The Long Way Home

THE LONG WAY HOME



By Mordecai J Banda



Over the hills and through the trenches, through quagmire and bodies and blood, thats our way home. Gunning through breaks in the lines, sneaking past enemy camps, and carrying our dead all the way, no brains or blown off limb of our comrades is left behind.



This is the state of which our war has become. Like a poetic metronome, constantly twirling and spinning. I can't even see the madness in this fighting anymore. I could narrate to you why this war started, or maybe the year it is, i could tell you why i have an Assault Rifle 51-12, that shoots laser bolts, mate, but it wouldn't really matter, and i really don't have time to attend to you, my subconscious.



I can tell you that they left us, the last men on the field of a war that was lost before the first laser was fired. Aliens can be murderous motherfuckers.



They said "fight on, be brave!" And we all knew it was a lie, but as a soldier, i had nothing to say.

We were twenty who were left on this side of the fighting field. Outpost Alpha can be our only hope of flying out of here alive, and even from there, its quite a long way home, to green, blue, simple earth.



I try to recall what i was like before i was conscripted into this war, but theres no time for that. There is no rest for us, the shamed invaders, who are slowly being butchered one by one. One more line of defense stands between us five and probably, salvation. I gun and gun and gun, and maybe i can make it. Maybe they'll still miss.



They do miss, and we bust their chops, but a stray missile blows the outpost to heaven's heaven.



Of course I'm mad, and we slaughter the remaining enemies, but we don't give up, we head one letter down the Greek alphabet, towards outpost Beta, more miles, and farther away than we were before. Three soldiers remaining, Three determined sets of boots and brains, and on we go.



Word Count: 354