Chapter 110: First Blood (Part 2)
...
That incident happened 9 days ago, Harvey died...and I was now on my way to do patrol with my platoon, about 8 soldiers on the group in this patrol, including me. This was the first time I have ever gone out to do the patrol with my members in my platoon, in the previous days, I only cleaned my platoon's room because of my punishment.
It was quite hot outside, I was now holding an M4 Carbine in my hands, an M9 Beretta on the right holster, wearing my combat uniform, my helmet and a big military bag on my back which carried pounds of equipment. The mission of my platoon today was simple, patrol around this area until night come and then go back to the base, that's all.
"Hey, want to smoke some?" - A soldier that was patrolling forward me said to the other one if he wanted to smoke or not
I was the soldier that was going on behind my platoon group, I was ordered by Hawton to patrol alongside the other soldiers by guarding the back side. I was walking to keep up with my soldiers while turning around to see if there was a Taliban dare to come out to shoot my men or not, that was my duty.
"Hey, kid! Talk a little bit, you seem very less talk." - The soldier that went forward me a bit talked to me, I was quite less talk in my platoon because I did not want to play with these bullies
I ignored the soldier and then kept looking around the backside to make sure there was no enemy would willing to attack us, only me and 7 other soldiers in my platoon were doing the patrol. About these guys' names, I was trying to remember, I didn't care to remember these guys' names but I was trying my best to remember.
"See any shit out there, Hanser?" - Hawton, who was going in the middle of the group called Hanser, the guy who was our platoon's scout boy, he was the one who take the lead of the group
Hanser after hearing Hawton's voice, he did not respond at all but kept looking around forward and then fastly moved toward Hawton, maybe this guy has focused on something strange on the road so he ignored Hawton's voice.
"Sir, I saw a few people on the sand ground away from us about 245 yards (224 meters), didn't know who they are, maybe the Taliban." - Hanser said to Hawton
Hawton heard Hanser say that so he slowly stepped toward the place that Hanser pointed to him, I also peeked with Hawton and saw there were about 4 to 5 people from far away, they were gathering, sitting to do something on the sand. The distance was far so I didn't know if those guys were our guys or not, they could be the Taliban or our US soldiers, I was wondering what Hawton would order next.
"Guys, we will light them up, now hide behind the stones to prepare to open fire." - Hawton made a smile as if he was excited to kill people and then the other soldiers used the big stones nearby to cover themselves, aimed their rifles out of the stones and were about to shoot
"Hawton, are you nuts? They may be ours, don't shoot blindly like that." - I said to Hawton and grabbed his collar
"Get your hand out, jerk." - Hawton pushed me away and the other soldiers seemed to stay by his side, I did not have any more allies in this platoon, this platoon was dead for sure
"What the fuck are you guys waiting for, just aim and wait for my order!" - Hawton shouted loud toward the soldiers and they returned to point their rifles at the targets forward
"Hear it, kid! From now on, you will take the lead, if you don't willing to do that end I will fucking tear your brain out." - Hawton kept his face close to me and then tapped me powerfully and then got away to join the soldiers
I did not have any right to resist Hawton so I slowly hid in a big stone alongside my soldiers and then pointed out my M4 toward the targets that I saw from the sand ground forward that were away from us. If I take the shots then that would be the first time I kill a person, I did not ready yet but the targets were far away so I thought that would be no problem for me to kill my enemy, they were far away after all.
I would kill my enemy but they were far away so I think without having a chance to look at them to die precisely from far away, I would have no problem with it. I slowly took a deep breath and then held tight my M4 and was about to shoot, the other soldiers have done pointing their rifles to the targets forward and were waiting for Hawton's order.
"Stand by...stand by..." - Hawton said to us, he was still telling us to wait
"Shoot!"
