Nightmare-Z Page 7

  “Air scan?” Andrew curiously asks.

  Trevor explains.

  “Damn I want to stay now. Things start really picking up around here and I leave for two weeks,” complains Andrew. Trevor stares at him and shakes his head. QRF rolls by them with four MRAPS while everyone comes out from the bunker to start yelling at them while blowing kisses and waving middle fingers. Some begin yelling out sarcastic remarks like, “Save me” or “We hope you’re infantry” while half the soldiers are shirtless and in their civilian boxers holding their M4 Carbines and PVS-14 night vision goggles.

  Trevor looks back at his watch.

  “Eighteen minutes. Man that platoon sucks,” Trevor belittles after he takes a puff of his cigerette. “I saw those guys earlier today. Their medic got pretty banged up and their platoon leader pissed me off,” Andrew tells Trevor as he reaches into his pack for another smoke.

  Trevor asks what he meant.

  “Their medic got bit by a dying Iraqi while trying to save his life. He was bleeding pretty bad too just like that guy in the DFAC. Weird huh?” Andrew asks.

  Trevor looks down to the ground and stays silent. Obvious thoughts running through his mind. An hour goes by. It is now dark outside and QRF still has not come back yet. Reports over the radio paint a vivid picture though. QRF found the poo site(where the rockets were launched from) and found the rails with five more 122mm rockets still on them ready to go. There was a sixth on the ground just laying there, however, it was rigged to blow via pressure plate beneath the sand right behind the rail system. EOD discovered this and dismantled it. All the soldiers in the bunker listen on hoping they can get more information and hopefully hear the speakers sound the “All clear” message. However, still nothing.

  Trevor and Andrew continue to converse when they hear a group of soldiers beginning to yell outside the bunker in a jokingly fashion. Some laughs as well. As a result, the brothers stand up from their comfortable spot and proceed to walk outside to find out what was so funny when they see five or six soldiers hanging out in front of the fenceline apparently making fun of somebody on the other side.

  They approach the fenceline which is only around thirty feet away from the bunker. Once they push around the crowd of soldiers, they notice someone on the other side of the fence stumbling down the road. He appears to be a soldier with his weapon dangling from his front by his sling. He is wearing his roadguard belt and clear lense eye protection, however as normal as it may seem, this person is anything but normal.

  His eye protection is crooked and just barely hanging on his face. He is stumbling slowly like he is drunk. In addition, he begins moaning very loudly. He notices the group of soldiers Trevor and Andrew is in and begins slowly moving towards their direction. Gunfire begins to erupt out in the distance once again. However, it seems to be closer this time. A few tracers fly by over the night sky and becomes visible for all to see. It seems to be coming from inside the base and burning out into sector.

  As the soldier slowly approaches, more soldiers in Trevor’s unit begins cracking jokes at the man. Trevor and Andrew could only make out his description because as he walked, he weaved in and out of the pockets of lights on the road. They only got a good view of him for three or five seconds at a time before he drifted back into the darkness.

  As Andrew and Trevor observes on their side of the fence, Andrew wonders where all of this alcohol is coming from and where he can find some. He isn’t sure if all these people he been seeing stumbling around are actually drunk, however, his sub-concious may be forcing him to think that way because there is no other way in his mind to explain it.

  The loud speakers start up again. “All clear. I say again, all clear.” The platoon sergeant orders all of his men back inside to pick up where they left off in the meeting. Trevor tells his brother that he will swing by his tent tonight before he flies out. Andrew decides to stay and see whats wrong with the approaching soldier on the other side. Trevor waves as he walks off.

  Andrew reaches into his pocket and pulls out one of the Miami cigerettes Trevor gave him for later. He recently began chain smoking, a habit he picked up from his brother since deploying with him.

  “Hey bro, are you alright?” Andrew shouts off into the darkness now all by his lonesome in the direction of the soldier.

  Upon lighting up his cigerette, the stumbling soldier picked up his pace.

  “Hey man, can you hear me? Need any help? What the hell is your deal bro?” Andrew continues to shout.

