Hunter
We watchedfrom our hiding place at the corner of the street. No sound or any movement was coming from the house. This was where our intel had told us the soldiers would be.
It was quiet. Too quiet.
“B Team, can you see anything?”
“Negative, Lieutenant.”
I hated this part, especially without my second lieutenant and best friend with me. He had gone to help out B Team, as they recently lost some of their men.
We waited patiently to see if our intelligence was correct. If so, they should have been leaving around now.
That was when I heard the sound of gunfire coming from the other side of the building, directly where the B Team was hiding. The problem was, we couldn’t see who was firing at them. It wasn’t coming from the building that we were watching.
“We have multiple injuries here. We need to pull out!”
Now I knew our intel was incorrect and we had been compromised. We needed to get back to safety.
“All teams, pull out to our meeting point!”
We all fell back to safety and our meeting point. With my team being the closest, we were back first and waited for the other teams to arrive. I knew with injuries to the B Team, they would probably be last to get here, but some of them were already arriving.
Then I saw him being carried by two soldiers. At first, I hardly recognised him, but as they got closer, I could see the stripes on his arms.
Elliott.
I rushed over and took him in my arms as we gently laid him down on the ground. The medic team had already been called, but I wasn’t sure how long he would last.
“Elliott, it’s Hunter. I need you to stay with me for a while. Just until the medics get here.”
His face was covered in blood, and I could see the stomach wound. I just had to keep him awake long enough for the medics to arrive, and then he would have a chance.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked up at me. “Hunter, keep your promise. And please look after Mum and Dad.”
He started to close his eyes, and I started to shake him, anything to keep him awake.
“Elliott, you’ve got to stay with me. I’ll keep every promise I ever made if you will just stay with me, please!”
But I felt him go limp in my arms.
He was gone. I had lost my best friend.
I woke up suddenly,my heart pounding and sweat pouring from me. It wasn’t often I had nightmares now. Only on days like today. It would have been Elliott’s thirtieth birthday.
Of all the days, this was the one I hated the most. Ever since I had lost him in Iraq three years ago, this day had filled me with dread. It took everything in me to get out of bed in the morning and get on with life.
Elliott was my best friend. More than that, he was like a brother to me. I had no family, so his parents had taken me in as one of their own. They had always been there for me, even after Elliott had died, and I had kept my promise to him to look after them both.
I got out of bed and grabbed a quick shower before getting dressed and heading downstairs. I couldn’t face breakfast this morning and probably wouldn’t eat at all today. The memories of what happened to my best friend three years ago were still too vivid in my brain to face any food.
I made myself a coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. Every day, I asked myself the same question.
Why couldn’t I have been the one to die? No one would have missed me. I was nothing, a nobody. Elliott had a family around him. Two amazing parents, and a wonderful sister.
I couldn’t dwell on it much, as I couldn’t turn back the clock and change what happened. I just had to live with the consequences every day of my life.
I’d madethe trip to our local church this morning to visit Elliott’s grave. I didn’t come here much now, but I always made the journey on his birthday and the anniversary of his death, if I was home.
