U.S. Pride

  We wake up in the morning to a loud crash and yelling, i leap out of me bed and pull my pants on and belt my pants on, i grab my webing and strap it on, and i grab the AR, I hear another crash and lights are in the house.

  "Any Living in here, respond or be shot on the spot."I look to Kyle and he nods

  "Alive inside!" i should a man comes around the corner and points the gun at me then at kyle, then back at me

  "Put your weapons on the floor" The man orders me, he had the gun up and probibly had the safty off, i was going to listen, seamed like the smart thing to do. after i put down my weapons, the man tried to usher us to the living room.

  "You leave with us and i'll go, i'm over protective of my guns."

  "Planned on it sir." After the short walk i see a man in full urban camo. wearing a Boony hat.

  "Sorry for the intrusion, my men and i were ordered to clear this town, s**t, where are my manners, Sargent Briggs, U.S. Marine Core."

  "Stephen Taylor, one startled mother f***a."

  "Kyle Narrows, same as him."

  "Could have just came durring the day and knocked" i said jokingly

  "Ya, you kinda just destroyed our best defence."

  "Well there isn't much i can do other than give you this flag and hang it in your window, in another week we will stop by and drop off another that must be put up with-in the day or we will come in and kill what moves." he says bluntly

  "Well that is all fine and good, but the doors were busted in, and now we go nowhere to go."

  " If you wish i can get you in the base after the night is over, untill then you can stay here or come with us."

  I walk back into my room and one of the soldiers fallows us

  "What? want to see a naked 17 year old?" and with that he walks out the door and i close it. "What we gonna do?"

  "Well if we stay they may not come back."

  "Ya, that is what i was thinking, so lets go" we get dressed in what we wore yesterday, me in camo, i grabbed my webbing with the katana, tomahawk and the ka-bar, i grab the 1911 the AR, Remington 280, .357 magnum, and my shotgun, i grab my school back pack and dump everything out on my bed and grab the ammo and throw it in, then i walk back into the living room to see the Marines just about to walk out the door, Kyle and i stop in the kitchen and grab as much food as we can put in my back pack. with a fifty pound backpack i walked out into the cold night air, i look at the Marines, they are loading into a "Duce and a half" it is a two and a half ton truck, they motion to get in and Kyle and i get in.

  "It is gonna be a bumpy ride" says the Sargent as he packs a lip of chewing tobacco and a few other marines whip out either chew or cigarettes.

  "Can i intrest you in a smoke, i kinda did destroy your house." he motions to a hand held ram. Kyle and i grab two smokes and we light them both, As we start going down the road, one of the marines next to me gets up and zips shut the canvas and tells us that they are heading back, the base wants to switch out squads, they need a fresh one, they have been up and out for a good 12 hours. In about 30-40 minutes and we start to slow down. I look out through a clear plastic window and i see that we have reached a make shift base, flood lights face out in every direction and shine bright over the grassy fields. In the field i see a few lumps and take my guess that there have been some activity here. We come in through the main gate that has five or six armed gaurds, and we just get waved through. After about two or three minutes a man unzips the doors from the out side and yells for us to get out. i'm the second out, right after kyle and the man just gives us a funny look, then i realize why, we are dressed like some paramilitary group, with the weapons of a paramilitary group. But the Marines jump out and they are told that there is hot chow in the mess hall and cold showers waiting for them. Kyle and I are ushered to a few tents.

  "If you are seen with any weapons than you may be kicked out with out any of them, if you wish your knives and hatchet can stay on, but no swords or fire arms, this is also the rule for the solders that are here to, if you need clothing all we have is urban camo, not that good for warmth, but it is kind of wather proof, i'll have one of the other survivors bring sheets for you."

  "Thank you, where are the survivors, i have a few friends that may be here."

  "Don't get your hopes up too high, everyone i know that isn't here is dead. But they are usualy at what ever end of the base is down wind, you'll figure out why soon"

  "Thanks" He waks out and kyle just laughs. "No weapons, Hell" he takes off his rifle and the pistol i gave him, i do the same but i hide my rifles behind a file cabnet turned dresser. 

  "We should sleep, no one is really awake right now anyway."

  "Ya. kyle and i climb into the cots and i fall asleep with in minutes.

  "So what is our next move?" Kyle asks, my eyes shoot open,

  "Damn, what time is it?"

  "Time to wake up, what is our next move."

  "No clue, but i think we are safe for a little while."

  "Ya, untill the lead runs out"

  "The guns they have, M-16's, they shoot the same bullets my ar does, if we steal one or two boxes of ammo and a gun or two, we would be set on our oun for a hell of a long time."

