The Minefield

1.
My wife and daughter had stumbled into the abandoned minefield on the back hills. Panic ripped through our small town. The urgent, distorted voice of the town's emergency broadcast crackled to life, a desperate plea that echoed through the valley:
Jake Miller! You're the only one who can defuse those military-grade mines! Get to the back hills! Your daughter needs you!
My neighbors dragged me from a poker game, their hands rough on my arms as they shoved me toward the hills. Through the barbed wire fence, I could see my daughter, her face smeared with blood and tears.
"Dad, please, help us!" she screamed, her voice thin with terror. "You're the inly one who can do this..."
My face went pale. I grabbed my defusal kit and charged forward. The whole town thought I was rushing to save my family.
But I wasn't.
I veered off, crouching down, moving slowly toward a small white mouse trapped in the corner of the field, its leg caught in the tripwire of a mine.
"This kit," I muttered to myself, "can only be used once."
And I was choosing to save the mouse.
My daughter watched, her face crumbling in disbelief as I moved toward the animal. "Dad, are you crazy?" she shrieked. "What about me? I'm your daughter!"
Her voice was a raw, hysterical cry of despair. "You're saving a rodent instead of me?"
My wife, Sarah, stared at me, her face ashen. "Jake, I've been a good wife to you all these years. How could you abandon us now for a mouse?"
The townspeople watched, their faces a mixture of confusion and disapproval.
I ignored them all.
I gently freed the mouse, cupping it in my hands and brushing the dust from its white fur.
"Jake, now that you've saved the animal, are you coming to save us?" Sarah's voice was thick with unshed tears.
I looked over at her and shrugged. "Forgot to mention," I said, my voice casual, "the detector on this thing only works once."
Her eyes widened in horror. "Then what about me and Lily? What are we supposed to do?" Her voice escalated into a shrill scream. "Jake, I know you can build a new one! You know what these mines can do! You're the only one in this whole town who can save us!"
She was sobbing, her cries echoing in the tense silence. I just carefully set the mouse down and watched it scurry away, my gaze never once meeting theirs.
It wasn't until the villagers surrounded me, pushing and shoving, calling me heartless, that I finally turned around. I looked at the two weeping women and spat out, my voice dripping with annoyance, "You're not dead yet, are you? What's the rush? Trying to punch your ticket to the afterlife early?"
Lily collapsed to her knees. "Dad, I don't know what's wrong with you. You used to love me more than anything. Are you really not going to save me?" She bowed her head, her forehead hitting the dusty ground. "I know you were away in the army for most of my life, but I've always loved and respected you. Is this because I said I wanted to marry that boy from the next town over? I won't! I'll do whatever you want! Just please, save me and Mom!"
Sarah's voice was a hoarse whisper. "Jake, this is nothing for you. I've seen you assemble those kits. It takes you three minutes! Do you have a heart? Are you really going to watch your wife and daughter die?"
I had never seen her so broken, not in all our years of marriage.
I just sat down on the ground, yawned, and pulled a deck of cards from my pocket. "We didn't finish our game, Bill," I said to my neighbor. "I had a straight flush."
Bill's face paled. "Jake, that's your wife and child in there! How can you be like this?"
"They walked in there themselves," I said coldly, not even bothering to look at him. "It's their own damn fault. Am I supposed to take the blame for their stupidity?"
Sarah's eyes turned red. "Jake Miller! I thought we had a good marriage," she screamed, her voice trembling. "I can't believe you'd just leave us here to die!" She laughed, a bitter, broken sound. "Fine! I'll walk out myself. If I die, Lily can use my body as a bridge!"
"Good," I said without looking up. "Go ahead and die."
Sarah froze, her foot hovering in the air. She slowly pulled it back, her face a mask of terror.
Lily, in her panic, had fallen. Her face was a mess of dirt and blood. "Dad, if you don't clear a path, we're not getting out of here," she sobbed. "I'm your only daughter. Are you really just going to watch me die?"
One of our neighbors couldn't take it anymore. "Jake," he said, his voice pleading, "I've got some old supplies from my army days. I'll bring them to you. Just please, save Sarah and Lily."
I shot him a look that could freeze fire. "When did I say I was going to save them?"
Sarah's tears flowed freely. They were both injured from an earlier blast when they had tried to retreat, and now they were too scared to move. Sarah's right hand was gone, a bloody stump wrapped in a makeshift bandage. She pointed at me with her mangled arm, her voice choked with tears. "Jake, how can you be so cruel?"
Lily's voice joined hers, a chorus of accusation. "Dad, I've always been a good daughter to you! You could save us, but you used your only chance on an animal! Now Mr. Johnson is offering you more supplies and you won't even lift a finger! Are you even human?"
"I'm the only one with the skills," I said, my voice flat and bored. "I save who I want to save. Besides, what were you two doing in the minefield in the first place? You make a stupid mistake and now you expect me to risk my life to clean up your mess? You're grown women. It's time you learned to take responsibility for your own lives. Begging me won't do you any good."
"Jake," Sarah's voice trembled, "even if you won't save me, Lily is your own flesh and blood! How can you watch her die?"
I laughed, a cold, empty sound. "You're the one who led her in there. You didn't seem to care much about her life then. Don't you dare talk to me about 'family.' My life is valuable. I'm not wasting it on you two."
I threw my cards on the ground in frustration. "Bill, I had a winning hand. You're not trying to get out of paying me, are you? How about another round?"
The villagers stared at me, their faces turning from shock to fury. One of the younger men stepped forward. "Jake Miller, we used to respect you. We called you 'chief' because we thought you were a decent man. But you won't even save your own family. You're not a man at all. We know you were a demolitions expert in the army. This is nothing to you. We've got the supplies. Why won't you help them? Is your heart made of stone?"
