The Age of Zombies: Sergeant Jones by B. Rockow

the iceberg. It gets deeper.”
    “Creepy,” Pete said. “I always thought Afghanistan was a weird place.”
    “A really weird place,” Jones said. “It’s the devil’s land. You feel close to heaven there, and conversely, hell.” Jones wiped his eyes. They were starting to tear up, but he held the waterworks at bay. “Man, so this is where the mission starts getting really weird.”
    Pete hunched forward. He was at the edge of his seat. Penny forgot what she was doing once again and devoted her full attention to Jones and his story. “Go on,” they both said.
    “So Roddy and I walk around to the boulder. He finds this secret tunnel, and we crawl through this trap door. Deep beneath this boulder the tunnel’s pitch black. We make our way to the end, treading careful, and you won’t believe what I found.” Jones took another swig. “Let’s just say that life ended there. Nothing shall pass, don’t pass go, don’t collect your two hundred dollars. The shade of death, or something even worse than that.”
    The Sergeant’s arms rippled with gooseflesh. He was wearing a short sleeve black Dickie’s button up shirt. Penny reached across the bar and caressed his arms to calm him. “If you want to stop here,” Penny said. “I’d understand.”
    “Yeah man,” Pete said. “You’re as badass as they come. I can tell. But if you want to stop man, I wouldn’t be mad at you.”
    Jones clenched his fist. “I find a pile of bones,” he continued. “There must have been two, three hundred skulls, femurs, hips. I can’t turn around. I have to see more. I realize right then, and I’m just realizing it now, that once I saw what was further down this tunnel, I could never go back up to the light and be the same again. My path would forever be down, down, down into the depths of ugly. Stacked neatly next to the tower of bones are uniforms of United States soldiers. Some were fresh kills.”
    By this time Penny had poured three shots for herself, Pete, and Jones. She handed the two guys theirs, and threw back hers. They followed suit.
    “You took that step,” Pete said. “Man, you took a step that you can’t take back.”
    Jones hung his head. “You’re exactly right, my friend,” he said. “You’ve got it.”
    Just then the Sergeant’s cell phone started to buzz. He slipped his iPhone from his pocket and looked at the screen. It lit up bright with the one name he wished would disappear. Vanessa. “I’ll be back in a minute,” Jones said. “It’s a private call.”
    Jones excused himself from the conversation and stepped outside. He paced down the sidewalk about a half a block before answering. A couple bums asked him for cigarettes. Jones ignored them, and found a park bench to sit on. “Yeah,” was the only word he said.
    “Yeah,” Vanessa said. “Yeah. Yeah. Where are you? Drinking again. Yeah. Yeah. You don’t even have to answer that. Just yeah.”
    Jones bit the end of his thumb. “Yeah, I’m drinking.”
    “Down at The Small Tavern. You just had to get your Penny fix, didn’t you. Yeah. Yeah.”
    Jones sped up his pace. “Oh, shit Vanessa,” he said. “You have some big balls calling me and accusing me of anything.”  
    “Yeah, so tell me what she’s wearing. I bet it’s sexy. Her tight little ass must look great tonight.”
    “You sound ridiculous,” Jones said. “I just needed to relax. Have a drink or two.”
    Vanessa sobbed. She had been holding in so much over the last eight years. Everything had been great on the surface. She loved Jones. She would die for her husband. But along with her devotion, a current of resentment flowed. “I just can’t do it anymore,” she stuttered between sobs. “You being gone all the time. Signing up for every tour.” She was on the verge of breaking down. “You don’t know what it’s like, William. Thinking that at any moment, I could get the call.”
    Jones knew it was hard on Vanessa. But she crossed the line in her