by Leila Haven
I was ready to chase after them.
Until I remembered Jenny.
They all filed past me, each one squinting for any semblance of sight as they moved out. I was going against the tide, moving further into the room to find her.
She was crouched under a table. I crouched down to be beside her. “Jenny, are you okay? Are you hurt in any way?”
Her big black eyes looked up at me, full of fear. “I.. I think so. Are you?”
“I’m fine. We need to get out of here.” I held out my hand for her to take. If felt symbolic, asking her to trust me now and with everything I had been accused of. All the anger I felt toward her would have to be placed in a box to open later.
Right now, it was a case of do or die. If we didn’t get out of the mess hall, it would only be a matter of time before one of the enemy found us there. We needed to beat them to the punchline.
Jenny finally placed her small hand in mine and I helped her to her feet. She was a little unstable for the first few steps, which was understandable considering another loud explosion rocked the place even further.
She held onto me, gripping my arm for safety. “We’re going to get out of here,” I reassured her. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”
“Promise?”
“I promise, dumpling.”
She smiled through her fear and I knew it was time to move out. I wished I had my gun on me, ready to fight any of those fuckers if they got in our way. If they were throwing bombs on us, we were going to retaliate. We wanted no more deaths but we couldn’t ignore a fight breaking down our front door.
The only light in the corridor was coming from the exit signs. They cast an eerie red glow on the walls, making it seem like we were stepping into the twilight zone.
Gunshots started to ring out in the distance. I couldn’t tell which side was sending them over to the other. All I knew was that I needed to get to my troop and fight alongside my comrades. I might have been ready to resign, but I still knew what my duty was.
The problem was Jenny. I still had to keep her safe; she wasn’t accustomed to being in a warzone. Even with the amount of action she’d seen out in the field since she’d been here, it wouldn’t prepare her for this kind of attack. This was senseless violence and she didn’t need to be anywhere near it.
“I’m going to get you someplace safe and then I’m going to see what’s going on. Okay?”
She gripped onto my arm tighter. “I don’t want to be separated from you. You can’t leave me alone.”
“I have to help. You’ll be safe, you’ll be able to lock the door and nobody will get you.” I hoped my words were true. There was only one room that I knew unequivocally could lock.
The supply room.
I’d been desperate to get out of there when I was locked in, but luckily I was smart enough to take note of the lock. It could be secured from inside and out. It was the safest place I could imagine to put her.
Walking through the corridors was like walking with my eyes closed. Smoke was starting to spread out through the base from whatever was burning nearby. I just prayed it wasn’t the building.
I continued forward, relying on my memory of the base only. The layout of every corridor was in my head, I couldn’t let myself be confused by everything going on around us. The supply closet was coming up on the right, I could just make out the door.
“We’re here,” I said, guiding Jenny toward the closet. “This door locks from the inside. I want you to lock it and don’t open it again unless I’m on the other side. Got it?”
She allowed me to place her inside but her foot remained in the door. “Please stay with me.”
“I’ve got to fight, it’s what I’m here for.”
“Shaun, I’m scared.”
“Don’t be. I’m going to be out there making sure we all go home alive and not in a wooden box. Got it?”
Reluctantly, she nodded.
Closing the door on Jenny was one of the hardest things I had ever done.
But it was time I caught the sons of bitches trying to take down our military base.
Chapter 16:
Private Simon
҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉
It felt like I was connected to Jenny with a piece of string. The further I moved away from her, the tighter it became, desperately trying to tug me back so I could be with her.
But I was in this fight to make sure that she, and everyone else on base, was safe. If I cowered away I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself. I needed to do this, even if it killed me.
Another explosion boomed in the distance. The Taliban had arrived prepared, I would give them that. At the end of the day, the war came down to who had the biggest guns. I just hoped they ran out of ammunition before we did.
They were prepared for this attack, they had time to plan.
We did not.
One of the walls of the corridor I turned into had been demolished. Piles of bricks and mortar were scattered everywhere, no longer resembling the sturdy wall they once did.
I stepped through it to the outside, the sun and heat hitting me like an anvil. It was easy to forget how hot the desert got when you were inside too much. My uniform started to cling to my skin, a bead of sweat rolling down my back.
“Simon! Get over here!” Rafter called out. He was working with a team of men, loading up the M198 Howitzer to send a rain of terror back to the enemy. I joined them, heaving up the heavy equipment to get it into position.
