Chapter Four
A thin man in a windowless room sits at a desk reading the newspaper. The room is sparsely barren-less, with only a few photo’s on the wall behind him. The only noise comes from the hiss of the air conditioning, and fluorescent lighting. His glasses lay on the stainless steel desk covered with various newspapers from around the world. He’s currently reading a Russian Times when a telephone call prompts him to look away from his article. He slowly closes the paper and folds it back onto the desk. He stares at the phone, perplexed as to why it would ring. He picks it up and slowly places the receiver to his ear.
“Yes.” It wasn’t a question, more of a demand. His voice was of an odd mixture, almost Russian, but with a British twist. It couldn’t be placed to any one country.
“The building you asked me to look into is ready to move in. There were a few roaches, however, I’ve cleaned them out” replies the disembodied voice.
“Excellent, you should come back to the office. I may have another piece of property for you to view” the man speaks in a monotony voice into the phone.
“I’m stuck in traffic and will be late.” The voice replies.
“Very well, when you’re back, call me.”
He places the phone back on the cradle and gives myself a slight grin. Should anyone have been able to trace that number and listen to the conversation, they would have heard of an employee looking at a new building for the employer. It was an old cold war tactic; make a code from a simple sentence. The man now knew that Jared Foster was dead and that the U.S. would keep there hands busy investigating the possible terrorist involved.
The man reaches for the phone and places the receiver to his ear. The phone automatically rings through.
“Yes?” Responds a thick Middle Eastern accent.
“Prepare your men; the U.S. will be attacking shortly.” the man states coldly.
“Sir, there is not enough time for us to prepare the airfield. It is still boarded up and I have no men in the area.” There is noise from a chopper in the background.
“Then the US will have an airfield, however that is all they will acquire…However, I do have a job for your demolitions expert.” The man’s lips curl with an evil delight.
“Sir, we have an entire squad of Special forces ready for demolitions.”
“Good,” the man swivels in his chair to the wall behind him, staring at an overhead photo of a beachhead. There are a few close-up photos’ depicting a satellite receiver and an odd looking small boxy RV. “I have a small op for them to complete.”
Chapter 5
14:30
Tyler was sitting inside one of the abandoned buildings in the village. He was rubbing the bridge of his nose, although this time, it was due to the fact that he was tired, not stressed. The scrim they had recently had his adrenaline pumping and with it fading away, he found himself slightly tired. He had a cup of coffee sitting in front of him, the steam lofting of the cup.
Leflore was sitting across from Tyler, eating one of those quick dried energy bars that the military passed out. Judging by his reaction, the MRE (meal, ready to eat) was not all that tasty. His leg was shaking up and down from the action, as if he was excitable.
Osborne was lying on the bed, in the other room. Tyler couldn’t understand that the man took out a majority of enemies with a shot, and just shrugged it off. Heavy breathing could be heard from the other room, obviously Osborne had passed out.
Grease Monkey had found and old radio, and was scanning through some radio stations. For the most part there was talking on it, however he found a station that seemed to be playing classic rock from the 60’s and 70’s. He turned the volume up, placed the radio in a bookcase behind him, and sat back in a recliner.
The doc was somewhere outside, probably having another smoke. He didn’t seem to like the fact that the enemy bodies were still laying out in the sun baking, with no one bothering to see who they were. Tyler respected the fact that the doc was a non-violent man; however, Tyler felt that if the bastards opened fire on his squad, they don’t get the respect from him. If you start asking questions about the target you’re attacking, you may hesitate, and Tyler was sure that they didn’t once question on why the US was attacking. They we’re all “infidels” and terrorists.
They had to wait at least another hour before anyone would be able to relieve them from this position. The mobile AA had broken down en-route, and required some repairs. Osborne and Grease Monkey placed some booby traps with claymores and AT-4 landmines around the area, so they felt, for the most part, secure that they wouldn’t be surprised; everything was silent inside the two room clay house.
Tyler stood up, stretching. He couldn’t stand around here inside the hut anymore, he decided to go outside and speak with Doc, to make sure he was okay. He began to walk across the room towards the door, when the glass window pane beside Grease Monkey broke and the radio fizzled and died. Tyler creased his eyebrows, staring at the now silent radio; his mind trying to register what just happened. The handle of the door began to turn and Tyler’s eyes shot across at Leflore.
Leflore dropped his bar and reached for his sidearm, raising it to the door. The door opened and Doc was standing rigid just outside, a cigarette hanging loosely from his mouth. The sun was slightly behind him, making him a dark silhouette.
Tyler’s mind suddenly slowed time down. Doc’s cigarette began to fall from his lips as Doc’s knees buckled and dropped him like a brick. The sound of silenced handgun fire began sporadically hitting the walls from the outside. Tyler, Grease Monkey, and Leflore dropped to the ground instantly. Tyler crawls over to the doc and pulled him inside. He slammed the door closed and began to flip the doc over.
