The War In His Mind

Chapter 22

Screams and bullets fought for the crowded airspace of Uptown Wonder City. O'Neil's forces rose from the train station that connected Downtown and Uptown as Natasha and Israel dragged Abraham's body through the city to the field hospital set up on the other side of the river. The detritus of fallen soldiers from both sides made the journey tougher.

Israel knew something wasn't right. There were too many enemy soldiers in the city at once. O'Neil only had so many forces he could dispatch at once. They were spawning by the hundreds, maybe thousands. With them came a hail mary of rage and tactical assaults. The rebellion's forces couldn't keep up. One by one their men fell to early deaths.

Natasha held Abraham's feet while Israel held his back. Together they navigated the city-turned-battlefield.

It was all they could do to hold themselves together. Everything they worked for, all that they'd achieved. All the endless days of building an economy and culture. All the time spend working others to assemble an army. It was all vanity. A great striving after wind. Mortar shells rocked the ground beneath their feet and devastated the buildings surrounded them. A great sound struck in front of them. Flames and smoke rose from the field hospital. A mortar struck the heart of it. The workers inside rushed their patients out.

Israel and Natasha ducked, worried that more blasts would be coming. Natasha ushered to a nurse who had no patient. She was running away from the ruins of the field hospital in a panic. Where most of the staff were close to the ground and mixed in with the dead bodies. That nurse, however, seemed to have no sense of what was happening. She was walking around as if she were the ghost of a body that had already passed away. Her mouth uttered words but no distinguishable sound came out. Blood oozed from the corner of her mouth. Israel assumed that the sound of the mortar landing so close to her gave her a concussion, and that her body was in shock. He ran towards her to get her down on the ground like everyone else. She was standing there, so innocent, so simple. His feet couldn't move faster if he wanted them too. The ground beneath him was rigid and felt like small knives hitting the arch of his foot. Just a little faster and he could prevent something terrible.

He grabbed shoulders and pulled her to the ground. He could feel every heart beat drag it self out as time came to a virtual stand still. He closed his eyes and prayed for the best. A loud, crushing sound of metal and bone colliding struck his left ear. He felt warm blood splash onto his cheek. He did not know who it belonged to, and wasn't sure if he felt any pain. His entire body was numb with fear and adrenaline. The loose soil beneath him gave way and threw him off balance. He tried with all his might to keep his grasp on the woman. It was too much. She slipped out of his hands and went flying ahead of him. A long trail of blood poured out of a large hole in the middle of her skull. Israel could see the dark red matter that must have been a mixture of blood and brain tissue. It was in no distinguishable shape or form.

He collapsed onto the ground face first. The sharp sting of grass blades striking his face was nothing compared to what the nurse must have felt as the bullet collapsed her temple. Israel wept for her. There was no discernible way she could still be alive. It was easier to accept that she had left the world at the moment of impact rather than think of her suffering through her final moments, gasping for breath in the midst of a great war.

Natasha dropped Abraham and rushed to Israel, staying close to the ground the entire time. She grabbed his back and embraced him.

"Hey...hey..." she tugged at his shoulder. "Everything's alright...okay?"

She couldn't help but weep herself. There they were in the heart of the battle, weeping over the loss of innocent life. Pure life. A woman dedicated to the act of saving others.

"Abraham wouldn't of let this happen..." Israel said.

"He was something unique in a world of duality. Just like you are. You ain't him. You can't be."

"Well what If I have to be? What if he's really gone?"

Natasha looked back at Abraham's body and felt despair sink into her heart. She didn't know if he was alive or dead yet couldn't imagine a world without him. "...I...I don't know..." She put her hands in front of her and lifted herself off the ground. "...but I do know that we need to leave. So get up- or you'll die before you can become whatever it is that you need to be one day..."

Israel stared at her with a sense of longing. "You think I'll really be something?"

"We'll all be something. We just have to search long and hard to figure out what that something is."

Israel couldn't help but feel a sudden pang his chest when he noticed that Abraham's body was gone.