As The Earth Dies

“Get up!” some one shouted in the distance, “If you don’t get up, I swear to god I’ll leave your sorry can to the deadlings!”. No, the voice was coming from close by. I opened my eyes, wondering how I ended up on the ground. My whole body pulsed as if to say yes. All except for my left arm, it seemed to be fine. My patrol squad were firing at some unseen target. “For the love of all that’s left, GET UP!!”. I hurt so badly, I didn’t think I could blink, let alone stand.

Suddenly, a voice bellowed out from behind the nearest truck, “C’mon, hermano! I know it hurts, but it’ll be a minor nuisance compared to what those freaks will do if they get you!” shouted my friend Thrifty.

My senses finally coming back, I could see what had caused my sudden trip to the ground. There were the charred remains of, what looked like, two other people speckled around me like easter eggs. An IED must have been hiding behind the car that was now upside down in a near by tree. The two that were at the front of our formation, Wilkens and Frost, had stumbled across the wire and started all the mayhem.

Almost on que, pain shot through my arm. It wasn’t the only part of me not hurting, it was just the only part that wasn’t there anymore! I had heard something to my right just before the explosion, causing me to stop and turn, or I would have ended up about the same as Wilkens and Frost.

“That’s it, we leave ‘em!” Of course, it was Waters our squad leader. The only reason he got his leader patch was because he was the first one the major seen when he looked under his desk.

Someone came sliding to my side, throwing me like a ragdoll onto their shoulder, then darting back towards our base. I recognized their bloody, heart shaped locket wrapped around their rifle. It was Thrifty!

“Don’t worry hermano, we’ll get you a new girlfriend” he joked.

The deadlings, the mutant creatures that seemed to come out of nowhere, were gaining on us. I reached down and managed to grab Thriftys pistol. I fired a few rounds towards the closest deadling. It exploded like it had been hit by a bazooka!

“Jesus, Thrifty! What kinda rounds were those?” I yelled, staring at his pistol in amazement.

“If we make it home I’ll tell ya” he weezed.

“Just drop me and go, I’m a goner any-“

“Now what would my daughter say if she found out her poppa left her favorite uncle to the deadlings?” he interrupted.

“Jesus, im not even her real uncle” I replied slowly. The bloodloss was starting to show.

“Yeah well… to us… you… are.” He huffed, obviously tiring out. The fool, he was about to die saving a dying man.

Waters was, unsurprisingly, about fifty yards ahead of us. The coward, he wouldn’t die for his mother, let alone to help what remained of his squad, get some ground on deadlings. He was sprinting towards one of our hell holes. Hell holes were our underground safe zones that we dig out then weld metal all around making a iron cube that, in a pinch, we can dive in and lock. We call them hell holes because deadlings don’t give up easy. They will dig all around one for hours, which is a long time when you’re in a metal box with no wind. Don’t plan on taking a breather after running from the monsters either. Any air holes make the box easier to get into, so most people are lucky not to run out of air let alone catch their breath. Hell holes suck, but not as much as being eaten alive by acid drooling reptile people.

Waters dived for the open hell hole. The idiot should’ve looked first. Whoever used this one last didn’t shut the hatch, leaving it wide open for deadlings to stumble into. Waters had just dived headfirst into a deadling filled hell hole. We heard him screaming as we got closer. He was a prick, but he didn’t deserve to go out like that.

I grabbed a grenade from thriftys belt and lobbed it in as we ran past. Anything was better than the alternative. In an ear ringing boom, waters was gone. It was just me and Thrifty, and we would be joining our fallen squad shortly.

“YYEEEEEEEHHHAAAWWWW YOU SONS AH- “our radios screamed as a truck with a mounted 50cal machine gun came flying past us. It started firing, laying waste to the deadling hoarde that had been chasing us.

“Thank… God…. I… was…. worried…. I…. was…. going… to have… to… to…”

“To what?” I asked Thrifty weakly.

He took a deep breath “to use you as deadling bait so I could run for it.”

“WHAT?!?!!” I shouted with more life than I thought I had left.

“Oh c’mon, hermano, I’m kiiiiidddinnng,” he laughed.” Now, let’s fix you up before you bleed on the rest of my favorite shirt.”

“Always the humanitarian” I scoffed “I’m just missing an arm, but please let’s worry about your shirt.”

“So grouchy, you know I just did all the running. You could’ve at least...”

“If you say it, I swear on everything that’s left, I will shoot you with whatever the hell rounds are in here!” I interrupted, holding up his pistol threateningly.

“…. lent a hand!” he spat out quickly, laughing as I pointed and pulled the trigger. “Whew, I was nervous I had miscounted the shots.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll just shoot you later. What kind of rounds were those anyways?” I asked as he field dressed what remained of my arm.

“Oh, just something mommas been working on. Let’s just keep it between us for now though,” he said. Thrifty had severe trust issues with anyone that wasn’t me or immediate family.

