Their vision was of the green rolling hills, tall, bright and expansive. It reflects a land of paradise. The hills surrounded them when the five men gladly held in the valley below, watching. In this guarding, they tried to ease their mind with small words and weapons close at hand. Soon, the energy grew thick, sweat came, and their hands began to shake.
It was not only their hands that began to shake. The whole world to the East began to send constant vibrations of terror into the valley, into their legs, into their mind. One man glances to the sky toward three birds flying low and then to swarms of marching soldiers covering the hills.
From the birds view they saw soldiers from sea to sea. They must have flown with hope of following death. To them, this is life.
There is a drumbeat. A young man leads the soldiers, pounding drum, dust jumping with each crash.
The five men retreat to the near city. In this beautiful city of historic touch they run into an old elaborate church. They enter into a stampede of people running, trampeling, killing, up old and seemingly endless flights of stairs. They climb and climb and the stairs behind them collapse in shatter. People drop and their hope collapses with the falling ground.
Push, push, and climb to the top of the stairs where a large decorative stainless glass window shines light onto the horrified and confused faces of thousands. Everyone is working toward the wall where a torn paper is posted. Written on it seem to be names.
Four of the men make it to the wall, view the paper and soon leave the church and enter slowly, quietly, and afraid into the city street. The city is empty beside one homeless man covered by a concrete doorway with a ragged blanket covering his waist. They make eye contact with this man as a corner of paper blows along the street.
They look back and see the countless soldiers filling the street and marching quickly toward a young girl in a white dress holding a bouquet of red roses. She waits for the soldiers, unmoved. As they run in unison and reach her, no eyes are turned to her and no hand is placed upon her. The soldiers blow right past her, as she is wind, blowing along the street. Her dress and hair blow back and the flower petals are blown away.
The four men enter the subway system. One removed a posted paper, folds it and places it in his pocket. At the edge of the city they find a bridge and they leave town as the city is destroyed and emptied.
They enter into a new city and as they walk through the streets one man removed a paper from his pocket, looks, and lets it fall to the street. A tear falls from the sky and falls into one’s hand. One runs his finger along a brick wall as they walk and a deep crack follows his movement. An other homeless man watches this and then looks to the East and sees soldier marching into this beautiful city, leaving everything destroyed as they pass. He looks at the four, sheds a tear down his cheek, turns over and pulls a blanket over his whole being waiting to die.
Three men leave this second city and enter a third. They pass through the streets and see the old man, aged and frail, depressed and tired. One of the three men takes a newspaper from an abandoned stack. He reads the headlining story and lets the paper into the street to be blown away. A tear drops down the readers face.
The three sullen men look at each other, afraid. Then they look toward the soldiers marching down the street and pass by the littered newspaper. The soldiers come closer and the three do not run and do not move. As the soldiers pass through the three men, their clothes and hair blow in the wind and a source of light shoots into the sky, as the soldiers pass.
