Blood spewing out of his head. Gushing and slides down. A stretched smile. Blood against my face. Slides, smearing itself like war paint. The world feels like fire. My brain is fried working on overtime.
Looking down my shirt the color of my previously fully white-tee shirt. Now has a designated area for blood. The blood from the dead soldier. The dead soldier that died right in front of me.
'Why..?'
Unknowingly, my breathing becomes shallow. Causing me to breathe just like I taught to little girl. In through my nose out through my mouth. That didn't work. My breathing was still… irregular.
'He could have just left..?'
A hard gulp.. scratching my dry throat. Leaving it feel worse. Making me want to physically grab at it. Scratching, tearing my throat until I got air to breathe and water to moisturize it, but I can't. I can't even move my body refuses to move.
"Sir—"
The blood on my face starts feeling like tears. As if I'm crying. It feels like it as well. I feel like crying, vomiting and losing it. This… this wasn't what I thought it would be like. I have killed more people then I though ever. I died more than… than f*ckinganyone.
"Excuse me, Sir..?"
Tugging at the bottom of my shirt brings me back. A forceful but soft tugging. Behind me. Slowly turning my head, a small girl. I turn facing forward, away from the little girl. Lifting my shoulder sleeve to my face. Wiping away as much blood as I can.
Turning my body and dropping to her height. Bending just enough to be the same height. I try giving to illusion that I'm fine. A smile and a happy tone.
"Excuse me, Sir… thank you."
"No problem, shortie. My name is Keith, what's yours."
"My name is Dana. Keith, is your face okay. Your bleeding?"
She's right. My temple is bleeding. Included with the fact I know that my face isn't fully free of blood. Keeping my smile on my face, I answer.
"This.. pff. This is nothing. You should see the other guy."
She does. Tilting her head just enough to see his flopped body lying on the ground. Blood no longer gushing out more of just... slowly flowing out. That's not something a child her age should be seeing though. Tilting my head as well to stop her from staring any longer.
Footsteps, Heavy and slow. Still fairly far away. Loud enough to hear him though. Dons coming up to me.
"You should get back to mommy and daddy now, Dana. Okay."
She smiles, I don't know if she doing it because she still innocent, and doesn't know what happened to the soldier or if she just doing it because she wants to smile back. It doesn't matter because it makes me happy. For a second, just a small second I'm genuinely glad. Not to have let the soldier take her and... and that he died without any other casualties.
"Okay, Mr. Keith..."
She hugs me wrapping her arms around my neck. It's easy for her to do it as well, I always stayed the same height while talking to her. I didnt know what to do, if i should hug her back or if I should push her away so I just left her hugging me. Her tiny, dusty covered arms.
"...Thank you for saving me."
She lets go and walks back to family. All of them have a giant smile. They are all in a circle hugging and crying, except for the boy. Most tears comes from the mother, the father sheds little tears and the daughter. She just smiles. She… she's like a ray of sun shine in the dark world of today.
The brother though he stares, wearing, the same as his father. For a second, I think he's staring, but his gaze it doesn't move when I move, and he's looking to low to be looking at me. I turn to try and see what he's looking at along with trying to fix my trajectory from where he's looking. Following his eyes it lies upon… Upon the body.
He staring at the dead body. The body been still long enough to attract some fly. Just a few, along with a big fly. Looking back up at him, his gaze is dark in a sense. In a sense of if he had to, he probably would have killed this guy himself for his sister. His mom pulls his head into the pillow blocking me from seeing anymore.
'He could end up a dangerous person.'
A hand jumps onto my shoulder. Making me jump a little.
"Hey, you getting scared now? I think you might be far beyond getting scared. You should be more prepared."
My face shrinks slightly showing just pure anger, just a little.
"Ohh, Be prepared! Like how you were! When you decided to shoot! A GODDAMN GUN! Right into him scratching my F*CKING FACE!? That prepared."
He tilts his head to the side and looks at my temple.
"Yeah, I thought it wouldn't have hit you. Guess I made a bad estimation from where I stood."
What, pure stupidity, is going on in this guys brain. Here I was thinking he would be a guy that would understand human compassion and not do stupid sh*t, but he might be just as bad. Like, what the hell happened to the Don that was just chill and quiet.
"A bad, f*cking estimate. Yeah.. no sh*t, I'm bleeding from my head."
"Hey, I said I'm sorry."
"No… no the f*ck you didn't you actually never said sorry. Just that you made a mis-estimate. Which is f*cking stupid word."
"Well your, stupid for deciding to run into that altercation without a weapon. Or even checking him for other type of weapons."
He pushes me once or two, HARD. His two finger trying to dig into my shoulder. Shrugging me with those two pushes.
"What would have happened if he fired the gun from where he was standing, killed the girl or hell anyone els—."
He cut me off;
"You can't shoot a gun if your dead, holy sh*t m—."
Gradually getting more angry I do the same; cutting him off
"And a gun can't misfire right. Think about the time of year dumbass. Some of these gun are probably still being tested."
Anger is now the only expression showing on my face. It seems that way for Don. We both are just purely anger in this conversation. I don't know when he has been angry or for how long, but I know how long it has been for myself. Since the very f*cking beginning.
