Author Steven Clark Bradley

"Open Your Eyes!" Part One by Author Steven Clark Bradley

stevenbradley | April 25, 2008 19:13

I do not write scary material for the sake of startling people. Many of the things that our scary world faces today are the results of things that happen over which men and women exercise little or no control.

In Nimrod Rising, I wrote about the final culmination of disaster after America had already turned it's back on the ideals and values that forged us into the most powerful nation in the history of the world. In my new novel, which is in its infancy, for now, I will seek to show many of the steps into darkness that America is even now taking and which will lead us to disaster if we do not take a sharp detour into sanity. I hope you will find the following chapter from my current project, "Quality of Life" not just scary, but revealing and challenging to make you think that just perhaps, we can still correct our mistakes and return to morality and live a true quality of life.                   

Steven Clark Bradley

Quality of Life - Chapter 3 - Open Your Eyes

“Open your eyes, Sergeant Masters! Come on man! You’ve only got 20 minutes!”

Marine Corp Sergeant Jacob Masters opened his eyes, but only for a second, because the light was so bright that flooded his vision. His eye lids refuse to stay open. He heard his father’s voice, but it sounded so far away, but it gave him hope nonetheless.

“Come on Jake! It’s dad!” The Marine Sergeant could hear his father’s voice as though he was screaming to him in the middle of a hard-pouring rain, making it sound muffled and hazy.

“Jake, we’re running out of time here!” Jacob Masters understood the words, the meanings were unclear though. At least where he was, time marched on forever, it seemed. He had nothing but time and it was driving him crazy.
“Jake! Open your eyes now! They’re going to…”

Sergeant Masters could even feel his fathers hot breath splashing across his face. Then, his father finally shouted, “OPEN YOUR EYES, BOY!”

Sergeant Master’s eyes exploded open! He was staring straight upward. He saw trees, thick, green trees that were shrouded in rich glimmering light. Had he died and gone out of that dreadful place he had remembered being in moments earlier? Then it all came back to him. He thought his way through the maze of bewilderment his mind was racing through.

“Running! That’s right! I was running and firing and my men…they were screaming, yes I remember! They were screaming and…and falling…then it hit and I hit the ground!”

Masters had found his bearings and recalled it all as they had been on a recon mission. Basra, Iraq had been pacified, or so declared the President, the Pentagon and his direct superiors on the ground there. It had made a good pretext for the Britons to leave, having done a great job in their own right. There were still pockets out there who refused to lay it all down though and he and his men had done this task for weeks and it had become good exercise and a way to chat as he and his five men walked the trek with their guns drooped over their shoulders and their voices not muffled in the least. This war was over, right? They were simply bringing up the rear and keeping it all in place. The Brits were long gone, Al-Queida was at least mollified and gone off to lick their wounds and blowup some meaningless target just to let the world know they were still alive. The Iraqis had had enough and turned on their warlords a while ago. Now for Masters, this was nothing much more aggressive than walking the beat of some shopping mall and looking for children who had lost their mom or dad. Yet, he could here it, tracers of fire being fired overhead. He extended out his right arm blindly and felt the ground around him and his palm felt something laying next to him…a body…one of his men who was not moving. As Masters’ senses returned, he turned his head to the right, he saw the marine he had been chatting with when all hell had broken out! He was obviously dead. Masters felt his own chest and reached behind him and felt his back. He found three holes in his vest. He pulled his hand up to his eyes saw there was no blood. He had simply been knocked out by the impact of some large shells that had not penetrated the Kevlar inside the vest. He turned his comrade’s body over and his face was gone. He had taken a couple of the large rounds right to the face and had killed him on impact, “Thank God” thought Masters.

“Jake, they’re gonna pull the plug, my boy! It’s now or never!”

Masters heard his father’s voice again and he jumped up to his knees and looked around quickly.

“Dad? They’re trying to kill me, dad! Where are you?”

“Yallah…Yallah!” Masters heard the voices in Arabic calling out and trying hard to quickly find them. He pulled out a bottle of pills that he had already determined to take before falling into enemy hands and having his head slowly sliced off like a sacrificial lamb! Then, they were there, in the breaches, so close he could hear the leaves rustling. There’d be no way to run, not with their guns, that he’d already cheated death from once. His mind raced and he debated whether to swallow the pills and die quickly or to just pretend to be so. Before he could make up his mind, he saw the silhouette of one of the long-haired-bearded men break through the foliage. He saw the boots and heard them shouting orders back at each other. He poured out the contents of the bottle and pulled his automatic rifle under him and held his finger on the trigger. Masters lay flat on his back and extended his right hand with his palm open, revealing the deadly tablets. He quickly turned his head and saw only one of his men still moving. He saw the boots appear out of the brush and approach them in the opening where they had been attacked. Masters closed his eyes and waited.

