Part VII: War! Year 1

Part VII: War!

Year 1

2007

F**k. F**k. F**k. How did I end up here? Immediately following basic training, me and the unit were deployed. F**k. We’ve been out here for almost a year and we’ve already lost people. Johan and Leo are still around though, thank God. Killing my first enemy was f*****g nuts. We were under fire and I saw him coming. I hesitated for a little bit, cause I started thinking about how he’s a regular guy like me doing his job. But his job is killing me, and I’m not going to end up dead out in a place I didn’t want to go in the first place, so I shot him dead. I got to cover as soon as I could, and waited for the cease fire call. I was only here a month when that happened, I’ve since gotten my balls back and decided I have to kill my enemy, no matter who they are. We’re just hanging out right now though, we haven’t had any action in awhile. I hear we might have a black president, imagine how weird that would be.
“So guys, anyone hear from home lately?” I ask.
“Ja, my papa ams donates money to veterans services in honors of us.” Johan said.
“Get the f**k out.”
“Ja, he ams prouds of us, he ams says we will make country proud.”
“Awesome, anyone else?” Nobody.
“It’s been so long since we did anything.” Sean, one of my comrades said.
“Calm down, Lutzy, they wouldn’t keep us here if they didn’t need us here.”
“Maybe they forgot about us.” Leo said.
“I doubt it, come on, we gotta stay in high spirits here, we’re out in the middle of nowhere, but everyone at home is counting on us.”
“Look at you being Mr. ‘Murca. What’s gotten into you?”
“Johan was right, he was right the whole time, we’re out here putting our lives on the line so everyone else at home can stay safe.”
“That ams what I ams talking about!” Johan says as he high fives me.
“I’m here to kick a*s and take names, I intend to go home alive.”
“It does not matter to me, as long as I serve my country proud, I can say that I did my best, and I have no regrets.”
“That’s beautiful, Johan.”
“I think you’re both f*****g nuts.” Leo says. “I’m only here to kill some sand n*****s.”
“Haha, right on, my Aryan brother, f**k those sand n*****s!” Jon, another one of my comrades, says. That guy is such a racist dick. Leo is just full of hate in general, Jon is just racist for the sake of being racist, he’s even one of those douchebags that has the Confederate flag and a Swastika tattooed on him.
“Hey Jon, what do you think of the possibility of a black president?” I ask.
“I hope that n****r gets assassinated at the front gate during his inauguration ceremony if he’s elected.”
“If you die in battle, I hope your wife ends up with a black or Mexican.”
“F**k you, spacker.”
“Do I really need to reprimand you two?” My CO, Kait says.
“No, sir.” We say. It’s still weird for me to have a woman in charge of me and to call a woman sir, but the military’s weird I guess. Welcome to the 21st century.
“Alright, pack up, we’re being relocated.” So, we do just that and start heading off through the desert. “I need someone up front to sweep for any mines that might be buried in the sand. All of this nothing provides the perfect cover for anything. Jose, get out there.” Jose does as he’s told and starts sweeping. We hear gunfire, but unable to pinpoint from where. We look around, looking for the direction of the dust. Francios, our head sniper, climbs the nearest building and starts scoping. We creep a little closer, and Eddie, a tall, piggy looking guy with glasses, gets hit in the shoulder.
I look around and see the guy, and shoot back. I wasn’t sure if I killed him or not, but he fell. Jose keeps sweeping, and it beeps when he gets close to the guy. He runs back toward us, as the guy explodes. Luckily, Jose made it back in time. Annoyed, Kait takes out her radio, and asks if there was supposed to be a cell nearby. Turns out, that’s our mission. Wipe them out, take it for ourselves. That would be great, it’s much closer to town, won’t have to wait three hours for supplies anymore. Francios climbs down and joins us. “Ok, so, first, Jose and Seth, sweep, Francios, keep an eye on them. I need stealth, so the second those things whine, come right back. If you see anyone that isn’t us, head back. I want as little casualties as possible. They’re already down one guy, I don’t want a bloodbath.” Kait instructs us.
“What if I just run right in there and blow them all away?” Leo asks.
“What part of stealth do you not understand? Besides, there could be civilians in there.”
“Fine.” We start to progress towards our destination, when shots are fired, and Jose and Seth come running back. Francios, who’s been observing through his scope above us starts firing back.
“Zey are coming!” He yells, as he gets a few more shots off. We start getting cover and I see what appear to be unarmed guys running towards us, but they weren’t unarmed, and by their clothing, they didn’t look civilian. I shot one, which caused the guy closest to him to blow up, too.
