It was the height of summer, and I could feel the cool ocean breeze gently caress my face. I looked to my right and saw my mom and dad, laying on their towels in the white powdery sand of Cocoa Beach, Florida. The smell of salt and sun-tan lotion was thick, almost nauseating when combined. I always hated the beach, I was pale, and not the most confident about my body. But today, I didn't mind, because I was home. I would be deploying soon, 7 long months in a world away. I was scared to death, not knowing what to expect.

Sure, we were all told about how it was for our seniors, and shown countless hours of video footage that they took. But you never truly know until you get to the sand box and start hooking and jabbing with the rest of them.

As I looked around one last time, taking in the sight of all the beautiful girls on summer vacation, I closed my eyes and blocked everything out. I wanted to enjoy the weather for as long as possible. I sat there, finally starting to relax when I heard a sound that was very much out of place.

".....to Det!"

"What was that?" I wonder to myself as I listen more intently. It had an air of familiarity with it, like a memory you could almost recall.

"......minutes to Det!"

It was much louder this time. It was definitely someone screaming. What were they saying? It was still muffled so I couldn't make it out. Whatever it was, it wasn't important and I decided to ignore it and enjoy myself for a little while longer.

"20 MINUTES TO DET!!"

My eyes flew open and sudden panic over took my body. The kind of panic you get when you realize that you fell asleep in a combat zone, surrounded by people who were looking for every opportunity to kill you.

"Oh fuck!" I yelled out as I quickly got my bearings. I looked down at the rest of my squad to see a few others napping as well. I started slapping myself to wake up further and took a long swig from my camelback.

"You alright bro?" The Marine to my right looks at me with a smirk on his face, obviously getting a kick off my expression. He sits there with his half finished cigarette and his Queens attitude. I always would laugh when he got pissed, he would always finish with, "tsk, get the fuck outta he-ah!".

"Just peachy." I stated with a semi- annoyed look. "How long was I out?" I asked him as I looked around one more time, then gazed out at the now, very distant FOB. I could just barely make out the GBOSS that our great leaders used to watch us, to make sure we were clean shaven and had our boots bloused, instead of looking for anyone planting IEDs.

"'Bout 5 minutes. I was trying to wake you up since you were snoring, then I thought you died when your head fell forward." He said with a laugh and pointed at the pile of rocks and dirt that now covered my legs.

"You asshole!" I stood up to get all the dirt off, and used that as an opportunity to check over the berm once

He laughed hard this time and I couldn't help but smirk and shake my head.

"So, you think the GBOSS saw me?" I asked with a slightly concerned look. I didn't exactly feel like getting my ass chewed again. Lord knows I was already in enough trouble from putting anti-freeze in the generator's fuel tank. Don't ask...it's a long and painful story.

As I looked over at him for a response he just shrugged and lit up his third 5stars, judging from the butts on the ground. Pedro was the "two packs a day if I'm bored" guy.

"So where is the IED again?" After a minute of looking I had given up and resigned to ask.

He takes a puff of his cig before he stands up and brings up his SAW to look through the SDO. "You see over there towards the left canal?"

I brought up my SAW as well to look through its optic. "Mmmm..well I see the canal.."

"Ok, now look to the right and you'll see the little wall. That's where it is." He looked at me for a look of confirmation that I saw it. Once I nodded at him while maintaining visual with my optic, he pulled his pack of 5stars out of his sleeve pocket and offered me one just before he took one long drag to finish his current cigarette before throwing the butt over his shoulder.

"How big did they say it was?" I said while politely declining his offer. I was still looking through my optic at the IED location before briefly looking around, scoping out the rest of the village, with what good a 3.5x scope is at that. Without even thinking, he replied so low with smoke in his lungs that I almost didn't hear him.

"THREE THOUSAND POUNDS?!" I about yelled in shock and disbelief.
"What the fuck were they hoping to kill with that? Everything for a click?" I just shook my head with my mouth still agape.

We both sat down and I made a very exaggerated sigh as I held up my wrist to look at my watch. The damn thing had taken so many hits that I was surprised it even turned on, even though it did reset to mid-night every 6 hours. "How long have we been out here?" I asked getting very agitated at why this wasn't done already.

