Omega: War and the Supernatural Read Online Free PDF Page A

the ground. They shouted, but Tim could not understand them over the gunfire. He picked out a few expletives, but nothing no concrete; no complete sentences or thoughts. Kneeling in the grass, he tried to grasp the experience. And he did. He felt the humid Vietnamese heat, smelled the burning gunpowder, heard the booming and shouting; his vision was both a memory and a nightmare.
    Suddenly, the blasting and screaming ceased. One of the dead American soldiers rose to his feet. He was a young man, no more than twenty, with a pair of bloody bullet holes in his fatigues. He held an M16 rifle in each hand. The soldier approached Tim and told him, “We could use some supporting fire.”
    “I should have been here,” Tim said to the soldier. Omega kept quiet.
    “You are here,” the soldier held out an M16 for Tim. “Help us.”
    “You're a fiction,” Tim said. “I can't help you.”
    “Why are you here?” Omega asked her grandfather.
    “This is where I was supposed to be. I ran from here. I ran from duty; from my country. But I'm here. I'm here and I'm sorry. I want to atone.”
    “Then atone,” the soldier insisted. “Atone and take the rifle.”
    “I can't,” Tim argued. “If I could go back and change things, don't you think I would?”
    “The men are dying.”
    “The men are dead.”
    “Can't you save them?”
    “I can't fix the past.”
    “So why are you here?” asked Omega.
    “Because I have to be,” Tim answered slowly without understanding his own words.
    “You're here to do nothing,” the soldier said.
    “I don't understand it,” Omega added. “Do you, papa?”
    “No, I suppose I don't.”
    “If you can't understand why you're here, then why do you have to understand that you must take this rifle and fight?”
    “You- you're right,” Tim stammered taking the rifle. “ This is atonement.”
    “No, this is duty,” Omega corrected.
    Tim nodded and took aim. It seemed natural to him, as if he had been trained. But he paused; hesitated.
    “Well?” Omega asked impatiently. “Aren't you going to shoot, papa? Aren't you going to kill?”
    “It- it doesn't feel right.”
    “Why?”
    “I don't- I don't think I should be doing this.”
    The soldier said, “Private, this is war. You shoot and you kill. Pull the trigger.”
    “It isn't right.”
    “Yes, it is.”
    “No, I never shot a gun. I never pulled the trigger. And I never, ever killed.”
    “But you regret not doing these things. Do them now; it's your chance.”
    Tim lowered his rifle. “No!”
    “No? So it's just like before,” Omega scoffed. “Still a coward.”
    “I'm no coward!” Anger welled inside him. “I don't want to do this. I didn't want to do it then, and I don't want to do it now. So fuck off !”
    “Why the language?” Omega asked innocently. “You told me--”
    “Fuck what I said! Fuck everything I do! It's meaningless! Worthless! I'm a coward! A nothing!”
    “Give me back the rifle.” The soldier kept his calm. “You don't need it.”
    “No!” Tim clenched his teeth.
    “If you won't shoot, then you don't need a rifle.” The soldier held out his hand. “Give it to me.”
    “I said no .”
    The bloodied soldier reached for the rifle and snatched the barrel. Tim yanked it away and trained it right at the young man's chest. “You'll shoot me?”
    “Stay away!” Tim backpedaled.
    “Either shoot me or shoot them!”
    “No!”
    “Do it, coward!” Omega snarled.
    “ NO! ”
    “You're worthless, you--”
    Tim opened fire. The soldier's gut burst in glorious gore. Just as he seemed to speak, blood filled his mouth and ran down his chin. The look in his eye was either approval or horrible acceptance. Tim did not know which.
    “So that's what you came for?” Omega asked, unfazed by the murder.
    Tim dropped the rifle. “He's right. I'm worthless. I'm a worthless cowardly traitor. I'm terrible.”
    “What happened to atonement?”
    “There's no atonement for me.”
    “No,” the soldier said,