“Suicide bombers!” I yell. I see a grenade roll by my feet and I immediately turn around and run. The force of the explosion knocked me down, but other than a few scratches and road rash, I was ok. I immediately got back up and there was a terrorist with a gun pointed at my chest, and as he’s moving up towards my head, I took that moment to take my gun and shoot him right in the head, my draw was quicker than his. Thank god, cause a bullet whizzed right by my head. I see Leo jump in front of me and blow the guy away.
“I gotcha, bro!” Leo shouts. Jeez, that was a close one. I see an unsuspecting enemy in front of me, looking around, looking nervous, looking young. I could kill him right now, or I could let him go. He points his gun up, toward Francios, and I cap him right there. What a waste of a life. I hear the call for cease fire. Thank god. A bunch of us were injured, but nobody died. After protocol, we finally get to setting up. So, we set up, sent the prisoners to headquarters, and a bunch of people are sent into town for supplies. Stec, one of the medical assistants, comes up to me.
“Need anything?” He asks. My comrade James Stec, is good at finding the best black market stuff, he has medical clearance, so all he has to say is that it’s being used for medical purposes, and bam! Booze! I’m pretty sure it’s watered down, I can taste it. Whatever, it sucks out here.
“A skin rag and a carton of smokes.” I tell him. Yeah, I started smoking, but there’s not a lot to do in the desert. “Oh, and a couple bottles of liquor.”
“Anything else?”
“Nope.” So, he leaves and gets in the truck and heads out. I break out a deck of cards. “Alright, who’s going to get their asses whooped today?” I laugh. Jose suddenly stands up and starts running diagonally to catch up with the truck. “I guess he forgot to tell Stec something.” He almost catches up with the truck when we hear a distant explosion and watch his body ragdoll up into the air and come back down. “Oh s**t, he’s dead.” Kait gets on the radio and tells the truck to stop until they can make sure their path is clear. She sent Seth and Ed to go do it, poor souls. They came back a couple hours later with a map of where the mines are, carrying Jose’s body. They put him in the medical tent and the doctor, Lisa, does her report, and though the blast took off his legs, it was the impact of coming back down that killed him.
“Great, cause I don’t have enough to do.” Lisa says, as she’s busy fixing up the guys that got hurt in our battle. “Has anyone heard from Lutz yet?”
“No, my guess is he got nabbed, we still haven’t come across a body yet.” I tell her. I came pretty close to joining these guys in here, or worse, I could be a POW. Death would probably be easier, no suffering involved. See, out of everything out there in the world, what scares me the most is actual danger. I’ve actually been as careful as I can be so far, I don’t need to die in this godforsaken place. We had our funeral, and sent Jose home. It’s not the first time I’ve seen someone die here, and it probably won’t be the last. “How are you guys doing?” I ask the day after everything with Jose is taken care of.
“I’m so freaked out, that could’ve been me, I forgot something too.” Jesse our gay comrade, says with a lisp.
“Like, what, anal lube?” Eric, a large guy with glasses, jokes.” I swear, with as much as that guy talks about asses, you’d think he was gay too. He makes fun of Jesse more than anyone here. We all know he’s gay, but don’t ask don’t tell is in effect, so unless it becomes a problem, nobody will do anything about it. It’s just as well, we need people. We’re one of the smaller units out here and we’re minus one. I’m sure they’ll send us people eventually, but we gotta deal with what we got.
“No, smarty pants, I’m low on smokes too, now I gotta wait another week.”
“Ah, so you need small dicks in your mouth?”
“Shut the f**k up before I kill you.”
“Bring it on, f****t.”
“You know what I think? I think you like me, and you want my c**k in your a*s.”
“Shut up, no I don’t!”
“Guys, it’s too hot for this f*****g bullshit!” Kait complains.
“Sorry, sir.” They say.
“I say just kill all the f**s and be done with it.” Jon says.
“Dude, do you really have to be such a racist bigot?” I ask.
“Look, it’s just not right, white and straight, that’s what America means to me.”
“What do you even have against people of color and gays?”
“They’re all immigrants or former slaves, and the others are hated by God. Jesus is my copilot and there’s no room for f**s on his boat.”
“Damn, you really need to get out more.”
“The f**k you talking about?”
“It’s 2007, you should be used to this, all of this by now.”
“Just cause it’s normal doesn’t make it right, I mean, come on, who ever heard of a n****r American president? Hundred bucks says that guy is Muslim, he’s a f*****g terrorist.”
“What makes you think any of that?”