  No response. The soldier is now feet away from the fence line. Andrew has a clear as day picture of him now. Andrew drops his lit cigerette and steps back a few feet as the soldier begins beating on the fence and trying to stick his arm through to grab Andrew. The soldier begins moaning and letting off a human type growl. He has no pupils and his face is pale as snow.

  “What the hell is your problem man!” Andrew shouts in disbelief.

  The soldier now begins shaking the fence line while moaning even louder.

  “Screw off man, you’re on your own. Later,” Andrew angrily tells the soldier as he leaves his lit cigerette on the ground while walking off back to his tent.

  As he walks away he notices that the moaning has stopped. He decides not to look back and go about his business. Upon returning to his tent, Andrew decides to change into his boxers and lay down in his bunk. He sets his alarm for 2 AM. He has to be up at the company at 3 AM to catch a ride down to the flight terminal. While laying down in his bunk, he stares up at the ceiling and thinks about his strange day.

  The surrendering Iraqis, the other strange events and most of all, the soldier whom he tried to talk with and help out who just moaned and growled at him like he wasn’t even human. Enough for one day he tells himself. He decides to close his eyes. Before he drifts into sleep, he can hear yet another C-130 flying overhead of his tent once again.

  . . . . A startled Andrew quickly snaps up from his bunk at the sound of gunfire. Not off in the distance this time. It seems to be only a hundred meters from his tent because it was so loud. He thought that he heard the rounds weeze by and caught the sound of the crack. As a result, he gets up to check his clock. It reads 2:31 AM.

  Another pair of rounds are fired. This time he flinches. At this point, he doesn’t know what to think. He goes for his weapon and walks outside in nothing but his boxers. He looks left and right down the hesco barrier surrounded corrider walk ways and sees nothing. He decides to go back inside and get dressed. The gunfire stops. Andrew begins packing some last minute stuff when he realized his brother never stopped by to say good bye. He figured that something might of came up and that he was busy. Either way, he could call him in Kuwait or send him an email later. He wasn’t about to wake him up this late at night.

  Once Andrew is all ready to go, he opens up the door to the tent and walks off into the darkness with his ACU assault pack on his back to turn in his weapon and catch his ride home. As he approaches the CP in the darkness in the middle of the dead of night, he doesn’t look back.

  CHAPTER 2

  affliction “Hey sergeant, can I get one of those Miamis you got there?” Hunter asks in a gentleman like voice as he drives his MRAP down a desserted desert one lane road northwest of FOB Basrah while on patrol.

  Trevor gives him the look and responds, “How can I deny thee, my young wolf apprentice.”

  “Ahhh sergeant, I quiver with delight,” Hunter jokes as he reaches over to grab one of his squad leader’s smokes.

  Price and Reagal at this point can be heard laughing over the headset. Gilroy remains silent as usual. “You know man, the Army preaches so much about quitting smoking. The effects of nicotine blaz-a-blah. Yet, everything they make you do drives you to the ladder and drinking. I mean you really want to get guys like me to quit? Just allow me to finish my damn show(in regards to the current mission they are conducting),” preaches Trevor as he lights up a Miami for himself.

  At that point Reagal chimes in, “Sergeant, you and that
show Desperate Housewives is like Gilroy and thought process. You try to complete it, but something always gets in the way.”

  Price begins laughing uncontrollably and spits up all of the water he was just drinking at the time all over his M240 Bravo machine gun. The squad members in the back notices water dripping down from the turret.

  Moments later, Gilroy snaps back over the headset and tells Reagal to “shut his mouth”.

  At that point, Hunter shoots back at Gilroy and tells him to pipe down before he pops a retard vessel. As a result, Gilroy begins swearing to Hunter and threatens to attack him after they get back from patrol.

  Trevor steps in and stops the dispute.

  “Everyone shut your damn mouths and let me preach. This is a one way conversation, kind of like the bible. I can throw down thunderbolts,” yells Trevor over the headset.