The conversation gets to a halt for a while. Both of us getting our fair share of spit on each others face. And letting out our true thoughts to one another. The silence is broken when someone from behind one of the house coughs. Don speaks up.
"Doesn't matter, I'm done with your sh*t! Deal with things by yourself. B*tch."
Don starts walking away. Stepping over the body. That even I didnt even know was that close to me. Before he gets far enough I grab him by the should. Getting some soot on his cloths from before.
He looks back for a brief second. Over his shoulder. To me then back my hand gripping his shoulder.
"Let go of my shoulder."
"No, there are bodies. We need to clean them up, burn or bury them."
"It's their people, let them decide."
"Make them clean this by themselves, really dumb—."
His other arm is cocked past his waist.
"Let go of my shoulder."
His arm shot past him fast, so fast.
I let go off his shoulder and lean back. His body twists and just barely missed me. I could still feel the wind from the strength hit my nose.
His body now positioned facing me. Trying to follow up with another strike. A right hook, body shot.
Kicking my front foot to push me back. He misses. I stabilize myself with my rear foot, then push forward close the distance fast between both of us. Going for the same move from before. I through a body shot, hitting him in the rib.
He jabs fast but not fast enough. I lean just inside the jab, getting close to him and elbow him in the jaw, turning my body with my elbow as to get more strength into. Considering our weight aren't a good comparison.
He stumbles back, left foot back trying to stabilize then the right foot back. Two giant strides from a relatively tall man. Until he falls square on his ass. Getting dirt and god knows what else on himself.
"Goddamn it!"
He yells that out as he shakes himself back. Hands on his head, trying to keep himself from spinning world right now. I know this because that's how it felt when he punched me that last time.
"F*ck it, you can go. But remember the next time you think you can just knock me out it's going to be hell of a lot hard. That last time was a sucker punch!"
Don brings himself to a knee. Holding up his body weight and that sole knee being the stability for him. Holding him in place until he's ready. He brings himself to a full standing point. But he can't hold it. He slowly starts falling trying to grab anything for balance.
Reaching out my arms, I hold him up. Trying desperately to keep the balance for the both of us. He now grabs my arms with both his hands and pulls me fast to him. He headbuts me again.
Making me fall in the same manner that he did just before. A massive headache. A horrible pulsating headache. Like drums being played as loud as possible with no known rhythm. And birds scream, bloody murder.
I try to stand but just to fall right back down. My head only gets worst. My vision now starting to blur. But I can still see. Someone is in front of me. Yelling at my face crouching in front of me. A guy that I think is Don, but not fully sure.
But the eardrums, drums are louder. Can barley hear what the guy is saying. I start grabbing at my forehead. Trying to massage it. He starts putting his blurry fingers in my face. I notice I start saying double.
"Ho- many f—gers — I h-lding?"
'How many fingers am I holding? That's what he said right?'
I had to decipher what he said by putting it together in my head. His fingers are all weird. Squiggly, Multiplying.
'His fingers. How many?'
The thought is stuck there in the forefront of my mind.
"I think about four fingers."
Theres another person, can't really tell how they are or how they look. I'm also starting to think that there are multiple people because now, they are growing in numbers.
The man looks between himself and the other person. They grow in numbers again. Those people also look between themselves as well. Or thats what I think some are just looking off into the distance.
Soon someone pulls me up from behind. I try to stand but I can't. I reach to grab hold of anything. Someone, something. Someone does grab me. A big man, that's all I can tell. He grabs my arm, lifting it and putting it over his shoulder. Keeping me up.
My vision blurred and my legs can just barley put one foot in front of the other. Lifting my right leg, then my right and again and again. until we reach some place. I couldn't tell from what was happening or my brain had finally exploded, but we were apparently heading to someones house. We have been walking for fifteen, or so, minutes.
The house was still standing, not unscathed, but also, not looking to good. The house was on the in between. A two story white house, up until you see the edges of the roof and up. Colored with red, that would have been bright if not for the situation that happened here. The roof ends into a a triangle shape. Pointing towards the sky. The front door a shade of brown, light shade of brown. The windows on the lower floor cracked and broken, ones on the top are just cracked.
The man walks me forward leading me to the front door. Two small steps before he grasps the doorknob and pushes it open. we enter the house and, as blurry as my vision may see but it wasn't hit as bad as the other houses. I enter to stairs by the front door, what I think is a giant opening to the left, which is where the man turns me toward. Not being able to see so much as five feet, Thats is all I'm able to see the house, the door entering to the stairs going straight up to the second story, and the opening.
In the opening is a couch and some other blurry decoration. The couch is were the man drops me. I flop down like a sack of potatoes. A heavy f*cking sack.
"If you can hear me, you need to catch some sleep."
"Yeah... Yeah, okay."
I could feel my words slur a little. like I couldn't open my mouth all the way, or my tongue didn't fully cooperate with my mouth or my mind. that didn't matter now, I just want rest.
The couch is a little small. If I were to lay down my legs would be going over the arms and my head would be laying right on the arm. That doesn't stop me though. I lay down facing outward and bringing my feet to my butt, making a type of triangle with my legs. My hands to my head as pillows. I'm relax, the dizziness is fading and I drift off to slumber.