My Gun

The Gun fires and the breech opens. My crew mate, Jim, throws the old powder casing out. I lift the projectile from the hoist and place it on the loading tray for the gun. Bill, well he loads a powder case onto it behind my projectile. I pull the lever and the projectile is rammed into the gun and the breach closes. Few seconds later, it fires. Maybe we're firing at aircraft, the gun is aimed up and our turret is rotating. Maybe we're firing at a cruiser, and have to aim high to arch the shells up to hit it. Maybe we're right along side some Jap battleship, punching holes in her side to sink her.

Hell if I know. The breech opens and the spent case is removed. I can't hear anything except the thud of guns. I load the projectile, the Mount Captain, an old hard ass sergeant named Gregory is shouting something, not that I can hear him so I assume it ain't towards me. I pull my lever and my wait for the gun to fire. I feel the ship tilt, must be pulling a hard Starboard and I wonder what we dodged, shells? Torpedoes? Mermaids? Funny thinking like that, but all I've seen of this war is the inside of this gun turret.

The gun fires, and we begin our motions again, Greg shouting and the rest of us doing our jobs as we've drilled time and time again, the gun fires and we reload, the gun fires and we reload, the room fills with smoke and we still reload, the ship turns and we reload. We could be firing at Tokyo, Berlin, or Boston for all I know, but we do our jobs like a machine, we load and fire, load and fire.

Mermaids, I wonder if Sally would mind if I flirted with one? The gun fires and I go through my motions as my mind wanders. Sitting on a beach in the surf, a glass of cool mint tea and a mermaid next to me, one of them Islands we helped the Marines on looked like a nice place, well except the Japs trying to light up the landing craft on the beach.

“MARK! LOAD FASTER DAMN IT!”

I got a little lost there, a couple seconds slow to pull the lever that loads the gun. The thought of that cool tea, or anything cool to combat this heat. The door's shut, not it's not just smoke that stings the eyes but sweat too. The gun fires again and dutifully load my gun, as the breach closes I start to think about that tea, or ice cream, I recon they could make manure flavored ice cream and it would still be heaven right now. The Gun fires again, but as Jim opens the breach the ship suddenly lurches to Port and he loses balance.

“GET ON YOUR FEET DAMN IT!”

I don't think Greg has ever ended a sentence without adding 'damn it' to the end, I wonder if he talks to his sweetheart like it? I wonder as Jim yanks the spent case out of the way for me and Bill to put ours in place.

“HURRY DAMN IT!”

He screams again, as if he can make the hydraulic ram move faster if he just screams at it. Just as the breach closes however, the ship lurches again, this time to Starboard and I only barely stay standing as the whole ship moves below me. So much for hurrying, we can't fire at this angle. Then I hear a loud “THUD!” And the ship shudders, but it didn't sound like it hit us.

I saw Greg say something, his lips moved but couldn't hear his words, given his expression I figure we're mighty close to being hit. The Gun fires, and I get ready to load. A new shell in and I pull my lever, I wonder what would happen if we sank and I couldn't get out of the turret? Would I sink to the bottom like a little submarine? No, I can't think like that. The gun fires and I prepare to load again. Maybe a Mermaid would save me, yeah. Not that I've seen one but then again, I've never actually seen a Japanese plane or ship either since I'm always in this gun turret, but I know they exist.

The Gun fires, and I hear a loud clacking sound, like being inside a tree as a woodpecker hits it, sparks shoot out from the roof and I cover my head before hearing a thud from the other side of the ship. I recon someone just crashed.

“LOAD DAMN IT!”

Greg shouts, whether he's sweating from the heat or that we've just been shot at I don't know, but I don't have time to wonder just yet, I load my shell and the breach closes, but before it can fire the ship swerves again, this time however it feels different, and a moment later I hear a loud explosion and ship violently shudders.

Greg shouts something as I stand up, his eyes darting about as he screams inaudibly into his phone. The Gun remains silent for a moment before Greg looks over at us and switches something next to him.

“GET READY TO LOAD DAMN IT!” He shouts, looking down his scope and manually aiming the gun. Something must be wrong with the Fire Control on the Bridge, not good.

The Gun fires and I lift another shell from the elevator and load it into the gun. It fires, and I grab another shell, something doesn't feel right. In the pit of my stomach I can feel something wrong as I load the shell. The gun Fires and I turn to the shell elevator, but there's nothing there, no new shell.

“WHY AREN'T YOU LOADING DAMN IT!”

“POWDER ROOM AIN'T SENT ANYTHING UP!”

Greg glanced down at the hatch leading to the lower rooms. “MARK OPEN THE HATCH AND HAVE A LOOK DAMN IT!” He screamed, his voice getting louder and more panicked.

I ran over and was nearly scared half to death when I opened the hatch and was face to face with one of the crew on the ladder climbing up.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING DAMN IT?” Greg shouted as the man climbed out, his pants dripping with water.

“ROOM IS FLOODING SIR!” He shouted back as I looked down and realized the shaft down to the powder room was filling with water at the bottom.

Greg glanced at me, and I nodded. For a moment he hesitated before looking at the crew. “GET OUT OF THE TURRET DAMN IT!” He shouted, and we dashed for the hatches. My gun, my home in every battle since I joined this war, and I was out of her in a heartbeat.

The deck was chaos, I could see the bridge as I climbed into the blinding sun, a big hole torn into it and thick black smoke pouring out of every door. The water was coming up fast, we were in the turret closer to the bridge and higher up, and on the deck below with the fore turret waves were already pouring onto the deck.

“GET YOUR VESTS ON AND ABANDON SHIP DAMN IT!” Greg shouted, and I followed his instructions, but I hesitated on jumping, there, one of them Jap planes, flying overhead with a big red dot on its wing, that was the enemy, I finally could see who we were fighting. I took a moment to look as it passed overhead and towards some other ship, before looking down at the water, it was coming towards me quite quickly and I didn't have a chance to jump, the ship just vanished beneath me and I was left floating in the ocean.