Pedro looked at his watch and I could see him do the math In his head. "I'd say about....3..3 and a half hours." He let out an equally annoyed sigh, as well as the rest of the smoke in his lungs.

"Jesus fuck..." I slammed my head against the berm in frustration. "Watch! The moment we get back, they're going to throw us on post."

He laughed a little and shook his head. I heard someone down the line shout something, but I couldn't make it or them out.

"What did he say?" I asked Pedro who looked at me with a blank look on his face. "What..did..he..say?" In repeated overly emphasized.
He simply shrugged and I glared at him.

"You're right next to him!" Pedro smiled and through up his hands. "You're useless" I said with a smile.

The Marine that yelled out the first time was getting closer, close enough to finally hear him. "WHO NEEDS TO SHAVE?!" It was Wil, holding up an electric razor like a salesman.

I turn to to Pedro with a confused and perturbed expression. "The fuck do we need to shave for?"

After another long drag from his fourth cigarette, he responded "I think Capt. America is coming to the FOB."

Yes, we really called him Capt. America. Rumor had it that he once delivered a baby, while riding a camel through Fallujha, while duel wielding SAWs. But, that's just what the word was in the Lance Corporal Underground.

I raised my hand and Wil came over to me and handed me the razor. I looked at him and mocked in my best impersonation of Capt. America, "You know it's against Marine Corp Order to use electric razors in the field!" He just rolled his eyes at me then grinned.

"Shut the hell up, Ski."

"Hurtful!!" I retorted, feigning a deeply wounded expression.

"3 MINUTES TO DET!!......3 MINUTES TO DET!!.......3 MINUTES TO DET!!"

"Thank Christ in heaven! Gonna get back, grab some chow, and then go to sleep." I wasn't talking to anyone, but I said it loud enough to be heard by Pedro. I looked over and saw him nod with another cigarette halfway gone.

*CRACK*

".......God...DAMMIT!!!!" Oh I was furious!

"Please let that be an ND." I begged to any higher power that would listen, despite the fact that I knew we were in for a much longer day than what we had already endured.

*CRACK CRACK CRACK*

"Oh boy, we about to get in the shit now." Pedro lit up another cigarette and racked his bolt back on his SAW waiting for his chance to open up.

I crawled up to the top of the berm and opened up the bi-pods and racked the bolt back on my SAW and took position to cover the last right half of the village. As soon as I got set up, I got a shower of dirt in my face from a bullet impact.

"WOOO..BOY!! If only they were a little bit better, they'd've had me." I called over to Pedro with a smirk. My blood was pumping now, and the euphoric feeling of adrenaline was beginning to take over my senses.

I maintain my view through my SDO, trying to see muzzle flashes. I notice out of the corner of my left eye, Pedro joining me on the berm, as well as two figures hauling ass through the field towards a small wall about 300 meters away. Pedro had noticed it too and looked at me with a "what the fuck" look.

"I hope they know that that area hasn't been swept yet. Who was that anyways?" I asked squinting to see, but the glare of the sun was making it impossible.

"I think it was Adams and Bellies." He looked through his SDO at the two that just made the "Medal of Honor run." "Yup! Adams and Bellies." He confirmed.

"Fuck Adams." I put my attention back to my sector and lost all concern instantly.

Next thing I know, Wil comes up to me and Pedro, and I can hear Adams talking through the handset. I turn to him, trying to listen to what Adams is saying. I didn't hear much, but then again, I didn't have to..I knew what he wanted just by looking at Wil's face.

"He wants us to rush to them, doesn't he..?" Wil simply nodded and me a Pedro did a double take of each other, and the distance they wanted us to cover.

"They're out of their Goddamn minds! They want us to rush..to them..with no cover?" I was just sitting there in, shaking my head when I heard Adams come over the radio again.

*"Wil! Get Ski and Pedro up here, NOW!"*

"I really hate that mother fucker." I stated loud enough to be heard when Wil keyed the mic to tell him we were coming.

