— The Last Memento —

Author's Note: one more thing. When I started this whole story, I really only had it planned out to the point Alex locks Elle in the jail cell, with only a vague notion of where the whole story was leading. Now that I do have the whole story thought out, I need to retract a former statement that the Order has no role in the story. While they don't make any actual appearance and the story is still mostly about Alex, the Order's beliefs will play some part in what's going on.

No one could really agree on what it was. I don't even remember the whole thing, just what led up to it. Most say it was an IED, some a grenade tossed from a window, and a few claim they saw an RPG flying from a rooftop.

Joey had only been dead for a little over a month. I started babying my team, doing a lot of risky things myself. We were doing satellite patrols through a town and my fire team was going down a street by ourselves. It seems so obvious looking back, but at the time, I figured the razor wire strewn across the road had just been left behind by a Vehicle Check Point.

I went up to it by myself and tried to clear it out, but then I got knocked down. Looking at my SAPI plates, it seems like a sniper who knew what he was doing was aiming for the side of my flak jacket, the part without any Kevlar. But, apparently I turned at just the right second and the bullet hit the edge of my back plate. Or maybe he got the windage wrong.

I fell into the wire and got caught. Once I realized I'd been shot at, I panicked and just got even more tangled. But I really don't remember being scared, just embarrassed. And that's as far as it goes. Beyond that, I just have to take someone else's word for it.

They told me I was "lucky". They said I probably ducked my head down before the blast and my Kevlar helmet protected me. And, of course, I instinctively shielded myself with my left arm, which took the brunt of the shrapnel. It got chewed up so bad they didn't even consider salvaging it.

And I didn't even find out about it until three days later. I was last to hear what happened to me.

— — — — —

"Josh! Don't move, just wait there!" Alex's foot propelled him forward into a sprint as he ran up the spiraling path ascending the infinite metal tower. His bag bounced violently behind him, swaying out of rhythm with his running and slamming against the back of his thighs as though trying to sabotage his progress.

When he came to the next level, he glanced up to see Josh moving further up the tower.

"God damn it Josh! Stop!" He also saw who was walking ahead of Josh, dragging that great knife behind him like a tail. The blade grated against the metal floor, kicking up a swarm of sparks and a sharp metallic howl that sounded like the cry of a deformed animal. This didn't stop Alex, but rather stirred his legs to move faster.

As he rounded the turn to the next level, coming up behind Josh and the Bogeyman, Alex dropped his bag and readied his handgun, trying to remember how many shots were left in the magazine.

When Josh came into view, he suddenly stopped, his steps stuttering as they drastically wound down his pace to zero. His lungs finally caught up to him and he gasped for air, hunching over while keeping eye contact with Josh.

Josh stood there, squeezing his Robbie the Rabbit doll timidly as it dripped with blood and larvae.

"Josh," he spoke between breaths, "Come on. Come with me."

Josh just shook his head, backing away cautiously.

"Damn it Josh – I'm Alex, your brother."

His radio started to squeal with feedback and Alex looked past Josh towards the Bogeyman, who was turning around. His massive helmet swallowed the drab light to the point that he almost looked like a living shadow. Alex glanced at the great knife and realized that this space was far too narrow and confining for him to swing that heavy blade.

"Josh, we don't have time for this. Just come with me, please." Alex started to step towards Josh, his approach causing his brother to quickly turn around and run towards the Bogeyman. But Alex quickly caught up with him and hooked his arm around Josh, lifting him off the ground as he kicked and screamed like a feral cub.

With Josh flailing and crying in his arm, Alex ran away from the Bogeyman, forgetting the chain that bound the man to his brother. The chain quickly tensed into a bridge between the two and Josh yelped as his arm snapped out straight behind them. Alex's legs kept moving as his top half was brought to a sudden halt and he slipped, falling onto his back against the metal grating. His firearm dropped from his grip and started sliding down the path, but he stamped it between the floor and the sole of his boot as Josh squirmed out of his grasp.

Josh clambered to his feet and rushed towards the Bogeyman, but Alex grabbed his ankle, his body stretched out awkwardly between his brother and his weapon.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he screamed as Josh tried to shake off his grasp, stomping his other foot on Alex's fingers. Alex looked up towards the Bogeyman, who was pulling his long blade towards him with the sounds of corroded, rusty gears as it scraped against the floor.

As a surge of anger and impatience flooded up through his blood, Alex suddenly pulled hard on Josh's leg, ripping his footing out from under him and sending Josh face first into the metal grating, howling with pain and distress.

While Josh laid dazed on the floor, Alex let him go and used his foot to slide his handgun up towards him, grasping it with his fingers. He crawled up to Josh and hooked his leg in front of him, pulling Josh back until the chain around his wrist tightened and he couldn't move.

He held his prosthetic out before him and rested his hand on it for a steadier aim, pulled back the hammer of his handgun for a hair trigger, and aimed just below the tip of the Bogeyman's helmet. The barrel belched a flash of fire and he heard a muffled metallic ting beneath the lingering explosion of gunfire in his ears. The shot ricocheted off the Bogeyman's helmet, hit the wall, and whizzed just past Alex's head, urging his neck to jump to his right.

