Emily and Wonder were at the bowling alley trying to cheer Jan up because Ian her boyfriend who had been sent back to the states to be medically discharged had broken up with her. He had met a nurse while recovering and they were dating now. Jan was not taking the break up well. She had taken control over the jukebox and every song she had picked was a bad country song about a breakup. Wonder thought it was funny.

“Do you want to know what else is wrong with his stupid ass. He thought he was so great at karaoke but he was tone deaf!” Jan said as she stomped up to the bowling lane and angrily threw the bowling ball down the lane. She didn’t even wait to see what it hit before she turned stomping back to the booth.

“Come here baby, it's going to be alright.” Wonder said holding her arms out for a hug.

Jan stepped over to her and gave her a long hug. She took a deep breath then sat down between Emily and Wonder. “Ok, I am done.” Jan declared. Emily snorted and Wonder gave a little laugh. “No, really I am done with him. If he doesn’t want me then screw him and his little tramp of a nurse.”

Chuckling Emily stepped up to the bowling lane and grabbed her ball. It was the heaviest one they had it still felt lighter than a feather to her. Taking a deep breath and very gently she let the ball slid off her hands and down the lane. The pins still explode as if a bomb had gone off but at least the didn’t break this time. To her great disappointment, one pin remained standing.

“Freaking hell. Every time!” Emily said stomping lightly back to the ball return. She waited impatiently until her ball had come back before she grabbed it and lined herself up on the little arrows on the floor. Taking a deep breath and did her little walk and gently let the ball roll off her fingers and onto the lane. The ball hit the back of the bowling lane with a boom but the pin remained standing. “God freaking...” Emily started to say but she was too mad to even finish her sentence. She punched the air a few times before spinning around on her bowling shoes nearly falling and stomping, lightly, back to where Jan and Wonder were sitting. She sighed and sat on the step not wanting to break the chairs.

“See I told you, coming to the bowling alley would cheer you up.” Wonder said throwing an arm around Jan.

“Yup. Thanks, Wonder.” Jan replied.

“Screw you guys and screw that freaking pin,” Emily muttered angrily. “I hate bowling.”

“Ah Never don’t ever change.” Jan said leaning her head on Emily’s shoulder.

They were watching Wonder bowl another strike when the music stopped and the bowling attendant guy started speaking. “Attention in the bowling alley. Attention in the bowling alley. Phone call for Private Emerson. Phone call for Private Emerson. That is all”

“Oh Never, whose the guy?” Wonder said walking back to the booth as Emily stood up.

“No guy,” Emily said frowning. Jan looked concerned.

Emily walked over to the desk and picked up the black phone. “Private Emerson,” Emily said into the phone.

“Oh good, I found you. Never this is First Sergeant Douglas. I need you to get your stuff and head to the Ranger Building. They are cutting you new orders to go TAD somewhere.” Emily’s First sergeant said.

“TAD?” Emily asked frowning.

“Temporary assigned duty. I have no idea when you’ll be back but you need to get your butt in gear and get here as fast as you can. It might have something to do with that Rudbar thing going on.” The First sergeant said. The last sentence sounds like he was talking more to himself than Emily.

“On my way now. I’ll have to stop by the barracks to grab my stuff.”

“Yea, that’s fine. Just get your stuff and get here as soon as possible.” He told her hanging up on her.

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Emily explained to her friends' what was up as she quickly changed out of her bowling shoes. “Its probably Rudbar,” Jan said nodding. “What I am curious about is why they are not mobilizing the entire company.”

“Whats Rudbar.” Emily asked taking her bowling shoes off and shuffling her feet into her boots.

“It's a city in southwestern Afghanistan in the Nimruz province. It's a gateway for everything illegal in the country like guns, drugs, and whatnot. It's a red zone city with a Marine base just south of the city. According to what I read online today there was an uprising in the city. It didn’t sound serious though. I expected to see Marine and Navy Mechs units hitting a few areas and retaking the city. It might be more serious than I thought.” Jan said looking worried.

