Kilo-61 (Damned of the 2/19th Book 19)- Ongoing

Children Shouldn't Play Grownup Games

"How long have they been sleeping?" I asked him.

"About an hour," he answered. He pointed at the E-5. "He went to sleep first."

"Fuck it, get 'em up, I wanna get out of here, ASAP," I told him, heading over to Heather and the LT.

They were sitting in chairs, their heads close together like a pair of plotters.

"Ladies, it's time to go," I told them. Heather's eyes were full of fire and death and I touched her shoulder gently. "Take a booster, Melissa."

She shook her head. "No."

I knelt down in front of her. "Sweety, we take our meds," I took the bottle of meds out of my pocket, "See?"

"NO!" She slapped the meds out of my hand. The bottle shot across the room, hitting the wall and popping open. The pills scattered everywhere, bouncing on the tile.

"I'M NOT SLEEPING!" One of the privates, the female, yelled, jumping to her feet. She looked around then giggled to herself, reaching down and picking up her rifle.

"Take your meds, Melissa," I said again, this time putting a little more iron in my tone.

"No!" She shouted again. The privates were waking up. The LT had pushed her chair backwards, removing herself completely from what was going on.

"Take them," I growled.

"No! And not you either!" She came up to her feet, rolling her shoulders as if to set her body armor in place. "You think these guys are going to survive following Thomas DeMarky? NO! They need Ant, my Ant, Atlas Ant, the Ant who led Actual through fire and snow and death over and over."

I glanced at Kincaid and he spread out his hands, "I agree with her, Sergeant."

"Don't look at him. He's not my husband, he's my fuck toy. You're my husband, you're my crew leader," She snapped, smacking my shoulder. She grabbed the front of my uniform and pulled me close, pulling herself up slightly and forcing me to bend slightly so her nose touched mine.

Her nose was bleeding again.

"We need the goddamn Ant, not whoever you pretend you are because you don't want other people to know you're a goddamn killing machine," She snarled. She pushed me away, wiping her nose with her sleeve before pointing at the door. "There were six of them, and you killed five before anyone here even realized what the hell was going on. That was my husband, not the bullshit costume the VA makes you wear." She started digging in her pocket.

"Fine!" I shouted. I pulled the other bottle of pills out of my pocket and threw them against the wall, the plastic shattering and the pills bouncing everywhere. "I'm sure these guys will love being led by a fuckup who got half of his last crew killed in some shithole Third World country for no goddamn reason."

"YOU SAVED HALF OF US!" Heather screamed at me. She pulled the other bottle of meds out of her pocket and threw them at me, the bottle bouncing off my forehead, hitting the roof, and shattering, raining pills down on me. "Don't you dare denigrate what happened, what we all did. There was no goddamn choice, and they fucking abandoned us and you still got half of us out of that shithole while half of the goddamn country was killing every fucking American they could find."

"Don't throw shit at me." I snarled, taking a step forward.

"Or what?" She sneered, rolling her shoulders before dropping back slightly to get her balance. She lifted her hands, one hand held knife-edged the other in a fist. "Or fucking what, Thomas?"

I shook my head, "I'm not doing this, Melissa," I told her.

"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!" She shrieked.