The Soldier Next Door

This is turning out to be a rather bigger battle than we thought we need to fight today. A routine mission has blown up into a full-on confrontation, which I believe has now taken on more power. Lopez is simply not able to keep them at bay, let alone get rid of the assholes. But it is not just Lopez that is out there; there are already two other squads involved in this. Now we, with me in charge of a squad that is not mine, and whom most of their names that I do not know, we are headed in Fallujah.

Now, if I said that I am not petrified, I would be blatantly lying. I have seen how dirty these assholes will play, but guess what? Marines like rolling in the mud. So we are soon going to line up to Lopez in three Stryker’s, and boy, then it is game on.

As we enter the bottom of the street, all you can see is smoke and dust flying. Visibility is absolutely zero at the moment, and there is no way of it improving anything soon. We are shooting in the dark, for whom this cover will count is yet to be seen.

But I have eager Marines that are looking for some action, so not to draw much attention, we drop an extra squad that we managed to squash in on foot at the top of the street. My choice was very much divided here, do I go out or do I stay. Whichever way, the head of twenty-six men are mine to protect. Now let us not fuck this one up.

So as I make my way up to Lopez, I am very much happy to announce my arrival, and man, is he glad to see us. The boys have been going at this for over an hour, and they are starting to feel a bit on the drained side, yet they pushed forward. With the new firepower on their side, they seem much relieved, and I am hoping that somewhere in that one building, he is fucking scared. The man that shot Gibbs can only hope that he does not make it out of here alive, for I am coming for you whether you are alive or not.

But revenge comes later; there is a reason why I brought this big beauty out here, my mean ass fucking tank gun. Ya…it provides accuracy, range, penetration, and rapid fire in one package. And I am about to find my happy self behind it. This time there is absolutely no time for elegance; I slowly stick my head through with sturdy feet; I position half of my body and plant my ass down.

I send the second and the third Stryker further down the road. We are finishing this now; there is not coming back. Once in position, waiting on my command,

“Oorah boys, let’s make them eat dust..”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

From three to one second in little than an inch, I unleash the pure brutality of the tank gun. Splitting walls, shattering bricks, cracking the very foundations they are finding themselves on. I lay it all to waste in a line of rapid fire. Feeling the gun jolting my bones and the adrenaline pump through my veins, I get the wicked sense of satisfaction that revernge has been served, well, perhaps just like dumped.

And that is us, bringing the building down to pieces, then the next one after that and yet after that. After a while, we sort of get the idea that we are now only doing target practice and not actually achiving anything anymore.

So after what is easily another four hours, we confidently clear the area and head back to camp. Once we are back, I immediately bail to see Gibbs, which is just his same old self as he is trying to chat up the nurse.

“Hey, no flirting with the nurses.”

“Says him that is getting married to one.”

“Mine is different. It happened off base.”

“So mine is also different. We are not on base.”

“Don’t get clever with me. How are you feeling?”

“Perfect, now can you get me out of here.”

I burst out laughing; I know he already has restless bones. Believe me; I had to; the shit was that I could not walk or else I would have. But yes, this one,

“You keep that ass in bed until that cute little nurse says you are ready.”

“I am going to tell Ana you think that nurse’s ass is cute.”

“Hey, I might tell her myself if she is going to look like a bus. Now get some rest; I have a briefing and then hopefully shut-eye for a few hours. I check in on you later.”

With that, I leave the tent but not before Gibbs calls me back, “Thank you, man.”

“Hey, consider it as a debt paid.”

He only but cursed at me as I wave him off.

After a rather uneventful briefing, I make my way to the tent, where I will sneak in a few minutes to talk to Ana. But it is rather late, so I do hope that she is still awake. The woman hates to be woken up, especially by me, that does it on purpose half of the time. But the call goes unanswered; she must be fast asleep, so I let it be and drop down onto the bed and stare at the roof.

I grab my phone and start typing out an email, which I will never send.

“My little Ethan Jr.

Today daddy went out in this big mean old truck. It is an awful ugly green which you will come to like one day when you also decide to become a Marine like me. It has giant tires, too many for you to count yet. But the best part of it all is the big gun. It is really big; it is bigger than all the toy guns that I am ever going to buy you. And it makes a very big noise; you need to put things that are earphones on your ears so that they don’t hurt you. Now when you hold this gun, you need to be very strong, so that means you have to eat all those green vegetables that mommy is going to force you to eat.

It is almost like all the brownies that you are forcing mommy to eat. But the only thing when mommy eats those brownies, her bum is going to get big. You will get big and strong if you eat all your vegetables.

But let us talk about that truck again. We went, and we shoot a whole lot of buildings. Daddy was very strong, and he shot the building to pieces, and now all they are is like sand on the floor. The people were playing hide and seek in them, and we did not want them to do it. But that I will teach you one day how to hideaway. I will teach you so well that you can hide away from mommy, and she can never find you. And then when you are bigger, then you can learn how to be a Marine and really hide from people. And then you can learn to shoot that big big gun.

But I think I must go sleep now, while you keep mommy up.

Love your almost dad.”

I drop my phone done next to me on the bed, but then all of a sudden, I start hearing it buzz. As I take it, I see that it is Ana that is probably trying to return my call, so I quickly swipe up and answer it.

“Hey boo, I thought you were sleeping.”

“Nah, the baby is keeping me up.”

“Are you feeling fine, though?”

“Ya, I was just checking what I can eat. You know those brownies are making my ass big.”

I try my best not to laugh at her, but my poor attempt fails, “Sorry boo, that was funny.”

“Nah, it is fine. I will go eat some green vegetables.”

I frown oddly at the phone; why on earth is the woman eating vegetables at this ungodly hour.

“Boo, are you sure that you are okay?”

“Of course, I think I might just hide away in the closet while I am eating them.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

She sounds rather odd; I guess she is a bit moody from waking up when she is not supposed to, or should I say when she feels she is not supposed to. But experience has taught me to remain quiet.

“So how was your day, soldier.”

“You know, just Marine stuff.”

“Really? Like what?”

“Oh, we went out again after I spoke to you.”

“Really? I bet it was in that big ugly green truck with so many tires that you won’t be able to count them?”

“Oops.”

“Yes oops.”

“Did I accidentally send that to you?”

“My daughter is not becoming a Marine.”

Then silence.