Over and Up

  Over and Up

 

  "What's going on up there?"

         The boy's question punctured my bubble of serenity and brought me back to the trench carved into the crystalline tundra. Peeved, I glanced at the nervous Private before looking into the dark sky. Intermittent bursts of light illuminated the dense cloud cover with flashes of white and red. The soft thunder of explosions and gunfire barely registered from this far away.

         "Aircraft from the look of it." I muttered, shouldering my rifle. "Looks like they're tying up the gargoyles."

         "Oh." The Private mumbled before turning back to face me. "Sir? What're you doing?"
         
         "The planes are distracting their air cover," I replied while checking my ammo, "what do you think's gonna happen now?"

         The boy stared at me dumbfounded until behind our lines the familiar sound of artillery began to resound, sending up curls of smoke as they lobbed their rounds into the enemy. His cold-reddened cheeks suddenly paled. "Oh god no. Not again."

         "Check your gun." I replied, shoving his rifle into his shaking hands.

         "Oh god," he gasped, "I... I just barely survived the last time."

         "Soldier, get a hold of yourself."

         "They have a dragon.... with real fire-"

         "Private Joyce!" The boy shut up as I barked out his name. "You can follow your orders or you can turn around, and trust me when I say only one option gives you a chance at survival. Now you will stick close to me and I swear you'll have a snowball's chance in hell which is the best I can offer you."

         The Private briefly stared at me mouth open before setting his jaw and nodding. "Over and up." he replied, voice wavering only slightly.

         "And knock them down." I finished just as the orders came down the line to assault the demons' fortress.