Operation: Liberation (Under Heavy Revision)

Aftermath Of Atlanta

     "How'd you sleep, Warwing?" a female voice asked as I sat up, wiping my eyes with my paws.

     The sunlight shined through the open windows of a hallway as I looked up, seeing a female jackel standing over me. The female wore the ACU camouflage, which looked beaten up, and had an M4A1 slung behind her back. Specialist Jana Freepaw was one of the psychologists assigned to my unit, the 2nd Air Assault.

     "Well, I guess," I replied groggily, standing up on a sleeping mat I was sleeping on and stretching. During the night, I ran into the rest of my platoon at the capitol building and we all proceeded to the CDC, where we met a heavy Russian presence. We liberated the place and the surviving doctors, turning it into the medical point for the wounded. 

     At the moment, I wore a pair of clean, ACU pants and a tan t-shirt, which I changed into before laying down to sleep last night. On my face, I had a huge bandage on my muzzle, which covered a large gash. On top of that, I had a few stitches on my right ear. My arms were covered in cuts and bruises, all treated with disinfectant and the large gashes covered with bandages. My paws also had bandages around them like a boxer's paw, the cuts underneath the bandages cleaned and disinfected.  Overall, I was more lucky than most of the anthros around here, who had broken bones, twisted ankles, concussions, or having a limb blown off. 

     "You guess?" Freepaw questioned me as I sat back down, still stretching. The female jackal sat down in front of me when I nodded.

     "Yeah, I guess," I responded, grabbing my beaten up M4 carbine from beside me and setting it in my lap, taking it apart. 

     The horrors from last night slowly crept up on me, the wave of survivor's guilt washing over me. I've seen death and saw others die in front of my eyes during the Florida campaign; however, I've never seen all of my squad die in front of me. Every single one of them.... Died right in front of me. There was nothing I could do. I couldn't save any of them...

     Specialist Freepaw must've sensed my sudden change in mood and she placed a paw on my shoulder. "Endrico?" Freepaw called me by my first name, which was rare that I hear it.

     I flinched when she placed a paw on my shoulder. "WHAT?!" I snarled, my voice echoing throughout the empty, long hallway. 

     I looked at Freepaw, who looked as if she had done something wrong. The air smelled of the MRE I at last night and of blood. What have I done? Why am I acting this way? I opened my mouth to apologize, but the Specialist spoke first.

     "I'm sorry," the female anthro sounded concerned, "I heard about what happened to your squad, but you can't go on with all that guilt inside of you. Let it out, Endrico." 

     I cleaned my rifle as I spoke through gritted teeth, "you know what? I could have saved their lives. I should have been more vigilant and aware of my surroundings. I led them straight into a kill funnel. I LED THEM INTO A KILL FUNNEL FOR GOLDENFUR'S SAKE!" I lowered my voice to stop yelling before I attracted attention from the rest of the military personnel downstairs, "it was all my fault that they died, Freepaw. I made all the wrong moves and it costed them their lives." I looked up at Specialist Freepaw, not realizing that I had tears falling from my eyes.

     "You're only nineteen years old and your first real combat experience was in Florida," the anthro spoke to me after wiping my eyes with her paw, speaking to me in a soothing tone, "a few months ago, when I evaluated all of the division, you weren't so shaken up."

     I put my weapon beside me and grabbed my ACU combat shirt, slipping it on. I then felt Freepaw's paw on my shoulder, preventing me from getting up. "Look at me, Warwing," the female spoke in a stern tone.