Dream Therapy

Dream Therapy part 14

I want to dedicate this chapter to IcyMist_, for everything she has done to help me. I appreciate it!

"I have dreamt in my life, dreams that stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through me, like wine through water and altered the colors of my mind"
-Emily Bronte

The rain had slowed a little as he looked to see his squad members there, in the middle of the clearing, hands tied behind them, skin dirty, pale and tinted a grotesque, sickly green, in the single ray of light coming from who knows where high above.

O'Connell, Alabama and Regis, the only men he had ever loved, his fellow black opps squad members, were sad and tired and downtrodden. He had spent countless hours training and living with these men. His heart ached to see them like this again. The memories of this disastrous mission replaying over in his brain. His anger and depression peeked there ugly mugs into his minds eye.

Max reached over and touched the bare shoulder of James Durand, he was called Alabama by Max and the rest of the squad, his skin was hot, sweltering, like he was in the throes of a high fever. Terry Regis turned his head and looked Max dead in the eyes and said, "it's not your fault. You could've nevah known there was a mole, Lieutenant. No one could've evah known." His southern accent sounded more pronounced now.

Jarvis O'Connell, without so much as a nod in his direction, told Max, "Don't blame yourself, man." His dark skin slick and shining like a piece of onxy, his eyes fixed on the forest beyond.

The rain picked up again now, it made it hard to hear and Max had to yell to overpower the deluge. "I had to leave you" he yelled, tears went unnoticed in the downpour,"I had to....".

With that Regis turn his head to look at Max, his neck twisted unnaturally, and he stated matter of factly. "So save us now."

Suddenly the bright green light went out. Max grasped his M-60 tight and flicked the safety off.

A flash of lightning,

Max saw a strange glint from something on the edge of the clearing, like a shiny piece of metal.

Another flash,

He saw it, the strangest thing. Teddy bears. Furry, brown teddy bears with big, sharp, polished teeth. All around, coming from the woods.

Flash,

Max shouldered his rifle, took aim and fired away. Double tapping, tak tak, one after another the brown devils fell or exploded in clouds of white cotton fluff and teeth. Every shot a flash of light exposing the cottony carnage. One teddy broke from the pack, side stepping Max's gunfire, then another.

Max saw large, sharp teeth flying toward him. He easily reached out and grabbed the first bear by the neck, then drew the Smith and Wesson .45 caliber semi auto he used as a side arm, and fired a single shot into the face of the second, showering metal teeth and fluff everywhere. He reholstered his handgun and removed his combat knife from his leg holster and slid it effortlessly through the neck of the bear in his hand, removed its head in a spectacular spray of cotton, like white blood. He returned to capping the remaining knife toothed bears, and after several minutes and many dead, but inanimate, bears later all was silent again except the rain. The light reappeared from above.

Max turn to see his men safely kneeling in the mud. He walked over, still holding his knife and cut the rope that restrained his mens hands, happy
to see them alive and relatively safe again. "Now you can stop being a bitch and put this behind you." Regis said, smiled and snickered, then reached out to shake Max's hand.

"One last goodbye,but we will do it right this time." Max stammered, filled with emotion, smacked his hand away and reached out to embrace his comrades, no his brothers. As he hugged them tightly and cried without a hint of shame, there was a clap of thunder and a blinding flash of bright, white light. Then all went black.