The Mission

My eyes slammed open. My vision was blurry; I couldn’t see anything. I coughed, but didn’t hear anything. In fact, I heard nothing. Not even the sound your boots should make when you stand up in heavy leaves. No. No no no.  I rubbed my eyes. They opened to a dark gray smoke flowing everywhere around me. I sat up, looking at the destroyed rubble of my unit's ATV. I looked for them, but couldn’t find any of them. “ALAN!” I screamed, but nothing came out. I could feel it in my throat. My vocal chords were working. Diaphragm too, I could feel my gut churning with the yell I let out. The problem was my ears.

My hands rushed to the sides of my head, relieved to find them still attached. Intuition sent them down to my hips, I could still feel my legs, too. I sat up, “JOHNSON! I cried out, my ears still unable to hear. Fear overtook my mind, would I ever be able to hear my favorite song, the jingle of my favorite commercial, the sound of my girlfriends voice? Would I ever be able to hear anything again?  Didn’t matter, not right now. I stood, looking for the rest of my unit. I found them. 

I was about ten feet from the smoking atv, and Johnson lay face first into the ground about two feet away, his entire left arm covered in blood. Alan, on the other side of the vehicle was face up, but his eyes were pure white. The vehicle itself was on fire, missing 3 out of its 4 tires and basically shredded. I moved towards the atv, hoping to find my backpack, and maybe a radio. 

What the hell happened . I wondered, until I saw a device strewn about on the road we were driving on. Damnit! A mine, how could we be so stupid, I thought. How could I  be so stupid. I should’ve slowed down. 

I searched for my pack and found it. Nothing useful to me at the moment was inside. My short range radio was busted and my mirror and lighter were broken, too. At least I knew where I was, to an extent. And that I still had a mission to complete. I had to activate a radio tower two miles north of where we last checked in, which wasn’t too long ago, at least from what I could remember. 

I found my bearings, north was to the front of the atv, which logically made sense. I grabbed Johnson and Alan’s tags began to move their bodies away from the burning vehicle. They didn’t deserve to burn or stay near the smoke. I did my best to give them their proper rites. I needed to give them that much. 

I set out, with the mission in mind, that being my only goal. I really didn’t know what else to do at this point. I was alone, unable to hear, a very keen sense to have when at war. I was vulnerable as hell. I didn’t like it. But I couldn’t really do anything about it, yet. That’s why I needed to get to the radio tower, not only would I be able to turn it on, but I could then radio for help. 

My legs were weak and my entire body ached, I guess an explosion will do that to you, but I kept trekking on. I needed to. I kept my mind busy by telling myself I needed to let Johnson and Alan’s family know. I couldn’t let them think their loved ones were prisoners or simply lost, or perhaps even worse, deemed deserters. 

The steps came easy when I thought like that. I had a reason to truck through the pain. I decided getting to high ground might be best, since I couldn’t hear. After walking for a while, my worst fears came rushing back. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to hear again. But that didn’t matter. 

I walked a steep incline, to the top of a tree filled hill. It didn’t help much, being high up. Still couldn’t see jackshit. At least my eyes work. The thick vines all around me prevented me from seeing more than ten feet in any given direction. I kept my head on a swivel, alert for any movement or vibration I could feel. I never saw anything out of the ordinary though, save for a toad hopping from lily to lily. 

I knew I’d gone about halfway, before I had to stop and rest. My breathing was getting heavy, and it was no use to push my body to its breaking point yet. I tried to find any source of water that wasn’t the murky toads living quarters. I found none, so I sufficed with the dirty swamp water. I submerged myself after getting my fill, in an attempt to keep cool. It worked, I let out a sigh of relief as the water crept up my back, soaking me to my core. 

I felt vulnerable again, so I got out of the water and kept moving. The beating sun pelted against my face, the sky the only thing I really could see. I looked upward for the top of the radio tower, and I could see the sonar dish, a small speck in the sky. This encouraged me though, I knew I was close. I burst into a small sprint, hoping to close the distance between myself and the tower faster. I just tuckered myself out quicker, which was stupid, I should’ve kept pace, like I should’ve in the atv…

I found myself in clear view of the radio base. A few hundred yards away. I quickly hustled, looking for any sign of an entrance. I had to circle the perimeter of the base to find a door. Thank god it wasn’t locked. I burst in, hopeful. 

The control panel was covered in cobwebs, and dust lined the perimeter of every button and key. I found a wheeled stool and sat in front of it. I found the power switch and flicked it. Nothing happened. Normally I’d listen for the hum of the power generated, but I couldn’t base anything off of that. I didn’t see a light come on either. There was a headset with a microphone attached to it. I put it on, in an attempt to contact someone. Something told me my efforts were in vain, I needed to work the generator more. It still wasn’t on. 

I looked for any sort of log or operation manual, to no avail. This place was stripped clean, not even a file or piece of paper lay on any of the tables of desks. I sat back down in the chair, frantically trying everything I could to get it to turn on. I slid the chair back and forth, from side to side of the machine looking at the buttons. What the fuck is going on? Why isn’t it working!? I slammed my fist into the machine, causing my hand to start throbbing. 

A green light flared on when I hit it. The rest of the lights and keys lit up after a moment of nothing. A smile spread across my face, for the first time since in a while. Good old technology, just gotta to beat it into submission. 

I put the headset back on and dialed into the frequency to my commanding officer. Knowing I’d be okay, knowing I’d get home.