Blood poured from a knife wound on his chest. Tyler removed the doc’s backpack and looked through it for supplies. He pulled out some gauze and padding from the inside, and placed it on the wound; applying pressure. Grease Monkey and Leflore moved towards the windows and began to fire wildly outside. Osborne was crawling into the room.
“What the **** is going on here” he shouted.
Tyler just gave a quick glance at Osborne and returned his attention to the Doc.
“Holy ****, how did they get by the-“Osborne began.
“Who the **** cares, now man that window and if anything moves, ****’n kill it” Tyler shouts back. “Leflore, you see anything?”
“Non, not ’ting but desert” Leflore snaps back.
Monkey halts his fire, peering his head around the side of the window every now and again.
Tyler reaches into the doc’s bag and pulls out a needle marked morphine. He injects the needle directly to doc’s chest however the blood spills from the damp red gauze. Tyler searches for more gauze padding in the backpack. He dumps the contents of the bag onto the wooden floor. No more padding.
“****” Tyler shouts.
Outside the sound of one of the boats begins, and Tyler turns to Leflore. “Get out there and shoot those ****ers.” Even before he finished the sentence, Leflore, Monkey and Osborne are rushing for the door. Osborne grabs the PKM from the table, and is the last to leave.
The doc’s eyes begin to flutter and slide up to the top of his head. Tyler feels his neck for a pulse, there’s nothing. He straddles the doc’s and begins to pump his chest with his hands. Blood begins to come out the side of his mouth, and drips to the floor.
Outside there’s more gunfire, this time from the distinctive PKM that Osborne picked up. The firing stops, and for a few moments there’s silence again.
Tyler keeps pumping doc’s chest; he hears the snap of a rib, almost like the sound of a pencil breaking in half. Tyler stops for a brief second, his eyes wide and mouth open. He leans back down and listen for a breath.
“You Mother****er; don’t you give up on me-” Tyler shouts. He can feel someone grabbing him from behind. He frantically turns and sees Osborne pulling him off. Leflore and Monkey are standing behind him, their heads hung low.
“What the **** are you doing– Get off me– He’s dying -” Tyler screams psychotically at Osborne, flailing his arms around trying to get free.
“HE’S DEAD” Osborne shouts. The words hit him like a truck; Tyler’s body suddenly stops responding to him, he can feel it getting heavier in the room. He drops to the ground, defeated. His eyes open wide, stare at the body of Doc.
Leflore pulls up Tyler from the floor, and moves him to the chair. Monkey and Osborne grab Doc and carry him off to the other room. Tyler’s eyes, unblinking, follow him. They place him down gently on the bed that Osborne was previously on, and return to the other room. Leflore looks down at Tyler and places his hand on Tyler’s shoulder.
“You did what you could. It wa’ a lethal wound. You no doctor, you can’t help ‘em” Leflore says in a deep mournful voice.
Sitting in the chair, almost disconnected with him self. Tyler stares at his hands; there covered in blood….from Doc.
Chapter 6
15:50
The mobile AA sat out front of the clay house, its engine reverberating the loose contents inside. Tyler hadn’t moved from the chair he was in, and Leflore was temporarily running the show. Osborne and Monkey had gone to show where the booby traps were laid in the surrounding area. Only a handful of men were holding around the area, fortifying the position. Tyler was just staring at his hands, the blood drying and becoming a dark crust, flaking off his skin. He hadn’t expected the shock to hit him quite as hard as it did. He had known Doc for about a year, just started to learn about his family. Now, his family would receive the generic letter from the department of defense, apologizing for their lose.
Osborne walked in, and looks over to Tyler. He grabs a chair from the table and rotates it, so its back is facing the front. He moves the chair to in front of Tyler.
“Chief…you got to understand….**** like this happens...” Osborne mentioned consolably. “I didn’t know him, but I’m sure he was a good-“
“Shut up” Tyler forces out of his mouth, his eyes looking up at Osborne’s.
“All I’m saying is, is that the doc shouldn’t have been outside alone. You’ve seen it out there, damn planes and **** within arms reach…he knew the risk, and he was stupid enough to-“Osborne never finished that sentence. Tyler, in a fit of rage, stood up and decked him clear across the face. Osborne falls to the ground.
Tyler stands over Osborne, staring down at him “I said Shut up”
Tyler starts toward the door, he glances back at Osborne as he closes the door, and sees him rubbing his chin and cursing. He heads toward Leflore directing some grunts setting up a TOW. His com link picks up some static, he can hear a voice, but with the AA powered up, he can’t make out what it was saying. He starts to walk down to the river dock.
