Steve opened his eyes, his mind still in a daze. What the fuck happened? His head pounded loudly, making it hard to shake the fogginess. It was like a bomb had gone off. He stood up and looked around, his legs wobbly, barely keeping him upright. Jesus fuck. Everywhere he looked, all he could see was death, destruction, and mayhem.
He walked over to the nearest soldier. Dead. He walked towards the next soldier. Dead. All around him were dead soldiers. Was anyone alive, he thought? He started moving all the dead soldiers and piling them next to each other. He let it all sink in, showing no emotion, only feeling numbness.
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he could see movement. He walked over to the soldier, he was barely hanging on, nothing Steve could do would save him. The least he could do for his fallen comrade was to put him out of his misery. I’m sorry, was all he could think, while he finished the unpleasant task. The act almost made him throw up.
Steve continued to walk around, assessing the damage. There were several critically wounded soldiers scattered amongst all the dead ones. Steve did the noble deed and finished every single one of them. No soldier left behind.
Was there anyone alive? He searched and searched for life among all the dead and wounded. Yes, finally! Steve stumbled upon a live one.
“It’s going to be ok,” Steve told the soldier.
“Let’s go look for more.”
Steve was on a mission now that he had found a live one. He was sure he would find more. He looked through all the debris and bodies, searching for life. He found another one and then another. Steve’s heart began to sing with hope. He wasn’t going to give up, not until he had inspected every soldier on the field.
Steve finally started to get weary after the long search, fatigue entering his body, asking him to take a break, but he couldn’t stop…no, he wouldn’t stop, not until every last one was confirmed. That was the least he could do.
It was midday by the time Steve had finished his search. The dead were many. The critically wounded were few. And the live ones were fewer still. Steve was just happy to be alive. How he had survived could only be chalked up as a miracle.
Fuck, that was one hell of a party!
Steve took the dead soldiers, including the ones he had to kill himself, crushed them and put them in the trash bag. Then he took the live soldiers and placed them back in the refrigerator.
The hair-of-the-dog already started to kick in, reducing the ringing in his ears and pounding in his head. Today is going to be a good day! he thought to himself, as he called up Gabe.
“Hello?” came a barely audible voice over the line.
“Second verse, same as the first,” replied Steve.
“I’ll be right over.”