We strolled back into the edge of the residential portion of the city where the boys who were playing soccer continued to play. We caught their attention, making them abandon their game and sprint over to us.

“Mister…mister! Chocolate, mister?”

We immediately went into defense mode until the kids held up their hands and showed that they were unarmed.

“I have nothing,” Vega responded, shrugging his shoulders.

“Please, Mister.”

“Here you go,” I called out, holding out a handful of jolly ranchers. It wasn’t chocolate, but these fucking kids were begging, and beggars couldn’t be choosy.

They snatched them up in a hurry, scratching the palm of my hand in the process. One boy stood back, disappointment filling his face. He stuck his tongue out at me before turning and running off with the other boys, their mouths full of candy and shouting at one another in a friendly Arabic tone.

“I can’t wait ‘til I’m home, sitting up and drinking a beer,” White said, starting conversation again.

“A beer? Your ass is nineteen, you little shit,” Vega joked.

“Yeah, but my wife is twenty-one.”

I was quickly learning that White, while he was a little hardened from being battle tested, was also a joker. His look may have reminded me of Dalton, but his personality was Riley all the way. Hanging out and patrolling with these guys made me miss my boys back home. I missed the camaraderie, the binge fests…the shit talk. I missed it all.

“What about you, Avery?”

“What about me?” he asked quietly, refusing to look any of us in the eye. He was a strange fucking guy, and even though he had reigned in his fear, his demeanor never put me at ease.

“What do you have waiting for you at home?” White asked sarcastically.

“Nothing. A barracks room.”

“Well, aren’t you just full of fucking excitement,” I chided, annoyed with him and his lack of any sort of emotion. I knew he hated Iraq. Hell, we all did, but his attitude was downright dreadful.

“I’m sorry, Staff Sergeant. I just…I miss home.”

“We all do, boy. Suck your shit up and do your time. Be thankful this isn’t a full deployment and we’ll all get out of here sooner rather than later.”

“Up ahead, Staff Sergeant,” White called out, raising his weapon.

There were a couple of young boys running our way. They raised their hands as they approached, breathing hard with eyes bulging from their faces.

“Mister, please come. Please.”

“What is it?” I asked, skeptical but wanting to appear helpful.

“Trouble, sir. Please come, Mister.”

We followed the boys around the corner of a house, where the rest of the boys stood, none of them moving an inch.

“That man, Mister,” the boy said, pointing to an older man walking away from the house.

“Hey,” I barked at the man, startling him. “Ta-aal.”

He turned and slowly began walking our way. I motioned for him to raise his hands, showing that he wasn’t armed with anything that could potentially harm any of us.

“Qef?” I asked the young boy, wanting to know exactly why we were apprehending the man.

“Bomb, Mister. Bomb.”

“Anya?”

“There,” the boy responded, pointing in the direction of where the man was seen fleeing from.

There was no such thing as being too careful, and I knew that one false move, or even just a stroke of bad luck, and this could be it for me.

Silence was prevalent as I cautiously approached the place where the boy said the bomb was located, and my boots crunching on dead grass was the only sound permeating my ear drums. It was as if the world turned silent; no voices and no noises. Just me, my boots and the crunch. My stomach tossed with every step I took, my heart beating erratically as I edged closer to my demise. If this were how I would go out, it sucked to fucking high heaven.

Flashes of Cassie’s beautiful face filled my mind. I wanted to remember the good in my life, not what I was ultimately coming face to face with.

After walking what felt like the green mile, I spotted a black trash bag sitting out in the open field behind the house. It blew in the wind, finally being swept up into the air with a strong gust. My stalled heart began to beat again with the realization that there was nothing but trash in that bag and that the man had been stopped as he was trying to take it out. Frustration and anger sped through my body as I realized that I gotten myself worked up over nothing. I hurried back to where the guys were holding the man and the boy.

“There was nothing there,” I growled, scowling at the boy. “Did you check him? If he’s clean, you can let him go.”

“He’s good, Staff Sergeant,” Vega responded.

