G H O S T R U N N E R

< F O U R T E E N >

© Amber Kalkes 2014

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< F O U R T E E N >

 The desert sun beats down on Sam’s shoulders as he looks out at the expanse of heat and sand before him. This tour has been for nearly a year and he’s feeling more and more homesick as every day passes. He wants to see his sister, his aunt and be in the much cooler weather of back home instead of feeling sweat in-between his toes under his combat boots.

The sound of gravel shifting makes him look over his shoulder to see his friend, Danny approaching him. In the distance Sam sees the tan painted Humvee in the distance ready to go about ten feet away from him. He doesn’t know it now but that Humvee with change his life forever. Turning towards his friend he sees Danny smile at him widely.

“Hey, the convoy commander wants have a few words with us before we head out.”

Sam nods and follows Danny towards were the Convoy Commander is addressing about three other soldiers in his company who will be coming as well. It’s a simple mission really bringing food, water, parts, mail and other random but needed things to the other operation base. Sam doesn’t think anything of it; he’s done many runs like this before and all have gone fine for the most part.

He knew how lucky he was, too.

As they all get going, packed into the large Humvee and already on the road Sam looks outside the windows to look for anything that may be out of place. He can’t see much for the billowing sand and dust coming back up from the spinning tires but he does know his gut is telling him something is wrong. Chalking it up to psyching himself out he ignores the feeling and just keeps watching out the long rectangular window.

Suddenly a blast erupts under the back left tire, right next to Sam. Sam can’t stop the feeling of his stomach throwing itself into his throat, the scream he releases as fire scorches his body or the ringing in his ears as everything is silent but everything is still moving at a hyper fast pace. Sam can’t focus, he can’t see, he can’t feel anything but the pain reverberating through his very bones.

Sam blacks out.

When he wakes up again something is very wrong with his body. He can’t move it and all these strange beeping noises are echoing in his ears in the stillness of the room he’s in. Sam looks around but knows in the stark room he is alone but it doesn’t take long for him to realize he is also in a hospital.

Now the questions come into his mind.

What happened? What was that blast? Is everyone okay? Is he okay?

His brain is hazy and from the tubes sticking out of him he assumes he must be on pain meds. Lying back against the pillow propped behind his head he closes his eyes hoping someone will come soon to answer his questions. When he opens his eyes he jerks back from the sight above him. A man is in a hospital bed with nothing but a blanket covering his manly parts and the right side of his body, the left is completely destroyed. Red, black and pink ruined flesh mar this man’s body but Sam doesn’t make the connection that it is actually him in the reflection until he moves his hand and sees the man do the same thing.

He is that monster in the mirror and as that realization sinks in, Sam screams.

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Sam flings himself awake flailing his limbs in panic before the feel of a small tingling section of his hand brings him to a halt. He freezes mid-motion and looks over to see glowing golden eyes in the dark. The eyes shift forward and into the moonlight seeping through the windows in the room to show the face of Arden. She’s looking at him apprehensively, like he’s the scared animal about to run instead of her.