The half-forgotten
Other half of my short life
In short story form

 
Tinge of Agoraphobia
3-31-2002

I was the newest--perhaps a guest--member of an elite team of combatants, who were assaulting an installation. Being new, I didn't even have a weapon. There were other teams with us, but they held back, waiting for us to clear the path. We started running up this turf-like bridge toward a looming structure. I couldn't tell if it was day or night. I was near the head of the group. Enemy humanoid monsters charged at us. I had no idea what I was going to do without a weapon, but one of them fell right in front of me by a single strike from the guy running ahead of me. He just slashed and kept running. I bent down and grabbed the knife from the monster, but in doing so, I lost the lead.

I hoped I could distinguish our team from the bad guys, since none of us wore uniforms, and I was still new, so I didn't know everyone's faces yet, either. Someone struck out at me with two knives at once. I somehow blocked the blow and held his weapons in check while someone in my team ran up and ran him through. I took something that functioned like a pair of tongs.

Someone behind me warned me about the birds. As they did so, one flew at me menacingly. I caught it around the neck with my tongs and cut its head off with the pair of large scissors I suddenly found in my right hand. Others ran past me in the process, and I found myself near the very back of the group now. I ran to catch up.

I made it to the installation, and followed someone into a sparse metal room. I found a key on the floor, the purpose of which never became clear. The guy was in another corner of the room, waiting for me to do something. I somehow triggered a mechanism that opened another door, and we continued. We entered an identical room, except this time the key on the floor was in a different place. I picked it up anyway. We moved on.

I new my team wasn't far ahead, because I came upon some inflatable bridges. I crossed them and found them on a pillar of land, preparing to make another bridge to the center of the installation. The other teams were closing in behind us, too, erecting square, yet rounded, barriers on the inflatable bridges. They moved from barrier to barrier, as if for cover. I figured we never bothered with those because we were so elite.

Next thing I knew, the next bridge was done and my team already gone. I overheard something about "the last time we flew through the fire ". I had no idea what they were talking about, but I ran after them, a couple others behind me. We entered the next structure, turned down a corridor, and stopped. Directly in front of us was a red, fiery hallway. I saw two of my teammates standing absolutely still in it, unable to move. Every other square tile of the hallway was covered in bones, save one. I now understood that one would either die or get suspended for years. Death was the correct choice, and someone had to die on the right tile to dispel the mechanism. Someone else jumped onto the last clear tile, screamed horribly, and collapsed into a pile of bones. Everyone (including him) was suddenly resurrected, and the suspended people became animated again. We charged through.

I left the planet, and traveled across the star system in a ship. I moved from planet to planet, creating a map in my head.

I landed into another battle situation, this time amongst marines. We were defending against enemy tanks. I had the job of targeting enemy tanks with my laser so that our shells could strike them. We took out several tanks this way, and they kept charging us in spite of the warnings we shouted over loudspeakers.

We pushed forward, taking out a couple troop carriers and a helicopter. Some troops started to crawl under a broken hangar door at us. I fired, but soon realized they were our troops. Where were the enemy? They ran past us, back toward our base. I couldn't find the enemy, so I went back, too, where I was teleported back into the mothership.

I didn't know where to go, so I traveled across the galaxy in the wrong direction. I was notified that I was supposed to take the warp right next to the planet, but I was nowhere near it now. I would take forever to get back, and I felt a tinge of agoraphobia.


posted by Phlegm at 11/26/2003