Interior Monologue

Step by wicked step, my boots sank further and further into the thick, red-tinged land as if the devil himself were dragging my body straight into the depths of hell. The rhythmic squelching stabbed through my rubber soles, radiating pain throughout my soul as it seared everything in its path. Squelch, squelch, squish. My tempo was interrupted by those cursed boots refusing to budge from the stubborn terrain. As if taunting me, the earth unhooked my feet from the damned soil and I found myself catapulted face-first towards the ground.

Haven’t I had enough? In the space of a few days, I had been thrown into a living nightmare worse than I could ever have imagined. Now, all I could taste was the saturated, acrid, mud and the salty tang of blood where I had bitten the inside of my lip. My vision blurred as I willed strength to enter my fatigued body, drained dry from the never-ending march of despair. Caterwauling erupted around my vicinity, however too
chaotic to be discernible. The grinding screech of metal on metal bled into my ears while my spine was trampled over and over as the panicked cries grew louder until it eventually subsided. Something clicked in my foggy and disoriented brain, unlocking my frozen muscles as I managed to scramble to my numb feet.

Debris littered the desolate landscape. Though the silence was deafening, I could still hear the echoes of death around me. An abandoned wagon lay beside lifeless corpses caked with dust; their blood-smeared faces staring at nothing with blank, unseeing eyes. My heart froze in terror as the shadows shifted to reveal a grotesque, hideous, monster with a long, trailing tube extending from its pig-like snout and wide, circular eyes. I cried out, even though my throat was scratched and raw from the dry, parched air as the monster reached towards me. Foam mixed with blood and phlegm spewed from my lips as I wheezed for breath, choking on my saliva. The figure watched as I fell helplessly to my knees, suffocating, reduced to a mere beggar.

A distant, half-forgotten memory resurfaced. Floundering in my uncle’s pool, my cousin had salvaged my unconscious body from the deep blue waters. The smell and taste of the smothering liquid filled my nostrils as I relived the memory from my childhood. Who would have thought I, a naughty, disobedient child would rather drown than heed my parents? Yet, those same parents had supported and even encouraged me down this foul, destructive path. Though it was an eternity too late for such regrets, there was nothing I could have done to reverse my outcome.

Will stared at the dying man’s contorted, disfigured, inhuman face in horror.
The gruesome scene that burned itself into his retina would torment his dreams for years to come. Even when it was over, the image replayed itself in his mind until he could bear it no longer. What a waste of life; though he didn’t know the man in question, he knew it didn’t matter. There were millions like them every single day, experiencing unspeakable suffering and agony. Fred walked up to stand beside him, shaking his head in regret. No words were necessary to communicate the heinous crime against humanity that lay face down before them, limbs splayed at an awkward angle. “Back to work, Will,” he sighed in a monotone voice. Though Will couldn’t see Fred’s eyes through the ghastly helmet, he knew they were bloodshot as his were. Who knows; it could be either one of them next though the alternative didn’t sound any better. A long, arduous journey lay ahead before they could return home. To die for one’s country; what a sick, cruel,
joke.