Team

I'm from Austin, Texas and my best friend is Marcus Luttrell. We were neighbors as kids and we grew close to one another. We've always had a sibling relationship our whole lives. Once we became of age, we both signed up to be in the Navy SEALS together. We had a team that consisted of Michael P. 'Murph' Murphy as the leader, me, Marcus, and Matthew 'Axe' Axelson as snipers, and Danny Dietz as the communication specialist. Our team was one of the best teams.

Danny, Mike, and Axe all had their own girls back home while I was still single but so was Marcus. I was alright with it since my team was all I needed. The boys would always tease me about it but I would laugh it off. The team was my family. All four of them were my brothers, my boys. I wouldn't let anything happen to them. I would die before I let them get hurt.

I was in my room, sleeping when I was rudely woken up by Mike. I felt someone grab my shoulders and shake them as my head was stuffed under my pillow. I groaned and shrugged the person off but they kept shaking me. "Come on, Chris. Get up."

"What?" I poke my head out from under my pillow, keeping the warm blankets around my body.

Mike sat next to me on my bed and shoved his laptop in my face. I saw it was a picture of two Arabian horses running alongside the beach. I look at up him with an irritated expression, shrugging my shoulders and shaking my head, not knowing what he wants. "Heather wants me to get these for her wedding present. Should I get 'em?"

"The hell should I know? Do I look like the kind of girl who knows anything about a wedding? Jesus."

"Well, you are a girl so you should know."

I sigh as I toss my hands in the air. "I don't know, Mike. It would cost a lot of money but it would make her happy. If it were me, I would want them but I wouldn't get them 'cause I know I would need the money later in life for a house and stuff. But, do whatever you want, it's not my life."

"Well, thanks for not being much help." Mike mumbles as he gets up and starts to walk out my room.

"Wait!"

He turns around, with raised eyebrows. "What?"

"Is that all you wanted? That's the reason you woke me up?"

"Yeah." He shrugged his shoulders like it wasn't a big deal.

I flip him off and growl as he walks out, "Fuckin' asshole."

I raise my head a bit to see what time it is and I groan again when I see it's almost nine in the morning. I plop back in my bed and stuff my head under the pillow, covering myself back up with the blankets, hoping nobody else will come in. I knew it was time to wake up for everyone and breakfast was about to be served but I just wanted to sleep. We usually go in each other's rooms and wake 'em up, not caring that they were asleep.

I was almost asleep again when the door slammed open, making me jump. I let out a small yell as I turn to see who it was but I relax and close my eyes once more when I only see Marcus. I hear his footsteps coming towards me and gently shakes me. "Come on, Chris. Time to wake up, Danny and Murph are doin' their run and we gotta be there for breakfast."

I swat his hands away, burying myself further into my bed. I heard him sigh and take a few steps back. "Do I have to dump water on you? You know I will."

"Go away." I mumble.

"Alright but you asked for it."

I heard his footsteps fade away in the distance and I felt like I was allowed to sleep again. But the second I think this, I hear his footsteps coming again. I was confused for a moment; he always threatens me like this but never goes through with them. Before I could think, a bunch of cold water splashed on top of my head, soaking me. I scream as I launch up to my feet, glaring at the bastard.

He was already running out of the room, laughing by the time I could realize he really dumped ice water on me. "You son of a bitch!"

I ended up getting dressed and walking out of my room but my hair was still wet. I met up with Axe and we walked outside together and by the time we got out there, it looked like they just got done with their run and Marcus told them their time. Axe spoke up first. "Who won?"

"Murph. Murph, barely. By one second." Marcus informs us.

"Barely? Come on, Mikey, you gotta be better than that!" I tease.

"Oh, shut up, Collins! How about you and me race, see who wins, huh?"

"No, thanks. I don't feel like waking up earlier than usual and running fifty miles." I sit down next to Marcus and across from Mike as Danny keeps standing and Axe sits next to me.

Danny looks at me funny for a moment and asks, "Chris, you take a shower?"

I turn to glare at Marcus as he starts to smirk. "Close enough. I got woken up by dumbass over here, who poured a bucket of ice water on me."

At that moment, all the boys laughed and made fun of me for it. I shook my head and glared at them, crossing my arms. Once they calmed down, they went back to talking about the racing between Danny and Mike. "Head shave?" Marcus suggests out of nowhere.