The terrorist soldier walked slowly and radioed something back to his group. Masters understood nothing except the proverbial, “Allah Wakbar” at the end. He laid completely still. The Marine Corps training had kicked in, which amounted to being patient to live to kill another day! The Al-queida terrorist turned and headed in Masters’ direction. He knew it even with his eyes closed by virtue of the loud approaching steps that the terrorist overkill attitude had never leaned to be careful of. Masters tensed inwardly and gripped his gun solidly under his back. Masters knew that the timing was everything and it had to be just right. He was fairly sure that only one of his men was still alive from his group. He also knew that marine to his left was regaining consciousness, because loud grunts and groans were emanating from him. Masters’ task was not to get the hell out of there, but to take his comrade with him even if he had to carry him out.

The terrorist came close to Masters’ rigidly still body.

Masters started counting with 10 as the D-day number! When the terrorist came next to Masters, he looked down and started to bend down to check out Masters’ vitals. Just as he bent all the way down and when Masters was ready to make his move, the marine to Masters’ left groaned loudly. The terrorist stood upright quickly and hurried over to the groaning Marine. The enemy combatant saw the American flaying on the ground and took his automatic and pointed it at the still breathing Marine! As the enemy Islamic soldier of terror placed his finger on the trigger, Masters rolled suddenly to his left, lifted his automatic and fired four shells into the terrorist! He fell with a thud to the ground.

Shouts reverberated through the trees in the rich underbrush of the area of Southern Iraq, the most fertile area of the country; very close to where the forbidden garden sprawled outward at the intersection of the Euphrates and Tigress rivers. Suddenly, like the sound of horses’ hooves, Masters could hear what seemed to be hundreds of enemy combatants coming his way! Then, he heard the shots from their weapons firing as they evident ran in his direction firing at will as they approached! Masters stood up, or at least tried to. His legs didn’t want to cooperate at first, but he managed to lift himself up to a world the twirled in circles for a moment or two!

The shots that had knocked him out had also left him dizzy and out of focus, but he got his bearings soon enough. He looked at the other four men who were on the ground. Three of them were dead, he was sure, or hoped, because he’d not have time to check them out. He knew that one was alive and ran over to him. He turned him over and looked at him and slapped him lightly across the face as the pounded earth around him grew nearer and nearer!

“Baker! Are you with me Baker?”

Private Baker only grunted and that was proof enough for Masters. He very aggressively hoisted him up and threw Baker over his shoulder!

“Sorry dude, but no time for fear right now!” Masters stated as a bullet whizzed past his head followed by screaming and even faster movement from the terrorists’ feet! He lifted Baker over his shoulder and stood up to run! Then he heard it again!

“Sergeant, ten till twelve and after that little hand touches the big one, it’s all over but the deep six!” someone said who Masters knew was not his father! This voice sounded almost playful, sarcastic.

Masters had no time to evaluate it! He took off running deeper into the brush and foliage that grew thicker with each over-weighted step! It was almost like watching some movie he had seen before making a decision to join the Marines. He had seen the Hollywood heroics, but now here he was running for his and Baker’s lives and had no idea where to go, how to hide effectively. This was a movie without a screenplay!

“Improvise, Dude!” he thought.

He could see the forest, or whatever it was, thickening up ahead! In front of him, he saw a deep, rich green spread out as far as he could see to the left and to the right like no vegetative growth he had ever seen. It was a great place to hide, but would be an impossible place to find his way out of. He kept running toward it simply because the danger behind him was so much greater than that which loomed in front of him! Soon his mind seemed to have caught his second wind and his feet and mind simply took over. He felt the air rushing past his face and he knew he had reached a threshold of either collapsing right there or running faster than he had ever done in his whole life! Shots rang out behind him with screaming voices in Arabic that Masters could not understood in words but fully comprehended in the full weight of their danger they posed for him and Baker.

Baker suddenly roused and looked back at the scenery that grew smaller as Masters ran forward.

“Where the hell…”

“Just shut up, Bakeman! I’m getting us out of here! Don’t move or I’ll break stride! You still got that pistol?” Masters asked with fleeting breath.

“Yea, here under my vest.”

“Get it out and if you see one of the Allah suckers, send him to paradise!”

“Yes Sir!” Baker affirmed as he pulled out the gun and pointed out into the air whizzing past him.

Masters heard a shot and felt Baker’s body go limp and heavy! He knew that his comrade was gone! Masters thought he should carry him away, but his probably dead body was now heavier than ever with buoyancy at all! He wondered if he should lay him down on the ground and see if he were possibly alive, but that would only spell two kills for the terrorists! He was torn, but his own death, as selfish as it seemed, was far weightier at the moment than trying to save an already dead man!

Instead of stopping respectfully and lowering Baker’s body to the ground, he raised his right arm and without slowing down, he catapulted Baker’s body off his shoulder and it hit the ground hard and loudly! Masters didn’t let it slow him down! He ran faster than ever now. He felt the same way he always had as a child when he’d hold three bats and swing them before taking his turn at the plate. The loss of baker’s body from his shoulders made his legs feel all the more light as the terrorists followed suit! His stride broke into the quickest his sprinting his legs had ever moved. He had been told that fear and that innate pulse for preservation of life and limbs were his best friends in just such a situation! He looked forward and the thick stuff was right there ahead of him! He just needed to get ahead and run into the thick area and then break to the left or right and lay low and pick them all off either one by one or all at the same time. It sounded feasible! In reality, it was his only option! Five more feet and shots rang out! They couldn’t be more than thirty feet behind him! Then he heard their feet pounding the earth! Three more feet and he increased speed and then felt his body slam into some kind of invisible wall like a huge pane of pristine glass made his momentum come to a crushing and painful screeching halt!

