Rebirth

Rebirth
The soft muddy ground on Christmas day gave little support as the soldier stood still at attention as a small metal noise scratched and scraped at his ear. He stared suspiciously down upon his right black beaten boots; shifted his weight, and bent forward peering on to what he had stepped on. Below his right foot was a small rusted brown metallic cake like disk, about the size of a small plate, meshed loosely in the muddy ground.
Inside, his chest expanded and filled with noxious gas, his rib cage imploded, and as his heart struggled to pump blood throughout his body; as each intake of cold air disappeared before diffusing inside his lungs; as his organs within his body flailed and malfunctioned, struggling to support him; as he pulled the collar around his strangulating neck. Nervously, he raised his rough right hand against his helmet lifting it; before touching the soft smooth skin on his forehead, and then touched the top of his chest and both sides of his shoulders. In a ceremoniously tone the soldier utter for help:
“Sweet Angel above me, can you please help?”
The soldier bent forward slowly sliding the rubber outsole of his boot with a gentle passion above the ravaged disk. Underneath his rubble outsole imprinted heavily with black paint on the top of the degrading metallic disk was R-1r74. It was all rustic brown, flanking in tender wafts where beads of the metal had been weld.
The soldier was very frightened, frightened for his life. For life seemed to stop for him. The trees which were enclosed around him stop dead from the violent rustling. As the clouds sped by, overhead the doves which lay perched upon the decaying trees stopped to stare upon the doomed soldier. His struggling heart bleed out, pounding violently against his chest smashing within his chest as he bled out a few tears. He had stepped upon his inevitable doom and judgment; he had walked onto an antipersonnel landmine.
***
Adam Walton head was in the sky as he stared loathingly upon the landmine onto which he had helplessly had stepped on. There was nothing in his power which he could do; lifting pressure off the trigger would cause his death, sending him exploding back down to earth, where the worms would eat though his brain. All he could do was stare into the rusty metal death trap which he had unknowingly stepped on, and wait what could be centuries in this vast emptiness in pure isolation.
The trees stood still as time was altered, the sun began to set and rise in a fantastic organic blaze which streaked across the cloudy skies. The doves died down. Adam Walton was left alone with his thoughts as he glazed depressively upon the clouds and the laughing landmine.
He thought: I “Death is only a step away, and yet maybe I’ll be alright. The mine below could be damaged; faulty wiring, delayed timers, the rust which could have slowly eaten away at the insides of the mine. Or maybe the mine isn’t here at all, just a pre-detonated one, the other soldiers came back injured with only ONE blown off limb, it could have been ONE from yesterday. I could easily jump backwards, which could cause minimal damage to my body allowing me to escape! Oh please, God!”
The mine below him felt loose in the soil and looked slightly incinerated to him. All he had to do was step off the scraped steel, and then execute the plan in his head. Just step off and roll back and go back to home. He could imagine walking back with small wounds and cuts, and possibly missing limb, creeping cautiously among the tall grass, looking keen for landmines, until he reached the base of the forest. There he could run or crawl among the trees until he found home. Then sit down and read a few letters from his family, friends, and his wife Eve, or dreadfully he thought, obtain medical attention.
The reinsuring images comfort his bamboozled mind; he believed that his faith rested in god’s hand now. He held his breath, closed his eyes, said a quick prayer, added more pressure to both of his legs, and then prepared to take off and fly. The doves watched quietly as Adam prepared to fly. But time froze around him as well as his muscles, he choked, his heart blasted then sank within his chest, as his stomach undulated, creating a feeling of nausea. The bones in his stomach undulated inside him. He tipped from front to back trying to keep balance, then snapped right back to attention, as he cleared his foggy mind. He knew he was lying to himself. The landmine was in fact intact, and armed.
“This is your fault God! I can’t do this, I’m too weak! Are you even there?!? I THOUGH YOU WOULD PROTECT ME OUT HERE! I WANT TO LIVE!”
Adam Walton was in a sudden stimulated state of rage. He ripped off the helmet savagely, and scratched skin fiercely off his head. His faced burned bright red like a fired tracer as he cursed God’s very name, swearing loudly. The angelic doves which had watched him in grave silence from the dead trees, chirped in terror from his yelling, which brought the trees back to life as the doves shot out screaming.
The poignant noise of doves threw Adam off guard. The doves flew towards him, the sounds violent in strength and sharpness. His head savagely turned in anger towards the doves flying overhead; the doves’ screeching sound imitated the sound of raining hellfire deceiving Adam’s perception alerting panic within him. His right leg gave way, as his boot scratched away at the metal plate, causing him to fall down back to the damp earth. The doves flew away into the orange sky, as pure white feathers wafted slowly down to the ground. The world stopped again, the trees stopped rustling, the sun stopped setting, and the soldier lay quietly outstretched with his body in a cross, his face had landed down upon the damp earth. The burning irritating sensations under his skin dampen down to a soothing sensation with cool contact from the earth.
Slowly, he lifted his head and opened his eyes gently as he lay upon the earth. The wind slowly blew across his body the grass and flowers moved slowly from side to side. He was in a dazed state. Up in the sky the clouds blinded him from the ground. His heart blasted and slowly chugged down to a pause. He peered around him and observed the unfamiliar surroundings, the bright intense sun finally settled down, and the stars slowly shined seductively. All around him the earth dampen down and was laid to peace with the shadows. He was safe. Safe for the night, for the night emitted a clam and peaceful feeling.
“Oh thank you God oh thank you.”
Adam again question the fate of the landmine, to him the landmine was a nothing but a fake. The less he pondered the tragic event the more he can forget. And forgetting was good, for it could no longer harm him. From the moist ground Adam was surrounded by shadows of the night he then lifted his body up from the mud, and was ready to go back to home, back to what he thought was safe.
As he pulled himself up Adam’s heart was lifted from his body as he exploded. Sharp pieces of shrapnel pierced into his heart and penetrated like deep fierier arrows. Adam lay again on his back, his body laid upon the ground in a cross, as his eyes searched the heavens while ashes rained down from the sky. Lifting his head observing the empty cavity inside his chest and the smell of burnt flesh and gunpowder drifted into his nostrils comforting him. His pinned hands gripped the inside of his charred ribcage, feeling around for his organs, before yelling furiously in horrid pain as he felt until his fingers gripped an loose unknown object in his abdomen. As his vision blacken and drifted from light to dark, he drowsily lifted his head from the soft ground to peer at what his scarred hands held. Inside his loose grip he held a clean smooth pearl white rib. Adam starred confused into the foreign bone, for it seemed to be removed from his rib cage in a perfect cut, but added inside him by a higher entity. Adam dropped his head back down screamed in unrelenting anguish; and place his hands to the ground perpendicular to his blasted battered body and struggled to mutter a single prayer before closed his eyes as the color drained slowly from his skin, and as the unbearable pain drained to a soothing slumber.
In the black mud laid a crater filled with blasted serrated shrapnel and a detonated mine. A devious dove drove down by his head, searching the scattered scarred ground before picking up a small portion of burnt flesh discarded by his body, and flew towards the heavens and into the a dark luminous light shining in the clouds.