Enlistedby IVY MIKEChaptersahhh crap.....i'm alive?...more killing....almost homeleave it all behindahhh crap.....It's just another routine patrol around the city, you take time to admire the inhabitants as they live in their adobe brick houses and do whatever they can to survive in this terrorist run shit-hole. "How much longer are we staying in town with the dune-coons?" your rainbow-mained friend says a little irritantly. "Cuz I miss what little trigger-time I'm allowed." "Well, what did you expect after last week's incident?" you say jokingly. "Hey, those old ladies had bomb vests on before I shot them and you know it!" "Yep, they sure did, and they were also sneeky enough to get rid of them before they hit the ground after taking your hoof to their faces." you say with a dark chuckle. As you two go about your banter the pony on the M2 mounted to the roof of your Hummer scans the roof tops and tries to see whats causing the rolling dust clouds in the close hillside just on the outskirts of the city. You've always called him "Skin", probably because 90% of his left foreleg has 3rd degree burns up it. The two boys (barely out of highschool) in the back were joking back and forth about banging eachother's sisters. Meanwhile, in the hillside Skin was scanning, a man wrapped in his towels and rags was sliding the bolt on his .50cal sniper rifle into place and is now calculating his shot aimed at your vehicle. Whatever conversations were going on were immediately cut off by the *KER-CHUNK* of metal being punched through and your vehicle sputtering and dieing whilst coming to a complete stop. Skin, peering over his belt-fed, notices a hole the size of a baseball in the center of the hood. "Ahhh crap...." he says with a grimace. "Guys, this ain't lookin' too good. Load up your....." Before he can finish his sentence the back of his head explodes into a slurry of brain and skull fragments, spraying his machine gun and the top of the hummer. His body falls through the hatch, he was standing in when he was on his gun, and he lies on the floor in the cab exposing the gaping hole in his head where his right eye used to be. In an instant men were pouring out of the houses lining the street, like ants with assault rifles. Rainbow Dash and you grab your M4's and take cover behind some concrete road barriers while one of the kids in the Hummer takes mount on the M2, and starts tearing up the street's inhabitants with it, while the other tries to radio for reinforcements. Gunfire quickly becomes the new ambient noise as you are forced to shout back and forth just so you can make out what is being said. "LOOKS LIKE YOU GOT WHAT YOU WISHED FOR DASH!" you say in an 'I told you so' voice. "YEA, WELL AT LEAST IT'S NOT DUSTY OLD TERRORIST WOMEN THIS TIME!" she says with a smile that shows she's trying to enjoy this mayhem. "HA HAAA, THEY'RE ALL DUSTY DAMN IT!" you shout, showing your dark sense of humor. Just as you finish that sentence a man armed with an RPG took aim and sent his rocket towards your Hummer and filled most of the cab with propellant fueled fire. The blast disintegrated the radio kid inside and sent the one, operating the belt-fed, flying 20ft. down the street. You hear his cries of terror as you notice two bloody stumps where his knees used to be. Making a quick decision you sprint towards the, now crippled and going into shock, kid and shout. "COVER ME WHILE I GET THE BLEEDER!" "WHAT?!" Rainbow Dash shouts while blind-firing her M4 over the barrier. As you grab the kid by the collar on his body armor, which didn't help at all in the explosion, and drag him into the nearest alley you signal for Dash to follow you. She grabs the ammo bag, which can last about 2 days, and comes galloping towards you. Noticing the man with the RPG who blew up the Hummer aiming in her general dircetion, not even letting her slow down to turn into the alley, you immediately yank her by her shirt into the alley. She lands on top of you, burying her face into your chest, just as the rocket explodes into the ground and causes your ears to ring so horribly it drowns out all other sound, including the death cries coming from the legless teen who is now spasming like an iguana's tail after it had been severed. Drawing the Beretta from your side holster, you aim it at the opening in the alley you came through because you can hear the shouts coming from the towel-heads growing louder and nearer. Rainbow Dash, hearing this as well, rolls off of you and draws her M4 and says. "Grab the kid if you think he'll make it. Otherwise we're leaving him." Now sitting up, you look over your shoulder at the lifeless corpse right behind you with foam dripping from it's mouth. The shouts and ramblings are getting closer, as you slowly stand up a grenade rolls into the alley with it's pin pulled. Without hesitating, in one single motion, you toss the corpse on top of the grenade and run with Rainbow Dash into the winding maze of back alleys of the city. As you sprint through the narrow corridors, dodging gun and mortar fire, you knock men and children back into their houses with sharp elbows and gun stocks. You aimlessly choose your path hoping to lose the crowd of men firing at you. You constantly have to dart left and right as the tops of houses are bombed out and bullets whiz by your head and embed themselves into your body armor. The mortar blasts are getting more accurate as they start blowing out roof tops of houses right next to you. The horrible crash of the explosions deafens you and the pressure waves constantly try to knock you off balance while you keep one eye on your friend and the other on the the path you're taking. You've been running for what feels like hours and the pounding sensation in your chest isn't helping. Coming to an opening that leads to a town center, you slow down to catch your breath and realize that the mortars and gunfire have stopped. Everything is eerily quiet and every single door and window is shut, completely cutting off the inhabitants from the havoc that is about to ensue. The children that are usually out playing games or staring at you because of your hardware and your "Fuck off." attitude are nowhere to be seen. Dirt clouds around your ankles roll through the street as you look for any signs of life. Just at that moment, while she was scanning, Dash sees something and shouts at you while rolling for cover into a partially blown up house. Before you actually realize whats happening a rocket explodes into the wall of a house you were standing next to. The blast was severe enough to send you flying to the left and against the wall. You feel yourself in a drunken daze, and completely winded, as you stare at your bloody palms and jacket as the sound of gunfire fades away. You watch bullet holes appear in the walls and street while everything grows quiet. Your eyes grow heavy, and so does your head as it slouches onto your shoulder, and everything slips into darkness. i'm alive?...You awaken to the sounds and feeling of being dragged across a dirt floor. Opening your eyes you can see you still have your legs, hoping not to end up like the kid you tossed on the grenade. Your head slouches back and rests on a foreleg thats got a grip on the collar of your armor vest. Staring at the ceiling you try to call out to Rainbow Dash, hoping shes the one dragging you, and hoping that you're not in an even bigger world of shit than you're in already. Your call comes out as an unintelligible groan of pain and exhaustion that causes your dragger to suddenly stop and prop your head up on something soft. Your friend is now sitting right next to you and facing you, teary eyed and scared. It's a relief to see her, but you know why her expression is so pitiful. "I thought you weren't coming back..." she says sniffling. You try to force a smile while you rest your hand on her hoof. "Don't...worry... I'm not..going..anywhere." As you say that her lip quivers and she wipes a smudge off your face. Looking at her hoof you can tell she was wiping blood, that was leaking out of your mouth, off your chin. "Huh, guess I wasn't supposed to come back..... look how well that plan went." you say with a low crackle in your voice. She tries to smile at that remark, but her eyes continue to tear up and the tears roll down her cheeks. The expression on your face drops as you notice her starting to cry over your near-death experience. "Hey.." you say sitting up and leaning against the wall to your left. "C'mere Dash." you finish your sentence and open your arms a little for a hug. Without hesitating she rushes in to hug you and buries her snout into your shoulder and lets loose the tears she has been holding back ever since she thought she saw you get blown up. Wrapping your arms around her waist, you rest your head