Micah Lance

Dog Tag

Chapter 1

Ji-hun was seated next to his fellow countrymen shoveling into their mouths-- the almost inedible food that the North Korean high command decided was adequate to feed their hardworking soldiers.  It had been almost four months since he was forced into this war by his tyrant leader Kang-Dae.  It has been five months since North Korea decided the world was ready for conquest. With fifteen percent of the world dead and another forty percent infected with the plague, the world was indeed ready to collapse on itself.  Ji-hun considered himself extremely lucky that his American father had decided to raise him in Korea with his mom.  America got hit the hardest, and Ji-hun shuddered to think about the horrors the country was going through.

"The same ones we're going to face soon" he muttered under his breath.  In-su heard him and nodded solemnly.  They were all thinking of the same thing ever since they had been assigned to escort their sick comrades that had plague- like symptoms.  Until now, North Korea had been miraculously spared from the disease and while the world was dying North Korea had built up its strength.  Now it looks as if it is our time to die.

"Put the food away soldiers! The base is around the next bend!"  Kwan said in something between a shout and a bellow.  Kwan was our short and stocky officer who never missed an opportunity to impress a superior officer.  True to Kwan's words after the turn Ji-hun saw the military checkpoint a few feet ahead.  Shin, who was driving, stopped the truck and after the routine check, he drove into the base.

"Move your feet soldiers!" Kwan yelled at the very peak of his bellowing abilities. 

Ji-hun and the rest of the men quickly unloaded the sick and brought them to the base's hospital.  As Ji-hun started to return to the truck, a group of soldiers stopped him with a gesture.

"Hey, how is the battle at the front?" Asked one of the three men who stood eagerly awaiting the news. 

"The Americans have us pinned down by their superior firepower. Somehow ourgovernment managed get their hands on a concentrated version of the plague and had a volunteer surrender and release it in the middle of their camp. Since then the Americans have stopped taking prisoners and sniping anyone who gets to close to their camp."

"The enemy won't survive more than few months then." One of soldiers said with a smirk on his face.

"It seems that we won't either."  Ji-hun said while gesturing at the sick ward. 

"I don't think you worry should about your friends," said the soldier his grin growing into a full smile.  "I'm just sure they have the flu or something," continued the soldier turning toward his comrades who began to snicker as they walked away. 

"Idiots" Ji-hun muttered as headed back to the truck.  What could make them so smug that they aren't even afraid of the most deadly virus that has ever plagued the Earth?  Some people are just too arrogant to realize that they are in danger.  Shaking his head Ji-hun walked back to the truck just in time to receive the newest orders from his comically loud officer.

"Men, I just received orders!" Kwan paused for what he thought would be a dramatic effect and then continued in somehow an even louder voice.  "We are staying  the night at this base and tomorrow we will be assigned to a special mission!" Kwan stared out at his forced audience making sure we were all listening then in the loudest voice yet he yelled "Company dismissed." Ji-hun shrugged and walked away. The zeal of his leader could be draining, but still a night at a base this far away from the front lines was sure to have its perks. Ji-hun also didn't want to leave before knowing if his fears of the virus finally reaching North Korea were justified. 

"So how would you like to spend this fine day?" Shin said as he slapped Ji-hun on the back.  Ji-hun turned to see Shin and In-su behind smiling and obviously excited about not sleeping on the bouncing truck. 

"Well, I'm not sure about you but this soldier is eager to see if this place has some better food" Ji-hun replied.

"You read my mind" Shin said.  Then the three of them walked across the base o the mess hall.  The food was no home cooked meal, but it was definitely better than the slop that they gave soldiers at the front lines.  After they finished their meal, they decided to visit the sick men they had dropped off an hour earlier.  Ji-hun decided to wait just inside the door not wanting any more exposure to the sick patients.  From there Ji-hun watched Shin and In-su talk to some of the sick soldiers.  Then a female nurse caught his attention.  She walked right past Ji-hun and up to a safe where she put a container of pills. 

"Sorry my friend but she is already taken," said a male doctor who walked up from behind.
"It's not illegal to look is it?" replied Ji-hun still watching as she turned the head of every patient and hospital staff.

"It is when she is dating the general in charge of this base," said the doctor in a sort of warning tone.   The doctor checked his watch and said, "I got to run. These patients won't cure themselves." Then with a mocking smile he turned and walked away humming a pleasant tune.  Shin and In-su walked back towards Ji-hun as the doctor walked into another room. 

