I’m Alive

The interior is mostly being lighten by the windows. It’s quite dark, considering the curtains are closed. The man in the expensive suit ordered the soldier to press the light switch near the door. The living room and the kitchen are well illuminated now. Not too bright, not too dark.

A soldier has approached the kitchen with the AK rifle in his arms. He scanned the kitchen and even looked behind the counters. He looked at the two sitting in the living room, then he looked at the meat in the tinfoil.

The opened the tinfoil a bit. The whole room was filled with the smell of fresh juicy meat. The sitting men looked in the direction of the kitchen and yelled at the soldier. The soldier picked the meat tray and rushed over to the living room.

The man opened the tinfoil lid and looked at the soldier. The soldier said something, I don’t know what exactly, but that made the man in the suit has changed expressions. He looks more worried now. He looked at the man sitting in front of him.

He’s dressed less neatly, he’s bald and has a scruffy stubble. He wears a simple black tracksuit.

Some of the guards exit the house while some stay in the living room. The men on the couches kept silent, each is looking in a different direction.

A soldier is walking outside the house. Walking on the garden’s grounds, scanning the environment.

He looks at the high cobblestone fence on the left. He looks at the small pathway of stones in the middle of a garden with colorful flowers. He looks right at the house with a large window.

He takes a few steps but then the soldier freezes. He looks at the window to the right. He looks in the eye of the person behind the curtains and the person looks back.

He looks at me, right into my soul. I can feel him, I can my heart. Shit, it didn’t beat so fast in a long time. Am I going to die? Is this it? I’ll die because of that meat?

The soldier in front of me slowly aims his AK at me. This feeling, again. Each second feels a lot longer. My body doesn’t react in time, right now I’m barely midair with just my toes touching the window glass.

His finger is on the trigger. A small muzzle flash erupts from the barrel, like a small lighter. A bullet flies out from the barrel, faster than my body can react. It flies right above my head to my head, barely scraping the hair on my eyebrow.

A shell jumps out of the ejection port. The bullet breaks the window. The part where the bullet entered has collapsed into a bunch of glass debris. The debris rain down, some even cut the cloth and the skin, but it doesn’t hurt.

All I see is the celling. It’s white colored with bright circles. I guess that’s what rich people use instead of lamps.

I just realized it. I’m in real danger now. I’m in deep shit. I’m going to die. I’m going to fucking die. There’s no way I’ll survive this, no fucking way. I’m surrounded by enemies, they have guns! What I have? A sad pistol and a knife!

Is this how I die? In the end, I’ll accomplish fucking nothing? All that training, all that suffering, for what?

Calm the fuck down Danil. Breath. You’re not dead yet. There’s no way I’m giving up, not like that. I’m not dying here. Not like that. Fuck everyone. I’m not going out, not just as easily, not just for some fucking meat. I’ll take down everyone with me, I’ll destroy the world if I have to!

Danil lied there, but he didn’t stare at the celling anymore. He opened the cabinet in the counter. He found a small red plastic bottle with red liquid. He poured it on his forehead and returned the bottle back with closing the cabinet.

He took a big glass shard and has hidden it behind his hand. He pulls out the arm from the jackets sleeve. He tucks it under his shirt while holding a pistol.
Instead of the arm, he put in a kitchen roller. He closes his eyes, yet listens carefully.

Ignore the sight. Forget about your eyes. Ears all you got.

The footsteps become louder and louder. I can hear the guns… Their metal due to its friction with the air. It stopped. The interval between each footstep, it’s slower.

I felt a little pressure on my belly. It’s sharp at first, but then it started to get blunt. The area is small, could be the heel of a shoe.

Remember that feeling. Remember what they did to everyone, to Katya, to that woman, to the people in the house… To everyone… Don’t forget it. Use it!

The blood in my veins starts to heat up. I can my heart beating so fast it ignites a fire inside of me. This fire… It gives me so much energy. I’ll show you… I’ll fucking show you motherfuckers… I’ll kill you, all of you!