By the time thrifty finished with my arm, the truck had made its way back towards us. It was covered in glowing yellow deadling blood. It was a 1970 Ford F-100, a real truck unlike those paper weights they made when the deadlings first showed up. It was a hunk of crap, but even with all the rust holes in it you could drive over a deadling and keep going like it was a bug.

“You boys alrigh?” our country twanged savior, Bradley, asked jumping out of the back. He was dressed like a country bumpkin in a bad tv show. Cowboy hat that was all bent and worn out, Copenhagen can imprint in his jean pocket, and for whatever reason he wore spurs. No one knows why, there hasn’t been a horse seen in a few years.

“Will be if we could catch a ride, amigo.” Thrifty said.

Spitting out a dark stream, Bradley smirked and said, “now you boys aught to getchu your own truck. I hear taxis around these parts cost ya….”

I groaned “please don’t say it.”

“An arm and a leg!” He howled in laughter. Thrifty joined in, saying “hermano, when they said this was Armageddon you didn’t have to take it so seriously!” They both laughed until they realized I was reloading Thrifty’s pistol. The jokes didn’t seem so funny then.

Back at base, the doc fixed me up the best she could. She wasn’t really a doctor, she just happened to raise a kid prone to getting hurt.

“What happened to you?” she growled as she wrapped my nub.

“I don’t want to tell you, you’re just gonna yell at me,” I replied, wincing as she jerked on the bandage.

“Well, maybe if I would’ve yelled at you a bit more when you did stupid stuff before you wouldn’t be losing pieces of you all around the city now!” she said.

“Yes momma” I sighed. “But I didn’t even...”

“But you didn’t even” she mimicked then slapped the back of my head, “boy you’re all I got left and I’m to old for you to be coming home in pieces. Next time, come back with what you had when you left.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said rolling my eyes. I was in my 30’s and still getting treated like I was a child. Though, it had its perks. At least I still get candy at the doctor’s office.

“AND YOU!!!” she yelled as thrifty came walking in. He stopped in confused fear, “Me? Wah-what I do” he stammered in return.

She marched over to him and threw her arms around him, “thank you for bringing my baby home.”

“why’d he get a hug and I got slapped across- OW MOMMA QUIT” she replied with several more slaps.

“BE…CAUSE… HE… DIDN’T… GIVE….ME…MORE…GRAY…HAIRS!!!” slapping in-between each word.

“Neither did I! they were already like that!”

“You ungrateful little!!!” me and Thrifty giggled like two boys in kindergarten running from the teacher. “Next time leave him out there!” she hollered after us.

“Don’t worry, doc, I won’t let anymore ‘arm come to him.” He chuckled shortly before I slapped him across the back of his head.

“Aye Wey, is that how you return a helping- AYE!!!” he whimpered as I smacked him again.

“Huh, it’s almost like it’s still there” I said looking down at my missing arm.

“But you hit me with- AYE PINCHE… QUIT!!!” he cried out, as I slapped him one more time then took off running laughing.

His daughter, Christina, was watching us from a nearby staircase. She had her hair tied up with her trademark red and purple ribbon. She was giggling in delight as her father and his friend acted like the boys in her class instead of grown men they were supposed to be.

Thrifty heard his daughter’s laughter and stopped to tell her, “now, don’t act like this pendajo mija! Its not ok to slap people especially loved ones.”

I had stopped and eased my way back to Thrifty. “that’s right! You should never do,” PLAP, “that!”

“AYE TU MADRE ES….” And the chase resumed as Christina let out the most high-pitched shrieks of delight.

“That’s it I… I can’t write anymore tonight….” I sobbed as a tear ran down my cheek. I closed my journal, wiping my eyes I sat back against the wall of the abandoned house I had made my home the last few nights. I looked out at the night sky, wondering what we had done to deserve this fate. They didn’t deserve that. Christina, Thrifty, mom, hell even Waters, none of us did anything close to earning this twisted judgment. Standing, I spit on the ground to show my disgust with whatever almighty being condemned us to this and headed inside. I shoved my journal in my pack angerly as if it had done all those evil things. There was a crunch from inside the pack and my heart sank. I reached in and pulled out the blood stained red and purple ribbon, eyes swelling at the sight of it. As I unballed it I sat back and let the memories come flowing in. A shattered heart-shaped locket fell into the floor. I picked it up, looking inside at my friend and his daughter’s picture.

“I’m so sorry,” I wept “its all my fault…. I couldn’t save you… you should’ve left me like Waters said…” tears streaming down my face as I thought about Thrifty almost dying to save my life, just for him and his daughter to be abandoned later. I was the only one left alive from base camp, and if it weren’t for me, they’d all be alive. I reached in my pack and grabbed my pistol. I cocked it and put it to my chin, ready to meet whatever punishment waited for me. I was about to squeeze the trigger when…

“Well, if that’s all you got to eat, hermano, no thanks I’m full!”