[ WP ] A cave you found during the war has been haunting your dreams for decades .

The firefight had been brief, but intense. In many ways, Drexel looked forward to the intermittent battles with a mostly unseen enemy. It was cathartic in a twisted sense. When one wandered the jungles looking for a fight, you often built up fear and frustration in a toxic mixture that leaked into the mind, body, and soul. Only through a good fight could it be released. If one survived. Staring down at the body of Corporal Lewis, Drexel could only feel a sense of envy. Here was a man who no longer had anything to worry about. 
 
 “ We need to move, ” Carter said, his rifle swinging wildly between the shadows in the forest. 
 
 The desperation in his voice was palpable. Had he the time, he could ’ ve spread it on his biscuits for supper instead of the shitty rations the government provided. He cocked an ear to the sky, listening to the sounds of gunfire moving slowly to the east. Even if they sprinted, they ’ d never make it in time for the grand finale. It was yet another pity as he could already feel the steady drip of fear once more filling the cup within him, but that could wait. 
 
 There was another thing that caught his eye in the midst of battle. A sliver of darkness, nestled in the trees in a place even the enemy wouldn ’ t go, for here he could see none of the established foot trails or even a sign of the civilization that scratched itself out of the dust for a living. Even the Charlie ’ s seemed to prefer death in battle to whatever lay in wait here. That meant it was worth investigating, even if the Private didn ’ t agree. 
 
 “ This way, ” Drexel said. 
 
 “ You sure? ” Carter asked. 
 
 Drexel nodded and Carter obeyed. He could see the conflict on his face, playing out for anyone watching. The boy knew the battle was elsewhere and they were heading in the opposite direction, but rank and obedience had been seared into his soul. Better for him to listen to the Sergeant than to wander back into a battle he never wanted to fight. 
 
 “ Fuck it, ” Carter said, falling in behind him. 
 
 The darkness turned out to be a cave, just wide enough to emit a single man. For a moment, Drexel ’ s fear surged for he could sense something primal in this place. It wasn ’ t a trap set by man, but something more. Something hungry. He could feel it pulling at him and even the Private took a step backwards, his undeveloped senses telling him only that something was wrong. 
 
 “ I ’ m not going in there, ” Carter said. 
 
 Drexel shrugged and stepped into the darkness. It enveloped him like a warm blanket. As his eyes adjusted, he was surprised at the sharp pungent smell that assaulted his nostrils. He ’ d smelled it only once before in his life and that as a child on the East Coast during a summer vacation. It was the smell of the ocean where there should only be jungle and endless stretches of dying things. 
 
 The ground was soft where he walked and it took a moment to decipher its meaning; sand. Not just sand, but shells and the detritus of an untouched beach. Here and there were the skittering marks of crabs, but still something pulled at him. He ignored the misplaced environment and kept moving, his hand never straying far from his rifle. 
 
 He stopped short of the wall. Rather, it was the hull of a vessel obviously built for the ocean, embedded in a ton of rock. A small fissure in the wood gave at least some evidence of its reason for being here even if the rest of it was curiously absent. Curiously, the smell grew stronger the closer he came to the wood. He had been so engrossed with his inspection that he failed to notice the rats until the scattered at his feet. 
 
 “ Jesus, ” he staggered backwards and fell to his butt. It was a good enough perspective to watch what followed. 
 
 From the fissure, shot a speared tail which impaled the closest rat. The small creature shuddered once, its body vainly trying to leap free before dying. The tail pulled the rat towards the void in the hull while another creature shot outwards, scampering after the rodents who fled in the darkness. 
 
 He could only describe them as dragons in miniature. They hissed into the darkness of the cave when they caught his scent and disappeared back into the fissure in the wood. Drexel reacted instantly, going to his knees and diving for the nest. Every nerve in his body flared with danger, but he pushed it all to the side for a chance to see something new. 
 
 His eyes told him the space between the hull of the mysterious vessel and the rock wall were only a foot across, yet his arm disappeared into the void and kept going. When he reached his shoulder, he knew something was wrong. He grasped wildly for anything on the other side, finding only soft, sun-warmed sand. He pulled his arm back out, and thrust in his head. 
 
 He saw a beach on the ocean with crude wooden structures that he ’ d never seen in any history book before. A small fire burned bright near one of them and even in the moon in the sky looked strangely familiar. It was like seeing a reflection of a distant cousin, or a twin who wasn ’ t exactly the same. Every sense in his body burned as bright as the moon in the sky and he knew he ’ d never be the same again. With a little more room, he might ’ ve been able to squeeze his shoulders past, so he backed out and tore at the wood with both hands, resorting to his Ka-Bar when his hands stopped cooperating. 
 
 When the fissure was wide enough, he pushed back inside, but met only solid rock. Gone was the smell of the ocean, the miniature dragons, and any chance of escaping this hellish place. He dug at the place where there should ’ ve been more, but the rock and earth were unforgiving, replaced by the steady drip of fear within his soul. He pocketed a handful of the sand and left the cave feeling numb and dejected. 
 
 “ Jesus, Sarge, you look like shit, ” Carter said. “ What did you find in there? ” 
 
 “ Rats, ” Drexel said. He flipped the safety off on his rifle, patting the sand in his pocket. He ’ d spare some time to think more on it if he survived. “ Let ’ s go find the others. ” 

