Dark City

22.

Rows of men flattened the tall grass and wildflowers. The sun shone like a crystal in the pale sky, piercing the clouds with spears of light. Nathan crossed a meadow and took his place amidst formation. The men to Nathan's left and right had unfamiliar faces but they wore the uniforms that designated them his brothers.

Ahead of the horde of troops, scrawny recruits with black eyes rolled in a platform with a framework that bore a mechanism with a swinging axe. Its pieces were rickety and poorly assembled.

An officer with an oak leaf insignia on his collar and a sword at his hip approached the platform and clicked his heels like a toy.

"At ease, gentlemen. All of you are suffering from a condition called Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder, also known as irritable heart, shell shock and combat exhaustion. The USMC wishes to extend an invitation to you to end your distress while helping us better understand the disease. Corporal Kent approach!"

"Yes, sir!" barked the tall E4 called Kent. He joined the officer at the platform and knelt under the mechanism, removing his cover. The boney, young recruits hopped up and crowned Kent with a metallic helmet that had a coin slot opening running down the length of its middle.

"Corporal Kent. Do you suffer from PTSD?" the major asked.

"Yes, sir!" he stated. They tightened the leather strap under his chin.

"Do you love your country?"

"Yes, sir!"

The officer held a notepad and wrote down everything Corporal Kent told him.

"How many laws have you broken since you've returned from active duty?"

"I engaged in sexual acts with a prostitute, I drank while taking a multitude of painkillers, and then I drove a motor vehicle, sir."

"Do you consent to participate in our study?"

"Yes, sir!"

The major tore off a slip from his notepad, tagging Kent's wrist. On his signal, one of the young recruits flipped a switch and an axe plummeted and swung like a pendulum, making a clean cut through the middle of the marine's head. The blood stuck like gum inside his shell. They removed the helmet and carried him away on a stretcher. Nathan watched in horror as different men went up, answered the same questions and had their skulls split.

"Corporal Stone!" the major shouted.

Nathan bristled. "There's no study. They're sweeping us under the rug," he whispered to the man next to him. "We have to get out of here."

"Go on up," the man next to him said. Nathan looked again and saw the yellow eyes of Logan Steiner. He checked if the other half of his body was still there. Threads and tendrils of gore hung from Steiner's side where he had been ripped apart.

"Corporal Stone!" a voice raged in his head as he woke up, catapulting into a strange reality where Tom Scarboro was the major. Nathan could feel the patting slaps on his face as his best friend shouted in his ear.

"Corporal Stone! AtteeeeeehTION!" Tom jumped up, laughing maniacally.

"I'll kill you," Nathan groaned. "How the hell did you get in here?"

"Yer momma let me in! Hey, did you hear? Alex is alive!"

Nathan sat upright in bed, rubbing the crust out of his eyes. "I know. I went to her parents' house last night and told them I found her."

"What? You went off on your own?"

"Tried it your way. Sometimes you just gotta point a gun at somebody's face."