When Master hit the barrier that was completely invisible, his body crashed and then was propelled backward about five feet! On his back, he looked up and saw nothing there, but strangely felt no pain and simply stood up and ran to his right. He saw about twenty terrorists running toward the imperceptible obstruction and felt his lips move into a smile! He wanted to watch them crash into it but he had to get out of sight! He gave all his attention to finding a place to hide. He ran and heard the combatants drawing nearer. Just ahead of Masters, he saw a cave. It was small, but the opening was large enough to crawl into and to get his breath and check his rounds and get ready to blow them all to hell!

After he had almost dived into the cave, he slid himself around and watched the terrorist as they got only about ten feet from the barrier. They were running and the first five slammed into it with such a crushing speed that two of them were killed instantly from the sheer trauma of the impact! Masters knew he had smashed into it with no less force, but he had simply stood back up and run! The others stopped and looked up and down, to the left and right and tried to feel what was there stopping them. One guard began to scream!

“Iblis! Shetan!”

Another pounded the butt of his gun into the side of the man’s head!

“Shhh! Dur!” he shouted!

Masters watched as the sounds that filled the forest grew deathly silent! He watched the area where the men stood! That thing, whatever it was seemed to change! It was not clear anymore and it seemed to form a spinning mass of molten colors that revolved and twirled until suddenly, in front of the terrorists stood a towering figure! His face shown like the sun at noon day and he extended his wings that appeared to cover the whole area of the entrance way! The terrorist insurgents looked up at him! He was beautiful and perfect to behold. He looked down at them and smiled and they bowed to him! When they looked back up into his face, his smile turned into a frown, melted into a grimace, transformed into a face of anger and collapsed into a visage of rage! The men rose to run away! The great strange entity reached behind him and pulled out a massive sword!

“You have been judged and found wanting!” it cried out.

He raised the great sword over his head swung it from left to right! The blade connected with every fleeing neck and their heads fell to the ground followed by their bodies which took another couple of steps before limply crumbling downward! Masters watched with eyes that would not blink! He looked into the great image’s eyes and the face of fierce anger melted back to a peaceful and harmless smile. It waved its hand and the cave into which Masters had run became lit and bright and Sergeant Jason Master turned and looked at a massive expanse of rock and walls of stone! Then he heard it again, his father’s voice.

“Jacob, Jacob, you’ve got to come out of it, son! They’re going to pull the plug unless you…” The voice faded.

Masters walked over the cave wall directly in front of him. He saw a series of primitive drawings scrawled on the wall. It seemed like the drawings told a story like ancient hieroglyphics. Masters carefully started to walk over to the wall and touch the drawings. Then, it occurred that the light inside the cave seemed to be coming from nowhere. After what he had just seen outside the cave, the light seemed almost passé. He reached out to touch the wall and then hesitated. His hand was shaking and he felt a certain energy flow out of the rock and it produced a tingling sensation on his fingertips. He pulled his hand back and looked around the cave.

Though he had not noticed before, probably out of shock, amazement or sheer exhaustion, he realized that the cave was massive. It seemed like it had been carved right out of the stone. He turned and walked around the site. He could see where carved out stones had been placed in organized fashion, obviously ages ago. On the cave floor, next to a large flat stone that had clearly been used as a table, Masters saw a hollowed out stone that resembled a cup and flat slate stone plates scattered around the area. One of the plates had a primitive drawing on it as well. It showed two boys, one slightly taller than the other. One was tending the field in a field of vegetables. The other boy was slaughtering a lamb and draining the blood into a vessel of some kind. Masters placed the plate on the table. He picked up another stone plate and it too had a drawing carved into it. This one showed both boys offering there sacrifice to God and holding their hands high into the air. The taller boy’s offering was is fruit from his field of labor. The smaller boys offered the body of a slaughtered lamb and had poured the blood over the body and into a primitive alter. Masters looked over at the image of the taller boy and he picked up the plate and held it close to his face. He saw something drawn behind the boy. It was a bit obscured but he was sure he could make out the image of an angel. The wings were there, he was sure of it. Its face was grimacing and looked evil and cunning. Then a word filled his mind. He spoke the words quietly to himself that he had heard in his brain.

“Kasadya”

I hope this sample chapter of my ever growing new novel, Quality of Life. I hope it spoke to you of our world's need to find its moral high ground once again. Thank you for reading. You can also get your own copy of my three published novels at the the fine stores linked below.
Amazon.com
Booksamillion.com
Borders.com
Barnes & Noble.com

Thank you for reading! - Author Steven Clark Bradley

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