Operation Military Run (In Progress)

(12) Good Luck

The sun was just peeking above the distant mountain ridge that lied ahead of us. Zipp was lapping his water as fast as he could, making himself cough in the process of sipping down his close to frigid drink. His pink ribbon releasing in and out of his mouth, making small grunting noises as he did.

Still attempting to call comm's, Sam was becoming frustrated. His eyebrow became furrowed as he continually hit different buttons that were on the radio and by the time Zipp had finished his small bowl of water, Sam's eyes lit up as he finally got a response. Picking up Zipp's bowl, I placed it back into my pack and stood up, slinging it back onto my back. My feet were killing me, and I knew this was just the beginning of this trek that we were making, so I knew I better suck it up. My gaze shifted to my right as Lance Corporal Elton had his deep brown eyes shut and was half way asleep it seemed. His dark brown beard covered in sweat and what seemed to be drool. Lance Corporal Beckham was right by his side, trying to keep him awake, he kept slapping him to which Elton would push his hand off of him. I couldn't understand why he was tired though, we had just spend four straight hours climbing up an entire mountain and this was no where near the end of our goal. I understood that he had never climbed a mountain in his entire life, but that was no excuse. We were Marines, and this was a sorry excuse for one, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. I didn't want to get into a fight with someone only four hours into our potential week long journey. 

The one thing that I was also trying to understand was how his adrenaline wasn't keeping him awake. This was one of the most deadly journeys we could have been assigned to, and here Elton was, falling asleep. The only thing keeping the rest of us awake was the sheer fact that we could die any second and that sort of adrenaline is something else.

Beck had finally given up, standing up along with me, rolling his deep green eyes and walking toward me, speaking, "Dude, you gotta wake his ass up. I cannot do this for a whole week."

I remained silent for a moment, looking at Elton's slumped body. He looked peaceful in his slouched position, but if he was to stay in that position, he would surely wake up with a kink in his neck, and knowing the type of person he was, he would bitch about it the entire way up the rest of the mountain... but that was his fault. I looked back at Beck and nodded, "I'm not doing anything until we start moving. He's gonna pay."

Nodding, Lance Corporal Wild moved away from me and walked back next to Elton.

Looking towards Sam, he had put his radio back into his pack and was standing once more, looking at the four of us, giving us the go ahead, to which Beckham kicked Elton, to which Elton grab him by the leg in sheer terror, only to realize that it was Beck. 

But the one person who wasn't paying attention to this call was Kent. He stood ten feet away from us, his eyes peeled on the distant forestry. He had not moved since we had arrived in this spot, and his keen eye was scanning back and forth.

Sam motioned for me to go and break him from his trance, to which I took a few steps toward him, placing my hand firmly on his shoulder. He jumped slightly and looked down at me.

"It's time to head out." 

He didn't say a word, he just nodded to me and started walking toward the front of us. Sneaking my way past him, I looked to Zipp who was becoming antsy, his tongue sticking out as he looked up to me, waiting for his command.

"Voruit (Go out)," I said, his tail began to wag as he arose to his paws and started out in front of us, tugging on his tactical leash. 

Being the only smart one out of all of us, once again, Sam had the GPS, making sure that we were on the right track to waypoint 4. Which was going to be near the top of the mountain that opened up into a vast open field, looking down into the valley that we would have to cross in order to get to the village that Mohammad Uday was at. But that waypoint was miles away taking the recommended path, and Sam was trying every single way to avoid making it such a long trek.