Heat Ray

Iraq, 2034

Coolness on their backs mocked the two Marine officers. They both were strapped loosely to metal racks that felt chilly despite the air that felt like breath everywhere else. The heat from the device known as the Active Denial System (ADS) felt like their black feet had been dipped in lava. ADS had been converted into a handheld means of delivering what has been said to feel like being grilled in a hot cooking pan. Their uniforms remained crumpled in the corner with their rank insignia stripped from them. The pain remained intense but left no marks or permanent damage to their skin. No internal ferocity resulted from the direction that the ISIS insurgents used against them. Lieutenant Dexter Foster’s face appeared as if it would shred to ribbons. Captain Ballard “Ballin’” Houseman felt the powerful heat next. He grimaced. The insurgent ceased his attempt at torture. Laughter bubbled up in the Marines’ throats when the experience ended. The insurgents ran away not knowing that the ADS had no lasting effect on them. The laughs sounded whole, clear, true. They looked at their shoddy restraints. Eyes became means of directions to show the way to break free from their captives.

In a brief moment, the insurgents walked away with the device. The wind kicked up the sand and it flew in their direction. It gritted between their teeth. The tan landscape appeared as a sandy apparition attempting to spook. The compound where they stayed offered only rancid water and stale bread. They hadn’t touched either and had lost twenty pounds each in the process. They had decided to liberate themselves. The heat remained temporary and their laughter prompted the insurgents to train the device on their feet again. Like a ticking clock in their brains, they had timed perfectly when the ISIS members returned, they had loosened their restraints and hopped out of the cold metal racks of the run-down property.

Ballard retrieved the device and aimed it right at the faces of the opposition. With speed and agility, they both moved in a manner of excellence. Each step drew them closer to a comm center. The slight pain in their feet did not hinder them but propelled them to reclaim the comm center. But their absence from the racks alerted other insurgents. With the device in their hands, they flashed it towards two of them and they crumpled to the ground like balled up paper and begged the Marines to cease their onslaught. Small rivulets of tears burst from their eyes as the insurgents bowed in a praying position.

The captain and the lieutenant both aimed the device at them and they obeyed each command.

Ballard kept the four insurgents under control with the blistering heat. Foster checked the comms and summoned a helicopter to land at the compound. The lieutenant ran to the captain who held the ADS. When the insurgents tried to go away, Foster used zip ties as they stood like stumps of trees, low and utterly cut down to the earth.

Finally the sound of the chopper cut through the air. The metallic bird looked like a crow piercing the blue sky. Blades chopped and kicked up dust. The four insurgents got to their feet and the two officers led them to the rear of the helicopter. Equipped with a larger version of the ADS, the Marines affixed it on the outside and kept the handheld devices trained on them. The ADS on the copter kept any of the other insurgents at bay.

With power and strength, the Marines all ensured that the insurgents didn’t leap to their death from the helicopter. Lieutenant Foster and Captain Ballard both gained a sense of knowing that they had escaped something that could have been a combination of simulated torture. The two men met up with the pilots of the helicopter and looked forward to their homes in America.