IT BEGAN AS IT ALWAYS HAD BEFORE. The desert town, the jeep, the routine supply run to the airstrip to pick up the gear. Murphy was there as he was always there, Aiden’s Lieutenant and his best friend.

“Ready to go Cap?” Murphy says with that perpetual cheeky grin. His strong southern accent had been a point of teasing from the rest of the unit as well as his constant spouting of good old fashioned homespun wisdom, but to Aiden he’d brought back memories of his own childhood on a farm in Minnesota.

“Start her up.” Aiden feels himself saying and he spins a finger in the air, a signal to the other trucks in the convoy. There was the growl of engines breaking the morning stillness and they were off, riding down the rutted road and out of the town.

Aiden thrashes, he had seen it too many times. Too many times waking and sleeping he had seen it, analyzed it, fought it even now he knew it was a dream but no matter how hard he fought he couldn’t wake up, couldn’t stop himself couldn’t warn his unit of what he knew was coming. He moans in the morphine induced sleep why couldn’t he wake up!

They made it to the airstrip without incident and loaded the gear from the plane into the trucks in record time. The day was beautiful … for the desert at least there was even a breeze and everyone was in a high mood during the ride back later in the day.

“You’re going on leave in a couple days aren’t you,” Aiden hears himself saying.

“Hell yeah Cap,” Murphy thrilled turning to him a moment than turning back to the road, they were entering the gorge, one of the few places where the flat desert rose in two rocky precipices lining both sides of the road for over a mile. “Three whole months home with my wife and baby Jess …. damn you know Cap I only got to see Jess for a little while right after she was born she probably won’t even remember me.”

Aiden feels the smile tug at his lips as he turns from his lieutenant to scan the road ahead. He gazes up the wall of the precipice and his eyes narrow as some flicker of movement catches his eye perched on an outcropping of rock.

“…No… don’t ….” the words emerge slurred by sleep. Aiden’s  breathing is ragged, sweat beading on his forehead.

“Hey hold up a sec, Murph” Aiden says and latches a hand to the top of the windshield hiking himself up. The rest of the convoy is rumbling to a stop behind. “Hand me the glasses,” he orders holding out a hand blindly in the other man’s direction not taking his eyes from the spot he thought he had seen the movement. He felt the cold metal in his hand and raised the binoculars to his eyes squinting through them towards that spot down the gorge high on the wall.

Aiden tosses and turns in the hospital bed, “No… stop… “

Aiden spun the knob adjusting the view distance and as the distant ledge swam into focus his heart sank and time seemed to slow. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he spun to face his men motioning frantically for them to abandon the vehicles, to find some form of shelter … any form of shelter … his eyes scanned desperately but all there was was rock wall and road and no time … so little time.

He heard it coming … the whistle of the rocket that had been fired from the laucher by the enemy soldiers perched on that ledge … and then the world exploded. The rocket hit several cars back in the line just close enough for the force of the blast to pick Aiden up from where he stood in the jeep and fling him like a rag doll. Fire rained down. Three more rockets whistled then struck destroying and sending dust and chunks of metal of varying sizes flying around like missiles in their own right.

Aiden lay on the ground the world flickering. Pain like white fire ran across his middle other smaller blooms of pain pocked his torso where tiny pieces of metal had dug in. He opened his mouth trying to call for his men trying to see if they were all right, if any of them were alive. The roaring of the explosions and the ringing and pounding in his ears were fading, replaced by the sounds of muffled voices speaking in the guttural accents of the region.

He struggled to raise his head, groaning at the pain lancing through him. The entire front of his shirt through his torn army issue coat was slowly staining crimson but there was no time. Enemy soldiers were coming to finish the job they had started. With a wrenching groan through his teeth he turned over to his side scanning what was left of the line, litter was everywhere mostly indistinguishable in the chaos but a large chunk of a vehicle that had been ripped in half lay not far from him and he began to drag himself towards it clenching his teeth until he thought they would crack in the agony that ripped though him.

Barely in time he managed to crawl under the wreckage nearly blacking out from the pain … he wished he had blacked out … he wished he had died … rather then hear it.

The enemy soldiers trudged by laughing and chatting flippantly until they came to a body, most were dead … most not even whole … but some, those lucky few who had been blown clear or who had managed to avoid the worst of the 4 blasts that had torn the unit apart … those they killed one by one. Aiden heard their screams, heard them die and could not help them.

He lay his world flickering in and out the anguish drowning him, the pain threatening to drag him down immobilizing him but never enough to block out those sounds. Just as things began to fade he heard it … a familiar voice ….

“No ! Please ! ” A gunshot and silence.

Murphy’s voice.

Aiden closed his eyes his heart pounding in his ears pain was distant as he floated in emptiness. Darkness was closing in … he was dying … at least he damn well hoped he was dying.

It Began As It Always Had Before … He couldn’t wake up.