The Killing Field

I was on an ancient yellow school bus full of people and we were headed toward Canada, I think. We were running from something and all of us on the bus were marked somehow. Not physically like a tatoo, but there was something abhorent about us...something that our own government, our own
people were trying to destroy. We were escaping on a modern "underground railroad", driving down a barely paved rural road trying to stay as far away from any human population no matter how small. Looking out the window I saw that to the right of us was a fallow, frosted field and to the left was a small creek lined with snow covered stones and bare trees. We really were in the middle of nowhere.

It was the middle of winter, there was no heat in the bus, and we were freezing. We were trying to keep warm by huddling against each other, but it we were all so cold and miserable. I remember looking around at everyone and thinking that we were never going to make it. There was a woman sitting next to me and tears were just rolling down her face. I put my arm around her and pulled her close to me to comfort her. We were together, I think. Lovers. And I was so pissed off because it was just so fucking unfair that our own country was trying to exterminate us like vermin. And no one cared.

We were coming to an intersection when the bus suddenly sped up. We all knew something bad was getting ready to happen. We looked out the dirty, frost covered windows and saw the soldiers moving toward the bus with their weapons pointed our way. The person driving our bus was the father of a young man who was one of "us", whatever "us" was. His son was killed by the government after having been put into some kind of internment camp. I remember the feeling that this man cared very much for us and was part of the "underground railroad", so to speak. I got the impression that he wanted to do for us what he couldn't do for his son. Anyway, he looked back at us and said "Hang on." He mashed the accelerator down as far as he could and tried to turn past the soldiers. The second they realized that he wasn't going to stop, they shot him through the front window.

The bus rolled to a stop on the field side of the road. We all just sat there, stunned. And then the soldiers started screaming at us,

"Move it, move it, move it!!"

About 10 of us filed out of the bus, while the rest of us waited to see what was going to happen. The soldiers grabbed the people that had come out, lined them up, and shot them dead. Well, of course, those of us left on the bus refused to come out, so the soldiers set the bus on fire. Black smoke filled the bus and billowed out the windows. Two or three people ran through the smoke and out of the bus. As soon as they cleared the steps, they were shot. The rest of us tried to pry the windows open, but the bus was so old, they wouldn't budge. We couldn't breath because of the smoke and the fire was moving fast. People were beginning to burn, including me. I used my fist to punch through one and somehow, someway I managed to crawl out. I don't know where my lover was at this point, but I think she was dead.

Once outside of the bus, I was almost fully engulfed in flames. The soldiers were just standing there, watching me burn, and watching the rest of the people inside the bus burn. They didn't try to help. They didn't shoot us to put us out of our misery. They just stood there and watched. I managed to stagger to the stream and roll in the water until the fire was finally out.

I figured that if I layed there long enough, the soldiers would figure that I was dead. It was about 20 minutes when I heard gunshots. Just one here...one there.... I had my eyes closed and was completely still even though the pain was excrutiating. I figured that if I hung in there long enough, the soldiers would go away and I could find help. I heard their boots crunching through the frost covered grass.

"Man, that's one crispy critter."

"Yeah. Fuck, I hate the smell of burnt people."

"Me too. You wanna do it?"

"What for? It's dead, whatever it is."

"Sarge says we gotta put a bullet in all of 'em, just to make sure."

It was like slow motion. I heard them walking closer and felt one nudge me with his foot. I knew I was going to die, so I asked God for forgiveness just as the bullet entered my brain.