Final War - Moments - Soldier

It’s a funny thing this thing they call life ye know? It’s one of those things you really don’t think about until you have a heart attack or someone you know meets the reaper.

I don’t know, I’ve been through a lot in my day. Hell, I’ve served twice in Iraq and once in Desert Storm. I’m no stranger to death but I’ve been the lucky one to survive to tell the tales of my buddies that ate shrapnel or took a bullet.

At least I put myself into those positions, I elected to pick up a rifle and fight for my country. I knew damn well what I was doing but I did it anyways. The pay sucked, the benefits are wonderful when I argue and yell at the Veteran’s Affairs department to get what I rightfully deserve.

But this, this is entirely different. In Iraq I had some control over my fate. I could have been blind and drove right on one of those insurgent high way bombs or I could avoid them. I had the ability to hide behind my humvee during a fire fight. Seems there isn’t any hiding or avoiding anymore and ironically there isn’t even an enemy to shoot back at this time. I feel cheated really.

I was sitting at the VFW when I heard the news on the television. The reception was shit and the damn smoke irritated my eyes but I could hear over old Jim telling his story about Vietnam. Like I haven’t heard that a hundred times before! Anyways, the anchor was behind some NASA building over in Houston and said something about the end of the world.

Hell, I was already three sheets in the wind and like everyone else I didn’t pay much attention to the report. Doom saying was obviously the new trend this millennia. I ordered another beer instead of going home to order supplies for surviving armegeddon.

Like most people during the ‘Y2K’ scare back in 1999 I ran around frantically to make sure I would survive the end of the world but that end never came. Some bubble popped and people lost money but it didn’t affect me and I was out of pocket for a good while. This report was just like the others but this time I wouldn’t be fooled by it. Market ploy I said.

Wouldn’t you know it that I was absolutely wrong this time? The end was real but it took most of us by surprise. I’m in no condition to really go into the details about the actual event, it was almost instant and the good lord only knows how many survived.

I can tell you about what I would have done different though. Hell, I was a soldier in the United States Army. If anyone would be able to survive such a catastrophe it would be me with my basic combat knowledge. I just never saw the signs. I figured I would be dead anyways.

The military tactics for attempting to survive a nuclear strike is to drop to the ground, plant your helmet in the dirt and aim head first into the direction of the flash of the explosion. Hopefully you’d survive the initial impact explosion and the fire blast that would happen just afterwards just long enough to take your objective before your teeth and hair start falling out.

The army didn’t care what happened to you afterwards. They say that they’d take care of family and the government only hoped that it would be single boys and girls that got struck by the attack. It would save millions for pocketing to private industry like Halliburton.

I got home that night and my girlfriend had her friends over. Their noses were powdered with cocaine but they said it was powder. As if I was born yesterday and as if I didn’t know what the hell they were doing. I should have gotten rid of her months ago but I didn’t. Figure I just needed someone to talk to when I got home. Desperation makes a man do stupid things I guess.

I asked her if she saw the latest developments on doomsday and she was totally oblivious to all of it. She was too busy powdering her nose. Her friends were already blitzed and staring off into space somewhere. I went to the kitchen and grabbed another beer and turned the channel to CNN.

I never cared for CNN but it was the first that came to mind. I was already drunk and she was stoned off her ass. I figured no one would care about political agendas when the world came to an end but I was wrong. Even as the world was going to hell in a hand basket the reporters were asking how the president could fix it and who would be best for the job to bring us out of this dark time. I remember reading the ticker tape on the bottom and recall the fact that Britney Spears got herself a boob job and liposuction. Good for her.

Someone started bitching because I changed the channel from some stupid reality show. I threw my beer at her. I don’t think it hit her but her nose started to bleed out like a faucet. I didn’t even ask if she needed a tissue. She was scum anyways. I just told her not to stain my carpet with her runny nose.

They said that the impact was going to happen in less than twelve hours from now and it was already nearing midnight. Guess that would make the impact noon the next day. What shit timing though, I think I had plans to go fishing, now instead I had to worry about what where the hell the next fishing hole would be after the world ended.

It was funny that they never said what would impact the planet. Was it an asteroid or an Iranian missile? Was it something else entirely? There were so many questions and the government wasn’t even around to give a comment. I don’t think I even heard remarks from the president or any of his cabinet. Go figure that they would continue to screw us as they have been right? I never asked the question, where I could get my next drink. I’m sure someone would make a bar called, “New World’s End” or something just as cynical. I’m still looking for it.

My girlfriend and her crack-head friends were just as skeptical as I was and instead of paying mind to the reports we all crashed where we found a spot. I managed to find my bed though I hadn’t slept in it for ages. Hell, I didn’t even know if those little speckle spots on the blanket were mine or not anymore.

I woke up dead early to the sound of yelling and screaming. I heard cars moving around and gunshots in the distance. It was more dangerous outside my house than any camp I was stationed over in Iraq during the conflict. I went outside in my underwear and scratched my fat white ass and laughed at all the people going ape shit. I looked at the sky and it had turned a color of red that reminded me of sunsets over in Baghdad.

Red skies in the horizon of a sunset look beautiful but they aren’t natural. It’s reported that the red and orange hues in the sky are merely refracted light from molecules of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide from oil plants and industrial complexes. I’m no scientist but I figure they might be on to something there. The entire sky here was red and there weren’t any plants for at least fifty miles. Maybe they needed to do more research.

In the event of a major catastrophe it is expected martial law would be ordered by the federal government to bring order and peaceful evacuation of civilian personnel out of the hostile or endangered regions. None of this happened of course and no one really expected it after Katrina down in New Orleans. Just another instance where the FEDS failed us yet again I suppose. I couldn’t help but ask myself where was my speech from our president? He was probably on a plane 35,000 feet above the chaos and was watching Washington turn into a microscopic dot as he zoomed away at 400 miles an hour to some location we’ll never know about. These things happen.

I decided to go back inside to wake my girlfriend up but she was no where to be found. I guess she woke up and ran into the mass of people freaking out. I did manage to trip over the bloody bitch on the way to the bathroom to see if my girl was throwing more powder on her face. She turned a little but other than that nothing. She wasn’t there. She was definitely gone and out on her own. I knew she would anyways.

I went into my room and grabbed a couple shirts, some underwear, pants and military gear I had left hanging around. I locked and loaded my AR-15 assault rifle and went to the kitchen to grab some canned foods and several military rations I kept around for when I went hunting.

Some folks would have thought I looked a lot like Rambo walking out with belts of ammunition over my shoulder and a rifle in my hand with a camoflauged backpack on my back. I don’t think they noticed though, too busy saving themselves from whatever the hell was going on. I sparked a cigarette and walked casually down the sidewalk. I was avoiding the people as they dashed around knowing not where to go. It was sort of funny.

According to the reporter last night I had another two hours to find myself a good hiding spot to go die in. I knew just the place to go and I was hoping I could find a spot there. I’d be damned if some kid took my spot and only hoped that their gun was bigger than mine because at this point it was survival of the fittest. I be damned to survive two tours in Iraq and a campaign the first time to get my spot taken by some snot-nosed dweeb that listened to crap this day and age puked out from the radio stations. I was out for myself, mankind was on their own.