“…AV and Satellite trailer destroyed, requesting immediate repairs at the beachhead. Enemy forces spotted in the area. I say again, UAV and Satellite trailer have been destroyed, requesting immediate repairs at the beachhead. Echo squad, can you hear me?”
Tyler taps his LOSAR, “Affirmative, Echo Squad on our way.”
“You’re the finest squad I’ve ever seen” replies the commander.
Tyler mutters under his breath “Go **** Yourself.” Luckily the transmit button wasn’t pushed.
Tyler looks down at his PDA and zooms into the beachhead that they held. He selects the repair icon and places it onto the beachhead and then taps transmit. He looks up and sees Leflore walking over to him. Leflore just taps a button on his PDA without even viewing the new objective.
“We goin hunt’n?” Leflore asks taking a drag from his smoke.
“We need to do some repairs before we’re back in the fight” Tyler grabs the pack of smokes off Leflore and lights one up.
“So, we ARE goin hunt’n” Leflore states exhaling.
“What do you mean?” Tyler questions.
Leflore takes off his PDA and rotates it towards Tyler. He zooms out from the beachhead showing the general area.
“This is where we are,” pointing to the map, “and we own the oilfield south of us, and the airfield behind us.” Leflore points out the area’s on the PDA.
Tyler’s eyebrows crease, if there was a point, he wasn’t getting it yet. Leflore seems to get that Tyler wasn’t understanding it yet.
“The only way to get to the beachhead safely is by boat. Osborne and I were shooting it as a group headed north from us…..TOWARDS the beachhead.”
It suddenly dawned on Tyler what Leflore was stating. “We can kill the bastards that got Doc.” Leflore closes his eyes and slowly nods his head.
“Get everyone locked and loaded. We’re going to go Hunt’n” Tyler’s could say the words fast enough; he had a new energy flowing through him. He was vowed and determined to put a bullet through the MEC bastard that killed Doc.
Chapter 7
17:45
The sun was playing its dance along the horizon of Zatar. Long shadows were pressing the ground from the trees and birds from overhead. Tyler was manning the large machinegun on the front of the boat, as Leflore drove along the water. Osborne was hanging off the side, removing whatever contents were inside him. Monkey had his wrench out, working on the motor as they passed along the stiff ripple less water.
Tyler saw an empty boat ahead of him on the left side; he raised his arm and pointed towards it. Leflore slowed down and placed the boat up on the shore of dirt. Everyone exited and crouched low, scanning the area.
“What’s the plan chief” Osborne was wiping of spit away from his mouth. Tyler hadn’t even thought of a plan, his thoughts consumed with killing the MEC. Leflore pipes in “Osborne, take that south hill, and watch over us. We need to protect Monkey while he repairs the equipment”.
Tyler mind focused on the task at hand. “Must protect Monkey, and kill those bastards”.
Osborne moves off towards the direction of the hill, his rifle shouldered as he withdraws his handgun. They start to move north towards some low lying brick wall.
As they move closer to their position, the low rumble of machinery increases. Tyler looks down at his PDA, it reflects back no friendly signal in the area. “Damn, MEC stole our ****”.
Sure enough, as they approach, the turret of a LAV swivels around, scanning the area. They keep low and approach the low wall. Tyler chirps in to the headset “We need a bomber at this location”. The sound of the approaching LAV is now close to deafening. The headset chirps back, but Tyler couldn’t hear, he swings his head towards the group. Both Leflore and Monkey shake there heads, not understanding the transmission.
The LAV noise begins to move away, backing up from it’s position. Tyler turns to the group “As soon as we have chance, dive over and head straight for the UAV trailer. Leflore, you and I will cover Monkey as –“Osborne’s voice chirps in “GET OUT OF THERE, NOW”
They stand and bolt towards the river, as they make a mad dive into the water, artillery fire drops behind them. Tyler can feel the heat from the explosions on his face. The stone wall they were behind, completely shatters into dust. Tyler looks down at his PDA, seeing an artillery marker place just in front of where they were.
Osborne chirps in, “you alive”?
Monkey responds back, “yeah”.
As the smoke and debris settle, they make a bee line straight for the UAV. Leflore lands face first into the dirt staring from the left side, as Tyler drops and stares from the right. Monkey pries open a panel and starts his work with a wrench. He goes into his backpack and pulls out some wiring and battery solder kit. “I need more supplies here” he turns to Tyler.
“Requesting supply drop at these coordinates” Tyler transmits out. There’s a pause for a minute. “Roger, supply drop in your area” comes the commander’s voice.
Out of the sky drops a wooden crate, as Monkey begins to work feverishly on the trailer. With a crackle of sparks and flash of light the UAV Trailer begins to hum again. Monkey grabs stock out of the supply crate and turns toward Tyler.