“Duh, look at his middle name, Hussein. Got terrorist written all over it, watch, he’s gonna destroy the country. By the time he’s done with it, we’ll all be living in a police state, martial law.”
“Damn, so if an old, white guy isn’t in charge, it means the whole country will go to hell?”
"You're goddamn right."
“What about Clinton? He was a Democrat.”
“Yeah, and he got a blowjob under the desk. Some leader.”
“So, you really think Bush is doing a great job, don’t you?”
“Hell yeah, and McCain will too, cause that n****r don’t belong there. It’s the WHITE house, not the black house.”
“You’re such a piece of s**t, Jon.”
“Bite me, spacker.”
“Guys! Come the f**k on! Do I need you to do pushups in the sand? You’re adults, act like it.” Kait says.
“Yes, sir.” We say.
“You knows, you focus on too little things Yon.” Johan says.
“What are you talking about?” Jon says.
“Who was it, I think its was Martin Luther King who said ‘I have a dream that-‘“
“Yeah, yeah, we all know the n****r quote, so what?”
“You don’t think that maybes he ams right?”
“I don’t trust anything a n****r says.”
“How dids you even get this far without being kicked out for being an a******s?”
“I repressed it till I got deployed, I’ve been letting loose since, I’ve been holding in so many ‘n*****s’ and ‘spics’ and ‘f**s’ and ‘towel heads’ and…”
“Alright, I’m sick of listening to your s**t, drop and give me a hundred.” Kait says.
“Are you f*****g serious?”
“NOW! MOVE IT!” He drops, and as he’s doing his pushups, she keeps her boot pressed down on his back.
“You know, it’s hard for me to do a full pushup with your boot on my back.”
“I’m sorry, you’re right, it IS uncomfortable.” So, she sits on his back instead.
“Goddammit.”
“Glad to see you ams tolerant of people, Samson.” Johan tells me.
“Yeah, well, I’m used to all sorts of people, so nobody bothers me.” I say.
“Yeah, except those s***s we beat up in school.” Leo says.
“Yeah, I don’t know, looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have been so mean.”
“The f**k you talking about? They deserved it.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, just look at the degenerates they turned into.”
“What do you mean?”
“They dropped out and became drug addicts.”
“Oh s**t, I didn’t know that, after a while, I just kinda stopped caring, I was focused on other s**t. Besides, I was too busy getting in trouble with you.”
“Haha, yeah, fun times.”
“Haha, like trashing the principal’s car.”
“Yeah, those were the days… now we get to kill things!”
“You’re a little too excited about that.”
“You seem surprised.”
“I thought you’d be over that by now.”
“No, it’s still there, possibly stronger than ever. I’m itchy to just-“ He pulls out his gun and points it at me. “-pow!” He whispers, pointing it at everyone at the table and repeating his ‘pow’s. He re-holsters his weapon. “I hope we see some action soon, this is getting boring.”
“You literally blew away a few guys a couple days ago, and a guy blew up the other day, and you’re bored?”
“Yeah, it was a tease.”
“He was one of ours!”
“Exactly, I felt like I had to shoot someone to even things out, but we had no enemies, I got an adrenaline rush for nothing, I’M BORED!” He slams his fist hard on the table.
“Easy, these are folding tables, not your grandmother’s mahogany.”
“Ooh, that was a nice table.”
“Yeah, it was.”
“F**k. I’m pissed off now.”
“You needs to calm down, go sees Lisa.” Johan whispers.
“Yeah, yeah, ok.” He goes into the tent. “I need something to calm me down.”
“Here, take em. One at a time, I don’t need another O’D in here, f*****g Eric. He didn’t listen to me and, well, yeah, you were there.” Lisa says, as she hands him two pills and a cup of water after she gets done dealing with a patient.
“Yeah, yeah, I got it, what a way to go.”
“People O’D all the time.”
“Yeah, I’ve never seen someone overdose and die in front of me like that, he just dropped dead where he was standing after taking pills.”
“Oh, he’s not dead, I cleared him for desk duty yesterday.”
“Oh, I haven’t seen him around.”
“Yeah, he wouldn’t have died, not with me around.”
“Good to know I’m in good hands.”
“Anything else? Got a boo boo that needs mommy’s kisses or a tummyache?” she says sarcastically.
“Can I at least mix it with alcohol?”
“As a doctor, I would tell you no, but you’re probably going to do it anyway, nobody listens to me and then I end up having to save their asses.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” He exits the tent and rejoins us. “Ya know, Johan, I gotta say, for a foreigner, you’re all right.”
“Yeah, that’s cause he’s white.” Jon says.
“I knows you are feeling better when you says that.” Johan says.
