SWAN

           The dull afternoon sky had been lit up brigtly by the massive missile strike off in the distance, the fierce battle raging on and reaching new heights. Grey clouds had been replaced by orange flames and thick, black smoke towering over the tall trees. The surrounding fields of green were littered with debris and damaged vehicles, and occasionally with fallen soldiers, their units advancing on the enemy's position as fast as they could.
           Without warning, machine guns beyond the fields opened up with brutal volleys of bullets, tearing into some of the moving troops, as well as the ground below them.  Men went down in droves, some wounded mortally, others surviving but out of the fight.
           "Medic!" yelled a downed trooper. "Medic, I need help!"
           Corporal Eric Iverson looked over the destroyed jeep he was taking cover behind to see where the yelling had come from. A lone soldier lying several meters from his position was on his back, and clutching his right leg with both hands.
           Iverson steadied his helmet, and clutched his medical equipment bag, ready to jump away from his cover and assist.
           "Stay put soldier!" he yelled back. "I'm coming for you!"
          The weapons fire had ceased for the moment, but he knew that could change. With little regard for his own safety, he left the safety of his cover, and ran towards the injured trooper, sliding down beside him and immediately getting to work on the man's wounded leg.
          "Just hang tight, soldier. You'll be all right." he said to reassure, his calm voice always serving well during moments like these.
          "Thanks a million." replied the soldier, looking to the medic that had come to help him, before watching his leg wound get treated as he lay there. When the wrap on the leg was complete, Eric wiped his brow with a sleeve, perspiring from the constant movement. Luvky for him, his short blond hair was under his helmet, and not long enough to make him even warmer.
           Just as he was about to take a gulp from his canteen, the sound of a helicopter could be heard getting closer and closer. Eric looked up to see the medical transport preparing to land nearby in the open field.
           'Weapons fire must have died down up ahead for them to be able to fly in the evac chopper right now.' he thought to himself. A few moments later, the helicopter marked with red crosses on either side landed with a thud. A corpsman jumped out and ran over to his position. "C'mon, I'll help you get him to the chopper!" said the corpsman loudy over the whirling of the chopper's blades. Together the picked up the man as carefully as they could, and loaded him onto the craft.
            After a couple more injured soldiers had been helped onto the helicopter, it rose into the air and headed off to its drop point, getting the men to the care they needed. While he was admiring the flying machine on its way out, an explosion not too far away suddenly had him diving for cover behind a fallen tree. The battle was far from over.
            'War is hell.'

          Weary from the long walk to catch up with his unit, Eric stopped at the sight of a stream running under the road he was on, and took off his combat gloves long enough to stick his hands in the cool water. He splashed some on his face, before wiping it with a sleeve. Getting back to his feet, Eric was about to leave, when he started to wonder where the stream went.
           He walked to the left of the road, and into a grove of trees that the stream ran through. It didn't take him long to find that the stream emptied itself into a realtively large pond, situated in a clearing past the trees. The scene was one of serenity, something that had escaped the whole region for so long, what with the war going on and all.
          Water rippled across the pond's surface, with a couple of ducks paddling across it at their most comfortable speed. Squirrels jumped around the edge of the pond, looking for food, as a couple of birds flew by overhead.
          "All the war an violence going on in the area, and this place is like it's own little obscure paradise. Incredible." he mumbled, trying to figure out how this pond and everything around it had remained untouched the way it had.
           He shrugged, and was about to leave, when something nearby caught his eye. A single swan, with brilliant white feathers and pronounced orange beak floated towards him, bobbing its head as it paddled close to where he was standing. The swan stopped a couple of meters short of the shore, staring at him and moving its head around happily.
           "Wow. Just wow." he said aloud, with the swan tilting its head to listen to him, before wobbling its long neck. Eric couldn't help but chuckle, and wished he could take a picture of this, or even make a small video.
           He marvelled at how striking the swan looked against the backdrop of the pond, remembering a similar scene in his own hometown, at a small lake not far from the city centre. 
           'Here I am, in the middle of a war zone in a foreign land, with a little piece of heaven where a swan floats up to me and says HI.'
           It kind of put everything in perspective for Eric, and gave him a sense of hope thinking how something like this could be found in the middle of a war. He wondered if anyone on either side of the conflict would come to their senses and put an end to this, if not for the human cost, than to preserve scenes like this, often written off as collateral damage.
           A bomb blast nearby brought him back to reality as he reached for his medical pack and weapon, the swan and the rest of the nearby wildlife making a hasty retreat. He frowned as the sounds of gunfire resumed once again, and sighed heavily as he turned away from the paradise and headed back to the road, the battle ready to be re-joined.

           "Good thing we saw you when we did, or you and the kid would've been stuck there for a while." mentioned the chopper pilot, bringing the heavy machine around to head back towards the airstrip to drop off the wounded.
           "Yeah. It was getting messy down there." replied Eric, who was sitting next to the open door on the chopper's right side. Down below, the battle was still going, with the allied side finally gaining more and more territory and closing in on the enemy. As the helicopter quickly put the battle behind it, Eric looked down at the ground below. After another ten minutes of flying, he started to make out a small body of water passing below.
           It was the pond he had stopped at earlier, but it didn't look nearly as pristine as he had found it earlier in the day. His heart sunk as the majority of trees looked to have been levelled by weapons fire, small patches of smoke rising from the area.
           Eric frowned at the destruction, and turned away from the grisly scene, his thoughts turning back to the white swan, and how majestic it looked in it's pond. What bothered him the most right now was not knowing if the swan had survived, or become just another victim of a pointless war where a victory would seem hollow under the circumstances.
           "Paradise lost." he mumbled to himself, as the chopper made its way through the cloudy sky as night fell, the darkness and shadows starting to cloak the carnage of war, and all the death and destruction it brought to all involved.

            "War does not determine who is right, but rather who is left....."
                                                                                                              -Bertrand Russell

                                                            THE END