Again, I've tried to rewrite this *shrug* Someone suggested I continue. Maybe I will.
.x.x.x.x.
Hi. I'm Michelle O'Malley, a just-out-of-college girl who majored in criminal jusitce. I moved to the UK from New York to live with my dad, who was British. Mum had died in a car accident and I've been here ever since. I've been a part-time police officer since I started college (now full-time) and the only girl among the guys at work. Here in the UK, the men were very jealous and annoyed that I'm even there but two of them, Seamus MacTavish and a guy that I only knew as Gaz, took a liking to me.
Seamus, a Scott, and Gaz, a Brit, were my best friends and roommates. I was the oldest, being 26 and Seamus was the youngest, being 21. Gaz was as old as me but was younger by two months (his birthday is May 17 while mine is March 23). Seamus was the only one among us who had a sibling. His brother's name was John. I've never met John but Seamus said he was as old as Gaz and me.
When Seamus was eligible to join the S.A.S. (he had to be 22 or older to join) all three of us applied. I was accepted along with Gaz and Seamus even though I was a girl. They said it had to do with me being related to my father who was the most respected commander in the 22nd Regiment.
The time spent during our call of duty was the time of our lives. We enjoyed shooting at the range, practicing in the killing house, or even disassembling and reassembling M4A1 SOPMODs. The killing house was fun even though it was dark and there was a large chance of you getting shot. Gaz had shot Seamus before in the leg but it wasn't life threatening. After the bullet was removed it was given to me. I managed to poke a hole through it and put rope to make a necklace.
"A souvenir for you, Seamus."
He wore it until the day he died.
.x.x.x.x.
Gaz, Seamus, and I were waiting for the train to Credenhill. There were many other recruits and one of them, Andy, made our group a foursome. Andy was a nice Scott who treated us like his little siblings. In compartment 10 we learned that Andy wasn't a recruit but a 30 year old returning captain. His father, Captain MacMillan, was very famous because of one of his missions. Andy was pretty surprised to learn that I was the daughter of Commander O'Malley.
The four of us had a good time and the best when the beverage lady passed by. Those three idiots bought beer (I ordered a sprite) and threw up while singing "Danny Boy". They passed out at around 2:30 AM. I put a blanket over them and slept myself. The voice of the engineer woke me up the next morning
"Morning, ol' chaps. It is now 7:30 AM and we will be arriving at Credenhill in about an hour."
I yawned and stretched my arms which hit Gaz. I wondered how he got next to me, as last night they were sitting next to each other. I looked around and saw that Andy and Seamus were awake too but having obvious hangovers. Seamus was looking out the window with half-opened eyes while Andy was listening to music on his iPod.
"Mornin' boys."
"Mornin' love."
Seamus saw me look confused at Gaz. "You shoulda seen him this morning. He tried to walk to the bathroom and put the toilet seat up but then he sat down and fell in."
The mental image popped up and made me laugh. I shook my head. I should've stayed up to make sure they didn't do anything stupid.
.x.x.x.x.
The train stopped at Credenhill Station where 10 trucks waited for us. The four of us sat across from each other. We talked about how excited we were and how badass we felt. At the base, it seemed pretty quiet and all of us were suspicious. Me and Seamus went towards the obstacle course while Gaz, Andy, and the others went off to explore. All of a sudden something grabbed my ankle causing me to scream. The barracks doors opened and people started to laugh. A guy in a ghillie suit popped out.
"Ahhh...always gets the F.N.G.s who check out the obstacle course," he said with a wry smile. "What's a girl like you doing here anyway eh?"
I didn't answer because I heard a familiar laugh. "DAD!" A man in a gray hoody with a gas mask over his head turned around.
"Ah! Buttercup!"
I ran up to my dad and gave him a hug. It had been a long time since I've done that. After that, I looked around to see all the boys with jaws opened (except the ones in the mask, I couldn't tell but it must've been hard to do that since their face was in a small space).
"Alright. Enough of this. To all of you F.N.G.s..."
Seamus whispered to me. "What does F.N.G. mean?"
