by S. A. Lowry
Price did not find it that funny, but decided it would do for now.
“I miss Gilroy. I know the guy wasn’t that dependable, but he didn’t deserve the card he got delt. He was to young to leave us,” Trevor admits to Christopher.
“You are right. He was a good person. He wasn’t ready for the horrors of this new reality. I hope he is in a better place. I should of treated him better,” Christopher admits.
“Same here,” Trevor concludes. He then goes on to add, still unable to take his mind off his fallen man, “I wish we didn’t isolate him from the rest of us as much as we did. Sure he was different, but he was one of ours. He was our brother!”
Trevor begins sobbing while attempting to hide it from the rest of his men whom are located nearby in their seats. Hunter over hears the entire conversation as he places his head down in silence.
Christopher places his hand on Trevor’s shoulder in order to comfort him. “We did all that we could. We have to move on and survive. It is what he would have wanted us to do. We need to get these men home. We also need to get you back to your wife and kids,” Christopher states.
“We have to get you back to your wife and children as well. They need their father,” Trevor says to Christopher as he leans forward with his head down resting on both of his hands.
Sadness looms over Christopher’s face when Trevor mentioned his family. Christopher misses them dearly and is deathly worried about them.
“Well, maybe none of this madness spreaded to the states. I am sure everything is calm and safe over there. I am sure that they are fine,” Christopher reasons.
“Oh my god, Andrew. My brother is over there. I wonder if he knows what is going on here. He probably thinks that I am dead,” Trevor realizes.
Christopher attempts to comfort him by staying positive. “Your brother is a tough kid. You remember, when he first came to the unit as a Private? I made his sarcastic ass do push ups until his muscles turned into swissed cheese. Still defiant as he was, he took it like a man and did the right thing. I couldn’t hold him back for long. He’s a natural born leader. I bet you he went right for Joanne and the kids upon getting word of this mess and is safely watching over them. I’m willing to put my life on it, Trev,” Christopher explains with a sense of confidence and hope.
As a result, Christopher’s words lifts Trevors spirit. Trevor can say nothing to that at this point.
“Thanks man. You are a true friend. Let the guys know later after they got some rest, we ain’t losing anyone from here on out. I promise them that,” Trevor declares. Christopher acknowledges Trevor’s instructions in a professional manner as his spirit is uplifted.
Reagal continues to roll over in his seat. After giving up on attempting to block out the noise of the plane, he notices his stomach beginning to gurgle. Over time it grows worse and to the point where he can no longer remain seated.
As a result, he reluctantly throws his blanket off his person and stands up.
“Man, I got to drop a major deuce,” he announces to the rest of the group while attempting sarcastic humour.
Price sits there in silence as his thoughts run amuck. Trevor and Christopher stare on as they shake their heads. “He’s finally coming around,” Price tells himself under his breath as he chuckles at the sight of Reagal wobbling to the front of the plane to use the lavatory while gripping his butt cheeks in hand.
Trevor and Christoper continue to converse amongst eachother as Reagal notices one of the lavatories is out of order. In addition, the door is sealed off. An eager Reagal turns around to head for the next one on the other side of the plane when he is pushed into a nearby wall by another passenger cutting him in line and deminishing his oppurtunity to relieve himself in a timely manner.
The soldier, who pushed him out of the way, displayed a sense of urgency as he appeared pale in the face and drenched in sweat. In addition, his loud obnoxious coughing grew louder and more violent as he rudely pushed Reagal out of the way.
“What the hell man!” Reagal yells to the soldier who slams the door behind him and locks it.
Reagal stares at the changing lit up sign on the lavatory door which just went from “vaccant” to “occupied” in a matter of seconds before his very eyes.
Price notices this from afar and begins chuckling louder. Reagal notices. “Hey screw you man! How about I squat over you once you are asleep and make a fudge deposit in your mouth!” a frustrated Reagal threatens Price while jumping up and down and pacing back and forth as he is slouched over in front of the door.
Price now begins laughing even louder. Reagal just stares on in defiance. Minutes go by while the soldier inside is heard vomitting and sobbing. Reagal begins banging on the door ordering the soldier to “hurry up”.
His orders are met by unresponsiveness as the soldier continues to be heard puking. Moments later, the sounds stop as a loud thump is heard coming from the lavatory.
“Come on man! You know I got to go number two right? You better have not have puked all over the seat. If you did i’m going to make you clean it up!” Reagal warns.
More time passes as the line grows behind Reagal. At this point, nothing but silence can be heard coming from the occupied rest room. Reagal grows concerned.
“Hey man, are you alright? Say something!” Reagal orders.
No response.
More time passes by as people in the line begin complaining. Reagal now grows angry as Price watches on and is apparently being entertained by Reagal’s akward plight. “Okay asshole! I had enough! I got to take a major dump right now and you are totally pissing in my corn flakes! Get the hell out before I get you the hell out!” Reagal screams as he throws a punch into the center of the door.
