SURVIVE Part 2

Note; There is some fowl language in this one. This won't be the last time either.

Part 2

Entry

5/12/2015, 1140 hours, Vardak Province, Afghanistan

            Krieger jumped awake. He suffered from PTSD, a disorder gained from the events that had claimed his friend Patches’ life. His primary symptom was a recurring nightmare in which he took the place of his fallen comrade, who had died from a mortar attack in the deserts of Iraq five years ago. After that tour had been completed, he had trouble reforming to the society he had left, and had returned to the line of duty only a year later.

He was sitting in a Blackhawk helicopter, its blades whooping through the air. It was flying to a large town in the mountains of Afghanistan’s “Vardak” province. It was a routine sweep, locate OpFor weapon caches, eliminate any opposition, etc. etc.

“Nightmare?” asked Reeder, the squads support gunner and Krieger’s best friend.

“Yeah,” Krieger hoarsely muttered. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, same one as usual.”

“Damn, that really fucked you up, didn’t it CO,” asked Padilla, the groups newest member. He was barely a kid, just out of high school. He had signed up for the Army and some crazy how managed to get into the rangers. He was a decent soldier though, just a bit more combat experience and he’d be a damn fine ranger.

“Since when did you curse,” inquired the massive figure that was Clinton, or as everyone else called him T-rex.

“Since I taught him,” snickered Thumper. “And yes, I know what a great influence I am.” Krieger wasn’t entirely sure of Thumper’s past, as far as he knew the guy was a convicted felon, but he liked to keep him around. His sense of humor helped to keep the squad’s spirits high, plus no one else was as clever with explosives as he.

Krieger grabbed his Scar and loaded a magazine into it, making sure to check that the safety was on. “Alright boys, this is a routine search and destroy. If you find something, let me know. We’ll split up into two teams to cover more ground. Reeder, Thumper, Mule, and me are Raptor-2-1. Hugo, you’ll lead everyone else, callsign Raptor-2-2. Any objections?”

No one spoke up as the chopper began its descent onto a small square in the center of the village. Krieger looked out the window to get a look at their situation, but his eyes rested on an empty village. “Where are all the people? They should be out working right now, where are they?” muttered Kareem. He was a local, attached to their squad as a translator. He liked things to be the same each time, so when something wasn’t right he got a little jumpy.

“I agree, something’s up. Okay men, new objective. Find any civvies, or what’s left of them, and report back to me. Roger?” Said Krieger.

“Affirmative,” said Hugo. “I’ll take raptor-2-2 and sweep the west of town, you can take east.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

As the helicopter was nearing its landing, the pilot said “We’ll be back to pick you up in 48 hours. Planned LZ is right here, secondary LZ is about two miles north, signal with flares.” Krieger nodded, and with that, the rangers took off.