Forever Always

[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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Name: Joshua Michaels
Age: 30
Occupation: Army Ranger

Role taken.

 

[zydrate]

......

 

[Ikely]

Character appearance: http://www.feastoffun.com/wp-conten...y-shirtless-male-model-photos-11092009-09.jpg

Technically, it was Joshua Michael’s day off.

He and his squad were not conducting any operations out of Forward Operating Base Bakersfield today. But they were on standby as QRF or Quick Reaction Force. If there were any problems in their sector, Josh and his squad would deploy and assist those units who were in contact with the enemy.

Josh was at the dining facility and took his tray of food and sat down with his assistant squad leader and good friend, Keith Harmon.

Josh and Keith had gone through Ranger Assessment and Selection Program together. They had gone on to different squads but had been reunited on this deployment.

“What’s up, Mojo?” Keith said as Josh sat down. Keith was calling Josh by his call sign. Josh received the call sign “Mojo” because he had a unique way of getting what he wanted, in terms of supplies and equipment.

“Same shit, different day.” Josh replied.

They ate their dinner and talked about different things. The main topic was a new Lieutenant assigned to the unit. The new officer was really trying too hard to be a hard ass and he was not making any friends of the senior enlisted soldiers.

They talked about the upcoming college football season, which was actually Josh’s favorite subject. They determined that the South Eastern Conference was going to be on top again. Josh said if he was going to bet a paycheck, he was taking the Florida Gators to win it all.

As they switched topics to a nurse in the aid station who was a real hottie, the sound of the buzzer of the intercom echoed through the D-fac. 3 short buzzes sounded.

It was a call for the QRF.

Josh and Keith jumped up and ran to the staging area.

Josh pulled on his armor over the rapid assault shirt he wore, and then grabbed his M-4 and Beretta sidearm.

As he was putting the boom mike for the communication system on his head, and placing the helmet over it, the Captain came in.

“We got a convoy that just got jumped on Route Charlotte. They have a National Guard unit as security but they are barely hanging on.”

Josh got the information for comms from the Captain.

The National Guard unit was call sign, “Bronco”. Josh’s team was call sign “Hardball”

The 5 heavily armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, better known as Humvee’s, left the wire of FOB Bakersfield at top speed, sending dust and rocks flying.

The QRF hit Route Charlotte and turned to the east.

Josh called over the net, “Bronco, Bronco, this is Hardball, we are on Route Charlotte and inbound hot to your pos.”

The reply was nightmarish.

Josh heard the guardsman screaming. The only thing he could make out clearly, over the screaming and sound of gunfire and explosions was, “…WE ARE TOTALLY DEFENSIVE!”

The QRF convoy was screaming down the road and as they approached the scene Josh knew this fight was going to be hell.

The convoy of trucks and only 3 Humvee’s was under attack from both sides. The initial RPG’s had destroyed the second vehicle in the convoy and the last vehicle. Essentially, creating road blocks for the remaining vehicles. They could not move forward and could not move backward. The kill zone of the ambush had placed the convoy on a section of the road that was bordered by deep gullies on either side of the road, so the vehicles could not turn off of the road either.

The insurgents were pouring small arms fire down on the motionless convoy.

Just as Josh was about to give the order to charge into the fight, he paused and instead, ordered the QRF to come to a halt. He scanned the sides of the route they were going to approach the fight on. He noticed the dark sand of a fresh dig. The darker sand stood out in contrast to the light sand that baked in the desert sun all day.

The insurgents had planted IED’s to hit the QRF as they came to help.

“Fresh digs, on the sides of the road!” Josh yelled out.

“Not today, cock fags!” Josh thought as he turned to look up at the Ranger manning the Minigun in the turret.

“Powers! Hit those fresh digs on the sides!” Josh screamed

The ripping sound of the electric minigun reverberated through the Humvee. It sounded almost like someone tearing a thick bed sheet, but with only a deeper sound. It fired 6000 rounds a minute so it was a lot of firepower.

