Descent into the Abyss

Chapter 1

The sun, still high in the afternoon sky, beat against the one-story house, warming the air within. Inside a man sat leaning back, his eyes shut and racing. A cruel mixture of his memories played out on the backs of his eyelids, where the sun beat down twice as hot and the desert was infinite. In his mind's eye, he stood in the boots of his enlisted past and bared the desert's heat once more.

He shook his head and stared at the face of Corporal Hughes, smiling at the words of the man in front of him.

"You have no sense of humor," he repeated, the words forever burnt into his mind.

"Blake..." The voice suddenly transitioned and became someone else's, hers.

The Corporal turned away from him, smiling, and resumed walking down the street, when thunder clapped through the air. As he stood there in shock, with blood sprayed across his face and Kevlar, he heard the voice of Staff Sergeant Williams.

"Reyes! Sniper! Get moving, Sergeant!" Williams ordered as the rest of the squad dove into alleyways and doors.

"What about Hughes?" He asked, knowing and yet still needing to know.

As he crouched and grabbed the body, the helmet came free, and long black hair spilled out.

"What?" He remarked in confusion, adjusting the body to see Hughes' face.

Instead, he saw the lifeless hazel eyes, the blood gone from around her face.

"Jessica?" The pain began to swell, as he stood and suddenly stumbled with the body.

Another clap of thunder and heart-stopping pain enveloped him, dropping him to his knees and then to the ground face first, with her face near his.

"Blake... You were too late..." She whispered to him, as darkness overtook his vision.

As he opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling above his head, he raised a forearm to wipe away the sweat on his forehead and brow. Turning as he sat up, he grabbed the brown glass bottle and lifted it to his lips, stopping as his eyes caught the scrolling text on the muted television. He sat the bottle down and reached over to grab his phone instead, his eyes still horrified by the words plastered across the screen.

"Nuclear bomb set off in Northeastern Kentucky!"

As he raised the phone to his ear, he could hear the other end answer, a shared silence between them as they realized what could happen next.

"I'm driving over. I'll stay at a motel or whatever, but I am coming over." He said into the phone.

"Sabrina would like that, Blake." She answered, the same text scrolling across her eyes from the T.V. in the diner.

"I'm heading out now, Jessica," Blake replied, pulling the phone from his ear, and pressing the red icon with his thumb before any response could be heard.

As Blake rose, he pocketed his phone and turned toward the corner of the room. He knelt and spun the dial, watching as the numbers clicked into place. He could never forget that date; holding his little girl; holding the orders in his back pocket. That was when everything changed, but he shook his head. That didn't matter now. As the safe clicked open, he reached into it and pulled the small black case out.

"I shouldn't need this..." He whispered to no one.

"...But it's better to not need it and have it, than need it and not have it." His mind finished the thought as he opened the case and pulled the pistol free.