  Everyone shuts up. Trevor tries hard to keep squad unity and order. He knows that he has a good group of guys, but sometimes he knows they can get at eachother’s throats. His main problem child is Gilroy. This soldier always seems to get into the most trouble out of all the squad members combined. Trevor made a few attempts before to bring him closer, however, always ending badly with Gilroy slipping deeper into his own form of isolation from the rest of the group Trevor now tries not to speak to him or even approach him. Trevor feels if Gilroy does something wrong, he will snap and only help to further isolate him from the group. Christopher usually deals with him.

  “Reagal, if you’re going to talk smack about somebody, make sure you do it behind their back,” explains Christopher over the headset. Seconds later, Christopher turns to stare at Gilroy, “And for you, at least he talks his smack in front of you. Not behind your back. Stick up for yourself. Get your head up too, you make yourself an easy target,” explains Christopher.

  Gilroy raises his head up. Christopher notices some redness in Gilroy’s eyes through his clear lense eye protection as if he was about to go cry. “Your team leader is right, Gilroy. Hunter, How many damn times did I tell you, stay out of other people’s business. Reagal, watch your damn mouth. We are a squad, I intend to keep it that way. If anyone is going to fight they are going to have to go through me first. So calm the hell down,” Trevor demands with conviction and an apparent anger in his voice.

  All three soldiers respond with a “Roger Sergeant” all at once. “Now back to what I was saying. You know, I figure they wouldn’t let me stay back from a patrol for one night to finish my show, however, I do believe if our senior leadership gave the show a chance and watched a few episodes they may just change their mi . . . . ,” Trevor is cut off to the sound of a gigantic explosion.

  The sound of copper metal and shrapnel pepper Trevor’s side of the vehicle with the sound of loud significant metal on metal contact. As a reaction, Trevor kneels forward in his seat towards the driver as Hunter slams on the breaks. Price in the turret is seen face diving into the center cab of the vehicle for protection. Everyone in the back starts screaming profanities over the headset in shock.

  At that moment, Trevor can hear the vehicle behind him sound off on the radio with “Contact IED(improvised explosive device or roadside bomb). Contact IED lead vehicle.”

  It’s Trevor’s vehicle that has been hit. Everyone on the truck felt the concussion shoot through their chests as their ear drums ring. Everybody in the convey begins flooding the net for status reports from Trevor to see if he and his squad is okay.

  “IS EVERYBODY ALRIGHT BACK THERE! YOU HEAR ME! GIVE ME AN UP!” yells Trevor through the headset while trying to look back and see if anyone is hurt. He can now see that Hunter is okay. Trevor checks his body to see if he’s been hit or has any blood stains. Nothing. As Trevor waits for the status of his soldiers in the back, he notices his TC side window is filled with metallic BB’s and ball bearings. The plexi glass stopped it.

  “I SAID GIVE ME AN UP RIGHT NOW MUNIZ!” yells Trevor now growing impatient only as a few seconds have just passed by. Price comes up on the headset and says he is fine as he gathers himself and decides to stand back up so he can scan the area with his machine gun for any trigger men. His turret shield blocked the shraprnel from hitting him.

  “Everyone is good back here sergeant. Nothing came through. We are fine,” reports Christopher as he pats every soldier down in the back to include the gunner so he is sure everyone is okay and not wounded.

  Trevor keys the headset and informs his leadership with an update. They respond and ask if their vehicle can move as Trevor notices the third truck behind him push past them at a high rate of speed to cover front side security.

  “Wait one,” responds Trevor.

  “Hunter, how’s the vehicle looking? Can we still move?” Trevor asks as he anxiously awaits an answer. Hunter attempts to move forward but nothing happens. He then decides to restart the vehicle. The engine cranks up but nothing happens as he slams on the gas pedal. Trevor nods his head with acceptance and keys the headset.

