Chasing Rabbits

 

“Bang, bang, you’re dead!” Tommy yells from the thick woods bordering our back yard. “Bang, bang, you’re dead! Ha! I got you right between the eyes! You’re dead!”

 

Tommy’s laughter recedes.

 

“Bravo One, Bravo One, this is Delta, Over . . . Bravo One, this is Delta, over.” Again and again the same agitated voice. “Bravo one. Can you read me? Over.”

 

My pounding heartbeat all but silences the incessant static of the radio lying somewhere to my side. I’m trying to find the handset, trying to answer. My ears are ringing. My eyes struggle to focus . . .

 

‘Blood! Oh s**t! What happened? Roll over. Crawl away. Move!’

 

Nothing works.

 

Blurred, ghost-like images moving swiftly past speak singsong Vietnamese.

 

I struggle against the panic seeking to engulf me, close my eyes, attempt to merge with the mud I am lying in.

 

“Help me,” a voice moans to my left. I hear cursing to my front. The low cough of an AK47 shatters the stillness. Pleading screams followed by more shots, curses . . . more shots.

 

The shooting ends as quickly as it had started. A hushed silence falls over the scene as the men melt into the thick underbrush.

 

I try to roll over . . . to escape into the jungle before they return, but my legs have detached themselves from my brain. They are doing a strange mud dance of their own.

 

I think of my dad, years ago, laughing as Buster the old coon hound runs in his sleep by the fireplace, “He’s chasing rabbits,” dad says to me.

 

Tommy laughs at me lying beneath the old oak tree playing dead and pokes me with the butt of his BB gun. “Gotcha, Jimmy. Ha! You’re dead.”

 

 

Reviews

[Lizanne]

The thoughts of life flashing in front of your eyes, comes to mind. The terror that one must feel in a situation like this. Then the haunting flashbacks, that keep you reliving those days. The vietnam hero's were never given their just due. So, at this time I want to say thank you for all you went through. I very much respect the person that let the reader peek at a small passage of a life's journal.

[Legion]

What a crossover. This is well done and surreal. I've got a piece you might find interesting called "The Video Game". Something similar. Kudos on a great and visully stimulating write. Brilliant.

[cest la vie]

Two things:
One, as a fellow Army veteran, I aslute you and bow to you.
Two, this is a haunting write. I can not even begin to imagine the terror of thiose rice paddies, the ruch of the choppers, the entire God-awful mess. Thi actually made me very emotional. I was young for that war, but d****t, I see the collateral damage every day. Now history is repeating itself. Help us all.. Tremendous..