“Done here, let grab the scanner”
Tyler nods and looks over at Leflore. They both crouch and scan the area, nothing but an abandoned beachhead. Tyler began o think that the MEC cowards had ran off when Osborne’s rifle echoed off the surrounding structures. Osborne chirped in “3 over at the scanner, I took one down”.
The group made a mad dash towards the nearest cover. As they dove behind an abandoned shell of a car, rifle fire came from behind them. The loud crack of Osborne’s rifle shooting off became more and more ever present. Leflore glanced over towards the scanner, and saw a man, lying down on the far side; with a click of his rifle, he rasie the sights of his M203. He fires off a shot towards the general direction and see’s a man flying from the shock blast.
“You two flank around, I’ll provide cover fire” Tyler orders.
Monkey and Leflore move towards the far side of the building. Tyler drops his bi-pod and unlocks his rifle. He rests the bull stock onto his shoulder and scans the area. One shot goes high and wide over his head, and he tracks the bullet down to an old building. He pulls the trigger and releases the bullets from the dormant rest.
Leflore and Monkey hear the PKM off around the corner and start to make a mad dash towards the scanner. As the begin to enter a clear open area, a MEC solider spins around a corner, hidden from view. Leflore turns his rifle towards him and pulls the trigger. CLICK. He didn’t reload the M203, his eyes go wide. Monkey places his hand on Leflores shoulder and Leflore drops instinctively to the floor. Monkey, with his handgun, double-taps the trigger. Two bullet holes appear in the MEC’s body, one in the neck, the other in the head.
Leflore, reloading his M203, starts up and the two begin to sprint towards the scanner. Leflore and Monkey do a flying leap and dive over the debris of the scanner, and rotate 180 degrees, back towards the area. Monkey slides behind the scanner and opens the control panel.
Tyler pours round for round into the building he believes the shot came from. The heat from the PKM begins to overwhelm him and he releases the trigger, sliding back behind the building. “Requesting UAV” he yells into his mike.
“Negative, UAV already in flight” responds the commander.
“****” Tyler reloads the PKM and moves back around the corner of the building.
Monkey smashes the scanner with his wrench. “I need more parts” he turns to Leflore. “I’ll be right back”
Leaving his kit behind, Monkey makes a mad dash towards to supply crate.
Tyler see’s movement coming from his left side, a body running towards him. He turns his sight towards the movement. It’s a man running towards him; his mind starts to race,
“Kill him”
“He doesn’t have a weapon”
“Shoot him before he kills you”
“He could have a grenade…”
“They killed Doc…SHOOT HIM”
Tyler lines his shot up.
Monkey makes a zigzag line back towards Tyler and the supply crate. He needed parts for the repair and then the scanner would be working again. Monkey had tunnel vision as he bolted towards Tyler. He saw Tyler swing towards him; “****, is someone behind me?”
The UAV kicks in over on the groups PDA. Tyler does a half glance down and sees no red dots in the area. Before his mind has grasped the reality, his finger slips down on the trigger, and shots fire out.
Monkey hears the bullets as they whiz by his head. He makes a dive off to the right into a hill.
“CHECK YOUR FIRE” he shouts out towards Tyler.
Tyler releases the trigger a hair too late, 3 rounds shoot out towards Monkey. His eyes gaze towards where Monkey was standing. His thoughts were washed away with the sudden rational explanation of what just happened. He can hear Monkey shout at him, as he exhales his breath slowly.
The UAV scanning the area picks up a blip coming in from the road. The LAV that was blocking the group is starting to move back again. Leflore looks over at Monkey’s kit and grabs the AT-landmines attached to it. He makes a bolt towards the road and begins to arm them.
The LAV lumbers down the road slowly, the turret pre-occupied with the hill that Osborne was located. As it moves back towards the beachhead, Leflore dives out of the way of the road, back behind a tree. The wheel of the LAV connects with the mine, as the LAV flips and explodes into a fiery shell.
A Blackhawk descends onto the beachhead, blasting the sand into the group’s eyes. Tyler, Osborne, Monkey and Leflore all hop aboard. The chopper lifts off and returns back to the Essex. Monkey had fixed the scanner, and the other squads had held the points of command. It was just a matter of finding the remaining soldiers and disarming them.
Tyler leaned back into the chopper and stared at his squad. They were tired and restless, and deserved a break. Tyler thought about retirement, making Leflore handle the squad now. He was sure Osborne would head off in another direction. He had a new respect for him. Osborne and Leflore were chatting together having a smoke, laughing. Monkey sat there reading a Dan Brown novel, deep in thought.
Off in the view, the Essex was approaching, and with it, a new day.
Tyler began to think about what that dream was he had this morning.