"Bang!...Bang!...Bang!" - All of us began to shoot our rifles at the targets forward, I was a bit scared but kept shooting my M4 forward
The gunshots were not fired in automatic mode but in semi-automatic mode, the enemies were far away from us so there was no reason to waste our ammo. I fired a few shots and noticed that the enemies from the other side have ran away to find a place to cover themselves after being shot.
I saw there was the only person that lay on the ground forward, the others have hid and shot back at us. We kept firing our rifles toward the enemies, I shot all of my rounds so I immediately changed to the other magazine and shot the enemies alongside my soldiers.
Suddenly, a green smoke was shot into the sky, that was our guys? We have a friendly fire or what?
"What the fuck! Why you did not shoot!" - Hawton yelled at me
"They are our guys, Hawton!"
"Bullshit, the Taliban have more ways to trick you, I saw that scene many times, now shoot them, kid!" - What the fuck was wrong with this guy?
"Sir, a man is running over here, they are our guys, Sir!" - Hanser said to Hawton
"Hey! What the fuck have you guys done! You people were about to kill us!" - The soldier that ran toward us yelled at us, he seemed very angry
Hawton slowly walked toward the soldier that yelled at us and then tapped his shoulder, maybe we should make up with this unit now, that was just an accident after all.
"Friendly fire, sorry! Is anyone wounded?" - Hawton asked the soldier with a very calm expression
"Nah, man! Only the bitch that we were banging died...we were having fun with her and you guys shot us." - What the hell did that soldier say?
"Bitch?"
"A Taliban woman fighter, man! That bitch was hot, she was sucking my dick and you guys shot us."
I saw from far away and then noticed about more men from that unit running toward us, they seemed frustrated but later ignored us and walked toward us slowly.
"You guys almost fucked us up, who was the guy in your team who shot me? That asshole nearly gave me a headshot, dammit!" - A soldier ran toward us and then yelled loud, he even pointed to us to see his helmet that has the scratch of the bullet
"Who the fuck commands this team?" - A soldier who seemed to be the leader of the team that we shot earlier asked us
"Me." - Hawton raised his hand to let that soldier see
"Why did you not use binoculars or some shit to see us but shot us?"
Well, that was hard to say, we were looking at someone to shoot." - Hawton said his true purpose to the guys here!
"There is a house over there, just a few miles, safe or not, no one knows, bombed 2 days ago, just go straight, if you guys see Taliban then good luck." - The commander of the other unit told us to go that way by pointing his hand to it
"No don't fuck with us anymore, alright? Guys, let's move out, we won't mess with these retards anymore." - The commander of that unit ordered his man to go with him
"Wait a bit." - I said to the soldiers
"What's up, kid?" - Another soldier from that unit responded to me
"You people said you guys raped a Taliban? Why?"
"Well, kid! You are new here?" - Huh? Why do some soldiers laugh at me?
"Yeah, what's wrong?"
"Well, that's call war crimes, we all used to it." - What the fucK!
"What did you guys mean?"
"Well, so what do think about the reason we got here, kid?"
"To keep the peace and stable for Afghanistan, bring Democracy, equal to the people and to fight the terrorists."
"Hahahahahahhaha! So funny, kid! Wake up, shit!" - Why did these guys laugh?
"What the fuck was wrong with you guys?"
"Well, our US soldiers rarely do war crimes here but if we violate the people here then...we will be free to do after all."
"What do you guys mean?"
"Power has its price, kid! Our government just needs to cover our crimes and all of us will be free to do things here."
"Don't understand, answer me in more detail!"
"Are you a retard, kid?"
"No!"
"War crimes happen daily, kid! From ancient history till now, we came to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban but...we need to have something to please ourselves, you know?"
"But we cannot do such as that terrible thing without regretting, dammit! We are all peacekeepers, we got here to fight for our homeland and to protect the people here!"