"Alright Ski, me and Pedro will go first. We're going to buddy rush." He looked at be with a smirk as I could only laugh in that insane laughter you adopt when you're at the point that death doesn't even matter to you.

"Right behind you..." And with that, Wil and Pedro took off in dead sprints while I waited for them to get down. As soon as they dropped, I was up and sprinting as fast as I could. Not an easy feat for carrying 120 lbs of extra weight, what with all my equipment, weapons and ammo.

I passed them shortly after and got down about 20 feet ahead of them. We bounded twice more before Wil came up and kneeled down next to me. He was surveying the area while telling me we need to cut left to make it to the wall.

As he's telling me this, I'm watching rounds impact by his feet and in front of me.

"Wil, get the fuck down!" I look at him like he's retarded.

"I will. Just..let me catch my breath.." He's looking around still with his hand on the mic like he's going today something over the radio. This time, Pedro speaks up with obvious exhaustion and desperation in his voice.

"Wil! Get prone bro!"

Wil looks at us trying to figure out why we are so panicked.

"Why are you guys freaking ou..." *CRACK* *SNAP*

He doesn't get to finish his sentence when I get showered with dirt again.

"Because they're shooting at you, you dumb mother-fucker!" I reach up and pulled him down just as another round impacts in front of me and to the left of him.

"Oh shit!" His eyes went wide and mouth hung open when he finally realized just how close he had come to getting a free trip to Bethesda.

I got up and ran left about 50 feet before getting back down to wait for Wil and Pedro. A few more bounds and we were next to Adams and Bellies. We barely had enough time to catch our breath, when they began telling us their plan. I picked my head up once I heard a very distinctive hissing, swoosh noise. Just as I looked over the wall, an RPGS strikes the wall, knocking us all on our asses.

It took me a minute to get my bearings, and everything sound like it was underwater with singing crystal.

"EVERYONE GOOD?!?" Adams calls out while giving a thumbs up. We all follow suit once we check ourselves over. "I just pissed myself, but I'm good!" Bellies calls out with a smirk.

As we peered over the wall, we could barely make out the smoke trail that came from the RPG. From me perspective, it came from the left most buildings of the village. "I'll bet you anything, Rambo over here wants us to go and clear the village ourselves." I thought as I glared towards Adams.

"Wil! Give me the radio!" Adams calls out while holding his rifle over the wall. Will crouches over and runs the radio to him. "What channel is battalion tach?" Adams looks at us when Bellies chimes in. "Why? No one is hit." He looked around again at us, then back at Adams. "What are you going to do? Call in fixed wings?" Adams only smirks and nods.

"Good luck with that! Do we even have air on station?" I asked in disbelief. We NEVER got cleared to use anything.
After about a minute of nothing, Adams looked back at us with an irritated look.

"What is battalions call sign?" He asked finally, resigning to the fact that he was looking stupid in front of the "boots". None of us even got to answer before he switched to company tach and called it in.

"Patriot 6, this is 3 Alpha, requesting immediate air support. Over." Now the waiting game. I just sat there with my back against the wall, feeling the bullets impacting it and listened as they whistled and snapped over head. The afghanis were the most primitive people I had ever seen, yet they could build houses and walls that would take a tank round and laugh cause it tickled.

The radio crackled to life as a weak transmission came through.

"Last station, you came in broken and unreadable, how copy?" Adams undid the whip-antennae and put the radio on the wall. The rest of us didn't wait to be told, as we instinctively placed our weapons on the wall and started putting suppressive fire down in any direction we felt like, because none of us knew exactly where it was coming from. All we knew, is that they were terrible....

Adams was able to get a clearer signal from the extra height he was able to get. "I say again, 3 Alpha is requesting immediate close air support at our......." Adams stopped when he heard me call out.

"R..P..G!!!" I had just caught a glimpse of the rag-head holding the shoulder mounted system.

Everyone had just barely dropped to the deck when it flew over the wall and impacted the ground 10 feet next to us.

I slowly lifted my head up to see the tail fin and was sticking out of the ground, the tracer still glowing, slowly melting the thin metal housing.

"Uhhh...guys? I think we should move...like..NOW!" I slowly rose to my feet, not taking my eyes off the unexploded rocket. But my statement was drowned out by Adams, now screaming over the radio.