  "Ya if we don't die trying to get out of here."

  "I'll think..." I'm stopped because i can smell what he means. Nothing smells like it. It is the unmistakable smell of smoked pot. We walk a bit further and we find the epicenter of it, a tent that is no more than ten feet long and wide. we open the flaps and there is a wall of smoke comming out of it.

  "HEY!!!!" they all yell in unison "Close the f*****g flap, what do you not know stoner code, there are punishment for breaking it man!" the flap closes behind us and i walk around and take a good look at all the faces and find no one i know other than a few kids from school.

  "Let's go"

  "We walk out of the tent to another battery of Heys. when we walk a few more untill we run acrost a woman, about 40 years old

  "Excuse me ma'am, do you know if there are any more survivors here?"

  "Why yse, head up wind, that is where the non smokers go, they prefer to be away from the smells of the base."

  "thank you." Kyle and I turn and head to the far side of the base, all the base is is a maze of Olive Drab canvas tents, mess halls and latrines. but as we wind our way through the tents we run acrost a mess hall, and decide that the MRE's sound kinda good, so as we walk through we grab one and start eating the mystery meal, as we finish up we pass a bunch of soldiers smoking.

  "Can we bum two smokes" kyle asks the man with a pack hanging out of his pocket, and he gives up two smokes

  "If you have any cash you can get a cigarette ration from the store, and i expect you to pay me back when you see me next."

  "Not a problem, thanks." We light our cigarettes and keep walking. but as we go we can smell the fresher air, and feel the wind a little better. , as we go we see a bunch of people in casual clothing, so we know we are in the right place. kyle and i walk around looking for friendly faces. One sticks out immediatly. i stomp out my smoke and burry it under a bit of a mud puddle, run my fingers through my hair to straiten it, and i start walking towards her. at first she is stairing into a void, then as i get closer her yeys move to mine and she leaps out of her chair and gives me a huge hug.

  "I thought you were dead." was the first thing she said after a moment

  "I didn't, i just thought you were." at this point kyle is walking over.

  "Get a room you two." He says. she pulls away after a minute

  "Kyle, this is kayla. kayla, this is kyle."

  "Nice to meet you kyle."

  "Pleasure is all mine." he replies

  "Greedy pig" I call Kyle

  "Where did they set you guys up?"

  "Among the Soldiers."

  "Come move in with me, it is only mee in here." she pulls back the tent flaps and reveals three empty beds.

  "Don'T mind if we do." kyle says for me

  "So how did you get here?"

  "I'll tell you as i help you move."

  "Well i at home, driving back to URI when i got a text to not come back, there was a terrorist attack with some kind of biological weapon, so I turned my car around and drove home where i waited for my family to come home from work...but the only people who shown up were the marines, who said my parents may be here, so i came here a day or two ago."

  "Oh. sorry about your parents."

  "Don't be, they are out there somewhere." kyle and i get our stuff together and we wrap our weapons in a sheet and start to walk back. Then I notice it, in the few month that i haven't seen her, She has gotten leaner. She can't be over 160 pounds, she is about eye level with me, maybe an inshe shorter so she is 6 feet tall, and her black hair brings out those beautiful aqua eyes. we get back to our tent and set our stuff up, weapons are hidden under beds, but off the floor on milk crates we found along the way.

  "We need gun cases." I tell kyle

  "The store has all kinds of gun suplies."

  "Well lets go." kyle says

  "I'll show you the way" kayla offers. we begin walking when one of kaylas neighbors approches, she is an older lady

  "Good morning Mrs. Gello" kayla almost shouts

  "While you were away with these two gentlemen, a few soldiers went into your tent for a few minutes, then cam back out, it doesn't seam like they took any thing but if there is anything missing, i could probibly point them out."

  "Thank you, and by the way, This is Stephen and this is kyle." again with the shouting

  "Nice to meet you young gentlemen, a friend of Kayla's is a friend of mine, you need anything, come see me."

  " Thank you" kyle and i reply loudly. she shuffles away and we resume out course.

  "Hard of hearing eh" i say

  "Yes, very, but very nice, i wonder what the soldiers wanted."

  "Don't know." we walk to the store telling her about kyle and I's adventure thus far. when we get there we see a busy little trade area and an actual store, use three walk in and see what kyle and i love, and all american guns store. we walk up to the counder

  "we need five gun cases, and one wide use cleaning kit, need it for .22 to 12 gagues, on, and a cigarette ration for this gentleman and i." i say cutting to the chase."

