The Parting: Insanity

Though he had been in country for a few months, the last week had taken a toll on Jack. Consecutive nights on night patrol frayed his nerves. The sounds in the dark seemed ominous. Every creaking, snapping, or moaning sound caused new surges of adrenaline to shoot... through his body. If the enemy were out there, he was certain they could hear his pounding heart. After a week with only a few fitful minutes of sleep, Jack was a stumbling zombie. That was the easy part. In the months he had been in Afghanistan, he had seen too many things that were better not to relive in dreams.

The broken, torn bodies of 2 of his friends were the worst. He denoted the second worst to be their screams as the wounded writhed in pain. Pete was the first to get hit. Shot as they climbed one of the many steep hills in the region they patrolled, Pete fell as backward and started sliding down the hill, trailing blood. Jack shut his eyes as he replayed the images again but shook his head and opened his eyes to make them go away. The image of Todd’s death was simply his body. His head was downhill when Jack finally got to him shortly after the medic left. The blood had started pooling in his head and, since his heart no longer functioned, the oxygenless blood left his face with a bluish/purplish hue to it.

Maybe things will change. Only time will tell if someone can transition from warrior to civilian without lasting problems. Maybe the WWI and WWII soldiers had a big benefit. They had a month or so on a ship going across the ocean. They had a buffer zone, so to speak, between death and destruction and a home with clean sheets, mom and apple pie. They could decompress.

It isn’t normal to be a soldier, Jack thought. It isn’t normal when you go on a walk that that you have to be ready to kill someone. Sometimes that is the sole purpose of your movements. It isn’t normal to know there are people that want to kill you. They are making plans to do it. Someone is making plans for you to go kill someone else. He denoted it as insanity! It is all insanity.