The Only

I wake up screaming. Alarms are going off.

I’m shivering, nearly naked, on a steel table.

Needles protrude from my arms.  I pluck them out.

But when I try to sit, I scream again.

Pain rips through my chest beneath a bloody bandage. I can hardly breathe.

Two men in ash colored camo rush in.

They shut off machines, reinsert needles.

I try to fight them back, but pain still echoes through me.

I gasp like I am drowning.

I can hardly form the words.

“Where’s my brother?”

They look at each other.

“I’m sorry, you are the only survivor.”