along side me and now I’m returning with half or less of those men by my side.

Endless tears kept flowing from their faces and loud sobs that I’m sure even  the neighbors must have heard when I delivered the painful news. My face too was warm and moist, at approaching each door step; my body trembled with anger, sadness, pity and regret. It was just a swirl of emotions, one after the other. The last door I went to was owned by Jerry. This stop was the hardest of them all, to tell his wife that her husband of seven years had died. All of that happened two years ago but it just feels like it was only last week.  I guess I was one of the lucky ones that lived is able to tell the tale of my unpleasant journey.