next to hers and whisper in her ear. "Dash, you know we're both going home after this. And neither of us is going in a box. Please don't cry." The sniffling stops for the time being as she looks at you with bright, still teary, eyes that remind you of those years in highschool when you two were inseparable. You still are, but the memories reminded you anyway. "I know, but... when I saw you hit the wall... I thought I'd just watched you die..." Looking at the saddest face you'd ever seen your expression turns to one of "let down." "Dash..." trying to think of something to say to try and cheer her up "I'm too damn ornery to die.." She wipes her nose and smiles at you through the tears. You lightly kiss her nose without thinking of the repercussions of your actions. After realizing that you just kissed your best friend it occured to you that she might have feelings for you. While you two were hugging you'd felt your chest stirring, but just blamed it on the explosion messing with your internals. "Oh shit..." you think to yourself "What if she DOES like me? What if I just made it awkward for her?......" Without realizing whats happening outside of your mind, you feel the soft caress of a pony's lips against yours. As your mind catches up with reality and realizes whats happening you take one hand away from her waist and run it through her mane. She shudders from the feeling and presses her chest into yours. Your mind enters a state of bliss as you feel a warm wet tongue curiously run across your lips. You give the pleasnt intruder entry and enter your tongues into an ever twisting dance of animalism. You take your hand that was running through her mane and slide it down her back towards her rump. You take a firm, but enjoyable, grip on it and she giggles at the motion. Sliding off the wall and onto the ground, letting your head rest on the rolled blanket she'd propped it on earlier, you get her to lie on top of you without breaking lips. You stay in that position for what feels like an eternity, an eternity you'd love to stay in. After both of you're tongues are too tired to continue the kiss breaks and you both look into eachother's eyes and smile. She lies down, still on top of you, and her head comes to a rest right over your heart as she drifts off to sleep. You gaze at the ceiling hoping to sleep with her, but sleep never comes and now you find yourself in a staring contest with the ceiling. A contest you think your winning. Having lost track of time you look out the window across the room and see that the stars are out. The bright jewels in the night sky are an amazing sight, but it's nothing compared to the cuteness of the rainbow maned mare asleep on your, rising and falling, chest. Your friend... no, you can't say that... you love her. The only appropriate description would be to call her your love. The mare you love stirs in her sleep and almost rolls off of you, but not before you wrap a protective arm around her. You rest your head back down on the blanket roll, and slowly you can feel yourself drifting off to sleep. So this is love... sleeping in enemy territory with somepony whos saved your life, on more than one occasion, and some how you've never felt more safe. For some unknown reason the troubles of a hard world are put aside and you have the whole night to enjoy every moment of this. This is love and you wouldn't have it any other way... well maybe minus a bullet wound or two. And now...... sleep... you know what has to happen tomorrow if you want this to last. more killing....Slowly awakening to the sound of a muffled conversation somewhere behind you, you open your eyes and see two shadows in a square of sunlight on the dirt floor (one of a man and one of a pony). You slept the whole night right under a window...the conversation wasn't heated, but one of the men sounded irritated and he was pointing at objects off in the distance with his rifle. "Hey, Dash." you whisper trying not to be heard by the two outside. "Daaaash, we gotta move quietly." She slowly opens her eyes looks over at you and gives you a sleepy smile. The smile quickly fades and turns stern as she looks out the window and sees what you've been hearing. She looks back at you when you put a finger over your lips to silently make a "shh" sign. She rolls off of you and slides up against the wall, not letting her carbine hit the ground, and motions for you to shimmy down the wall and into the next room. "Hey, wheres my weapon?" you say quietly while drawing the knife from your chest holster. "Oh crap, it's in the room where we slept. Sorry I didn't think of it." "Nah, it's alright. I was just making sure I still had it, those two in there need to go quietly." you say eyeing your knife. Dropping all of your excess gear to prevent any noise, you slowly move into the room while staying crouched and lean up against the wall right underneath the window. Contemplating how you're going to get both of them with one knife, a stroke of luck occurs, the conversation ends and the pony trots away. Your heart begins to race as you develope your plan, this has to take place in a split second or you're screwed. You rotate the knife so the blade faces you for slitting as you count down in your head. Three.....Two....One.. Shooting up to a stand you're right behind him, your left hand wraps under his chin and jerks his head backwards and the knife in your other hand rams down into his left jugular. As quickly as you stabbed him you yank him through the window and onto the floor while tearing your knife to the right, giving him a smile ear-to-ear, and letting out a quick spray that turns a small potion of the wall into modern art. He lies there in the dirt, gurgling the blood that is collecting in his throat and pouring out onto the ground, his eyes twitching back and forth around the room... looking for help you guess... You're not sure what is possessing you to do this, maybe just your inner beast breaking out, but as you stare at him your right foot raises about 2ft. over his face. Without hesitating you put all of your weight into this one sudden stomp that caves in his face with a sickening wet crunch. Looking over to the doorway you shimmied through you see Dash with a slightly worried look that shows you she witnessed the twisted spectacle that just occured. "Uhh... are you ok babe?" she asks cautiously. Looking down at the man you'd just broken you start shuffling your feet. "Yea, I'll be ok... I just need to get out of this hole.." you say a little glumly. You wipe your knife off on the dead guy's shirt and holster it. Picking up your M4 you top off the ammo and wait for her to join you by the doorway. "I never thanked you for dragging me in here." "I'll take last night as just one big 'Thank you' if thats ok with you." she says pecking your cheek. "Plus you pulled me out of the way of that rocket, sooo that makes us even." "Heh, yea.... c'mon I think I can see Base from here." and with that the pony that left so you could stab his friend came back and now he's staring at you from his post. He attempts to let out shout for intruders, but he's quickly cut off with a double-tap from your M4. The two rounds bury themselves in his skull causing him to slunk to the ground. Both of you crouch in the shadows in the nearest alley and wait for his reinforcements to appear, but close to a minute later everything is still silent. "Alright, let's move." she says confidently. Still crouching, you move along the walls towards your destination and always anticipating another ambush. Trying to keep a decent pace, your paranoia periodically makes you stop in your tracks and listen for footsteps or the sound of a weapon being loaded or cocked. "At this rate it'll take us a week to get back..." she says irritantly, but she understands why. "I know I know.... just don't want to poke the hornet's nest any more than I have to." you say with a 'submitted' tone. Just as you finish your sentence a small group of mulisha walk out of an alley about 20ft. ahead of you. You dart away from the wall towards a torched car while spraying their gerenal area with your assault rifle. This gets their attention immediately, especially because two of them are now writhing in pain on the ground, and thats what you wanted. "Focus on me, not her... I gotcha' bitch." That thought runs through your head as you quickly pick off two more mulisha. Dash, noticing what your plan is, playfully feels left out and decides she needs to get in on this. Quickly pulling a grenade off her belt she pulls the pin and cooks it for two seconds, then lobs it right behind the last one standing. Him reloading was enough of a distraction to prevent him from noticing what was about to happen. Quickly noticing his disposition you aim for his knee and blow it out causing him to fall and curl up right over the grenade. A split second later it goes off and blows him in half. His legs go up in the air and land on someone's roof, that'll be a nice surprise, and his torso skitters down the street in your direction and lands equal distance between you and Dash. You run towards her and she jumps on you, wrapping her forelegs around your neck, and you wrap your arms around her as well. "That was sooo awsome!" she screams with excitement. "But don't you ever get shot at to protect me again..." she finishes her thought with a light growl. "Mmmmm... no. I've considered your request AND I refuse politely." you joke with her and stick your tongue out smiling. "Ugh, fine, but please don't get shot. I've already seen you get blown up and I don't want to go through that again." she says with a look of heartache. "Hey, look at me. I've said it before and I'll say it again. 