Of Myths Among Men

03: Long Road Ahead

The burning remains of what used to be an American convoy lay sprawled across a desert road. At this point, most have already died except for a few. A single could be seen moving through the wreckage quickly but carefully. He had his rifle up and his senses sharp despite his injuries.

Major Michael Kane, US Army, forced himself to keep moving despite the searing pain. His leg was broken and he was probably bleeding, but he needed to keep moving. There was still a working radio in one of the other Humvees, he needed to retrieve it and call for help.

His senses detected movement and from the corner of his eye, the silhouette of a human appeared. He quickly turned to its direction and fired off a couple of rounds from his rifle, and the insurgent fighter instantly went limp and fell to the ground. Another figure appeared and began to fire erratically in his direction, causing him to duck away. However, he quickly recovered and fired another two rounds, taking out this fighter in a fraction of a second. And it was clear, for the most part at least.

His breathing became more ragged by the second, he was feeling weaker, and his vision was starting to blur. Yeah, he was definitely bleeding somewhere and he could collapse any moment now. But he needed to keep going, his job wasn't done yet. He still had some fight left in him, so he willed himself to keep going. Until he heard a whizz followed by something slamming into his chest...

The force of the impact threw him back a bit apart from throwing him onto the ground. However, he quickly gathered up what remained of his strength before crawling to cover behind a burnt car and sitting up against it. His rifle fell out of his hand when he crashed, so he drew his pistol out in its place. Good thing he did as a fighter had rushed him when he went down. He rounded around the car only to get three 9mm rounds in his chest, throwing him to the ground and neutralizing him forever.

After a moment, Mike gave himself a quick assessment and noted blood quickly leaking out of his chest. A sniper had gotten him. This wound was fatal, this was it. He had given it his all, God knows he had. But it still wasn't enough...

Dropping the pistol and letting his hands fall to his sides, he opted to simply look up to the sky, trying to find some peace in these last moments of his. Surprisingly, he wasn't afraid. With what he's gone through, death might as well be freedom and he welcomed it. Now he wondered what he'd tell those on the other side, if there even was another side. He wondered if God would even bother judging him for what he's done. He wondered if Satan would welcome him as a friend, or perhaps not; maybe he'd also be disgusted with him. Oh well, whatever, there was nothing more he could do about it.

Something then caught his eye. He turned to it and scanned it, despite his blurring vision. It was a human, a woman too. She was quite a tall lady with long, pink hair that flowed through from the desert winds. She wore a black dress with a tattered cape on her back and a transparent veil on her head. She also wielded a massive scythe that she held only with her left hand. The woman was looking down at him with her dark pink eyes with an indiscernible expression. Mike, however, wondered what this was about, but ultimately did not mind. If this was the last thing he saw before going away forever, then it wasn't so bad.

"Are you here for me?" He asked.

And she answered. "Not quite."

"... Huh?"

"Get up, Mike. Life is not done with you yet," She said.

 "W-what?"

"Get up," She repeated more firmly.

"W-Wait..."

Explosions rang in the background as helicopters flew overhead. Help had arrived.

"Get up!" She ordered.