Operation Military Run (In Progress)

(10) Dreams Become Too Real

Guns rang through the night sky as the endless darkness was lit by the flares of gun shots and explosions off in the distance.

My heart pounded as I pushed forward with my squad, making sure that I was armed and ready for what was to come next. My body was sore and my feet were tired, but this was not the time for me to be giving up. We all were army crawling on our stomachs against the cold sand.

Zipp was pulling his leash harder than I've ever felt him pull me before. His paws were scraping at the ground, trying to lead us in a different direction than what we were wanting to go. We made the decision to not give into him and continued on our path that we were on. He showed his teeth and barked at us as I yelled "Nee" (Don't do that) at him.

In their native language, the Taliban were yelling something at us, which I could only assume it was "They're over there", or "Watch out for them". They were relentless and were not going to let us go without a fight.

"Sergeant Kendall!" PFC Mondragon yelled at me.

"What?" I yelled, my eyes clenched shut as my arms growing weak from crawling.

"Watch-"

I woke up in a cold sweat. My whole body was drenched and toward the window near my bed, the sun was starting to gleam through. Everly was still asleep in the bed across from mine. By looking out the window, I could tell that it was nearing seven o'clock, and I had to be awake for my morning run.

Rising from my bed, I tried to remain as silent as I could, getting dressed in some old PT shorts of mine and a old grey PT t-shirt. I through on a pair of tennis shoes as well as I laced them and walked outside, making sure the door didn't slam behind me.

Stepping away from the door, I began to stretch my legs and my arms, bending down and continuing to make an effort to make my muscles loose. My eyes were still feeling groggy from waking up not too long ago.

As soon as I felt sharp and ready, I headed out around the base. The hot wind was already scorching my skin, the heat at a blistering 70 degrees for the morning. It was definitely going to be a hot one.

My legs were pounding into the dirt. Running my anger off was the only thing that kept me calm here in my home away from home, and after everything that just happened with Tyler, my mind had a tendency to wander more than it should have. I began to question every part of myself and wondering what I did wrong in order for Tyler to have acted the way he did while I was gone, but I knew it wasn't anything that was in my control, and that was the hardest thing for me to accept. Acceptance became more in touch with me the faster I ran. I felt all of my worries fall off of my shoulders as the sweat began to bead down my face. My brain stopped to wander and focused on the goal of that very moment; getting to the front of the base before the sun rose all the way.

The beautiful bright star was beginning to fully peak over the hills that were in front of our base, and I could not let the sun rise before I got back.

My feet slammed into the ground faster and faster. Nothing could stand in my way at that very moment and being able to view the turns I made and keeping the sun in view was a challenge in of itself, and right as I made it to the front of the gate, the sun had gotten to the top of the hill.

I was panting hard, coughing. I didn't realize how fast I had ran and how much I had ran in such a short amount of time. I walked back to my room and opened the door, this time slamming it open as Everly arose quickly and looked at me.