The Letter

Chapter 2

Maybe... Just maybe... What if I'd done something different? What if...? No... You can't change fate. He's gone. That's all there is to it. My colleague... Sergeant Dunwoody is dead. That's all there is to it. I lost a colleague, not a friend, right? No... No, he was a friend. That's why this is taking such a toll on me, because I knew him. Now what? What am I going to do? I can't just not mention him, but what am I supposed to say?

After a debate, I figured out what to do. I'll write a letter. It will have everything that happens in the field. Maybe... Maybe this isn't so bad.

That was when the alarm sounded. We were under attack.

I knew what I had to do.

I grabbed a gun, the first one I saw, after we ran outside, me and the people who share the barracks with me. Right away I began to shoot toward the advancing army, also shooting.

I could tell, right away, they were highly trained by the way they held the guns at the same level and shot at the same time. They definitely had more training than those we'd fought earlier in the day. We, the surprised, half asleep, and unprepaired victims, were, for loss of better words, screwed.

"Cornell, get out of here, you don't have to be here!" I heard my cousin, Daniel Poland, shout over the sounds of shots from the M-16s, M-4s, M-24s, an dmore. I prefered and used the M-240, a machine gun used a lot for a barricade, because of the stationary on-the-ground positions. {In all honesty, I searched guns used by US army, and these were just some of them that were on there. I looked at the pictures for the M-240 to see what I would have used it for. Back to reading, my readers.}

"And leave you to attempt to save my life?" I joked. "Ha! Not a chance, Bucky1"

"Stop calling me that!" he whined.

"Hahaha! Never!" I teased. I'd started calling him Bucky after he'd watched Captain America: The Winter Solder and started to run around the house screaming 'No! Not Bucky! Buuuccckkkyyy! You can't be evil! You were my hero! I wanted to be you!'

So, here I was, fighting with a smile on my face remembering that day, when I heard it. The sound of blood gurgling in someone's mouth. The sound of a bullet piercing skin. The sound of my own blood hitting the ground. The sound of two guns stopping firing, as I left mine. The sound of pain, escaping in hoarse breaths and whispers.

Tears filled my eyes. Bullets whipped past us. I didn't care. I couldn't care. He was almost gone, I thought to myself. No. He is gone.

"I'm sorry, Daesha. I shou-"

"No. Don't apologize. You have nothing to apologize for. You only have to save your energy."

He grunted in pain. "No. I do have to. I should've not come here, so you wouldn't be going through this."

"Danny, you know I cme here on my own free will, and so did you." By this point, I ws crying.

"Don't lose faith, b-because H-He is real. I s-see Him now. God. H-He says you'll be safe for a while. I-I'll See you again o-on t-the other side."