When it was ready, we moved into formation, well away from the danger zone of the weapon. It could kill a hundred men if given the chance. We kept it inside the base, just in case we had to use it sometime. This was the first instance where we had to.
We crouched down and fired, covering our ears with our hands. Even then, the rumble of death it made when it fired rang in my ears and the ground beneath our feet shook like an earthquake.
A loud explosion punctuated the air. This time, it wasn’t on our side. The weapon had hit the target and taken out more than a dozen of their vehicles. Our first major win in this fight.
We all went to reload again while other soldiers were trying desperately to get the Taliban out of the main gate. They were coming in on foot, all geared up in armor they probably stole from us. They were each in the colors of the U.S. Military.
“Every spare man to the gate!” Major Atoll yelled out. It was unusual to see him in combat mode but I guessed he didn’t want to go down without a fight.
I looked at Rafter, a silent question whether I could go or not. He nodded and I took off, picking up a gun along the way.
We all formed a line inside the gate, ready for the assault that would come once they broke it down. Atoll ordered us about with his hand gestures, moving us so we were in the best position possible.
An explosion shattered the solid gate into a million pieces and there was a moment of silence before Atoll gave the order. Our guns destroyed the silence as we shot blindly into the clearing smoke.
The Taliban threw their bodies at us, returning fire as they ran toward us. They led with their guns and held them up with cold eyes looking down the barrels. We picked them off one by one. They might have had the numbers on their side, but we had training and bigger guns on ours.
One of the fuckers threw a live grenade at us. “Grenade!” I shouted as quickly and as loudly as I could. We all ran in the opposite direction, ducking for cover behind anything we could.
I dove for the side of the building, hoping it would withstand the force of the blow that was about to be rained down upon us.
The grenade exploded and took out what remained of my hearing with it. My shoulder stung, hurting like a motherfucker all of a sudden. All I could see was red when I looked down at it. A piece of shrapnel was imbedded in my skin, piercing my uniform.
It wouldn’t kill me.
I peeked out from the side of the building. From the dust cloud I could make out some men lying on the ground. They weren’t moving,
I couldn’t see them well enough to know what side they were on.
The base was in complete chaos and it was difficult to tell which side was winning. There seemed to be an endless stream of the Taliban coming for us. No matter how many we took down, another ten took their place.
It was very possible that we weren’t going to win there on that day.
I thought of Jenny in the supply closet and prayed she was okay. I didn’t think the enemy had breached the inside of our building yet, but with Salinger running around, I couldn’t be sure. He wasn’t playing for our team anymore; that was for sure.
My gun felt reassuring in my hand but nothing was guaranteed. I continued to fight with the gate team, shooting at anyone that stepped foot on our base.
“Simon, have you seen Rafter?” Private Kincaid asked as she ran toward me. I turned around, ready to point at the other side of the pit but my troop had moved. The worry was written all over her face.
“They were over there before. They might have moved further around the perimeter,” I replied. I wished I could help her further but I had a job to do. Rafter would have to look after himself.
“Tell him I’m looking for him if you see him, okay?” I nodded and Kincaid hurried away. I understood why we were not encouraged to date within the army. She and Rafter were tight, they were engaged. Of course she would be worried about him at a time like this.
“Fall back, men,” Atoll shouted, waving his arms around to make sure everyone understood. We retreated further into the base while the Taliban’s grip on our base grew.
We had a very real risk of dying that day.
And all I could think about was Jenny.
Chapter 17:
Officer Jennifer Ramirez
҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉
I tried singing to myself, I tried humming, and I tried sticking my fingers into my ears up to the first knuckle. But there was no way to block out the sounds coming from outside.
Shouts.
Screams.
Orders.
Battle cries.
Gunfire.
Explosions.
My heart was pounding in my chest and I was scared that it would break out of my ribcage. I couldn’t handle the waiting. The long, stretched out moments where I could imagine the whole building being demolished within a second.
Shaun was out there.
I never got to explain my actions or apologize for lying to him. I might never get to see him again and he would never know how much he meant to me.
How much I loved him.
I hadn’t intended on coming on this assignment to give my heart away. It never even crossed my mind. But the thought of losing him now made all the walls in the small room cave in on me.
He told me to stay put; to stay away from the danger until he returned. I wanted to follow his orders but I just couldn’t. If we were going to die today, I wanted us to go together – not with me alone in a tiny room filled with toilet paper and him out there fighting for his life.
