From Truth to Lies and Everything In Between
This one is my own.
The sequel to The Road Goes on Forever it follows the story of Low Light, Beachhead, Cover Girl, Vorona, General Hawk, Spirit and the OC Trick Shot in the aftermath of The Highwaymen.
The usual disclaimer: don't own, not making a profit
Chapter Seven
The One That Kills the Least
1000
General Hawk walked a fine line in his career. As the Commander of the G.I. Joe Team he was equal parts leader, father figure, and disciplinarian. He guided his soldiers with a firm but fair hand that earned their respect. It wasn't easy. At times it was impossible. Those were the times he had to make the decision to reprimand those that were below him. It wasn't often but it was enough. What made it harder was when that Joe was a long term member. In that instance he chose to hand down the punishment himself. He owed his soldiers that much.
That was why he was currently at the bottom of the Pit in the psychiatric wing of the medical unit speaking with Drs. Carla Greer and Kenneth Rich. Sometimes he had to be the stern father.
General Hawk closed the chart on his thigh and tapped the front with the pads of his fingertips. According to the report the patient was completely compliant with the treatment plan. He was calm and his mood was stable even if his sleep pattern was irregular. But Cooper MacBride aka Low Light usually was when he was medicated. It was the times he was off his medications and drinking heavily that got him in trouble. The man didn't have a stop button when it came to alcohol. He could have one drink or he could have twenty. Over the years General Hawk watched him slide further and further with this latest hospitalization being his last chance.
It had to stick.
If not for him then for his apprentice Trick Shot.
General Hawk could see Michael Dixon following in his heroes' footsteps a lot like Cooper MacBride once did with Pete Anderson. God was once Low Light's mentor the same as he was Trick Shot's. They were both legends. It was becoming too much of a pattern. It was up to him to stop it. He handed the chart back to Dr. Greer and shifted on the edge of the desk. He had to admit that he was only partly interested because Michael Dixon was his former lover's son. Although they separated amicably Sharon Dixon still called him direct for updates. He tried to be as open as he could without betraying Trick Shot's trust and privacy; regardless if his mother was snooping or not. In the military like it was in the real world a mother still outranked a General.
It was as if he had two sons. One was slowly finding his way towards absolution while the other was too far gone to be of help. But like any father General Hawk still held out hope. How many times he found himself in this situation he couldn't count. Cooper MacBride shifted from Saint to Sinner so often that he lost count. Each time Hawk made adjustments or excuses.
He knew when he recruited Low Light as his night sniper that the man came with his own angels and demons. And with Pete Anderson as his mentor the two were unstoppable. God and Low Light were synonymous with success in the field. Their statistical rate was one hundred percent. It was why General Hawk often looked the other way. At the time Congress was less worried with the welfare of soldiers as they were with results. He fell in lock step showing his own graphs and pie charts to prove to them.
Kill shots meant victory and victories meant funding.
If he had known then that he was compromising his sniper's health he didn't realize it.
Low Light didn't start showing outward signs until after Sierra Gordo and by then it was too late. God was gone and he was on his own. General Hawk compensated by assigning him as roommates with the Drill Sergeant Beachhead. He thought at the time he would be a good influence on him.
It seemed to work for a while.
The sniper used to be a chain smoker hiding behind barrack walls and sneaking to the top of the Pit for smokes and a cup of coffee. Beachhead ran him to the ground with daily PT turning his once pudgy alcohol gained frame into a lean healthy G.I. Joe. General Hawk thought that was a bonus. Low Light quit smoking he added Charlie Iron-Knife aka Spirit. For months it seemed he gave up smoking for meditation and a healthy life style. He ate lunch with the Shaman trading hamburgers for carrot humus and sautéed spinach. Then he would inevitably slide back into his old routine riding out towards Nebraska Avenue and Starkey's bar where the whores and whiskey would wait for him as if he never left. It was a losing battle.
That was when General Hawk enlisted Daina Janack aka Vorona. He thought given the woman's physique and her common interest as a sniper Low Light would calm down. No matter how he tried to add or subtraction a denominator Cooper was never the same after God.
That was fifteen years ago.
Pete Anderson showed his face once again and it was as if the years never happened. With everything the General did to curb the demons inside of him Low Light walked right into God's trap. He had to admit that the man had more of an influence on his soldier than he thought he did. God was and always would be his father.
He hated it.
It meant defeat.
He was almost jealous.
General Hawk didn't doubt for a minute that the man was dead.
He was alive and kicking on the face of the man reflected on the closed circuit TV of the psychiatric unit.
