Fight or Flight

Veronica and her group of fellow Marines all sat around a table at a quaint, family-friendly diner on the outskirts of Los Angeles. It was the same diner they always went to when the team flew into town. Sitting with her teammates was nice and relaxing after her birthday party the night before.

Veronica crossed her legs, resting an ankle over her knee the way a man would. She picked up a lot of habits from her friends. She picked up a french fry from her plate, dipping it into the swirl of ketchup before eating it. She had been fairly quiet through their lunch, only chipping in on certain topics and cracking a few jokes.


Veronica stumbled down the driveway at two in the morning, well after most of the party guests had left. She spent some of the night avoiding Matt and even when she tried to talk to him, she was swept away by guests. Guest after guest presented their gifts to her and wished her a good year. She couldn't find a minute alone with Matt when she wanted to.

"Veronica," Matt called her name.

Veronica turned around startled, balancing barefoot on the pavement. She had taken off her heels long ago. Her glassy eyes stared at Matt's form in the dark.

"You're not driving, are you?" He asked, walking towards her.

"No, no," Veronica shook her head. She was too into a daze and she felt confused. "I'm spending the night here, but I was looking for you."

"I've been trying to get to you all night," Matt said, steadying her as she wavered back and forth. He could tell that she had clearly drunk too much. Her breath smelled like fruit and liquor.

"I'm sorry," She sniffled, pushing her hair from her face. She wasn't sure what she was even apologizing for.

"For what?"

"I don't know," She cried. Matt could see that she was an emotional drinker. "I'm sorry, Matt."

"You should get inside," He said. "You need to lie down."

"You kissed me," Veronica blurted out. "You kissed me."

"I know," Matt said with a nod of his head. "I think you should get some rest and call me in the morning."


She never called him. She didn't exactly intend to when she woke up in the guestroom of Nate and Audrey's home. With a mild hangover and the vague memory of her crying in front of Matt, she told herself she was going to wait a while. He probably thought she was a sloppy, emotional drunk.

"Can I get you guys anything else?" The waitress, Amanda, approached the table as she passed by with a tray in her hand. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed southern belle was their waiter every time they came.

"Let me get another one of these," Cherry told her, shaking the almost empty can of Dale's Pale Ale in his hand.

"Hm... chocolate lava cake, yeah?" Kenny suggested to her with a toothpick in between his lips, looking at the menu.

"You got it," Amanda winked at him like she always did. When no one else ordered anything, she walked away.

"Any of you wanna share?" Kenny offered to share his dessert.

"No thanks. I'm not really a big chocolate guy," Their teammate, nicknamed 'Mule', said.

Kenny laughed, "No, no. A big, chocolate guy is exactly what you are."

The whole table erupted into laughter at Kenny's joke. Mule was a bigger, muscular brown-skinned man. He couldn't help but laugh too after rolling his eyes.

"Hey, Mule, tell me whatcha think about that," Cherry said, passing his phone across the table.

"Which one's the chick?" Mule joked, looking at the screen of Max's phone. Veronica wondered what they were talking about.

"What can I say, girls love the long hair," Cherry said with a cocky smile. He ran his large hand through his shiny, black locks. His age was peeking through from the silvery-white strands dispersed throughout his head.

"No, they like the dollars you leave on the dresser," Mule retorted, passing the phone to Kenny.

It was no secret that Cherry was the manwhore of the group. While the others had steady wives and girlfriends, he kept a number of girls on hand at all times. He had a habit of rotating and passing girls along. While it should have made him seem like a heartless ass to anyone else, his team accepted the ways of his love life. Cherry was a die-hard friend and as long as his string of women didn't twist him upside down, they were fine with it.

"It's worth every review," Cherry joked.

"Ooh," Kenny said the way a guy does when a friend gets a girl.

"Let me see that," Veronica said, reaching over and snatching the phone from his hand. It should have repulsed her, but she was used to these types of things hanging around men. She swiped her thumb across the screen, flipping through selfies of Cherry and a naked, busty blonde. When she got to a photo of the blonde taking a self-shot with Cherry taking her from behind, she pressed the home button of the iPhone. "Okay, I've seen enough."

Cherry laughed, "You wanted to see. By the way, I also see that you dig the long hair too. I saw you with that guy, Matt last night."

Veronica inwardly groaned. "He's just a friend."

"Just a friend," Kenny mocked. "That's what they always say."

"You gonna settle down and play house with him soon?" Cherry asked jokingly.

"Definitely not," Veronica said a little snarky.

"Okay, okay," Cherry said, letting up the joke. "I'm not ready to play house with any chick either. What about you, Stunner? How's married life treating you, huh?"

Veronica bit her lip, looking down at her lap. She could only predict what was about to go down. Whenever Cherry and Nate got together, it always became tense.

"What are you asking?" Nate asked like there was a double-meaning in Cherry's question.

"How's everything on the home front, you know," Cherry said, taking a drink from his beer can.

Nate narrowed his eyes and put his elbows on the table, leaning over. Veronica glanced up at Nate, glad that she was seated in between the two that way she could stop a physical altercation.

"Why would you like to know? You writing a book, maybe?" Nate asked cynically with a sarcastic smile.

"I'm just asking," Cherry said, tired of his teammate's accusations. "You've gotta realize how good you got it. Team leader at thirty-two, a wonder kid flying up the command chain. You have a beautiful wife and a son. Why don't you just relax?"

"I'm relaxed," Nate scoffed, raising his hand from the table as he spoke. "I'm always relaxed. I'm just getting tired of you running your fuckin' mouth all the time."

