Forever Always (closed)

[zydrate]

Name: Katherine (Katie) Archer
Age: 29
Occupation: Aide Worker/Nurse

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Graduation Night (12 years earlier)

“How could you do this Josh? You never even hinted at it...” Katie was doing her best to keep her voice steady, but there was no way she could look into his eyes as she spoke.

Joshua Michaels had been dreading telling Katie this since receiving the letter from the Army. He never told her because well…look at how she was acting. He knew she’s take it hard. “Katherine…” he started…but he couldn’t finish. Instead he took a deep breath and reached for Katie’s hand, which she promptly yanked away. Josh sighed, “Please Katie, don’t do this…we still have a month to spend together, plenty of—“

“NO! No Josh…” Unable to hold It in anymore, Katie started to cry openly, “You’re going away Joshua! And by not telling me makes me think that all we shared was nothing! What if you don’t come back? What if you forget me?” There were so many ‘what ifs’ that Katie couldn’t speak anymore, instead, she was overtaken by sobs and didn’t feel Josh’s arms wrap around her, holding her close to him.

“Katie… I’ve loved you for so long, there is no way I’m going to forget what we have. We can still have it Katie, please…”

She wrapped her arms around him and just buried her face in his chest, “Why didn’t you tell me you had signed up?”

The answer was simple “I was afraid.”

Katie could understand what he was saying but it didn’t make things easier. She had loved Josh with all her heart. She thought they would be attending college and then get married after and then… God, who was she kidding? These were things she had been assuming and not told Josh about…just like he hadn’t told her that he was going away in a month…

“Katie girl, don’t cry…please?”

Katie girl, he had always called her that as far back as she could remember. With a sniffle and a slight nod, Katie backed up, her watery eyes looking up into Josh’s, “Don’t forget about me Joshua Michaels…”

How could he forget someone so dear to his heart?

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Present day

The small convoy of military trucks made their way through the night, hopefully undetected and at peace. Civilian Nurse, Katherine Archer was in the back of one of the supply trucks, letting her mind wander aimlessly as the truck swayed, rocking the back. It had been a tough few weeks since coming to this side of the world.

A few weeks ago, Katie was working a nice paced life in Chicago as an ER nurse. What she saw in the ER was nothing compared to what she was seeing here. Gunshot wounds, stabbings, beatings…those were all mild compared to what she was seeing now…bombing victims, children sacrificed, starved… It all didn’t seem to end. She felt like she had grown up more here than she had when she was in college and nursing school… or even living alone with her two cats in her nice 2 bedroom apartment.

Now, her she was, her apartment had been taken over by her little sister while she was away…going through the desert in the cover of night…

She didn’t know why she had thought of Joshua…it had been years since they last spoke and eventually, lost touch. She had remembered their teenage years of being in love, her teenage dreams of them being together forever…if she could go back in time and talk to her young self, she would’ve knocked some sense into herself, telling herself that there was no such thing as happily ever after…

Katie smiled to herself. The first real smile she had in a long time.

Suddenly, the truck stopped, as did the rest of the convoy…why were they stopping? The soldiers readied their weapons, this wasn’t planned…suddenly, and the whirling of an incoming missile got their attention…

Shouting and followed by an explosion that rocked the truck Katie was in! One soldier slammed into Katie, knocking her down as another explosion rocked the ground! It was all happening so fast, Katie didn’t know how to react, how to feel…her head accidently slammed into the floor of the truck…she saw stars…then heard shooting, foreign words…shouting and yelling…

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[guyloveshotstories]

My detachment of Rangers was on our FOB, Forward Operating Base, during downtime following our las tpatrol. Racked out on my cot, fast asleep, there were many things that were coming in for me. Katie, of course, was fresh in my mind, I could remember all of her details from her body structure to her voice, everything still fresh in my mind, but before she could say anything I was shaken awake by Sergeant Mannis, a good friend of mine, with eyes wide.

"What's up?" I asked sitting up.

"You gotta get up" Mannis said, "We got an op."

Grabbing my rifle we headed towards our radio room where there was traffic flooding in. Apparently a convoy with Red Cross workers had been ambushed about fifty miles out. There were casualties and they were under heavy fire. Because we were close we decided to mount some Blackhawk helicopters an dride out to assist them.

"Gear up!" I commanded.

Such actions I had encountered before; supply convoys, civilian worker convoys, and the lot, it was a common insurgent tactic to hit the weaker people instead of going toe to toe with us.

As we mounted the Blackhawks my mind went to what happened to Katie; wondering where she could be, hopefully some place safe. As we lifted off more traffic was coming in about the convoy's situation. They were under fire, two of their trucks were on fire, and the insurgents were coming at them from all sides. The detachment of soldiers that were guarding them were dealing with heavy casualties and they said that some of their people were unaccounted for.

"Thank Got Katie isn't here" I said to myself as we homed in on the thick black smoke.

Once we were overhead the fire slackened a bit that allowed us to set down and soldiers came out to meet us. They said they had wounded and they were put onboard the bird as me and my Rangers went to the convoy to find out what was happening.

Once we were on the road and looking up the road I could see the two trucks that were on fire. Now the fire ceased completely and it left me to wonder if the insurgents had pulled out but I knew never to trust that notion.

From the closest truck on fire two soldiers came out of the bed and dragging a person towards us. By that person's attire it was a Red Cross worker, a woman, and for some reason my mind flashed that it was Katie. Once they brought her up and placed her behind a Humvee I looked and found that it was not her, but I reconized the face, it was one of her friends, Susan. Calling to her her eyes flicked open and looked at me.

"Is Katie here?" I asked.

Unable to verbalize a response she merely nodded painfully. Now infused I turned to my Rangers and began barking out commands as the soldiers left standing wondered what they could do.

Knowing that Katie was there all those memories came flooding back but I had to push them aside to clear myself for what was happening around me. Heavy thumps from the fifties made my ears ring as soldiers around me, including my fellow Rangers, were barking at one another, calling out targets, and letting loose their weapons. As leader of this detachment I had to get everyone in order before we could do anything about what was happening in front of us. Looking up the road there was the truck, the engine block engulfed in brilliant flame as it ate up the oil and dripping fuel throwing up thick, black smoke and there were people moving around. At the tail gate the same two soldiers I saw were dragging back a person in their arms and my heart began climbing up my throat in the belief that it was Katie that they were bringing.
For a moment they looked at me confused for they did not have a first name basis with these civilian workers. "The nurses! Where are the other nurses?"
The soldier pointed back towards the truck with his rifle. "Come with me!" I commanded and together the two of us went back into the inferno as the rest of the convoy laid down a heavy stream of suppressing fire.