In a single moment, I saw everything. Everyone gathered around me. I can see the barrel and what’s inside of it. Fortunately, only one guy points his gun. On the left, out of the 4 who surround me.

He gripped his hand around the broken glass shard. Using his spine, he got up while cutting the soldiers hand and pushing away his rifle. Meanwhile, Danil pulled his arm through the bottom of his shirt and shot in the direction of the soldiers on his left.

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE

The soldiers barely reacted. The soldier Danil cut falls down. On the left, one soldier drops his M16, the other just stares at Danil. The soldier on the right, has his barrel pointing at Danil’s head. Danil closes his eyes tightly.

BANG BANG BANG

“Shoot!” Danil heard a shout in a familiar language.

He points his pistol at the enemy soldier, but his hands are shaking. His breathing is heavy. The enemy points his AK at Danil.

“AHH!” Danil shouted and shot a few rounds at the standing enemy who was about to press the trigger. He falls down.

Danil still breaths heavily. He’s already standing on his legs, but his posture isn’t stable. Danil’s head is covered in blood. The nice aroma of the cooked meat has been replaced by gunpowder and the metallic smell of blood.

Danil stares at the 2 soldiers in front of him. One holds with a bloody hand his leg, but he doesn’t look at the wound. He looks at Danil with eyes full of terror.

Danil grips even harder the glass shard and takes a few steps towards the soldier.

“Get down!”

Siggie tackles Danil and a barrage of bullets are being shot at the windows and the curtains. Glass shards and pieces of gray linen rain down on everyone behind the counter. They hear multiple rifles shooting at them. They hear the bullets whistle above them.

“Grab the AK. Flank them. I’ll keep ‘em busy.”

Siggie lies down to the floor and grabs an M16. He sits next to the counter. He looks at the solder to their left, Siggie puts his index finger on his lips with his right hand, with his left he waves him to go away.

Danil crawls through the broken window to the outside. The broken glass crackles below him, but it gets muffled down due to the sound of shooting. He hides behind a wall and goes forward to the front door.

They stop shooting. From the entrance, Danil sees how they reload. He aims the AK at them. His hands are shaking, so he lies down on his belly and puts down the rifle. His hands still shake, but at least it is easier to aim now.

Fuck it. Now’s the time.

Danil presses the trigger. He discharges the whole magazine onto the reloading soldiers. They all fall down. Now silence fills the room along with a strong smell of blood and gunpowder.

Danil gets up and walks to the lying soldiers. He counted 3 people.

The first person looks middle aged. his forehead is blown off. The head is squished with the eyes popping out. The brains have splattered across the room as a red dense substance. What has left leaks out of the gaping bullet hole. Half of his left hand is blown away and the body is riddled with bullets.

The second person looks young. His eyes are closed. There’s a rapid motion where the chest is. The clothes are very bloody in that area. His mouth is moving, yet in a different pace.

The person is also young. He looks at the bodies next to him. Then he looks at his own bloody hands with an emotionless expression.

It’s not over yet. They have to pay. All of them. I want more, I need more!

Danil looks at the person. They make eye contract.

That eye. It’s familiar. Hehe.

Danil grabs a glass shard from the floor. It’s small, but sharp enough. He looks at this person again. His breathing is heavy and chaotic. The person doesn’t move.

Danil walks to him and grabs him by the throat. He presses the shard against his throat. A few drops of blood come out, nothing more.

“Stop it.”

“It’s him Siggie, it’s him.”

“Look down.”

Danil looked down. He saw that he stepped into some puddle. He looked up and saw a dark spot on the person’s crotch.

“But he’s the one. He shot first.”

“Pretty sure he was scared too. Ehh… Do what you want. I’m going for Jallal.”

