What's that? No way!

Perception leads the way over the ridge as Valid follows rifle in hand. They hold the formation of closely packed single file. The pavement ended back one mile as they stepped over the curb into the brush. Now they dodged trees and avoided twigs when able to; however, not all sounds could be diminished. They were taking quick steps, afraid the truck would leave with the weapon and they almost climbed the ridge when the cannon fired again. They froze; both followed the arc of the plasma, almost in awe of its beautiful destructive power. Valid interrupted Perception with a radio pop and they were soon again moving. Both knew time was not on their side.

“Gotta move faster,” Valid gasped, “not sure when that thing will leave.” Perception responded,

“Trust me, they’re not going anywhere right now, they have to wait for that weapon to cool.” Plasma was indeed a powerful energy source, but the resulting heat from a cannon firing prevented plasma from being more widely used. All generals agreed on its capabilities and were nearly succinct on the fact that they didn’t need burned soldiers in battle. One injured soldier had to be taken care of by two others: that took bodies off the field of battle. Valid is the weapons expert of the two though, however plasma based weapons were not in her crash course. They needed results fast not an expert on all subjects.

“Ah, forgive me. Plasma based weapons are not a forte of mine,” Valid replies with a smart tone. At a young age, Valid took up a liking for projectile based weapons. She argued that beam weapons, although exempt from wind, reveal your position far too easily. Feeling that lean towards bullets led her to be the sniper she is today: sneaky and accurate with a deadly touch. Perception froze as his mind was cluttered with noise. The noise, while difficult to negotiate, always had a story.

“Simple,” he stated. Valid took a kneel next to him and she looked up.

“When is it ever simple ‘Cepty?” This was her nickname for Perception. They first met in Davenport, Georgia. Valid used to read for hours in this one particular coffee house in Davenport until her mind hurt. One dull night she passed the register to leave and she received a snide comment from the customer standing there at the register. The customer stated, “early in the night to be leaving, with a beautiful girl like you, can’t have that boring of a night.” Valid shot him a look as she opened the door to walk next door to her car. The customer followed as the Baristas gave odd looks. “Why you walkin away baby,” the southern accent poured out of his mouth, “the night is just getting started, I just arrived.” His arms now perpendicular to his hips gave him almost a welcoming body gesture.

“Sorry, I don’t respond the assholes,” Valid’s heart was pumping as they both were in the parking lot now. She noticed his gait increased almost to a run, while processing this he had already caught up to her. The customer grabbed Valid’s arm as to spin her around. She felt this and let him spin her, the momentum created allowed her fist to be thrown into his face. At the last moment, the customer ducked in front of her attempt to cause pain.

“Who the hell are you,” infuriated Valid tackled the man and straddled him. She was about to deliver a blow until he spoke up. Laughing, the man spoke.

“Wow, better than I expected.” Puzzled, she threw herself into a flip to right herself. He continued, “Not everyone can fight like that.” Valid felt the need to use “it”. She never quite knew what “it” was but despite that fact, “it” gave her great power to suck the truth from people she felt angered towards.

Clinching her fist towards him she used her ability, “who are you?” Perception didn’t want to respond but he felt this force grab his insides and tug; almost ripping his spine from his body, of course this was far from the truth. It compelled him to speak.

“I’m looking for you; in fact, I found you. I’m Perception.” She lets him go enabling him to speak for himself. Out of breath Perception felt like his insides were beaten. “You know, I could be mad at you; I’m not though because I knew this was going to happen as soon as you walked past me in the shop.” Thirsty for more information Valid thrusts out her hand towards Perception; he pleads, “I’ll tell you more, just don’t do that again; kind of hurts.” He elaborates on finding her, how he was looking for her. He’s been on the road for six months searching for her. Explains how his power affects him; explains the difference. “So I plead with you, come with me and you can learn how to harness your power.”

“How can I know you’re honest, you’re a stranger to me.” Valid locks eyes with him and drifts closer. She’s close now with her warm breath whipping at this chin. “So, how can I know?”

“Well, not sure what your test is.” Perception says this as his skin, sweating now, sticks to this shirt. Valid contemplates this new knowledge, and she decides to question.

“What test?”

