ENLISTED

Author: Aaron Wright (Draketh Ares, Kiro Dragon, Stvnkidd)

            8 Years. That’s what they told me. Back then I had spring in my step, a shot to split hair, and an ego to boot. I wanted to be like my dad, I guess. Wasn’t like he’d be watching me, seeing as he was already dead. Back to the grave in Fort Scott National Cemetery, he was. Doesn’t matter so much anymore, does it?

            A man in standard issue night-op camouflage was lying in a thicket, surveying the landscape around him. It was a beautiful night; a deep churning see set off by a huge plain of long flowing grass in the chilling dusk breeze. It would be perfect, if not marred by an ugly structure set on the coast of the vast expanse of blue. That building was his destination.

            “Come in, Eagle. Report,” barked a speaker secured in his earlobe. It was Turner asking for the usual.

            “Not much activity, so far as I see, anyways,” responded the man, also known as Clerk Dührensterviß.

            “Alright. I want you to move in and locate the enemy intelligence. We have word that there may be insurgents protecting it. In and out, no confrontations: if you can’t get the goods then leave. We’ll pick you up on the helicopter. Over and out.”

            The ceiling of the base he had been approaching cracked open, like a hatchling clawing out of its domain. A massive object suddenly appeared through the opening. It was a missile. This was bigger than they thought.

            Clerk tried to contact Tucker, but to no avail. He wondered if enemy intelligence implied a possible nuclear-disaster-aversion.

            Probably. What was the world coming to?

            Clerk fished out his binoculars, and reviewed his plan of entry. “Down the slope, move along the cliff in the tall grasses, and I’ll be good,” he whispered under his breath. As he picked his way downhill, he noticed a change about the patrols, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. Then it hit him. “They’re armed,” he breathed.