As the rounds from the minigun impacted the dig sites it detonated one of the bombs. A mushroom cloud of dust and debris shot almost 20 feet in the air. The explosion then set of a daisy chain of explosions as the other bombs detonated.

Josh then gave the order for 3 of the Humvees to push to the ambush. He directed the other 2 to remain close and provide covering fire.

“Bronco, this is Hardball, we have eyes on. We are coming in from the west.” Josh said into the radio.

They flew in, screeching to a halt at the wreckage of the last vehicle in the convoy.

The gunners in the turrets began pouring fire onto the militant attackers.

Josh and his troops poured out of their vehicles and moved to the site of the ambush.

“Keith, suppress those fucking RPG’s!” Josh said as he approached the National Guard Lieutenant in charge.

“LT, do you have a casualty collection point? Let’s get those wounded out and in the armored Humvees.” Josh yelled over the gun fire.

“Affirmative! We were able to maneuver 2 of the supply trucks to give some protection and the CCP is there. We also have a civilian contractor, a nurse over there. She should be treating the wounded…that is if she ain’t dead.”

“Roger that, sir”

Josh gathered up his combat medic and advised him of the wounded. They made their way up to the casualty collection point and the medic began triaging the wounded.

Josh caught sight of the civilian contractor. It was a woman.

He only saw her from the rear and she seemed to handling herself alright. Josh then advised his medic that the civilian contractor was a nurse and to get with her.

Josh turned and went to hook up with Keith.

Keith was in the process of telling Josh that they were stabilizing the situation and were about to push out on the offensive when the RPG came screaming in.

Josh caught it out of his peripheral vision and dove behind one of the trucks.

The detonation lifted him high into the air and gravity kicked in and he came back down, hard.

His armor absorbed much of the blast, but it had rung his bells pretty good.

With his ears ringing so bad he could no longer hear the small arms fire, he looked around.

Then he saw Keith.

The blast had torn away everything below his rib cage. Just his upper body was lying on the ground, his intestines pouring out onto the sand.

He saw Keith’s eyes moving side to side and his mouth working.

Josh crawled over to his friend and took his right hand into his.

Keith was saying something but Josh could not hear him because of the ringing in his ears.

Josh leaned over and said out loud, even though he could not hear the sound of his own
voice, “I love you, brother...I am not going to leave you.”

Then unconsciousness swept over Josh and everything went black.

 

[zydrate]

As much as Katie wanted to panic, she knew she couldn't. This was all she had practiced for. This was no place, nor was it the time, to lose her head. Quickly, she just imagined this as another faced paced night in the ER. She focused on the job at hand and tended to the wounded.

Before she even reached the first wounded soldier, it dawned on her...they had no doctor... the closest thing to a doctor was the medic from the unit and quickly, her mind started to race!

"Focus, Katie..." she muttered as she crouched near the wounded when another blast sounded near the group.

A few tendrils of her hair fell from the messy French braid she had fashioned earlier before boarding the convoy. There was a lot of shouting and gunfire, she made sure to stay low as she checked up on each person.

Finally, she reached the medic, whose face was lined with worry. With a calm voice, she told him what to do and that it would be OK, they would make sure everyone would get out of here no matter what.

Moving to the next soldier, she realized that nearly half his intestines were hanging out of his stomach... she held in her dismay and did what she could to help but had a feeling it was too late.

No! Don't think like that!

But as she felt for a pulse, there was none. There was nothing she could do for the guy....Katie wanted to cry out for him but there was no time! Sorrow can come later....right now, she needed to help those that still had a chance.

Leaning over the soldier next to the one who was dead, Katie gave him a look over to see where his wounds were... there weren't any visible except that his ears were bleeding! Quickly she removed is helmet and was taken back!

"Oh my God...Josh?!" She screamed. It was then all her fear of everything that was happening started to catch up to her... No! NO!! Her mind screamed at her, focus! Josh needs you!!

Feeling for his pulse, she was relieved to see he had one and that's when she screamed at the medic about Josh being hurt!