“Well, most folks have a test,” he leans towards her, “a test for trust.” Eyes locked she speaks again and her breath, cold now, rolls to his ears.

“I’ll go,” she whispers.

Crouching behind the bush now, Valid annoyed, views Perception. “You done yet,” he looks up and shakes the cloudiness from his head. Knowing his “perceptions” are annoying to her, he quickly validates his vision.

“Five men on the other side of the truck,” he goes on, “in fact, I’m willing to bet they’re smoking or goofing around.” Valid sees the truck through her scope and confirms it. She sees the tops of the helmets of the enemy on the other side.

“Correct, should I bless them with my presence?”

Perception, always annoyed with her wanting to kill something, but thankful for her skill states, “well that’s not what we want right now, we don’t want a presence. I’m going to go down and grab someone, when I do that, come down. We’ll need you to tear the truth out of them Valid.” She nods and waits while Perception makes his way down the mountainside.

“Not lit up like our last area,” she mutters then flips on the night vision, NV for short, “always better.” She presses her headset and whispers into it, “God’s looking out for you.”

Coming of Age

The gunfire came from an alley; this was taken care of by a grenade lobbing. Chunks of brick hit Valid in the face; made her wince in pain for a second. Perception glanced at her face in kind, but quickly turned his attention to the alley. Crouched, pistol at his knees, he peered around the corner. The smoke quickly dispersed from the alley, Perception saw two bodies, or what was left of them. “All clear lets move on,” quickly after stating the claim, an overhead crack was sounded. Perception and Valid stopped dead in their tracks.

“What in God’s name was that? Never heard a sound quite like that.” Valid said as she ducked next to a wall. Perception was crouched peering into the sky, with Valid acknowledging the sound, it triggered him to walk into the closest high rise. He arrived at the roof and cityscape revealed a downed helicopter tattered and burning. “Really?” he stated.

“Really what” Valid questioned, as she donned her sniper rifle; peering through the viewfinder she focused on the crash site. “Two bogeys, wait, look like friendlies.” She zoomed out and saw three blurs; she focused on the blurs. Seeing no uniform Valid quickly squeezed off three rounds; each one for the back of their skulls. Turning back to the crash site, she saw no movement. Perception recognized the raised eyebrow and hurried to the first floor. He radioed to Valid: “Cover me; I’m going to check it out.” Still high above the ground Valid conceded as her position was optimal for sighting. Replying to his order, “all clear boss man, you can call me God.” She smirked and continued, “keeping an eye out for you.” He shrugged off the quibble and ducked. “Still clear, I got you in my sights.” Perception neared one blade of the helicopter; it began to sag as the heat from the fire started to take affect on its structure. Amazed, he touched the blade with his index finger; this blade didn’t have one scratch.

“Admiring the coloring sir, or is that mind working?” The gears in Perception’s mind began to spin, why this helicopter, why random? The fact of the matter was that anti-aircraft weapons were miles away, not next to the building. How this aircraft crashed was a mystery. He remembered the crack and started to question what the sound really was.

“Valid, that sound before the helicopter crashed, what could it have been?” Perception had already begun to query his own statement; however, brainstorming came to a blank. Just as his mind began to give up he remembered back to the sagging blade of the helicopter. Fire from a crash doesn’t get that hot until hours after the crash to make a blade sag unless it has jet fuel to encourage it. Even then, the blade would take at least an hour to start sagging. “Valid, this fire is hot. Hotter than hot, the metal is already bending; brainstorm weapons.”

“Well, only answer I can think of is a well directed plasma ca- sir duck.” Without hesitation Perception ducked, he saw a bullet trail wisp over his head; glancing his scalp and leaving a dull feeling. A grunt sounded behind him; hearing a crash he viewed the fallen body. The bullet had made a clean hole in the enemy’s forehead; seeing this, he gave the thumbs up to Valid. Peering through the scope she saw this statement of goodwill; the headset belched into her ear:

“Thanks for the cover, knew you were good but I thank you for being better than I had once thought.”