“You, you and Samson are the real reason I’m still alive.” Leo says.
“What ams you talking about?”
“I’m a f*****g wreck, I hate everything, I hate myself, all I wanna do is destroy, that’s why I’m here. I’ve almost killed twice in my life before I even came here.”
“Twice?” I ask.
“Yeah, you were there. Remember, I threw the rock?”
“Yeah, that I remember. Why are you saying twice?”
“Kat.”
“What?” Me and Johan say at the same time.
“S**t, you didn’t know about that?” We both shake our heads. At this point, the rest of the unit around us stops what they’re doing to listen. “When Kat told me she had an abortion, I freaked out, I wanted to be a dad, I really did. But she went ahead and told me she wasn’t having a psychopath’s baby, and I just- I just started to choke her.” He says softly, mostly to himself, making the motion with his hands. “Tighter and tighter, I squeezed pretty hard, when her body went limp, I stopped. I thought I killed her, so I ran.”
“She didn’t press charges?” I asked.
“No, I never heard a word about it since, I’m assuming she’s afraid of me, and knowing I’m here probably makes her feel safe. It’s just as well, but I don’t know how I’m gonna adjust when I get home.”
“We’re all wondering how we’re going to adjust. Who knows? Maybe you’ll turn out the sanest out of all of us.” I laugh, he laughed, he told me he felt better.
“I don’t know how I could ever survive without you guys, I’d probably be dead by my own hand.”
“Amen to that, brother.” Tyler, a tall skinny guy with glasses, says.
“As longs as we ams with you, you’ll be fine.” Johan says.
“We’re in a warzone, what if you guys die first? I’d have nobody holding me back, I don’t respect these guys as much as I do to you, you guys have been there forever, you’re the ones I trust most.” Leo says.
“You know I’ve got your back as much as you’ve got mine.” I say. “We all do. We’re a unit, each of these guys has your back as much as we do. Just remember to return the favor.”
“I guess I can say it was fun jumping in front of you and blowing that guy away.”
“Yeah dude, I thought I was dead for sure.”
“Luckily for you, I love what I do. Well, for the most part, I hate when it’s quiet like this.”
“Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky. Actually, now that I said that out loud, that’s actually really horrible.”
“I could care either way. As long as I’m not dead, I don’t care. I decide to change the subject.
“Now come on, guys, we gonna play or keep bullshitting?” I ask.
“We could do both.” I start the game. Kait walks up to us.
“Attention!” We get up. So, intelligence reports our comrade has indeed been taken, only we don’t know where. This is no longer a search and rescue. If he happens to turn up, that would be great. If we happen to come across him on our travels, that would be great. It’s been a week and we have searched within ten clcks on either side and we still haven’t found him or anyone connected to this cell. Pack up, we’re relocating. Abandoning seardch and rescue, and continuing our current mission.” I raise my hand.
“Sir?” I ask.
“What is it, Alpha?”
“Didn’t we already wipe out the cell?”
“Only part of it, what, did you think it was just twenty or so guys? You think you’re on vacation? Playing cards, bullshitting, drinking your watered down hootch. We have a job to do, it was put on hold for the search and rescue mission, which has now been aborted and we are resuming our current mission, is that ok with you, Beta Alpha?”
“Yes sir, I apologize, sir!”
“Let’s move it out!” she yells. We immediately pack up and head out to new coordinates. Wow, what a great comeback, I’m pissed off she emasculated me like that in front of the whole unit, but I gotta hand it to her, that was a good one. Calling me Beta because I’m under her, even though my name is Alpha and I myself am an Alpha, but not to her. I never in my life thought I’d have someone be able to make fun of my name before. I thought I was untouchable. My mind is blown, I’m mad and I’m not at the same time. We got to our new coordinates and set up. “This is a hot zone, so I’m going to need everyone on alert!” Kait instructs us. S**t, hot zone, that means it’s likely possible we could be attacked, so we’re on alert. That means sleeping with one eye open, since it could happen at literally any time.
“BRING IT ON!!” Leo yells.
“Looks like I have a volunteer.” Kait says.
“Volunteer for what?”
“First patrol.”
“Oh f**k yeah!”
“Who’s my second volunteer?”
“I’ll go.” I speak up.
“Of course you will, go. Radio me at each checkpoint, and make us a nice little map. Lockwood!” Francois makes his way over to us. “Follow them, be the eye in the sky. Those ridges follow the coordinates pretty well. You may need to improvise, but stay in touch, too, you can see ahead for them. Now, listen up. Sweep and map, eliminate any hostiles, but keep one alive for questioning. Mark any land deformities, secret openings, caves, even a really big hole. Saddam was found in a hole, so don’t discount it. If we come under fire, I will radio you. Get your asses back here as fast as you can. Defending our base takes priority over this mission. Good luck.” We start heading towards the first checkpoint.