The group of friends exchanged curious looks, wondering if they'd missed something. They all knew that whatever problems that were in the field were still there when they got home. Cherry and Nate were just two alpha males that couldn’t be tamed.

"And I'm getting tired of explaining how we let a little old lady blow up Jason," Cherry shot back.

"Cherry," Veronica warned, sitting up straighter in her chair. She looked at Nate's livid expression, stretching her arm to place a hand on his chest to stop him. She could feel his racing heartbeat under her palm. "If you two want to fight, you go outside or somewhere else, but you do not do this here."

"I don't wanna fight. Ain't that right, Stunner?" Cherry said in a caustic tone, pleased that he'd gotten Nate all worked up.

Veronica took a deep breath, not really in the mood to deal with them. She would have fought Cherry herself just because of his behavior. She was so tempted to just get up and leave with Nate.

"Cherry, that was a low fucking blow," She hissed, removing her hand from Nate's chest. "That was no one's fault and you know it."

The entire table fell into a somber silence. No one ever had the balls to bring up Jason unless it was absolutely necessary. They all wanted to erase the memories from their minds and eliminate anything related to him.


The beginning of their deployment started like a regular one. Another day and another mission. Kenny was on one of his usual rants despite the complete silence of the others. Kenny and Mule covered the front, Cherry and Jason led the Iraqi prisoners of war, and Veronica and Nathaniel covered the back.

“I copy four likely LNs, no weapons observed,” Nate said into his mic. “Unknowns are inbound.”

The team immediately stopped and split at Nate’s announcement. They all raised their weapons, waiting for the four unknowns to turn the corner.

“Khalas!” Stunner shouted at them in their native language, commanding them to stop. “Khalas!”

“Bess!” Veronica shouted, telling them to stop.

The four unknowns stopped in their tracks, fearful of the American soldiers. They were all dressed in the native fashion with patterned headdresses and solid-colored disdashas.

“Jason, I want you to take Trench and check it out,” Nate ordered, using Kenny’s nickname.

“Yeah, I got it, I got it,” Jason said, walking forward. “Let Trench stay home.”

Jason approached the group of natives, telling them to put their hands up. Veronica looked upwards to the mountain ridges, surveying the area over top of them for potential threats. When she saw that it was clear, she focused her attention back to Jason negotiating with the natives.

“Hands up, hands up,” He instructed. He patted down the three men in white African-style didashas. “Sit down.”

The three men complied, sitting down on boulders while they waited.

“You, come here.” Jason motioned for the last person to approach him. It was hard to tell whether it was a man or a woman. Their face and body was completely covered in clothing from head to toe.

“She’s a woman. You can’t touch her,” One of the men explained to Jason in Arabic, grabbing his arm. The other two men stood up also, speaking in Arabic.

“Sit down,” Mule demanded. He pushed the two men back to the ground. “Down.”

“What’s going on up there?” Nate questioned through his mic, watching the lack of control meters away.

“They want a female to come up and do the pat down,” Jason responded. “Can you send Scottie up?”

“I’m coming,” Veronica responded without hesitation. She let go of her weapon and let it hang from the strap across her body as she approached the local woman.


“Rotation’s coming up in a few months,” Kenny broke the silence. “Five months to be exact.”

That meant that when the other deployed unit returned home, it would be their turn to deploy again. With four infantry units based at Camp Pendleton, each got deployed for nine months to one year. With a nine-month minimum, once a unit completed their nine-month tour, they were at home for twenty-seven months until it was their turn again.

“Don’t remind me,” Mule said, shaking his head. “I’m enjoying my time at home.”

“That means I’ll be seeing you boys a lot more often soon,” Veronica said teasingly, coming out of her thoughts.

None of them could deny it. They loved the time off and working a regular job, but they always wanted that call. They always waited for new deployment rosters to come out and duty papers to be handed to them.


Veronica never made it to the abaya-clad woman. The team suddenly came under fire from multiple directions from on top of the mountains. Veronica, Nate, and Cherry quickly ended the situation in a matter of minutes, firing rounds at the shooters.

“All clear,” Veronica announced into her mic after the three shooters were all dead. She looked up to the mountains one more time just to make sure.

“Exile 2-1, are there any more hostiles?” Nate asked into his mic. He waited for the response from the base. The aircraft in the area was watching over them for safety. “We’re all clear. Let’s get the LNs through and get the hell out of here.”

“Move it out.” Jason pointed in the direction the three men were to follow. He stopped the woman when she tried to walk past him. “Hold on, I’ve gotta finish searching.”

“Jay, forget about it,” Nate said. “Let’s go.”

“Let him finish,” Veronica said to Nate, not liking the way he was trying to cut corners. “I’ll search her.”

The familiar crack and deafening boom startled all of them. The magnitude of the explosion sent Veronica and Nate to the rugged ground. Veronica lifted her head from the ground with a groan, looking at the gray cloud of smoke where Jason once stood. She scrambled to her knees and stood up, clutching her rifle in front of her.

“Jay!”

“Jason? Fuck!”

Kenny and Mule came out from where they ducked for cover. Veronica blindly followed Nathaniel into the smoke cloud.

“Jason!” Veronica screamed, searching for her friend. She waved her hand in the air to clear some of the smoke and dust.

There was distraught yelling and screaming as they all ran to the explosion area. There was nothing left, no trace that two humans had even been standing there moments before. All there was was a charred piece of a camouflage vest hanging from a wilted plant.

Veronica coughed from the smoke and the smell of burned flesh, collapsing on her knees.


That was supposed to be me, Veronica thought. She thought the same thing every time she remembered that day. If only she had searched that woman instead of Jason, he would be here and she wouldn’t. She was supposed to die that day and she would never forget it. Every day she was lucky to be alive.