At first there was blackness.

And an interminable ringing.

Wh...what happened?

We were flying away, we had just rescued the Cobra pilot...

And now I remember.

The bomb...the warhead.

The landscape disappeared under a thick wave of smoke...trees, buildings, choppers, everything.

We were sent into a tailspin.

Poor Vakaro...he was right at the door...the centrifugal force must've been what ejected him.

He must be dead.

...speaking of dead, what am I?

My heart's still beating...I can hear it, the ringing has stopped.

I slowly open my eyes.

Everything is red.

Everything.

It's a wonder how I'm still alive, what with the explosion and the crash.

I can't see anything, but I try to stand up.

I can only manage a hunched-over position.

I gingerly take a step forward and feel an intense pain in my left leg; it must've been broken in the crash.

A horrible taste fills my mouth, and I cough.

My stomach feels like it's on fire and my throat feels empty.

I continue to trudge forward, limping heavily, until I'm outside the helicopter.

I can hear Command speaking over the radio...they're ordering any and all personnel in the vicinity of the explosion to seek immediate medical attention.

I glance around wearily. Everything is still colored in hues of black and red, and dust is soaring through the air.

I retch and collapse to my knees. I feel everything closing in around me.

But I fight it off, and manage to hold myself up.

I look off into the distance and see the fractured skeleton of a skyscraper collapse.

I take one more step forward before I collapse again. I feel blood oozing forth from my mouth and nose.

The wave of red passes, and everything returns to normal twilight shades.

But I do not see this for long, my vision is overtaken by white.

My life flashes before my eyes...memories of events I believed I had long since forgotten.

My mother's shining face; the feeling of my infantile legs as I take my first steps; scoring that winning basket in a game in eighth grade; getting robbed at knife point as a sophomore; enlisting for the army two years later.

I see all these and more, and then nothing.

Nothing forevermore.