The Discontent
By:Garrett Peters
I had been walking for six hours and accumulated a total of sixteen miles since I left that school. I had to keep moving, or else I would be caught and brought back. The weather was changing drastically about every thirty minutes; at first it was hot and humid from the dry heat mixed with the rain and the Northern winds. As I walked I could feel the sweat begin to pour off of me, and begin to soak my clothes and chill me to the bone. After a couple of more hours, I had to stop before I passed out from exhaustion; as I sat down I felt the full force of the fatigue that had been chasing me since I began this march back home. Home. It was weird saying the word after being gone for so long. I felt alienated saying it, almost as though it didn't exist anymore; but in the back of my mind I knew it was there. I just had to keep up my determination and eventually my endeavors would pay off and I would be happy again. As I sat there pondering all these thoughts that had been ripping and tearing at my brain, I slowly fell into a sleep and began dreaming of my experiences at Lyman Ward Military Academy. "Hey new guy! Come here and look at this," said a scrawny cadet from Echo company. I started to walk away, but then interest slapped me in the face as more and more people began to run over to where he was standing. "What could possibly be that cool or interesting?" I said ideas casually crept into my head as I got increasingly interested; so I decided to go over there."What is it?" I said in response to what he said earlier, "I don't know, it looks like some kind of animal... I think." Said another scrawny kid."Are you sure? It just looks like a pile of rotting food to me; plus it smells like shit." I had to agree the stench was unimaginably strong. It was only natural to start gagging at the smell, I tried to stop myself from throwing up, but to no avail. I ran to a nearby tree and let my stomach do what it needed to do. I stood up and tried to act like I wasn't sick from the stench, I looked around at my surroundings and noticed that there were three buildings and many smaller ones surrounding them, one of the bigger buildings had a sign above it that said "Welcome to.." and then cut off as though nobody should ever know what we were welcome to when we entered threw those wide double doors. Very soon a bugle began playing over an intercom on the roof of a nearby building playing Revely, although at the time I had no idea what it was, so I just stood there dumbfounded as everyone else ran up to the Headquarters and got in formations with their own companies. I walked over to the formation and fell in place still dressed in civilian clothing, which made me feel kind of like a social outcast. A big, giant of a man, came striding out of the building, and with a booming voice that could make a mountain shake in fear said, three simple, but powerful words, "Welcome to Hell maggots!" I noticed that a few of the cadets around me started snickering. I figured that they have already dealt with this giant man before. He walked around for a bit and gradually made his way to the front of each company and had a brief discussion with each commanding officer. As he came to my company I noticed he kept glancing at me and then back at the barracks. I watched the tension rise between the man and the commanding officer. I got pushed from behind and turned to see a lanky looking boy staring back at me, "You shouldn't have come here, this place is evil," he said with a raspy voice and depressing face, "This place will kill you before you get a chance to leave, just watch your back. Trust me." And he simply limped away. That night I got settled into my room, I didn't have a roommate at the time so I put both the beds together, but I got lonely so I looked out the window at the world beyond this city and school. I was still looking outside when I saw a flicker or light, I noticed it was the kid from before that found the decomposing object, he had a shovel with him. He was walking at a brisk pace, so I guess he was trying to not be caught. A couple minutes later I saw someone come out from behind a tree on the side of the trail that the boy had just gone on, the person walked into the darkness. I waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity and finally saw the boy come limping out from the darkness but I noticed he didn't have the shovel. " I wonder why he is limping, and what happened to the shovel?" I said to myself, I then saw the man coming up behind the boy, the boy must have heard him because he turned around as fast as he could to face the unknown assailant, The man grinned. He lifted the shovel and took a tree splitting swing at the boy with the shovel, the boy dodged the first swing but as he came up the shovel collided with the boys face and knocked him to the ground, the man walked around him, smiling the entire time, finally he stood over the boy, shovel raised high, and with such resolution and strength that would have made you believe he was a god, slammed the shovel into the boys face and shattered his skull. The boy was dead. With a start, I woke up. I was wet and felt sick to my stomach. I sat there and collected my thoughts, I realized I was still on the side of the highway, I heaved myself up and continued on my journey home.
Fifteen years later....
I walked down thirty-first street on my way to work. I don't usually walk, but I figured today would be a good day to start. I took a right and entered the Garden District of the city; it smelled wonderful with flowers and trees of all kinds everywhere. Passing a garden center. I saw three boys shoving a smaller boy around and laughing at him. I walked towards the boys and glanced around, I turned to my right and looked at a shelf, I found a shovel. Memories began to attack my mind and soon, I found myself grinning wide. The store watched in horror.