Clouds of smoke lightly wisped up, dispersing through the air, as clear as blue can be, daylight sky.

I held a cigarette in my mouth, and a gun in hand, an average gun, a pull of the trigger and you anyone can kill, provided you can aim properly of course.

Below me... well just dirt, just finished one of our orders, raided that town, shame, the inn seemed nice. I took another deep whiff  from my cigarette, its weird you know, when the smoke rises into the sky, it looks just like clouds. when the background is the same colour, it looks all the same even if the distance is miles apart.

I tended to my rifle, can't have it rust now, or I'll get an earful later.

A Winchester rifle, which version? I don't know. I hit I live, I miss I die. That's all there is.

From afar, lightly echoed the booming voice of a  commander, noisy fellow he is. We just invaded that town, the sound of gun fire is still ringing in my ears.

Won't he shut up already?

Oh he's saying something about country pride and soldiers honour.

Should I applaud his effort? Well, he's not our platoons commander, so I just sat faraway in my own group. I looked bedside me, some other fellow soldier or “comrades in arms” tending to his gun. Dead fish eyes, that's what they call it right? Well anyhow, we're just the walking dead, the outcome of this war is whether we stay walking or stop moving.

I took the cigarette away from my mouth and pressed it against the ground.

Grabbing a tin flask behind me, with its clean silver surface and high quality metal, it's totally out of place here. it's some stuff I stole from the town inn, mount bullet wine. I don't know about stealing or whatever, but it's going to rot in the town anyways, it's a miracle this survived in that ruffle and barrage of bullets

Maybe because they're both bullets? Hah, bad joke.

I popped out the knob and chugged down a notch, better be careful, or I'll be annoyed for drinking on duty.

The voice of the commander didn't stop, honestly, when is he going to shut up?

Now he's going on something about saving our family and friends.

I looked to my other side, left or right, just some other guys, soldiers, voluntary or government enforced, well, it's all the same, we're all just here, waiting for the next mission, waiting for when the missions will stop coming, whether by death or victory. Though these guys, I don't particularly care, I don't even recognise them, many of them probably have been transferred from some other platoon, since the ones before died from some surprise attack. The ones whose faces I knew anyways.

I chugged down my last sip of the mount bullet, amazing stuff here, wait, it's like I just drew a flag for the last thing I'll taste before I die. Well never mind, I licked the droplets from the rims of my mouth and dropped the silver flask on the ground…

… We was, waiting, standing on the outskirts, hiding away like petty thieves.

I was waiting for the order to charge into the unsuspecting town, not a bad town, children playing, a few drunk fights. Too bad the enemy likes having its base here. There or here, there are soldiers and officers patrolling around, ah that guy, three red stripes huh? If I kill him maybe I'll get a bonus. Well, I'll be sorry for that kid though, she looks like him, his daughter maybe? Little kids shouldn't be frolicking around with a gun, well, who am I to say. Though it doesn't look like it's loaded.

I waited for some hours, why do those higher ups always keep us waiting anyways? Waiting under this heat for hours and still expect us to be perfect in our camouflage. Are they idiots? Obviously someone's going to fuck up eventually when they say "wait, lie, stay" and then leave it as it is. Even a dog will run away if you starve it.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Heeyy, there are some starving dogs here, treat me! Praise me!

…Well jokes aside, the guy next to me really isn’t doing good. He looks like a new recruit, or may he's just young. But he is breathing really heavily right now, now I know how a person can be pale and red as a tomato at the same time.

I gave him some of my remaining, carefully rationed water in my tin, he immediately grabbed it and drank it up. Hey hey, shameless aren't you. After gulping it down, he looked at the flask and looked all embarrassed, quietly apologised with his head down. How are you going to manage with that passiveness?

Good luck newbie, even if you survive this time, doesn't mean you survive next time.

I looked at the flask he gave back, oh, there's still a little left, carry it around is going to be a bother. One thing I realised in my soldier career, is that the longer you hold onto something, the heavier it gets. I heard that some people who try to preserve water in the dessert, ironically die of dehydration instead, despite still having water.

I drank away the rest. Better now than never.

We got the orders to standby in our “mission” it's not much different to raiding and killing though.

I shifted the rifle on my shoulder and loaded the gun at my waist in preparation.

The recruit next to me looked all nervous all of a sudden, ah he dropped a bullet. Well never remind, with luck, he'll live. If not, well bad luck.

With a command, we all charged into town…

… Oh my, isn’t this the guy with three stripes I saw earlier? What a nice gun, as I thought he’s got a pretty good position. Well, he's got a bullet in his head now, along with the others in the this town inn.

I stood before the bars counter, the guy seemed to be sitting here before he died, too bad for my bonus.

The noise outside has already died down, looks like pretty much everyone's done. Done in. I jumped over the counter, the glass shards under my soles clattered and crushed. Oops, I lifted my foot to see the wine and other alcohols sloshing on the floor.

Aww, I wanted to sneak a bottle or two, but everything's shattered.

Hmm? There's a tin flask slightly larger and better quality than mine on the table, it was half covered by the some sort of cloth so I didn't see it.

It was right beside the three stripes guy, looks like it's his, since some of whatever was in it was slightly spilt on his hands.

I picked it up, ooohh, it's half full, I looked at the open top and took a sniff. Wow, mount bullet, this guy carries good stuff like this around with him?

There's even initials carved on it. ‘H.K’?

I screwed the lid back on, and took a look at lucky corpse.

“Thanks for the treat.” I said and jumped back over the counter…

...I opened my eyes and heard our own commander screech his voice from not too faraway.

Great, looks like our next order has come.

I picked my butt off the not so comfortable ground, by my feet was the silver tin flask, and the carved initials flickered from the sunlight, the light sharply pierced my eyes, Ow. Kicking it away, I trudged on. The longer you carry something the heavier it gets after all.

“Well then…” I strapped my rifle to my shoulder and gun to my waist.

"Lets find some good booze." I chuckled to myself.