The Fog of War

Wake

Surroundings obscured. Voices hidden. People unheard. The fog consumed all in Samuel's wake. He had amounted to nothing but the embodiment of a lost man following a screaming fool...or rather a lost fool following a screaming man. He couldn't tell if he was still in the trench. He had so much space to wonder around. Perhaps he wondered into enemy territory. Perhaps he set foot in no man's land, but he would have been dealt with in seconds, either gunned down or bombed to smithereens. That same raucous scream returned. It was getting louder. "Melvin!" Samuel called out, a desperate ring to his tone. No response. He stopped and turned his head in every direction hoping to see another helmet, a pair of boots and a rifle in hand, be it friend or enemy. Alas, he was designated and felt as if he had been left to rot in the dense clouds which held him firm in its grasp. He was the heart of the fog. He kept it alive and it followed him along, no matter where he went, what he thought and how much he resisted. He even thought he could hear the fog. He started to think it was speaking to him. Arguing with him. He fell to his knees grabbing his hair roughly with both hands, squeezing the strands between his palms and his fingers. Then, a muffled gunshot, two muffled gunshots, three, four. He heard gunfire once again. He heard cries once again. He look around to see silhouettes of soldiers scurrying in the fog. Fathers and sons who fought alongside him. He shut his eyes tightly, pressing his eyelids to his cheek bones with a growing frustration. His hands shot to his ears like magnets in an attempt to block out the noise. "Sam!" a familiar voice called. "Sam!" He kept his eyes shut. "Sam! Sam!" He finally opened his eyes with a yell. All the noise had stopped. He noticed the fog had become less dense as he lowered his hands from his ears. Getting back to his feet, the ground felt hard and flat like marble tiles. He stomped a few times and was interrupted by a deafening static from behind. Samuel turned quickly and saw an old wooden radio on a small dark nightstand. He was terrified at the site of such a civilised construct in the middle of a warzone. He wanted to keep away from it, but he fought the fear and got closer, hunching his back and moving cautiously. He got close enough to tune the radio and so he did. With a trembling hand, Samuel tuned between static and discordant noises until he eventually found a frequency. All the noise from the radio came to a sudden halt. He stood back and waited.

"Sam?" said a soft female voice from the radio, as if it were a telephone. Samuel turned pale. That voice he thought. So familiar. Too familiar. No, it couldn't be. Surely it isn't? "Sam? Are you there?" the voice asked. He wanted to speak. He wanted to reply, but he felt so anxious. "Sam? Samuel?" the voice continued. He finally forced a single syllable out of his mouth. "Yes...". The voice exhaled with delight at his response. "Goodness, Sam. Why did you take so long." Samuel couldn't even blink. He was dumbstruck, but he needed to speak. "Who...who are you?" he asked, hoping to hear what he wanted to. Hoping that soft voice really was who he thought it to be. The radio remained silent for a couple of seconds until the voice spoke again. "Samuel. It's me, dear. It's Lauren." Samuel crumbled after hearing that name, silently bursting into tears. He felt so safe and sound. The sweet, soft, innocent voice that he had been longing to hear finally hugged his ears. He wanted to believe it, but couldn't bring himself to accept it. How could she be talking from the raido? he thought. "Lauren...is that really you?" he asked, trembling in stance and speech. "Yes, dear. I'm here." Lauren replied. Samuel collapsed beside the radio.

"Lauren. It's you. It's really you! I've missed you. I've missed you so much. It brings me such warmth to hear you. I'll be home. I'll be home in no time. I promise. You will see me. We will see eachother. I must know, how are the boys? Let me hear them. I want to hear you too. I want to hold you. I don't want to have to miss you again."

"I miss you too, Sam."

A brief moment of silence from the radio followed as Samuel laughed, crying tears of happiness and crouching beside the radio. He wiped his tears and prepared to speak.