The Guard To My Sanctuary

Chapter 18

Marco

It was our two month anniversary and Elm had decided to come to my house for dinner and a movie. It wasn't his first time at my apartment; he had been here three times before when his dad had to stay overnight at work. He felt it was safer for him to be alone in my apartment then the house where the reporters might pop up again at any time. I decided to take a day of leave for the vacation so we could spend the day together.

"Honey do you mind peppers in your omelet," I asked making breakfast for dinner since it was the food I was best at making according to Elm.

"Yeah that's fine," he responded in his soft voice that was hard to hear with the oil popping. I started calling him honey after we watched the I Love Lucy movie. He walked into the room and over to me in his pajamas and got on his tippy toes to kiss my cheek. I smiled and flipped the omelet placing it onto a plate and handing it to him then grabbed mine so we could sit on the couch to play Madden while Elm ate his food and played a game on his phone. I wanted to take him out for the anniversary but all he wanted was an omelet and to spend the day with me in the house. With him being a homebody he preferred quiet nights indoors watching television or movies and eating good food. I didn't care what we were doing as long as we were side by side. My game was interrupted by the sound of my home phone ringing and a message popping up on the screen. I saw that it was my Commander so I rushed to pick it up and paused the game.

"Sir," I answered in my serious military voice.

"Sorry to bother you on your day of leave but we need you to come in to fill some paperwork out in order for your students to graduate on time. Just come down as soon as possible so the clerk can send the form in," he said.

"I'll be right down," I said getting g up and hanging up the phone.

"Honey I'm going in really quickly to fill a few forms out and I'll be right back you think you'll be okay here alone," I asked walking to my room which was really basic nothing to brag about but it was better than living in the dorms like I used to have to do.

I quickly threw on my uniform and made my way out the door making sure to kiss him goodbye. I ran to my car and made my way all the way to the base which was only fifteen minutes away and made my way into my Commanders office to start signing the forms needed. It took me about thirty-five minutes. I knew he'd probably be asleep since it was eleven at night and he was not a night person. I cut my car off and walked towards the building taking each step one at a time in order for me to not make noise that would disturb my neighbors in the building. I made it to my door and pulled out the key using it to unlock the door and the deadbolt and walked inside. The house was cleaned and I even saw vacuum patterns on the carpet it also smelled like lavender and slightly of bleach. Slowly I took my jacket and hat off sitting it on the dining table and walked into the living room where the TV was still on. I almost walked past it till I saw a scene from some movie I had never seen before.

The movie started some young white guy and seemed to be filmed in the nineties based on the poor camera quality and the sound is a little grainy. He seemed to be in some sandy dusty war zone in an unnamed part of Africa. For some reason, I sat down and focused on a screen that seemed too close to a reality I had lived through. In the movie the main character who was walking in a bombed house where light sporadically filled and evacuated the room multiple times in just a few seconds. He waved his rifle in every direction as the sounds of gunfire played in the background as a soundtrack to the actor's situation. Then there it was, out of nowhere a child popped up from behind him and the soldier looked at the child then fellow soldiers holding their weapons ready to fire. The man tried to reason with the child in Arabic but the child wouldn't respond. Then the child made one false twitch with his finger and the soldier lets off a round of bullets killing the child and falling to his knees in sorrow soon afterward. It was like looking at my own story told on film. I was in a building split up from the squad leader with just two of my companions. I was using all of my tactical field training just to survive and hopefully save some civilian lives along the way. We searched the home for insurgents but found nothing until six children popped up with guns drawn. I tried to reason with them but they wouldn't respond I later found out that they had plugged in their ears to keep them from communicating with any soldiers. What looked like the leader of the child group moved his finger towards the trigger and I made the decision to fire my weapon in order to protect my group.