  “This is stalker 5, be advised, we are immobile. Going to have to hook up,” Trevor transmits. The platoon sergeant and the platoon leader acknowledges and tells the gunners to pickup their scans and look out for secondary devices. As rehearsed and practiced before, the first vehicle backs up to the front of Trevor’s. The platoon leader pulls up on the contact side between the recovery vehicle and the blown out one to cover the soldiers as they dismount and hook up the tow bars.

  Hunter hits the switch to open Trevor’s TC side door. Trevor waits in anticipation with his weapon ready for the door to open wide enough so he can hop out. His squad members in the back of the vehicle already begin getting off the truck and undoing the tow bars which are strapped to the sides of the vehicles. Once Trevor is off, Hunter closes his door and hops off as well. Hunter walks around the vehicle to check out the damage.

  It appears two tires have been blown along with just part of the side skirt plates. Trevor’s door is blackened and peppered with sharpnel. There is a pefect circular hole about three to five inches in diameter which only pentrated an inch or so into the armor on Trevor’s door.

  It was obviously an EFP(Explosive Formed Projectile). It obviously wasn’t set into place far back enough from the shoulder of the road because it didn’t have enough time to form. If it did, it would have pentrated through the armor of the vehicle and killed Trevor. Trevor observes the hole in shock while his men attempt to hook up the tow bars to the vehicle in front of them. Few seconds later he snaps out of it and begins walking up to the front of the vehicle to help out. As he assists Gilroy in lifting up a piece of the heavy bar, a startled Ringo notices something.

  “Hey, what the hell is that?” asks Ringo out loud as a general question to everyone in his squad.

  Everybody stops what they are doing and looks up. Trevor begins to drift off at the sight of something on the ground.

  There appears to be a group of people off-set of eachother off into the distance. No more than five or six. They are so far away, the mirage is noticeable off into the distance. They seem to be walking towards the sound of the blast. The thing which startled the squad, however, is the fact that these people are walking out in the middle of the desert without a village or road in plain view for miles. It is almost impossible to make out their faces because they are so far away.

  “Who the hell takes a stroll out in the desert?” curiously asks Ringo.

  “Maybe someone who planted a freaking EFP thats who,” exclaims Reagal as he looks up at Price, who still inside his turret scanning for potential threats.

  Reagal points his buddy Price in the direction of the approaching individuals as he takes aim with his rifle. That is when Trevor steps in. “Pipe down dumb ass. Look it was a pressure plate detonation that set it off,” sarcastically explains Trevor as he unravels duel metallic plates attached to eachother in the ground.

  Trevor then begins to tug on the wire which leads to the device but stops short of going off the road. “Yeah i’m not going any further. Could be booby tr
apped,” Trevor tells himself out loud as he keys his portable radio to send the report to higher. The platoon leader acknowledges. The squad begins going about their business hooking up their disabled vehicle.

  Trevor stands there by the side of the road as he looks out into the endless open desert. He stares at the indivuduals off into the distance who slowly approach his position without emotion on his face. After a few minutes go by, the platoon leader calls him back and informs him that EOD with QRF are en route to their location.

  Andrew walks off the back of the C-130 into the glimmering sun of Kuwait as it beats down on his face with his ballistic vest, stripped of pouches and his helmet over his head. Himself and the group he is with to fly home are huddled onto an awaiting bus which will take them to a part of the base known as Ali Al Saleem or ‘Tent City’.

  A place which holds soldiers inbound and outbound into theater and which is a last stop for anyone leaving the middle east. Customs and various different types of administrative paperwork is delt here as well. Upon arriving to tent city, the group along with Andrew are huddled into a tent for a briefing. There, they are told that they will be there for forty-eight hours. Enough time to turn in their equipment, fill out their leave paperwork and get their tickets issued.

  Once Andrew completes this process, he scurries over to the internet center to hop on a computer and check his email. He also intends to send Trevor’s family an email displaying his intentions to come see them as well as message Trevor to see how he is doing. Once there, he loggs onto his yahoo account.

  What he notices on the front page of yahoo news in big bold letters is something strange. There is an apparent news story regarding reports of widespread sickness and illness. Mass histeria and riots seem to be breaking out all over the world, including Iraq.