Dying Embers

Consciousness slammed me back into this war-torn world, and here I awoke on a cot in the medical tent. My clothes were torn and bloody, and my chest was bandaged. Dizziness kept me still for a moment, and then it passed, allowing me to find the ground beneath my feet and walk out into the cold night.

"Problem, captain?" I looked over at the private, who tried to get a signal on the radio. "You should be resting, sir."

Ignoring his comment, my eyes turned to the rest of my men huddled around a campfire. There were few of us now than when we first arrived. We saw more dead, and there were still no people left to rescue. Why have they not signaled us back? Are they still there? Have we lost this war?

"Aren't you cold, sir? You could go by the fire."

"I know that, private. I was just soaking everything in."

"There's nothing to soak in, sir. Everything's gone." He turned the radio off. "Everyone's gone."

"But not us. Remember that, private." The young man nodded. "If only we saw it coming."

"We did, but we ignored it."

"And it happened." The young man nodded with tears in his eyes. "Go by the fire, son. There won't be any signals on the radio. The wind is quiet, but it carries the strong stench of blood. For now, it's over." I watched him walk by me toward the fire.

"Are you coming, sir?"

"In a moment. In a moment." I smiled at his salute and watched him join the other men.

Clenching my hands into fists, I shook my head angrily. We were given a chance to stop this a long time ago. We were given the technology, the knowledge, the damn history to learn from our mistakes, but we were damned to repeat them. And it was now too late. Like the great civilizations before us, the Mayans and Aztecs, we were now on the verge of extinction, and all that would be left behind would be the remains of a world gone dark. And the life to be born after all the bloodshed would start again, but would they too fall victim to the vice that gripped us now?

"This didn't have to happen." I turned toward the bright lights of the city behind me. "We were better than this." Memory decorated scenery. "But we lost our way, stumbling blind, and never turning around." Tears stung my eyes. "We lost our way." My gaze settled on the stars above, burning with intensity. "I can only hope that next time, we will succeed where we have failed."