Texas Nights - Book 13 of the Damned of the 2/19th

Mom, she hit me!

Battalion Aid Station
15th FSB Operations Area
Field Site 32
Fort Hood, Texas
CONUS
Thursday
18 October, 1991
0010

In front of God, the CO, and everyone Lieutenant Hendricks pointed her pistol at me, cocked it, and pulled the trigger.

The pistol gave a dry snap. The people around us gasped.

"No ammo," I said mildly, staring at her.

Her hand went to her ammo pouch, her eyes still wild, and pulled it open.

I stepped into her, reflexes running on automatic after Stokes's endless drills. I took the pistol from her, kicked her feet out from under her, rode her face down into the mud. I had her pistol raised up, one of her arms twisted behind her back, and was kneeling on her. One knee in her back, the other on her ass.

"You have failed this station, Lieutenant," I said loud enough for everyone to hear. I lowered the pistol, pushing it against the back of her head.

"BANG!" I yelled.

I stood up, tossing her pistol to one of the soldiers around us.

"You finished, Lieutenant?" I asked.

She scrambled up, grabbing her rifle from where it was body-slung, lifting it up.

I just shook my head.

"I'll kill you, you whore!" She screamed.

She raised the rifle up and I stepped forward, grabbing the barrel right behind the flash suppressor, keeping it pointed away from my face, and yanked it toward me.

She went to yank it back as I grabbed the forward handgrip right behind her hand.

I slammed her own weapon into her face, dropping her on her back into the mud.

"I've faced people with actually loaded weapons, Lieutenant," I said, tossing her weapon to the side.

She got up again, her nose and mouth bleeding freely. I let her, even though she took her time. She stared at me, her eyes slitted with hatred.

Her hand dropped to her combat knife on her LBE. The ones you could get from the Shopette or the PX, with the short thick blade, hex-nut base, leather wrapped grip.

"Don't do it, Lieutenant," I warned her.

Her thumb flicked the snap and the restraining band popped loose.

"Don't do it," I warned, going from parade rest to an offensive stance.

She wrapped her hand around the grip.

"LIEUTENANT! STAND DOWN!" Captain Jane yelled. She started to come forward and I held my hand, palm out, at her.

"Don't," I simply said.

Lieutenant Hendricks snarled at me as she slowly drew the knife.

"You're about to make a mistake," I tried as Captain Jane backed up.

She brandished the knife at me. "I'll kill you, whore," She yelled. The knife shook in her hands. She swung it toward me, missing me by a good two feet.

...take it from her and feed it to her through her eye, in front of everyone...

go away, Stillwater

She swung it again, "Gonna cut that ugly face of yours, bitch," She threatened.

"Don't. Be. A fool," I told her.

She just screamed incoherently and swung the knife at me. I slapped it away and shifted position.

"Don't make me do this, Lieutenant," I pleaded, even as she screamed and swung her knife at me again, "Please, you don't want this."