The drop had landed somewhat near the smoke pillar. The red smoke coming off the supply drop flair traced a bloody line across the black smoke. To get to that supply drop, we had to walk through tree lines and cut our way through brush thickets with our small combat knives. Lucky for us, we could go around most of the thickets.

The ground had drunk up the water from the rain of the past couple of days. But nothing is ever 100%, so our boots had a good coating of mud, and we had stopped several times to pore out water from our boots and put on dry socks. There was the usual complaining and groaning from Alexei and me, even though I didn’t voice mine. Both me and Alexei tried to get to know the kid.

We learned that his name is Kazamir Leoric and that he was 10 years old, but his birthday was coming up on July, 2nd. That prompted Alexei to ask him what the date was. Kazamir said the last date he could remember was June 15th. That was the date of the attack on his village. Even though he hadn’t told us anything about what had happened to him. It wasn’t that hard to figure out. A fire that could produce that much black smoke, plus a kid running as fast as he could away from some pursuers.

It wasn’t that hard to figure out.

Even though we guessed what happened, having it confirmed made us more cautious as we moved toward the black pillar of smoke. Kazamir, in turn, asked questions to try to know us better. Some of the questions we didn’t even think to ask. Apparently, Alexei had been conscripted right out of high school and then ‘encouraged’ to volunteer for fighting in Ukraine. When Alexei asked me why I joined the armed forces, I told him about growing up in a poor part of the states. Where drugs and gang violence ruled with an iron fist.

“So joining up was the only way out of that life,” I said as I wrapped up my story.

We stopped talking after I was done with my little story. So the rest of the trek was done in companionable silence. Even though we had shut our collective traps, we weren’t the quietest thing ever. Plenty of branches got crushed underfoot and snapped off of trees before we got to the dropzone.

Well, as it turned out, the dropzone was on the edge of a burnt-down field of some sort. The field itself was on the edge of the smoldering ruins of a small town. The drop had landed in the middle of this field, but that’s not all. There were a couple of small green figures inspecting the supplies. From the looks of it, they hadn’t managed to get through the plastic wrapping of the drop, but that wouldn’t take them very long.

I saw them first as I was on point (front of a formation). I motioned with my hand for Alexei and Kazamir to get back and get down. Kazamir didn’t know what was going on, but he just followed Alexei in getting on the ground. I held up four fingers and whispered to Kazamir.

“Hey, Kazamir, get over here, but stay down.”

Kazamir got on his hands and knees and crawled over to me. When he was close enough to see the burnt fields, he stiffened up. I poked him, then pointed over to the green figures and said,

“Were they the ones who did this?”

Kazamir couldn’t speak through his emotions, so he just nodded. I waved Alexei over and pointed out the green figures,

“I have counted four, two trying to open the supply drop and two more guarding them. You go for the guard on the right I’ll go for the one on the left. Then we’ll move up and try to capture the other two.”

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Alexei nodded, but Kazamir dropped his pack and started to get up. Alexei and me grabbed him before he could run off and get himself killed. I managed to pull him down and out of sight.

“Alexei, keep your eyes on those guys. I’ll deal with this.”

I quietly gave the kid a proper dressing down while Alexei covered us. After I was confident that he wouldn’t go charging off trying to get vengeance, I joined Alexei and started counting down,

“One,” I flicked the safety off, “Two,” I placed the green figure in my crosshairs, “three,” I squeezed the trigger.

Gunfire rang out across the burnt remains of a field. My guy went down with the first burst of aimed shots. Alexei wasn’t so lucky. He didn’t have a scope yet, so his guy stayed up for a little bit longer. But, he still went down in the opening salvo. I got up and started rushing toward the supply drop where the remaining two things were hiding. While I was running, I pulled the quick-release straps on my backpack, dropping it to the ground.

I could hear two sets of feet coming up behind me. I see one of the green things stick its head around the corner. I quickly stop and raise my rifle. I wait until the crosshair is over its head then I squeezed the trigger. The head quickly darts back behind the drop as my bullet flies over their head. I feel something tug on my belt. I look down to see that my knife is missing, and the kid rushing toward the drop.

‘The kid is going to get himself killed,’ I think as I rush after him. As I am running, I see Alexei stop, then start firing, then a scream of pain comes from behind the drop. Alexei has to stop shooting because the kid had gotten way too close for him to continue shooting. I was weighed down by my gear, so I had fallen a considerable amount behind the kid.

When I got to the drop myself, I saw the kid and… a goblin, yea, a goblin rolling around in the mud fighting over control of a knife. The goblin was only slightly stronger than the kid, even though the kid was malnourished. I couldn’t shoot into the melee for fear of hitting the kid. So I chucked my rifle to the floor and ran over to help.

The kid had gotten on top of the goblin, but the goblin had the knife. I ran up and kicked the knife out of the goblin’s hands. The goblin looked at me with confusion and then fear. The split second the goblin had stopped resisting allowed the kid to grab a nearby rock and use it to smash in the goblin's head. Kazamir kept bringing the rock down on the goblin until there was no doubt that it was dead.

When Kazamir raised his head, he had mud and blood covering his face. From that moment forward, he would never again be a kid.

I retrieved my knife and rifle, Alexei started unloading the supply drop, and Kazamir was looking down at his blood-covered hands. After I had all my stuff, I tapped on Kazamir’s shoulder. He jumped a bit, then turned to look at me. His eyes were full of tears. I quickly pulled out my water canteen and washed his hands of blood. Then I looked straight into his eyes and said,

“Remember why you did what you did. Remember what happened to your home because of these things.” I spit that last word out of my mouth like it was rotten.

“So don’t pity them.”

With those words said, I left him there with his thoughts. I moved over to the drop where Alexei is rummaging through the pile of stuff. He pulls out a weapon bag from the mess of boxes. I could see the delight in his eyes as he unzips the bag and pulls out his upgraded AK-101 and mags.

Alexei checks the mags and finds them empty. With a big sigh, he puts the gun back in the bag. I quickly poke him in the side. He turns with a look of annoyance on his face, but, that fades when I point to the shell-shocked Kazamir. Alexei walked over to Kazamir and lifted him onto his feet.

Alexei walked Kazamir to his backpack. I could hear Alexei comforting him as they walked off. As they walked off, I got on the radio and reported what had happened so Walter wouldn’t worry.

“Juliet, this is papa bear we have secured the drop. Also, we have engaged a small enemy patrol. No casualties on our side, break”

I check my radio. A blue 5 glows back at me. I remember there being a two on there earlier. I scan the surrounding bodies for signs of life. I spot a goblin on the ground by the drop, he was lucky. He only had a dent in his helmet instead of a hole.

“We got three enemies, KIA, and we managed to capture one. We are looting the drop, and then we are RTB.”