Val Verde Chapter 02 Original

[Val Verde]
[November 9th, 2009]

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[oom]

[eeeee]

[ooom]

[tatata]

[aaaaaahhhh]

I blinked as I tried to get up. My spirit was willing, but my flesh was a little less enthusiastic. Did I try to eat sand or something? My mouth was gritty.

[Waaaaahhh!]

It was the sobs that I heard nearby. I focused on them, and slow the world started to make sense.

I stared at the remains of our Sergeant. All I had left of him was an arm. The rest of the body slid off me as I groaned as I got up. Somehow, I wasn't dying.

The man's arm fell back from my shoulders as I moved. I was lending him my shoulder. I was helping him move back. Away from the front lines.

Right. I remember now.

We got caught up in a strafing fire from a US fighter jet.

Dick. The arm, and body, belong a Sergeant Dick. A prophetic name since the man was indeed an asshole.

Bullet holes dotted his body and I was glad he was my human shield. I could have done without waking up to the severed arm around my shoulders though.

The only people I cared about was…

I looked around, and there she was. Kneeling and hunched over someone. She was the one crying. She was still crying.

My throat constricted as I saw her. Candice's usually pristine uniform now had blood splattered all over it. Why was her mask off? She was also only rocking back and forth. She was not giving first aid we were all trained for.

I tried not to look down. I knew who it was on the ground already. His tall body, and broad shoulders. I didn’t want to admit it.

Instead I moved around the new war scene. Of the squad, only the two of us were up and about. Sorta.

Seven survivors got further reduced into two people. I couldn’t even find that guy… who I never got the name of. Nor my Cheryl. And whoever the other girl was.

I walked back and pulled Dick’s dog tags. I added them to my pile from when we were in the third line. Wherever that was now.

So many people I knew. I hoped that some of them made it back.

By habit, I checked my gun. Magazine was full, and chamber was clean. Safety off.

We needed to leave. The third line had fallen, and we would die if we loitered around. There was no point in trusting in blind surrender to the enemy.

Not after we entered the second day of fighting. Both sides were now full of desires for revenge. I know I was willing to kill.

I am sure a lot of squads encountered ‘hostile’ forces. The reports would show the ambush, or the ensuing fierce firefight. The enemy would die, and the military would glaze over everything.

I moved up to my commanding officer. With Dick dead, she was in charge now.

I shook her, and she didn’t notice. I gave her shoulder a solid tap, and she pushed me away.

[Slap!]

Candice reeled at the hit to her cheek. Her eyes stared at me, but they didn’t see me. She saw something else. Or rather someone else.

I tugged off my mask. The broken eye lenses wouldn’t have offered anything more. When we got back, I could get a new mask.

“We. Need. To. Go!” I screamed at her as I pulled her up. Harvey’s stiff body thumped back onto the ground. The sounds of jet fighters were still in the air. US and Hydra air fighters dueled in the skies.

The artillery barrage was also creeping closer at a steady rate and pace. If we did not leave, then we were not going to make it.

In the distance, I could see plumes of earth now. They were distant whistles hours ago. Or was it days? I had lost track.

I reached under Harvey’s mask and pulled off his dog tags. He didn’t need them no more.

“Stop. Those are Harvey’s!” Candice whispered as she grabbed onto my hands. Her eyes were wide as she clung onto me for support.

“Lance-Corporal Brown. As acting Sergeant, I order you to move with me,” I barked out. I wasn’t a Sergeant. Yet I needed her to move.

“I… Yes Sergeant,” Candice replied. She collapsed into her training. I outranked her, or so she thought, and thus I made decisions. She followed orders.

It was a harder game of primary’s 'Monkey See, Monkey Do'. Or secondary’s 'Ranks and Ladders'.

Candice hugged her gun.

You never ditched your gun unless you surrendered, or you found something better. This habit got drilled into us since secondary school.

Candice double checked her weapon as I had. Cool and professional now that she had focus.

