When Johnny Comes Marching Home

Jacquimac

Part One

The Train pulled into the station and the Brass band started playing, the whole town had turned out to welcome home they're local hero who had won every high award and medal that could be awarded to a serviceman.
He had answered his country's call at the outbreak of w ar 6 years ago against all advice and had met with derision from his peers because of his small size ,but he went and fought, no one had heard from him during those 6 long years not even sent to his family, it was as if he had fallen of the face of the earth.
Enquiries had been made by various people and local politicians but still nothing could be found out about his whereabouts, every armed forces dept denied any knowledge of him.

The Train pulled to a halt and passengers disembarked ,no sign of him, the train was searched and drew a blank, where was he? They were told he would on the train and he wasn't. What was going on?
What had gone wrong? Where was he?

The Train had slowed down a few minutes earlier due to some sheep on the track during this time a figure unseen by anyone on the train climbed of and hid in the nearby trees until the train once again picked up speed.

They lonely figure shouldered his pack , picked up his crutches and made his way through the trees to the road .

A couple of hours later a truck driving along the road and saw a dishevelled figure lying at the side of the road and pulled over to see if he could help.
The driver couldn't help but notice the ragged uniform, the severe scaring on the hands and face or the crutches lying along side the body. The state of the soldier was almost enough to make him vomit, he checked that the soldier was still alive the ran back to his truck to get his dispatcher to get help sent to his location urgently then ran back to help the poor guy best he could.

It took 30 minutes for the police and an ambulance to show up a search of the mans pockets and pack failed to produce any form of ID, His possession were meagre at best ,A change of clothing, a little food, most of contents in the pack were small boxes that held in each on a medal.

The doctor that had arrived with the ambulance was checking the body and getting angrier each time he found a scar or injury. Christ this man should have been in a hospital not walking on crutches in the middle of nowhere.

The police officer asked the doctor about the condition of the patient as the paramedics lifted the broken body onto a stretcher. The Doctor lost his temper and rounded on the police officer about not being called sooner, after being assured that the police car had arrived only minutes before the ambulance the Doctor apologised.

“That bad ?” asked the policeman

“Officer, how that man is alive with his injuries is beyond belief and they aren't recent injuries hell some look to be months old” stated the doctor

The paramedics shouted they were ready to move and with the police car in front blue light and sirens screaming into the night they headed for the nearest hospital 20 miles distant