'I am not going anywhere.' Ok?" And with that she gives a slow and gentle kiss that makes you regret waiting to get blown up to kiss her. The hug breaks soon after the kiss does and you let her down gently. "Now come on, I don't think we have to be quiet anymore. Plus we can be back at base before it gets dark." almost homeNormallly after an ambush tensions would be high, but for some reason you no longer feel the need hug the wall while you stroll up the street. The farther you get from your combat sight the more you see kids out playing games together and the occasional fried "mystery product" stands appear more frequently. Your whole walk is spent chatting about some of the best times you've had in country and your memories in highschool. The smell of kebabs and rice pilaus fills the air while you reminisce with her. Judging from the fact that you haven't eaten since noon yesterday, plus the audible grumbling of your stomachs, you figure (after some consideration) it's time you held up a food cart. "So who do you think needs robbing, Dash?" you say looking back and forth for a suitable candidate. "I'm not sure...wasn't there some pissy old man who spat in our rice one time?" "Yea, but I still ate it..." you say not caring about the possible horrible disease you had ingested. "You're disgusting babe." she says plainly. "All day, every day." you joke with a toothy grin. "Hey! There he is." she says excitedly "Let's go get lunch!" She trots off, without waiting for you, towards the cart that sat jumbled in with the rest of the merchant stands in the bazaar. You catch up to her and find her, surprisingly, waiting in line behind 4 or 5 people. "Uhh, what are we waiting for?" you question. "Well, since you asked, we're here to ruin his day. Not everybody else's." "You do realize we're going to rob him for meat on a stick, right?" "So? Wouldn't you be traumatized if some stranger with a gun robbed your favorite crappy street vendor?" "Nah... I'm pretty sure I'd laugh while I finished my lunch." By the time you're finished with your banter everyone in line had left with their food and you realize it's your time to order. "We'll take five kebabs to go." you say while nonchalantly stabbing your knife into his wooden tabletop. Just as you finish your sentence a group six men, in a circle formation with five on the outside and one in the center, stroll into the bazaar with a fearless look in the eyes of all of them. The man in the front of the formation begins to announce to the crowd in his native language with a tone that reminded you of a preacher trying to spead "the good word." After about a good five minutes of preaching, as soon as it started you had taken your knife back, the circle of men (and two ponies) broke. After the man in the center was fully exposed you noticed that, from the way his face was built, he should be a lot skinnier than he was. His cloth shawl had noticably large bulge that wrapped all the around his torso and it was block shaped. "Oh crap... this is happening isn't it..." is the thought that runs through your head when the bulky man spreads his arms out in opposite directions and calls out to everybody in the bazaar. People crowd around him cautiously and exchange worried glances along with hushed chatter. His voice gets louder as he speaks faster with more emotion in his tone. "Dash we need to move, NOW!!! You grab her by her collar while she was nabbing the kebabs (and completely ignoring what was obviously a bombing) and jerk her towards the direction you were running. You turn the nearest corner you find and crouch behind it for cover. The man armed with the vest raised both of his arms to the sky and said a few final words..he detonates. The blast destroys the entire bazaar, which you were on the edge of, and fills whats left with a massive cloud of dirt, blood, and clothing fragments. Stepping out from your shelter you can see the miniature mushroom cloud looming about 30 ft. over what used to be a crowd of people. What remains of the crowd is now just a pile of singed and bloodied clothes, scattered limbs, and strewn intestines. Walking through ground zero the cloud, of what used to be people, leaves the taste of rotting meat in your mouth and the smell of sulfur in your nostrils. "This must be what hell is like... what do you think?" you ask with a mild amount of anger. "I'm not sure, but it's shit like this that makes me punch old women in public..." she says slightly gritting her teeth. "We need hurry the hell up and leave this hole... hand me one those kebabs." You both make your way through the wreckage and out the other side to crowd of people staring at you as you walked away from all of the death and destruction behind you. A few of them point and gasp at you and you can only assume that they're all blaming you for what just went on. "They're probably going to get more mulisha.... and we're probably going to get shot at again..." she says it like killing is a chore. "And guess what Dash." "What?" "I'm going to draw all of their attention away from you, again. And I'm going to get shot at to keep you safe, again." you say teasingly. "Didn't I tell you not to do that ever again?" she says with a worried look. "Nooooo..... maybe...." She glares at you. "Yes..." you say with a defeated tone. "Well? What makes you think I'm going to let you do that?" "Cuz you looove me." you say trying to cheer her up. Her look softens a little, but it saddens as well. "Look, Dash, if you care for me that much then imagine how I feel about you..." She's surprised at that statement and her jaw drops, it's obvious, that thought had never dawned on her. I guess she thought that you pictured taking all of the aggro in a fight as a game.... or something similar. All of your onlookers had gone back to their homes so now it was just the two of you in the street. "Dash, I love you... I can't put it anyway else because theres no other to put it." She rushes in to hug you and nearly knocks you off your feet. You hold her in your arms and wrap them around her waist then nuzzle her cheek. She giggles at the gesture and bites your ear. "How long have you felt that way?" she whispers. "I don't know, but I'm sure it's been longer than when I came to realize it." "I love you too." she finishes her sentence with a gentle kiss to your lips then she softly bites your lower lip. "I'm still going to get shot at for you." you say smiling at her. "I know..." she says with a sigh. "But..." "Ugh.." you chuckle. "And a third time I say it. I'm not going anywhere." "You promise?" "I haven't lied to you yet... except for that time I farted in the hummer and said I couldn't roll down the window." you say pretending to be in deep thought. She licks your face and laughs. "I knew it!.... that was disgusting by the way." Just at that moment you notice her cringe and drop down on her hind leg. It's obvious why once you see her leg, there are five small bleeding holes in a scattered formation. "Those look like grenade shrapnel wounds Dash." "Oh, those were from the grenade I tossed into the last group we ran into. I'll be fine." she says a little embarrassed. "Yeeeaaa...no." smiling, you hoist her up so that you're cradling her. "I'm going to carry you back to base. It's only about an hour from here... Oh, and if anyone shoots at us you're our only defense, so don't screw up!" you say laughing obnoxiously. "Well, aren't you a gentleman?" she says sarcasticly laughing then pecks your cheek. You begin, what you hope is the final stretch, your walk down the street and see the torched hummer you drove in before the ambush. "Well at least we know where we're going." "Oh did the H1 give it away? Or did the legless body with the massive hole in his chest?" "This is going to be a fun walk." you think to yourself as you two constantly throw light hearted insults back and forth. The position of the sun is telling