Hell Found Me

Hell found me. I always thought those stories from the front was just some good imagination. That the screaming of men, smell of burned flesh and the whizzing of bullets next to your ear were supposed to keep us on our feet, not to sleep during work. I never thought I was further from the truth.

"This is Hen House, whats you status Squirrel?"
"This is Squirrel. Nothing. It seems all mosquitos went to sleep."
"Good, continue with search for nuts."
"Copy that. Squirrel out."

My dad said. "Your Grandpa was in the army, I was in the army, and now it is your turn." I did not want to join. I had a choice, unlike some who had low grades on their exams. But it was a family tradition, so I had to go, not even my mother supported my idea that war is bad.

"Sir, here are the reports." trooper Mandan put down four folders on the desk.
"Fine, let me see them." Cpt. Brown looked carefully at each page. "As I expected."
"What sir?"
"Nothing, absolutely nothing."

Within days I landed in the recruitment office, it was mid summer. The officer was kind and all looked pleasant. "Serve your country, join the Army today!" I noticed this phrase on one of the posters. Within five days I landed over at Boot Camp. I was never the sporty type so I got a load of a beating from our Master Srg. He had a wooden cane, or it only looked that way. Inside it was a metal bar.

"What are we doing here anyway?" asked one of the soldiers. "The enemy has gone back, we get empty reports, nothing more to do here!"
"I could agree with that, I also don't see the point in all this. And anyway why didn't they send us both north? I had great results on the shooting range." said the other soldier. They both were standing on top a stone wall, possibly hundreds of years old.
"They have so much fun on the front, and what do we get here? Guard duty."
"Yeah, we could not get anything worse."

Thankfully somebody noticed I was better at using a type writer than a gun. I was happy to land here, in the so called "HQ". I wrote down reports, copied them out, corrected some of the mistakes the less brainy soldiers made. Naturally I had to carry a gun with me. They said. "When the enemy comes, you have to defend yourself, there will be no tough soldier to cover you, you will all on your own." At the time I thought it was a joke. At first I carried my gun, but after some time I just left it in my sleeping quarters. I had enough trouble cleaning it every night.

"This is Hen House. Squirrel report in."
"..."
"Squirrel report in, this is Hen House."
"..."
"Squirrel are you with us?"

That day I also thought I would need no gun, I though I would be safe in my office. I was wrong because the man who said the enemy would come...

"Squirrel are you there? Respond!"
"... Death to the Infidel Scum!"

... was right.

"Yeah, we could not get anything worse." both men looked at the horizon and noticed something.
"What's that?"
"Looks like a sand storm."
"Sir! We see something!" shouted one of the soldiers to their srg. standing below. He went up the ladder and looked at the strange cloud of dust. He then took out his Binocullars.
"Holy shit."
"What? What is it?"
"Sound the alarm! We are under attack! Go now!"

I heard the siren. I never knew we had one. I looked out the window and noticed how soldiers ran up on the ramparts. It did not come to my mind what was happening. My bad luck, it came to me too late.

Mandan stormed inside the Cpt.'s office and shouted something. He controlled himself and repeated the words as slowly as he could.
"Sir, we are under attack."
"What?"
"We are under attack, the base is attacked."

I noticed the wall get hit by a tank shell on movies, but when I saw it then I was sick. Four men were standing close to the explosion. They flew back, one of them hit my window and landed on my office desk. He had a bad chest wound and blood before I could do anything already covered my uniform. I sat there looking at the corpse. I did not hear the shouts or the shots outside. I just sat there.

"Fire! Fire! Give 'em hell! Show 'em what you were taught on training!" bullets flew at the vehicles below. The enemy constructed these out of scrap and it seemed it would be that simple to destroy them. But this was some hard scrap. In each vehicle there were about five men. Each one with an AK and from time to time one of them carried an RPG, hand made missile launcher or WW2 Panzerfaust.
"Sir! More of them coming from the East!" what the defenders never expected was that their enemies could obtain an artillery gun.
"Incoming!"

Was the end coming? A whole section of the wall collapsed and the strange vehicles rode into the base, there was no escape, I had to fight... but I had no gun. I ran out of the office and down the stairs. I could hear loud car engines outside, people screaming in agony. I ran outside. Men lying on the floor, the enemy cars still driving over them as if the sight of bloody corpses wasn't enough.

"How did the get though the front?"
"Don't know. They must have found a weak point."
"Grab the radio and call for help, we alone will not handle this horde!"

We all were told, that if we are attacked we are to call help, but when an artillery shell destroyed our radio station I only hoped that help was already on the way. I ran to my sleeping quarters for my gun hiding from the bullets and cars. I prayed it was loaded, I prayed it was ready and I prayed I would survive this day.

"We are completely surrounded, what are we supposed to do?" asked Mandan. He looked at the Cpt. but noticed he was dead, a bullet hit his skull. They lost their commander was their any point in fighting further? Mandan appeared in the window hand high in the air. He noticed something the enemy was wearing. Red and Black Scarfs. He realized this was not any attack, those guys where from the infamous Death Squad. This meant there would be no survivors today, no prisoners. He once knew their song if he could only remember it now.

"We walk a bloody path
The path of war
We bath in the spoils of war
And we don't care who we kill

No man or women
No Children or old
They all have to die
For they are our enemy
The enemy has to die!"

Mandan left our world and departed to the better place, or so we hope it is better.

I reached my room and grabbed my gun. I was outside within seconds, hoping it was not too late. I entered the court yard. Silence. The enemy was standing before me. They did not point their guns on me. One of them walked up to me, I started to shake. He took out his pistol and pointed it at my head. I could hear him say the words I would have in my mind forever now "I am sorry." and then darkness, this was the end.