#commando droids

Jesse:

I can see him on the other side of the battlefield. He’s firing hard onto the droids, blood spattered across his helmet as he leans over an injured shiny, shielding the kid with his own body. I force myself to focus on the battle at hand, not the battle we’d already fought with one another.

I’m holding on your rope, got me ten feet off the ground.

It had been a stupid argument, but it ended in raised voices and eventually him storming out of my bedroom late that night. We hadn’t spoken in the two day journey it took for us to arrive at this mission, but I could sense he was still angry. I certainly wasn’t going to be the first to apologize for something I didn’t do wrong.

I’m hearing what you say, but I just can’t make a sound.

I see the droids before he does. They’re coming up over the hill, and they’re coming up fast. I glance over at him. I catch him looking at me. Even though his bucket’s on, I can feel his eyes boring into me. It’s only a moment, and he returns his attention to the battle. I grit my teeth and do the same, attacking the droids with the same ferocity my words had attacked him.

You tell me that you need me but then you go and cut me down.

I gun down one, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty two droids before I see the commandos. They’re rushing down the hill towards us at superhuman speed, their guns ready.

But Wait.

I can see him turn his gun towards the commandos, but he freezes up for a moment as a commando leaps onto another soldier, grabbing the man’s head in it’s metallic claws and ripping the poor soul’s head right off his shoulders. I feel my whole body go slack, and I see him lower his gun in horror and fear. And that was when the commando turned to him.

You tell me that you’re sorry, didn’t think I’d turn around and say…

The commando lifts his gun, and he snaps back to his senses and begins to lift his as well. But he’s too late. I know he won’t shoot him in time. Without even thinking, I begin to run towards him, a scream already ripping through my lungs as the commando shoots a single fatal shot through his chest.

That it’s too late, to apologize. It’s too late…

I lift my own gun as I run, firing hard onto the commando as I move towards him. I manage to take out the commando, but not before it had fired off that damned shot.

Yeah, it’s too late, to apologize. It’s too late…

I’m moving towards him, and the whole world seems to slow as I shove my way past brothers to get to him. I feel something strike my arm, but I pay it little attention. My only focus is to reach him.

I’d take another chance, take a fall, take a shot for you.

I drop beside him, ignoring the battle raging all around us. His helmet was knocked off when he fell, and his eyes are dilating rapidly, his breathing is coming out in choked gasps. I whisper his name, and tears start to drip against his face from where they roll off of my cheeks. I beg him not to go.

I need you like a heart needs a beat but it’s nothing new.

He forces out a dry chuckle, and tells me soldiers shouldn’t cry. I gently hush him, I tell him to conserve his breath, that everything will be alright. He says that he isn’t a fool, and that he knows he’s finished.

I loved you with a fire red, now it’s turning blue.

I remember our argument from earlier. That stupid fight we’d gotten into. That stupid fight that prevented us from spending the last two days together in love and happy instead of angry and hateful towards one another. I open my mouth. I want to tell him how sorry I am.

And you say sorry like an angel heaven let me think was you.

And that’s when the shot hits my back.

But I’m afraid that it’s too late to apologize. It’s too late…

I gasp and try to hold myself up from falling onto him. I can see the horror in his dying eyes as he chokes out my name. He lifts his hands, as if to catch me, but I am shot again, and I force myself to roll off to the side so I do not land on him. I can hear him say my name again, a half breath of a dying man.

It’s too late to apologize. It’s too late…

I lay on my stomach and watch as he gasps out my name that second time, and then he reaches for me. his hand falls short, and his eyes roll back as he breathes his last.

It’s too late to apologize. It’s too late…

I reach out for his hand, his final attempt to reconcile with me, and I grasp it tightly in my own. I let my silent tears fall against the earth as my hand clutches his.

It’s too late to apologize, it’s too late…

I take my final shuddering breaths, his hand still warm in mine, and I feel my eyes begin to close as I whisper his name one last time before everything goes dark.