"So how are they? Is it the virus?" Ji-hun asked nervously.
"Let's talk in the barracks," Shin responded. His face was crunched and wrinkled.  It was the face he got when he was trying to figure something out that just out of his mind’ s reach.  As they walked to their assigned bunks Ji-hun looked at In-su and saw that he looked as conflicted and as confused as Shin.  Whatever happened in the hospital it wasn't good. They walked there at quick pace. Shin and In-su definitely wanted to get something off their chest and into the open air.  Shin got like this a lot of times when he was fed up with the war or their leader, Kang-Dae.  He would usually start mumbling about it in public, and then In-su would have to take him somewhere private where he could vent without fear of getting suspected for treason.  The fact that he was apprehensive about even saying something under his breath was very bad sign.  The barracks were deserted.  Everyone else was still on duty. 

"So what's going on?"Ji-hun asked.

"The official report is food poisoning." Shin replied though Ji-hun didn't like how he

emphasized the word official. 

"The problem is I ate the same food as some of patients before they got sick and

I don't have any symptoms," In-su continued.

"Then I found out that every person who came in immediately received a pill

before the doctors bothered looking at the patient." Shin said quickly.  It was obvious that he was preparing to ramble.  "I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist but just look at the facts. First a worldwide plague breaks out that just so happens to hit the nations who could oppose us the hardest.  Then our country has a series of plague scares that just happen to go away when the government brings in its own doctors.  Then when all the world is weakened, our government just happens to attack.  Now it seems that they just so happened to have found some magic pill that turns a plague into food poisoning!" Ji-hun sat there mulling over what he said.  He wanted to say that there was no way we could responsible for what Shin was implying, but the more he looked at the facts and more he thought about his unstable leader the more likely that the North Korean government had invented this plague in an attempt to take over the world became.  He suddenly thought of the pretty nurse and the pills she had been putting in a safe. 

"I never agreed with this war, but I always believed that Kang-Dae had some

honor." In-su said with his voice full of sadness.  "I never thought that I was partly responsible for the death of millions." Just as Ji-hun and Shin were thinking about what In-su said Kwan opened the door and walked, with all the theoretical authority he could produce from his little body, over towards where the group sat.

"I believe it is time that you three boys got some sleep." Kwan said in softer voice

than he used outside but still much louder than necessary.

"But sir it's..." Shin stammered.

"That is an order," Kwan roared cutting Shin off. I am leading an importantmission tomorrow!" Kwan shouted, ending the conversation by getting to his bunk and beginning to snore.  Not wanting to disobey a direct order or to discuss potentially treasonous talk in front their commanding officer, the three of them fell asleep soon after.

 

Chapter 2

 

Ji-hun walked over to the vehicle he had been assigned to.  The important mission that their group had been chosen to carry out was simple enough.  It seems that an American soldier had been caught spying on the camp and since everyone on the base was busy our group got the task of bringing him to the prison camp.  Ji-hun got in the old humvee and was pleasantly surprised to see that Shin was driving and In-su was riding shotgun.  Ji-hun turned to see the prisoner being brought to their humvee.  Ji-hun was again surprised to see that the prisoner was not white as he suspected but Korean.  The guards opened the door, tossed Ji-hun the keys to the handcuffs, then placed the prisoner into the seat and closed the door.  Ji-hun decided that he shouldn't talk to the prisoner, so he remained silent as the three humvees, one ahead and one behind, traveled the mountain road. 

About three hours out an incident occurred.  The road down the cliff was steep and had almost one hundred eighty degree turns along its route.  As the humvee behind Ji-hun was going down a tire went out causing the humvee to drive off the cliff road and onto the humvee ahead of the Ji-hun, which was directly under them at the time. 

The second the crash happened, the prisoner attempted to open the door.  Ji-hun quickly drew his gun and grabbed the prisoner’ s side which, made a sound like crunching paper.  The prisoner froze and slowly turned his head knowing that whatever he was hiding had been discovered. Ji-hun reached under the prisoner's shirt and pulled out a small package made of yellow paper and tied with a rope.  The prisoner tried to snatch it back but was stopped as In-su place a revolver against the prisoner’s head.  Ji-hun opened the package to reveal a Korean file and a bottle of pills identical to the one Ji-hun saw the nurse locking up at the hospital. 

"You're going to wish I escaped," the prisoner said with defeated grin on his face.

"What is this?" Ji-hun demanded.

"That is the only thing that could have stopped the nukes from blowing you to oblivion."

"What do you mean?" Asked Ji-hun suddenly scared for the lives of his countrymen.

"Well, you see, I had a partner who escaped with proof North Korea made the virus.  Now since everyone believes we're all going to die from it.  Our leaders will be more than happy to return the favor and destroy all the North Koreans."

"Wait, let me get this straight if this package doesn't get to the Americans, they will blow all of Korea to dust."

