Love After War

I stood there and took a deep breath, letting my lungs fill with smoke. I slowly released it, appreciating the feel of poison settling in. "Target in position," the voice in my ear said. "Damn," I muttered, throwing the half smoked cigarette to the ground before pressing on my ear piece. "Roger that, alpha team going in." I looked at the two others on my squad. "Remember, they have to shoot first." I got nods in response before I headed in.  Immediately, shots started coming in. I took aim and killed effortlessly. I didn't waste time trying to disarm or incapacitate the enemy. I was not letting my men die over them. Soon enough we found our target. He was the head of this particular cell of terrorists. I saw him place the gun to his head. I immediately shot his arm, causing the gun to slide across the floor. "You aren't dying today," I told him. "Big bosses need you living." Chances were he knew English. All the top dogs did. Simply for the fact that they needed to know how horrible the Western culture was. I pulled off my cuffs and placed his hands behind his back, ignoring his pained screams. "Shouldn't have tried to take your life." I pressed on my ear piece. "Target secured." "Roger that. Chopper is in route," the voice replied. We stood guard and waited for the chopper to pick us up. “See anything?” I asked, keeping a tight grip on our prisoner. Last thing we needed was for him to get free.  “Not yet,” Ace told me. “Nothing over here,” Tony agreed. I nodded.  “How far out on that chopper?” I asked into my earpiece. I didn’t like sitting for too long. It always led someone to getting a little ballsy and made us far too relaxed. Point blank it led to bad s**t happening  “Five minutes,” the voice responded. I nodded just as the shooting started up again. “Ace, take Tony and our target to the roof,” I told him. “I’ll hold them off while we wait for the chopper.” Ace nodded and had Tony take the guy. Ace was the better shot.  I shoved a table down and crouched behind it. Some cover was better than no cover. It seemed like forever before I heard the deafening roar of the chopper. I kicked the table at them and made a run for it.  "You two alright?" I asked them once we were out of the fire. At least the worst of it was over.  Ace, my right hand, nodded. Tony, my newbie, seemed a little shaken up. "Tony, you'll get used to it. Want a smoke?" I held out my pack to him while I lit one up. He nodded and took it. I held it out to Ace as well, but he denied, like always. "Can't believe you smoke those things," Ace said shaking his head. "You're going to get cancer." "Then I'll consider myself lucky," I told him. Tony let out a chuckle. "Besides, I'm looking forward to heading home for a few months." "I hate those couple of months off," Ace complained. "Why?" Tony asked, frowning. "Cause Ace is a born workaholic,” I huffed in amusement, letting out a breath of smoke real slow. Not to mention Ace didn’t really have anywhere to go home to. He was an orphan and left out the moment he turned eighteen.  “Everyone needs time for a break, Ace,” Tony laughed. “Why don’t you go to Hawaii and just blow off steam?” I felt my head getting light and it felt like everything was under water. “Nate?” Ace asked, sounding like he was speaking behind a wall. I shoved the prisoner to Tony with all the force I had before everything went black. I heard the steady beep before opening my eyes. I winced as it was too damn bright. I shoved myself up and grimaced as I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder. “The f**k?” I breathed, confused. I pressed my hand against the spot. It was tender and felt like there was a sharp line of plastic. “You had a bullet in you,” Ace said, coming into the room. "Actually three bullets. You got lucky." I nodded and started pulling at the plastic tubes that were on me. Ace realized what was happening and slapped my hand before I could continue. "Stop that." "I hate this crap," I complained. "And you can't take it off," he said and pressed the nurse call button. "Nurses station," A woman asked as I started getting a slow creeping headache. "He's awake now," Ace told the nurse. "Alright, we'll be sending the doctor in shortly," she replied. "Thank you." And then she hung up.  "Where are my dog tags?" I asked, realizing they weren't around my neck. Ace grabbed them from the side table and handed them to me.  "They took them off since you had to go into surgery," he explained and then handed me a set of sweats. "I got these from your room since I know you hate hospitals." I took them and got out of bed feeling pain just above my ass and in the center of my back. It was like a white burning and a stabbing at the same time. "How long was I out?" I asked, ignoring it. "About four hours. Had Tony scared shitless when you slumped over like that," he said. "I bet," I snorted. "Kid is still fresh. But he'll toughen up. They always do." Just after I got the gown off and had my shirt in hand, the doc arrived. "Corporal Johnson," he said, grabbing the chart at the foot of my bed. "You are moving extremely well for three bullet wounds. One to your right shoulder, one just to the left of your spine, and one to your left kidney. You should be in unbearable pain." "I have a high pain tolerance," I told him with a shrug, which made me regret it a little. "When can I be discharged? I'm being sent home for a few months off." The doctor nodded. "We'll be keeping you in for observation for the night and then we'll see about releasing you in the morning. We want to make sure there were no surgery complications before sending you home." I looked to Ace. Maybe he would reason with the doctor? "I'll stay with him doc, and make sure he doesn't try to break out before you release him," Ace told him with a smile. The doctor nodded, content with that answer. "We'll have some food brought to you room then," the doctor said. "Can I at least go smoke?" I asked. He was quiet a minute. "I suppose," he said. I nodded and started undoing all the wires and tubes. The doctor and Ace both rushed over and grabbed my hands. "Tubes stay in, Nate," Ace said firmly. I groaned and sat on the bed. "Fine," I huffed. "But I am taking the wires off." They released my hands and let me remove the wires. "Let's go." I grabbed my cigarettes and lighter from the table and headed for the courtyard. Ace just shook his head and followed me.