Chapter One
Hess
"Well I see that you graduated top of your class in you're A-
schooling." The petty officer was looking over my file. I sat there nice and
quiet letting him go through it.I just got done going to school to be a MA.
That's master at arms, which translates to being a cop in the Navy.
The petty officer looked up at me with an all too familiar look on his
face. It was one that most people in the military wore. Which is "I don't give
a flying fuck".
"You do know what happens when someone graduates top of their
class right?" He asked. He looked intimidating even though all of us knew at
the schooling that he was his wife's bitch. Guess he's trying to make up for
what he lacks back at home. I quickly glanced at his name tag.
"Yes petty officer Ting." I answered.
"Good Hess." Ting said with a slight sneer on his face. "Do you have
any clue where you want to go?"
"I heard that the Marine base Camp Luejune is in short supply for
MP's and they are asking for some from the Navy." I began.
"Seaman you heard right." Ting sighed. "I don't think it's a good idea
to mix our MA's with their MP's but it's not my call. And the Head of the
Department wants to run a test trial. Is this where you want to go?"
"Yes Petty Officer that is where I like to go." I answered. I couldn't
help but smile.
"Alright. Sadly I thought you weren't the average village idiot." He
rolled his Asian eyes. "But I guess I was wrong. Now get out of my office."
I got up and started to leave when he coughed and I turned around knowing
he wanted to say something.
"Seaman go show those jarheads how it's really done." And that was
the last I heard from him.
My name is Sara Danielle Hess. I joined the U.S. Navy on my
twentieth birthday. I have to say my family was the one that inevitably made
my decision to go. And it didn't help that my boyfriend joined the Marine
Corp and got stationed in Luejune, practically half a world away. And I
knew that there was no way that we could carry on a relationship if I was
living in Washington and him in North Carolina. My family didn't see eye to
eye on me with my decision and so started to treat me like dirt. Just helped
me along I am telling you.
Basic was a blast. Alright so they had to cut off my beautiful dark
brown locks but I survived that. And I had to learn to deal with people
yelling at me from sunup to sun down. But you would be surprised as to
what people get used too. And fairly quickly at that I might add.
A schooling was a little different. Here you are ready to have them
yell at you like the instructors in basic but nope they don't. Not much
anyways. I don't know, I found it pretty easy.
So here I am on my way to North Carolina to see my boyfriend! He's
been deployed but is coming back soon. Actually in a couple of weeks. He
doesn't talk to me much anymore but that's probably because he's busy with
the whole deployment. That's ok because he doesn't know that I became an
MA. I want to surprise him. I think he will be happy.
Chapter Two Holiday"Oh shit boys looks like we have a squid that got orders to be in our
company." Our gunny told us. We were getting our orders for the day and he
thought to interrupt. Which was a good thing because I got orders to guard
the main entrance with Scoundrel. I wasn't looking forward to that. When I
learned that it was going to be Scoundrel (Deniss) I knew that it was a bad
sign for the rest of the day. I didn't know how bad it was going to get until
now.
"Wait I thought that we were a Marine only company." Weiss piped
up. He was some nerdy guy but I had no qualm with him. He usually doesn't
talk much like me and so we get along. I think he comes from Alabama or
some such place.
"Yeah I thought that the whole Navy moving on base was a rumor."
Ramirez added. Our gunny, Ratcliff, just rolled his gray eyes.
"Ramirez that's just a rumor. There are two reasons why the Navy has
personal living on our base. The first is because of the Naval hospital here in
Leujune. The second is because we are understaffed for MA's and all the
other bases are too or else we wouldn't need the squids. But we do and we
now got one in our group. So I advise you to behave yourself." He warned.
"Yeah well he's never going to be a Trench Angel." Scoundrel
snorted. Turned out that he was a she actually. But I didn't know that until
later.
"Alright go to your posts." Gunny snapped clearly exasperated with
us. "Except for Holiday. I want to talk to you alone." Everyone walked out
somewhat relieved to leave. (There are actually twenty souls that wear the
Trench Angel badge but only five of them I really know.) I leaned against
the farthest wall that I could and crossed my arms. I am pretty sure that I
made an intimating figure. Gunny wasn't intimated though.
"I believe you have had a couple falling outs with Deniss." Gunny
began. I uncrossed my arms in surprise that he was bringing this up.
Everyone knew that Deniss and I got into several fights in the past couple
months. But no one said anything.
"Who told you this?" I grunted.
"No one did. Word gets around pretty fast. And anyways I figured it
out by how you two look at each other." Gunny said calmly like if he didn't
know he just made me want to pound everyone in the group's face in.
"But that's not why I am talking to you." Now that made me raise an
eyebrow.
"Then what do you want to talk to me about?"
"Your attitude is unexcitable for this group." Gunny's voice got a
little edge to it. "I thought long and hard about how I was going to punish
you. And it came to me." A shiver ran down the back of my spine. If he was
going to dismiss me from the outfit then it would look bad for me for the rest
of my life. That and no other gunny would want to have me in their outfit.