"Yep." The prison replied.  Ji-hun looked at his comrades to see if they were thinking the same thing.  Both of them looked at each other and nodded, convinced that the only way to protect the country they fought for and the entire world was to betray their army.  Ji-hun looked out his open window to see the survivors of the crash moving around below trying to help the wounded.

"Shin if we turn around now we can make it to Americans before the army could catch us," Ji-hun said quickly before he lost the courage to become a traitor.

"You read my mind," Shin said as whipped the humvee around and then gunned it up the road.

"Do you know where the American camp is?" In-su asked the prisoner seated directly behind him.

"Wait, are you seriously betraying your country just like that?" The prisoner asked with great confusion.

"As I see it I am betraying a maniac tyrant who has sentenced my nation to death," Ji-hun replied.

"Okay, then I'll lead you to where we are camped." As their vehicle reached the top of the cliff, the former Korean soldier heard the distinct voice of Kwan attempting to make himself heard over the distance and the wind.  The voice had annoyed them since the moment they first heard it. Now it caused each one of them to smile broadly realizing that it was the last time they would ever hear it.

 

Chapter 3

 

Ji-hun sat in back seat with prisoner as their stolen humvee traveled to the American encampment, which according to the prisoner was a about a mile into the mountain range.   It was the morning of the second day of their escape.  They had pulled over to stop for the night in a forested area not wanting to drive the dangerous road at night.  That night Ji-hun talked a lot with the prisoner, who was named Samuel Mires.  He again looked at his American ally and marveled how much they were alike.  Both of them had same skin tone because they both had an American parent as well as a Korean parent.  They had the same brown eyes, nose, and they even wore their hair the same way.  Then he leaned that Samuel learned Korean as second language just like he learned English from his farther before he died.

"What are you thinking about?" said Samuel, who noticed Ji-Hun looking at him.

Brought back to the present Ji-hun replied, "I just thinking of the best way to explain why your army should allow three North Korean soldiers and an American soldier they know has been captured pass their sniper line."

"Oh, that's easy I'll just tell them I escaped my prison and took you three captive using incredible judo skills." 

Laughs were heard as the three Korean traitors and the escaped prisoner rode down the mountain road.  The old tires of the military vehicle bounced over rocks and loose pebbles.  The driver cursed as suddenly the wheels lost traction, and they slid down the uneven slope. Ji-hun saw the drop they were uncontrollably heading towards, and his heart dropped.  They plunged off the drop off sideways before anyone had time to think.  Ji- hun lunged to grab the package as gravity pulled them down.  Just as he pulled the package to his chest and braced himself, their car landed upside down on a slope and began to roll side over side down all the way to the bottom.

Ji-hun lay on the ground, his head in a fog. As the jumbled memories returned he began to sit up causing pain from every part of his body.  "Why aren't I in the humvee?" he thought.  He buried his head in his hands and forced himself to think.  Then the impact and all the horrifying flips came back to him.  He remembered that somehow he fell out of the open window.  Then he looked down the slope and he saw the humvee at the bottom of yet another small cliff at the end of the slope.

Ji-hun tried to run to it but he soon realized that the best he could do was a limping walk.  As he made it to humvee, he silently cursed.  Both of his comrades had been thrown from the vehicle.  He looked in their direction and saw them lying face into the dirt.  He could tell by the way they lay there unmoving that they didn't survive the crash.

"You dropped something" said Samuel from behind him.  Ji-hun turned around to  see Samuel holding the package which was miraculously undamaged.  Ji-hun walked over to his window.  With a grunt Samuel hoisted it through the broken window. "You'll have to deliver this by yourself," Samuel said his face showing a mix of pain and regret.  Ji-hun looked down at where Samuel was holding his side and saw Ji-hun's own combat knife lodged between Samuel's ribs.  The knife had probably punctured a lung as well as caused internal bleeding.  Without immediate medical help from a professional he would die in a couple of hours.  

"We almost did it." Samuel muttered with his eyes closed in remorse.  Ji-hun said nothing.  They both knew that if he died, which unless a miracle happened he would, the UN army would probably kill Ji-hun before he explained who he was or what was in his package in fear that he was trying to infect them.  Even if he managed to convince them he wasn't infected they wouldn't take the files seriously and then many more people would die of the disease without the cure.  "I can't die.  I had to save the world" moaned Samuel.  Then a choked sob escaped from Samuel.  Ji-hun hung his head tears forming in his eyes as well. 

"We went so far and we lost so much and still that madman Kang-Dae  won" shouted Ji-hun as he punched the side of the useless vehicle. 

"No he will not win, not while Samuel Mires lives" Samuel replied a ghostly smile appearing on his bruised face.  Ji-hun looked at him in surprise. 