"Whatever, kid! You are too retard for us to explain to you, remember to gang bang some natives to know about that experience." - The soldiers seemed bored with me so they did not look at me anymore but turned around
"What's your name, leader?" - The commander of the other unit asked Hawton while raising his hand out as if to ask Hawton to do a handshake
"Hawton Shawn, just call me Haw or Hawton." - Both of them shook their hands, what the hell was wrong with these guys
"Haw, remember to teach this kid well, he is too young to understand things, but wait, where were you guys going?"
"Patrol around here till night and return to our base in Kabul."
"Well, we will head to the south to do more patrols, we will go now, see you guys in some shit place later." - That unit said goodbye to us and then walked away
What was wrong with these guys? They raped people? That was not our US military's purpose for coming to Afghanistan, we were supposed to save the people and fight the bad guys.
Maybe the guys I have contacted since I got here were mostly the bad guys in the army, maybe there were still many good guys in the 14.000 US soldiers that got deployed in Afghanistan. I was fucking unlucky to be teamed with bad guys, I must request the officer in my base to change me into the other unit, this unit has died to the bone.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I was now checking my M4's chamber, I changed the other magazine to let the rounds full up to 31 rounds, the soldiers in my teams were now talking to each other about something but I did not care.
Hawton and the radio soldier were now checking the area map, Hawton pointed his hand to the map as if to say to the radio man the route we would go next. I was now scouting around to see if there were something unusual for me to shoot, I was a bit scared in the earlier firefight.
Luckily we had shot our side and stopped a minute after the firefight or I would have pissed myself out in panic if the guys I shot at earlier were Taliban, they would have used their Arab swords and ran toward me to kill me for sure.
"Hey." - Hawton's voice called me from behind
"Ahh!" - That guy used his rifle butt to hit my back, that was so hurt!
"You take the lead, kid!" - Hawton looked at me while smuggling
"Why?"
'To die on behalf of the other guys in the team, a retard like you should have died for so long, now get your ass out." - Hawton kicked me to the road forward
"Kid, we will bang your mom and your girlfriend when you die, don't worry, we will take care of them well, remember to jerk off when you see they are having fun with us." - The soldiers yelled at us to mock me
"Now go, what the fuck you are waiting for, huh! Want to see your mom be fucked! Huh!" - These guys, I just wanted to see all of them die now
I ignored those soldiers and then stepped forward the road, I was now in the most dangerous position, the soldier that was always taking the lead of the team would very easy to get shot, I must be very careful to survive.
I wanted to get out of this platoon now, too many untrust things, too many bad things in this unit, I just wanted to get myself to get to some well unit.
I walked forward the road while the other US soldiers were chatting to each other, these guys did not pay any concentration to their missions, how could the Army recruit these assholes. Maybe I should stop complaining, there was nothing I could do here but obey these guys, after this mission, I would return to the base and request the officer to change me to the other unit.
I saw I was very hot, I was sweating because of the long road marching, my feet were tired now but I kept going, my back was fatigued after bringing the pounds of equipment in my military bag. Maybe an hour or more hours has passed since we started patrolling, I was wondering if I could have a minute to break or not, I kept looking around the place.
This Afghanistan only has sand and sand, what a big sand land, we have marched for an hour now but did not engage any Taliban, maybe we were marching near the safe zone so a chance to encounter them was rare.
While walking on the road forward, I peeked behind and saw some soldiers were now drinking their water cans, maybe I should drink some water too, I was a bit thirsty. I used my left hand which was wearing a military glove to wipe my sweats and pulled it down to see my hand, the sweats have full in my face and now they were sticking in my hand.
Wait...I saw an area forward, that was a house that seemed not too big but has many holes up the house, maybe there was a heavy firefight here. This place must be the house that got bombed that the other units talked to us about earlier, the house's roof seemed to be collapsed, seemed like no people were in there.
My back got tapped by someone, I looked back and saw that was Hawton, what did he mean by tapping me? The other soldiers seemed like were exhausted, some of them got to an area nearby and then rested.
