The Soldier Next Door

Today we are getting ready to go out again. This time it is going to be somewhat more dangerous than we had yesterday. When the words like ‘Marines being killed’ is said in the same sentence of today’s mission, it does seem to bring out some sense of dread out of you. But we do now show fear. We do not falter. We are Marines, we do not lose. There is not one word spoken as we set off in the Humvee to a part of Fallujah.

Gibbs is especially gone nervous, he has not even blinked an eye. I think the poor man is terrified beyond tomorrow. How do you reassure a man that everything shall be okay when you have no idea of knowing it yourself? But I know that he is strong and that there is nothing that will break him down. Yes, there is only one thing that he cannot see past at a time like this, is us being taken hostage before. The word kill Marines has the same affect as what it has on the rest of the squad.

So all I can do is but put my hand on his shoulder and give him the silent reassurance that all shall be fine.

It has been five minutes since our departure. Five minutes taken too long already. In an out. That should be fairly easy. Take no prisoner, leave no one alive. Protect the civilians and make sure se clear every building as we are trained to do.

The hearts are beating and pumping the adreline at a steay pace. A steady pace three fractions to fast. Three factions that has you on the edge of you toes. And that is were you should be. Alert and pumped up. This is what our training leads us up to. Not the missions where you can sit back easily saying that, hey, look what I have done. No, these ones will take every skill you have and put it into action.

I, as I promised, never spoke to Ana this morning. So I do not only feel a sense of dread, but I am feeling regret. I broke a promise and she is now probably beyond herself with worry. I can see her phoning Lopez if she had his number. But there is no time for clouding your head, I need be alert. Distracting is what makes you part of these marines that have been killed here. Not that I am saying it is distraction that met their untimely fate, for the resistence here is savage.

It has now been fifteen minutes since our departure, we are set to arrive in another ten. The mood in the Humvee is building up to a steady pace of readiness. Gibbs is motivating them, not with some stupid speech of you can do it, but singing some Marine song to set the sense of purpose and pride back into our minds. The man is damn clever if I may say so myself.

I never anticipated to go on such a mission so soon, so motivating myself is what drives me to be a Marine with half a leg. I can now, feel the pain that shoots through my leg as the horror of that date run through my body. I should not feel this way. I should not think of what was and for it to interfere with what is. So I do as the rest of the squad and find myself singing to the very song.

It has now been twenty-five minutes since our departure and it has become our arrival. As before, Lewis and Williams will stay close by with the Humvee. At this stage there is no splitting up in two groups. One sniper shall remain with the Humvee as well. And then we set our feet outside into what is absolute chaos.

The weather has not played much as a friend to us, so we find a great deal of mud. Mud is not what you want. Not what you want when you run. You can not slip, that one second too long that you stand on the floor might be that one second that you do not have. So we find ourselves under the cover of two buildings preparing our plan of how we shall proceed. The main concern shall be your building that has not been crumbling down. And those buildings are the ones that shall have windows where you at least suspect them.

It has been five minutes since we set our foot on hostile ground. We are making entry into a building that has been so blown away that there is only but a few windows and one floor remain. Easy? Don’t ever think that anything is easy until you have actually done it. So we make our entry through the back door and in one…two…we are clear.

We abaondon this building for the one that is next door, it is new, it is all in tact. And that there is our first two problems. We step through the back door. Scan the entrance way and head in further teaming up two by two, clearing each room as they come up to the right. Fairly easy? No, for in one…two…we enter a room where there is a clear scuffle. If check my gun and proceed to life it to eye level as I enter under the cover of Matthew. Then as I turn to look behind the door. I am faced with them. The first feeling coming through my mind. Are they hostile?

It has been fifteen minutes that we set foot on hostile ground. We have entered a building and a room that is not clear. I am have four sets of eye staring me in such a way that I am not sure if they are terrified or relieved. I have infront of me two boys that I can guess are not even older than sixteen. Do they have guns? I scan their body and the surrounds. Nothing.

اینجا چه میکنی

No aswer, perhaps I am not saying it well, but last time I checked my Persian was pretty well. I wait for several seconds, now what do we do with two kids that are clearly not supposed to be here? Well we cannot be babysitters.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

از اینجا برو بیرون

With that I see them quickly run out of the building, hoping that they shall be fine, thinking nothing more about it.

It has been twenty-five minutes since we set foot on hostile ground. We have cleared three buildings and are making out way up the fairly deserted road with ease. Yet, an easy that one should not feel. We soon find ourselves entering the last builing in this street, in fact, the very same direction the two boys made their way into.

We once again. As by the book. No falter. No fail. We once again, swiftly and with complete thoroughness clear the first floor, then we do the very much same with the second one as well. They guys are starting to feel a lot less tense, which in first place is a mistake. Never think that you can ease your mind and relax your body. You become sloppy and you become dangerous. A weak link in the chain bring the rest of us down.

It has been twenty-five mines and ticking towards another five in a rapid pace, we find ourselves entering the very last of the room. As I filter in first to clear, there I find the boys standing again.

بهت گفتم برو خونه

The guys that enter the room behind me. Mistake one, they ease into the fact that it is only two kids. Mistake two, they lower there weapons. Mistake three, they turn their backs on the door.

In only but…one…two…three there is a voice that comes through the doorway, in an absolute instant I, as with the rest of the squad now that it is not one of ours. With that, a group of five men enter in the room. Dressed in complete green milatry uniform, they have their guns directed in our line of sight. The biggest man, who I believe must be the leader, pat the boys on the bank and thank them for a job well done. Well I am gessing that meeting the two boys was merely not just fate.

With that, two men come to tie take our weapons away, while another two tie our hands behind our backs. They are not being gently. They are doing this with atmost force. Much to my horror, Mathews makes a grunt at how roughly the man is tying his hand behind his back. In an instant, the leader smashed his gun against his face, leaving him with a gashing wound. Both me and Gibbs turn to face the squad and by just a mere look in our eye, we instruct them not to say a single word no matter what happens.

It has been five minutes since we have been taken captive.