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Then there was Katie. If she wasn’t playing with Ayla, then she was probably cooking lunch right now. Something that was savory and healthy but still looked fun in order to get Ayla to eat it. She might even have Ayla come in to help her make it.
Longing filled him at the thought. He didn’t want to imagine it. He wanted to be there. To actually hear Ayla’s stories and help Katie in the kitchen. To talk with them, laugh with them, and be together.
Axur grimaced. It had seemed so easy to imagine that he could have it all. That he could go between both worlds of his service and his family. But this was killing him.
He’d never been this bored or anxious to be off deployment. Then again, he hadn’t exactly had anything to look forward to getting off deployment for. And the squad still had at least another week stationed here.
A sudden terrifying thought hit him that he might not be able to leave the next time they needed to deploy him. He didn’t know if he could leave his girls behind. They’d become so much a part of him that he didn’t feel entirely whole being away from them.
And if he was deployed, he needed to be whole. He was a general. He held and commanded the lives of thousands of men and women both in and out of uniform. His focus couldn’t be split.
Dread sunk into him as he realized that he may actually have to come to a decision soon on what he wanted. On which life he’d choose.
There was a rumble of thunder from above, and then a steady rain began to pour. Axur let out a long, tired sigh. Of course, it had to rain.
He glanced at the time and furrowed his brow. Alpha’s squad leader should have checked in by now.
Axur opened a channel on his comms. “Alpha Leader report in.”
Static
“Alpha Leader, report in. Do you read me?”
Still nothing.
Axur opened another channel. “Squad leaders, sound off on your location and status now!”
“Beta Leader reporting. Guarding the south tower. Everything clear here.”
“Gamma Leader reporting. Off duty. All accounted for.”
“Delta Leader reporting. Off duty. Everyone’s in the barracks.”
Static.
Static.
Static.
“Theta Leader reporting. Guarding home base. All clear here, General.”
Axur gritted his teeth. No word from Epsilon, Zeta, or Eta … all the squads patrolling further away from the town. That meant only one thing.
“All units prepare for an attack! I repeat, prepare for an attack. The enemy is using long-range jammers and will be coming in from the north.”
Just as the words had left his mouth, a gunshot rang out, and the soldier on his left crumpled to the ground.
“Sniper! Get down!”
He jumped off the platform just as another shot whizzed by him. His comms were alive, with the squads still in contact and organizing themselves. Each was reporting raiders entering the town.
The raiders had clearly been waiting for a day like today to really screw with them. Letting them get comfortable and lower their guard. The rain and cloudy day made the perfect cover.
Soldiers flanked him, and he shouted orders to get the civilians to safety and take battle positions. The rain began pouring even harder. Like they didn’t have enough problems already.
It didn’t take long for them to find the raiders. In an instant, it had gone from another boring day to a full-on firefight.
Axur ducked behind a structure and then returned fire. He desperately kept trying to raise the four missing squads on the comms. He had no way of knowing whether they were dead or merely unreachable.
