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MORRISON
Ghazni, Afghanistan
It was official.
He found Satan’s litterbox… and it was here.
All around him was nothing but varying shades of brown, tan, and khaki green. If it wasn’t already rusted, then it was currently in the process of having said mud-colored paintsand-blastedfrom it.
The planet had a ‘roast’ setting, and he felt like he was near the red-hot coil in the oven. May, in the desert, in full tactical gear, was no place for any sane person.
… With the occasional thing that will kill you in your sleep? Mustn’t forget that ‘treasure’, Eric. You know, the nightmare fuel that will keep you up, listening to the scurrying sounds of some fanged monstrosity with a bajillion legs, venom dripping out of it’s lethal maw, and…
“Morrison! Did you hear a word we said?”
“Come again?” Mitchell hollered into his mouthpiece – just as Eric felt shards of bricks from the wall behind him raining down, ducking immediately.
This was the stupidest thing he’d ever done, agreeing to this promotion with the promise of getting assigned a bomb-sniffing dog. Well, he’d been here three months, and the mysterious animal had yet to be assigned to him.
He was pretty sure they just wanted another pulse out here to help out.
“We are pinned. Please repeat!” Mitchell, his leader, barked angrily, echoing in their earpieces that were crackling wildly with background noise.
“Snif… cover… ta…ver… inbo… copy?”
“No, we don’t freakin’ copy!” Mitchell snarled, ducking down as a bullet ricocheted off his helmet, causing him to curse fluently as the man paled. At the sound of the audible ping, Eric froze – along with Selkirk and Keyes ducked down beside him.
They did not need to lose their commander, in the field, sitting four feet from them. Nope. If there was fear in these men’s faces now – it would quickly escalate to terror, and that’s when you made stupid mistakes or got yourself killed.
“We are taking heavy fire! Need evac NOW…”
Static greeted them – and Eric looked at Mitchell’s grim expression and cool-under-fire gaze as he surveyed the surroundings. His heart was beating wildly in his chest with adrenaline. This officially was not on his list of things ‘To-Do’ today.
That was a pretty selective list, too…
March for miles on end.
Sweat buckets.
March some more, because his blisters weren’t big enough yet.
Still sweating…
Chafe, chafe, chafe… then collapse.
Yeah, being shot at or dying was not in the cards today.
“We are in close contact and pinned down – DO YOU COPY?” Mitchell hollered and hesitated, looking them each in the eye. Eric knew exactly why he was doing that. He was giving them one last shot to give the order to fall back… before they unanimouslybrokeorders. If they disobeyed orders – it was only because they were about to die.
So, the second Mitchell said ‘Go’?
… He would be behind him.
Eric smirked and looked at Keyes, who’s face didn’t reveal any emotion.Whatever. Stick in the mud, goody-two-shoes.He glanced atSelkirk, who was grinning, and Peña, beside the other soldier, was eerily silent, waiting.
“Men, we are getting out of this corner, and I need you fellas to bring your A-game with you, got it?” Mitchell pointed. “We’re moving. I want Reed, Perry, Clark to take this building. I need you men to be our eyes in the air. You see anything coming for us? Shoot!”
