Jack

The short story of a man named Jack.

His name was Jack, he was a private… He was a soldier, that’s right, was, past tense. He used to be a soldier, he used to be a human, and he used to exist.

 

A few seconds earlier an Iraqi soldier had fired a rocket next to a vehicle, the rocket hit the ground next to the humvee, yet the humvee reacted to the explosion and it was sent off the ground, landing upside down.

The sound of bells… It was ringing in Jack’s ears, everything was blurry, and he couldn’t see properly, he noticed that the driver had been crushed… Or blown up, anyway, the driver was mostly crushed and just pieces of raw flesh. Jack slowly got out of the humvee, sitting next to it.

“Jack, c’mon, run!” the corporal shouted, Jack was sitting next to the destroyed humvee; the corporal was lying on the ground, next to a rock. The corporal had been lucky; the driver of the corporal’s humvee had been hit in the head by a single well placed sniper bullet. The humvee had lost control and hit a rock, the same rock which the corporal was lying next to.

Jack stood up, slowly walking towards the stone, bullets were flying everywhere, grenades exploding, ricochet’s bouncing off the destroyed humvee’s, bouncing off the ground, next to Jack.

Jack was still confused; the shellshock was still in effect, ringing ears, blurry.

He heard the faint voice of the corporal, “hurry!” Jack kept on walking, Jack tripped, crawling on the ground, just when boom, a big cloud of sand and smoke covered the entire area.

Jack was coughing, he had swallowed a lot of sand, he looked up, his face was dirty, and he looked at the stone… Which was gone, bits and pieces of the corporal was left, bits and pieces of the rock was left.

“F****n’ RPG” Jack whispered, he slowly crawled towards a small bush which was on fire, it would provide some cover, but not much, it would probably turn into ashes and he’d get shot by the sniper which was hiding somewhere in the hills not far away.

Jack knew that he had to move fast through the cloud of dust and smoke before it would disappear and the only cover he had… Would be gone.

The shellshock was letting go of Jack, but something else was after Jack now, something dark. Jack crawled to the burning bush, when he was lying next to the bush he noticed something… It was quiet, it was dusk, and it was getting darker.

Jack realized that there was a radio in the humvee’s, he crawled into one of the humvee’s, and the first humvee’s radio was bust, the second humvee’s radio was still working… But not for long.

“My name is Jack West, I need backup, we were ambushed, we were cut off!” Jack Shouted into the radio, static, horrible static, but then.
“Repea… I can hard… Hear… Repeat!”

Jack chuckled, “My name is Jack West, I need someone to pick me up… I don’t know where I am… Out in the desert somewhere!”
“O… Jack… Hold o… We’re tryin… To establi… We can’t hear yo… Wait…” It was quiet, static, then, “OK, Jack, we can hear you now, what happened?”
“I had fallen asleep in my humvee, I woke up when the driver shouted ‘RPG!’ then…”
“Jack, we’re trying to track you down, keep on talking… Who are you?
“I told you, my name is Jack West, I’m twenty years old… Born and raised in LA, I joined the army to serve my country!”
“Like the others then, eh?”
“Y-yes, sir…”
“Jack, we’ve tracked you down… Help will be coming, I need you to talk to me so I know that you’re still alive.”
“Oh, OK… Well… The corporal died, I’m the only one left from the squad… It’s so quiet… I think they know I’m still alive, sir.”
“There’s a chance that they’re waiting for you to show yourself… Where are you hiding?”
“In what’s left of the humvee…”
“Son… Are you scared?”
“No, sir, I don’t regret anything, I don’t regret joining the army, I don’t regret serving my country… I don’t regret the life I’ve lived.”
“Son, you’re talking like you’re about to die, don’t do it.”
“You don’t understand what it’s like out here… YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!”
“Son, listen to me, calm down!”
“You are telling me to calm down!? Have you ever been out here, have you seen all this s**t!?”
“Erm… No…”
“Then if I feel like freaking out then let me do it, unlike you, I have the rights to do it… My teammates are dead, the Iraqis are out there waiting for me.”
It got quiet, the other man didn’t reply, Jack didn’t say anything else, it was quiet for a few minutes.
“Are you still there?”

“So far I’m alive…”

It got quiet once more, then Jack continued, “I’ve never thought of life before… Never thought what will happen to my soul… Will I go to heaven or hell… Will someone wait for me on the other side, what do you think?”
“Don’t talk like that, you’re not going to die.”

“I haven’t said I was going to die… I’m just asking.”

“Kid… Jack… Listen to me, help is coming, ETA ten minutes… And son, I believe you will go to heaven… What you’ve done so far is… Good.”
“It was nice talking to you…”
“What you mean?”
“An Iraqi soldier is getting closer… And my weapon is bust, I can’t shoot, I can’t load, the other weapons are the same…” Jack got quiet, then he shouted as loud as he could into the radio “GRENADE!”

Static.

It got quiet, Jack didn’t say anything else, the man in the radio didn’t say anything else.

Days later Jack’s mother received a message.
“Sorry for your loss.”

Author's Note

This is just a story about a soldier, I don't write many stories about war, so I wanted to try something new.