I pressed my ear up to the door but couldn’t hear anything useful on the other side. The lock made a clicking sound when I opened it.
Carefully, like my life depended on it, I edged the door open. There was smoke and dust filling all the space in the corridor, lingering like a hazy cloud both left and right. I covered my mouth with the top of my shirt, hoping it would help enough so I could breathe.
I crouched as low as I could and started moving down the hallway. The noise of gunfire and shouting floated through the space to my ears. It was difficult to tell for sure where it was coming from.
Going outside was my only real option. Smoke was too busy making a home in the building and I didn’t want to get trapped under a pile of rubble if the whole thing went down.
Men were running everywhere when I finally found a way out. I couldn’t recognize any of them, each one dressed the same and all hurrying around as fast as possible.
It reminded me of the scene at the marketplace when the Taliban had started shooting at us. The ground was perpetually clouded with red dust, the sun was beating down hard, and guns were cracking everywhere.
The war surrounded me.
I needed to find Shaun and know he was okay. He had to be. Our story wasn’t supposed to end like this.
Bodies were everywhere. Some were dressed in camouflage, others in traditional tunics. It looked like both sides lost a lot of men.
Each one I passed, I looked at their face and prayed it didn’t belong to Shaun. This senseless loss of lives was ridiculous.
I’d seen the Afghani war on television and in news reports. I was a part of the U.S. Military, I had received basic training before moving into my role in the administration of the army.
What I’d seen was nothing like what was surrounding me now. I didn’t have anyone censoring the violence, there were no sad newsreaders to introduce a watered down version of the carnage, and editors didn’t pick and choose images to show me.
War was horrifying.
To see human beings doing their best to kill the humans on the other side was something of nightmares. It was the terrible fairytales parents told their children as a warning for what could happen if they were bad.
I stood in the middle of it all, my jaw hanging open and my pulse racing. I’d never been more scared in my life before. It wasn’t just what I was seeing, it was the cries of pain that infiltrated my ears, the acrid stench of gunfire, and the vibrations of the ground underneath me.
There wasn’t a single sense that could ignore what was happening around me. War had a way of making its presence known. It was something that couldn’t be ignored.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. All the thoughts in my head happened in the space of only a few seconds. I knew I had to run or hide or fight or cry but I couldn’t make myself do any of those things.
I saw the soldier in front of me set his jaw in determination before he ran forward and started firing at the men by the base gate. One of the Taliban went flying backwards as bullets shredded his chest and bright red blood sprayed in all directions.
It wasn’t on TV, or on video, it was really happening all around me and there was a very good chance I could be one of the victims engraved on a memorial plate in the next few days.
“Jenny!”
My name jolted me from my daze as it was screamed into the air. Everything snapped back into real time again, no more slow motion.
Shaun rushed at me, his brown eyes startling as they peeked out from below his helmet. His shoulder was drenched in red, a slash cut into his skin underneath and still blooming with the sticky blood.
“What are you doing out here? I told you to wait indoors where it’s safer,” Shaun yelled over the gunfire. It scared me to see him in this battle mode, his words frantic and his moves crazed.
“I couldn’t stay there. Not when you’re out here. I want to help,” I replied. My voice was cracking with the strain of yelling. Everything was just so loud.
“God help me, woman. You are a handful. Take this.” He shoved a M16 Assault Rifle into my hands. “Do you know how to shoot?”
“I’ve been trained.” It was part of my compulsory training when I was inducted into the military.
“Good. Shoot at anyone that isn’t us. Got it?” He stuck a bullet-proof vest over me before planting a helmet onto my head. He did it up for me, just like a parent would.
“Got it.”
“And stay with me.”
I would definitely do that. Not being with Shaun while all this was going on would be nerve-wracking. I would rather fight to the end next to my man than sit on my hands and hope he would return to me.
If he was still mine, anyway.
We ran toward one side of the wall that had suffered a lot of damage. Soldiers had been in the middle of sandbagging it when the enemy broke through. They were crouched down behind makeshift barriers, peeking over to fire and then duck back again.
Shaun crouched down next to them and I followed suit.
It took every piece of courage I had when the signal was given to return fire. I knelt while my arms rested on the debris and fired the gun repeatedly. There was so much smoke and dust that it was difficult seeing if either side had been successful.
Splinters of wood and concrete flew off our barrier as the Taliban army fired at us in retaliation. The bullets were so close I could feel their power as they shot through the air. We flew back into position on the floor so our heads didn’t get picked off.
