Page 1 of Rough Trip

It had been days since Sage and his team were deployed out into the field in Afghanistan. He felt like they had walked miles upon miles every day in a never-ending dry land. The sun had not helped as it constantly hung above them day in and day out like a predator waiting for its prey to die after it had struck. The heat had started drying out the water that had remained in their systems since their last sip, which had started to feel like months ago instead of just a few hours. Sage kept picturing himself back at home in the pool in his backyard, surrounded by clean and fresh water. The thought of it didn’t help him, though because he started to feel like his skin was tightening from the dehydration. He started to feel as though he was literally a fish out of water.

“This heat is killing me,” Jason said. Jason had been a private for a while now, and Sage would never understand why. He complained about everything which he found irritating, as did the rest of the team.

“It’s killing us all,” Ryan said. He had always been the forward one in the group, never batting an eyelid when it came to being honest. Everyone laughed at his statement, everyone except Jason, of course.

“You don’t have to be such a dick, Ryan,” Jason said as he glared at Ryan, who had his back to him.

“I’m not being a dick, I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking.”

“Now, now, children. There’s no need to fight,” Laura said. Everyone could hear she had a smile on her face as her voice had sounded playful.

“Exactly, Jason, no need to fight, child,” Ryan said.

“Oi, cut it out. The lot of you!” the sergeant yelled. “You’re all acting like children. Lord knows why you even bothered joining the army with the attitudes you lot have,” he said.

“Sorry, Sir,” Jason said with a sarcastic salute since the sergeant was in the lead facing away from everyone. Jason had always had a problem with the sergeant, no one ever knew why.

“Yeah, sorry, Sir,” Ryan said.

“Yeah, yeah. Now shut your mouths. We aren’t out here for fun!”

Sage could agree with him there. He would rather be back home. Again he pictured himself in his pool or better yet watching a game on TV while having a cold beer. That would also be great, Sage thought.

At the thought of a cold beer, Sage recognized just how dry his mouth had become. He was sure that all of their mouths had become so dry it felt like sandpaper rubbing against their gums every time they tried to bring saliva back; none of them were used to such dry climates. The heat wasn’t as much of a problem as the dryness was; the dryness was almost unbearable.

They had been surrounded by sand, dust and run-down buildings most of the time. Everything dried out and ready to just dissolve into nothingness. Sage was certain that soon, his body and everyone else on the team's bodies would dissolve into nothingness from the dehydration.

The wind was constantly bringing a whip of dust across their faces, making their faces look dirty and dry during their walks. It felt like their skin would just start cracking at any moment.

They hadn’t seen people for miles, and they had started to doubt that they would. There wasn’t much reported civilization left that far out; they had either been killed or told to leave Sage had wished that they hadn’t come this far out. He knew the job they had to do but it was so far away from anything that it started to look like those abandoned towns that he’d seen in movies just before zombies and monsters started attacking. He had always had an imaginative mind, and although he wasn’t exactly scared, he couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would come this far when it just felt dangerous.

They had to continue to look for a group of insurgents that had been reportedly shooting at teams while they were out patrolling the area, they had even shot at civilians. It had been their mission to shoot at any threats that may appear. They could not risk losing any more men than they already had.

“Take cover ladies. We can’t risk being seen,” the sergeant said to the team.

Why does he always call us ladies, Sage thought, it had always frustrated him. Maybe it was to show superiority or something, but it had just made the team dislike him. The sergeant had been belittling the crew from the beginning, although they had fought alongside him a few times, and he had hand-picked them to be his team. They had all been trained to meet his standards, and he had trained them hard, drilling the team every day at unexpected times. It had done them all good. Expect the unexpected.

Sage had constantly kept a close eye on Laura, it had been the hardest thing to accept when they had been called out for the mission.

He could remember the day he had asked her to stay behind, but she had told him she would not stay behind when her team would be out in the field. It had been her duty to fight with her team.

"Sage, please do not ask me to stay behind. This is what I signed up for when I joined the army. How would it look if you went and I stayed here? We’re both privates, and I have to stay with my team," she had said.

"How can you expect me to be okay with you there? You don't have to go. Please, just think about it."

"I know I don't have to go, but I need to fight with my brothers, I need to fight for my country."

"Laura, anything could happen while we’re out there."

"And anything could happen while you're out there and I'm here, waiting for you to come home. I couldn’t sit and wait for either good or bad news, Sage. I joined before I met you and I'm very lucky to have met you, but this is not something I can just walk away from. This is my duty."

Sage knew fighting alongside her would not be easy. He felt he had to make sure she was constantly safe although he knew she could look after herself. She was on his team, after all, and had been trained with him but fighting in a war with the love of your life would not be easy for anyone placed in the same shoes as Sage. He didn’t want to imagine a life without her in it. He hoped that this mission would go smoothly so they could be in and out.

"Keep close; we're coming to an open area. Keep alert and aware of your surroundings," the sergeant commanded.

As they started to move forward they all ducked under anything they could to keep low and covered. They started weaving in and out of empty buildings, looking for any signs of life and possible movement. There didn’t appear to be any. Most of the buildings that surrounded them had already been blown up or shot through, the walls were half gone with wide holes here and there, and they had to almost crawl on their bellies across the ground to stay covered. Besides their breathing and footsteps, there were no other sounds, the saying 'silence can be deafening' came to Sage’s mind.

It had started to feel too quiet, there should be at least a few people out here Sage thought.