A thin man in a windowless room sits at a desk reading the newspaper. The room is sparsely barren-less, with only a few photo’s on the wall behind him. The only noise comes from the hiss of the air conditioning, and fluorescent lighting. His glasses lay on the stainless steel desk covered with various newspapers from around the world. He’s currently reading a Russian Times when a telephone call prompts him to look away from his article. He slowly closes the paper and folds it back onto the desk. He stares at the phone, perplexed as to why it would ring. He picks it up and slowly places the receiver to his ear.
“Yes.” It wasn’t a question, more of a demand. His voice was of an odd mixture, almost Russian, but with a British twist. It couldn’t be placed to any one country.
“The building you asked me to look into is ready to move in. There were a few roaches, however, I’ve cleaned them out” replies the disembodied voice.
“Excellent, you should come back to the office. I may have another piece of property for you to view” the man speaks in a monotony voice into the phone.
“I’m stuck in traffic and will be late.” The voice replies.
“Very well, when you’re back, call me.”
He places the phone back on the cradle and gives myself a slight grin. Should anyone have been able to trace that number and listen to the conversation, they would have heard of an employee looking at a new building for the employer. It was an old cold war tactic; make a code from a simple sentence. The man now knew that Jared Foster was dead and that the U.S. would keep there hands busy investigating the possible terrorist involved.
The man reaches for the phone and places the receiver to his ear. The phone automatically rings through.
“Yes?” Responds a thick Middle Eastern accent.
“Prepare your men; the U.S. will be attacking shortly.” the man states coldly.
“Sir, there is not enough time for us to prepare the airfield. It is still boarded up and I have no men in the area.” There is noise from a chopper in the background.
“Then the US will have an airfield, however that is all they will acquire…However, I do have a job for your demolitions expert.” The man’s lips curl with an evil delight.
“Sir, we have an entire squad of Special forces ready for demolitions.”
“Good,” the man swivels in his chair to the wall behind him, staring at an overhead photo of a beachhead. There are a few close-up photos’ depicting a satellite receiver and an odd looking small boxy RV. “I have a small op for them to complete.”
Chapter 5
14:30
Tyler was sitting inside one of the abandoned buildings in the village. He was rubbing the bridge of his nose, although this time, it was due to the fact that he was tired, not stressed. The scrim they had recently had his adrenaline pumping and with it fading away, he found himself slightly tired. He had a cup of coffee sitting in front of him, the steam lofting of the cup.
Leflore was sitting across from Tyler, eating one of those quick dried energy bars that the military passed out. Judging by his reaction, the MRE (meal, ready to eat) was not all that tasty. His leg was shaking up and down from the action, as if he was excitable.
Osborne was lying on the bed, in the other room. Tyler couldn’t understand that the man took out a majority of enemies with a shot, and just shrugged it off. Heavy breathing could be heard from the other room, obviously Osborne had passed out.
Grease Monkey had found and old radio, and was scanning through some radio stations. For the most part there was talking on it, however he found a station that seemed to be playing classic rock from the 60’s and 70’s. He turned the volume up, placed the radio in a bookcase behind him, and sat back in a recliner.
The doc was somewhere outside, probably having another smoke. He didn’t seem to like the fact that the enemy bodies were still laying out in the sun baking, with no one bothering to see who they were. Tyler respected the fact that the doc was a non-violent man; however, Tyler felt that if the bastards opened fire on his squad, they don’t get the respect from him. If you start asking questions about the target you’re attacking, you may hesitate, and Tyler was sure that they didn’t once question on why the US was attacking. They we’re all “infidels” and terrorists.
They had to wait at least another hour before anyone would be able to relieve them from this position. The mobile AA had broken down en-route, and required some repairs. Osborne and Grease Monkey placed some booby traps with claymores and AT-4 landmines around the area, so they felt, for the most part, secure that they wouldn’t be surprised; everything was silent inside the two room clay house.
Tyler stood up, stretching. He couldn’t stand around here inside the hut anymore, he decided to go outside and speak with Doc, to make sure he was okay. He began to walk across the room towards the door, when the glass window pane beside Grease Monkey broke and the radio fizzled and died. Tyler creased his eyebrows, staring at the now silent radio; his mind trying to register what just happened. The handle of the door began to turn and Tyler’s eyes shot across at Leflore.
Leflore dropped his bar and reached for his sidearm, raising it to the door. The door opened and Doc was standing rigid just outside, a cigarette hanging loosely from his mouth. The sun was slightly behind him, making him a dark silhouette.
Tyler’s mind suddenly slowed time down. Doc’s cigarette began to fall from his lips as Doc’s knees buckled and dropped him like a brick. The sound of silenced handgun fire began sporadically hitting the walls from the outside. Tyler, Grease Monkey, and Leflore dropped to the ground instantly. Tyler crawls over to the doc and pulled him inside. He slammed the door closed and began to flip the doc over.
