Tariq shifted and woke up. He practically jumped when he felt a touch on his arm. "Easy, buddy. You'll be fine. Just a knock on the head. But, by the looks of it, it was more than just a knock."

"Where am I and who are you?" Tariq slowly spoke.

"I'm Corporal Allan Shaver and you're back at base camp."

"Where's everyone else?"

Shaver shrugged. "Don't know. Out there somewhere, I suppose, creating more shit for me to clean up after." There was a cynicism in Shaver's voice Tariq didn't like. "But, that's not got to do with this. We've just got to get you back out there doing your job so I can do mine."

"How long you been here, man? You're talking stupid."

"Going on 18 months, man. Got a family back home." Shaver looked at Tariq. "Do you know that my little girl just turned 2 yesterday? Where am I? Here. In this shit hole. What type of memory of Daddy is that going leave? Her daddy didn't love her because he wasn't at her party." He looked at the IV in Tariq's arm. "That's just the fucking memory I want her to have, ya know? Happy birthday baby from Shithole Iraq. Great card, isn't it? My son turned 5 last month. Was I there? Again, I say no. And where were you, I hear you ask. Here. Here. Nowhere but here."

Tariq sighed. Why am I here with him rather than out in combat? I mean, shit. Combat's more uplifting then this idiot.

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Dim looked through his NODs and didn't like what he saw. "This isn't good, Angel." He softly whispered. "We're going to be surrounded before we can rescue the Rangers."

Angel agreed. "We gotta do something." He leaned to his left. "Yo, Warhorse!"

Warhorse quietly crawled over to Angel. "What?

"You seen Scream?"

"He was just to the North. Why?"

"Here." Dim gave her his night vision to see.

"Shit." Warhorse remarked. "We've gotta keep quiet or we're dead." She looked around. Apparently they don't see us. She thought. She laid her head low and motioned for the other two to do the same. The rebels passed by them without so much as glancing in their direction. Thank God for these ACUs! Warhorse thought silently. She counted at least four by the group that walked right by the three of them. She wanted to shoot; to follow, but she didn't know how many more there were. She, Dim and Angel decided to stay low for a few more minutes before checking on the others.

Spitfire ran without care to Scream. She saw him lying motionless. Shit! I hit HIM! She started to freak out when Scream reached up, put his hand on her mouth, and pulled her down.

"Shut the fuck up!" He whispered. "I didn't answer because I saw the rebel you killed coming towards me. I was getting ready to kill him, but you beat me to the goddamned punch." He looked up. "They're coming this way. They've heard something. Shit." Scream looked to see how many there were. Through his NODs, he saw 4. He looked to the East where Rangers were fighting back. He saw the signal. "Goddamnit."

"What?" Spitfire found herself scared.

"There's about 20 of them. Between us and the 2/75th, we can take them. We've got the advantage with our NODs, but they've got the surprise." He raised his weapon. "Well, if we're going to go down, what you say we go down in the manner of Custer?"