"Fucking New Guys." I said. I didn't really like the term…
Dad continued, "I'm Commander O'Malley, the highest ranked in the 22nd Regiment. There will be no fooling around...especially with my daughter..."
All the guys looked at me and each other smirking. "...and you will treat her as you would treat me."
"Dad, that's a little too much," I said embarrassed.
"Oh...right. Well anyway, today we'll assign you into four-man groups. First off is Michelle. Pick your 3."
"Andy, Gaz, and Seamus."
Dad looked at them and whispered to me.
"Are any of them your boyfriends?" he said with a wink.
"EW! DAD! NO!" I screamed. Awkward silence followed, and I walked away.
.x.x.x.x.
Our squad was Romeo. We were assigned to share bunks with Quebec and Sierra. Quebec was made up of Captain Jason Murray, Sergeant Ryan McAvoy, Private Kyle Lovejoy, and Private First Class Andrew Miller. Sierra was made up of Captain Ron Charles, Staff Sergeant Louis carter, Private Jared Greco, and Private Daniel Boon. We weren't good friends with them; people said if you had too many friends in the military, they usually died.
Everyone was woken up by the bugle at 5:30 AM. Our Drill Sergeant, only known as Booze, had us run 2 miles and yelled in every face that fell behind. For fun, we practiced in the killing house and at the shooting range. At around 11:45 AM we had our brunch; I usually had bacon and eggs, Gaz had waffles with coffee, and Seamus had cereal. Andy always skipped breakfast because of paperwork but he'd take 5 minutes to talk to us while eating a power bar.
.x.x.x.x.
I didn't expect this but at around 8:30 PM, on our FIRST day, we were debriefed along with Sierra.
"Our informant Nikolai has informed us on the whereabouts of Al-Asad in a town called Achaq."
A projector in the front of the room showed a map. There were six buildings, all adjacent to each other. Towers stood at either side of the camp and dots signified the known movements of the guards.
"We will be arranged in 2 man groups. Romeo will come through the west while Sierra comes from the north..."
"Sir, I have a bad feeling those 6 buildings aren't sleeping quarters."
"That's right," Captain Charles said, "Those are buildings chockfull of alarmed guards, mate. Nikolai wasn't careful of himself and triggered a siren last week. Learned about it the hard way…
"Anyway, from Nikolai we've heard that Al- Asad is stationed somewhere in this base. He is wanted alive for interrogation. We will leave at 2400 hours. Dismissed."
.x.x.x.x.
The sea knight dropped us off 20 klicks west of Achaq. We broke up into 2 groups: Seamus and Andy were Romeo-One and Gaz and I were Romeo-Two. All of us were equipped with suppressed SOPMODs and suppressed USPs along with flashbangs and smoke grenades. Night vision wasn't necessary; the fires of the outskirts helped us see ahead.
All was quiet but the crunching of undergrass beneath our feet made us more cautious. Out of the blue, we heard a blood shrilling scream and then a gunshot which almost made me yelp; Gaz covered my mouth.
"What the bloody hell is going on, Gaz?" I asked in a whisper.
"They're killing the last of the villagers."
We made our way through the alleys and saw our objective in sight along with a guard tower. Captain Charles' voice came through our headsets.
"Everyone in position?" A series of "Yes's" passed through.
"Alright. We've already taken down the guards in the towers –"
"Sir," I interrupted. "Doesn't it sound too quiet? I mean, there should be two armed men in front of me right now."
"Well, you know those two things guards have? Legs? They use those to walk around. Their positions tend to change a lot," he said sarcastically.
I pushed the mute and said to Gaz," What a cheeky bastard." Apparently, I didn't really push it down enough and he replied with an "I heard that."
.x.x.x.x.
Gaz and I regrouped with the others. We started to walk towards the objective when all of a sudden we heard a door close. Boon turned around but all happened fast and in a blink, I was dragged to cover with bullets flying past me and Boon was lying on the ground on his side.
"AMBUSH! AMBUSH! ABORT THE MISSION!"
Andy yelled. Foreign voices yelled around me and a siren went off. I couldn't move until Gaz screamed in my ear.
