This is my first attempt at fanfiction and I am so excited to share it with everyone!
Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all things Twilight. Except my little story… I own that!
Fucking hell it was hot.
For as long as I'd been stuck in this god forsaken desert in this god forsaken country, I still hadn't gotten used to the heat. Well, actually, I'd gotten used to the heat. I just hadn't gotten used to walking 5 miles in my gear, boots, helmet and pack while carrying my gun in the heat.
That shit's heavy.
The good news was that word around camp seemed to be that our unit might be in the next wave to receive orders for withdrawl from Afghanistan. For the past few months troops had been pulling out and shipping back home, and whether it would happen in the next wave or a few months from now, I knew I would be home within the year regardless.
But for now we were still stuck in business as usual, completing our current assignments. Most, like today's, involved patrolling the volatile Korengal Valley, just outside of the city of Asadabad. Once an extremely dangerous area that acted as no man's land between the peaceful villagers and dangerous militia troops, the Korengal Valley had been fairy docile recently. We were still sent out on these patrol missions frequently in an attempt to keep it that way.
Today's patrol had been fairly non eventful. The only excitement came when a local farmer blocking the roadway with his goats had been reluctant to move to make way for the humvees.
Not that I was complaining. I mean, not complaining about the uneventfulness. I was certainly complaining about the heat.
"Hey Cullen, you see that movement up in the field over there?" Sgt. Riley Biers, my closest friend in the unit was a friend from my days at West Point. I looked out toward the area he was indicating.
"Just wait for it. I swear I saw something running in the grass out there." He said. "Right over by that clump of trees." Just as he narrowed down the location I did detect some movement.
"Yeah Biers, I saw it. I'll go alert Command Sergeant Benjamin." I replied, trying to ignore the stifling heat as I trotted up ahead to his humvee.
"Sir, Sergeant Biers and I detect movement at 9:00, possible threat, permission to investigate." I spoke to Command Sgt. Benjamin through the open window of his vehicle.
"Permission granted. Take Private Scott and Private Peters with you." He told me, signaling the rest of the caravan to a halt.
I trotted back over to Biers and gathered Scott and Peters and we made our way slowly out towards the cluster of trees where we had seen the movement.
"I swear to god, if this turns out to be another fucking crazy ass animal I've never heard of I'm going to kill you both." Pvt. Peters said, basically voicing the thoughts we all were having.
"Better crazy ass animals than crazy ass Afghans." Biers told him as we came up on our intended area.
We spread out, forming a perimeter around the area. Moving in calculated synchrony we carefully explored our surroundings for anything out of the ordinary, most notably Afghan militants waiting in the landscape to blow our brains out.
From my position I noted further movement within the trees just to my right. Using hand signals to communicate with my men I signaled to them where I detected a possible threat and we needed to stealthily move in.
As we edged closer we heard a rustling in the direction we were headed, followed by a short bark of a dog. Shouting, we drew our guns in the direction and demanded for whomever was hiding to show himself.
When there was no answer, I lead the team in closer, only to find that there was in fact a dog in the trees. A malnourished black mutt was whining and circling around two boys, both who looked to be teenagers. It was easy to determine that these boys were not threats, but seriously injured and in hiding.
"How did you get hurt?" I demanded. "Who did this? Are they still in the area?" The boys appeared to have been beaten pretty severely.
They replied brokenly that they had been attacked while walking the road with their crops, taking them to the market to sell, which was an unfortunately common occurrence.
"Biers to caravan, we have two natives, injured but non threatening. Medical needed." Biers radioed to the rest of the patrol back at the humvees.
Then, just as the two medics came running into our vicinity, I got the strangest feeling in the pit of my stomach, like something bad was going to happen.
That's when the world blew up.
All the wind was knocked out of my lungs as I flew off my feet, blasted into the air and landing harshly on my side.
As I barely maintained consciousness, trying to take in the now fiery world around me and the extent of my injuries, if I was even still alive, I could only think one thing.
Fucking hell it was hot.
Well, just before I blacked out I did register one other thought.
My leg is gone.
This story is a complete work of fiction! While I have researched everything I put in this story, I don't claim to know everything there is to know about military life, physical therapy or what it's like to be an amputee.
I will try to update weekly, but I am in grad school so I can't be held responsible if I miss a week… take it up with my professors!
Please please please review – any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