"Are we seriously just gonna stay.." *SNAP*SNAP*SNAP*SNAP*

My thoughts were quickly silenced as I put my weapon over the wall and returned fire with a 3 second burst right into a house.

"PATRIOT, THIS IS 3 ALPHA! AT THIS TIME, WE ARE DECLARING BROKEN ARROW!! I SAY AGAIN, BROKEN...ARROW! WE ARE IN A TIC!! HOW COPY? OVER!"

All the while Adams was calling for immediate assets to be directed to us, both SAWs, Wil's M16 and Bellies's M4 were opening fire in the general direction of the RPG attack.

While me and Pedro were dumping rounds at the rapid rate, Adams taps me on the should and shouts in my ear.

"We have fix wings en route and HIMARS are being spun up! ETA 5 mikes for CAS! We got Hornets boys!" A giddy smile washed over his face.

A huge smile crept over my face as I knew this whole village was about to get leveled. Right at that moment, a round hit my SAW right in the heat shield, causing it to explode and send shrapnel into my face.

"MOTHER FUCKER!!" I immediately ducked down behind the wall and took my Oakleys off. I felt around my face, but no blood appeared on my hands.

Adams looked at me with that stupid grin still on his face. "You good?"

"Yea I'm fucking good..!" I had to yell over the gun fire, and gave a thumbs up just to be sure he got the message.

After what felt like an eternity, we hear the beautiful sound of F-18s screaming about 200 feet over-head at top speed, breaking the sound barrier over the village. I watched as they climbed out of sight. Adams popped green smoke to indicate to them where the friendly pos was. TheY angled their noses towards the villages and let a 3 second burst of 20mm cry out.

BBBRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAP

it was the most beautiful sound, coupled with the most awesome display of dancing lights. They completely leveled two buildings right off the bat, then circled around to complete two more attack runs before left station to re-arm.

I looked over at Adams who had the radio to his ear again. He kind of startled me when he screamed.. "HIMARS incoming!!"

The words barely left his mouth before the first earth-shattering explosion, causing those of us not expecting it to duck.
We just recovered when the second one exploded, then the third. The fourth and fifth rockets exploded at the same time, and by time the sixth rocket hit, the area was completely obscured by smoke and dust.

All I could think at that moment, was "..Merica.."

We waited for about 10 minutes for the smoke to clear. And when it did, we about shit ourselves from what we saw. What once was a decent sized village, was now just craters and rubble. The sound of someone coming over the radio broke my awe inspired trance of the scene.

*"3 Alpha, Alpha Actual, can we get a BDA? Over."*

"Negative Actual, we are still engaging with hostiles. Break."
"BDA cannot, I say again, CAN NOT be ascertained at this time. How copy? Over."

Adams throws his hands up in frustration as the painfully obvious transmission crackles over.

*"3 Alpha, you need to get over there and get a BDA. This is not a request..OVER."*

I couldn't help but laugh in that, "laugh-cry" sort of way. "Of-fucking-course they want us to rush 400 meters, WHILE UNDER FIRE, just so they can stroke higher's dicks and say, "looky what we did."" I watched Adams and could tell his feelings were the same as mine.

"I don't like it either, Ski. But you know they won't stop until they get their confirmation." He simply took a deep breath and sighed before continuing.

"I'll get them start flanking left to provide covering fire, then we go, so..get ready for hell."

He pulls out his Black-Gear to inform the squad of the new Plan of Attack. I didn't listened to what he said, I was busy getting psyched for what we were about to do. Yea, the fire had died down, but they were still opening up with RPKs and small arms. Truth is though, you never truly are ready to do that, you simply rely on everything you've been taught and let your body take over.

No sooner had I taken one giant breath and exhaled sharply did I get a tap on the should from Adams.

"On me! We're sprinting, don't stop!" He watched us all make one final check to make sure all our gear was good and waited for the thumbs up from each of us.