The Bogeyman's arm was bent back with the handle of his large sword gripped in his hand. Alex steadied his aim, this time looking at the Bogeyman's leg through his gun sites. Just as he pulled the trigger and the muzzle flash consumed his sight like a ravenous fire, the Bogeyman launched his arm forward, thrusting the blade of the great knife towards Alex.

As that blade suddenly materialized through the cloud of flash blindness floating before Alex's eyes, he jerked to his left and rolled onto the ground. He didn't even realize the sword has slit through the skin at the top of his head until the blood began flowing down into his eye.

Josh squirmed to his feet and quickly fled from Alex, slipping past the Bogeyman and hiding behind him like a cub seeking shelter behind its mother.

As the haze of the muzzle flash subsided from his view, Alex noticed the Bogeyman's great sword was lodged into the metal wall, stuck. While the man tugged at it, trying to free his blade, Alex looked over the narrow space between the walls and the size of the Bogeyman's blade, realizing that blade was far too large for the man to position it in front of him.

Alex had to get in front of the Bogeyman.

With the grunt of the man echoing within his helmet at every brutal pull upon the handle of his sword, Alex sprinted forward with his head hunched down, aiming for the space between the Bogeyman and the wall. But as he was about to dive between them, the Bogeyman suddenly grasped his neck with his free hand and lifted Alex off the ground. A gasp of surprise leaving his lungs was suddenly cut short as his throat was squeezed shut.

Alex's legs swung in a panic, planting his feet on top of the Bogeyman's helmet and trying to push away from his grasp, but the man's grip was deceptively strong. He instinctively clawed at the man's hand with his left arm, his instincts not aware that it was only a prosthetic, and then reached with his right arm, almost unconsciously dropping his weapon so his fingers would be free to pry the Bogeyman's grip from around his neck.

But he managed to keep control and pressed the barrel of the gun against the Bogeyman's wrist instead, then pulled the trigger.

A flash of heat from the gunshot singed Alex's flesh and a spray of blood doused his face, but the Bogeyman's strength didn't waiver. Alex then reached down towards the jutting metal beak of the man's helmet, but the barrel of his handgun just barely scratched the tip.

Alex hooked his feet under the tip of the helmet and started pulling his body downwards. The Bogeyman was strong, but Alex found it had its limits when the man's arm started to tilt down under the pull of Alex's legs.

He finally managed to poke the barrel under the lip of the helmet and turned it upwards, aiming within that metal triangular dome. He desperately pulled the trigger three times until the gun was empty.

Intense flashes of light shot out from the bottom of the man's helmet like a cannon, the heat and force of those gunshots bouncing off the walls and blistering Alex's hand until he finally dropped the weapon and pulled his hand away from the pain.

The Bogeyman's moans echoed from within his helmet and he threw Alex down the twisting metal path. Alex slid across the metal grating and managed to stop himself just as the Bogeyman dislodged his blade from the wall. He got up on his feet while the man pulled his arm back, then shot it forward and released the handle of the blade, shooting it out towards Alex like a spear.

Alex ducked to his right, dodging the huge metal projectile, but suddenly felt his body being pulled back and he was thrown backwards until the great knife wedged into the wall with a fury of sparks and squeals. Alex tried to move, but something was holding his left arm back, and when he turned around, he found the blade had pierced his prosthetic and pinned him to the wall.

He watched helplessly as Josh walked away, ascending the corkscrewing path up the tower at the Bogeyman's side, tugging and pulling at his pinned arm as he screamed out his brother's name.

He pleaded for Josh to stop, but Josh continued upwards until Alex could no longer make out their silhouettes above him. He turned towards his left arm and chewed through the sleeve of his jacket like a desperate coyote as his right hand reached for his knife.

He unsheathed the knife and cut through the fabric of his jacket sleeve until he exposed the leather straps keeping his prosthetic arm bound to his flesh. He sawed and cut through those buckles until he was finally free from that plastic limb and tore his left sleeve in half when he pulled himself away.

Alex started to ascend the path up the tower, but suddenly stopped and backtracked until he reached his duffel and retrieved his handgun. He grabbed the box of spare ammunition from the bag and dumped it in his jacket pocket, then gripped the bolt cutters and ran up the tower in pursuit of Josh.

He wasn't sure how long he ran. The intensity of his determination and the adrenaline pumping through his muscles almost made is seem as though he'd become unstuck in time, flashing forward randomly. And then he discovered that the tower wasn't infinite when he reached its peak.

The air on the roof was cold and Alex watched the steam of his worn lungs rise from his lips. His heart wound down to a calm beat and he started to become aware of the exhaustion and pain running through his body.

There was nothing at the top of that metal tower. It was surrounded by darkness, rising up into nothing. He screamed Josh's name, but his voice was quickly consumed by the dark nothingness around him.

He suddenly felt weak and hunched over, noticing a door built into the floor over the metal cylinder running throughout the center of the tower. Darkness was painted across the glass of the viewing window. Alex had a sudden urge to get away from that door, but his curiosity overwhelmed it. It seemed important, perhaps more important than any other door he could find in this tower.

