Story [Issue 78] Come Hell or High Water

[tweezers 1,034]

 

 

I am not a monster.

 

I was just an average person, once. I even had a family. A home. A job.

 

A normal life.

 

But that didn’t last.

 

My world tore itself apart over the course of many years. More than a decade, anyway. The rise of a dictatorship, consuming all that opposed it in its path, and the subsequent uprising and demolition of that dictatorship, followed by the constant squabbling for power, resources, and life that continues to this day.

 

And somewhere along the way, they took everything from me.

 

My sons, they took to fight their wars. To fight in cramped battlefields, to fight those who were no older and no wiser than them, and to die, to die for something that they did not believe in, trapped inside the metal coffins that serve as their vehicles of war.

 

My wife and my home were taken by their guns. Their guns, that came in the dead of the night, when those who could fight back were away and our neighbourhoods lay undefended. They looted and pillaged, burned and destroyed, and took everything in the name of their “cause”.

 

Their cause. Who knows what that means anymore. It’s been altered, stretched, changed, demolished, rewritten. Lost. But once, there was a cause. Something to believe in and to protect. The one thing that held us together in the face of all odds.

 

Unity.

 

We were united as one, once. No separations, no distinctions, nothing to come between us other than our humanity.There were no power struggles, no petty quarrels that escalated into full blown wars. Our resources and our minds went to solving problems for the betterment of humanity, for the betterment of ourselves.

 

And look at us now.

 

*

 

Emblazoned on the side of a mechanical beast are five words.

 

Come hell or high water.

 

The words are striking, even viewed through the various gashes and cuts that litter the surface of its background, relics of battles past. Despite its appearance however, the tank is polished, the setting sun reflecting off its treads.

 

On its left side, at least.

 

Its right side is shattered and broken, gaping holes punching through the metal cocoon of its cabin. The driver, gunner, and navigator are all slumped in their seats, distinguishable only by the copious amounts of red covering them. Gasoline slithers down the side of the mangled wreck, inching ever closer to the superheated engine bay nestled at the rear of the vehicle.

 

The scene disappears in a plume of orange, complementing the fiery sky above it. The accompanying sound acts as a bird scarer, albeit one that deals with ten tonne steel and titanium birds. Five tanks break ranks and scatter, rationally accepting that there is no saving their fallen comrades. With little care for concealment, they weave through the bushes and trees, desperately trying to avoid a shot that does not appear.

 

*

 

I regret their loss.

 

Watching the glow of the explosion settle, I am seized by a sudden sadness for the loss of life that I caused, have caused for the last month. I do not wish to bring more grief into this world, and yet I must, if I am to show them that they must return to the ways that humanity once followed.

 

I have seen the actors of both factions burst into flames through my scope, and each time it has struck me that in that final moment they are all the same. The flames consume, regardless of whose emblem glows through the darkness.  

 

I am not a monster.

 

I am still just an average person.

 

I have lost everything.

 

And yet gained one vital asset.

 

Purpose.

 

Unity.

 

Come hell or high water.

 

I will make them unite.

 

 

[thethiefofvictory 339]

Not something I would expect from you (a remark at the genre, not quality, mind you), and a pleasant surprise at that! Great job as always, twee, keep it up!

[Magenta 5,165]

Twee never disappoints, and not one moment dares be an exception.

I've been thinking of writing something along these lines, but I've been procrastinating. This might help getting my butt to work, so thanks.

 

BTW, is this the first of a series?

Edited August 5, 2018 by Magenta

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

Mighty fine writing there, Hoss!

[Michael_Jackson_PRO 4]

Good writing bro, but are you talking about Trump? But not to offense you, because I don't like politics.

Edited August 5, 2018 by Michael_Jackson_PRO

[tweezers 1,034]

Good writing bro, but are you talking about Trump? But not to offense you, because I don't like politics.

Nah, didn't have him in mind when I was writing this. 

[Michael_Jackson_PRO 4]

Nah, didn't have him in mind when I was writing this. 

Ok,

[rmehemmed_042_Aze 0]

Nice good :)  :)

Nice good

[JAGMAN2468 104]

This reminds me of the purges they did in Russia during Stalin's reign...