A single foot of lenght ...

The story of A

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The smell of sweat and blood were all around. A was crouching in his hole...any false move , he would die and all the war will become meaningless for him. He waited , and waited...

This was not how it was supposed to be... The enemy was supposed to be caught unawares...also they were supposed to be lesser in number and most importantly, not equipped with machine guns ! A was cursing why he landed up in this mess!

His friend and comrade B was dead, a single bullet through his head...dead instantly. He was lying, 1 feet away, on his left...

B's story

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One year back...B was graduating from the military school... maybe it was the proudest moment of his life... he felt as if all the war heroes whose pictures adonrned the dorm walls were smilling upon him...his journey was about to begin.

He was called into this conflict 2 months ago. The enemy had occupied a large track of his country. Something had to be done.

A&B 's story

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The colonel decided that the only way out was to send a scout team and get the exact positions of the enemy. It was a risky gamble and he chose the best officers under him - A & B.

A's story

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So he lay, among sweat and blood....but he kept quiet. The enemy did not move in. They were convinced that the intruder was dead.

hours past...and finally it was dark...he crept out of his hole...he took the pictures...he came back and gave a final good bye to B, who was on his right when the bullet hit him...then he left him...

The attack was a success...the enemy position were accurately marked and were destroyed.

A became a war hero. Medals were bestowed upon him....gradually with passage of years, he forgot that he was so close to the bullet that hit B in place of him...after some years, his picture was on the dorm walls, along with other war heroes.

B's story

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Minutes before the bullet hit him...A was on his left...but somehow A did not look comfortable...B figured out that there was no way he could allow A to be uncovered as it will jeopardize the whole mission. So he dragged him to his right and he took the position on A left... It was 1 foot to the left of his earlier place...but he remembered the pictures of all the war heroes and the silent promise he made to them...Sometime later, a sniper who had seen A helmet partially, got a second glance of another helmet. B never had a chance after that.... he was one foot too far in the wrong direction...

Our story

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We read about the awesome military operations and tactical victory in the great war... We read an entire page on the heroic of A... Only place B gets mentioned is as a nameless soldier....when they say "A's entire team was wiped out but he did it alone".

Sometimes... a single foot is a big distance.

The Deadly truth

Inspired by Orham Pamuk's "My name is Red"!!! :)....

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I am lying amidst the debris of what was 5 minutes ago my body. Now that i could figure out things (its about 5 mins!) i realize that not only am i dead, my body has been splitted into over 10 parts! I am not sure which part of my body is talking - the heart or the head? But since i guess i can see things it is the head. But then again, it might be the soul!! I am so confused... Whoever came up with the cliche "rest in peace"!!!

I guess you are confused what all was happening? My apologies. I was out for shopping in the main market when i was caught up in a bomb explosion. And i died. However, with it, i became supremely aware of all things around me- the past , present and the future! Somehow me not knowing the cause of my death irked me!!! It was like being forced to marry without loving that person. I decided to explore why i died.

The immediate cause was clear. I have been splitted up into several pieces and each part was incapable of independent existence. But why was this done??? dammit... i am going to get to the bottom of it!

I transport myself 5 mins back (i am dead so i can do time travel!!!)... I see what happened... There was this young man, carrying the bag, which had the bomb which after 5 minutes had exploded right under my feet. Now that i see him, i could make out that he was uneasy, excited and looked very cautious! But when i was alive, it seemed so normal! Infact i did not even notice him. But then its no fun. I know what happened in the next few minutes. So i follow the young man 2 days in the past.

I see him in deep conversation with a person in his mid 40s. They looked very intense. I decided to eavesdrop. After all they killed me so i don't think they deserve my decency!

They were talking something about independence, tyranny, oppression and lot of gas! The older guy was somehow trying to motivate the young guy (I wont call him friend since he killed me) to carry "it" out, which i figured out, was planting the bomb. Since my head was in several pieces, i could not figure out how i "thought" but believe me, it's possible!

they were parting way...after some decision, i decided to leave the youg guy and start to follow the older guy. Time travel 2 years in the past!

I was now in a jungle..no wait! not a jungle but a training camp somewhere in the middle of a jungle! Young people were getting trained for.... to be killed or to kill!!! My My My... talking of dying is so easy for people who are alive. Only the dead know what they are missing! But lets not lead you away from my story.

I see the middle age guy in some serious discussion with who looked like his boss, a bald guy who was chain smoking. I could not understand their language. Again i overheard the words Tyranny, oppression and independence. They were talking about how they planned to fight to get independence from the government! I was lost, as i could not figure out why i had to die for this!!! But wait... i heard their plan... they would carry out a major bombing to shake the government and make them accept their demand!!!! Now it was making sense to me!

But why??? The question was not answered yet. So i decided to follow the boss to the past 10 years!

He had lot of hair then and was much more handsome!!!! Seeing this i got a sadistic pleasure (come on i can since he was responsible for my present state)...i saw him as all eager eyed and idle person. He was sitting in a geography class. Or was it a History class??? They had all maps around but these maps were showing historical kingdoms/empire. Or i was in a political science classroom because the teacher was saying lots of stuff about Marx and Lenin etc! WAIT!!!! I was in the middle of a sermon!!! I paused and listened. I was informed how historically "they" were a great kingdom and how the "oppressors" have conquered them!!!!

Now i was good in studies in school but i never heard of all these stories. So i was curious. However, after 5 mins i started yawning (well the soul can yawn believe me)...the guy was saying a lot of crap. 50% stuff was made up or his own interpretation and fables! I was laughing. But then i looked at the class. Everyone was listening in rapt attention!!! I suddenly realised that i was very close to the end of my investigation.

Using my special soul-power, i went inside the mind of the "preacher"...Dude!!! He was not even a class 10th pass!!! He has heard all the stuff he was blabbering from someone else and was just vomiting out! He was talking of a past 500 years ago!!! A past that made no difference to the living!!!

I cant believe this. I died because some idiot had an idea of the past which he successfully passed on to another idiot who then passed it to 3-4 more buffoons which ultimately lead me to my death!!! GRRRRRR.... Bunch of losers!

I might have hated history and geography in school but was big time pissed of it with it now! How nice it would have been if people did not care about history and geography so much and concentrated just on making a better lives for themselves!!! DAMMIT.... I might have been alive today!!!