Blood poured from a knife wound on his chest. Tyler removed the doc’s backpack and looked through it for supplies. He pulled out some gauze and padding from the inside, and placed it on the wound; applying pressure. Grease Monkey and Leflore moved towards the windows and began to fire wildly outside. Osborne was crawling into the room.
“What the **** is going on here” he shouted.
Tyler just gave a quick glance at Osborne and returned his attention to the Doc.
“Holy ****, how did they get by the-“Osborne began.
“Who the **** cares, now man that window and if anything moves, ****’n kill it” Tyler shouts back. “Leflore, you see anything?”
“Non, not ’ting but desert” Leflore snaps back.
Monkey halts his fire, peering his head around the side of the window every now and again.
Tyler reaches into the doc’s bag and pulls out a needle marked morphine. He injects the needle directly to doc’s chest however the blood spills from the damp red gauze. Tyler searches for more gauze padding in the backpack. He dumps the contents of the bag onto the wooden floor. No more padding.
“****” Tyler shouts.
Outside the sound of one of the boats begins, and Tyler turns to Leflore. “Get out there and shoot those ****ers.” Even before he finished the sentence, Leflore, Monkey and Osborne are rushing for the door. Osborne grabs the PKM from the table, and is the last to leave.
The doc’s eyes begin to flutter and slide up to the top of his head. Tyler feels his neck for a pulse, there’s nothing. He straddles the doc’s and begins to pump his chest with his hands. Blood begins to come out the side of his mouth, and drips to the floor.
Outside there’s more gunfire, this time from the distinctive PKM that Osborne picked up. The firing stops, and for a few moments there’s silence again.
Tyler keeps pumping doc’s chest; he hears the snap of a rib, almost like the sound of a pencil breaking in half. Tyler stops for a brief second, his eyes wide and mouth open. He leans back down and listen for a breath.
“You Mother****er; don’t you give up on me-” Tyler shouts. He can feel someone grabbing him from behind. He frantically turns and sees Osborne pulling him off. Leflore and Monkey are standing behind him, their heads hung low.
“What the **** are you doing– Get off me– He’s dying -” Tyler screams psychotically at Osborne, flailing his arms around trying to get free.
“HE’S DEAD” Osborne shouts. The words hit him like a truck; Tyler’s body suddenly stops responding to him, he can feel it getting heavier in the room. He drops to the ground, defeated. His eyes open wide, stare at the body of Doc.
Leflore pulls up Tyler from the floor, and moves him to the chair. Monkey and Osborne grab Doc and carry him off to the other room. Tyler’s eyes, unblinking, follow him. They place him down gently on the bed that Osborne was previously on, and return to the other room. Leflore looks down at Tyler and places his hand on Tyler’s shoulder.
“You did what you could. It wa’ a lethal wound. You no doctor, you can’t help ‘em” Leflore says in a deep mournful voice.
Sitting in the chair, almost disconnected with him self. Tyler stares at his hands; there covered in blood….from Doc.
Chapter 6
15:50
The mobile AA sat out front of the clay house, its engine reverberating the loose contents inside. Tyler hadn’t moved from the chair he was in, and Leflore was temporarily running the show. Osborne and Monkey had gone to show where the booby traps were laid in the surrounding area. Only a handful of men were holding around the area, fortifying the position. Tyler was just staring at his hands, the blood drying and becoming a dark crust, flaking off his skin. He hadn’t expected the shock to hit him quite as hard as it did. He had known Doc for about a year, just started to learn about his family. Now, his family would receive the generic letter from the department of defense, apologizing for their lose.
Osborne walked in, and looks over to Tyler. He grabs a chair from the table and rotates it, so its back is facing the front. He moves the chair to in front of Tyler.
“Chief…you got to understand….**** like this happens...” Osborne mentioned consolably. “I didn’t know him, but I’m sure he was a good-“
“Shut up” Tyler forces out of his mouth, his eyes looking up at Osborne’s.
“All I’m saying is, is that the doc shouldn’t have been outside alone. You’ve seen it out there, damn planes and **** within arms reach…he knew the risk, and he was stupid enough to-“Osborne never finished that sentence. Tyler, in a fit of rage, stood up and decked him clear across the face. Osborne falls to the ground.
Tyler stands over Osborne, staring down at him “I said Shut up”
Tyler starts toward the door, he glances back at Osborne as he closes the door, and sees him rubbing his chin and cursing. He heads toward Leflore directing some grunts setting up a TOW. His com link picks up some static, he can hear a voice, but with the AA powered up, he can’t make out what it was saying. He starts to walk down to the river dock.
