The Battle of 1863

He should've heard the sound of cannon fire, but he didn't.

In fact, the battlefield was clear of everything. The soldiers and sounds were gone. The smells had faded so quick, and all the bloodcurling screams seemed to stop. Where were the trenches and the horses? The sound of never-ceasing gunfire and screaming?

He glanced over his shoulder to where the medical tent should have been, and saw something strange. There was a small black lake that stretched over a hundred feet in each direction. Instead of poles and canvas, and the smell of rotting human body parts, were six metal boxes on wheels. Not wheels of a locomotive train car mind you, but four small rubber-looking wheels that were propping each of the boxes up.

Past all this was a larger structure resembling a cabin, but it looked to be made of brick, and there was a sign above the door that read, "CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM - VISITORS CENTER"

That is when it all came back to him.

He had been running toward the front line, where Jed had been. He had tripped in what felt like a small gopher hole and fell flat on his face. Startled, he had shook it off and picked up his head, just in time to see the bouncing cannonball at eye-height. And then he was here, with the sound of the birds and the breeze.

As he walked closer to the solid black lake, he saw a soldier that was frozen. Someone else from the battle! Maybe he would have answers. But as he got closer he saw that this was a statue. Underneath this fake bronze hero, was an inscription that read, "IN MEMORY OF THE BATTLE OF 1863" And if this wasn't enough to shock him, below that inscription was another, "ERECTED 2010".

"O my God," he thought.

"O my God."

He whirled around to see a woman by the brick cabin. His eyes met hers for a second, and the look she gave him was of surprise, amazement, and fear.

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She had just walked out of the visitors center when she smelled it - sulfur and gunpowder. But there was no reenactment today. Joey and Paul were enjoying a day off, and there wasn't a visitor in sight.

"Who is this man, and why is he dressed like a Union soldier?" she thought.

She couldn't move as she made out more. If this was a reenactment uniform, boy the devil was in the details. His jacket was half ripped by the pocket, and one of the sleeves was clearly shorter than the other. By the bottom of his jacket was a soaked-looking stain that almost looked like tomato sauce. But the part that really scared her, was his eyes - they didn't have pupils.

She saw that he noticed her, and he started walking her way. It almost looked like he was trying to say something, but she couldn't hear speech coming from his mouth.

As he got closer the most unbelievable thing happened - his feet and shins disappeared! Yet he was still walking towards her with that expression of fear on his mouth. As he got closer, she could almost hear the eruption of cannons and gunfire in the background. And the screams, as though some other poor soul was having his leg amputated.

The man had now disappeared above the torso, and was halfway across the parking lot, when someone grabbed her hand!

"Mommy, I'm finished in the bathroom now" said her daughter, and everything she seemed to be hearing almost got sucked back into a vacuum.

When she looked back up, all she saw in the parking lot were six cars, and all she could hear were the birds and the breeze.