I moved away from the sounds of the US artillery. Theirs whistles sounded different. Higher pitch then ours. We also had bigger booms.

We only moved a few meters when I found them.

Cheryl. And beside her was the missing girl.

They had propped themselves onto the base of a tree. Dark red stained everything here.

Black hair. Oriental. She had bled out from a severed leg. Her dog tags said her names was Stacy. I ignored her tear stains as I closed her dull, brown eyes.

Cheryl’s eyes stared straight out. Her prized blond hair was messy. I combed at it with my dirty hands.

They came back to me with blood stains. It trailed down her back, and on the tree trunk. She was also missing her entire lower body.

Funny how I didn't notice that right away.

Her last moments had her green staring up into the cloudy skies.

She had always wished she had wings. To move as free as a bird.

I squatted and closed her eyes. I hoped that in the next life… she would be born a bird. A falcon like the one she always wished she could raise.

I took a deep breath, and held it. I felt Candice's hands on my shoulders. She slid down to hug me from behind.

Soldier first. Mission second. Human third.

I let the breath go, and reached out to my girl’s neckline.

I pulled her dog tags, and added them to the pouch that felt as it had been a solid block of lead. It was heavy on my hips. The weight doubled as I added my girlfriend.

Candice helped me rise. I was thankful as my legs felt weak.

“Alright. Now we mo…” I started and then stopped. I saw movement.

A bush rustled and a person popped out. They came out in measured steps. They wore the camouflage of US soldiers.

It was a fireteam of 4.

They didn’t see us yet.

How in the world? The US was still firing off artillery. How were these guys out here?

I made some hand gestures. We crouch, and then unload.

She smiled and nodded.

We played with air rifles in secondary school. Then live weapons during first service. For six months we had also practiced with live rounds.

We were as ready as we would ever be.

Candice did well in her scores. A marksmen, with a steady hand, and steady mind. She became our class’s Lance-Corporal because she worked hard.

Candice crouched down. She fell onto one knee and steadied her rifle. Her breaths became slow and measured. I did the same.

Our rifles broke the silence. Between their panic, and our calm demeanor, they died.

Two got taken out in an instant. The other two fired in the wrong direction before they also got killed.

We both reloaded, but Candice then emptied her new clip into the closest soldier’s body. Some of her shots even hit the dead man.

I grabbed her by the shoulder as her gun clicked dry.

“Enough. We need to move. We need to regroup with the next line. Or at the very least, another squad. Then we can kill them with proper support,” I half explained, half ordered.

Candice looked at me as she shoved in her third clip. She looked like I had told her that if she listened, magic would follow.

She nodded and we jogged our way back.

We moved and I lost count on how long we had to travel.

The afternoon gave way to the evening. Without the communication guy, we could only travel without guidance.

A squad found us and we got relocated to the back lines.

Food and water. it was simple, but delicious as we had nothing all day. A danger that was so easy to ignore.

As the second day ended, so did the majority of the fighting.

I didn’t apart of the night operations, but it was a rough stint. Either you wiped out the enemy, or you didn’t came back at all.

I tried to call my parents. They were in a radar installation behind the lines, and away from the Morning Mountains. Their station was closer to the Hydra air base.

It was well defended, and they should be safe.

Then I tried to call Carmen. Nothing. No dial tone. The air was dead.

I texted, but the message only gave me a unsent warning. The towers were now either full of people trying to talk… or they had gotten cut down by US forces.

I prayed that those bunkers were well made. That mom and dad were well outside of danger.

I stayed with Candice. She was silent the entire time and I had to help her with the washroom, and showering.

Our squad's barracks was silent as we were the only ones in it.

Candice crawled into my bunk. She then made her first breakthrough as she broke down again.

I hugged her as reality came crashing back down. My best friend. My girlfriend. My friends.

We fell asleep in each others arms. It was a measure of safety in this senseless world.

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Chapter 02: This senseless world.