“…AV and Satellite trailer destroyed, requesting immediate repairs at the beachhead. Enemy forces spotted in the area. I say again, UAV and Satellite trailer have been destroyed, requesting immediate repairs at the beachhead. Echo squad, can you hear me?”
Tyler taps his LOSAR, “Affirmative, Echo Squad on our way.”
“You’re the finest squad I’ve ever seen” replies the commander.
Tyler mutters under his breath “Go **** Yourself.” Luckily the transmit button wasn’t pushed.
Tyler looks down at his PDA and zooms into the beachhead that they held. He selects the repair icon and places it onto the beachhead and then taps transmit. He looks up and sees Leflore walking over to him. Leflore just taps a button on his PDA without even viewing the new objective.
“We goin hunt’n?” Leflore asks taking a drag from his smoke.
“We need to do some repairs before we’re back in the fight” Tyler grabs the pack of smokes off Leflore and lights one up.
“So, we ARE goin hunt’n” Leflore states exhaling.
“What do you mean?” Tyler questions.
Leflore takes off his PDA and rotates it towards Tyler. He zooms out from the beachhead showing the general area.
“This is where we are,” pointing to the map, “and we own the oilfield south of us, and the airfield behind us.” Leflore points out the area’s on the PDA.
Tyler’s eyebrows crease, if there was a point, he wasn’t getting it yet. Leflore seems to get that Tyler wasn’t understanding it yet.
“The only way to get to the beachhead safely is by boat. Osborne and I were shooting it as a group headed north from us…..TOWARDS the beachhead.”
It suddenly dawned on Tyler what Leflore was stating. “We can kill the bastards that got Doc.” Leflore closes his eyes and slowly nods his head.
“Get everyone locked and loaded. We’re going to go Hunt’n” Tyler’s could say the words fast enough; he had a new energy flowing through him. He was vowed and determined to put a bullet through the MEC bastard that killed Doc.
Chapter 7
17:45
The sun was playing its dance along the horizon of Zatar. Long shadows were pressing the ground from the trees and birds from overhead. Tyler was manning the large machinegun on the front of the boat, as Leflore drove along the water. Osborne was hanging off the side, removing whatever contents were inside him. Monkey had his wrench out, working on the motor as they passed along the stiff ripple less water.
Tyler saw an empty boat ahead of him on the left side; he raised his arm and pointed towards it. Leflore slowed down and placed the boat up on the shore of dirt. Everyone exited and crouched low, scanning the area.
“What’s the plan chief” Osborne was wiping of spit away from his mouth. Tyler hadn’t even thought of a plan, his thoughts consumed with killing the MEC. Leflore pipes in “Osborne, take that south hill, and watch over us. We need to protect Monkey while he repairs the equipment”.
Tyler mind focused on the task at hand. “Must protect Monkey, and kill those bastards”.
Osborne moves off towards the direction of the hill, his rifle shouldered as he withdraws his handgun. They start to move north towards some low lying brick wall.
As they move closer to their position, the low rumble of machinery increases. Tyler looks down at his PDA, it reflects back no friendly signal in the area. “Damn, MEC stole our ****”.
Sure enough, as they approach, the turret of a LAV swivels around, scanning the area. They keep low and approach the low wall. Tyler chirps in to the headset “We need a bomber at this location”. The sound of the approaching LAV is now close to deafening. The headset chirps back, but Tyler couldn’t hear, he swings his head towards the group. Both Leflore and Monkey shake there heads, not understanding the transmission.
The LAV noise begins to move away, backing up from it’s position. Tyler turns to the group “As soon as we have chance, dive over and head straight for the UAV trailer. Leflore, you and I will cover Monkey as –“Osborne’s voice chirps in “GET OUT OF THERE, NOW”
They stand and bolt towards the river, as they make a mad dive into the water, artillery fire drops behind them. Tyler can feel the heat from the explosions on his face. The stone wall they were behind, completely shatters into dust. Tyler looks down at his PDA, seeing an artillery marker place just in front of where they were.
Osborne chirps in, “you alive”?
Monkey responds back, “yeah”.
As the smoke and debris settle, they make a bee line straight for the UAV. Leflore lands face first into the dirt staring from the left side, as Tyler drops and stares from the right. Monkey pries open a panel and starts his work with a wrench. He goes into his backpack and pulls out some wiring and battery solder kit. “I need more supplies here” he turns to Tyler.
“Requesting supply drop at these coordinates” Tyler transmits out. There’s a pause for a minute. “Roger, supply drop in your area” comes the commander’s voice.
Out of the sky drops a wooden crate, as Monkey begins to work feverishly on the trailer. With a crackle of sparks and flash of light the UAV Trailer begins to hum again. Monkey grabs stock out of the supply crate and turns toward Tyler.
