“Captain,” I grunted as I tried to stand.
The world around me tilted. I felt something dribbling down my face. A series of knocking thuds came against the bomb-blast door that cut me off from the rest of base.
From the rest of my Marines.
From the rest of my men.
“I’m coming,” I grunted as I rolled over onto all fours.
“Lieutenant! Open up! They’re coming! Please! Let me in!”
“Coming,” I grunted as the world tilted in my vision.
“LIEUTENAAAAAANT! MOMMY! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP MEEEEE! MOM! MOMMY! NOOOOO!”
I heard the sound of gurgling. Squelching. Someone was crying somewhere. So many voices cried out for their mother. Boys, dying where they stood. Boys who had no fucking business fighting the war of rich men.
Somehow, I pulled myself up to my feet.
Somehow, I found my way to the wall.
And somehow, I managed to stumble against it, using it to prop me up as something dribbled down my neck.
Was that the blood from my face?
No matter, I didn’t have time.
“I’m here,” I panted as my trembling hands fiddled with the lock on the door. “I’m here. Come in. It’s safe in?—”
I ripped the door open, and the smell of smoke and chaos greeted me. People were running around. Bullets flew in all directions. Chattering men called out in a language I hadn’t bothered to learn, and now I wished I paid attention in all of those required language courses.
Base had been infiltrated.
Heads were dragged behind stolen Humvees.
Bodies littered the ground.
My eyes widened as I looked down, and I found a sergeant.Mysergeant. Sergeant Davie Bucklesbee.
With his insides spilled out onto the ground.
“No,” I whispered as I dropped to my knees.
I found myself scooping up his insides and trying to put them back.
“Come on, Sarge. Stay with me,” I whispered.
My hands shivered as I brushed the sand off his large intestines.
He could still survive if I put it back.
Right?
“Bring him home safe, okay?”
His wife’s words bombarded my mind as I shoveled his insides back into his body. It wasn’t until another crash rocketed me off to the side, kicking up dust that completely enveloped his body, that I realized I made a grave mistake.
A mistake that had cost the man his life.
