Dirt was flying everywhere. “How the hell did I get myself into this?” James wondered. Two weeks ago he was toasting his best friend with a $1500 bottle of Louis XIII cognac as she was preparing to say I do that next day. Now here he was, thousands of miles across the Atlantic getting shot at. As he ducked down behind the damp, mossy hill, he wondered if the traps Lt. Cran set would be enough. Only a few more moments and he’d have his answer. As if on cue the air was cut by the razor wire whipping around the huge trees. The silence that followed intensified with the rotting flesh of the dead soldiers that gave their lives for both causes in battle.
James waited about 30 seconds before crouching into the low crawl position to move from his hill. Another 30 seconds and he was able to look up thru the wire above his head dripping with the blood of the other side. This booby-trap was crude, but by God it was effective. The wires cut thru the Yanannis like the proverbial hot knife thru butter. Only a recon squad, good, and only 7 of them. That was even better news. Yanan was a safe haven for terrorists and would be freedom fighters that claim to “gladly “give their life for the good fight. And because there was no shortage of these fighters, their squads and recon teams ran at least 15 deep. Seeing this recon team of only seven showed that the word was out, you go to war against us, you die. Swiftly.
Looking around the landscape he so wanted to not be there. All that raced thru James’s mind was how he had to miss Marie’s wedding to fly halfway across the globe. The single purpose to being here was to kill people that worshiped the America’s Top but were afraid of their own women being able to learn to read. “She’ll get over it” he thought to himself, knowing full well that his best friend would never get over it. It was her wedding day after all. And what good is a best friend if the best friend isn’t at the wedding. James’s commitment to God, country, the Corps made that argument null and void. He knew he may have beg Marie’s forgiveness when he’d just have to turn on that Texas charm, flash those pearly whites, and all would be right. Plus she agreed to hook him up with her girlfriend from college.
As James was lost in his thoughts, he felt his feet leave him. As he looked up, he saw why. Cooper had been searching the bodies when an explosion made his wife a widow in the blink of an eye. As James radioed for an immediate airlift out, gunfire came from the 10 o’clock position crossed by more fire from the south. Caught in the crossfire, his best hope was that the Yanannis weren’t that good of an aim and much to his satisfaction, he was proved right. As he swung his rifle to the fire back from where the shots rang out, his rifle was feeling lighter than normal and immediately he knew why, damn clip was empty!
Rushing to grab a new clip to load, the air went silent. Cutting thru it was an animalistic roar with paws reaching for his neck. This was the biggest Yananni he had ever seen. The two men tumbled to the ground with James grabbing at the other man’s throat. The big Yananni picked James up just like a ragdog and threw him across the field. As he tried to get his wits about him, the big man took off his shirt and continued the pounding on James’s head. Blackness developed all around him until he there was no more pressure or hits.
James opened his eyes and looked around. He had only his t-shirt and pants on as he lay on the hard dirt. His feet bled thru the socks and the bars in front of him still had pieces of flesh on them. Doing a quick once-over, he ran his head on his hand and was happy that he had all his skin in one spot from the next up. The rats in the corner appeared to be larger than average rats and he could see why, they were eating thru the clothes and into the flesh of Lt. Cran. “Great” he thought, “Marie is really gonna kill me if I don’t make it back to apologize. Well, I’ll worry about that later. Right now I have to get out of here!”