The Soldier Next Door

It is yet another morning at the bus station that I have to say goodbye to my family. This time shall be the final time that I shall give my mother that near-death experience where she so wishes to slap all sanity into me.

But that is not my concern; my biggest is leaving the woman behind that I shall marry and start a family with. Her eyes are filled with tears of both happiness and joy; I think that seeing me doing this the last time is what shall drive her to get through the last three months.

Though getting on that bus does not make it any easier. Three months is a long time for someone that is on nothing but hostile ground.

And with that, as all the times before, I watch as the five most important people in my life become nothing but little ants in the back window.

The drive to Pendleton this time is filled is heartache, and the flight to camp does not even bring as much joy as I wish it to be.

But I am here to fulfill what I promised myself, and I promised my country, but most of all, I never want to be seen as a failure to my child one day.

There has been nothing said about Emma or anything that happened back here at home. No one knows what has happened to Emma, she has not been found, and neither has Mark. I do believe that one day they shall make their way back to get the true revenge that they did seek. The question with Emma was always something of rage, as something that she could not have. I am not a hero, but for her to be seen by my side made her feel complete in her own cruel way.

She came in and played her part well when she felt that I needed someone; she came at the perfect time to cause a distraction from Ana; well, that is now what we know what her true intention was in all the time.

My dream in all my life was just to be a Marine, never did I once desired to become anything beyond that as a Rayder. So I have achieved what I have wanted, even if it is only for this one last mission; this is the mission that would count. But most of all, what this mission would have proved not to only to me but all out of there is that you do not let any disability push you away from your dreams.

So as I find my way back to the camp, to say that the guys are happy to see me would be an understatement. The first place I find myself immediately going is the ops tent. As I step in, I see a very surprised Ray.

“Well, what on earth are you doing here? I did not think you would come back after all of this?”

“And let all the action to you boys, I seriously doubt so. Now, did your misses not said she is going to kill you if you ever set foot on camp again?”

“It took some serious bribing, but she came around,” he comes around the table and gives me a be a big pat on the back and one of those awkward man hugs.

“So,” I say as I take a seat across from him, “What is up next?”

“We clear out this shit, and we go home. The quicker we do, the quicker we can go home.”

“Well,” I look at him with a wicked grin on my face. “Lets us start then.” Ya, he has another thing coming if he thinks that he is keeping me in the ops tents. This is my last mission, and I want to get as much from it as I can.

Early next morning, we are up and ready for a briefing as we shall head out to Fallujah. The resistance in the Bagdad has somewhat cleared out and has filtered into these small little towns such as Fallujah. We are here to clear as many of them out and make it as safe as we can for the civilians before we leave. Even though we cannot save their homes, we can at least bring some sort of peace to their lives. It is going to be a long stretch, three months. But as Ray said that it might not even be so long. Of course, they will leave a few small squads behind for a couple of months more, but most of us will be going home soon.

So as I stand there in front of men that I have all grown to know and care for, we give them the plan of action. I cannot somewhat feel a proud and happy many as I shout a rather loud, “Hoorah.”

And with that, we head off to Fallujah to clear out some of the heavy groups of resistance and arms dealers. It is such a sad thing that this is a war the is raging within a country and not even against another. One thing that a Marine is taught is unity; to see such carnage is heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time

As we get to the town, we go for the bigger buildings; first, we can move from inside to out and work our ways through there. The first building that we are going to work through is one that has seven floors. We will be taking in three full squads. Normally the first and second floor is the easiest as they do not hide out there normal. We find that they seem to love the third to the fifth floor.

So with utmost precision and as little as possible obvious, we start filtering our way into the third floor. I look at Lopez and softly signal to him.

“You take a team to the left, Lewis, you go to the right, and I will move in straight ahead.”

With that, we move with hunched back underneath windows and down corridors.

The first room I show for one of the rookies, “One…two…”

And he steps inside; I watch him swing around in a circle, then a loud, “Clear.”

The next room we do so, and so and so on we go to each room down the hall. As the floor circles around, we are met with Lewis and Lopez again.

Then we move to the fourth floor…clear.

The fifth…

As we turn to break up in groups, there is rapid-fire that comes headed at us from the front. We immediately duck and take cover. From behind the cover of walls and sturdy furniture, we take our aim and return the fire at them.

Here and there, you can hear a loud thud as the enemy fall to the floor; then it goes silent. We wait for a brief few moments and take that we have taken them down and come out from our cover.

Then once we are clear, we make our way to the next floor, but as we hit the steps, there is a loud explosion that shakes the building from underneath us. In utter horror, I realize what has just happened.This content provided by N(o)velDrama].[Org.

“Fall back, fall back. Get out of the fucking building! They are blowing it up.”

With that, you have forty-nine marines flying down stair after stairs to get out of a building that they are trying to blow to pieces. They led us up so high on purpose. Well, that is not the problem. I do not want to get stuck under a pile of rubble.

“Move your fucking asses! Get out!”

I yell as each marine goes past me towards taking each step down with fear and horror building within their core. I will be dammed if I get out before all my men are out. I will stay and wait until the final one has made its way to one of the humvees.

As we get halfway down the third set of stairs, there is another large explosion, rocking the building visibly from side to side. You can hear windows break and walls crack as they rip it to the core.

“Move faster. Move faster!”

We are nearing the last floor now, and I can see as the men are now starting to filter out the building towards the street. They are moving much faster now than they did before.

Then another shock.

I feel as the building rocks yet another time, but I hear something else…it is starting to crumble.

“It is coming down. Move out. It is coming down. Move faster.”