the last great american dynasty

epiphany

  Dean and James had been brutally training for their next deportation as Marines while they waited for the others to arrive at the camp. They got up at half-past five every morning and started their physical training at six for three hours, which consists of running 5 miles along the beach typical physical exercises from school, before their personal time. Both of them preferred to study the class materials after taking a shower to get rid of the sweat. It was only in the afternoon that they had the chance to practice with weapons.

  They were sent onto a boat that secretly sent them to the Solomon Islands, more specifically, Guadalcanal, around 1200 miles off the coast of Australia because the Japanese had taken over the Islands, and whoever took over the Islands, controlled the war.

The air force had arrived earlier on the day of 7th August for an attack to which the Japanese did not expect it. That had been helpful for James and the others who stormed up onto the island afterward and led to them taking over the airfield that was still under construction. He rushed over to the Japanese flag that was still waving in the air and replaced it with the US flag, and with that, they had renamed the airfield Henderson Field.

  The war had just begun.

  Someone snatched the flag from his hands and set the red and white on fire before throwing it into the ocean where it continued to give off ebony smoke, as the rest of the marines were clearing out the airfield, unloading reinforcements, and setting up everything. People were all dressed in their battlefield uniforms with bullet vests as they went back and forth between different locations, passing supplies over from one person to the next - it was chaotic, and the occasional sounds of guns firing did not help.

  Air force planes landed one after the other, wheels kissing the ground while dust flew around like a sandstorm. The marshallers ran around the barren land and hustled to direct the planes to a safe arrival spot. After everything was unloaded, USS Enterprise was ordered to set off and sail into the Pacific. However, unknown to the US army, enemy ships were steaming straight down towards the American ships that were anchored off of the island James was on.

  At night, when he was allowed to sleep after his lookout shift, the pounding of cannonballs at sea could be clearly heard on the island, and it woke James up. His hair had stuck itself to his forehead, and the back of his tank top was soaked. Sitting up, panting, he looked around, only to find Dean soundly asleep with his back facing him. James sighed and hid his face behind his two hands, and as he did, visions of his first deployment flashed behind his eyelids - bodies lying in a pool of blood, eyes rolled to the back of their heads and remained there... James convinced himself that he wasn't safe and his breath shortened even more at the thought until he spotted one of the marines standing there with their rifles in hand. He sighed and tried to sleep, even though he only had less than an hour until his wake-up call.

  The next day, James woke up with the darkness within hanging on in his eyebags. Dean made a joke about them, asking how much he paid for excess weight. James did not laugh at that. Other people had asked whether he was fine or not as his eyes were droopy and his body was practically limping across the base, and James lied to avoid talking about it. He remembered the first time he was deployed onto the battlefield. He tried not to remember where it was or who he was with. He was ecstatic to see his mother after months of being away from her, but every time she asked about he would go and hide in his room, or go out for a run. When he would jog, he would follow his usual morning run path, but this time, he made an extra u-turn towards Alton Cliff. He never knew why his legs brought him there, but he never thought any of it as his feet had covered all roads in town at that point.

  James also remembered trashing on the bed, tossing and turning while screaming until his throat grew raw. His mother would rush into the room and hold him into her chest, whispering sweet nothings to calm him down as if he were 3 months old again. She would stroke his hair despite being coated with sweat while he cried, and since no one else would be seeing him at that moment, he sobbed violently before exhaustion took over him and his eyes were forced to close.