Dark City

Prologue

It was zero six hundred hours and dusk was creeping over the Helmand valley, casting the desolate place in a shade of robin's egg blue. It amazed Nathan that such beauty could exist in the midst of so much suffering. He squinted through the Humvee's cracked windshield, watching for suspicious materials in the road. Any signs of loose soil could mean disaster, or at least a delay of several hours waiting for a team to come investigate a potential IED. His mind wandered as he watched dust erupting behind their tires in the side mirror. Exotic trees loomed in the distance, sparsely littered across the rocky vista. Nathan wondered at their names.

His chest tightened as he thought of men who could be hiding in the mountains. Anxiety washed over him and dissipated like a cloud of steam. He shouldn't think about it until this shift ended. There would be time to think later. For now he had to stay alert.

"You in there, Stone?" Bright held the wheel with one hand as he lowered his shades.

"Watch the road," said Nathan.

"I'm watching. Just checking in on my favorite Corporal."

"Kiss-ass," said Steiner from the back. The two in the back laughed.

"What's so funny?" their man on artillery hollered from above. "Hey!" He banged on the roof of the Humvee. "It's not right to be having fun down there while I'm stuck up here in the dust!"

"Shut up, gunny!" shouted Bright. "Hey, Stone. You ever hear the one about Mr. and Mrs. Pacman in couple's therapy?"

"Nope," said Nathan, bored shitless enough to humor the kid. "Tell me."

"So Mr. and Mrs. Pacman are getting marriage counseling, and the therapist says, 'Pacman, your wife says you're not satisfying her sexually. Are you willing to take steps to change that?' Pacman is willing to do anything to save his marriage. So the therapist says, 'Good. Mrs. Pacman tells me that all you ever want to do is eat. You like cherries, strawberries, pears. I'm thinking you could introduce food into the bedroom, maybe let Mrs. Pacman feed you cherries to get you riled up and ready.' It's agreed. Mr. and Mrs. Pacman go home and decide to get kinky with food. Well the next week, when it's time for their therapy session, Pacman goes in alone. The therapist is shocked. He says, 'Pacman! I thought you were going to try eating some cherries before getting busy with your wife. What happened?' And Pacman—"

The punch line never came. A sudden, invisible collision stole the moment. There was a loud pop and then Nathan's ears felt full of cotton. The humvee took flight. It lifted like a snake springing out of a nut can. A spray of shrapnel danced up Nathan's left side, pieces that went through Private Bright and into him. The smoke got thick and black, so thick Nathan couldn't see.

The exclamation of "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" was coming from behind him; Steiner or Christian; he didn't know. Then gravity called them home and they smashed against the road. Nathan smelled flesh on fire. Christian was groaning in pain behind him. Bright seemed to be choking. When the smoke cleared, Nathan saw Bright's watch on the dash in front of him, still attached to his arm, which was no longer attached to his body. The flesh had been shredded by debris.

Stevenson lay broken on the road in front of them, his head twisted backward.

"Bright?" Nathan reached to find his friend's tourniquet on his person. Everything was a mess. He had hundreds of holes weeping blood. He coughed and more blood came up as he tried desperately to draw breath. "Shh," Nathan said out of sheer instinct. He couldn't do anything for him. "Shh."

Bright's eyes darted around in fear. Did he see the pieces of his body intermingling with broken glass and twisted steel?

"Shh." Nathan touched the side of his head. The feel of the kid's blood on his fingertips made his heart clench.

Bright's gaze fell away to the shattered side mirror and his eyes went calm. Death had found him. Death and swept him clean from this mess of debris.

Nathan blinked back his tears. He looked down to where blood drenched his lap and his arms. His left leg had been eaten away by shrapnel, reduced to a hunk of exposed meat.

"Nathan!" shrieked Private Christian from the back. "Nathan! Are you there?"

"Yeah. I'm here. How's Steiner?"

"I don't know! I can't see shit through this smoke!"

Terror coursed through Nathan's veins like battery acid. The smoke had already cleared. He craned his neck to witness the carnage behind him. Christian's eyes were swollen shut, his face mottled in burns. The door on Steiner's side had been torn off, along with half of Steiner's body.

A single thought raced through Nathan's head in that moment.

Why?

Why hadn't he seen it coming?

Why was he even here?

Why did he put off writing his mom for six weeks?

Why did these kids have to die at the end of a meaningless patrol?

Why?

And the only answer he got came down from the mountains in the cry of the insurgents.

Because God is greater.

___________________________

Music: "Take a Bow" Muse

Bellamy wrote this song specifically for all the corrupt leaders in the world. It's pretty intense. I chose it purely for its melody, which I feel captures the bodily horror of this scene.