  "And a cigarette ration for me." Kayla chimes in, i know she doesn't smoke, but she winks and i go with it. he hands us a slip of paper.

  "Sign this, don't lose it, if you do, we check this book, if you had one, you don't get one back, on that paper we stamp the date, you get a pack every 3 days, your smokes are your smokes, do with them as you wish, they are $10 a pack of 20, or you can trade equal value, with gold, or anything else, and what you need are down that isle." We walk down and grab the gun cases, and two cleaning kit,

  "ring us up, with 3 packs."

  "Your total is $200." kyle and i whip out our wallets and we come up with the money.

  "I need a job i say." and we grab our stuff and walk out, back to the tent. We walk in and start to clean our guns and put them in the cases, while having a smoke. kayla whips out her pack and set it in a basket, and covers it with things she brought from home.

  "If you run out, grab a few from here."

  "ight" we mannage through a lungfull of smoke. by the time we are done cleaning the guns, our stomach is rumbeling, so we decide to go grab some dinner then see what we can do from there. when we get to the dinner tent we all get MRE's to no ones surprise.

  "so what do you guys want to do from here, you must be exausted, up late into the morning, and then awake with out much sleep." kayla says reading our mind.

  "ya, i'm about ready to sleep. but first is there like a workshop or some place i can go to make something?"

  "kinda, it is a repair shop for the army, but they let people in to fix different supplies aslong as you don't get in there way and only use the scraps that they don't use."

  "what are you going to make man?"

  "Don't worry about it."

  "I always worry when it comes to you man."

  After dinner kyle goes to god knows where, and kayla and i are left to our own devices. 

  "What do you want to go do?"

  "Chill in the tent, why what do you have in mind?"

  "Well...we could...relive old times."

  "already there, but which old time?" i think back to many atimes we hung out, watched the sun set, and then we would have sex, but there are many times that we hung out and didn't, so i figured it was a fifty fifty shot. "I need to stop by the store first."

   we walk to the store, remising about old times we had, in high school, and when i visited her in college after school one day. I grab a bottle of water, and a box of condoms, and pay a cool $15 for them at the store. as we walk back to the tent i hold her hand and we continue to talk about things we did before the incident, my eagle scout board, times when i'd go four wheeling in my pick-up truck, work. by the time that i finish talking about work, we are in the tent, sitting on my bed.

  "Shut up and kiss me." she says, some how i've been missing all her signs that she wanted to kiss me, not listen to me ramble, so i lean in and kiss her, next think i know, clothing is flying off, and i'm grinning because i thought ahead and got a few rubbers, after about an hour and a half, we are just laying in my bed i'm smoking a cigarette, and kayla is playing with my chest. Next thing i know a dark figure blasts in and scares the s**t out of kayla and before i even think i have my pistol leveled with his head.

  "Hey there big guy." a gruff voice says that i imediatly identify as kyle's

  "S**t" kayla says, even in the dark you can see her blush

  "Oh, sorry about intruding..i'll just be...somewhere, i'll be back in twenty minutes."

  kayla gets into her bed and I get dressed so i can go out and have a smoke with kyle before i turn in for the night. After i walk out i see kyle sitting there smiling.

  "Getting it in, like a champ." he says

  "ha, ya, so what you make." he pulls out two black tubes about five or six inches long and about two inches around. "D****s? like we need those?"

  "Scilencers, i had to steal the tubes, but it is just a two and a quarter inch, threaded tube, inside and out, with washers, all you do is put about 10 one inch washers, and one half inch washer, the 45 bulet will go right through the holes, but the gass will get all cought up in the chambers, slowing the release of the pressure, less noise." he says

  "Damn, i saw that some where, i only have one problem."

  "Your barrel isn't threaded."

  "Exactly. on that gun it isn't on this one it is." He hands me a .45 caliber pistol with an extended barrel, with threading on it.

  "Where the hell did you get these?"

  "My father was a cop...the dirty kind, he saw a gun he liked, it became his. i know you like 45. more stopping power."

  "What is the caliber for the one you have?"

  "Just a nine millimeter, after the first shot, it takes less time to get on target."

  "Ya, because with a nine you need more than one bullet, a fourty-five you only need one."

  "what's your point?"

  "My point is, that it is bed time." i stomp out my smoke and walk back into the tent and put the new gun under the bed, next to the other guns, and i keep my other fourty-five under my pillowand i drift off to lala land, listening to kayla and kyle.

Author's Note

This is just an outline with some dialogue, i just want to see where the charectors lead the story, and how they react to the story. I plan on going through it later, adding detail