No Man's Land

Chapter 6

        His eyes opened as he took in the light through the blinds the white room his home he saw the suite case packed ready thrust against the wall he saw her move dressed already before the day has even started his last day the day he leaves he's confused she approaches she speaks to him but he can't hear what she's saying only that its killing him feeling the pain in his chest as he reaches for her arm to stop her from leaving she screams she hits him he pulls away she yells.

        He remembered the dream as they walked in silence. He remembered the image and the thoughts that haunt him. Ken and Beth did not speak to each other. They woke up, roasted some of the near spoiled meat for breakfast and continued down the east bound highway. The silence was deafening between them, trapping him with his own thoughts. This was how it always ended. All of his ties and his relationships ended in silence and coldness with eelings hurt and bridges burned. He tried to speak to her a few times, but she ignored him obviously not interested in his friendship. He still did not understand her attachment to what he thought were monsters, to what every human came to know as murderers of thousands, the perpetrators of a holocaust. Maybe, he thought, what if what she said was true? What if we struck first? He tried dismissing it as it sounded like what a crazy conspiracy theorist would say. He could not bring himself to believe a government would sacrifice their own kind to kill something for nothing. He remembered the headlines, the articles, the news pieces; an alien invasion seemed far more credible than a genocide. He looked at Beth. He began to look at her as the crazy one. He tried to convince himself she was a savage drove to madness by hunger and devastation but he did not really even believe it. Damaged is one thing but she is more sane than he ever was. She didn't choose any of this but he, however, is the main reason he's here. He chose this. He remembered the lie he told her, that he was drafted. After the bombings no one was drafted. People signed up in droves to be the first ones to bring the fight to the vicious, marauding invaders. He himself was caught up in it all. The pictures and videos of the horror were broadcast nationwide for all to consume and process, allowing fervent nationalism to take hold of their minds, their hearts, and their souls. He remembered seeing images of their enemies, caricatured to reveal sickly, jet black skeletons of spines and horns, monsters from somewhere deep in space arriving to slaughter American innocence. The hate grew in him. He felt the obligation to protect. Hate turned to action and soon his signature stained the documents of servitude to the United States Air force. No discussion or compromise, this was the path he chose. He thought was the right path but all actions come at the cost of others. A relationship ended in silence, feelings were hurt and bridges were burned.

        She did not know why hate burned inside her and directed itself towards her wayward companion. His words gnawed at the fraying threads of her sanity. She realized her outburst was a cry of pent up rage and passion but he embodied the life she always wanted and had grown to hate. He had a stable life but decided to throw it away for a cause he knew nothing about. He hated things beyond his understanding. In her mind she resented him. He served the arbiters of her destruction, the system that failed her so many times before. Sure, she thought, he was just someone caught in the heat of the situation and did what he was told was right, what the country and the world expected of him. Maybe that was why she broke before him. He conformed when she fought. He stayed when she fled. He served when she deserted. As they trotted against the midday heat along the asphalt, her emotional buildup began to deflate.

        "Where is she now?' She asked him, bridging the gap between them.

        "What?" He replied in confusion.

        "Your wife, where did she go? She left right?"

        "Somewhere I would never see her again, I'm sure. Knowing her she's far away by now. She doesn't have any qualms about cutting ties with those her hurt her."