And The Old Soldier Rested
Before The Silence
Pontiac Springs was the name of the town. Duke was rocking on the porch as usual with Facia his old dog. Rocking, rocking, rocking. Every day pretty much the same now so different than 65 years ago when he was just a young buck. Yeah, so many years ago, only 18 and so innocent, so green, so young. That’s what they did you know, put the young, inexperienced ones up front. Yeah. They were all full of vinegar ready to go, let’s fight us some of those bad boys, so full of themselves. What did they know, what did they know? Nothing of course. Nothing of what was lying ahead of them. Just like the other young boys who weren’t cowards by any means just, well just plain scared. And they too were as innocent as the sun on a brand new day. Yep, green. I know what your thinking young fellow, why not put the more experienced guys up front? You know, some battle hardened vets who have been there before and could maybe handle the situation better but, no, that wouldn’t be any good at all. They knew what to expect and although they certainly would follow orders and act accordingly, they would maybe hesitate before moving forward or look for another way around this rather than straight ahead so… it was the young ones that went first, yeah, they were first into the storm. Go, Go, Go, Go… Then old Duke was there, there on the beach.Yep. I was there alright. Lying face down in the sand and water all red and messy with all kinds of nasty smelling stuff. 
I thought, ” man it’s so quiet I must have made it to a really safe spot or buried so deep that I can’t see and can’t be seen, and I sure can’t hear a darn thing. Maybe I really did make it all the way and I’m in heaven now” but, no, no. That’s when my hearing started coming back kind of one “pop” at a time. A loud blast to my left, now I did hear that. The constant chatter of some kind of weapon spitting out flames dozens no hundreds every minute! Damn! When I tried lifting my head up out of the sand and water my helmet went flying off, shot off and I dropped my head back in that sand so quick and sucked in a breath almost chocking, gagging, and I realized it was red with blood and oh man, that was part of some guys insides, oh man and crap, literally crap, in my mouth from this guy lying almost on top of me only, he wasn’t a guy any more. At least not a whole guy. Shit! I’m tired, so tired.
He Remembered When …
And Duke just sat there rocking now, rocking. Facia the dog, was looking up at his old master and wondering why the chair was slowing down. It never went fast but, now it came to a stop. It got awfully quiet. Very, very quiet. And The Old Soldier Rested.
When Synapses Go Bad 