Chapter 3~
Escape

As they got to the front and the door opened Joe began to cough loudly. Eli made a move he grabbed the guard closest to him and pinned him against the wall and grabbed his shoulders and the weapon and shot him, the rest of the crew broke out in fighting the enemy forces off, shots were fired, and Joe was helping an injured one of his fight off two guards, and the main master, he shot them all in a quick motion, helping KC the one with the broken leg up and out to the light, telling him to watch and guard and call for help if he needed it. Joe fought off 3 more guards, and the rest of his men got the others, dead enemies lied around them, Eli came up to his chief and stated proudly.

"We did it!"

"I know!"

"We are finial free."

"I- sir watch out!" Eli shouted mid sentence before Joe knew what was happening he was pushed to the ground, and blacked out momentarily.

Sitting back up his vision was blurred but his gaze returned to see a figure lying on the floor coughing and gasping Joe hurried to them, because he could tell already it was one of his men, by the troop number on his arm, Eli…

"Damn it son, what did you do! I'm the old guy… what the hell did you do! You took the damn bullet for me! I'm the one who's supposed to protect you! Eli please stay with me!" He put pressure onto his wound that was bleeding and not having any intention of stopping soon.

"Sir…You need to…go…leave me…they will get you and…everyone else…save them…" Eli stated roughly.

"No! Don't talk like that son! You're going to live you have to you have a wife and kids! You have to stay with me!"

"Go save them…do your job…" Eli breathed out falling lip, his chest didn't rise again. Joe fought back the urge to cry. Clint another one of his loyal men put a hand on his shoulder

"We need to go sir…"

"I can't just leave him here!"

"You have to we need to go… he wouldn't want all of us to die because of him… we have to go quickly…come on." Clint coaxed him. Joe found his land legs and stood up straight and tall he said a prayer for Eli, and then ran to Clint's side.

"Let's move!" Joe said loudly.

"I'm coming Adam…I'll be home soon." He whispered as he ran through the camp and out of enemy clutches, back to their camp that was a little less than 20 miles away. Or at least he hoped that's where it still stood.

They took a twisted route, just in case one or two had managed to not get killed in the ambush attack, he had the remaining 24 men by his side as he crossed over to their camp… It was still there after six months. General Jack Walsh looked dumbfounded as he saw Joe and a fourth of his crew stumble into the camp… it had been a year… and here they were alive? How? Well that didn't matter, what mattered was getting these men home after what traumatic experience they had.

"Sergeant Lambert?"

"Yes sir commander?"

"Where the hell have you guys been?"

"Iroquoian forces about 20 miles from here, don't worry they are all dead… they held us hostage…"

"How did you manage to survive?"

"Not all of us did… only 25 of us returned…"Joe looked down sadly as he said this."

"Well it's time you all get home; you should have been home 6 months ago."

"Really?"

"Do you honestly think we are going to make you stay here longer after the experience you just had? Come on and clean up, I'll get these guys to a safe base, and lifted off home, you need to explain everything that happened."

Joe nodded, "May I go talk to my crew first?"

"By all means yes…"

He returned to them and stood in front of them all. They looked a bit scared.

"I know this has been a traumatic experience for many of you, and I'm glad to be telling you that you are going home, but before I do that I need to thank every one of you individually without you guys I wouldn't be a SSGNT, I want to thank you guys for being loyal to me and showing bravery and honor throughout this last year. I want to thank you for always listening to me and showing me respect, and obeying my commands. I want to thank you guys for accepting my orientation, that's actually what I was most afraid of when I became a SGNT I thought that you wouldn't respect me because of my orientation but you guys proved me wrong. I want to tell you how proud I am to be the commander of you all are so brave and loyal, you all deserve to go home and see your families… I hope to never see you again on this battle field you've been through enough already!" They all gave slight chuckles and saluted him; he saluted them all back and let them get on their helicopters. Heading to his own Clint came over and asked him to keep in touch even after this. Joe promised and said he would be glad to since they lived around the same part of L.A.

Joe boarded his helicopter and headed off to the army safe base. Only a little while longer before he would get to see Adam. Wow… was this going to get interesting…considering the fact that Adam had a boy friend, and didn't even know Joe was alive…