Ian's journal entry. July 4th.
They attacked us. They waited for this specific day to attack. Quite dramatic, uh? I've never been much of an enthusiast of any kind of celebration, and here, heat is making it harder for me to remember how I used to celebrate this date with my family...perhaps Lip would take out cold beers, Fiona would take out the folding chairs and we'd go to the backyard to see the pyrotechnics of the neighbours...the memory is too fuzzy.
The attack didn't occur in the main camp, it's too well defended for them to even get close to it, but small posts were severely attacked. Alarms sounded at our headquarters and we got out of bed in time for the "fireworks". One of our nearest posts had been blown up; I could see the flames rising at a reasonable distance. How many guys could've been there, dozens perhaps? Dozens of guys for whom there will be no more Fourth of Julys…or anything else. Dark clouds of smoke rose and faded in the black night sky as we all stood watching. One of the boys asked if we had to go check on them but one of the sergeants stated it was too dangerous and that it was the exact reaction they were expecting from us, the trap they wanted us to fall in. "Besides, those boys must be already dead", he concluded. The sergeant quickly lost interest in the sight in front of us; most of the boys followed him. I stayed there, watching flames consume the place.
"You think they are all dead?" asked the boy next to me. I felt this sudden impulse to take him by the arms and shake him until his fucking neurons made synapsis. But I just nodded.
"If they didn't die from the explosion, carbon dioxide would do the trick".
"What a horrible way to die".
That was the last thing I heard before ending up completely alone on the roof of the base.
Ian's letter to Mickey, July 6th.
Dear Mickey:
Happy Fourth of July! Sorry I couldn't make it in time, we had a lot of things to do in the past few days and I couldn't send this until now and it'll arrive even later than my fucking schedule allowed me to. Anyway, how did everything go back there? You had fun, pyrotechnics, anything? We had fireworks of our own but apparently not everyone had as much fun as they should. Though there's nothing to worry about, if you were even wondering; I've been here for almost two weeks and I hadn't got to see any action which actually surprised me. Everyone talked about how weird things were back here, how hard they could get and yet I'm still in one piece, no serious operations yet.
I've been training of course, training never stops as well as cleaning but fortunately the discipline is a little bit more relaxed than back home. It's natural I guess, having so many things to watch your back for, the least thing you care about is somebody else…still, we're fine, the boys are excited and me? Well I'm just waiting for time to pass as quickly as possible so I can get back. Really, you can't imagine how much I miss Chicago…
Ian Gallagher