“Done here, let grab the scanner”
Tyler nods and looks over at Leflore. They both crouch and scan the area, nothing but an abandoned beachhead. Tyler began o think that the MEC cowards had ran off when Osborne’s rifle echoed off the surrounding structures. Osborne chirped in “3 over at the scanner, I took one down”.
The group made a mad dash towards the nearest cover. As they dove behind an abandoned shell of a car, rifle fire came from behind them. The loud crack of Osborne’s rifle shooting off became more and more ever present. Leflore glanced over towards the scanner, and saw a man, lying down on the far side; with a click of his rifle, he rasie the sights of his M203. He fires off a shot towards the general direction and see’s a man flying from the shock blast.
“You two flank around, I’ll provide cover fire” Tyler orders.
Monkey and Leflore move towards the far side of the building. Tyler drops his bi-pod and unlocks his rifle. He rests the bull stock onto his shoulder and scans the area. One shot goes high and wide over his head, and he tracks the bullet down to an old building. He pulls the trigger and releases the bullets from the dormant rest.
*****
Leflore and Monkey hear the PKM off around the corner and start to make a mad dash towards the scanner. As the begin to enter a clear open area, a MEC solider spins around a corner, hidden from view. Leflore turns his rifle towards him and pulls the trigger. CLICK. He didn’t reload the M203, his eyes go wide. Monkey places his hand on Leflores shoulder and Leflore drops instinctively to the floor. Monkey, with his handgun, double-taps the trigger. Two bullet holes appear in the MEC’s body, one in the neck, the other in the head.
Leflore, reloading his M203, starts up and the two begin to sprint towards the scanner. Leflore and Monkey do a flying leap and dive over the debris of the scanner, and rotate 180 degrees, back towards the area. Monkey slides behind the scanner and opens the control panel.
*****
Tyler pours round for round into the building he believes the shot came from. The heat from the PKM begins to overwhelm him and he releases the trigger, sliding back behind the building. “Requesting UAV” he yells into his mike.
“Negative, UAV already in flight” responds the commander.
“****” Tyler reloads the PKM and moves back around the corner of the building.
*****
Monkey smashes the scanner with his wrench. “I need more parts” he turns to Leflore. “I’ll be right back”
Leaving his kit behind, Monkey makes a mad dash towards to supply crate.
*****
Tyler see’s movement coming from his left side, a body running towards him. He turns his sight towards the movement. It’s a man running towards him; his mind starts to race,
“Kill him”
“He doesn’t have a weapon”
“Shoot him before he kills you”
“He could have a grenade…”
“They killed Doc…SHOOT HIM”
Tyler lines his shot up.
*****
Monkey makes a zigzag line back towards Tyler and the supply crate. He needed parts for the repair and then the scanner would be working again. Monkey had tunnel vision as he bolted towards Tyler. He saw Tyler swing towards him; “****, is someone behind me?”
*****
The UAV kicks in over on the groups PDA. Tyler does a half glance down and sees no red dots in the area. Before his mind has grasped the reality, his finger slips down on the trigger, and shots fire out.
*****
Monkey hears the bullets as they whiz by his head. He makes a dive off to the right into a hill.
“CHECK YOUR FIRE” he shouts out towards Tyler.
*****
Tyler releases the trigger a hair too late, 3 rounds shoot out towards Monkey. His eyes gaze towards where Monkey was standing. His thoughts were washed away with the sudden rational explanation of what just happened. He can hear Monkey shout at him, as he exhales his breath slowly.
*****
The UAV scanning the area picks up a blip coming in from the road. The LAV that was blocking the group is starting to move back again. Leflore looks over at Monkey’s kit and grabs the AT-landmines attached to it. He makes a bolt towards the road and begins to arm them.
The LAV lumbers down the road slowly, the turret pre-occupied with the hill that Osborne was located. As it moves back towards the beachhead, Leflore dives out of the way of the road, back behind a tree. The wheel of the LAV connects with the mine, as the LAV flips and explodes into a fiery shell.
*****
A Blackhawk descends onto the beachhead, blasting the sand into the group’s eyes. Tyler, Osborne, Monkey and Leflore all hop aboard. The chopper lifts off and returns back to the Essex. Monkey had fixed the scanner, and the other squads had held the points of command. It was just a matter of finding the remaining soldiers and disarming them.
Tyler leaned back into the chopper and stared at his squad. They were tired and restless, and deserved a break. Tyler thought about retirement, making Leflore handle the squad now. He was sure Osborne would head off in another direction. He had a new respect for him. Osborne and Leflore were chatting together having a smoke, laughing. Monkey sat there reading a Dan Brown novel, deep in thought.
Off in the view, the Essex was approaching, and with it, a new day.
Tyler began to think about what that dream was he had this morning.
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