Guest Writer: Aaron Thompson

Hey y'all, here's a treat for you.  My brother has humbly submitted a short story for your reading enjoyment.  I haven't read it yet due to my always erring on the side of danger.  So sit back and enjoy a story from Aaron Thompson.

A Day That Will Live In Infamy

It was early.  Too early even for a cigarette.  The sun pierced through the flimsy window shades, but I knew it was the early morning.  In Hawaii the sun was always my own personal alarm clock. I lifted my throbbing head off the hard pillow I passed out on.  I dizzily scanned the room not knowing exactly where I was or how I had gotten there.  All of a sudden an outstretched arm fell over my crotch.  I jumped in surprise and saw a woman lying peacefully beside me.  She was blonde, my favorite, and could not be more than twenty two, or possibly twenty three years old.  I then recognized her; it was Jane Rozanski, one of the newest and prettiest nurses here at the naval base.  We must have had some wild time the previous night.  I hope she wasn’t too disappointed with my performance, tequila always stiffened my libido.  She seemed at ease, so I guess it wasn’t all that bad.  I eased myself gently out of her bed and swiftly put on my clothes.  A white t-shirt, a pair of grimy jeans, one sock, my boots, and no underwear was all I could find in my staggered state.  My watch read a quarter past seven, I had exactly thirty minutes to gather myself and report to the mess hall. 

I left her dormitory trying desperately not to make the slightest sound and stumbled back to my barrack not too far away.  My barrack was located the furthest away from the mess hall, away from all the ships and planes and whatnot.  All the guys were up already and in full uniform before I could even shower off the sweat from last night.

“Well look who it is,” sneered Roberts, “I hope you had a good time last night asshole.  You knew I was into Jane and you just didn’t give a fuck.  I hope she gives you herpes, then you guys would be made for each other.”

“Fuck off; I’m not in the mood for this shit right now.  All I’m gonna say is she came onto me and there was nothing I could do.  And let me to tell you something Theodore, I rocked her fucking world last night,” I taunted, lying through my teeth.

“Fuck you Guy.  I hope you have fun arriving late to the mess hall without your platoon.  I know Lieutenant Anderson is gonna really enjoy imparting his eloquent ‘wisdom’ on you.  We’re outta here.” 

All my “brothers” then walked out of the barrack, one by one, as if they had rehearsed this moment before my arrival.  Only Tommy Williams stayed behind. 

“Don’t mind Roberts.  He’s just upset because the better man got the girl.  Anyways, how was it last night?  Best night of your life?  Definitely would’ve been the best night of my life.  Jane is one fine lady,” he said while winking at me.

“Well, I wish I could tell ya Tommy, but I don’t remember a single thing.  Goddamn tequila wiped out my consciousness last night,” I said as I gagged while thinking about all the tequila shots still resting in my stomach.

“What?!  Guess you had one too many.  Shit, you know I wish I could stay here and wait for you, but you know how Anderson’s been on my ass lately.  I’ll save you a seat at the mess hall.  Don’t be too late, it’s already almost seven forty.”

“Alright, thanks Tommy.  I’ll definitely see you down there, I just gotta shower first.  I feel like I have four layers of sweat and filth living on me.”

Tommy laughed, tipped his hat to me, and was on his way.  He was my only friend here at the base.  We met at the local recruiting office on the corner of Cropsey Avenue in Brooklyn.  Turned out we only lived six blocks away from each other and even went to the same high school.  We were the only Yankees here at the naval base.  Everyone else was either from the deep South or some bumble fuck farm in the Midwest.  The other recruits never really cozied up to us too kindly.  It must have been our heavy Brooklyn accents or the fact that we were the only non-racists in our platoon.  They say we’re an army of one, but it sure as hell didn’t feel that way.  Regardless, we knew we would always have each other’s backs no matter the situation. 

I hopped into the shower and just let the lukewarm water rain onto my head.  I looked up into the shower head, eyes closed, and immersed myself into the brief warmth.  For those few short minutes, I could relax and not have a care in the world.

At the exact moment I turned off the water, I heard screeching fighter sounds outside.  It was definitely way too early for a practice fly by with our boys, but maybe the Lieutenant was shaking things up a bit.  It wouldn’t have been the first time Anderson had done something unconventional.  Not even a second later, the warning alarm went off piercing through my barrack and almost knocked me down in shock.  I ran outside with my towel on and saw dozens, possibly hundreds of planes approaching the base.  These planes were definitely foreign, but I could not make out the insignia on the side.  After squinting long and hard enough, I could finally make out large red circles painted across them.  Could it be?  I knew the Japanese were siding with the Axis powers, but were they really gutsy enough to attack a country not even involved in the war, let alone a country as powerful as the United States?  It made absolutely zero sense to me.