you it's about 3 p.m. Maybe the afternoon sun will be a little warmer than the early morning sun. It should be autum this time of year, but then again nothing has really gone 'according to plan' recently. However you're walking to a camp, with the one you love in your arms, with an airport which will send you two home after a good night's rest and 'other physical pursuits.' All in all, this wasn't your worst mission. Not by far. leave it all behindWalking down the street with her in your arms your mind begins to wander. The thoughts running through your head drift from one fantasy to another. They usually involve you and her lying in a field or forest, with exasperated looks on your faces, right after some fiery act of passion. You hope that something similar will happen, after you get her leg checked out, when you get home and are finally able to relax away from all of this mayhem. Since you probably won't ever come back to this hole the thought of what you'll do for a job when you rotate back to the world comes to mind.... probably private security... habits, like shooting people for a living, die hard. "How's your leg?" you ask a little concerned "Well, either I can't feel it anymore or it just doesn't hurt enough for me to notice. I'll be fine til they try to pull all the pieces out." "Why until then?" "Cuz I know for a fact that they'll treat it as an emergency and they won't wait for the anesthesia." "Oh that'll be fun, won't it?" "Yeeaa, and by the way, when they're operating I'm probably going to break your hand from squeezing it." she says with a nervous smile. "Hey I have no problems being there with you when it happens. If it hurts you can squeeze all you want." "Thanks..." her expression shows she's a little blue. "I'd usually end up in there alone, I'm really glad to know I can always count on you." she has a sad smile on. "Hehe, didn't the whole 'me getting shot at' scenarios demonstrate a bit of that?" "Please, don't remind me." she says still keeping her smile. The conversation stays light hearted while the both of you enjoy your leisurely stroll. Trying not to let her notice you, you slowly scan the alley ways you walk by and the street corners where men just stand and stare. Maybe you'll get lucky and you won't get shot at on your walk, but with your luck you'll probably end up hauling ass down the street with Dash firing at mulisha over your shoulder. Normally, in the back of your mind, you'd find yourself unintentionally hoping for some form of conflict, but for some reason you catch yourself and realize that now's not the best time. Still, if anything does arise, you have complete and total trust in her accuracy and quick trigger hoove. "They're staring at us, aren't they?" she says irritated. "Yea... they are... They're also asking for FMJ's to be buried in their skulls." you say gesturing towards some men through a window wearing ski-masks . "I almost tempted to let you open up on them, but today's not the day to go pick a fight.... let's just try and keep to ourselves." "Fine, but if anyone stops us or even looks like they're pointing a weapon at us, I won't even think twice about emptying this magazine." god... even with shrapnel damage she's feisty as ever. "Heh..." she's not joking. "I'm cool with that, just don't point it at them until you plan on killing them." And with that your luck goes down the proverbial drain. 2 men and 3 ponies, with ski masks and rifles, walk onto the street and form a mini- blockade about 10 feet in front of you. Damnit.... Well, so much for not getting shot at today... "Can I point this at them now?" she asks sarcastically. "Yea, go ahead. Just don't hit anyone else." "You mean aside from old terrorist women?" she says with a giggle. "Most definately. Theres still a few mags left in your bag, right?" "Yea, I got enough to deal with these clowns." "Just checkin'. I'm going to end up running from one side of the street to another, hope you're accurate on strafing runs." "Well we'll find out now won't we?" she says smirking. At this moment the two of you and the blockade were just eyeing eachother while she gripped her M4. Hope she's ready. You pivot on your left foot and haul off towards the alley that is now in front of you, while she hosed down their end of the street. As soon as you hit cover she reloads while you walk a small distance into the alley for a head start to pick up speed on the next run. Right as she chambers the first round you take off running to the opposite side of the street and she begins draining her magazine into the ones still standing. "Did you get them all?" you ask now in the other alley. "Not sure, why don't you take a peek?" You lean out from the alley just enough to see where they used to be standing. Now there is just a pile of bodies squirming on the ground and groaning in pain. "Well... they're not dead, but you got em'." You walk over to them and discover that she'd shot them all in the stomach. They were all curled up in the fetal position as they bled on the ground and you knew they weren't going to reach for their rifles, they were too preoccupied at the moment. It's probably a good idea to shoot them at this point, but you're pretty sure they'll have more fun if you just left them how you found them. "So, am I going finish it?" "Naaah, they're enjoying themselves. Let's not ruin it for them, plus we still need to get your leg checked out and plan on being home before the week is out." And once again you start up the street, but no one stops you this time, with her still in your arms. The conversation from this point on is just the two of you pointing out the places you've raided, or the still bombed out buildings you had taken an AT-4 to. Despite the nostalgia, you aren't going to miss this place. Now that you think about it, pretty much the only thing that made this livable was her company. As the setting sun turns a dark orange you find yourself just strolling into camp like it was just any other day. Other crews, who you've hung out with between rotations, begin badgering you about where you've been for the past 2 days and why Dash's leg has holes in it, and why your vest has a giant blood smear on it, and why you aren't answering any of them. You walk into the infirmary and lie her down on the nearest bed and begin yelling for a medic. Your shouting is met with two medics in dirty lab coats and one of them was holding a syringe and the other a metal tray with some instruments. You reassuringly take her hoof while they give her the injection and wrap a tourniquet above the wound cluster. "Don't worry, I'll be here with you the whole time." you say as she shuts her eyes. "I know... I know... Just don't let go.." "Never.." you say as you kiss her forehead. The medics take about an hour and a half to get every last little fragment dug out of her leg, and through out the whole thing she never let loose her grip on your hand. They finish their work and bandage up the wounds and leave you two alone. She scoots over to make room for you and you wrap your arms around her and lie there with her in almost complete quiet. You almost fall completely asleep before you feel a hard tap on your shoulder, followed by an "Ahem." You roll over and are greeted by the image of your commanding officer holding what you hope is yours and hers relief papers. Almost falling out of the bed you quickly stand at attention. "It's been an honor serving with you two, but right now it's clear to me that you both need to go home." he says 'matter of factly.' "Thank you sir. We'll hopefully be headed out in the morning." "At ease. Happy trails corporal." he says then walks out. Lying back down with Dash you kiss her neck, wrap your arm around her, and settle in for the night. "We're going home Dash...we're goin' home." Sunlight slowly creeps in through the windows, which were just holes blown out in the walls, and awakens you to the picture of a beautiful rainbow mane that smelled of two days of gunfire.... magnificient. You find yourself lying awake just waiting for her to wake with you. You really want to get home today, but for some reason this seems more important to you. You only need to wait another hour before she rolls over and faces you with those beautiful pink eyes. "Mornin' beautiful." you say still a little sleepy. She puts her hoof on your cheek and kisses you. "Mornin'." she says with a smile. Your morning is spent gathering all of your gear and saying your goodbyes to the crews that you hung out with. It carries on a little slowly, but you don't mind because you're leaving all of this behind soon. It's noon now and the both of you are in the back of an escort jeep on the airstrip that'll drop you off at your ride home. It's going to be a long ride home, but you both have eachother to keep company and that.... that's all that matters anymore.
