"The deafening noise of the palles of two helicopters drew our attention, they were stationed there, very close, in the vast opening in front of a small woodden church, a cloud of dust envelopped the atmosphere."
"There were soldiers of the confederated army, militiamans and especially, many masked Indians, they proudly raised the sinister emblems of the warriors; they were busy, droving back, with roughness, other men, women, children to the interior of the church. We could hear unperceivable complaints coming from the interior of the church. Persons dressed with long white jackets where coming out of the church with precipitation, they where carrying, meticulously, strange containers from where strange clouds, like white vapors, escaped mysteriously: it was undoubtedly liquid hydrogen. They delicataly piled up the invaluable containers, inside the helicopters which promptly fly out away.
"I understood, then, what was occurring. I needed little time to see the signs indicating
that these machines coming from the sky had a medical vocation. I could not identify
them correctly, the names on the fuselage had been hidden in an awkward way in addition to the
presence of a red cross. Then they flew away: one in direction of the west, the other
towards the South."
"Further away and at a short distance, I saw motionless armoured tanks, they were white and did
not carry any trace of combat; carefree soldiers were laying carelessly on their sides,
they where watching the scene with indifference; all around them, in disorder, there were the
remainders of a meal, bottles of beer and their helmets, of an immaculate blue, the color
of a sky without any clouds.
"My companions became animated, I understood their insane desire to head for the
enemy. It was like going to death; our forces were smaller, the surprised effect would not be
enough, we had few ammunition, the UNO soldiers would take side for the other camp, like
they had always done. Then, I ordered to withdraw; I still think about that and I
have remorses since."
She tightens me strongly. I feel that she does not listen to me any more, she has an insane will to
fuck. She activates herself like to let herself be impale. I am there close to her, answering her gestures, and
that is not enough to appease my spirit.
"Since the departure of the helicos, a certain calm had returned. We could hear more distinctly, the complaints
coming from the interior of the church. Fire already devoured the interior of
the small woodden church, the flames attacked the stained glasses and made them shine like
Hell. The complaints became cries of anguish, and then, nothing else, but silence and death;
the soldiers, uneasy, pretended not to see the scene."
She temporarily detach herself from me and she looks at me with an air of incredulity, then she coils
again, perhaps, indifferent.
- Tight me up, she tells me.
"Fire shots suddenly burst from our group, like shooting to pigeons, for the form and in an
undisciplined manner, to take the warriors by surprise; that action still cost us some men. A desparate gesture,
like that of our politicians who create turmoil in the country, having pursued the policy of worst. They still await the outcome, comfortably sitted in their stuffed seats of the National Assembly. Where they are, there is no "warriors", there are no "Serb militias", there is only the quiet insurance of a common certitude, the artificial unconciousness of the tribe."
"We successfully reached the village. It was deserted. We circumvented the houses.
Calm reassured us and we circulated without too much fear, looking for a favourable place
to spend the night.
"We were suddenly surprised by the gust of a machine-gun, coming from nowhere, two of our
men were strucked down. It was the free for all, the tension settled again. We gathered together, we
sought to locate the place from where the shootings where coming from. This time, our movements were planned, they provoced some unfruitful gusts from the snipper; we succeeded in locating him; the shootings where coming from the window of the higher story of a vast warehouse."
"We circumvented the building and head inside in order to surprise and kill the
snipper before he does make some other victims, civilians, companions of fight."
"We invested the vacant building; there was a large and unprotected staircase which reached the upper story where the snipper was hiding. As soon as we reached the floor, we open fire, in all directions before even having locate the gunner. He replied by firing at us, we lost another man, he collapsed heavily on the woodden parquet floor."
- I will kill you, bastard.
"Afflicted by an hysterical anger, a companion ran openly and discharged his weapon
in the direction of the snipper. Then, after long seconds during which, the crackling of the weapons was reflected back on the walls, it was silence, a deathly silence. A body crushed heavily on the ground. We had just strucked the snipper. We looked at each other, hesitating to detache ourselves from the fine steel columns that hardly protected us from the direct shootings of the snipper."
"I advanced prudently towards the windows. The body of the snipper was there, lying bloodly on the woodden parquet floor. He had moved, but he was unable to recover his weapon which lay there at little distance. I pressed the barrel of my AK 45
on his face, and I called my companions: I shouted to them telling to come close, there was no more danger.
- Kill me, kill me, kill me now. If you don't kill me, I
will kill you.
"It was the voice of a woman; I approached her to better look at her and I recognized, the
features of a young Indian girl, she was still a teenager, a schoolgirl undoubtedly."
Marco Polo or the imaginary journey (Translated from french, translated from french, july 2002,) © july 2002 Jean-Pierre Lapointe
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