Letters To My Soldier.

...War is...

I felt pumped with adrenaline.  The heat in the tank was incredibility sweltering so that my undergarments stuck to my body uncomfortably.

      We were cramped. Then again, we were always cramped. Our legs were in positions that would make snakes envious.

    The tank jolted us from side to side as we drove over rough ground. Shoulders bumping, legs bent, bodies sweating. And stinking. It was a really uncomfortable vehicle with very uncomfortable driving and very uncomfortable seating positions.

          The only thing we all were grateful for...

... Our songs.

The war chants we sang to keep us hyped up served its purpose very well. The baritone voices , the flow of the song, it was better than any of the songs we heard on TV nowadays.
    And from experience, I found that Israeli soldiers had better songs. It didn't change the fact though, that war songs were, simply put, special.

       I didn't sing with them, but I listened to each of their voices. Jerry, Kayne, Sola, Jeff, Marley, Dave, Tony, Chandler, etc. I could easily pick out Jerry's voice. A deep yet soft baritone voice.

      Jerry, after the rescue of the townsmen, had become closer to me. He'd managed to wiggle his way under my wings, and I was beginning to become...protective of him. I was protective of the others— we all were— but Jerry, being the youngest in our platoon waa at times picked on, with good intent that is.

      I'd set myself up for another 'Matt' possibility. I was going to make sure Jerry got out safe.

       The vehicle continued to drive on into the night.

Time to rescue those hostages.

                             ~|~

       It was a small hospital. Nothing too big from what I could see. I tucked away my high visibility binoculars and motioned for the guys to take position.

     How many opposition members held these people hostages? We had backup but still we needed to do this in one go.

       When I was sure that everyone was in position, I motioned for the seven remaining to follow up behind me.

    The hostages were all on the ground floor. With three gunmen holding them captive. There could be more of them on the upper floor and it was only luck, that the hospital had just three floors: ground floor, first floor and second floor.

         I motioned for four of my men to position themselves at the main entrance to the hospital but remain out of sight and range of the three gunmen. The plan was to distract the three gunmen holding the hostages and free them.

       The other four men, me included, went over to the top of the hospital. I went first.

     The ladder at the back of the hospital shed, we'd taken and set it up. I climbed up the ladder with the other three behind me. I did a quick sweep of the roof; no target.
     There was an opening in the roof though, which led inside the second floor of the hospital.

       I creeped towards the opening in the roof, rabbit(Jerry), snake(Jeff) and boar( Chandler)*¹ following close behind me.

    I poked my head through the opening and did a quick look around the surroundings. Empty. It was a sort of hall way with four doors; two on the left further down and two on the right a bit close to were I was going to land.

      Those were rooms that we'd probably have to clear out. And I was right.

     The moment I set foot on the ground, the door to two of the rooms opened and out came two gunmen each. Two from the doors on the left and two from the doors on the right.

      I quickly shot the one on the right in front of me and rolled away to the corner wall, effectively blocking me from the coming three.
  Jerry remained up on the opening watching as the dead man's partner advanced towards me.

    He turned the corner and saw me but went down dead. Four bullets; two to the heart, one to the head and one to the carotid artery.

   Two down, two to go.

     The other two turned to the opening, trained their guns on Jerry and shot.

I watched as his body flopped on the ground in front of them. I smiled.

Fools.

   In the two seconds it took them to watch the body fall, Jerry*² popped his head and fired a total of twelve bullets just as I shot my own gun. The two gunmen fell down dead, blood spraying around and splattering the walls.

    

   The dummy served its purpose.

                               ~|~

   The first floor was easily cleared. Ground floor had been evacuated with only one civilian casualty. The three gunmen, dead. Soldier casualty, nil.
     Simply put, the operation was successful.

~•••~•••~

  Amongst the rescued civilians were four female nurses, three male doctors, three pregnant women, a newly born baby— his mother was the civilian casualty, and he'd been born almost immediately; C–section.
    Thankfully, the child was due and there was help already.
~•••~•••~

      I didn't realize I had been shot until one of the nurses pointed it out. Nurse Melanie.

     Jerry was safe and unhurt as were the other soldiers. Knowing that, I fell into a deep sleep. A sleep filled of letter dreams.                          

A/N

*¹   I read somewhere that soldiers didn't use their names on missions. They referred to themselves with other names. I'm sorry I didn't research and I was lazy. Please forgive my tardiness.

*²   Gotcha! They used a dummy.
Sorry I didn't mention this chapter was a bit graphic: I'm just sixteen, duh!😇

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