Here's the 25th story in my series. If you haven't read the other stories, then I advise you to not proceed until you do. This is a series. It runs in sequence. To understand certain things (especially where Jamie came from), it's best to just start at the beginning. This series is kind of like my very own NCIS season 4. As of this point, the series consists of: story 1 = A Link to the Past (comes in 3 parts)… story 2 = Wrong Place, Wrong Time… story 3 = Second Job… story 4 = Daughters… story 5 = A Personal Vendetta… story 6 = Bless the Children… story 7 = Eyes of the Condemned… story 8 = Disturbing Affection… story 9 = No Man Left Behind (story that introduces Chioke; aka Kid)… story 10 = Finger Swap… story 11 = Imperfect Heist… story 12 = The Color of Skin… story 13 = Death to the Jedi… story 14 = Brotherly Love… story 15 = For the Love of a Child… story 16 = Devil's Playground… story 17 = Forced Alliance… story 18 = Firing up the Screws… story 19 = Close to Home (story that introduces Julianna)… story 20 = Last Place on Earth… story 21 = The Two of Me… story 22 = Saw… story 23 = Rise of Apocalypse… story 24 = Injected… story 25 = Every Hero has a Story (current story). Hope you enjoy it.
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*Thursday into Friday*
*Chapter 1*
Nearing the early evening inside the Green Zone in Iraq, a squad of Marines are preparing for a high priority extraction of a valuable target. The mission is to go deep inside the Red Zone, capture the target and get out as quietly as possible.
The squad, which consists of six Marines, locks and loads their weapons in preparation. The use of deadly force in this mission is only if absolutely necessary.
After the preparation of both weapons, disguises and the last minute briefing, the squad walks to the vehicle that will be used for their operation.
"You got to be kidding me?!" Corporal Eckman laughed at their ride.
"It may not be ideal…" Sergeant Walker begins to say.
"It's a hunk of junk." Corporal Eckman stated.
"That it may be. But we want to get in and out undetected." Sergeant Walker stated. "It's best if we blend in." They approach the vehicle. He turns around to face his squad and looks into their loyal eyes. "This is what we do boys."
"Ooh-rah!" The men give their spirited cry common to the Marine Corps.
They all enter into the Iraqi vehicle.
The vehicle moves out of the Marine compound and heads in the direction of the Red Zone. Eventually, they reach a point of needing to be on high alert.
"Yo Eckman, when you going to hook me up with your sister?" Corporal Lawrence wondered.
"I would. But my sister has a problem with dating someone she can easily beat up." Eckman commented.
"Oh! You got burned!" Corporal Baker laughed.
"We're at the Zero Point." Sergeant Walker stated in reference to the predetermined point of needing to be quiet. "Be on alert."
Silence befalls the vehicle.
As day becomes night, the vehicle crosses into the Red Zone. They take the route that their earlier reconnaissance exposed as the path of least resistance. The route may take longer, but it's the route with the highest percentage for mission success.
Once the Marines are deep inside the Red Zone, an Iraqi man starts wheeling a cart out into the middle of the street, blocking their path.
"Ah, what's this?" Corporal Davidson wondered as he eases up on the gas pedal and applies the brakes to slow the vehicle down.
"Go around him." Corporal Henderson said from the passenger seat.
"I can't. There's no room."
The Iraqi man stops pushing the cart as soon as the path is completely blocked. He draws an AK47 from the cart. Two more Iraqi insurgents pop out of windows of buildings on either side of the vehicle and begin to fire upon it. They drove into an ambush.
Bullets penetrate into the vehicle.
One of the Marines opens the door and tries to fire back, but is quickly shot three times and falls to the ground.
After unloading their clips into the vehicle, the two insurgents inside the buildings leave their post to go downstairs. The one insurgent in the street approaches the driver's side and pokes his head and weapon into the vehicle. Sergeant Walker grabs the weapon and shoves a knife into the insurgent's throat, disabling him from being able to yell. Then he pulls the insurgent inside the vehicle with all his strength.
The two insurgents exit from their buildings and cautiously approach the vehicle as their ambush partner is nowhere to be seen. They call for him but get no response.
One of the vehicle doors opens. The wounded Sergeant Walker slides out and fires his pistol with an attached silencer at the nearby insurgent. Five shots quickly neutralizes the threat before he himself lands on the ground.
Sergeant Walker rolls under the vehicle to the other side. He watches as the feet of the Iraqi steps closer to the vehicle in order to look inside. Walker extends his pistol to the insurgent's foot at a downward angle toward the street.
