Nightmare

[billroper]

I had a nightmare last night.

I read comics. I have for a long time, mostly of the super-hero variety. And, every once in a while, I have one of the super-hero dreams.

This was a nightmare. I was fighting with a group of about twenty heroes, similar to the Legion of Super-Heroes, but not them in particular, although I do remember Karate Kid as being there. We were fighting a single bad guy of the Kid Miracleman class. (Thanos-plus class for Marvel fans, Mordru-class or better for DCU fans.) The devastation was incredible. Teammates were dropping left and right, injured and possibly dead.

Finally, the enemy went down. I was the last man standing. I didn't have much left myself, maybe enough for one more blast. But he was down and maybe dead.

And he got up. I fired my last blast at him and he staggered, but didn't go down.

"Too late, kid," he laughed. "I'm a quick healer."

I stared at him, out of power and out of weapons.

"I'm gonna do you a favor, kid, cause I like you. I'll be back in an hour and I'll be back at full strength. And then everything east of Harlem Avenue is going down, got it? So you just be west of Harlem and you'll be fine. I'll be seeing you later -- or not."

And he vanished.

People, ordinary people, started coming out of the wreckage and congratulating me on having beaten the bad guy.

"No!" I tried to explain. "You don't understand. He's coming back and we're all going to die! We have to get out of here!"

But they weren't listening.

And then I woke up.

And I flashed on the Marine in Fallujah who had shot the wounded terrorist who was playing possum.

And I didn't go back to sleep for a very long time.

Comments

[billroper]

I understand from some -- possibly inaccurate -- source that I've read that this group of Marines had encountered an insurgent in a similar position the day before. That insurgent had a hidden grenade and took at least one Marine with him. (But I don't have the citation in front of me and am unwilling to vouch for the truth of my memory without being able to check it again.)

I'd say that the Marines probably couldn't have known whether he had a weapon or not, but did believe that the wounded man was attempting to deceive them as opposed to trying to surrender to them.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

To be honest? And just between you and me, of course. In a court, you would definitely try to argue (assuming that your argument that the building had not been secured, therefore the deceased was not a prisoner at the time and thus not covered under the Geneva Convention had failed) that you believed the guy was a threat. But confidentially?

I wouldn't even go so far as to say that they believed it. As long as I believed there was a possibility that the guy was faking it - and I'm reminded of kids with grenades in Vietnam, and knowing that this is a culture that has no problem with suicide bombing, I'd just make sure.

If he had been properly restrained, it'd be a different story.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

The cnn article mentions a Marine being killed by a booby trapped body. Dunno if that's the incident being thought of or not.