"You know you won't make it" Ji-hun countered solemnly, but Samuel continued like he didn't hear anything.

"Samuel Mires will reach that camp.  Samuel Mires will give them the cure that will save millions of lives and will be the downfall of Kang-Dae."  Ji-hun listened quietly now fearing that the crash had caused his friend to be delusional.   Then Samuel took his dog tags off from around his neck and handed them to Ji-hun while saying "And then Samuel Mires will tell the world of brave man named Ji-hun who gave his life to save him."

It took a moment for Ji-hun to grasp the enormity of Samuel's idea.  When he finally realized what Samuel had proposed, he was astonished by the genius of it.  Ji-hun tried to speak but the words were caught in his throat.  Then after a long second he took the dog tags and put them around his neck.  Ji-hun looked at Samuel with all the respect he could show.  He saluted him and then said "Alright Ji-hun tell me about myself."  Four hours later, with his all three friends buried, Samuel Mires walked away from the crash and towards the camp his new countrymen.

 

 

Epilogue

Three months later the world celebrated as pills that could cure the plague was distributed around the world.  Without the fear of infection the armies of the world crushed the army of Kang-Dae with complete ease, and Kang-Dae was tried and hanged for his crime.  For the next ten years people still caught the plague but the cure was distributed well and only a few died of it.  Samuel Mires was one of the few who died because ironically he had a deadly allergic reaction to the cure.  Before he died Samuel Mires sent a letter to his only living relative revealing everything that happened.  That letter contained this story.  With the letter Samuel Mires’ relative also received the dog tag of Samuel Mires.  The dog tag that saved the world.

 

 

Paper route

A boy full of eager joy grabbed his satchel and his bike
And he raced down the road "I will not stop rain nor sleet"
Thought he, with a toss and sling and a thunk and a splat
He delivered newspapers with apparent ease, not of course
Forgetting to greet the neighbors, "Hello Ms. Johnson, Mr. Wilson, Ms. Anderson,
Mr. Jackson, and Aunt Roberson." He continues on without pause riding
Down Dodger drive, the boy quickly avoids the fangs
Of a poodle that got loose from a woman crossing
The street, a block was left and he would soon be done but
At the last house he found a surprise-- he reached into the satchel and
Found no paper "It must fell out during my
Ride" thought the boy and away he sped past
The neighbors reading their papers and sipping the last
Of their lemonade past Dodger drive and up Lily lane the
Boy rode and till finally he saw in the jaws of the fluffy white poodle lying on a carpet of grass the paper lays the boy cautiously approached careful

Not to enrage the beast "Grrrr" growls the poodle showing white shiny teeth the

Boy thought quickly and reached into his pocket to retrieve a

Treat he kept for his pet and tossed it in the air with the

Dog distracted the boy grabbed the paper and rode

Away again passing neighbors getting into their

Cars, he rides to the last and comes to a stop handing

The paper to Mr. Carr as he enters his van

A nod of the head is the all thanks he receives from the man

Narrative

 

 

Race

His trial begins with a bang.

He becomes immersed in the mad massive motion that moves over the mowed grass

A rolling wave of runners surges down and up the hill

He exchanges positions deciding who passes him and who he allows to pass

Him.  The frenzied flock fly down the path and he avoids the flinging limbs of the crowd

His rushing legs rounds the bend in a few bounds

His arms move loosely now and he thinks of how'd

He will keep pace with his lanky adversary in red

On the snakes back he ran turning, twirling, twisting, and tweaking

His maroon colored rival matched his every step and continued on ahead

A hill arose to challenge him. Its steep grass slope slowed his advance

As the pounding heat smothers him he hears the crowd's noise as he runs the flat curve

With the trees giving him shade now and his legs begin to ache he gets a glance

Of the crimson rival leaving his sight

He use a down hill stretch to reinforce his pace

A twisting hill, its incline slight

Appears ahead, trees blocking the ends view

A turn soon reveals the depressing truth--a long climbing slope

His calves burns as he ascends the resolve sucking monster. He fights through

The urge to give up and tries not to think of the mile that's left and the pain it will bring

With a broken stride and broken spirit he reaches the summit drained of energy - with a

Third of the race left to go he continues the pace that he must cling

To. He passes the cheering mass trying to soak up all the strength he can from their Words. His internal struggle between pain and pride consumes his thoughts

His final turn reveals the finish, past the rolling hill and the road all his rewards

For his training and the work he has accomplished lies there

His blood clothed foe runs a few feet ahead

In the shadow of the enemy and the end in sight he leaves no effort to spare

The finish line draws near, cheers push him ahead of his foe

His jelly legs threaten to fail him

With a grunt and the last of his strength he crosses the line winning by a toe

 

Narrative poem