The Experiment

~8~

As we were retrieving I felt something in my chest again. Some weird feeling. Like someone stabbed me and it went through my lungs. I couldn't breathe. My last atom of oxygen was sucked out of my body and I was feeling like I could fall dead right here, right now. I didn't know what it meant... until it was to late. So much anxiety which I didn't even know my body could create. But it did. And it happend. Right between the eyes. And Williams fell dead. Smith got the same faith. And I couldn't do anything. I just stood there. Pale, cold face... like that creature that is often associated with Romania. And which comes from some rural, old castle on the top of the hill. Thing that everyone is feared of. Cold-hearted, blood-sucking creature. Vampire. Only am I not. I'm just a human. But for a second, I wished I was one. To just get to the enemies in a matter of seconds and drain their bodies. To stop this bloodbath. But I couldn't. I didn't. I could have done something, that's for sure. Only I haven't. I looked in front of myself like some kind of idiot. Like the shooters would just come in front of me, lay their guns and surrender themselves. That would sure make things easier. But why would it be easy, if it can be complicated. - I tought to myself.

All of the sudden I felt sharp pain in my left shoulder. Someone pulled me in. I can tell they didn't care if they would rip my shoulder off, from the rest of my body. It sure felt like it. Just after some minutes I started understanding that someone was talking to me. Yelling precisely. 

"Cromwell, I swear to fucking God if you don't wake up from your little fairytale I will jerk you out of it myself." - Sergeant yelled.

I still didn't quite understand what he was saying but soon after I did. I felt sharp pain on my right cheek. That bastard slapped me. Hard.

"You Son of a bitch! Did you just slap me?" - I demanded the answer with fury collecting inside me. After everything he slaps me?! 

"What did you just called me?" I felt another slap on my cheek. That's when I stood up and started throwing punches. I was on the ground once again. I heard yelling but couldn't recognise any of the words. The sound of words was mixed with the sounds of gunshots. When I stood up the shooters saw me and started shooting at us. Again. As my mind started to clear itself, I began to acknowledge my surroundings. We were in a forest behind some pretty big stone. It was really dark. You coundn't see the finger in front of your nose. The sky was full of clouds just waiting to start pouring. Only light that was given to us was when the bullet left the barrel on the rifle. That second when you had to dodge the bullet, you also had to look to see where your enemies are hiding. It started bothering me so much to just hide there. I turned around to talk to my fellow soldiers. There were none there. I turned to the sergeant and looked him dead in the eye. "Where are the others?"

"They are dead you shithead. Their guts feeding the ground." I just looked at him. His description was quite awful. And quite artistic. "Only breathing are us and Johnson and Monroe." 

"Shit." I said. "What happend?"

"What happend? WHAT HAPPEND? Are you fucking kidding me right now? What happend? Did you fall in a hole and went to the Wonderland in the last 30 minutes? Did you get lost in the Chocolate factory, by any chance? Haa, Willy Wonka? Sorry to pull you out of the closet for Narnia, but we have serious shit problem here."

"Okay, jeez, sorry I was just asking. You didn't have to mention every fictional world possible."

"For fucks sake, if you don't shut up I will yeet you out of here for them to shoot you." I could tell he was really agitated. He stood on the edge to doing so. I didn't want to push any further.

The same feeling in my chest came back. But it was different now. I felt like the feeling was a part of me. Like it always have been, but only now it had woken up. Maybe, I thought to myself, is that the survival instinct. But it didn't feel like it. It felt like it knew what to do, like I knew what to do. And without realising, I found myself standing up and running towards where the shots came from. I was telling my legs to stop running but they didn't listen. They were running over the dead leaves and jumping over the fallen branches. Then I hid. Like my thoughts were delivered to my body with delay. But again I stood up without consenting and found myself jumping over the fallen tree and slicing someones throat. The blood started gushing and my clothes were sipping wet. As I came to the realisation, I threw the knife in the darkness. It wasn't my command and it made no sense, because I coundn't possibly see anything. Just then I could hear a low moan. I started approaching the sound, which I thought was very dumb concluding every horror movie I ever watched. There layed a person, a male, from his obvious features. Black skii mask, which was only revealing the eyes, and a helmet. His uniform was different, yet not so much. It was black but had the US military print. Which was weird. Every country has their own print on the uniform. To the normal people the difference is not very visible but it is there. And this was the same print like I had on my uniform. Only black version. That meant that this was the uniform from the US. No other country can copy the print from another. But that felt like a lie. It must have been a coincidance. This must be some terrorist organisation. Taliban perhaps. Or maybe even Al-Qaeda. I slipped from my thoughts by hearing the approaching footsteps. I pointed my rifle and put a finger on a trigger. I was ready to fire when I saw a familiar face. I lowered the rifle and seeing Monroes face felt like having a first kiss. I was so glad to see him and not one of those assasins here. "Gosh, you scared me. I could of shoot you." I said while putting my hand on my chest, like it would calm my heart down. "Come on, you dick! I don't have whole night for you." Monroe said while breaking the laugh. "I didn't think you would be able to do this" He said while refering to the corpses laying there. " Sliced throat AND a knife through the heart. Bullseye." I couldn't comprehend how could someone be so calm about that. Proud even. The scene was cousing my stomach acid to boil. I could have vommited only by thinking about it, without even seeing it. But he did it for longer time than I am and I am sure that he just got used to it. "Come on, everyone is waiting for you." He said while jumping over the wall. I started when I realised. "Everyone?" I thought to myself. That word kept going through my mind. "What do you mean everyone?" I asked confused. "The operatives. Organisers. And others." As sinister as it sounded, I still couldn't believe something like that could be true. But I started again despite all of the things that were going on in my mind. I must have imagined it. 

***

Approacing the chopper I could see some familiar faces. Among them were white coats. What would doctors do in the middle of the battlefield. It all seemed very weird. As I was boarding and festening my seatbelt, I heard a voice from behind me saying. "You did good son, you did good." I turned around and saw an older looking man. The light-gray satin suit shining in the moonlight. His bald top of the head reflecting the light in all directions. His gray mustache hiding his upper lip and making him look funny while speaking. "Would you mind telling me who you are and what the hell is going on? I have already completly turned in my seat which was not safe at all following the security measurements. The man turned and I could see his face clearly now. He looked way older than he really is. His black eyebags showing he had little to none sleep in the last two days. "My name is Admir Kelmendi. This there is my daughter Ajla." I was immidiately stunned by this womans appereance. She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman I ever saw. Her long, curly, ginger hair shining like the diamonds in the first morning sun completed with beautiful green eyes. She could be easy be mistaken for an Irish. Only her name didn't fit. Maybe she is adopted - I thought to myself. But I dismissed that thougth and just enjoyed the beauty that found itself in my presence. Even though her death stare was piercing my soul.  Admir continued while pointing on soldiers I killed: "And those soldiers are mine." He broke a smile on his wrinkled face and turned around.

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Sorry for the long wait. I kinda lost motivation to write but I think I found it again. :)