"Let's break 5 minutes, kid! We will move out later, move your ass over there." - Hawton pointed his hand to the soldiers as if to tell me to go to rest with them
I slowly walked toward the soldiers, all of them sat on the ground and then pulled out some cigarettes to smoke, they chatted with each other, only I sat alone and have no one to talk with.
"Kid, want some smokes?" - A soldier put his cigarette toward me
"Tch!" - I shook that soldier's hand away, he accidentally dropped his cigarette after being shaken by me
"Hey, what the fuck, kid! Want to mess with me!" - That soldier stood up and then pointed his rifle at me
"Don't mind about that kid, York! Don't care about him, don't fucking waste your time with him." - Hawton pulled that soldier down on the ground and then all of them sat with each other to chat and ignored me, they did not care about me anymore
I immediately pulled out my water can and drank some water and then put the can down my belt, I was sitting to rest and looked around to see if there was something strange for me to notice or not.
Wait...I saw in a big hole of the house that we were sitting nearby, there was a light that kept appearing and then disappearing slowly. It appeared in the dark corner of the house so I did not know what that was, what was that kind of light exactly?
I grabbed my M4 and then checked the magazine, the other soldiers were now chatting about some "rape" things that I didn't know, should not care about those guys anymore.
"Bang!" - A big explosion came out and I was shocked to hear
I looked in the direction of the explosion and saw it came from the hole that I saw earlier...wait...a Taliban sniper was hiding inside that house?
"Run the to the wall now!" - Hawton yelled and then ran away before all of us could have reacted, he hid behind one of the broken walls that surrounded the house
"Bang!" - Another shot again, I looked back and saw Hanser has dropped dead on the ground with blood coming out of his chest
Beside Hanser was Jerry, he has been shot to the throat and now was looking at me as if to call me to help him, he weakly reached his hand to me to call me to help him.
I immediately ignored my military bag but only brought my M4 and my Beretta pistol, I charged toward Jerry and grabbed his clothes and pulled him to the wall with the other soldiers.
I was quite panicked and noticed what I was doing was so stupid because I would become the target for the sniper but I ignored it and kept pulling Jerry to the wall to help him.
"What the fuck, kid! Just leave that guy, he is fucking dead for sure, drop him!" - Hawton yelled at me to call me to drop Jerry but I kept pulling him
I used all of my strength to pull Jerry to the wall but I was moving very slow, I was trying to pull him to the wall to save him though his body has stopped moving. Maybe he has died but I could not leave my buddies to die like that, even if this guy was a bully in my shitty platoon but he was still a US soldier, a brother in my eyes.
"Kid, watch out!" - A soldier ran toward me for some reason, that guy was Handervick, he rushed toward me in panic
"Bang!" - Another gunshot has been fired, Handervick fell to the ground immediately, that shot was from the sniper, Handervick died for protecting me, dammit!
"This stupid kid!" - Two more US soldiers from my platoon ran toward me, Teaver was the radio soldier of my platoon, he was about to run toward me to save me too but Hawton stopped him
"Hey, they need help!" - I have been grabbed by the soldiers and they were rushing to the wall while holding me
"They are all dead, kid! Remember to survive!" - The soldiers said to me and then kept running to the wall
The two soldiers grabbed me and ran fast to the wall to hide the Taliban sniper, luckily that the sniper was on the right side of the wall. We were now hiding behind a broken wall, the left side was empty so maybe we could use that route to kill the sniper, but I was so shocked to see 3 men die because of me, that was my fault.
The two soldiers that grabbed me to the wall checked my wound and seemed very relieved when they did not see me wounded. Patrick was one of the two soldiers that saved me, he was now standing behind the wall and headed his M240 out to shoot the sniper.
"Machinegun shots!" - The gunshots from Patrick kept firing at the sniper, he was crouching and shooting blindly by heading his gun out to shoot so he was fine, didn't get shot
"Get it, you son of bitches! Hahaha!" - Patrick smiled while shooting at the sniper though I didn't know if that way of shooting was effective or not
The gunshot sounds were very loud but all of us were shouting very loud so we could hear each other loud and clear. Havana was also one of the soldiers that saved me was now sneaking behind the left side of the wall as if he was waiting for something.
