Colin Maynes' story | Anthony Luciani

Bullets were flying at me through the trees. I couldn't see any of the other people in my brigade. Further out into the jungles there were noises of machine guns and tanks going off. Their rattles through the air sent shivers down my spine as I ran through the underbrush.

Suddenly, there was an explosion behind me. I flew into the air fourty or fifty feet. Before I knew it I was on the ground in pain. The last thing I remembered was looking up at my brigade's faces standing all around me. My eyes slowly closed as conciousness left my body.

"It's every man for himself," was what I heard the general say.

That was thirty five years ago. Now the war was over. As I understood from one of my companions, John, who told me what transpired after blacked out, they were all courtmarshaled for disobeying a superior officer. He said that they carried me to a nearby medic against the general's orders. When we came home, he said, the general punnished them by discharging us all.

Last night I recieved a phonecall from John. He always held a grudge against the general for kicking us out of the army and I wouldn't blame him.

"What the general did to us was terribly unfair," he said, "You could have died out there and he did nothing. He was going to leave you in that jungle. Well I happen to be the guy who recently installed a security system in the bank he owns. I can easily shut it off and we can make off with all his money. So are you in?"