ahhh crap.....It's just another routine patrol around the city, you take time to admire the inhabitants as they live in their adobe brick houses and do whatever they can to survive in this terrorist run shit-hole. "How much longer are we staying in town with the dune-coons?" your rainbow-mained friend says a little irritantly. "Cuz I miss what little trigger-time I'm allowed." "Well, what did you expect after last week's incident?" you say jokingly. "Hey, those old ladies had bomb vests on before I shot them and you know it!" "Yep, they sure did, and they were also sneeky enough to get rid of them before they hit the ground after taking your hoof to their faces." you say with a dark chuckle. As you two go about your banter the pony on the M2 mounted to the roof of your Hummer scans the roof tops and tries to see whats causing the rolling dust clouds in the close hillside just on the outskirts of the city. You've always called him "Skin", probably because 90% of his left foreleg has 3rd degree burns up it. The two boys (barely out of highschool) in the back were joking back and forth about banging eachother's sisters. Meanwhile, in the hillside Skin was scanning, a man wrapped in his towels and rags was sliding the bolt on his .50cal sniper rifle into place and is now calculating his shot aimed at your vehicle. Whatever conversations were going on were immediately cut off by the *KER-CHUNK* of metal being punched through and your vehicle sputtering and dieing whilst coming to a complete stop. Skin, peering over his belt-fed, notices a hole the size of a baseball in the center of the hood. "Ahhh crap...." he says with a grimace. "Guys, this ain't lookin' too good. Load up your....." Before he can finish his sentence the back of his head explodes into a slurry of brain and skull fragments, spraying his machine gun and the top of the hummer. His body falls through the hatch, he was standing in when he was on his gun, and he lies on the floor in the cab exposing the gaping hole in his head where his right eye used to be. In an instant men were pouring out of the houses lining the street, like ants with assault rifles. Rainbow Dash and you grab your M4's and take cover behind some concrete road barriers while one of the kids in the Hummer takes mount on the M2, and starts tearing up the street's inhabitants with it, while the other tries to radio for reinforcements. Gunfire quickly becomes the new ambient noise as you are forced to shout back and forth just so you can make out what is being said. "LOOKS LIKE YOU GOT WHAT YOU WISHED FOR DASH!" you say in an 'I told you so' voice. "YEA, WELL AT LEAST IT'S NOT DUSTY OLD TERRORIST WOMEN THIS TIME!" she says with a smile that shows she's trying to enjoy this mayhem. "HA HAAA, THEY'RE ALL DUSTY DAMN IT!" you shout, showing your dark sense of humor. Just as you finish that sentence a man armed with an RPG took aim and sent his rocket towards your Hummer and filled most of the cab with propellant fueled fire. The blast disintegrated the radio kid inside and sent the one, operating the belt-fed, flying 20ft. down the street. You hear his cries of terror as you notice two bloody stumps where his knees used to be. Making a quick decision you sprint towards the, now crippled and going into shock, kid and shout. "COVER ME WHILE I GET THE BLEEDER!" "WHAT?!" Rainbow Dash shouts while blind-firing her M4 over the barrier. As you grab the kid by the collar on his body armor, which didn't help at all in the explosion, and drag him into the nearest alley you signal for Dash to follow you. She grabs the ammo bag, which can last about 2 days, and comes galloping towards you. Noticing the man with the RPG who blew up the Hummer aiming in her general dircetion, not even letting her slow down to turn into the alley, you immediately yank her by her shirt into the alley. She lands on top of you, burying her face into your chest, just as the rocket explodes into the ground and causes your ears to ring so horribly it drowns out all other sound, including the death cries coming from the legless teen who is now spasming like an iguana's tail after it had been severed. Drawing the Beretta from your side holster, you aim it at the opening in the alley you came through because you can hear the shouts coming from the towel-heads growing louder and nearer. Rainbow Dash, hearing this as well, rolls off of you and draws her M4 and says. "Grab the kid if you think he'll make it. Otherwise we're leaving him." Now sitting up, you look over your shoulder at the lifeless corpse right behind you with foam dripping from it's mouth. The shouts and ramblings are getting closer, as you slowly stand up a grenade rolls into the alley with it's pin pulled. Without hesitating, in one single motion, you toss the corpse on top of the grenade and run with Rainbow Dash into the winding maze of back alleys of the city. As you sprint through the narrow corridors, dodging gun and mortar fire, you knock men and children back into their houses with sharp elbows and gun stocks. You aimlessly choose your path hoping to lose the crowd of men firing at you. You constantly have to dart left and right as the tops of houses are bombed out and bullets whiz by your head and embed themselves into your body armor. The mortar blasts are getting more accurate as they start blowing out roof tops of houses right next to you. The horrible crash of the explosions deafens you and the pressure waves constantly try to knock you off balance while you keep one eye on your friend and the other on the the path you're taking. You've been running for what feels like hours and the pounding sensation in your chest isn't helping. Coming to an opening that leads to a town center, you slow down to catch your breath and realize that the mortars and gunfire have stopped. Everything is eerily quiet and every single door and window is shut, completely cutting off the inhabitants from the havoc that is about to ensue. The children that are usually out playing games or staring at you because of your hardware and your "Fuck off." attitude are nowhere to be seen. Dirt clouds around your ankles roll through the street as you look for any signs of life. Just at that moment, while she was scanning, Dash sees something and shouts at you while rolling for cover into a partially blown up house. Before you actually realize whats happening a rocket explodes into the wall of a house you were standing next to. The blast was severe enough to send you flying to the left and against the wall. You feel yourself in a drunken daze, and completely winded, as you stare at your bloody palms and jacket as the sound of gunfire fades away. You watch bullet holes appear in the walls and street while everything grows quiet. Your eyes grow heavy, and so does your head as it slouches onto your shoulder, and everything slips into darkness.
i'm alive?...You awaken to the sounds and feeling of being dragged across a dirt floor. Opening your eyes you can see you still have your legs, hoping not to end up like the kid you tossed on the grenade. Your head slouches back and rests on a foreleg thats got a grip on the collar of your armor vest. Staring at the ceiling you try to call out to Rainbow Dash, hoping shes the one dragging you, and hoping that you're not in an even bigger world of shit than you're in already. Your call comes out as an unintelligible groan of pain and exhaustion that causes your dragger to suddenly stop and prop your head up on something soft. Your friend is now sitting right next to you and facing you, teary eyed and scared. It's a relief to see her, but you know why her expression is so pitiful. "I thought you weren't coming back..." she says sniffling. You try to force a smile while you rest your hand on her hoof. "Don't...worry... I'm not..going..anywhere." As you say that her lip quivers and she wipes a smudge off your face. Looking at her hoof you can tell she was wiping blood, that was leaking out of your mouth, off your chin. "Huh, guess I wasn't supposed to come back..... look how well that plan went." you say with a low crackle in your voice. She tries to smile at that remark, but her eyes continue to tear up and the tears roll down her cheeks. The expression on your face drops as you notice her starting to cry over your near-death experience. "Hey.." you say sitting up and leaning against the wall to your left. "C'mere Dash." you finish your sentence and open your arms a little for a hug. Without hesitating she rushes in to hug you and buries her snout into your shoulder and lets loose the tears she has been holding back ever since she thought she saw you get blown up. Wrapping your arms around her waist, you rest your head next to hers and whisper in her ear. "Dash, you