08-09-2006, 06:50 PM
SPICE
A knock sounded at the door. The man stood from his chair in front of the luminated television and lumbered to the entrance. The metal knob was cold, and a good pull was needed to open the door, where two teenagers stood in the blistering heat of summer. It was the man?s nephews. The man was 43 years old and had greying hair, wore contact lenses and who?s belly protruded from his body, pulling the back of his shirt tighter.
?Uncle Howard, me and my brother were wondering if you could tell us that story now.? Said the boy on the left, who had brown curly hair and glasses, brown eyes too.
?Well, I suppose.? Howard replied, much to the delight of the boy on the left, but to the boredom of the one to the right who had brown strait hair with streaks of white in it.
The two propped themselves on couch opposite the window facing the front yard, one occupying himself with a portable poker game, the other waiting for the story.
?All of it? asked Howard; and when the boy nodded he continued, ?Ok, I suppose it starts with the takeoff??
___________
I felt the plane bumping and jittering about as my plane raced down the runway with my comrades to every side of me. I was almost smack dab in the middle of the squad. It was scheduled as a routine air patrol, we all had fun with the thought that in all the years we had flown, not much had happened, so nothing would happen that day.
I pulled on the controller and felt a moment of smoothness, then bumping. Finally the front began to ease upwards so it could get into the air. Within seconds of feeling the front lift, I felt the bumping and jittering stop. That was always the worst part of the flight, I thought, I mean the takeoff. But seeing that ground quickly gather distance from me, or rather as I gathered distance from the ground, now that was the best. Feeling the G-force, the pressure, hearing some of the guys giggle at the feeling, it never got old.
We reached the desired altitude, which I think probably hurt some kids ears as we flew by during recess. I think they were kids at least. It didn?t matter; because up there I was the one in power, save for the commander, who was the real authority of us in the skies.
We were in the air force, got out of training a few months earlier, flew a lot since then, and enjoyed every minute of it. We hadn?t been sent over seas yet, so we were anxiously waiting.
It was very ideal flying conditions, or at least to me it was. It was partly cloudy, little to no turbulence, and a sun that shone on us brightly. Of course by the time we reached the second or third city, the sky was beginning to cloud up more and more. I think it was the third or fourth city we passed that was attacked.
We were almost on the edge of the city when the eruptions started. Then one after another, buildings were desecrated in a wave effect as the chain of bombs explodes down the city in the direction we were heading. We didn?t see much of the first few buildings that were hit, but we saw the rest. I saw the rest, I should say, I don?t know if the others were looking.
It seemed that the bombs were planted in some schools, office buildings, and near very large houses. A lot of the major buildings were hit, as I found out in the news later the bombs were planted in some banks, crowded schools, office buildings, and some outside of residential houses.
From where I was in the air, I couldn?t see clearly the aftermath of the blasts. I found myself wondering who could orchestrate such a big and widespread attack. I knew it would be tragic. I could have sworn that I heard screaming from below, I probably did. The thought sent chills down my spine.
As we moved quickly across the city, the devastation became clearer. People were pouring in the street, weeping and screaming, bleeding, and dieing. I think I heard some of the crew choking up, and that was something we never did. Even I couldn?t help letting a tear flow down my cheek.
The black excrement?s flowed from the burning rubble of the toppled buildings. I suppressed the urge to piss myself with sadness and fear for the people I figured may be trapped under the broken walls, and fiery inferno, which would slowly burn through until they died from a lack of oxygen and intense burning heat.
Their screams seemed to lift with their souls whose face?s seemed to embed themselves to the wall of the billowing smoke. Moments seemed like eternities, it was like flying through a part of hell that seeped through the earth in burst of flame. I couldn?t watch anymore, so I looked away.
?The news will tell me the rest,? I thought shakily as I manuvered past the columns of darkness that now protruded from the earth like limbs from a body. Good god, we would have to turn back and go through it again.
I thought I heard someone weep; it may have been me. And that was something we never did.