"MICHELLE! GET UP!"
I got up with Gaz dragging me. We were following Captain Charles with Jared, Andy, and Seamus following us. We pulled into a dark alley and ducked behind a large dumpster. Gaz radioed for a evac-chopper but it wouldn't be here for another 15 minutes.
"We can't stay here for long. This city's infested. We'll never make it," Jared said.
I was about to stand up and check if it was clear but Seamus pulled me down when two men passed by. Andy whispered something to Seamus who responded with big eyeballs, a look at me, and a nod. Then he whispered to Captain Charles who responded, "Are you sure you want to do that?" Andy nodded and said yes.
"Oi! What's going on?" I asked when Andy and Seamus started to get up. "Where are you going? You'll blow our cover!"
Captain Charles put a hand on my shoulder. "You better say goodbye." I just stared at him and went up to Seamus and Andy while looking down at the ground. "What are you going to do?"
"Michelle," Andy started, "what Seamus and I are about to do, we'll be glad doing it for you." With that he hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Seamus did the same. Then he took out a piece of paper and gave it to me. "If you see John, give this to him for me."
Seamus followed Andy after that. Someone yelled in Arabic and four men followed them. "That's our cue," Captain Charles said. He went left and Jared, Gaz and I followed him. We were almost to the LZ when I thought of radioing Seamus.
"Seamus? Are you there?"
Nothing. Just crackling. I radioed Andy.
"Andy?"
A crackling noise and then a cough.
"Michelle?" Andy coughed again. "Seamus...he...he died...right in front of me." Andy was crying by the time I got in the heli.
"Andy, will I ever see you again?" A little tear fell down.
"Maybe but not soon," he said sniffling.
"WAIT! Maybe we can try to get you," I said rushing towards the pilots. I was about to tell them the plan but Arabic voices filled my headset. Andy screamed and then there were sounds of scuffling. The heli took off, being called to 'return to base IMMEDIATELY'. I kept yelling Andy's name. There was only crackling sounds.
.x.x.x.x.
We arrived back at Credenhill at around 4:30 AM. Gaz and I didn't talk the whole time. Dad had received the message from the pilots and came to see me but I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I already started for the guard tower and climbed in (the guard, Aaron, always let me up there when I needed to be alone) and looked out to the hills. The sun was just rising.
Footsteps came up the ladder. Gaz. "Michelle, you all right?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. I can't get over Seamus's death and I can't keep worrying about Andy"
We both looked out. The horizon became blue-ish. Gaz put his arm around me. "Your dad set up a ceremony for both of them"
"No. Not both. Andy is still alive, we just haven't found him yet," I said with teary eyes.
Gaz patted me on the back. "You should get some sleep, all right"
"I'll try..."
.x.x.x.x.
I didn't sleep. I stayed in the guard tower, reminiscing about the first time I moved to London, the first time I met Seamus, the first time I met Andy, the first time I had people sacrifice their lives for me. It was already somewhere around 9:30. People would have been awake by now but there wasn't a single soul outside the barracks.
Then there was marching. Everyone was in their full black gear with their masks on. They were heading for one of the barracks with a platform stage. Gaz came up and got me.
"Captain Charles and I are part of the riflemen who'll shoot their rifles, y'know…"
I didn't answer. I just followed him. People who knew Andy and Seamus said speeches, including Gaz and Captain Charles. Even through their masks you could hear them crying. I didn't want to say one; I wouldn't have gotten through it anyway.
After the ceremony, Gaz, Captain Charles, and the other riflemen removed their masks and fired their rifles six times.
.x.x.x.x.
The week was very solemn and quiet. No one really talked to each other, just the occasional "hey" or "what's up?". At brunch, we didn't eat much, just soup or even a power bar. In the killing house, we didn't put our hearts into it like usual. In the shooting range, we shot and we missed the targets. Life had changed dramatically in the 22nd Regiment.
And after this week, Gaz and I were reassigned to Bravo. Two of Bravo's men had retired, leaving behind the well-known Captain Price and an F.N.G. At brunch one day, we met the F.N.G. He called himself "Soap".
.x.x.x.x.