know we're both going home after this. And neither of us is going in a box. Please don't cry." The sniffling stops for the time being as she looks at you with bright, still teary, eyes that remind you of those years in highschool when you two were inseparable. You still are, but the memories reminded you anyway. "I know, but... when I saw you hit the wall... I thought I'd just watched you die..." Looking at the saddest face you'd ever seen your expression turns to one of "let down." "Dash..." trying to think of something to say to try and cheer her up "I'm too damn ornery to die.." She wipes her nose and smiles at you through the tears. You lightly kiss her nose without thinking of the repercussions of your actions. After realizing that you just kissed your best friend it occured to you that she might have feelings for you. While you two were hugging you'd felt your chest stirring, but just blamed it on the explosion messing with your internals. "Oh shit..." you think to yourself "What if she DOES like me? What if I just made it awkward for her?......" Without realizing whats happening outside of your mind, you feel the soft caress of a pony's lips against yours. As your mind catches up with reality and realizes whats happening you take one hand away from her waist and run it through her mane. She shudders from the feeling and presses her chest into yours. Your mind enters a state of bliss as you feel a warm wet tongue curiously run across your lips. You give the pleasnt intruder entry and enter your tongues into an ever twisting dance of animalism. You take your hand that was running through her mane and slide it down her back towards her rump. You take a firm, but enjoyable, grip on it and she giggles at the motion. Sliding off the wall and onto the ground, letting your head rest on the rolled blanket she'd propped it on earlier, you get her to lie on top of you without breaking lips. You stay in that position for what feels like an eternity, an eternity you'd love to stay in. After both of you're tongues are too tired to continue the kiss breaks and you both look into eachother's eyes and smile. She lies down, still on top of you, and her head comes to a rest right over your heart as she drifts off to sleep. You gaze at the ceiling hoping to sleep with her, but sleep never comes and now you find yourself in a staring contest with the ceiling. A contest you think your winning. Having lost track of time you look out the window across the room and see that the stars are out. The bright jewels in the night sky are an amazing sight, but it's nothing compared to the cuteness of the rainbow maned mare asleep on your, rising and falling, chest. Your friend... no, you can't say that... you love her. The only appropriate description would be to call her your love. The mare you love stirs in her sleep and almost rolls off of you, but not before you wrap a protective arm around her. You rest your head back down on the blanket roll, and slowly you can feel yourself drifting off to sleep. So this is love... sleeping in enemy territory with somepony whos saved your life, on more than one occasion, and some how you've never felt more safe. For some unknown reason the troubles of a hard world are put aside and you have the whole night to enjoy every moment of this. This is love and you wouldn't have it any other way... well maybe minus a bullet wound or two. And now...... sleep... you know what has to happen tomorrow if you want this to last.
more killing....Slowly awakening to the sound of a muffled conversation somewhere behind you, you open your eyes and see two shadows in a square of sunlight on the dirt floor (one of a man and one of a pony). You slept the whole night right under a window...the conversation wasn't heated, but one of the men sounded irritated and he was pointing at objects off in the distance with his rifle. "Hey, Dash." you whisper trying not to be heard by the two outside. "Daaaash, we gotta move quietly." She slowly opens her eyes looks over at you and gives you a sleepy smile. The smile quickly fades and turns stern as she looks out the window and sees what you've been hearing. She looks back at you when you put a finger over your lips to silently make a "shh" sign. She rolls off of you and slides up against the wall, not letting her carbine hit the ground, and motions for you to shimmy down the wall and into the next room. "Hey, wheres my weapon?" you say quietly while drawing the knife from your chest holster. "Oh crap, it's in the room where we slept. Sorry I didn't think of it." "Nah, it's alright. I was just making sure I still had it, those two in there need to go quietly." you say eyeing your knife. Dropping all of your excess gear to prevent any noise, you slowly move into the room while staying crouched and lean up against the wall right underneath the window. Contemplating how you're going to get both of them with one knife, a stroke of luck occurs, the conversation ends and the pony trots away. Your heart begins to race as you develope your plan, this has to take place in a split second or you're screwed. You rotate the knife so the blade faces you for slitting as you count down in your head. Three.....Two....One.. Shooting up to a stand you're right behind him, your left hand wraps under his chin and jerks his head backwards and the knife in your other hand rams down into his left jugular. As quickly as you stabbed him you yank him through the window and onto the floor while tearing your knife to the right, giving him a smile ear-to-ear, and letting out a quick spray that turns a small potion of the wall into modern art. He lies there in the dirt, gurgling the blood that is collecting in his throat and pouring out onto the ground, his eyes twitching back and forth around the room... looking for help you guess... You're not sure what is possessing you to do this, maybe just your inner beast breaking out, but as you stare at him your right foot raises about 2ft. over his face. Without hesitating you put all of your weight into this one sudden stomp that caves in his face with a sickening wet crunch. Looking over to the doorway you shimmied through you see Dash with a slightly worried look that shows you she witnessed the twisted spectacle that just occured. "Uhh... are you ok babe?" she asks cautiously. Looking down at the man you'd just broken you start shuffling your feet. "Yea, I'll be ok... I just need to get out of this hole.." you say a little glumly. You wipe your knife off on the dead guy's shirt and holster it. Picking up your M4 you top off the ammo and wait for her to join you by the doorway. "I never thanked you for dragging me in here." "I'll take last night as just one big 'Thank you' if thats ok with you." she says pecking your cheek. "Plus you pulled me out of the way of that rocket, sooo that makes us even." "Heh, yea.... c'mon I think I can see Base from here." and with that the pony that left so you could stab his friend came back and now he's staring at you from his post. He attempts to let out shout for intruders, but he's quickly cut off with a double-tap from your M4. The two rounds bury themselves in his skull causing him to slunk to the ground. Both of you crouch in the shadows in the nearest alley and wait for his reinforcements to appear, but close to a minute later everything is still silent. "Alright, let's move." she says confidently. Still crouching, you move along the walls towards your destination and always anticipating another ambush. Trying to keep a decent pace, your paranoia periodically makes you stop in your tracks and listen for footsteps or the sound of a weapon being loaded or cocked. "At this rate it'll take us a week to get back..." she says irritantly, but she understands why. "I know I know.... just don't want to poke the hornet's nest any more than I have to." you say with a 'submitted' tone. Just as you finish your sentence a small group of mulisha walk out of an alley about 20ft. ahead of you. You dart away from the wall towards a torched car while spraying their gerenal area with your assault rifle. This gets their attention immediately, especially because two of them are now writhing in pain on the ground, and thats what you wanted. "Focus on me, not her... I gotcha' bitch." That thought runs through your head as you quickly pick off two more mulisha. Dash, noticing what your plan is, playfully feels left out and decides she needs to get in on this. Quickly pulling a grenade off her belt she pulls the pin and cooks it for two seconds, then lobs it right behind the last one standing. Him reloading was enough of a distraction to prevent him from noticing what was about to happen. Quickly noticing his disposition you aim for his knee and blow it out causing him to fall and curl up right over the grenade. A split second later it goes off and blows him in half. His legs go up in the air and land on someone's roof, that'll be a nice surprise, and his torso skitters down the street in your direction and lands equal distance between you and Dash. You run towards her and she jumps on you, wrapping her forelegs around your neck, and you wrap your arms around her as well. "That was sooo awsome!" she screams with excitement. "But don't you ever get shot at to protect me again..." she finishes her thought with a light growl. "Mmmmm... no. I've considered your request AND I refuse politely." you joke with her and stick your tongue out smiling. "Ugh, fine, but please don't get shot. I've already seen you get blown up and I don't want to go through that again." she says with a look of heartache. "Hey, look at me. I've said it before and I'll say it again. 'I am not going anywhere.' Ok?" And with that she gives a slow and gentle kiss that makes you regret waiting to get blown up to kiss her. The hug breaks soon after the kiss does and you let her down gently. "Now come on, I don't think we have to be quiet anymore. Plus we can be back at base before it gets dark."
