Sudden Departure

Chapter Thirty-One

I don’t really have a lot of great memory of what happened after our visit to the battlefield “memorial.” I just have a vague recollection of a lot of numbness and silence.

When we came through The Gateway at The Barracks the noise exploded at us with full force. It brought pain to me that all of the Guardians could forget the carnage and the destruction of this war happening. They just moved on.

Shane and I crammed ourselves into an elevator with four happily chatting Guardians. They quickly quieted down as our somber disease spread to them. It’s almost as if they could feel the morose energy seeping off of us because their eyes glazed over coldly and a harsh wave of quietude settled over us like a storm cloud.  

When the doors slid open with a clean swoosh my legs buckled beneath me. Shane half dragged half carried me across the hall to the Guardians bunks. I collapsed into a bed and tangled the ugly mustard colored sheets around my fingers. I pulled them up to my chin and buried my head in the pillow.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to sleep, but the intense images of the battle were burned behind my eyelids. Every time my eyes met the darkness the horror show revealed itself to me.

At some point, I just rolled over and stared at the ceiling. I could feel my body numbing its self, and my eyes drying out. I refused to blink and my eyes just glazed over.

I think eventually I fell asleep.

~~SD~~

Over the next few months I barely saw Shane. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was avoiding me, or the memory, but either way it was a relief. I didn’t think I was ready to face him so quickly after seeing what I saw.

I did see Death every morning, though. He began to invite me to breakfast shortly after the battlefield incident. Every morning I would greet him in his main room. We would sit down at a simple wooden table, covered in a lace cloth, and eat various breakfast foods. He and I also talked. Death was interested in learning about my life in The Barracks (probably to understand why I still hadn’t been assigned.) But more often than not, we talked about my assistance in the war efforts, which had grown more severe.

After breakfast, Death usually sent me off to do errands. Sometimes, he would take me to a command room on one of the lowest floors and I would help strategic planning with the commanders.