I Shouldn’t be Alive

I shouldn’t be alive. Everyone was running past me towards a large mansion with Roman pillars that held the large deck on the second floor. The paleness of the structure seemed hidden by the reflections of fires on the streets. I stared at the abandoned cars on the once busy highway; all burning making identifying their brands a difficulty. I took a look at the rifle in my hand and swiftly joined the swarm of soldiers running towards the building. It wasn’t easy, though. I crouched down and leapt from one car to another hoping they would protect me from the onslaught of bullets. Others were less fortunate. While leaping I found myself stepping over bodies attempting to avoid tripping over them. I felt and heard one bullet gaze past my ear. I turned my head to find the guy behind me fall down. He was one of us and appeared dead so I kept moving forward.

A group of us gathered at the entrance of the mansion waiting for the others to catch up, if they could. If we all enter at once we would have a larger impact if there are enemy soldiers inside waiting for us. As the last of the guys joined the group someone pushed open the door and another threw in a flash grenade. Several of us, including myself, started firing into the mansion. I saw one guy raise his hand and we cease fire. The team looked around and the room was empty; there were no bodies to be found.

This room, which I called “the grand hallway,” had no decorations. The walls and the ceiling were made from gray stones as if they were positioned by a mason from the medieval period. At the end of the grand hallway there was a double-door exit where we figured we’d head. One of the guys of rank gave us a signal to start running forward. I let the others go ahead of me and guarded from the rear. A large boom came from across the room as if an avalanche punched through. I turned to find it was what I had feared: the ceiling collapsing and crushing my allies. It was a continuous punishment of large boulders as they piled on top of each other creating hills. The rest of us waited for the boulders to diminish before heading towards the grand hallway’s exit with the rest of the men. We couldn’t turn back now even though there were only a few of us left we knew we had to proceed with the objective.

Upon opening the doors we saw another room just like the one we exited. “Look for sensors!” I yelled. I took off one of my boots and threw it to the floor to determine if there was a motion sensor or something. Nothing happened.

Was this room setup the same way as the last room? That would be stupid, I thought.

No sensors could be found so we silently walked into the room. A boulder, much larger than the previous ones, comes flying right at us from the exit. It had to be a third of the size of the room. I jumped over as far right as I could hitting the ground. It grazed my skull enough to knock me out.

After coming back to consciousness I slowly opened my left eye to find a boot only a few inches to my face. It was owned by an unfamiliar soldier and I didn’t recognize the boot. I closed my eye and remained still, assuming it was an enemy solider.

“What about this one?” I hear one of the guys ask.

“Shoot him to just be safe.” The voice came from the guy standing by me followed by a spray of bullets. More spurts of bullets sounded in other areas of the room, but I kept still hoping that I wouldn’t become one of the “dead sure” victims.

Several minutes passed, maybe a half an hour, waiting until after all sounds stopped before I gradually opened my left eye again. The boot had disappeared and I started to look around. Blood swamped the floor with bodies barely showing above it. I stood up and brushed myself off.