Dave

I was just tired of it all. Being in an overseas warzone for over a year can really start to mess with a man's mind, and I knew I would be going home the following week, yet my departure was bittersweet. I had seen a lot of my friends succumb to sudden, violent injuries. Why should I go home alive when they didn't?

If that terrorist leader were taken out, a lot of us could go home. Gindibuh owned everything, knew everything, and feared nothing. We'd been trying for years to stop him, but his armies still ran rampant.

Deep in thought, I began playing the recorder my mother had sent in a care package. Jon had taught me how to play, as he had learned when he was in elementary school, and he claimed I had a natural gift.

"When we get back home, promise me you'll learn a real instrument. The world needs your music!" he had often told me.

I had always promised. I just never knew I would use the recorder to play taps for the young man who had become my dearest friend in basic, a bond that had strengthened throughout the war. I was closer to Jon than I had ever been to my own brothers.

"Hey, man! You still squeaking on that thing?" Yuri asked. "Give it a rest!"

"Sorry." I put down the recorder. "It helps me think."

"What's on your mind?"

"Just thinking about when I was a little boy." I smiled at the memories. "I had this pet sheep who followed me everywhere. Died peacefully of old age, although she had a few close calls. I woke up one night because I heard the entire flock bleating. My father said there was a mountain lion among the flock, and I was to stay inside, but I was young and foolish. I grabbed my paintball gun and ran out into the darkness, and by the time my father realized what I was doing, I had shot it in the neck."

Yuri shook his head in bewilderment.

"I wasn't able to sit down properly for the rest of the night. My father had a stern lecture about how I probably just angered the beast, and now it would take the entire flock instead of just one sheep, and it could just as easily have carried me away." I chuckled. "But by some trick shot I could never have done on purpose if I tried for a hundred years, I had accidentally shot the animal in the chest just hard enough to disrupt the natural rhythm of the heart."

"It died then?"

"It died. If you think my father was mad, you should have seen the game warden! I thought he was going to arrest me for sure!"

I wished I had a paintball gun. Better yet, a BB gun. At this point, I'd even settle for a water gun.

"You shooting skeet?"

"I beg your pardon?" I responded.

"You were wishing for guns," Yuri explained.

"Sorry. I didn't know I had spoken aloud. It's just that my rifle has been misfiring lately, and I don't trust it. I'm afraid it could end up hurting me more than the enemy. I've checked my cartridges and everything else, but I just can't seem to find the problem."

There was information circulating that within the next few days, Gindibuh himself would lead his men into a battle that would be a bloodbath, a complete massacre of our troops. The only way to stop it would be through Gindibuh's death, but no one was stupid enough to challenge him. Even if someone had been willing, his own troops defended their leader to the death.

I thought I could just barely make out smoke from his camp. Why should I wait for him to come kill me? If I were going to die anyway, let it be on my own terms.

"What are you doing now?" Yuri demanded.

"Just whittling to pass the time. Do you think the medic will give me some surgical tubing if I ask?"

The medic raised her eyebrows, but she was willing to trade the required length of surgical tubing for a deck of cards.

An hour later, I stood holding my latest creation: a handmade slingshot.

Yuri laughed. "You've got to be kidding! What do you think you're going to do with that?"

I shrugged. "Brought down a grizzly with a BB gun once. Right through the eye."

"Let me guess: It was after your sheep."

"Pretty much."

He shook his head. "There some sort of letter you want me to give your family?"

I looked toward the horizon. "The smoke's gone. He's moving closer. We'll be ready for him!"

Some people claimed you could kill any large animal with even the shabbiest slingshot if you hit it in just the right place. Others claimed it was a myth that was sure to get a lot of fools killed, for even the strongest slingshot would do nothing more than anger an attacking animal.

I only knew two things: One, I had often used the weapon as a boy. I could break a glass bottle with a stone. I also knew there was a way to fire something like an arrow, thus creating a combination between a javelin throw and a catapult.

Two, I had already taken down wild beasts against incredible odds, and I didn't have much left to lose. I was ready to die rather than live one more day knowing monsters like Gindibuh would continue to terrorize innocent lives.

When the battle began the next day, I turned to Yuri. "If I don't return, tell my family I am once more in green pastures beside still waters, my soul restored to the happiness it knew in my youth, and even in the shadow of death, I feared nothing."

I don't hate people who believe differently than I do. We all have free choice, and I respect that, even for people who disagree with me. I do, however, abhor people who try to force me to believe as they do, especially if they'll resort to violence against the innocent to make a name for themselves.

Hearing the sound of a rifle firing, I fell with a cry of pain. It was risky. If my enemies knew I wasn't really dead, they could easily finish the job. However, they were satisfied that I was no longer a threat, and they chose another target.

I inched forward. Now I could see Gindibuh himself. Here would be a good cover for after I accomplished the deed. Closer. Closer!

I readied my slingshot. Just as Gindibuh was passing, I sprang from the ground and released the slingstone, leaping for cover as he stumbled.

The reality of the situation finally hit me. A man with a faulty rifle had attacked his enemy with a slingshot. Did that make me an idiotic fool or simply a foolish idiot? What had I been thinking? What were the odds of getting the perfect angle in just the right place? I'd done nothing more than find a creative way to commit suicide. At least I had been farther away from him than if I had used a knife, but all I had done was…

Had the noises of battle truly stopped? I tentatively peeked out from my cover.

The enemy had retreated. However it may have occurred, Gindibuh was dead. I knew my commanding officers would have a few choice words for me about morons who endangered their own useless lives by thinking they were heroes, and what kind of nitwit thought he could take on a terrorist group with a dang slingshot when he was surrounded by a real man's weapons, but I could handle it.

What I couldn't handle was how many female admirers I had when I returned home: Kenzie, Abby, Helga, Eveline…just to name a few! Sheba was a little reluctant to accept my advances, especially since she already had a boyfriend who was still overseas, but I sensed I could get her to warm up to me. I just needed to be patient.