"Head shave or what? I don't know, you know? It's something to think about. If I shave his head, I have to focus on his face. Face, ears. Oddly-shaped head." Mike objects.

"Well, I don't want to be looking at him that close, either, but he has been running his mouth about beating you."

"Really?"

"Fuck, a head shave is fair."

"Axe? Better shave him!" I call out while Danny glared at me.

"Make him go eat with the E-3s, work in the chow hall until it grows back." Axe agrees.

"Frankie, what do you think?" Marcus asks one of the guys in our group.

"Why the fuck wouldn't we shave him?"

"That's valid." Mike points out. "Patton, not that we care, but what do you think? Let me see you make a tactical decision right now."

We all turn to one of the newer kids in the group, who was behind us. "Well, I could see both ways on this. He did lose but he was close. And your Mike Murphy."

"You are Mike Murphy. The Mike Murphy." We all mumble in agreement.

" I would've expected a bigger separation." Patton continues.

"That is a good point." Marcus and I agree at the same time.

"Backhand compliment." Mike whispers. "Patton. Grab my razor."

"Razor, copy that." He gets up and goes to leave but got stopped.

The door opens and it reveals Lieutenant Kristensen. "Listen up! Red Wings a go. Tonight, eighteen hundred."

That was our unit. I nod my head, not real excited, just like the rest of the guys. "Beautiful." Mike murmurs.

"Am I going?" Patton asks, excitedly.

"PLO in an hour." Kristensen continues but then leaves.

"Maybe I'll go!" Patton beams, looking at our group as we walk past him.

"It's a maybe. I'll give you a maybe. Stay optimistic." Marcus rejects.

We all go to the computer room and see what the mission is. It shows us a picture of an Arabian on the screen, giving us all the information on him. Mike starts speaking, our attention on him. "The objective of this mission is to capture and kill Ahmad Shah. Bad guy. Senior Taliban commander responsible for killing Marines in eastern Afghanistan. A Tier I target."

"If you want a positive ID, note that Shah had no earlobes." Axe points out to everyone.

The screen switches to another picture of a different Arabian as Mike continues. "Taraq. His right-hand man. Seems to do most of his chief shit for him. We're going in on a five-man recon team. Axelson, you'll be point. Myself, I'll be second. Dietz, comms. Marcus, rear, med. Collins, you be with Markus and back up. Axe give us our route."

"We're gonna be moving up the backside of this mountain here, which is gonna offer great concealment from the village. I'm estimating that it's gonna take us between three and four hours, depending upon the gradient of the terrain which is that crappy shale." Axe informs, giving us a diagram on the screen. "So please lace up."

Marcus then goes up to the board, giving us more information. "First things first. You're gonna win the fight. No medicine in a gun fight. Two weeks ago, Team 8 was near where we're gonna be. Capelli got bit by a rattlesnake. Contrary to popular belief, there is poison oak, so watch your cock and balls, 'cause that will suck."

I roll my eyes at him, shaking my head. He can be so childish at time even during a serious moment. That moment, Danny stands up and joins the others up front. "Murph's got the satphone. The angle of this region is very steep. Expect typical comms problems. We're gonna be on two-hour comms windows. If we miss two windows, I'd say wake somebody up. If not, don't sweat it."

Once he is finished, I stand up from my seat and go up front. "Waypoint one is Budweiser. Waypoint two is Miller. Three is Corona. Four is Heineken. And for our OP 1, Schlitz Malt Liquor. And if and when we ID Shah, pass Rick James."

We all sit down once we finish talking, the General takes our place, standing up front, next to the screen. "Gentlemen, these are your Rules of Engagement. US Force will comply with the Law of Armed Conflict at all times. Use of deadly force is authorized. If you do come under attack, use the appropriate force necessary to deter or defeat that threat."

Later that day after the meeting, we assemble in a small room where we are going over the plan and timing. Kristensen has four toy helicopters in his hands and show us what we are doing. "We take off here at eighteen hundred hours. Two Chinooks and two Apaches. We fly here to the LZ, insert the five-man team right here. Then we fly thirty minutes to J-Bad. Here, we'll have fifteen team guys and about a dozen Marines standing by all night. When we hear Schlitz Malt Liquor, we're heading back to Bagram for phase two. The QRF will stay here at J-Bad. Now the Apaches stay with the Black Hawks. The movement is so we can get the forty-sevens back here ready to bring up to phase two, once you get eyes on Shah."

