The Order Part 3

Day 1,996, 08:28 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Henry Hank Moody

The story continues. If you haven't done so already you can read the previous parts of this tale.

1) My Story

2) The Order

3) The Order Part 2

I held my breath for a few brief seconds, allowing my eyes to close briefly as I muttered a prayer to some Deity I’d never had much time for until now. I guess a lot of people are like that when it comes time for them to face their own mortality.

May God guard and protect my senses, so that misfortunes may not overcome me.

The grenade detonated a few seconds later, even through the closed lids of my eyes I could see the bright light burning into my retina.

“Up and at em,” I screamed at the top of my lungs, lurching blindly through the undergrowth and falling directly into the sunken gun emplacement.
Thankfully I had a soft landing in the form of an Irish soldier who was flailing around, throwing his fists around blindly as he screamed against the pain searing through his eyes.

I didn’t even think about my next act. No synapses fired off telling me what to do, it was all just instinct and training.

I drew my blade and plunged it into the man’s chest, he screamed even louder as I felt the warmth of his blood wash across my hand. His eyes seemed to spark briefly before the pupils rolled up into the back of his head, his arms fell to his sides and the last breath rattled out of his chest.

I had killed men before. More than I care to remember, and he wouldn’t be the last one to die by my hand, but he was the first man who’s last breath I felt on my cheek, and smell the garlic he’d had at lunch. It was the first time a man’s blood was literally on my hands.

I have no idea how long I stared into his unblinking eyes, probably no longer than five seconds but it seemed like an eternity at the time. I could have stayed there for hours, but I was pulled back into the reality as Corporal Hendrik pulled his trigger, firing two shots dead on into a dying enemies head.

I looked around at the killing ground.