where my world went wrong

 

I don’t think I will be able to last much longer. The smoke is starting to make my eyes water. I give up on trying to hear anything over the heart-stopping bangs that come in intervals of 20 seconds. I have about 3 miles before I will be able to send up a flair; the only problem is, that if I do send one up, then the enemy will come in as well as my rescue team. So I’m going to have to hide if I see them coming and, hopefully, they don’t decide to drop any bombs my way.

 

I have to stop and catch my breath even though the air is mostly soot and charcoal. After ‘coughing up a lung’ I walk on, Dam it! Now my mouth tastes like ash from the burnt trees around me. My eyes are getting worse. I try whiping them on the back of my sleeve but that just makes it worse. I’m coming up to a hill. I plunge my hands into the ash-covered ground for hand holds as I scramble up the hill. At the top I get my foot caught on a rock and fall down and down the hill. As I near the bottom, it feels like my whole body has just been ripped in two, which it pretty much has. I stand up carefully and look down to see a massive rip in my flesh just above my belly bottom. As I put pressure on it, I can feel the warm, thick, sticky liquid run through my fingers. But I have no time to think about it. I am only a few feet away from the safe, well… safish zone. I have to send up a flare no matter what. As I stagger to the spot, I light my flare and wave it in the air; the pain stabbed my body like a million cuts all over.  I drop to my knees as I hear a whirring noise above me. I can’t see who it is. I hear faint voices but they seem too far away to tell. Then everything is black.