A Soldier's Permission to Die

CHAPTER 6

Chapter 6

There we were, the glorious soldiers on parade.

We were all lined up one after another, moving out across the tarmac Only instead of marching, we were being pushed. The squeaky and fearsome charge of the thousand wheelchair brigade, each one painted with army green camo, rolling along toward the main base.

What a triumphant entry, I thought. I’m sure as hell glad Aksalano wasn’t a war zone, I cant imagine a more inviting picture for invasion by an enemy force than our little “victory march”.

Behind each chair was a member of the Aerodrome guard dressed up in their purple uniforms. They had already been stationed here for months or years, and they were busy giving each of us our welcoming dues. The one pushing Spiderman a few chairs in front of me was a particularly burly spec 4 who looked like he’d just been ordered to clean the latrines with his own toothbrush.

“So this is the sorry ass shit they're sending over the hop these days. Soldier, they should have done us all a favor and left your ass off back at the moon.”

Spiderman was never the one to back down from a proper hazing. “Keep talking grape ape, and I'll see to it we switch places.” “

“Oh really, hopper?” said the guard. “Oops....”

Spidy's chair tilted forwards suddenly and he tumbled out onto the ground.

“Awww...I'm sorry. Looks like I dropped another one.” he said. The others just laughed and went around him.

“Hey, Kahill, what'd I tell you about taking a dump on the tarmac?” Laughed one of the passing guardsmen.

Spidy looked up at his wheelchair caddy angrily. “You motherfucker...I'll remember you.” he said. I knew he would too.

The guard yanked Spidy up and flopped him roughly back into the chair, then rejoined the line. “By all means. It's Kahill. K-A-H-I-L-L. Sounds a lot like “KILL”. I'll write it down for you if you like.” said the guard. “That is, if a dumb motherfucker like you even knows how to read.”

“Hey Spidy”. I yelled back. “I think that may qualify you for a purple heart!”.

“It oughta...”, he said. “I'm already in the fucking chair anyway. But Mr. lard ass here is gonna catch a few more of those medals than me when I get my legs back.”

“Anytime you like, Gumby.” said Kahill. “Anytime...”

In the distance ahead of us were several military buildings. To the north of us was the city I had seen earlier, but to the south, in the distant horizon, was the greenest, lushest, most amazing hills and valleys I had ever seen. It stretched on for miles. My God I thought...I really had arrived. This was the most beautiful land I had ever laid eyes on in my life. Nothing like it existed back on Earth. The wide, vast openness of it was...incredible. It was everything I had hoped for and more.

My childhood dream was finally coming true. I was here!

As we approached the end of the tarmac, there stretched a long steel fence with a large with an impending gate directly in the middle. Above it was an enormous metal archway that rose at least twice as high as the fence-work to either side. One by one we began to pass through underneath it. I looked at the top. Engraved in the metal plate-work high above me were the words “Aksalano Space Center – Military Section”. Below that, someone had dangled a painted sign that read “THE GATES OF HADES”.

As we passed beyond the threshold, I turned my head and looked back behind me. There were more hand painted words on the back side of the hanging sign which read “EDEN'S DOOR”. The sign didn't make a lot of sense to me. Behind us was the dusty gray tarmac of the spaceport. In front of us was the Lush green hills of the Athelnian landscape. They obviously had the sign turned around the wrong way...maybe on purpose? as a joke?