"Go! Go! Go!" - Hawton shouted loud and then Havana ran out of the wall and charged toward the house on the left side
"Ahhhh!" - Some machine gun shots have been fired, Havana suddenly got a head shot with the other shots got to his chest, he fell and died instantly
We were now facing two Taliban or what? A machine gunner and a sniper, our men from 8 have been cut short to 4 men. Everyone and I were very shocked at Havana's death because all of us did not expect to see one more enemy on the left side of the house since that place seemed very empty, we have left our guard down.
"Strange, the sniper didn't shoot anymore." - Patrick was pointing his M240 out of the wall but he seemed very nervous when the sniper did not make any move to attack us
"Guys, keep your head down! Teaver, contact the radio." - Hawton called Teaver to give him a radio call
Teaver gave Hawton the radio call, Hawton kept pressing his ear to the radio to call the reinforce from our side, we were now trapped with two Taliban.
"Dogshit 3 - 5 calls Doglord 1 - 1, over." - Hawton called the headquarters
"Doglord 1 - 1 calls Dogshit 3 - 5, what is it?"
"Dogshit 3 - 5 calls Doglord 1 - 1, we have been pinched down here, our unit has 8 but four of our guys have died and we are now fighting against two Taliban, request support immediately."
"Dogshit 3 - 5, send us your coordinates, over." - The Teaver looked at the area map and then took the radio from Hawton
"Dogshit 3 - 5 calls Doglord 1 - 1, our coordinate is 1103456, Tango 4729, over."
"Cannot do, Dogshit 3 - 5, there are no armored units or infantry units nearby you, we cannot send choppers to your position, cannot send artillery either, stand by until 4:00 PM."
The radio call ended, seemed like we have to wait here until our reinforcements come, we have been trapped here, I have calmed down now but I didn't know what I should do to kill the enemy.
"Hey, Patrick! What the fuck! Keep your head down! Get over here quick!" - I was shocked when I heard Hawton's yell, I noticed that Patrick has gone out of the wall and seemed didn't on guard
"I didn't see the sniper everywhere, man! Maybe that guy has gone away, I think so." - Patrick answered us casually as if he didn't sense any danger around him
Harvey pointed his hand to the hole up the house to show us that the house has no more snipers, we did not know if that guy has gone out or not b-
"Bang!" - Another gunshot has been fired, Patrick fell to the ground with his head drained out of the blood
"Son fucking stupid son of a bitch!" - Hawton smashed the wall and then suddenly grabbed my collar
"John, now die for us, get to the house to lure two of those motherfuckers to kill you to let us have the chance to escape!" - What the fuck did Hawton just say?
"We can wipe out those two gunners easier, you guys bring smoke grenades right?"
"Bullshit, we did not! Now get your ass to the house and die for us!" - Hawton shook me to the wall, my body was almost to be exposed to let the machine gunner shoot but I managed to stand still and hid in the wall
"Now go...or die here..." - Hawton pointed his M16A4 toward me, Teaver also pointed his M4 toward me
"I'm sorry, man! But you have to go now or you will die." - Teaver said to me and then pointed his M4 tighter toward me, if I don't go to the house then I will die
A machine gunner on the left side and the sniper on the right side, two of my buddies who were in front of my eyes. I have to go now though I didn't want to do this, if I didn't run then those buddies would shoot me to die.
I immediately took all of my confidence and ran to the left side of the house, I was scared if there was a Taliban machine gunner to shoot me down, I ran faster and faster. In a few seconds of running, I have gone inside the house and noticed that no one was inside here except me...and the corpses on the floor.
I noticed that on the left side of the house has a small hole and a machine gun was placed over there, its barrel has been input into the hole. So the enemy has left this place for some reason, I immediately moved to my objective, maybe the enemy I was encountering was lesser than I expected.
