Time Keeps on Ticking

The days were bitter cold and never ending. Jamie sat there in her foxhole, gawking at the woods that surrounded her. Moments before, a disastrous explosion occurred where she and her company were stationed. Trees were broken at their bases. Dirt covered the snow where grenades had landed and gone off. The corpses of innocent animals were scattered across the area. Jamie tried to imagine the explosions were only giant firecrackers and cherry bombs that went out of control. But that wasn't the case. When she heard the medic talking to one of the soldiers about his friend Walter, who had been killed, she knew it was all reality.

"Did you want to go see them one last time?" Doc Reilly asked Sergeant Madeley.

"No, I wouldn't want to see them like that," Madeley said, shaking his head.

Jamie climbed out of her foxhole and followed Doc Reilly to, what use to be, Walter's foxhole.

"Hey, Doc?" Jamie said, trying to get his attention.

"Yeah?" he responded, looking back at her.

"Can I get something from Walter?"

He questioned her, wondering what she was going to retrieve. "Sure, he and Al are still over there."

She briefly looked into the foxhole, but couldn't really make much out. It wasn't until after she was only a few feet away from the bodies she could make out parts of what use to be Al and Walter. She took in a deep breath, almost a quiet scream. She closed her eyes, and pictured Walter smiling in front of her. She opened them back up and realized she would never see him again. It hit her hard, right then and there, that she lost a good friend and that war was real.

She fell to her knees trying to find Walters's pants pocket. Blood got on her hands and she froze, just staring at it. She shook her head, wiped the blood off onto her pants, and began searching again. She found what she was looking for in the first pocket she picked. There was a sigh of relief when she pulled out Walters's pocket watch, still intact.

She heard footsteps behind her and noticed it was Doc Reilly. She turned around and looked up at him. He reached out his hand to help her up.

"Are you done now?" Doc entreated.

She took his offer and he pulled her back onto her feet.

Before she walked away, she looked back one more time, hoping Walter and Al were sitting there, smoking a cigarette, but was disappointed with what she saw. She glanced at Doc and nodded. He called in more medics to help remove the bodies. She turned around for the last time and faintly whispered 'good-bye' to Walter.