Militia Read Free Page A

Arabic or even broken English. What did he mean this one is alive?
    Mike opened his eyes in time to see two young medics roll his throbbing body onto a green board. He tried to talk but instantly felt the immense pain in his chest before the words could come out and moaned instead.
    “Don’t try to talk Sergeant. We are gonna get you something for the pain just as soon as we get ya secured on the chopper, and you should be able to sleep the rest of the way home.”
    “Where,” Mike tried, “Where is…my…team”?
    Mike looked at the medic that was carrying the board by his head.
    The medic looked down at the ground for a moment and then back up to meet Mike’s eyes. “The front of the cave got hit and the rock crushed them Sergeant. You seem to have only gotten enough of the blast to toss ya a few feet and rattle ya around. I’m sorry but they were dead before we could get here.”
    With that Mike closed his eyes and began praying for sleep or death, whichever he might be granted but preferably the later. Moments after he felt the board being strapped down, Mike felt the pinch of a needle and the numbness that follows a shot of morphine. He was granted sleep.
    There was nothing peaceful about this sleep. Mike was used to the routine nightmares that had haunted him since his first deployment. IED’s exploding, RPG fire, and friends blown apart by mortar rounds were becoming almost normal, but this was the first time that the dead in his dreams were men that he was personally responsible for. The whole time he slept Mike saw their faces and heard every word they had said to each other before the cave had been hit. It was Mike’s job to bring them home and he had failed. Part of him knew that this was not his fault. Part of him knew that this was one aspect of the job that all military leaders had to face at some point; but that part was swallowed by his guilt for being alive while his men were headed towards flag draped metal boxes.
    Each of his soldiers had families back in the states that would never see their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers alive ever again. Mike knew that his own mother and father dreaded every second of his deployments, waiting for the call that would tell them that grandchildren were out of the question. Facing the families of his men would be the single hardest thing that he would have to do since joining the Army, but it had to be done and the families of his men deserved to know the last minutes of their loved one’s lives as told by the only person who was there with them.
    When Mike awoke he was still on the chopper but instead of being outside the cave or in the air, he could tell when he unstrapped himself that he was back on base. He could hear the sounds of the chopper quieting as the engine slowed to a stop. Looking around Mike saw the medics who had carried him earlier yet they didn’t make any effort to stop him from getting up. Mike imagined that they had checked him out a bit while he was out and knew he either didn’t have any serious spinal damage, or they just didn’t care.
    As soon as he stepped out of the chopper, Mike was met by a truck being driven by a brand new private from his unit. By the clean shaven, unstained, unmarked looks of the kid Mike assumed that he was a commander’s driver. Mike climbed into the passenger seat and looked at the clean young private.
    “So which one is it?” Mike asked.
    “Sergeant, Colonel Thomas wants to talk to you before you head back to your room. He didn’t tell me what for but that’s pretty normal.”
    “That’s ok soldier, I know what it’s about.”
    When the tan truck pulled up beside the command headquarters Mike jumped out and walked straight into the Colonels office without a knock. He knew that he was supposed to knock and then walk in and salute when told to but at this point Mike had no desire to take part in military formalities and ass kissing.
    “Well c’mon in here, Sergeant Hoffman. Can I get you