Walker pulls the trigger. A bullet pushes through the weapon, out the silencer and penetrates through the foot of the remaining threat. The insurgent falls to the ground where Walker places his hand over the man's mouth and shoves a knife into his chest.
With realizing the knife did not penetrate into the body, Walker quickly thrusts the knife downward into the base of the neck. The Sergeant takes his hand off the insurgent's mouth and pulls his shirt down slightly. What's exposed is a bullet-proof, stab-proof vest; someone wanted this ambush to not fail because it was carefully planned out.
Walker cautiously approaches the other insurgent lying on the ground on the other side of the vehicle. There's a pool of blood. Of the five shots taken; three were stopped by the vest. It was the other two bullets that killed him; one in the abdomen and one at the base of the neck where the vest does not protect.
With all three insurgents dead and the vehicle riddled with bullet holes, Sergeant Walker opens one of the doors. He grabs the communications radio.
"This is Sergeant Travis Walker…" He said. "I need an immediate evac. My unit was…"
Walker stops mid-sentence as he notices a bullet hole in the radio, rendering it useless.
"Ugh…" Corporal Eckman cried softly. "Travis..."
"I'm here." Walker takes the Marine's hand.
"When my parents died, I swore to take care of my sister." Eckman begins coughing blood. "I basically became her father because I'm the only family she had. She's twenty now. She can take care of herself. But… Agh…"
"Don't try to talk." He can tell Eckman is in a lot of pain.
"There's a letter in my pocket." Eckman said as he stops Walker from trying to help since there's nothing he can do. "Make sure she gets it." He added. "Semper fi…"
Eckman's eyes close and his head falls. At the death of Eckman, Walker reaches into the Corporal's pocket and takes the letter.
The only surviving member of the squad is now all alone behind enemy lines with no means of acquiring assistance or an evac. And someone obviously wanted the squad to fail. No one was meant to survive. The only question, who and why?
As a couple Iraqis walk in the direction of the incident, Walker takes anything he can carry and runs in the opposite direction.
The Iraqis approach the vehicle and begin dragging the dead Marines out into the street. Walker watches as the Iraqis take the boots, gloves and whatever else they want, even the dead bodies.
At the sight of his dead companions being pillaged with no regard of honor or decency, Walker remembers the code; leave no man behind. He knows if he allows the Iraqis to take the bodies than their families will never have their sons or in Eckman's case, a brother to bury.
Sergeant Walker detaches the silencer from his pistol. He runs out and fires the weapon just to scare the pillaging Iraqis away. They scatter quickly from the area.
One by one Walker carries the five dead Marines to a semi-safe location not too far away.
After setting the final Marine down inside a vacant building, he goes back to the vehicle. Walker places the three dead Iraqi insurgents inside the vehicle in the hopes it'll provide enough confusion to other insurgents so they don't start looking for US soldiers. Lastly, he unloads everything he can carry that would be considered to be evidence to US soldiers being in the area.
Walker enters into the vacant building where his dead companions lie. He tosses a bunch of stuff into the cellar of the building. The only thing he keeps out is a couple weapons and a medical supply kit. Walker uses the medical supply kit to close the wounds of his dead companions.
In the dark of night, Sergeant Walker leaves the building on a reconnaissance mission. The mission no longer entails acquiring the high priority target. That operation crumbled at the first bullet fired at their vehicle. The current mission is to get each of the dead Marines out of enemy territory.
He returns to the vacant building and hoists Eckman's dead body onto his shoulders. Walker leaves the building carrying Eckman through the back alleys to the next safe location.
As Walker makes his way through a back alley, an armed insurgent steps out from a door yelling at the person who is still inside. Walker steps into the darkness to hopefully remain hidden until the dispute settles itself. But if necessary, his pistol is cocked and ready and fire.
After a couple minutes, the insurgent goes back inside and closes the door.
Walker hoists Eckman onto his shoulders once again and keeps moving.
Eventually, he makes it to their first of many destinations. Walker gently sets Eckman's body down in the safe location. He leaves and makes his way back to the original vacant building in order to get the next Marine.
All through the night, Sergeant Walker carries each of his five dead companions to safe locations in an effort to get them out of the enemy territory. Along the way, he neutralizes several Iraqi insurgents who jeopardize the objective.
Two hours before dawn, a group of Iraqi insurgents are doing a routine sweep. One of them finds the stuff Walker stashed in the cellar of the vacant building. A broadcast goes out alerting all insurgents of US soldiers in the area; a broadcast that US communications intercept.
