DEETA SHIIMA

The March

We had been marching for days. An entire legion of Roman soldiers. And it was hot. Now, we were miles away from anywhere. And nothing lay ahead except the sand and sun, and eventually, more war.

We marched in a row of long, narrow columns. Beside me, my friend Tiberius, sweated profusely as he hummed a little tune under his breath. Maybe to take his mind off the heat, which was sweltering.

But me, I was lost in my own thoughts. My eyes scanned the world around me. Nothing but sand dunes, blue sky and a blinding ball of sun. There was simply nothing else to see. The only distraction was the feel of sweat running down my neck and back, somewhat cooling to the skin for a second or two before the glaring heat warmed it almost to steam. 

I thought of home. Of the tiny village where I had grown up and lived most of my life. Until I joined the Roman army, that is. Now I lived nowhere and everywhere. And was never anywhere for very long. Now the road was my home. And for the moment, the desert, which burned mercilessly around me.

But something was burning INSIDE of me that day, too. Something besides the heat. It was a gnawing thing. Like something trying to chew its way out of me. I was restless, even though my feet tirelessly carried me ever onward. 

I was tired. I was used to endless marching, of course. But something INSIDE of me was tired. Tired of the bloody battles. Of killing and screaming and sleeping on the ground in strange lands. Tired of shitting on the side of worn out roads on cold mornings, and eating the same bland army food, day after day.

And as we marched like a giant snake on into that blinding land of blue and tan, something began to formulate in my mind. An idea began to boil inside my skull, heated to life by the oven-like containment of my metal helmet.

It was a crazy idea, to be sure. And a dangerous one. But nevertheless, once it began whispering quietly in my head, it wouldn't shut up. And I became lost in its menacing enticements as we wandered further and further off into the great nowhere around us.