War: A Business

Chapter 15: Artillery

  Artillery rained like hell.

  I heard explosions of the shells of artillery, exploding as they touched the ground.

   I heard the screaming of panicked men.

   I heard the shouting of their commanding offficers; barking orders that were lost in the chaos.

I heard the cries of the wounded, probably dismembered, or watching themselves bleed to death.

  Having experienced war and strife at many fronts since childhood, I'm used to it.

The sounds of war.

Later, the bombardment stopped.

I crawled out from under the tank.

  Dead bloodied bodies were splattered and sprawled on the sand-covered pavement full of craters.

  Being a man who experienced many conflicts, I'm used to seeing these kind of displays. I feel nothing.

  Wars made me a cold-blooded killer; I have slaughtered people with my own hands.

Wars made me lose hope for humanity; petty powerful people forcing other less powerful people fighting their petty wars, not for their country or their lords, but for money and power.

  Wars made me lose my humanity. Every person that I murdered took a piece of my humanity, until I became a husk of my former self; a soulless killing machine coerced by money.

  I cannot remember when I lost my humanity amongst the things that make me human.

  I cannot remember how humanity feels like. It seems like a billion years ago when I haven't seen the horrors of war.

   Now I am a being who is made to kill. My hands are made to hold weapons, my eyes to locate the enemy, my brain deciding how to kill the enemy.

  I accepted it long ago, but I still question the notion of fate. What benevolent god would leave his children behind? What heavenly father would let his children suffer if he loves them?

  Maybe he is dead, and we have killed him long ago.If God was alive, I would go to Heaven just to kill him again for being a neglecting piece of shit.

  I trod lightly, trying to avoid leaving tracks in the sandy concrete. The drones wont notice me.

  I walked aimlessly amongst the destroyed structures and dead bodies scattered among the debris.

My Holo ringed. Somebody called me.

"Sorry I didn't warn you earlier, The comms were jammed."he apologized.

"What? How? Our comm links are much harder to breach than most links!"I exclaimed.

"I don't know! It just happened!"

"Where are you exactly?"

" Back at the highway." he answered.He send me the coordinates of his current location.

" Well, I'll just mark an extraction point south from here."

"Good luck, your little brother is worried about you. Try to stay alive."

"I will. "

   I walked further amongst the ruins.