She offered her gratitude and quickly went back to scoping the ground. How many more enemies was grabbing at Valid’s forethought, as she had plenty of bullets but little patience. Perception slowly danced around the crash site looking for survivors, knowing this was a fleeting cause he soon grimaced knowing several of his colleagues were burning inside. He went to shadows taking cover as the black dark over took his body. He was waiting, for what only he knew. He envisioned a set of troops, about squad size, arriving to ascertain the damage inflicted.

“You know sir, I hate when you’re right,” this was stated as she viewed his smile through the scope. She re-focused on the squad and garnered the information she needed and made quick but precise calculations in her head. Just as she was about to begin her religious executions, a quick burp from the headset interrupted the ceremony. She knew this meant for her to lay off a moment as he needed silence.

Cloaked in darkness, Perception knew they would survey the scene. He awaited the usual patrol scheme; they first checked the scene to be safe. They then walked out behind the pillars of the buildings; out into the open. Perception saw their trump card; he radioed to Valid.

“I see it sir, got it in my sights.” He knew she would definitely not fire into this particular squad. One of the smaller, but beefier soldiers shouldered an M-45 Armor Piercing Rocket launcher. She knew the capabilities and limitations of this weapon; they were few and far between. The self-proclaiming God was silent now.

Lassoing his weapon to his back, Perception moved slowly towards the enemy. This target was a vulnerable, but tall and slender; meaning that he could move. He carried some form of a weapon which was anchored to his thigh; Perception planned out his attack. Move quietly and swiftly, take him from behind. He did just that; however, nearing his rear, about an inch away, the soldier perked up and began to talk. Perception discerned that an Armored Personnel Carrier was approaching; APC for short. The soldier went silent, and Perception put one arm, hand holding knife to his neck. His other hand held him still as he began to whisper into his ear.

“Where did that weapon come from?” He yanked his enemy to answer, he let a small breath leave his mouth; the soldier was shaking. He answered.

“Over the next ridge, it’s on a truck.” The soldier gave up the location and coordinates to Perception; he obviously wanted to live. Feeling merciful he put him to sleep instead of jabbing his insides. Signaling for Valid to join him, she perked in:

“Can I take them?” Anxious to hear his reply she began to eye her first target.

“No, get down here fast, we need to get to that area.” Pereptions eye’s refocused on the site; he saw a body, charred but not too bad off. The enemy took a knife, stabbing him in the stomach and watched him churn in pain. Standing up now the soldier smirked and then put a bullet in the head of the injured soldier. Feeling an anxious culling, he revered putting bullets inside everyone’s head over the next ridge. He began to move slowly into the dark.

You feel it?

Maybe you do feel it, the rotting composure of your attitude. The regrets, the 'I should have done this' moments. You can always wage a war against yourself and society; maybe make a difference for the moment. We always forget about those; befallen the true heroes of civilization. Intellectual mindset that is. It's so forgotten, that reading a book is unheard of. Paying attention to our world is vividly unreal. Seeing each other as children of a power that is unreal to us, is gone. We all go around like ants almost.

Imagine this: you see someone on the sidewalk approaching, you go to view them only to look down at the last moment. What is that? The awkward notion that they may be thinking about you? Or is it our societal system that says "hey, you're an ant, nothing more." I have a challenge for you. When you see someone on a sidewalk, in a train, or a bus; tell them hello. In fact, introduce yourself. It's exhilarating, breaking that awkward silence. Just to saying hello lets someone know that you care. So, the next question to you my lovely citizen friends is: when did you realize that you're alive?

Was it the first cut that drew blood? Or was it when your heart was broken? Do you feel alive? Ask yourself that question, are you living to your potential. I know that's a cliche question, think about it. What do you wish you were doing right now? So why aren't you doing it? Granted, I can't talk. I wish so many things, some unrealistic almost. However, stop and look around. Breathe. Have another challenge for you: everyday realize you're alive. This may come from saying to yourself, I'm lucky to be here or it may come in the form of a question. For example, "what did I do for someone else, am I living?"

This may sound melodramatic and a reasoning that I can't sustain. Guess you're right, but we can all take a breathe and share the air pollution. Wage the war and don't give up. Say hello to a stranger. Remind yourself that you're living. We're not ants, we're not to be fondled nor broken. We're humans, a product of evolution; a design that's beautiful.