Chapter 2

Marco POV

Date: 07/03/17

My name is Marco Osbaldo Diaz SGT in the United States Army I'm writing this in case any thing happens to me or my crew, its day 5 of prep 2 more days till we head off to this unknown land. I'm not gonna lie I'm pretty nervous but my boys seems to be excited so I gotta put on my best poker face for these fucks. I've been in this hell hole since I was 18 I'm 21 now and I just barley reenlisted cause I became a section chief of the best section that I've ever been apart of.

My section has 6 men not including myself, CPL A our number 1 man the one who pulls the lanyard and is the strongest of us he was 20 years old with nothing to lose and everything to gain after he lost it all.

Sargent M his our gunner his job is to charge the fuses and prep the primer to shoot the rounds he was 26 a little on the older side but smart as a whip, PFC F driver his job is pretty self explanatory age 20 wild and needs to learn to follow orders.

PVT L is our backup driver and is the round prep his job is to fuse the rounds for detonation age 18 the runt of the little weak body and weak spirit but over all a great man. SPC D who is our recon guy his job is to look through a scope and find our targets he was 24 an overall great soldier followed orders to the letter and was always willing to help anyone in need.

Lastly is SPC G his our overage his trained in every job not as good but he cant get the job done in case someone goes down he was another young one but was strong and extremely well knowledgeable in practically everything.

Me I'm a section chief my job is to confirm targets, watch the rounds land and track coordinates as they come in, and call on which missions we are going to fire. My job is simple yet the most important and now its useless cause we don't have the support from the Fire Direction Control so we are going to be shooting blind even with a recon on our team FDC controls what rounds we fire off and how many we can shot. This is going to be a hard time for all of us since we got so used to our SOP and now going into uncharted lands.


I closed the small journal walking towards my guys CPL A walked up he would always said his reason for joining the army was cause he didn't want our president to deport him since he was Mexican, I laughed cause I was Mexican as well, I told him I was tricked into joining cause my recruiter hit a nerve with me. "Ay chief L wants to know how many boxes of rounds you wanna load up in the hummvees?"

"About 8 or 9 in case shit its the thing you call your face." I snickered, he make a clicking noise with his tongue indicating he was slightly annoyed and offended seeing as his been the only one in the section with no girlfriend of wife. "Sure thing asshole, ay L he said your a piece of shit and that he wants 9 boxes."

"Chief that's not nice I know I'm a piece of shit but I didn't think you would say that." L said in a fake hurt voice. "Can we hurry this up I wanna go home and make love to my wife a few more times before we head out to this no mans land shit." complained D, a lot of the men had lives outside of these job but that's the part a lot of civilians forget we are people who want to live as much as the next person, except A. He always wanted to die ever since Iraq, after the lose of his cousin to sniper ambush while on a foot patrol.

He then found out that his cousin was nailing his wife, to make it worse his 2 kids where actually his cousins. He filed for divorce the next day she begged for his forgiveness and to "think of the children" but he just stayed quite and never talked to her or the kids who he raised from birth. Ever since then his been improving his skills in hand to hand, his simple sharpshooter badge changed to expert, his PT score has improved by 50 points in each event nearly getting a solid 300 each month.

His eyes once so full of happiness and joy where nothing more than dark brown pools empty and void of life making all of us worry for him. The only way we can show we care for him is the only way we know how. Cracking jokes about him and hoping his has a witty retort to it. Yet still nothing, his broken and I feel I failed as a leader that I couldn't help my old friend out. We where together from the start of our military journeys he stood by me helped me out when I needed it most and I cant even do the same. My guys have been trying to encourage me to keep trying that I will eventually get through to him.

Ship Date

The day finally came where we all said our goodbyes to our friends and families my mom and dad never looked so proud of me wishing me safe travels. My father hugging me and telling me over and over how proud he is of me. My mother was crying her eyes out more than normal knowing how she wont know when I will come back. Holding back my tears I smiled and told them I will be back as soon as possible and we will feast on all the best Mexican cuisine California had to offer. I headed to our convoy waiting to escort us to the isolate location. I turned back looking at my parents again and giving them a small smile as I waved goodbye to them again.

The drive was quite and long, none of us had anything to say we just sat there holding our m4's in silence as we rocked back and forth bouncing up and down as we hit rocks. Finally we made it to a large steel building in the middle of nowhere the driver go out and walked to another Humvee and drove back leaving us at the building. "F and L stay here and guard the vehicles rest of us on me lets get this briefing and be done with this the sooner the better." I ordered everyone nodded in agreement as we walked in leaving the two behind.

Walking into the building we where greeted with a large empty room with a single man lizard thing in the middle. He was tall green with a long tail and black hair that was gelled back in a suit D raised his weapon ready to shot. I raised my fist indicating for him to hold. "Ah you must be the group allow me to introduce myself my name is Toffee I'm working for your government as an informant and guide so to say." He explained, "We didn't get any info about you. Plus your not the contact we where told to meet up with so start talking or else my buddy here will light your ass up faster than you can piss yourself." I scolded.

"As you wish I came into this world not to long ago and your so called contact was never here. This man wearing a rather dazzling uniform approached me and asked if I was from the other side. I told him my story and he asked me if I could help out a group out in the other side. I agreed on the condition that I can live and study this area as well. So please come through and I'll gladly escort you through my world." He had an evil smile that we all felt, but we couldn't deny our only way to navigate safely through this uncharted land. I grabbed my radio and signaled them to come in and to bring the vehicles as well.

The large metal door opened and came two Humvees one had a M777 howitzer being pulled behind it. I can see the smile on that Toffee guy grow bigger and bigger as he was getting a bit to excited for my comfort. I opened up one of the doors and signaled him to get in. He walked in with his hands behind his back. "L take care of him if he tries anything you have my permission to cap him. Understand?" I asked, "Roger chief wont let you down." My god that was the worst call I could have made.


So this was little personal considering that my ex did all those fucked up things to me but I gotta continue moving forward never stop moving forward even if the pain sucks prize is always in front of you not by your feet or behind you.