Short Story

lastmountainman

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Joined
Feb 7, 2012
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Western Misosuri
I started writing these short stories about my childhood and everyone keeps telling me to send them to a magazine to see if they would publish them. I am only posting one story because as you all know once it’s on the internet you can never get it back. I know there are a few grammar mistakes, but this is just one of my rough drafts. I'm just testing it out on some hunters to see what you all think and if I should send any to a magazine. If anyone works for a magazine, let me know if you like this one and I can PM you about sending in my other stories. Hope you all like it.


The Battle of the Little Big Railroad Tie

It was one of those summer days that you cherish as a child; you know the ones I’m talking about. In those days as a young man, I looked forward to spending time with my brother and his friends. During this certain summer, we had decided to patrol our little area in the river bottoms and railroad tracks from the evil enemies of the land. These included the Rabid Squirrel, the Asian Ninja Carp and the Sneaky Skunk who would use chemical warfare on his victims.

On this particular day, we set out from our house to do the daily patrol, expecting the normal routine. Josh, Craig and I were armed to the teeth with our .22 rifles and enough ammo and food for the entire Prussian army of 1814.

We were such a motley looking crew, people mistook us for outlaws. Women and children ran for their houses and men steered clear of us.

After walking the 36 miles of our patrol zone, which included a 4 night trek that encompassed three square counties, we started walking (crawling) back home. As we walked on the railroad tracks that ran behind our house we came to the area where the water cress grew. As I was in front leading the patrol, my eyes were scanning for any enemy ambush that lay in waiting near the water cress. As I had my head up I was unable to see the 12 foot rattlesnake that was coiled waiting for use on the railroad tracks.

When I did finally see the snake it was too late. I was going to have to play this one nice and easy.

At that moment I had a cold sweat form, but I did not want the rattlesnake to know that I saw it. I pretended to ignore the assailant until I had taken one step past it, then I would spin around and attack it from his rear.

The moment I stepped past the rattlesnake I spun like in my plan, unbeknownst to me that Josh was right behind me. At that exact millisecond, Josh stepped on the huge snake and sprung into the air without even bending his legs. He seemed to hover about 8 feet in the air, pleading for us to not leave him behind for the enemy to capture.

In the next 1.3 seconds the world seemed to stop. I was busy calling in an air strike from some circling B-52 bombers and laying down some covering fire. Craig was busy himself, organizing 3 battalions of the Missouri National Guard and also spraying out fire from his rifle.

A cloud of dust seemed to form around the huge snake from all the fire it was receiving. Every now and then a small piece of the snake would fly out of the dust cloud. After my rifle ran dry, I knew I would have to resort to hand to hand combat. I started swing my rifle like a club and drew my combat knife. I just knew in my mind we were about to get over run and these were my last few seconds on this earth.

That’s when the miracle happened. The dust cloud blew away and I saw the three last pieces of the snake, all about an inch long. At that moment I realized we had won this hard fought battle. Looking at the pieces of the snake, we realized that it was not a rattlesnake, by a prairie snake acting like a rattlesnake.

Just to make sure we had won and the snake was not playing possum, Craig and I laid the three pieces onto the railroad track for the next train to take care of.

I was completely worn out from this heavy fighting and started making my way home. Then I realized that I could not find Josh. I walked back to the scene of the battle and looked up at Josh and asked him if he wanted me to get a ladder for him. Josh, still hovering 8 feet off the ground, said “Do you think it’s safe to come down now”. To this day, every time Josh sees a snake he gets that panicked look in his eyes, his knees straighten up and he starts to hover.

In the end that was how the Battle of the Little Big Railroad Tie ended. After that day, we stopped patrolling the river bottoms and railroad tracks.
 
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