Right at that moment, a loud scream is heard from the rest room. Grunting and groaning is followed by loud banging noises on the door coming from the other side. Out of sheer terror, Reagal steps back in order to get his distance from the door as he bumps into the people behind him. Everyone watches on in terror behind Reagal as they realize the soldier who just went in there about a half an hour ago, obviously isn’t the same person anymore.
They begin screaming and moving back to their seats to grab their weapons as they run back up to the doorway with it drawn while looking down the sights waiting for the former soldier to charge out to attack them.
One of the senior ranking Airmen on the plane, after observing the situation and hearing the awful sounds coming from the lavatory, sprint up to the armed military members and pushes their barrells down with his hand.
“You can’t shoot off any rounds in here. You’ll kill us all! Put the damn weapons down now!” the angered man orders. Now coming to this realization, they place their weapons down and scatter in different directions in order to grab up anything they can in order to barricade the doorway. “Hurry the hell up! Grab anything! We don’t have much time before he slams his fists on the lock and comes storming out!” yells the man with a sense of urgency. Reagal moves back to his seat in a bide to stay out of the situation. Trevor along with the rest of his men stay seated.
Once Reagal goes back into his seat, Christopher leans over the seat in front of him to address a freightened Reagal.
“So, feel any better?” Christopher sarcastically asks while now displaying his own sick and twisted humour.
Reagal glares back up to him.
“Actually, yeah. Going to need new underwear though,” a shocked Reagal declares.
Christopher gives him a blank stare and retreats back to his seat.
Price has now stopped laughing and stares on with widened eyes as he is in a state of shock.
“Did that just really happen?” he asks himself.
Moments later, he answers himself.
“Yes it did. I don’t know if that is the most horrifying thing I have ever seen or the funniest thing that I have ever seen,” Price decides.
After contemplating this, Price makes another attempt to sleep in a bide to escape reality fo
r now. Sounds like a good deal he concludes. Trevor watches on as a small group of Airmen and soldiers push large items up to the lavatory door. Once they have emplaced multiple push carts which holds food and drinks and some duffle bags and ruck sacks in front of the door, it cracks open as a hand sticks out from the crack of the entry way frantically reaching in multiple directions in a bide to latch on to it’s potential prey. The sick individual continues to scream and moan as he reaches towards the Airmen on the other side.
As a result, the senior leader whom ordered the men and women to barricade the door, posts a guard shift to watch the sick man in case the barricade is compromised. He grabs one of his Airmen’s M16 rifles and hands it yo the guard on watch as he extracts the magazine and pulls the bolt back to clear the weapon of a chambered round. “Here, beat his skull in case he breaks free,” the man orders.
The Airmen sits on the ground with his back to the wall staring towards the infected man and shakes his head in acceptance. The senior leader walks back to his seat apparently seeming upset as he glares at Trevor for a moment with terror and fear in his eyes.
Hours now go by as the men are able to rest and the sounds of the infected soldier cease from the lavatory. Even they give up, eventually, Trevor thought to himself as he was able to close his eyes to the sound of peaceful nothingness.
Trevor is now in a deep trance or state of slumber. He dreams of his family, outside on their porch in the country side as he watches his grand children play in the grass. He is an old man again and have lived a long and meaningful life with his family, just like he envisioned in his sleep so long ago when he had his brother in Iraq.
As peaceful as he was in his seat, eventually, abruptly ended when the sound of the pilot comes up on the intercom and addresses the passengers of the flight. “Be advised, we will be landing momentarily. As you all know of the recent situation and disturbances that we’ve experienced in Kuwait, I think you are all entitled to be aware of the bad news myself and the remaining staff has just become aware of,” the pilot addresses as his voice over powers the sound of static emitting from the speakers.
The pilot stays silent for a few seconds while keying the microphone. Eventually, he brings himself to explain. “I regret to inform you that we have absolutely no contact with the towers or any agency on the ground in the vicinity of the landing zone. We have no option but to land because this plane can only go so far on the fuel it has. It is unknown what we will be subjected to upon contact with the tarmac. Please stay vigilent and confident as we will all get through this together. Thank you and god bless,” the now fearful pilot states in a fearful voice and apparently short of breath.
Christopher looks at Trevor with worrisome eyes as the pair stay silent. That is when the plane begins it’s path to landing. Trevor now turns his head away from Christopher. As the plane descends into Leipzieg Germany, Trevor stares outside the window once he raises up the window blocker. Now realizing it is day time here, he stares on into the country side as it grows ever closer to him as they come closer to landing.
Trevor notices how beautiful the country side appears to be. The grass is so tall and so green as the wind blows into it and makes it stray back and forth. It is a beautiful sight Trevor concludes as he continues to gaze out the window. At that moment, he begins thinking of his wife Joanne and their children they love so dearly. He also thinks of his brother, whom he misses so much and wonders if he will ever see again.
That is when he feels the wheels below the under belly deploy. The rough sounds and shakes of the plane makes it’s first contact with the tarmac of Europe as he reaches down below his seat to pull out his locked and loaded M4 Carbine.
Trevor now places his rifle between his legs with the barrel pointed down and closes his eyes.
“Hey, Chris.”
“Yeah?”
“Wake the guys up. Get them ready.”
“Roger . . . . Sergeant.”