Once he was satisfied, he turned and faced the impact zone and radioed the team leaders with simply, "We're ready!". And with the first volley of fire coming from the 240s and 249s, we were off. Till We Die, by Slipknot was playing in my head the entire distance. Once in while I'd look down and see the dust kicking up from rounds impacting next to my feet. I glanced over my shoulder to see Wil directly behind me, Pedro behind him, and Bellies as tail gunner.

A thought popped into my head that almost stopped me cold. "Did we even sweep the rest of this fucking field?!" But, at this point..I didn't really care. If I died, I'd never know it. My uncle had told me that before I left, which still makes me laugh.

At last we closed the distance and were at the corner of one the outskirts buildings. Adams looked at us for the "go" sign before telling the squad to shift fires left.

I about jumped out of my skin when we heard an AK fire 10-15 rounds from around the corner. It wasn't directed at us which told me we kinda had surprise on our side.

"Ski, Wil, Pedro. You three circle around back and start clearing. Myself and Bellies will go in from the front."

He notices the clear confusion on my face and rolls his eyes with an exaggerated sigh. "What, Skiiiiiii?"

"Shouldn't you take a SAW with you?" I mean granted, this was his and Bellies's third deployment together, but SOP was, well..SOP.

"Just shut up and do it. It's not like I trust any of you fucks to watch my back anyways. You have no idea what you're doing you dumb boot! If I took you or Pedro, y'all would probably shoot me in the back on accident" And with that, he motioned for Bellies to come up with him, and I went back to where he had just been.

"Oh, it wouldn't be on accident..mother fucker." I said low enough so only Wil and Pedro could hear me.

I "So who's leading?" I asked while momentarily turkey peaking around the corner. As I looked back Wil had a smirk on his face.

"You got this Ski!" Pedro said with a laugh, Wil following up with his own goofy chuckle. They were enjoying my disdain of Adams, and my unease about what we were about to do.

"Are you serious?!" I hoped one of them would them would reconsider, but they both just nodded. I RRRREEEEAAAALLLY didn't want to be the one that made a mistake that ended one of our lives. But, they trusted me enough to follow me into hell of their own volition. There was no need to has out a plan, we all had be trained together, so we knew how each other operated. So with one final sigh, I resigned to my fate to lead our little team into what would either be the worst day of our lives, or a moment of tiny greatness that we would always bring up with, "..hey, you remember that time when we..."

Well, it was now or never, and with a quick glance back to see Adams give the "GO!" signal, we were off.

As soon as I popped the corner, a PKM opened up with a round ripping through my shoulder and two rounds hitting me square in the SAPI plate. Pedro and Wil quickly went from behind, guns up and blazing as they crossed the street to find cover, while I recoiled behind the corner we had just left. I'm not sure which one did it, but they managed to kill the guy.

I could hear Wil call out in terror after he didn't see me. "SKI?! Where are you?!"

I waved my arm from behind the corner while still getting the wind back in my lungs. "I'm hit!!" was all I was able to call out. It felt like I had a few broken ribs. But that thought was quickly dismissed as I took a deep breath and didn't feel anything majorly wrong.

Wil called out to me again. "I'M COMING TO YOU!"

As I peered around the corner to asses our battle-space, I spotted one guy at the end of the street and got in the prone, kicking my bi-pods out.

"Negative! Stay put, I'm good." As if to emphasize my point, I opened up with a 10 round burst, clipping the insurgent as he ran across the street with an RPK. Wil looked at where I was shooting and seemed satisfied as the man lay dying in the street.

"Pedro! Lay down covering fire! I'm getting ready to move up!"

Pedro nodded and re-adjusted the SAW into his shoulder and laid down a 30 round burst while I moved to an adjacent alley way.

"SET!!" I cried out, slightly wincing from the pain that was still lingering in my chest

"MOVING!!" I heard Pedro shout. Once I heard that I opened up with my own 30 round burst and watched him out of the corner of my eye set in place.

"SET!!" I could see Pedro panting hard from the exertion we had been out under in the last hour. We had sprinted about 750 meters in the blazing 135 degree heat, we were running low on water, and we were all probably starving.