After debating it amongst his thoughts and rousing his nerve, Alex reached down and grabbed the handle, then pulled the door open.

The heat was thick around him and forced his lungs to work for each breath. He pulled in the light inhales of air through his nose, taking in the intense stench of feces marinated in urine. His eyes looked downward to assist his fingers in buttoning his ACU trousers and re-buckling his belt. Before opening the door to the chemical toilet, Alex looked over some of the graffiti written across the walls in permanent marker, reading, "Ninja Fact # 227: Ninja don't use umbrellas, they dodge each drop of rain."

When he stepped outside, the glare of the sun bleached the world around him and he fumbled for his sunglasses. He met another soldier coming out of the toilet next to his, Specialist Gonzales, or "Gonzo" as they all referred to him.

Gonzales looked over the sweat dripping from Alex's pores, asking, "God damn. You jerking off in there?"

"You kidding? I'd have a heat stroke. They'd find me dead with my prick in my hand."

Gonzales just shrugged, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and smacking it against his palm, packing the tobacco.

"Worse ways to go," he said.

They walked away from the line of chemical toilets across a road towards their barracks, a garrisoned building of an Iraqi rail yard that was large enough to hold their whole company in one huge open room.

As they approached the entrance, Alex saw Joey walking out with rushed steps, not even acknowledging Alex.

"What's up man," Alex greeted, but Joey only glanced at him, his pupils sprouting red veins throughout his eyes.

"You alright?" Alex asked, but Joey ignored him, brushing past Alex's shoulder as he stepped towards the chemical toilets.

Alex watched him go, calling out, "Well fuck you too!"

As Joey disappeared into one of the toilets, Alex looked at Gonzales, who had lit a cigarette, and asked, "The fuck is his problem?"

"Don't know," Gonzales shrugged. "Been like that all morning. Maybe he got a Dear John letter."

"From a hooker? He doesn't have a girlfriend."

"Maybe that's the problem then. Probably just stepping out for some angry masturbation."

"Angry masturbation," Alex laughed. "I like that, it's very colorful. Really paints an image in my mind, thank you."

"Speaking of, some mother fuckers keep ripping pages out of my magazines."

"Don't look at me, I got a vivid imagination."

"Uh-huh. Had one with Vida Guerra. Not a single picture of her left in it. Asshole even ripped the one out of the table of contents."

They jerked their eyes back towards the line of toilets when they heard a sudden loud pop. Alex stared at the one Joey had entered as his mind interpreted the noise, then laughed.

He looked at Gonzales, pointing back at the toilet, and asked with a smile, "Did he just have an -N-D- in the shitter?"

Gonzales didn't smile or even make eye contact with Alex, his eyes fixed on the chemical toilet and responding grimly, "I don't know."

Alex's smile quickly sunk when he considered the alternative.

"Joey! You alright?" he called out, but there was no answer.

He continued to call out Joey's name as he approached the toilet. He knocked on the blue plastic door, but no one responded from inside. He tried to open it, but it was locked.

Alex pulled out a folding knife and used it to pry the clear plastic cover off the "OCCUPIED" sign. He then used the point of the blade to push the wheel reading "OCCUPIED" until it flipped to "VACANT" and the door unlocked.

When he opened the door, the brass casing of a 5.56 round rolled out. The image before Alex caused a flash of heat to run across his skin, the heat coming from within him.

He knew what he saw, but his mind detached itself from his eyes and descended into wilful ignorance. Joey's body was slumped into an awkward position, looking like a rag doll tossed carelessly into a toy chest. The top portion of the back of his skull had blossomed open into a vivid display of red, blood splattered across the walls of the chemical toilet with solid dark chunks. The sun squeezed through the bullet hole near the top of the toilet and glared in Alex's eye.

He mindlessly reached towards Joey as though he could wake him from a slumber. He pushed Joey's body up until he could see his face. One of his eyes was barely open, only the white of that eye visible through the slit in his eyelids. The other was empty, the blast of the gunshot blowing it right out of the socket. His left cheek was torn open, the flesh shredded like a sheet of paper after a pencil was forced through it.

Alex's eyes saw a sheet of crumpled paper sticking out of Joey's trouser pocket. He pulled it out and looked over it, but there was no explanation. The paper was mostly blank outside of a few words that had been scratched out at the top, a failed attempt at a suicide note.

The sun disappeared beneath a sea of dark nothingness and Alex felt his knees shaking until they finally buckled and landed on top of the metal grating at the peak of the tower.

His eyes locked on that blank sheet of paper as the focus of his mind was consumed by a torrent of anger, frustration, and helplessness swarming inside him. The storm within him was so overwhelmingly large that it couldn't find an exit. The excess gathered in pools at the bottom of his eyes until the paper in his hand was just a dim white blur.

He dropped the paper and dug his fingers into the holes of the metal grating, squeezing until he drew blood. He then brought his hand up into a fist and punched the ground with all the strength in his arm. A surge of intense pain flashed through his body, briefly overcoming the rage within him like a flash of lightning.

Alex struck down again and again until his hand was barely strong enough to even quiver from pain, then fell onto his back and screamed.