"Now solider don't be worried that I am going to get extreme on you."
The Gunny said with a slight smile on his face. "Although God knows I have
thought about it. But no, I am going to stick you on patrol with Seaman
Hess." Now that was a punch in the gut. So the Gunny wanted me to hang
out with a squid? He just made my hit list.
"Thank you for sticking me with a damned squid." I mumbled as I
walked out of the office without his permission.
"Oh Holiday, he's a she just to let you know." Great, I thought, just
something else to brighten my day.
Chapter Three HessI got into Leujune the next night. The plain ride wasn't bad. It was
about a six hour flight from Texas to North Carolina. The two men that I
was sitting by kept bugging me though. My dog tags slipped out of my shirt
and so began the questions.
I found out that on the base there are two kinds of barracks. One for
the Marines and one for the Navy. I guess the Marines wanted to keep the
Navy as separate as they could get away with. Which wasn't bad. My
roommate helped me unpack. She came from California and worked at the
hospital. Her name was Jessica Sylvia. Or Sylvia for short. In the military
you are known by your last name. I had to get used to it pretty quickly in
basic.
I checked in with the Gunny Sergeant that ran the outfit called the
"Trench Angels." When I heard the name I almost laughed. Marines, they
can come up with pretty funny names. Turned out that I was to go on patrol
with a man named Holiday. Funny last name
"Oh Hess?" The Gunny asked for me again. He turned out to be a
fairly good looking man in his late twenties with blond hair that was cut in
the Marine fashion and hard gray eyes.
"Yes Gunny Sergeant Ratcliff?" I asked as politely as I could.
"Three things. This is a kind of lax outfit so you can get away with
calling me either Ratcliff or Gunny. Second, to be known as a Trench Angel
you have to earn it. As it stands right now I don't think you have. And third
watch your back, Holiday is as mean as they come. It's sort of a punishment
for him." That made my day as I walked out of the building. So they thought
that I wasn't one of them huh? Well that's ok it wasn't like I wanted to
become one of them anyways. If I did I would've joined the Corp not the
Navy. And Holiday being as mean as they come? We'll see about that one.
I almost stopped walking up to the car that Gunny assigned me to
when I saw Holiday. He was no wimp by far. I could tell that he worked out
every day at least for a couple of hours. His muscles testified to that one.
And he had the reddest hair that I ever saw. It looked like someone got
carried away and sprinkled an ass load of freckles on his face. He had green
eyes that were GREEN. But something screamed of danger in him.
He narrowed his eyes when he saw me. "I think that Gunny should've
picked a taller person. Not a midget."
"Well nice to meet you too." I said as pleasantly as I could. My
mother always said to kill them with kindness. It didn't seem to phase
Holiday in the least. He started to say something but that was when it started
to rain. And I don't mean just merely rain. I mean a downpour.
"Great can my day get any worse?" He rolled his eyes. "Wait no,
don't answer that, I don't want to know. Just get in the car." The "car" was
actually a humvee that was decked out in camouflage with lights up on top. I
guess that was the military's version of a cop car.
"I love the rain." I said as I got into driver's seat. Holiday quietly
walked over to the driver's side.
"What are you doing Midget? I am the one who's going to drive so
move over." Holiday ordered.
"Excuse me, but I don't see a your name anywhere on the steering
wheel and I think it's a bad idea to let you drive." I snapped. In return
Holiday just snarled. I couldn't help but smile. "If you want to get even
more wet then by all means just stand there. If you don't however I suggest
you get in the passenger side." When it was clear that I wasn't going to
budge Holiday did get in the passenger side of the humvee.
Chapter Four Holiday"Don't you just love the rain?" The squid asked. Her nametag read
Hess. But now thinking about I never asked for her name. And she didn't
ask for mine either. I just grumbled about that. Usually women just fall to
the floor already with their legs spread when they first see me. This one
though, she was different. She had guts. I had to give her that much.
"Oh yes I just love the rain." I grumbled. She just flashed me her baby
blue eyes and smiled. My God that smile could melt anyone's heart. Then
again her looks alone could kill a man dead upon seeing her. She had short
auburn hair to go with her delicate looking face. High strong check bones
testified to a will stronger than steel. Her lips were a perfect cupids bow
tinted a light pink that made me want to kiss her. And she had a good figure
too. Not too much on top and not too much on the bottom. Perfection at it's
peak I thought. That made me hate her all the more. And that made me want
her just as much. Punishment indeed, Gunny did his job just a little too
good.
"Do you know where you are going?" I asked her. Now I knew the
answer to this one. She claimed she just got here last night and that her
family was on their way to give her, her jeep.
"Don't be so silly." There she went with her smile. "I have a rule. And
that's whoever sits in the passenger seat has to be the navigator." I rolled my
eyes.
"I am an MP not a navigator." I said defensively. "And besides you're
the one that wanted to drive."
"Are you the one that is sitting in the passenger seat?" She asked.
"Yes b-"
"Then that means you're the navigator. Don't be stupid it's only
common sense." Oh hell. I thought. There was no winning with this creature.