General Hawk stood up.
He was finished listening to Drs Greer and Rich. What he wanted to see and what he wanted to know lay behind the double doors beyond a computer screen. No matter what they told them he had to see for himself. Low Light was always calm and complacent when he was on his meds. That was nothing new. What he wanted to know he wouldn't find in the soldiers' jacket.
That didn't tell him anything.
He had to see it for himself.
The early file gave him the information he needed from Oklahoma and the recommendation from his superiors as the best eyes they had seen in years. That was when Low Light was twenty years old and new to the Army. He was just an E-3 at the time but already making a name for himself. When he joined the G.I. Joe team he was already taken as the apprentice to Pete Anderson at his request. The legend wanted a prodigy to claim before he retired. He knew his eyes were going bad and they found them both.
The next ten years were filled with the mandatory self evaluations of goals for the next upcoming year. Each year in Low Light's letters were the same until the last year. Interspersed were disciplinary actions General Hawk should have paid more attention to. In the first few years he was tardy or at most missing in action when daily roll call was taken. In the next times he was missing. Each time Hawk signed his name automatically. He looked back on his hollow signature with a hind sight that should have given him clues.
His night sniper was practically begging him to do something.
Low Light lay on the bed in half lidded eyes. The medication Brooks gave him was having an effect. Even still he found himself standing in a salute when General Hawk entered the room. He couldn't tell if he cared or not. It was that ingrained. When Hawk waved him down he sat clumsily to the side of the bed as if his legs weighed a ton. His thighs hit the white sheets with a thrump making a bubble of white material like a fart.
"Sorry" Low Light said.
General Hawk took the chair that Trick Shot discarded and sat down. He had the full file in front of him when he spoke.
"This is your file." He began.
The pages were at least fifty pages and heavy when he said it.
He leafed through.
"You re-upped every year for the past eighteen years since Sierra Gordo until the past two years." General Hawk said.
On the envelope were the times Low Light re-assessed his position and he nodded.
"Up until three years ago you signed a contract stating your position and rank."
That was when the General stopped.
"For the past three years with your enlistment you accounted that your ambition was to train a new sniper." He said.
He didn't know if Low Light was agreeing or in a medically induced haze but the man leaned back. He had a smile on his face. He held up his hands. They were vertical to each other and shook with a tremulous twitch he couldn't control.
"They tell me its alcohol induced neuropathy from drinking. They say there's nothing they can do about it. It'll only get worse." He said.
General Hawk could only watch. He was at once appalled and sad. The night sniper was on his way out. Why life chose him to bear the burden he didn't have the answers to. He stared instead.
"Is that why you chose Trick Shot to replace you?" He said.
"Yeah he's the best eyes I've ever seen." Low Light said. He didn't seem depressed. In fact he seemed resolved.
It was like watching a man that knew he pulled two Aces and Eights in a Dead Man's Hand.
"He's the best."
General Hawk nodded. If his night sniper aka Cooper MacBride aka Low Light said so then he wasn't going to fight it. His prodigal son absolved himself to training the next generation to be the best of the best and that meant with the G.I. Joe Team.
He could only hope Trick Shot wouldn't end up the same way.
End Chapter Seven
The One That Kills the Least
Slipknot
I don't seem to care today
I mirror what I love
Win what I hate
Empty waste can cloud your eyes
I only know because I tried
So come with me
Come with me
Let's meet uncontested
There's no better time to play the game
I don't want to give it away
Underneath I see the kill
Buried deep within guilty regrets
Bleeding in the dark, everything is wonderful
I don't care, I don't want to forget
When is it acquired? It's none of your business
I prefer to be an outlaw of my filth
Turn the other cheek
It's ever disappointing
You refuse us to forgive
When nothing was taken
No one else survives
I've seen you live, now watch me die
But we don't see the writing on the wall
And as I close my eyes
I know the deal, I realize
The one that kills the least still kills us all
Hidden in the rubble
Everybody's got a story to tell
What do I need? Eliminate the impossible
All that's left is a man and a veil
Maybe our mouth, maybe it's the station
There's no better way to go, no better way to be
I've got my demon, go get your own
Save another number, don't forget to hate me
No one else survives
I've seen you live, now watch me die
But we will see the writing on the wall
And as I close my eyes
I know the deal, I realize
The one that kills the least still killed us all
No one else survives
I've seen you live, now watch me die
But we don't see the writing on the wall
And as I close my eyes
I'm lost in here, I realize
The one that kills the least still killed us all
The one that kills the least still kills us all
The one that kills the least still kills us all, all, all