They followed Emily up to the counter to return her shoes. Wonder surprised Emily by putting her shoes on the counter and paying for games. Wonder was really bad at being a mooch making other people pay for her. “The mooch is paying? Someone mark the day on the calendar.” Emily thought to herself smiling.

“Come on you need to hurry up.” Wonder said without turning around. Both Emily and Jan followed her back to the barracks. Emily could have made better time by herself running but instead walked with her friends.

Jan had Emily grab nearly everything she owned and throw it into her rucksack. “You're going on TAD and you might be gone for a few days or six months. Better be safe than sorry.” She said shrugging.

The First sergeant was waiting on Emily just inside the front door to the Ranger building with her weapons. “Ah, good Wonder your here. Do me a favor and get one of the vehicles from out back. You’re going to drive Never to the flight line. Her plane leaves in about five minutes. Never, I not sure where you're going but orders came down classified. You still got righteous and the Putin?” He said handing Emily a folder with her orders in it.

“Yep,” Emily said patting her side where the little black knife sat in its new sheath. Righteous was still in its harness on her back.

She read her orders wondering what was going on but all it told her that she was to report to the flight line and told her the flight number of her plane. That was it. She met Wonder outside and threw her luggage in the back of the jeep and climbed in the passenger seat. Jan climbed in the back.

“Geez I don’t know why they let your drive,” Jan said as Wonder pulled out of the parking spot a little to fast.

“Hey, I am a combat trained driver. It says so in my file.” Wonder said yelling over the wind. The airport was just a bunch of hangers behind a bunch of planes parked on the runway like cars in a parking lot. Emily’s airplane was a medium size passenger plane that looked like a normal civilian airplane. There were two guys in flight suits sitting by a little go-cart looking vehicle with a ramp that led into the bottom of the plane. They watched Wonder pull up and then they walked up to them.

“Hey is this flight N4177.” Wonder asked then when they walked up. They were Navy guys and Emily had no idea what rank they were. The only thing she could figure out was that they were enlisted guys.

“Yea you’re in the right place. You got orders?” The older one asked. Emily handed over her orders to the older guy. “Just dump your stuff on the conveyor and head inside and find a seat. The plane will be leaving in about ten minutes.”

Emily dropped her stuff off and climbed on the plane. The plane had two rows of seats. The row on the left was single seats and were all taken up by people in Navy and Marine uniforms. The right side had two seats were mostly filled up but Emily found an empty window seat and sat down. Looking around she found that she was the only Army person on board.

“Excuse me do you mind if I sit here?” A tall well-built man with a burly beard asked. The man had a really deep rumbly voice. He was wearing sunglasses and when he pulled them off Emily noticed that the area around his eyes was very pale while the rest of his face was tan. Also, he had really nice blue eyes.

“Oh yes sorry. I mean no one is sitting here.” She stuttered. She turned away when she felt her face get hot.

He plopped down with a sigh and leaned back pulling his all tan baseball hat off. The hat had no insignia on it. It was just a worn plain tan hat. He had longer than regulation black hair that was slicked back. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and Emily found that she couldn’t stop watching him. He wore a white and black shemagh around his neck so she couldn’t see his rank.

He opened his eyes suddenly and smile. He had a really nice smile. “My names David.” He said holding out his hand to shake.

“Emily.” She responded smiling in return. She shook his hand and frowned at the flat handshake he gave her. He didn’t even squeeze her hand at all and barely held her hand. She had on to hold his hand to shake. His hand was warm and dry though.

“I am going to try to get some shut eye and if I snore I am sorry. Just elbow me.” He said smiling.

“Will do,” Emily said nodding. She caught of whiff of him. He smelled like a campfire. It was nice. He put his hat back on and tilted the bill of the hat downwards over his eyes. Within a few seconds, he was breathing regularly. The pilots came on board and not even looking at their passengers and climbed into their cockpit. A few seconds later they were taxiing down the runway to who knew where.