All of a sudden I saw countless bombs drop from the planes and land into the harbor.  My jaw dropped in awe; I had never seen anything quite like that before.  The inevitability of pain and destruction ensued as I watched in disbelief.  There were direct hits on two of our destroyers and a handful of smaller ships.  Flames burst out of the command ships.  People were flung into the harbor and I just stood there feeling completely helpless.  It was war.  This is what I signed up for.  To defend my nation at any cost at any moment, so help me God. 

I ran back inside searching frantically for my footlocker with all my gear.  It wasn’t by my bed which is where it always was.  I bet that bastard Roberts hid it as a joke to seem all high and mighty to the new recruits.  Fucking asshole.  I finally found it in the first aid closet and everything was accounted for except my uniform shirt.  I was wasting valuable time and decided to just put on the same white t-shirt I left Jane’s wearing.  Unfortunately, all I had was a standard issued handgun which does not usually match up well against fighter jets.  The armory was only a few buildings away from me, so heavy firepower was definitely an option.  Nevertheless, it was still better than nothing, so I grabbed it and cautiously left my barrack. 

Outside there were still endless amounts of planes and almost twice as many ships on fire.  This was absolute hell.  Both the military personnel and civilians were frantically running around not knowing what to do.  I had not been trained for this type of situation.  My heart was racing faster than a locomotive.  Though I was only a private, I knew I had to take some course of action.  I started running towards the armory.  The sounds of firepower, missiles, and screaming completely blocked out any logical thoughts that were running through my head.  While running, I heard a screaming plane coming up fast behind me.  I turned around expecting it to be high in the sky when I realized this Japanese plane was literally headed straight towards me.  I staggered backwards, turned around, and started running for my life.  Right before I felt like the plane was going to hit me, I jumped out in front of me and sprawled out on the ground.  The plane narrowly missed me by what seemed like inches and crashed into the armory at my twelve o’clock.  Debris and flames sprayed all around me.  I kept my head buried in the ground and held my hands over my head.  Luckily, only small fragments of wood fell on me, but there was an obnoxious ringing sound vibrating through my head.  Of course this added to my already massive headache from my hangover, so I was not quite right in the noggin. 

I stayed completely motionless on the ground for another couple minutes just to make sure I was not in anymore imminent danger.  I got up slowly, head weighing heavy on my shoulders, and took a minute to gather myself.  My breathing was the heaviest it had ever been.  It was as if my lungs were filled with salt and had shriveled up.  I stared at what remained of the armory.  After scavenging through the wreckage, there was nothing useful I could find.  Scanning out ahead me, I saw the base runway not too far away.  I started sprinting towards the runway, heaving the entire way.  When I arrived at the runway I was stunned to see soldiers running away from our only viable weaponry. 

I grabbed a kid who looked way too young to be enlisted and yelled, “Why aren’t people going into the fighters?!  We gotta fight these bastards, why is no one fighting?!”

“That’s why!” as the young man pointed behind me.  I turned around half expecting to a fucking zeppelin.  Instead were four planes flying perfectly parallel to one another and heading straight towards the runway.

“Get outta here!” I yelled to the boy.  Without hesitation he bolted away from the runway and off into God knows where.  I ducked behind the runway safe house and prayed to God they did not know I was there.  I peered through a small, opaque window to obtain a slight vantage point of what was going to happen.  Next thing I knew, rounds and rounds of firepower started pouring out of the enemy planes.  I watched in fury as the planes went straight down the runway completely destroying every available jet.  The planes made an about face to make sure they had finished what they started.  After the fighters were at a safe enough distance away, I came out and just stared at the manic destruction.  I was starting to lose any last glimmer of hope I was still clinging to.  To my surprise, an all too familiar voice called my name. 

“Hey Guy!  Is that you?”

I turned around and exclaimed, “Tommy!  Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes.  Thank God you’re still alive, but you’re hurt.  What the hell happened to you?  Where the fuck have you been?  We gotta get you to a medic now,” I implored trying to take his arm and lead him to medic dock, but he pulled away.

“Na, it’s nothing man.  A damn bullet came up and grazed my arm, hurt like a bitch.  There’s no time to explain where I’ve been, we’re under attack if you haven’t noticed!  You gotta come with me though.  Lieutenant Anderson told me about these secret turret machines up the mountain.  Apparently these turrets were placed there for situations like this.  He ordered me to go up there and take down these guys one by one.  I bet the Japanese didn’t think we had ammo in the mountain.  Those rising sun bastards will never know what hit ‘em!  Come on follow me,” he urged dragging me by the shoulder.

Without a word of hesitation I followed close by to Tommy, sticking right to his heels. We scaled up the mountain through a terribly made path, but finally arrived at a small enclosure in the mountain with two turrets set up about twenty feet apart.  It seemed almost like a match made in heaven for the two of us.  The only problem was that even though the topmost part of the mountain was covering our heads, there was nothing in front to protect us.  If a Japanese fighter saw us- to put it nicely- we would be fucked.  We had rounds of ammunition behind us and our turrets were already loaded.  We took the reins of each death machine, looked at each other, and started firing into the sky.  Plane after plane started falling from the skies.  Instead of honoring their own death, the Japanese pilots would crash into civilian and military buildings adding to the shit show that was December 7^th, 1941.  Cowards. 

