Mortality Check
Sergeant Fletcher finds himself caught in an attack on their building while deployed
Mortality CheckBy AssilsastaIt was the heat of July in Baghdad Iraq, it was a nice cool hundred and twenty degrees in the shaded. Sergeant Brant Fletcher sat in his space in the empty twelve man room. He had just come in off patrol with the rest of the small team of five. They were out running Guard mission for Lieutenant Colonel Sulter. Now he was kicked back in the field chair , his Body armor slung over the makeshift cross stand, his boots kicked off to the side. His AR-15 still in his lap, the habit of holding it close had become a mainstay of most of the unit.His head rolled back as the private purchased window Air conditioning unit kicked on at the press of the remote. His DCU jacket hung open as the cold air flowed over him, his thin summer fur wavered in the breeze as the he basked in the frigid blast.The young black and white mink had just celebrated his twenty-fifth birthday with a few of the guys just the day before. They imbibed as much near-beer as the could stomach. The lack of real alcohol not really a mood killer after four months in the tour of duty. He was surprised at how much the team had grown to be more of a band of brothers in the combat zone then they had ever been back in garrison. Before they had left the country they were at eachothers throats over simple things like girls or who got what detail. All that was behind them now, They needed to be able to depend on each other for their every lives, and look out for one another.He was shocked out of his day dream by the loud boom the shook the building. He heard the glass shatter with the impact as dust rolled into the room from the hall. Ringing filled his ears as the impending explosion rocked reality around him. His body went into automatic as his combat training took over. instantly his ACH helmet and body armor was on his body. As she moved her stepped into his boots. uncertain of how he did all this he never felt his rifle leave his paew. TIme seemed to stand still as he moved into the dusty hall. His eyes scanned the passage as he moved from room to room, his firearm at the ready, finger on the guard. As he moved in to seach room he counted the bodies, one... two... three... seven... ten... movement, there was movement in the far end of the room. Finally the ringing faded only to be replaced by screams. He rushed the movement, muzzled pointed at teh figure. the young bobcat lay on the ground, he could see where the wall had collapsed on his leg. the ot
must have shielded him from the blast. he snapped his fingers to get the felines attention, "Hey, Private Turner, Look at me." The bobcat looked over at the sargent, relief flooded in as he could at least till hear and was not in total shock yet. " Hold still. I'm Going to take care of the a little cut you got. But I need you to do something for me. You have to cover the opening in the wall. You have your weapon?""No, Sargeant, it's by my bunk." the young boy said as he twisted his body to move."Stop right there, we don't have time for that. Take mine, and cover the gap," shoved the rifle into the bobcat's paws, more concerned about getting him looking the other direction as he tended the young soldiers wounds. there was no enemy, and he know it. They were safe on the FOB, it must have been a mortar or rocket attack. The insurgents were getting better. "Okey, keep talking to me, tell me everything you see. I am not looking and need to know." He wanted to keep the boy talking He continued to question him at the started to move the rubble away for the leg. It was worse than her thought. He reached sdown and pulled the laces out of the bobcats boot, the damage would almost certainly take the boy's led, but he needed to save his life first. "Come on Turner, give me a sit rep, waht do we have?'"It's all clear Sargeant," the young boy said, He was only nineteen, barely out of highschool. Fletcher thought about the stories about back home that the boy would tell as the did their patrols. There was a young meerkat girl back home waiting for him. they were going to get married. "Toney," he dropped the formalities, they were pointless now, the moy's live could be at stake here, " Tell me about that girl of yours." He didn't pay attention to what the boy was saying, just the fact that he was still talking. he wrapped the laces tongue Toney Turner's upper thigh and cinched it tight, He pulled a ben from his pocket as sloped it into the space between the laces and the boy's leg and began to twist. "So, you took her to prom right?" He asked the bobcat as he cranked the string tighter around the leg. The young soldier screamed as the oled mink twisted the strings tighter. Fletcher ignored the boy's pain as he continued to crank it now.Finally the flow of blood stopped, or at
least subsided form the perting. Fletcher ran his paw over his now sweating brow and he said, "Okay, now what I am about to do is going to hurt." He looked at the boy, his training, or fear of reality, kept his gaze locked oon the gap in the wall, "Are you still with me Toney?""Yes, Sarget," the young bobcat grunted as the clenched his teeth in pain, "How bad it is?""It's only a little blood, and I got it stopped. Now I'm going to put some stop cloth in it, and that is going to burn," Fletcher put his paw on the boy's shoulder as she spoke. "Do it," the boy grunted again. Fletcher saw the tears in his eyes as he readied himself for the shock of the clotting agent. The mink pulled the small package out of his side pocket, this was not the first time the cloth had seen the light of day, and he hoped it still had enough for this job. He gritted his teeth as the started to push the ribbon of cloth into the open wounds in the boy's leg. The screamed we earchatering as the felt the presence of others move into the room. A Paw hit his shoulder. He spun out of instinct as he drew his k-bar from its sheath. He relaxed as he saw the field medic standing over him. "You've done a good job sargent, but I'll take it from here. go check on your other men," the deer said as she kent by the boy in his place. "All the other went to the shoppette," He said as the move out of her way, "Any word on what it was yet?" As he spoke another set of paws pulled him out of the room and back into the hall. Someone led him down the hall and out of the building into a large group ath waited outside. The sight of the building brough reality into focus as another wall fell. He was suddenly thankful that most of the unit had been out on patro, only his men and the personell people still in the building.He looked at his blood covered paws as he thought about how close he was to the room that was hit. he could have been the one sitting on the floor bleeding out... It should have been him on the floor, not the young boy who had so much to look forward to. He was suddenly shoved down into the back of a medic van as they started to talk to him, he suddenly realized that they were not making a sound even though their lips were moving.The look in their eyes was filled with shock and horror. His paw began
to move toward his head uncontrollably until he felt the sharp, hot shard of metal...Brent jerked awake screaming until he felt the paw of his mate touch his arm. He looked over at her, the pure white mink looked back, the concern in her eyes tore him to pieces. He was a broken man, but her serviced. His fingers traced along the scar where his fur no longer grew, a painful reminder of that day. Ten years had passed, and so much had changed. So much had come into focus, life was too short to waste. He laid back down with his wife as the two young mink girls looked into the room, awoken from their dreams by their father's screams. He waved his paw to motion them in. The cubs ran to their parents as he pulled his family together in his arms. The little ones giggled as they were squeeze in his living embrace. This moment made all the horror and pain worth the lose.