"The Patrol"
They are four.
Four marines, standing, their backs to a wall in this urban hell, visors up, faces dark and grimy, bodies, wary and alert.
The wall, which provides them the scant protection they think they have, is a relic of the landscape. Graffiti marks it, showing that it was once one of the darker sections of the city. The mosaics are washed away, not by liquid, but by the scarring of a thousand bullets, holes uglier than the obscene words themselves, holes that show where a man was killed, where his blood splattered, where his visceral were left. But the marines stand there, the wall covered with bullet holes, remnants of graffiti, and dried blood, thinking of the protection it gives them.
They are four.
The fumes of unwashed men, an odor that is bearable compared to the other odors in the city. They stand there, knowing the danger of sitting in a landscape raped of humanity. To the left, face unvisible, is the Leader. He is looking beyond the wall, gun up, exosuit muscles tense, looking at the next cover. Four marines, stationary, are dead in a city like this, sitting ducks for a marksman or tank blast.
The Leader knows this, and though his face is not visible, the tension shown in his mechanical features are. His suit is tense, twisted around, as he looks away at the ruined landscape behind them, looking for the next cover. A man who does not move in the city is a dead man. The Leader knows this, as his mechanical fingers, the tips of his exosuit, are tightly wrapped around his rifle.
"Fade Away"
The medic cradles the tenderfoot in her arms.
She is young; her armor is not. Clearly, her shoulderplates show the markings of a medic, a person saving lives. The red cross does not make her invunerable, and there, in the center of the red cross, a hole, a kiss from a bullet
Comments:
This was suppose to be a literary exercise of description. In fact, the filename is called "Descriptions." I tried to bring emotions of war to life by describing them in such as way to make these marines and medics feel real. It was particularly difficult, and I've too lazy to finish it off. Enjoy.