Jap Juice Chapter 11

Chapter 11
The Ending


    The snow was coming down hard when I left the hospital.  The radio weatherman had said that storm totals were to exceed 12 inches and winds were to top 35 miles per hour.  I could hardly see the road and I crept along at speeds my Grandmother would have called slow.  I was in a daze and trying to make sense of the things that had just transpired.  I don't remember how I ended up there but soon I was pulling into the drive that used to be my grandparents.  The buildings were being torn down and the property was being turned into a subdivision. 
   Through the blinding snow I could make out the excavators and the bulldozers lined up like soldiers.  Waiting for Monday and the chance to finish their demolition.  As I pulled up to the wire which was strung across the drive I killed the engine.  The snow was even more intense then before and I could barely make out the outline of the barn roof through it.  I knew what I had to do.  My mind screamed at me to get in the Jeep and just drive away and forget.  Forget like I had for so many years already.  But I knew deep inside me that those memories would haunt me till the day I died.  How many nights did I want to wake up screaming because I had just seen a creature wrap it's hand around Jack's face and drag him through a hole the size of a basketball.  I had read the journal while in the hospital and I was begining to understand the whole thing.
   As I walked through the blowing and drifting snow towards the barn I could envision the barrels falling from the planes as they flew over the hill top.  Upon impact the barrels burst and Hell was unleashed.  They had found a way to use pure evil against their enemies.  The screaming they had heard and the way the bodies were strewn about.  I knew that is what had happened.  A nightmare unleashed in an already nightmarish landscape.  Only a handful of Marines had the courage to stand up to what is truly right and hide the remaining barrels.  Until now that is.  Until Jack.  Now I had to end it forever.
   I entered the bottom of the barn and stood in the middle of the now empty floor.  The old dirt was gone replaced by concrete.  Now I finally knew why.  After a minute had passed I could feel a vibration in the floor.  As it increased I could hear the whup whup of the propeller shaft again, like so many years before.  It was calling me.  I wanted to run but I couldn't.  I was Jack now and I had to reap.  I zeroed in on the humming.  Strange enough it was coming from the same area my Father had buried that woodchuck long ago.  In my hands I clutched a sledge hammer.  A worker had left it propped against the dozer in a hurry to leave for the weekend I presumed.  More then likeley it was fate that had left it there for me to find.
I raised it high above my head and slammed it into the concrete.  A dull thud sounded and concrete chips flew into my face.  Again and again I smashed the hammer into the concrete.  The more I smashed the louder the humming became.
     I wiped the sweat from my face and pulled the last piece of concrete out of the way.  It had taken over an hour to break through the concrete and I was drained.  I dropped to my knees and wiped the dirt away revealing a cold hard steel surface.  The third barrel.  The one that held what was left of Jack's soul.  I knew he was trapped in there.  I had to let him out.  I had to let them all out.  I would die but they would as well. 
As I swung the hammer one last time I whispered to grandad.  I promise.