Right Here Waiting

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I held my hand up, halting all of my men.

I peered downed closely and saw a thin wire.

"Trip wire. I'm gonna disengage it." I said into my microphone.

I pulled tiny wire pliers out of my side pocket and put it to the wire.

I felt a bead of sweat roll down my forehead.

No matter how many times I've done this, there's always a second where I get nervous, right before I'm about to cut it.

I took in a deep breath and cut the wire and sighed in relief when I was done.

"Disengaged. Gage you take Team 2 and take up the rear, Tyler you take the left and Matt, the right. Team 1, you're with me. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go." I said, moving swiftly and with purpose as we surrounded the factory house that was reported to be a housing missiles for the rebels.

"Check point 1. Clear." I said into my mic, scanning the area for any passerbys.

"Checkpoint 2. Clear." Gage said.

"Checkpoint 3. Clear." Tyler said.

But no answer from Matt.

I looked around but still didn't see anything and didn't hear any commotion either.

"Matt, check in." I said.

No answer.

"What the hells going on Sgt?" Gage asked.

"All clear. All clear. Had to go off mic to take down a bogey." Matt said.

I sighed in relief.

"Alright. We go in on my count. 1...2 ..." I didn't get a chance to finish when I hewed shots being fired.

"Shots fired! Shots fired! We're under heavy fire on the east side. Rebels have us pinned down." I heard Tyler yell.

"Load up ladies! We got men taking heavy fire and we're not leaving them. Lets go!" I yelled, the teams breaking up in two and moving silently towards the shots being fired.

I headed my team and I saw Tyler and a group of my guys faking cover behind a wall blocking off an access road.

"Throwing in tear gas. Masks on." I said.

I counted down and then threw the gas, hearing yelling when the rebels were blinded.

"Move! Move! Move!" I yelled, hearing the heavy footsteps of my men as we ran in.

Shots were fired and I heard as bodies started to drop and the distinct smell of blood.

I gulped loudly and saw the top of Tyler's head.

He shot a rebel in the head and he went down.

I jumped over the wall and crouched down next to them.

"Are we whole?" I asked, looking around at the guys.

I saw Jeremy clutching his leg, a pained expression on his face.

"I'm hit. Caught a ricochet bullet. I'm sorry Sgt. I'm better than that. I know I am." Jeremy said.

I packed his wound with gauze I had in my pack and made him look at me.

"I don't want to hear that shit Jeremy. You did good. Doc, we need you over the wall on the east side by the access road. Got a man hit." I said.

"On my way Sgt." I heard him say.

"We're gonna get you patched up. You'll be good as new. Damn good job." I told him.

I saw the Doc make his way over and after checking over the rest of the guys, I followed the dwindling sound of gun fire.

I looked over as Marcus was herding the rebels who surrendered and situating them over by the building.

"Want three men guarding those prisoners." I said.

"Got it Sgt." I heard Barnes say.

I looked through the endless expanse of forest ahead of me and then looked back to Matt.

"Have someone run through, make sure we don't have any guests laying in wait." I said into my mic.

"Me and Sean are checking it out now." Matt said.

"Status update in five minutes." I told him.

"Roger that." He said.

And then tthe mics were quiet.

I looked over and saw Gage scanning the area.

I walked over to him.

"You all good Gage?" I asked him.

He grinned widely and clapped me on my back.

"They're not quick enough to get me." He laughed.

I chuckled but my smile instantly faded when I saw the glint of an assault rifle.

"Down!" I yelled, pushing Gage down and throwing myself down on top of him, hearing the bullet strike the wall behind me.

I heard more gun shots and looked around, my men had the rebel cornered and weapon down.

"Anyone else hit?" I asked loudly.

I heard a chorus of no's and sighed in relief.

I rolled off of Gage and checked him over, patting him down to make sure he wasn't hit.

"I'm good, man. Thanks." Gage said.

We both stood up and finished checking things over, making sure we weren't going to find anymore surprises that wanted us dead.

We herded up all the rebels and checked over the missiles hold.

And just like our Intel said, it was a cache of missiles that were being made and distributed to rebel armies.

We handled all of the necessary protocol and I walked out into the fresh air.

I looked up at the sky and smiled.

I reached into my breast pocket and pulled the picture of Chase out.

I looked at her grinning face and pressed a kiss to it.

"Love you baby." I murmured.

I looked up at the sky again.

And then I looked around at the rebels being loaded onto our truck.

This is my life.

My life on the danger line.