Max Hystory - Adventures in time - Market Garden

War

Chapter Six

War

As the bright light dissipates Max finds himself standing in the middle of a muddy street in an old burned out and decaying town, he looks around and the buildings look somewhat modern, being built with bricks and having electrical wires running to them. He glances down at his current state and of course, he is naked as the day he was born, a quick glance around, and he sees nothing that will help him fix his current problem.

WRRRRRRRRRR! BOOOOOOOM!

A plane flies in low and drops a bomb right on top of the building across the street from Max, The building explodes sending bits of brick and wood flying everywhere. A small piece of wood becomes imbedded in Max's upper arm as he is sent flying to the ground in a heap, he lies there dazed, stunned and scared. The ringing in his ears subsides into a drone that he cannot seem to shake off, He sits up looks around, off to his left he sees someone, the smoke is thick, but the shape of the helmet is unmistakable, a German soldier.

"Oh crap!" Max exclaims as he gets up fast and runs into the building to the rear of him, he climbs in a ten foot round hole in the outer wall despite wondering as he does, if the burned-out hull of a building won't just fall down on him. Inside there is debris everywhere, and in the chaos of war and destruction, there is still some semblance of the life that existed before the war came here. He gets up and walks over to a dresser drawers where a picture of a family still stands upright next to other trinkets laid out by a loving hand. Another plane flies over and bombs more buildings further off at the other side of town as Max stands naked trying to figure out his next move, he opens up the drawers and looks for any sort of clothing that might fit. Gunfire can be heard now just outside, there is a noticeable difference in the types of guns being fired some louder than others and some ricocheting nearby and some actually coming through the weakened walls sending dust and debris flying all over the room where he is now. Despite all that is going on around him he looks fervently for some clothing in the dresser, and then he finds some, a shirt that fits and a pair of dress pants.

"All I need is some shoes!" Max exclaims as he has to walk over the broken brick, glass, and wood splinters scattered all over the inside of the house. 

He finds the remainder of what looks to have been someone's bedroom around the corner and closer to the interior of the house, Max takes a seat at the wardrobe and stares into the slivers of the cracked mirror that some girl or woman had once used to make herself up every day, and he notices the fresh bloodstain coming from the sleeve of his shirt.

"Oh man, I'm hurt," he says as he pulls up the baggy sleeve to reveal a half-inch wide splinter about three inches long impaled in the upper part of his arm. Luckily it is not deep into the muscle, although it does go all the way through the flabby part of his arm. Max touches it and sends sensations of pain shooting from his wound, he knows he has to pull it out so it doesn't get infected, but this is not like any scrape he has ever gotten riding his bike. Max thinks for a minute and tries to remember some of the first aid information from school that he thought he would never have to use, a breeze blows through the blown-out window and makes the tattered drapes flap in the wind. Max jumps up and pulls down the remainder of the draperies, he goes back to the wardrobe and tears it into strips that he can use as a bandage. A few strips for now and a few for later that he puts in his pocket, Max is now ready to take care of his arm, he takes a deep breath, reaches over and like he would do to any band-aid he pulls the splinter out quick and clean.

"AHHHHHHH!" He screams in pain fighting his body's desire to faint.

Fresh blood flows from the wound but slows to a stop fairly quick, Max rolls up a strip and places it on the wounds then takes another and ties it around his arm to secure the makeshift gauze. His arm stings from the pain, but he is happy that it wasn't too bad and that he will be okay.