Siggie looked at the closed door in the living room. He wonders if he heard something coming from there. He pulls out a Desert Eagle out of the pocket. Its slide is already pulled. He had loaded the gun with a magazine and then he pressed the slide blocker so it would come back with a click.

He opened the door and saw Jallal hiding with another person in the bath room. The same person he was sitting with before.

“Wait… Ain’t you Mostafa Salehi? Ain’t you with Yawm Hadid or something?”

“Yes… We talked about cease fire, even potential end to the war.” The bearded man answered.

“Oh damn… Talk about bad luck. Oh well, intel’s going to be nice. Say Cheeze!”

Siggie takes out a small camera and points it at Jallal and Mostafa. In return they just look at Siggie with confusion. He takes the picture and returns the camera to his other pocket.

“Bad luck boys… Gotta get rid of Jallal…”

“Are you with us? I’ll talk to your commanders, they’ll cancel the order. Don’t kill him!”

“Sorry, but you just were caught in the crossfire. Goodbye.”

Two shots were fired. Siggie closed the door and looked at Danil. He saw that the hand holding the shard is bloody. He looked at that person and he cowers before Danil. He’s curled up in a fetal like position.

Danil looks at his bloody shaking hands.

“Let’s go, we don’t have much time.”

Siggie grabbed Danil’s hand and pulled him all the way to the car. He pushed him lightly so he’ll sit. Sat himself in the driver’s place and drove off as quick as possible. Under 30 minutes, they were already out of the city.

Siggie stopped the car in some gas station, near the gas pump. It’s small and rusty. If it wasn’t for the clerk, this place would’ve looked abandoned. Around the gas station is nothing, just dust and hard ground. Siggie approached the clerk and paid him in cash. The clerk looked surprised but then kept a constant grin on his face.

Siggie grabbed the nozzle and inserted it into the fuel tank door. Danil looks down at his red hands again. They’ve stopped shaking. Siggie threw a towel at Danil.

“Clean yourself.”

Danil gawked at the towel, then at Siggie.

“What is it? You look like you saw a ghost.”

“I’m…Alive…”

“Huh?”

“I’m alive…”

“…Yeah…?”

“I wasn’t in control. I could’ve died, in that moment. I’m alive Siggie, I’m alive!”

Danil started to laugh. Siggie smiled a little.

“Sure are. Now clean yourself, don’t want to make the car filthy more than it is.”

Danil grabbed the towel, but then released it immediately.

“Huh?”

“What is it? Oh…”

Siggie opened the door.

“Get out.”

Danil stood up from the car. Siggie pulled a plastic water bottle from the backpack. He opened the lid and poured the water on Danil’s hands. His hands are twitching, but stay in place.

“That’s our drinking water.”

“I know.”

He cleans the blood from Danil’s hands. In direct sunlight, spots on his hands glow white.

“Glass. You have glass in your hands.”

“So that’s why…”

“Alright sit down. I’ll get the first aid.”

“It’s just some cuts, nothing serious.”

“I heard one guy say something like that, want to know what happened?”

Siggie said while rummaging through the bag.

“What?”

“He lost his leg. Was just some nasty splinter. Didn’t disinfect. A few days in warm weather and lots of dirt, it started to get dark. Had to amputate his leg. Poor bastard.”

Siggie takes out a small transparent plastic bag with bottle of alcohol, bandages, a piece of cotton and pliers.

“Sit down and don’t move.”

Danil sat down in the car, he’s holding out his hand. Siggie grabs it and starts to pluck out each piece of glass. Danil’s hand was twitching each time, but he was holding it with a strong grip.

He then takes a piece of cotton and dips it with alcohol. He wipes Danil’s hand with it. Danil’s hand moves more, but due to Siggie’s fixation it stays still.
After that, he takes the bandage and bandages Danil’s hand.

He proceeds to do the same thing with the other hand.

→ To be continued

Author’s note

Thought that mixing both 1st person and 3rd person would be a good idea. To be honest, I don’t think so anymore.