“I’m excited.” Leo says.
“Why?” I ask him. “Cause we’ll get to kill” I say mockingly.
“Yes, because we get to kill.” he mockingly says back. My metal detector beeped, and we stop. I sweep it around and mark it on the map. I go to Leo’s side and my detector stops beeping. I go back to my side and follow the beeps. This whole side is so full of mines, me and Leo have to stay single file to stop from me exploding. We’re definitely in the right place, unfortunately for us.
“Checkpoint Alpha, reached.” I say over the radio.
“How’s it looking?” Kait says.
“Bad, we might have to relocate, this place is set up for single file. I don’t think we can cross into Checkpoint Bravo without exploding.”
“Oh, f**k. Get back here now!” She yells back.
“Did you copy, Francois?” I say over the radio.
“Oui.” he replies. We turn right around, and head back to base. Luckily, we made it back in one piece.
“Francois, what did you see up there?” Kait asks.
“Zere was a metal fence in ze distance.”
“Ok, we’re in the right area, didn’t know they stretched out this far, show me the map.” i take out the map and give it to here. “Oh my God, are you sure about this?” She points to the corner of the ridge we were just in.
“Unfortunately.” I tell her.
“F**k. Ok, where’s the fence?” Francios marks it on the map. S**t, how are we supposed to get past that mine cluster?”
“My guess, is we’re not supposed to.”
“Wait, you said single file, right?”
“Yeah...?”
“We may have found the secret entrance to their prison. Think about it, there’s a cluster of mines here, which means if anyone were to try to break someone out, or if a prisoner escapes, there’s no way anyone is going to survive that. So, they must transport their prisoners somewhere in a hidden hole or cave or something so they can do it safely. Alright, listen up, this is our new base, we may have found a prison camp. Our new objective will be how to infiltrate it. We’re still on high alert!” She turns to me and Leo. “We still need a secure perimeter, so make this-” She marks our map “-our new Checkpoint Alpha, and go in this direction. Same objectives apply, get up there, Franciois.”
“Yes sir!” We say, and head into a new direction.
“Still bored?” I ask Leo.”
“Nah, man, not yet.”
“Not yet?”
“Depends how this goes.”
“Checkpoint Alpha clear, heading to Checkpoint Bravo.”
“Ztop.” We hear over the radio. We stop in our tracks and wait a few minutes, slowly creeping backwards in case we need to make a quick getaway. “You are clear, ‘owever, zey disappeared into a cave on your right. Continue to Checkpoint Bravo, and ‘urry, we do not know if zey are returning.” We keep going, and as we reach the cave, we see there’s more than one.
“S**t. Francois?” I say over the radio.
“Yes?” I hear back.
“You didn’t happen to notice which cave they went into?”
“Zere is more zan one?”
“Yeah, there’s like, five.”
“I am zorry, my vision was blocked, I zaw zem turn right and zen dizappear. I only zee ze tops of ze caves on ze other zide.”
“Checkpoint Bravo reached, however...”
“However what?” Kait asks.
“It’s next door to a Hornet’s Nest.”
“So, just knock it over, they’re just bugs.”
“No, you’re not hearing me, an HN- Hornet's Nest!”
“F**k. Continue to Charlie, then come back. I want to find out what else is out there.”
“Copy that.” I turn to Leo. “Well, you wanted action.”
“Yeah, but it’s like a- watch out!” Leo pushes me forward, and a bomb explodes where I just was. We turn around, and there’s a couple of terrorists chasing us, with a couple dead behnind them, courtesy of Francois. Me and Leo each take a guy out. “YEAH HAH YEAAAAAH!”
“What are you celebrationg for?”
“We got to kill some m***********s!”
“Yeah, we were supposed to leave one alive.”
“That’s your own fault.”
“How was it my fault?”
“You should have just left the killing to me, and then you would have had your prisoner. But you shot too, in fact, I shot first. You screwed up this mission, not me.”
“Oh, f**k.” We head back to base. “There’s four stiffs out there.” I tell Kait.
“Any survivors?” She asks.
“No.”
“i told you to keep one alive.”
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”
“You’ll get a reprimand in your file for not following orders.”
“I’m sorry, I hesitated, I was so used to kill whoever was shooting at us, I forgot I was supposed to keep one alive.”
“See that it doesn’t happen again.”