“Six, seven, eight, my plane count keeps rising and rising buddy!  How many you at Guy?” Tommy questioned with an uneasy grin on his face.

“I can’t even tell.  I don’t even know if I’m hitting anything, this is only my third time on a turret,” I yelled back while trying to aim my turret.

“Just keep your head up and focus on the plane you’re aiming for.  Trust in your instincts-“ but all of a sudden, there was a huge explosion of sound and I was forced off my turret into a protective fetal state. 

As the dust quickly dissipated and the rocks no longer fell on my body, I cautiously raised myself off the stone ground and turned my head towards Tommy.  He lay there, motionless, bloodied, and shot numerous times through the chest and head.  I crawled over to him in utter disbelief.  I lifted his limp body off the ground, enough to where I could hold and cradle him.  I kept rocking back and forth, tears streaming down my cheeks.  His blood started to cover my own body, but I didn’t care.  Tommy was family, the only one who cared about me on this God forsaken island.  I rested him gently on the ground, stood up, and vomited off the mountain.  I could not gather myself together to stop shaking or to even form words, let alone sentences.

Before I knew it, gun shots were headed my way.  I fell to the ground again as rocks started falling hard onto my head.  That bastard just missed me, but I was not going to miss him.  It was one of the few planes left over the harbor and the only one that knew of my location.  This monster killed my brother and I was not going to let that go unresolved.  I jumped back onto my turret, took one glance at what remained of Tommy, and turned towards the plane.  He started to circle back, probably anticipating a simple, yet rewarding kill.  I clenched the turret, white knuckled and palms sweaty, and followed the path of the plane.  Right before the plane turned to face me head on, I fired everything I had accompanied with my screams of anger.  The turret emptied and all I saw was the plane make a crash landing right at the base of the mountain.

I made my way down the mountain forging my own path to follow.  I got down to the base and made my way about forty feet to the crash.  I circled the plane and to my pleasant surprise, there was the pilot crawling out of the wreckage.  I walked up to him and kicked his gun away.  I yanked him out of the wreckage and threw him to the ground.  He tumbled over a few times, but then slowly got up.  I took out my gun and threw it to the ground.  I raised my fists up in a broken boxing position and motioned to him to come at me.  This was more than personal.  He spit blood on the ground, fixed his footing, and sprinted towards me.  He barreled into me and knocked me hard into the ground.  We started rolling over each other for about ten feet until I finally got on top of him and started landing blow after blow to his face.  After about the fourth punch, he must have gathered up all the strength he had left because he just tossed me off of him.  I landed awkwardly on my left arm and definitely felt something pop out of place.  I got up, holding my left shoulder, and tried to regain both my balance and breath.  The Japanese soldier looked like he wanted to say something, but I would not give him that satisfaction.  I ran towards him, but was completely unaware that he was holding a knife behind his back.  He whipped it out right before I got to him, but I was lucky enough to dodge left of his attack.  I picked up a piece of metal from the plane wreckage and did my best Babe Ruth swing clean across his face.  He went down like a sack of potatoes.  I picked up his knife and stood over him, just staring at him for what seemed like a lifetime.  Before I could decide what to do, a familiar voice called my name.

“Private Guy James!  Step away from that man immediately,” Lieutenant Anderson ordered.

I continued staring at the Japanese soldier, but eventually eased myself to Lieutenant Anderson, looked deep into his eyes, and then buried my head into his chest.

“Tommy’s dead, he’s fucking dead,” I stuttered as I began to choke up, “this fucker killed him.  He fucking killed him.”

 “Stand up straight private.  You can’t let your emotions get the better of you.  Tommy died for this country and for you.  He will be remember and honored just like everyone else who perished today.  I know you want justice for Tommy, but killing this soldier isn’t going to make the pain go away.  We need to take both this man and you to the medical dock immediately,” Lieutenant Anderson said while motioning to weary medics.  “It’s over Guy, it’s over.”

The medics placed me on a stretcher and hurried me to the medical dock.  I lost sight of where the oriental soldier was taken, but it was probably better that way.  After getting bandaged and hooked up to more needles than I could count, I finally had a chance to catch my breath.  This day was the epitome of a nightmare.  I never thought anything of this caliber would happen to the remote naval base at Pearl Harbor.  My whole body was still shaking even though the attack had been over for quite some time.  The flames and carnage I saw would haunt me for the rest of my life.  Tommy’s face right before he was murdered would haunt me for the rest of my life.  My faith in humanity was depleted.  Not even Jane’s angelic face could restore it as she tended to my wounds.  I lay motionless on the hospital bed, only my chest moving from my incoming and outgoing breath.  There was nothing more to say or do or think.  The world was changing for the worse, and I was right in the thick of it.