((--Pvt. Cory Bowman.--))

We dashed from the sniping spot. My head was throbbing. Tom, Mate, and Terry were in the front. They were the fastest. We ran downstairs. So far, no one knew we were there. Tom raised his hands as he pushed against a wall.
He made his hand into a fist and put up his index finger and his middle finger, then pointed to his eyes, then pointed outside.

This meant look out for snipers.

Tom was a unusual Captain. Not like one I have had before, and that really makes me feel good. Like he'll try his best to keep us alive.

My last Captain, Captain Bentler, always sent me out to do the hard - to near impossible missions, and I'm only a private. I felt like he did this to me because, out of our squad, I was the african american soldier. He'd always send me to distract enemy targets. I always had the feeling that I was going to die because of him, but luckily he died by a sniper.

It felt wrong to say 'Luckily he died by a sniper' but I know I wanted it to happen. I know racism still wanders around in our earth, but I didn't know I'd be the victim of such extreme racism.
Tom made me feel a lot better about being in the war-- not that it is possible to feel good in the war, because that feeling is truly rare. It comes once in a while, but it lasts only seconds then fades when fear comes back. But I have learned that fear can be an advantage. It drives you to do certain things that you wouldn't be able to do if you were normal. rying to run away from heavy gunfire is hard when you aren't driven by a overwhelming fear, the fear can make you run with blinding speed.

My arms were aching, but I still had to carry the sixty. It was heavy, but I was the best one for the job.

"Cory!"

"Yeah?"

Mate was talking to me, " I have a sniper spotted, but a part of his arm is showing. Not enough to kill him, but from what I can see, there are a group of Ghillied snipers none of them spotted us. I can't take them all out,so I need you to tear up the trees."

I looked at Tom, "Permission to fire, sir."

"Permission granted, but get a clear shot on their position before you go tearin' up the area, got that? ACOG it first."

Gerard handed me his ACOG scope.

I had a clear shot at the group of snipers, six of them to be exact. Not normal, however, for all of them to be in one spot.

Not normal at all.

"Sir! Don't you think it is odd for a bunch of snipers to be grouped and not spread out?"

Tom looked at me for a second, then snapped his fingers, "You're right, Private. Mate! Get to higher ground, get a good sighting on the group of snipes, and look around the area for anyone. Bowman's right, it is odd for a group to be in one without backup like that."

Mate nodded and ran up the stairs. He didn't return for a while, so I took this time to sit down. I put the sixty on my left, away from everyone else.

My neck was aching, my arms were tired, and my back was kinked.

"Don't worry, Bowman. Once we're at the LZ, we'll be picked up by a gunship. You can put that thing down soon. Trust me, I know how heavy it is."

I could see he knew how hard it was to lug around this hunk of death. He had thick muscles all around his body, yet he was somewhere around his late thirties. Maybe early fourties, but I wouldn't ask him that. It seems disrespectful to ask a man his age in the war, maybe it wasn't, but I try not to disrespect anyone with authority.

Gerard looked at me, his light green eyes gave me the feeling that he was reading my mind. "Hey Captain, how old are you?"

I widen my eyes, did he really read my mind? How the hell did he do that?

Tom looked at Gerard, "Thirty-nine."

He grinned, we're like twins. We always think alike. That can help on the battlefield.

Mate returned, and I stood up and grabbed the sixty. "There are a large number of snipers spread out, one to the east, two to the west, one north of the group, and three south of us. They seem to think we're here, but they are not sure."

"Can you take them out one by one?" Tom asked.

"No, they all have clear shots on each other. If I killed one, they'd know we're here."

"Perfect..." Tom growled. He was frustrated, if we didn't get to the LZ in three hours, we'd be stuck here.

"If we did this with force, one would alert others, and we would be screwed." Aaron acknowledged.

"Right." Tom agreed, "Maybe we can call the Gunship."

"Now?" I asked.

"Yup, now." Tom said with a large grin.

We called the Gunship. Turns out the entire Hotel was surrounded with heavily armed terrorists. They shot down the Snipes, but they had to use a thicker shot for the large amount of hostiles that had us surrounded.

The guy controlling the main gun on the Gunship was new to it, but they let'em use it. I just hope he used it well.

I hoped.