We all nodded to let him know we understood and he quickly announced, "Oh! I'm bringing up tomorrow night's new guy's presentation to fourteen hundred, today so that all may revel and partake."

We all whistle and cheer, almost making fun of Patton. The look on his face clearly made it known to everyone that he was nervous and frustrated. I stood next to Mike and Axe came up to us and stated, "A lot of moving parts."

"Damn right. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up." I agree.

" You better be able to keep up, Chris. Otherwise one of us or all of us will end up kicking your ass." Mike declares.

"You wouldn't hit a girl, would ya?" I mock.

"From all the time I've known you, are you even considered to still be a girl?" He smirks.

I pretend to gasp and act hurt for a moment. "How dare you! In case you haven't noticed, I am still a girl! And I know that because I don't have balls and instead, I've got breasts."

Both boys laugh as I sassily stomp out of the room, throwing my hair back. Once we got all the information we needed about the mission, we all went outside and sat at a picnic table, eating lunch. Danny was telling us something about his girl back home and something she wants for flooring. "We were going to wait and then she gets her head into it. There's no stopping her, man. She's goin' all out."

"You know what; you should just let her do it." Mike says. "You got a handyman woman. That's a good thing."

"He's afraid of losing control over his castle."Axe smirks.

"He's having control issues 'cause he's the one who's always made the taste decisions in the family, right?" Marcus guesses.

"She's got great taste. I….I trust her." Danny decides.

"Well, what does she like?" I ask.

"Rose Honeydew."

"What the hell is that? A color?"

He nods his head and Marcus objects. "You gotta control that situation."

"It's very ongoing. New grass leads to new bushes by the window, leads to new curtains, leads to new sofa, leads to new carpet, leads to new floor."

"New baby." Axe interrupts.

"Dude, she's pregnant? How far along is she? You know if it's a boy or girl?" We all question.

"No, she's not pregnant. She's just on a weird journey, moving through the house, one room to the next."

"Sounds expensive." Marcus comments.

"Sounds pregnant." I laugh, the boys laughing along but Danny glaring at me.

"What about you, huh, Chris? Why don't you have a guy, yet? Where's your prince charming?"

"I don't have one 'cause of you boys." They all look confusingly at me, not understanding. "You scare all the guys away! If it wasn't for you four, I would already be married and having children."

"Oh really? In all the years we've known you; I have never once seen you with another guy." Mike points out.

"Well, then you should have seen me in high school. I was a guy magnet." I smirk.

"Alright, now that's the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard!" Marcus lets out.

I quickly turn to him, giving him a warning look. I shake my head, silently asking him not to tell them the truth. All the other guys look between us, looking interested. "Well, then. What was she like back in high school?"

"Marcus, don't tell them." I hiss.

"Oh, come on! It's not like it'll matter, anyway. It's in the past, they won't judge you." Marcus tries to convince.

"No! Come on, be a buddy here! Don't do it, please. I'm beggin' ya!"

He shrugs and looks at the other three with a smirk. "She was the loner. I swear, in school, it was like she was mute. Never talked to anyone, never hung out with anyone, nothing. The only person that would hang out with her was me. And that was because we were neighbors and we were already friends before school. Back in high school she was known as The Loner."

I bang my head on the table, letting out a big sigh. I felt like my life just got ruined. I hated it when someone knew about my past. I hated it even with Marcus knowing about it and he was there through it all with me. I felt embarrassed by it, like people would judge me because of it.

Someone clapped me on the back and gave my shoulder a squeeze. I look to see Danny, who had a kind expression. "Marcus' right. It doesn't matter. Look at ya, now! You're always cussing, we can never get you to shut up, and you love to piss us off. Looks like you came a long way."

I smile, knowing they were always there to cheer me up. We finished lunch with lots of jokes and laughter. Soon enough, after lunch, we all assembled in a large room, waiting for Patton to come for his presentation. I was sitting in between Danny and Mike as we waited. Finally, after a few minutes, Patton walked in the door. One of the guys called out, "You're fuckin' late!"