Walking in Warfare
Part I
Stranded off base again…Cowboy managed to destroy yet another HUMM-V. That man could drive anything with wheels, and most things without, but he did have a tendency to be less that kind to the equipment. He’s actually banned from the motor pool and convoys, yet he still manages to get a hold of a set of keys now and then. “It’s not my fault that the damn thing can’t take a puny little 20ft drop!” belted Cowboy as we started trudging through the sand away from the slowly burning hunk of metal that had once been a functioning vehicle. We’d heard similar excuses before, but somehow they still made me chuckle under my breath. Briggs was mumbling something about being stuck with us and our squad leader, Max, just shook his head. I, on the other hand, was used to incidents like this. I went through boot camp with Cowboy. We might as well of been brothers. I was the normal one and he was the one who lived in the attic and usually had a firecracker duck taped to something.
Max took the point, I was on his six and Briggs and Cowboy were bringing up the rear. In all honesty, they were yelling at each other more than watching for enemies. Not that they needed to. We were still two clicks away from Mandala. The sun was beaming down through the cloudless sky. There was nothing on the horizon but sand in every direction. I stared cross-eyed at the huge bead of sweat rolling down the bridge of my nose. To be blunt, it was fucking hot! Max started to ask me what I thought about some stupid order from our CO, but my mind was wandering as it often did when Max started talking. He meant well, I know, but I always felt like I was back in my freshman English class listening to Ms. Bridgeford ramble about King Leer whenever he opened his mouth. He just had that monotone voice you hear on every documentary ever shown on the History Channel. Max was by far the smartest man I ever met, but like most geniuses was just a bit odd. I was walking into the barracks the other day and he was sitting in his PTs watching Spongebob DVDs. This wouldn't’t be that strange if he hadn't’t made my head spin the night before explaining the quantum physics of black holes.