The man thanked us, then turned and walked back off in the direction that we had found him. The boy broke out in a fit of laughter, holding his belly as he pointed at me, further pissing me off.

“You scared, American soldier. You so very scared.”

I lost my shit, grabbing the boy and planting my face square with his. “This is not a fucking game! You don’t fuck around like that! You can cost one of my fucking guys their lives, or even yours. You understand that? I ought to whoop your little ass—”

“Staff Sergeant, put him down,” Vega called out.

It took me a second to realize what he was saying. My anger was clouding my mind. I had just stepped over to what I presumed to be a device meant to destroy me and my fucking boys, and this shithead kid could do nothing but laugh because he had set me up all along. I wanted to teach his little ass a lesson, but there was nothing I could do that wouldn’t come back to me with dire consequences.

Once I released the boy, he stood there and continued to laugh, pointing at me as he did so. The fury inside of me brewed to the surface, spilling out as I stepped in front of him, praying to myself to find some self-control before I did something I would absolutely regret. My hands lunged for him before I could think straight, pushing him down to the ground as I placed my knee into his back. I would restrain him and allow someone else to deal with his ass because if I did anything to satisfy my mind, my career would be over in a heartbeat.

“Let him go, Staff Sergeant. Let go,” White called out. He and Vega pulled me off the boy.

Avery stood with his weapon in the ready position pointed at the boy. His eyes bulged, and his breathing labored, but there was a relative calm about him. I couldn’t say the same about myself. This kid had riled me up and there was no bringing me back from it—not at the moment.

“You can’t do that,” Vega chimed in, pulling on my arm. “You’ll start all kinds of shit.”

“Fuck that kid and fuck the rules!” I yelled back. “Do you have any fucking idea what that shit head just sent us through? I just walked into a would-be trap. That kid deserves to have his little ass kicked.”

Vega turned me around, switching positions with me. We stared into one another’s eyes, both wide with adrenaline, stern faced and breathing hard.

“I know, but we’ve got to—”

Vega’s hand shot up to his neck, his speech slurring as he panted for breath. He fell to the ground, his hand now filled with his own blood, erupting from his neck.

“Sniper fire! Sniper fire!” I yelled. “Call for Corpsman! Call for Corpsman!”

I had no idea who made the call. My sole focus was on Vega as I pulled him into the corridor for safety. Blood splattered on my hands, chest and face—the metallic smell and taste all too familiar to me. Vega was in bad shape, his breathing labored as he lay in my arms.

“Hold on, Vega. Help is coming, man. Hold on.”

I applied pressure to the wound and performed CPR, but nothing seemed to help him. The blood, no matter how much pressure I applied, continued to spurt from his neck. He began to shake uncontrollably as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. I tried again to perform CPR on him, this time bringing him back to me.

“You fucking hold on! You’re one of the baddest motherfuckers to ever walk the earth, so you fight, dammit!” Blood gurgled in his mouth, splashing my face once again.

Gun shots rattled off just outside of the corridor as our boys engaged in an intense fire fight with the insurgents who had done this to Vega. Dust kicked up as I watched Avery take cover and fire off a few rounds. Vega’s struggle for breath brought me back to him. He inhaled deeply, gasping for breath as the blood leaving his neck continued to flow.

Christen finally made his way inside the corridor, firing off a couple of shots before he could safely make his way inside. Vega began shaking uncontrollably as the blood pooled in his open mouth and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Vega was a damn good Marine and had too much to live for to go out like this.

“Help him, Doc! Fucking help him!” I cried out, my voice emotional and pleading.

Petty Officer Christen dropped to his knees and applied stronger pressure to Vega’s neck, but the laborious breaths coming from his body only a minute later were no more. I frantically tried to open his eyes and get him to come back once again, but it was in vain. I wouldn’t allow myself to reconcile my mind with his death, and I pushed Christen off of him and began to apply CPR to him once again.

“Staff Sergeant, he’s gone,” Christen somberly said.

I didn’t care what he had to say. I had every reason to get Vega back home and in one piece. I was consumed with the idea of this fucker getting home to marry his high school sweetheart. That was all that was on my mind.

“Staff Sergeant”