As an Iraqi insurgent search begins, a couple squads of Marines quickly prepare for an emergency extraction. Unmanned reconnaissance planes immediately launch on the US side. Every resource available is to be used to find the Marines before the insurgents do.
A dozen heavily armed Humvees race out the gate of the Marine compound.
Sergeant Walker realizes the insurgents are on to him as there's a lot of activity in the area. He knows the odds of getting out alive are even slimmer than before. Pressing forward and fighting is the only option because he's not leaving his men behind. A Marine isn't beaten or defeated until he draws his last breath. And Walker is still breathing.
At this point, the edge of the Red Zone is not too far away since he's been doing this all night long without any breaks.
Walker eventually carries one body to a safe location outside of the Red Zone. He re-enters into the Red Zone to get the next Marine in which he does the same thing.
As Walker is carrying the last dead Marine, a group of insurgents start shooting at him. He drops the body of the Marine and ducks for cover inside a nearby house. With being so close to escaping the Red Zone, all hope seems lost as his position has been compromised. Walker shoots back since he's determined to not go down without a fight.
One of the unmanned reconnaissance planes flies overhead; giving the US a bird's eye view of the area. The heavy amount of activity in the area and large amount of insurgents closing in is interpreted as being the location of the Marines.
The Humvees race toward the area where the firefight is occurring. Once in view, the 50 Caliber guns on top of the Humvees begin to fire. The heavy fire is concentrated into the crowd of armed insurgents.
For the time being, the Marines do not have authorization to enter into the Red Zone which is currently on high alert. The Humvees line up in the neutral territory and provide heavy fire support.
Sergeant Walker exits from the house. He runs to the dead Marine he left in the street and hoists the body onto his shoulders.
An Iraqi insurgent exits onto the roof of the tallest building while carrying a large case. He sets the case down and opens it. Inside is a rocket launcher which he loads with an RPG.
While Walker is making his way toward the line of Marine Humvees, the insurgent on the rooftop aims the weapon.
"RPG!" One of the Marines yelled. "Northwest rooftop!"
One of the 50 Caliber guns quickly aims at the rooftop and fires. But the RPG launches.
The RPG races through the air, smacks the ground near Walker and blows up. Walker and the dead Marine fly into the air.
"Marine down!" Sergeant Jacobs yelled into his communications radio. "Requesting immediate authorization to enter into the Red Zone." He said in hopes to get the clearance.
"Request denied. You are not clear to enter into the Red Zone at this time." The person said.
The gravely injured Sergeant Walker is lying on the ground in immense pain with burns, shrapnel in his body and blood gushing from several major injuries. But the Marine doesn't allow the pain to stop him. Injured or not, he has a mission to complete.
Walker gets up and staggers his way to the dead Marine before falling down. The line of Humvees keeps up the fire support but it's ultimately up to Sergeant Walker in the end.
The Marines watch as the Sergeant hoists the body of the dead Marine onto his shoulders. As they continue to provide fire support, they watch almost helplessly as the Sergeant stumbles to the ground after a couple steps.
"Ahh!" Walker cries in pain as he pushes himself up.
The Sergeant's determination to not leave a dead Marine behind gives him the strength to try again. He hoists the dead Marine onto his shoulders and continues walking.
A bullet hits Walker. Then a second later, another one hits him. He falls to the ground.
Sergeant Jacobs sits there watching helplessly as he waits for the official word to enter into the Red Zone.
"Come on, come on…" Sergeant Jacobs muttered to himself.
"You have been granted authorization to enter into the Red Zone." The person said. "I repeat, you have authorization."
"Echo 1, Echo 2, we have clearance." Sergeant Jacobs broadcasts to his Marines. "Move in, move in!"
With the official authorization granted, the Marines are finally able to enter into the Red Zone to extract the Sergeant.
Two Humvees race in and stop behind the Sergeant, creating a barricade to safely extract him and the body of the dead Marine. Two Marines from each Humvee exit from the vehicles and grab Walker and the dead Marine. After getting Walker and the dead Marine safely into the Humvees, the vehicles race away.
"I have four dead Marines in the two-story building to the Southeast." Walker stated as a medic is working on stabilizing him. Then he passes out from the pain and blood loss.
One of the Marines relays the Intel to Sergeant Jacobs who sends two Humvees to the location.
With all the objectives acquired, the Humvees race away from the Red Zone. And Sergeant Walker's mission is bravely completed as no fallen Marine is left behind.