almost homeNormallly after an ambush tensions would be high, but for some reason you no longer feel the need hug the wall while you stroll up the street. The farther you get from your combat sight the more you see kids out playing games together and the occasional fried "mystery product" stands appear more frequently. Your whole walk is spent chatting about some of the best times you've had in country and your memories in highschool. The smell of kebabs and rice pilaus fills the air while you reminisce with her. Judging from the fact that you haven't eaten since noon yesterday, plus the audible grumbling of your stomachs, you figure (after some consideration) it's time you held up a food cart. "So who do you think needs robbing, Dash?" you say looking back and forth for a suitable candidate. "I'm not sure...wasn't there some pissy old man who spat in our rice one time?" "Yea, but I still ate it..." you say not caring about the possible horrible disease you had ingested. "You're disgusting babe." she says plainly. "All day, every day." you joke with a toothy grin. "Hey! There he is." she says excitedly "Let's go get lunch!" She trots off, without waiting for you, towards the cart that sat jumbled in with the rest of the merchant stands in the bazaar. You catch up to her and find her, surprisingly, waiting in line behind 4 or 5 people. "Uhh, what are we waiting for?" you question. "Well, since you asked, we're here to ruin his day. Not everybody else's." "You do realize we're going to rob him for meat on a stick, right?" "So? Wouldn't you be traumatized if some stranger with a gun robbed your favorite crappy street vendor?" "Nah... I'm pretty sure I'd laugh while I finished my lunch." By the time you're finished with your banter everyone in line had left with their food and you realize it's your time to order. "We'll take five kebabs to go." you say while nonchalantly stabbing your knife into his wooden tabletop. Just as you finish your sentence a group six men, in a circle formation with five on the outside and one in the center, stroll into the bazaar with a fearless look in the eyes of all of them. The man in the front of the formation begins to announce to the crowd in his native language with a tone that reminded you of a preacher trying to spead "the good word." After about a good five minutes of preaching, as soon as it started you had taken your knife back, the circle of men (and two ponies) broke. After the man in the center was fully exposed you noticed that, from the way his face was built, he should be a lot skinnier than he was. His cloth shawl had noticably large bulge that wrapped all the around his torso and it was block shaped. "Oh crap... this is happening isn't it..." is the thought that runs through your head when the bulky man spreads his arms out in opposite directions and calls out to everybody in the bazaar. People crowd around him cautiously and exchange worried glances along with hushed chatter. His voice gets louder as he speaks faster with more emotion in his tone. "Dash we need to move, NOW!!! You grab her by her collar while she was nabbing the kebabs (and completely ignoring what was obviously a bombing) and jerk her towards the direction you were running. You turn the nearest corner you find and crouch behind it for cover. The man armed with the vest raised both of his arms to the sky and said a few final words..he detonates. The blast destroys the entire bazaar, which you were on the edge of, and fills whats left with a massive cloud of dirt, blood, and clothing fragments. Stepping out from your shelter you can see the miniature mushroom cloud looming about 30 ft. over what used to be a crowd of people. What remains of the crowd is now just a pile of singed and bloodied clothes, scattered limbs, and strewn intestines. Walking through ground zero the cloud, of what used to be people, leaves the taste of rotting meat in your mouth and the smell of sulfur in your nostrils. "This must be what hell is like... what do you think?" you ask with a mild amount of anger. "I'm not sure, but it's shit like this that makes me punch old women in public..." she says slightly gritting her teeth. "We need hurry the hell up and leave this hole... hand me one those kebabs." You both make your way through the wreckage and out the other side to crowd of people staring at you as you walked away from all of the death and destruction behind you. A few of them point and gasp at you and you can only assume that they're all blaming you for what just went on. "They're probably going to get more mulisha.... and we're probably going to get shot at again..." she says it like killing is a chore. "And guess what Dash." "What?" "I'm going to draw all of their attention away from you, again. And I'm going to get shot at to keep you safe, again." you say teasingly. "Didn't I tell you not to do that ever again?" she says with a worried look. "Nooooo..... maybe...." She glares at you. "Yes..." you say with a defeated tone. "Well? What makes you think I'm going to let you do that?" "Cuz you looove me." you say trying to cheer her up. Her look softens a little, but it saddens as well. "Look, Dash, if you care for me that much then imagine how I feel about you..." She's surprised at that statement and her jaw drops, it's obvious, that thought had never dawned on her. I guess she thought that you pictured taking all of the aggro in a fight as a game.... or something similar. All of your onlookers had gone back to their homes so now it was just the two of you in the street. "Dash, I love you... I can't put it anyway else because theres no other to put it." She rushes in to hug you and nearly knocks you off your feet. You hold her in your arms and wrap them around her waist then nuzzle her cheek. She giggles at the gesture and bites your ear. "How long have you felt that way?" she whispers. "I don't know, but I'm sure it's been longer than when I came to realize it." "I love you too." she finishes her sentence with a gentle kiss to your lips then she softly bites your lower lip. "I'm still going to get shot at for you." you say smiling at her. "I know..." she says with a sigh. "But..." "Ugh.." you chuckle. "And a third time I say it. I'm not going anywhere." "You promise?" "I haven't lied to you yet... except for that time I farted in the hummer and said I couldn't roll down the window." you say pretending to be in deep thought. She licks your face and laughs. "I knew it!.... that was disgusting by the way." Just at that moment you notice her cringe and drop down on her hind leg. It's obvious why once you see her leg, there are five small bleeding holes in a scattered formation. "Those look like grenade shrapnel wounds Dash." "Oh, those were from the grenade I tossed into the last group we ran into. I'll be fine." she says a little embarrassed. "Yeeeaaa...no." smiling, you hoist her up so that you're cradling her. "I'm going to carry you back to base. It's only about an hour from here... Oh, and if anyone shoots at us you're our only defense, so don't screw up!" you say laughing obnoxiously. "Well, aren't you a gentleman?" she says sarcasticly laughing then pecks your cheek. You begin, what you hope is the final stretch, your walk down the street and see the torched hummer you drove in before the ambush. "Well at least we know where we're going." "Oh did the H1 give it away? Or did the legless body with the massive hole in his chest?" "This is going to be a fun walk." you think to yourself as you two constantly throw light hearted insults back and forth. The position of the sun is telling you it's about 3 p.m. Maybe the afternoon sun will be a little warmer than the early morning sun. It should be autum this time of year, but then again nothing has really gone 'according to plan' recently. However you're walking to a camp, with the one you love in your arms, with an airport which will send you two home after a good night's rest and 'other physical pursuits.' All in all, this wasn't your worst mission. Not by far.
