scripted reality (jay halstead / upstead / one chicago (cast))

chapter 27

Shielding a young girl that was without a mother and seemed to not yet know the unmistakeable signs of something bad about to happen, I turned my back and pushed her to the ground for cover. I glanced around to look for her sister, but it all went down too fast.

There's no way you can escape the wave of heat and destruction that follows a bomb hitting so close to you. Of course, we were alert. We were always alert. But we weren't prepared. We didn't know they were coming.

The power of the detonation carried me along and I hit the earth hard. I dared to look up from where I was now lying flat on the dusty, empty ground that was this part of the valley. The last thing I saw had the looks of a battlefield: the smoke and the dust and the blood, and all the people that were either injured, or dead, or neither of both because they weren't people at all, merely unrecognizable parts of body parts left over from what they experienced in their final moments – the same wave of heat and destruction that I knew all too well.

There was nothing humane about it, really. It was pure luck whether you ended up being the person that made it, or the person whose parts of body parts would be hard to identify once the dust settled. And the chance of making it wasn't significantly higher just because you were American, or because you were with the rangers. And who was hit by a bomb – the enemy, your own people, civilians – was a whole different question.

I tried to see, but it was hard. A stinging pain shot through my body. I blinked a few times. Then I rolled over so I was facing the ground and covered my ears as more bombs hit, not far away. I breathed in dust, and a moment later, everything went black.

When I regained consciousness, I didn't know for how long I had lost it. It couldn't have been long, though. My ears were ringing, and all noises appeared as if it wasn't me hearing them, as if they were far away in the distance – the same nasty way it happened from changes in air pressure on a plane, just a whole lot worse. The same deceitful silence that always followed an explosion.

I turned and I coughed, and I blinked a few times again. The dust had yet to settle, but I already got a good glimpse of the full extent of destruction. People where running, those who couldn't run were crawling. People were coming towards this side of the valley from nearby, where it hadn't been as bad, seeing what was going on. People were helping each other up, just trying to get away. Where to? Who knows. They hardly had anywhere to go. But that didn't matter.

Sitting up, my vision turned blurry. I couldn't care. I saw the girl I had shielded a few feet away from me, another girl taking care of her. She was fine, at least. I was unable to think clearly, or to understand what was going on. I felt helpless, in some kind of weird shock that made me almost unable to move, although I had to. I slowly started to regain my hearing, just a little so I could make out screams and shots, but I couldn't tell where they were coming from. I hurried to get up and steadied myself against a rock when dizziness overcame me again.

I made out a crackle followed by a few words. "... anyone can hear me. Requesting an immediate report." I didn't hear the full thing, but it was enough to know the military base was in utter turmoil. Suddenly hit by what happened, I grabbed my radio. Nobody was responding. Why was nobody responding?

"We were bombed," I managed to report. My hand was shaking. My voice sounded distant. I took a quick look around. "There must be dozens dead and at least a few dozen more civilians injured. We need medical corps and backup, fast."

There was a short silence in which I tried to block out the screams around me and realized that my hand was covered in blood. I didn't know where from, but it must have been mine. I almost started to wonder if anyone at the base had heard me at all when the reply came. "We'll do what we can." The radio crackled as the guy paused for a second. "What about your people?" he then asked.