Before I could answer, a couple of them lunged at me, pushing me to the ground.
I didn't even flinch. I just slowly got to my feet, brushing the dust off my clothes with a contemptuous smile. "So, Bill, are we playing or not? If not, you at least owe me for the gas I spent getting here."
"Jake," Sarah's voice was raw, "why do you hate me so much? Whatever it is, we can sort it out later. Please, just save us!"
I glanced at her, my voice dripping with scorn. "Weren't you going to make a path for Lily with your dead body? Get to it."
I picked up my cards and dealt myself a new hand. A royal flush. I smiled.
Lily stared at me, her face a mask of utter despair. She fell to her knees and began to beg, her forehead hitting the ground again and again. "Dad, please! I'll be your slave for the rest of my life! I'll never get married, I'll take care of you forever! Just save us!"
Her leg was a bloody mess, blood pooling around her torn jeans. But still, she knelt, her back straight, her eyes pleading.
The sight of them, covered in blood, was horrific. Some of the villagers were crying, their hands over their mouths.
"Jake Miller, are you a monster?" someone finally roared. "That's your wife! Your daughter!"
The shouting was getting on my nerves. I pushed through the crowd and yelled at Bill, "Alright, go get your damn kit!"
A wave of relief washed over the crowd. "See?" someone said, "I knew he couldn't be that heartless. Sarah and Lily must have done something to really piss him off. He was just teaching them a lesson."
Bill scrambled to bring me the supplies. I took the kit and looked at it. "This is the last one?"
He nodded gravely. "The last one. You've only got one shot."
I nodded back and quickly assembled the new detector. Sarah and Lily watched, their faces filled with a desperate, fragile hope.
I smiled at them, my voice light, as if the past hour had never happened. "Scared you, didn't I? I just wanted to remind you not to come back here again."
Lily nodded vigorously. Sarah's eyes were red. "Jake, I knew you wouldn't leave us..."
The next second, I walked to the edge of the cliff overlooking the ravine and, without a moment's hesitation, threw the newly assembled kit over the edge.
It shattered on the rocks below.
Everyone froze.
That was the last kit. Without it, Sarah and Lily were dead.
The crowd erupted.
"Jake Miller! You're not a man, you're a monster! You don't deserve to be our town chief!"
"You're a cold-blooded bastard!"
"I'm writing a letter to the county! I'm getting you removed from office!"
I just stood there, facing their fury, and grinned. "Don't forget," I said, my voice calm and steady, "every single one of your businesses, your livelihoods... I brought that to this town. You want me gone? Fine. But don't come crying to me when you're starving."
Silence. They stared at me, their faces white with rage, but no one dared to say another word.
Lily was losing a lot of blood. Her face was pale, her lips blue. She was fading. But with her last bit of strength, she screamed at me, "You don't deserve to be my father! Even an animal protects its young! You're a murderer!"
She tried to stumble toward me, forgetting where she was.
A deafening blast ripped through the air.
Dust and smoke billowed up, and with it, a spray of red.
"LILY!" Sarah's scream was a sound of pure agony.
When the smoke cleared, all that was left of Lily was her lower body. Her eyes were still open, staring at me with a look of pure, undiluted hatred.
Sarah, covered in her daughter's blood, crawled toward the remains. "Jake Miller," she shrieked, "you killed your own daughter!"
I just stood there and slowly, calmly, lit a cigarette.
Sarah collapsed, a pool of blood spreading out from under her.
The villagers finally lost it.
"You're worse than an animal, Miller!"
"There's a special place in hell for you!"
Forgetting about their livelihoods, they began to draft a petition to have me arrested.
That night, the county government took notice. A special investigation team was dispatched to our town.
"Good," I thought, taking a long drag from my cigarette. "Things are finally getting interesting. Now the truth can come out."
It took two days for the rescue team to get my wife out of the minefield. My daughter was long gone, just a charred pile of remains.
As they carried Sarah out on a stretcher, she looked at me with eyes full of venom. "It was you, Jake," she hissed. "You refused to save our daughter. You destroyed our only hope. If it wasn't for you, Lily would still be alive."
I shrugged. "What's it got to do with me? You're the one who took her in there. You killed her, not me."
Sarah gasped, clutching her chest, and passed out.
The lead investigator stepped forward. "Mr. Miller," he said, his voice cold, "we've received numerous complaints against you. We're here to investigate whether you intentionally harmed your family and refused to provide aid. Our background check shows that Sarah and Lily Miller have been nothing but a devoted wife and daughter. Everyone speaks very highly of them. They were always respectful and caring toward you. We want to know why you stood by and did nothing when you had the power to save them. You saved a mouse, but not your own family. Was it because your daughter wanted to marry someone you didn't approve of? Is that why you wanted her dead?"
I blew a smoke ring in his face. "This is a family matter. Are you really going to interfere?"
A woman from the village pushed through the crowd. "He's a heartless bastard!" she screamed, pointing at me. "Lily was such a good girl! She was the best kid in this whole county! Every time her teacher gave out treats, she'd save them for him! And he just let her die!"
Sarah opened her eyes, her voice a trembling whisper. "I don't know what happened to him. I don't want anything from him anymore. I just want a divorce. I'm taking the TV, the refrigerator, everything. I'm not leaving you a damn thing."
I looked at her and smiled, a cold, cruel smile. "What makes you think any of that is yours? A divorce? You think you have any say in the matter?" I leaned in close, my voice a low whisper. "Is that your picture on our marriage certificate, Sarah?"
Her eyes flew open, her face draining of all color. She stared at me, her eyes wide with terror.
I just smiled. "It's finally over."
I gestured toward the hospital entrance. Two figures, dressed in rags, were standing there.
Sarah saw them, and a tremor ran through her body. Her pupils dilated, her mouth fell open.

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