Now it was Wil's turn to move up. While I was thinking about how I wanted to clear the block, I couldn't help but hear the ditty from boot camp in my head. "SIR! HOUSE HOUSE STREET TO STREET IS, HUÉ CITY, SIR!!" It made me smile for a second before getting serious.

"WIL! On me!! We're going to clear this house first!" I stated while patting the wall of my building.

"PEDRO! Cover the street, and keep an eye on the windows of this building while we move up to the door." Once again, I patted the side of the building me and Wil were about to breach.

Wil was watching me intently when I made eye contact again. I raised my hand, holding three fingers up and slowly began to drop them one by one. Once I made a fist, I peeked around the corner and opened up with a 15 round burst. When I stopped, Pedro opened up with his weapon, allowing Wil to come up behind me. He tapped me on the shoulder, letting me know he was set.

"PEDRO! When we breach that door, get behind us."

He didn't look at me, instead he continued to face down range and gave me a nod.
With my gun up, we rounded the corner and Wil faced behind us and walked backwards to cover our flank. Once we were at the door, I did one final check of the surrounding buildings, and checked for any obvious traps.

Satisfied enough, I faced the door and brought up my leg to kick it down. However, when my foot connected with the door, it went straight through.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

I tried desperately to get my leg out of the sheet metal door, but my cammies were saying "no". All I could think about was the incredibly easy target I was making. All it would've taken, was a short burst from an AK to kill me right then and there.

"Well, if they didn't know we were coming in before, they do now!" Was all Wil could say with a smirk as he rushed behind me to help. He lifted me up and pulled me back ripping my leg free from the door, and my pant leg free from my body. To make things worse, I could hear Pedro laughing, and I could have sworn I could hear the Taliban laughing.

I simply shook my head at my, now, disheveled state. So we re-cocked and I brought the door down with my shoulder instead and went to clear right. Wil cleared left and Pedro was right behind him and turned to cover the now, gaping hole that used to be the doorway.

"I got an open doorway left!" Will cried out. I looked along my wall to make sure there was nothing to cover.

"On you!" I exclaimed while immediately moving behind him.

Pedro got up and walked backwards to us until he bumped into me. He placed his boot between my legs to let me know he was ready, which in turn made me give Wil the go ahead signal and we started clearing the second room. This time, Wil cut right and I hooked left with Pedro checking overhead.

"Left side clear!"

"Right side clear!"

"Overhead, clear!"

We all just took a second to catch our breaths and mentally regroup. We had a long ways to go, and I didn't want to get burned out and start making mistakes. We were all exhausted, but we need every once of mental fortitude we could muster. Part of me wondered how Adams and Bellies were fairing, not that I worried about them, just that I hadn't heard any gunshots or explosions since we started.

By this time, my shoulder was starting to really annoy me. I reached into my med bag and pulled out my bottle of 800mg ibuprofen. I took out two tablets and chewed them and then took two more whole. I also noticed I was running dangerously low on water, which made me extra eager to get this whole thing over with. I didn't feel like becoming a heat case and having to be medi-vact.

We began to look around the room for any signs that this building was being used by Taliban fighters. All the while we could hear both near, and distant gun shots. I could help but wonder why the rest of the squad hasn't come up to help clear the village, and Wil didn't have a radio any longer. "Way to think ahead Adams, you arrogant fuck.." I though while rolling my eyes.

"Alright, let's hit the next one." I called out while doing an ammo check on my current belt of rounds. I had about 50 rounds left and made a second drum ready. "Do you guys have anything to mark with?"

"Hold on a second." Wil was digging through a chest at the far end of the room. It was small, only about 2 feet tall by 3 feet long "I think I found something."

"It better be gold, or black tar. I WISH we could have Bad Company luck." As he continued to rummage, I heard a light *click* and a high pitched whine that increased in pitch and decibels.

"Oh FUCK!! SKI, PEDRO..RUN!!" Wil started sprinting towards the exit, but before I could respond or react, I went flying into the wall after being hit with what felt like a Mack truck, blacking out immediately after.

Author's Note

Well, this is the very first chapter to my very first story. I hope you enjoyed it, I know I probably made a lot of mistakes, so just message me with them and I'll correct them accordingly. Any advice is also greatly appreciated.