I avoided looking at the corpses on the floor and then walked over to the rooms in cautious with my M4 always pointing around to kill the enemy. I didn't see any enemy on the ground floor and I noticed that the house has a stair leading to the first floor so I slowly stepped up while sneaking my steps not to let the Taliban hear my footsteps.
When I got to the first floor, I only saw there was a hallway leading to a room that has no door so I slowly stepped toward the room while sneaking my steps, maybe this house only has two floors. The Taliban gunner I and my platoon were fighting earlier must have only one and he must be hiding somewhere here, I must be cautious to kill him.
I got near to the wall and peeked inside the room and saw that the roof up there has been collapsed, some of the parts of the collapsed roof were now lying on the floor. The first floor seemed to have no corpses like the ground floor, on the left side of the room was a sniper rifle that has been placed to point outside of the hole.
A corpse who wore a long silk cloth was lying beside the sniper rifle, a figure of a Taliban was nearby the corpse, he carried an AK nearby him and was using the sniper rifle to aim at the soldiers outside. Our position from the sniper was not so far so that was why the Taliban could shoot us very easily, the sniper rifle seemed to be changed to the fired mode and fully loaded.
I was standing behind the Taliban and he did not see me, his appearance seemed quite short to me, I have found my target, only one so I immediately pointed my rifle to shoot him.
"Clack!" - I pulled my M4's trigger and noticed that the gun did not shoot, I was panicked now!
The Taliban heard my gun jammed so he turned around to shoot me, I was now hiding behind the wall, the gunshots were very loud. I noticed that my M4 was on the safe mode yet so I changed to automatic mode, pulled its chamber to load the bullet and risked pointing my M4 outside to shoot blind.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" - I shot all of my ammo and then noticed that my M4 has ran out of ammo but the gunshots from the other side has gone away
I slowly sneaked into the room and noticed that the Taliban that I shot earlier has died with both eyes opened, his appearance seemed to be a kid was about 12 to 13, very young in my eyes. This was the first time I have killed someone, ahh! Godammit! I felt I want to vomit, I could not bear what I have done, I must...!
I immediately ran outside of the room and then vomited very much, what the hell have I done!
I held my head and went away down to the ground floor and later lay down on the floor, my mind was so blank so I closed my eyes to try to forget what I have done.
...
I heard loud sounds that seemed very cheerful or something, I slowly opened my eyes and then I noticed that I was inside a room of some unit, I was seeing a party or something. The soldiers were now drinking beers and yelling in cheers, they were quite strange to me, didn't seem to be from my previous unit or people I knew before.
Some of the soldiers saw me woke up so they came to tap my shoulder and then gave me a cup of beer and then went away to yell with the others, they were enjoying the party. I looked outside and saw the sky has been dark, the US soldiers were quite strange, they opened a night party for some reason.
"Hey." - A voice called me, so I looked behind to see who that was
That was a man, he was white, his hair was brown has a bit of grey hair, buzz-cut hair, his eyes were brown, has a bit of beard, he tapped me and smiled.
"Where...where am I?"
"We are the reinforcements groups that are being sent to the house, kid! We only found you alive so we brought you here."
"Well...these guys are quite messed when they open the party, today is my birthday so they are enjoying to rest this night, don't worry, they are all good guys here." - The man tapped me again
"Hey, kid! If you like then I will get you to my unit, what do you say?"
"Are you alright with that idea?"
"Yeah, more men, more friends, more fun."
"Then I will join, I hate Dogshit."
The man smiled at me again and then raised his hand toward me as if to tell me to handshake him.
"Well, Greg Kitauski, what's about you, kid?" - Greg introduced his name to me
"John Rigen." - I and Greg shook our hands
"Well, Rigen...Rigen...uhh! It sounds familiar..." - Maybe this guy was also my mom's victim
"Nevermind! Anyway, welcome to Bad End Platoon, John." - I have finally found a new place for me!