Charlie One

Tango down. The words echoed in my headset. I nodded solemnly and pulled back the hammer on my Dragunov with a well-oiled click. I slid my mask down to my nose, reached in my mouth and placed my gum on the side of the stock, and fully concealed the rest of my face. I tucked the base into my jacket and tapped the armor on my chest, waiting. I stared straight ahead at the desert.
The pitch black was our only cover out here in the wasteland, our only protection from the hundreds of towel heads around. Numerous hills and gulfs stretched on and on until the night consumed its bounds and engulfed the few trees alive. Shrubbery and cacti littered the sands, swaying in the winds and rustling like paper. The sky held no stars or moon tonight and left everything to chance and our NVG. Luckily my scope had night vision as well without the depth perception loss. I heaved the rifle to my shoulder and crouched.
This is taking much too long. I whirled around as I heard footsteps approaching. A man ran toward me, arms waving wildly. The night was dark and his features hidden, but I knew he was another soldier of mine. I stood as he neared, no more than six or seven yards away, when his head spilled and he collapsed into the night.
I cursed and dropped to the ground as gunfire roared at me. The sands kicked up all around me in plumes of gagging dust. I slid down a small hill face and laid my rifle across the peak. I remained motionless as I peered through my scope. I saw nothing but a dozen flashes of fire and scurrying a hundred yards away. I ducked again and nearly yelled as a bullet veered past me with a zing.
“Bravo, Bravo this is Charlie One, taking heavy fire,” I stopped as the firing continued, “Asking for reinforcements and location!” My headset remained silent and unwilling as no reply came for nearly ten minutes. I repeated the request twice more before deciding I was disbanded.
“Fubar.” I clicked my safety and took aim through my scope at one of the lights. I studied it until I was sure the man was holding it against his shoulder standing, and fired. The recoil shook me as the fifty caliber slug deafened all other gunfire. The light vanished and all was silent. I took aim at the last known location of another light and sat in wait. Several moments passed when I saw a flicker of movement to the right. I fired and heard a scream as it tore into the man.
I dropped behind cover as the bullets once again took flight and waited for reloading to occur. I checked my rifle for any hits and eyed the scope again, glassing the field. I reached into my belt and rolled over on my back, pulling out a bright green flare and red smoke grenade. I pulled the pin first and tossed it toward the enemy. I heard the hiss as it began to dispel the crimson smoke into the night. I waited for it to fill before lighting the flare and throwing it, eyes closed to preserve night vision, into the smoke.
The green glow illuminated the red swirling mass like a lantern and would work as my last hope for assistance.
“Bravo, Bravo this is Charlie One! Requesting air strike or chopper assistance on red smoke! Repeat: air assault on red smoke!” I hollered into the microphone of my headset before returning fire on the now visible opponents.
There were nine of them. Flowing clothes, loose and billowy blew in the wind as they fired their AK’s at me, snarling in the light. Their aim was off as the lights blinded them and were easily picked off one by one. The green and red illuminated blood flew and spattered as the sniper rounds eviscerated them. Heads split and arms were ripped, torsos opened and legs were shattered as my aim took its toll on their forces. The eerie sight grew worse as the bodies fell and crumpled among the smoke.
I lay back as more arrived, presumably from the nearby town to the east, and held my breath. My ammo was low and the night growing thin. It wouldn’t be long before there was enough light to see me taking aim. I tapped my armor and prolonged my next emergence to battle. Just then a long gangly hand gripped my arm and tore me away from my rifle, the other tightening on my throat. Instantly panic shot through me. I struggled against him and tore and kicked, waving madly and turning over in the sand as he fought me for control. I gripped his hands in an attempt to pull him off and swung at his face, several blows catching his exposed eyes and nose.
He released only a little and I took notice, breath filling my lungs with a gasp and vigor into my limbs. I pulled him off and head-butted the bridge of his nose with my forehead, a watery crack emanated from him. The man cried out in pain as blood ran down his neck and mouth and stood, stumbling about blindly as his eyes watered uncontrollably. Only a second later the man’s chest convulsed and a small hole appeared. The man fumbled to his knees and sprawled out in the sand beside me, eyes wide with fear and shock. He stared at me gravely as his lifeblood poured out from a friendly fire wound, recognition in his eyes.
I stared back as his eyes slowly lost focus and his eyelids drooped. I sat still beside him, listening. I heard numerous voices now and in a sickening moment of fear, sprinted away across my small embankment and several yards away behind a bush. I slid into the sand and laid flat on my stomach as the men peaked the hill and took aim about my encampment. They found the body and rolled it over; kicking it upon realizing it was one of their own. One of the men unloaded the remains if his magazine into it with a horrific pounding. I gulped and clenched my jaw.
How long can I hide here before they find me? This is just a useless waste of time in slowing the inevitable. I swallowed my fear and accepting death, stood slowly, hesitantly. I ignored the loud buzzing drone in my head and walked a step forward. The men looked up from the body and faces contorted, ran back to from where they had come from, disappearing into the smoke and flare now beginning to flicker and burn out. They ran and ran from me without cause I thought as I walked to my gun and dropped to one knee.
Then, in a great roar and flash, the drone in my head peaked and the desert in front of me erupted in an immense fireball, engulfing the sky in flames. I staggered back and watched in awe as the explosions continued, another, then another, and yet another ensued. I watched, backing away slowly, and waited for the silence to follow next.
Nearly fifteen minutes later, a voice crackled in my headset.
“Charlie One, this is Delta Six, replying to Bravo’s request through HQ. ETA is four minutes and closing, what is your location for evac?”
I laughed to myself and sat on the edge of the helicopter’s doorway watching the smoke spiral into the night sky around the dancing flames. The desert seemed more alive surrounded by death than it ever had before, this graveyard proof that life had ever once been here. We lifted off and rose slowly then gained speed, leaving the carnage and destruction behind for time to heal its wounds. I leaned back and picked my gum off the stock of my rifle and popped into my mouth.