Page 2 of Rough Trip

They continued to move forward, after all, there was no going back. Moving slowly and carefully, making sure that their foot movement could hardly be heard. They came to a higher wall where they could stand straighter. Just as they all started to stand up straighter, gunshots started to ring out across the empty buildings, echoing across the empty area that surrounded them.

They started out distant and soft but as the firing picked up, soon the crackling sounds of bullets hitting cement would be the only thing anyone could hear. The team started looking around, searching for the main source of fire.

"Laura, stay low!" Sage yelled as the ringing in his ears got louder. He couldn’t risk her getting shot.

The team had begun to fire shots in all directions, hoping that they were shooting at the source as they were still rather clueless as to where the shots were coming from.

"Fall back!" the sergeant yelled, "stay low. Get as low to the ground and as close to a wall as possible!"

Shit, Sage thought, this can't be happening. The team ducked down, again almost on their bellies as they tried to take cover.

It had been made out to be an easy mission. Go in, get to the group of insurgents, take care of them and then get out. Simple. Nothing was ever simple though.

The ringing in Sage’s ears had become deafening; he was certain he had lost his hearing as the firing started to sound muffled. He could see the mouths of his teammates moving around him but he could no longer hear what they were saying. The remains of the walls around them started crumbling to the ground, soon there would be no walls at all and they would be completely exposed. The dust and sand had started to kick back into their eyes as bullets continued to fly in their direction.

Sage looked around them; there was nowhere else to hide. They were going to die, and when he looked at his teammates’ faces he knew they knew it too. They kept firing and reloading their weapons in the hopes that they could at least injure the enemy.

He looked over at Laura and could see the look of panic written all over her face. He looked around him and forced himself to focus. He could see at least one shooter in the distance so he wasted no time and shot directly at them, taking them down with just a few hits.

One down, a couple of dozen to go, he thought. The team followed his lead and tried to focus on targets to shoot at instead of just all over the place in their panic. Slowly they began to fight back properly, but the insurgents had them surrounded. They had planned this attack so thoroughly that the chances of survivors were slim. The sergeant had already radioed in for reinforcements but that would take a while and they all knew it. They were stuck on their own and the only way out would be to fight back - this is what they had been trained for.

Sage continued to fire at any target he could see, he had to try. Constantly turning this way and that to get a better angle of their attackers.

“Jason! On your right!” he yelled. Jason took note and turned to his left, shooting the target. Soon they all worked together and yelled out targets for each other, forming a circle with their guns pointing out and their backs pressed against each other.

He looked in one direction and saw a grenade heading toward them.

“Everybody move!” he yelled. They all looked in the direction he was looking, seeing the grenade they all tried to move out of the way, running as far out of the area and yet there was nowhere for them to go.

Sage headed for Laura. If he were to die, he would die next to her.

He had gotten to her just as the grenade landed in the center of the group, causing them all to be pushed further back in every direction.

Sage was engulfed in darkness.

He could feel the wind blowing around him, he could feel it tugging at his hair as he came to. The more he became aware of his surroundings, he could hear people yelling and a high pitched whistling noise ringing in his ears.

As he regained full consciousness he could feel an enormous amount of pain flood through his body and became so overwhelmed that he couldn’t help but yell out in agony.

Someone close heard him scream and rushed over.

“You’re okay private!” a young male said as he leaned over him so his head popped into view. “You’re on your way to Charité, a hospital in Germany. They’re going to take care of you,” the person yelled. As Sage’s sense became clearer he realized his head was restrained and his body had been tied down so he couldn’t move. He also realized he was on a helicopter. That could only mean that help had come after the grenade knocked him out.

“Laura? Where is Laura?” he started to ask. He tried to break free from the restraints that held his body down.

“Private, please. You need to stay calm and you need to stay still!” the person yelled over the sound of the rotors.

“Where is Laura?” he cried. He looked around him and couldn’t see anyone else from his team. How many people could fit on a helicopter while on a gurney, he asked himself.

It wasn’t long till the helicopter landed and he was rushed into the E.R.

“Laura? Laura?” Sage continued to ask once he had gained his consciousness again.

“Private Anderson, my name is Dr. Müller. I worked on your head in surgery. You suffered a blow to your head, shards from the grenade that had blown up near you hit you on the right side of your head. You’ll have a scar there for the rest of your life, about 4 inches long but you will survive,” the doctor said.

He registered a pounding in his head, he reached his hand up and touched his face. He felt the bandage wrapped around the side of his face and proceeded to wince a bit as he applied pressure to the bandaged area. Stupid idea, he thought.

Sage then looked around him, taking in his surroundings. White walls and clean beds all with their curtains tied back. The smell of medicine in the air. Machines beeping and people coughing in the far distance.