Elkas

I said I will do this, a couple days ago, and I will try.
I'll start with a man, that I think about a lot lately. He enters my dreams often, in a way reminding me of the past. Making it impossible to forget.
I have not seen him in years, and dont realy know where he could be. Last I heard, he was in Ukrain, working as a bodyguard for some rich ass. I doubt that he is still alive.

Elkas was born in Bosnia, I think in 1970. Just a normal boy from a normal Bosnian family, living a restricted life in the SFRJ. All I know about him before the war, is that he in some point of his life, came to Slovenia, to work.
By this time, he has grown in to a 6'5(198cm), and a 110 kg heavy man. Quite handsome, as far as I can comment that, without being accused of anything.
I think his life was just fine, till the war started.
He left Slovenia in 1993, to join the war in his home land. Half of his family was slaughtered by than, but he only found out about it when he arrived( he found pieces of his sisters in the corn field).
He joined the 5. Korpus, a brigade located around Bužim, near the Croatian/Bosnian border. He was quickly transfered to a small unit, a platoon lead by the man, later called " the Bosnian Arcan", but I'll write about him some other time. This was a platoon, put together for the soul purpose of killing anything alive they should find.
For those of you, who do not know what exactly was going on in Bosnia at that time, I will provide some info. The Bosnians, were defending themselfs from the Serbs on one side, and the Croatians on the other. And at some point even the Bosnians split in to two partys, fighting with eachother. The fights were bloody, and there was a policy of not taking prisoners. Once brothers were now mortal enemys.
Now, what made Elkas great, and this affected me strongly, was what happened one autumn day in 1995.
The platoon was fighting enemy units, somewhere between Bužim and Kladuša. The fights were going on for days, leaving the survivors tired to the point of death.
Elkas was in the first line of fire, and was forced to enter a bunker, where another man from the platoon was allready located, shooting fiercely at the enemy. Each of them occupied a different opening, and they continued to fire.
At that point, the enemy units located the bunker, opening fire at them, using mortars. Before thay could escape the trap, a missile flew in throu the opening, and passed Elkas about 30 cm(1 foot) away from him, hitting the back of the bunker.
Now, a rocket flying, creates enormous heat. And flying so close to Elkas, it burned out half of his abdominum, at the same time preventing bleeding, as the burning sealed the wound. It was like 1/10 of his body was instantly missing.
As the missile hit the bunker, it blew the other mans legs of. He was lain there, no legs, bleeding to death.
Elkas, missing a large part of his body, grabed the man, and carried him almost half a mile back, to where he could get help. As he made it, Elkas fell in to coma, to be awaken almost one year later.
The only reason Elkas survived was, his father bringing enough money to the doctor, so he didnt just cover him with a sheet(as it was custom during this war).

What Elkas did, left a mark on many. Made me think about who we are, and what we can do. He played his part well.
What we do today, echoes in eternity. He will live forever.