leave it all behindWalking down the street with her in your arms your mind begins to wander. The thoughts running through your head drift from one fantasy to another. They usually involve you and her lying in a field or forest, with exasperated looks on your faces, right after some fiery act of passion. You hope that something similar will happen, after you get her leg checked out, when you get home and are finally able to relax away from all of this mayhem. Since you probably won't ever come back to this hole the thought of what you'll do for a job when you rotate back to the world comes to mind.... probably private security... habits, like shooting people for a living, die hard. "How's your leg?" you ask a little concerned "Well, either I can't feel it anymore or it just doesn't hurt enough for me to notice. I'll be fine til they try to pull all the pieces out." "Why until then?" "Cuz I know for a fact that they'll treat it as an emergency and they won't wait for the anesthesia." "Oh that'll be fun, won't it?" "Yeeaa, and by the way, when they're operating I'm probably going to break your hand from squeezing it." she says with a nervous smile. "Hey I have no problems being there with you when it happens. If it hurts you can squeeze all you want." "Thanks..." her expression shows she's a little blue. "I'd usually end up in there alone, I'm really glad to know I can always count on you." she has a sad smile on. "Hehe, didn't the whole 'me getting shot at' scenarios demonstrate a bit of that?" "Please, don't remind me." she says still keeping her smile. The conversation stays light hearted while the both of you enjoy your leisurely stroll. Trying not to let her notice you, you slowly scan the alley ways you walk by and the street corners where men just stand and stare. Maybe you'll get lucky and you won't get shot at on your walk, but with your luck you'll probably end up hauling ass down the street with Dash firing at mulisha over your shoulder. Normally, in the back of your mind, you'd find yourself unintentionally hoping for some form of conflict, but for some reason you catch yourself and realize that now's not the best time. Still, if anything does arise, you have complete and total trust in her accuracy and quick trigger hoove. "They're staring at us, aren't they?" she says irritated. "Yea... they are... They're also asking for FMJ's to be buried in their skulls." you say gesturing towards some men through a window wearing ski-masks . "I almost tempted to let you open up on them, but today's not the day to go pick a fight.... let's just try and keep to ourselves." "Fine, but if anyone stops us or even looks like they're pointing a weapon at us, I won't even think twice about emptying this magazine." god... even with shrapnel damage she's feisty as ever. "Heh..." she's not joking. "I'm cool with that, just don't point it at them until you plan on killing them." And with that your luck goes down the proverbial drain. 2 men and 3 ponies, with ski masks and rifles, walk onto the street and form a mini- blockade about 10 feet in front of you. Damnit.... Well, so much for not getting shot at today... "Can I point this at them now?" she asks sarcastically. "Yea, go ahead. Just don't hit anyone else." "You mean aside from old terrorist women?" she says with a giggle. "Most definately. Theres still a few mags left in your bag, right?" "Yea, I got enough to deal with these clowns." "Just checkin'. I'm going to end up running from one side of the street to another, hope you're accurate on strafing runs." "Well we'll find out now won't we?" she says smirking. At this moment the two of you and the blockade were just eyeing eachother while she gripped her M4. Hope she's ready. You pivot on your left foot and haul off towards the alley that is now in front of you, while she hosed down their end of the street. As soon as you hit cover she reloads while you walk a small distance into the alley for a head start to pick up speed on the next run. Right as she chambers the first round you take off running to the opposite side of the street and she begins draining her magazine into the ones still standing. "Did you get them all?" you ask now in the other alley. "Not sure, why don't you take a peek?" You lean out from the alley just enough to see where they used to be standing. Now there is just a pile of bodies squirming on the ground and groaning in pain. "Well... they're not dead, but you got em'." You walk over to them and discover that she'd shot them all in the stomach. They were all curled up in the fetal position as they bled on the ground and you knew they weren't going to reach for their rifles, they were too preoccupied at the moment. It's probably a good idea to shoot them at this point, but you're pretty sure they'll have more fun if you just left them how you found them. "So, am I going finish it?" "Naaah, they're enjoying themselves. Let's not ruin it for them, plus we still need to get your leg checked out and plan on being home before the week is out." And once again you start up the street, but no one stops you this time, with her still in your arms. The conversation from this point on is just the two of you pointing out the places you've raided, or the still bombed out buildings you had taken an AT-4 to. Despite the nostalgia, you aren't going to miss this place. Now that you think about it, pretty much the only thing that made this livable was her company. As the setting sun turns a dark orange you find yourself just strolling into camp like it was just any other day. Other crews, who you've hung out with between rotations, begin badgering you about where you've been for the past 2 days and why Dash's leg has holes in it, and why your vest has a giant blood smear on it, and why you aren't answering any of them. You walk into the infirmary and lie her down on the nearest bed and begin yelling for a medic. Your shouting is met with two medics in dirty lab coats and one of them was holding a syringe and the other a metal tray with some instruments. You reassuringly take her hoof while they give her the injection and wrap a tourniquet above the wound cluster. "Don't worry, I'll be here with you the whole time." you say as she shuts her eyes. "I know... I know... Just don't let go.." "Never.." you say as you kiss her forehead. The medics take about an hour and a half to get every last little fragment dug out of her leg, and through out the whole thing she never let loose her grip on your hand. They finish their work and bandage up the wounds and leave you two alone. She scoots over to make room for you and you wrap your arms around her and lie there with her in almost complete quiet. You almost fall completely asleep before you feel a hard tap on your shoulder, followed by an "Ahem." You roll over and are greeted by the image of your commanding officer holding what you hope is yours and hers relief papers. Almost falling out of the bed you quickly stand at attention. "It's been an honor serving with you two, but right now it's clear to me that you both need to go home." he says 'matter of factly.' "Thank you sir. We'll hopefully be headed out in the morning." "At ease. Happy trails corporal." he says then walks out. Lying back down with Dash you kiss her neck, wrap your arm around her, and settle in for the night. "We're going home Dash...we're goin' home." Sunlight slowly creeps in through the windows, which were just holes blown out in the walls, and awakens you to the picture of a beautiful rainbow mane that smelled of two days of gunfire.... magnificient. You find yourself lying awake just waiting for her to wake with you. You really want to get home today, but for some reason this seems more important to you. You only need to wait another hour before she rolls over and faces you with those beautiful pink eyes. "Mornin' beautiful." you say still a little sleepy. She puts her hoof on your cheek and kisses you. "Mornin'." she says with a smile. Your morning is spent gathering all of your gear and saying your goodbyes to the crews that you hung out with. It carries on a little slowly, but you don't mind because you're leaving all of this behind soon. It's noon now and the both of you are in the back of an escort jeep on the airstrip that'll drop you off at your ride home. It's going to be a long ride home, but you both have eachother to keep company and that.... that's all that matters anymore.
