It was finally the morning of the day I had to return to my home away from home. Kabul. All sorts of thoughts were running through my head. Will everything be the same as it was before I left? Will everyone still greet me as a friend? Or will everyone treat me as "that guy who got shot by the Taliban"? And as I was standing at the back door, smoking a cigarette in my dressing gown, it suddenly sunk in that this is it. This is the day. The day when I return to duty.
As I was smoking my cigarette, I heard my sister coming down the stairs. I could tell that she was equally as nervous as me. "You good?" she asked.
"As good as can be expected" I replied.
"You don't want to go back, do you?" she asked. I knew that she could tell that I was feeling nervous about going back. "I'll be fine, Beck" I said. "Just every time I come back home, it always seems harder to say goodbye, especially to mum, you know what she's like" I added.
"Oh my baby, you don't have to go back, just tell me and I will get straight on the phone to the army telling them that my boy is not coming back" my sister replied, imitating our mum. "You should have seen it when she came to pick me up, you were in the car, she practically had a heart attack when she seen me causing a massive scene" I replied. We both laughed as I finished my cigarette.
"But seriously" Beck said as she instantly stopped laughing. "Don't go getting yourself shot again. That shit had me worried, Mark" she added.
"I'll be fine, Beck. Honest." I replied.
"You better be" replied Beck. "And when you come back again, I want to meet this Georgie lass that I've heard so much about" she added.
"I wouldn't have it any other way" said with a bit of a chuckle.
As the morning went on and I had my breakfast and another coffee, me and my family barely had any words for each other. We knew that this was going to be the last time we were sat in the same room for another 3 months. however. Just like that, it was midday, and I had a job to get back to. Everybody came to see me off, and as we got closer to the airport to take me back to England so I could then travel from the barracks to Kabul, I was dreading what my mum was going to say as I left. As we pulled up to the airport and got out of the car. My mum was the first one to say goodbye.
"Now you look after yourself over there, and I will see you in another 3 months" she said as she was trying to fight back the tears.
"Honestly, mum. I will be fine." I replied, "the boys have my back, just like they did when I got shot. They were there before I even knew I had been shot." I added.
"Well it sounds like you have a great bunch of friends over there then. And I want to meet them all, especially Georgie" she replied.
"Aye, no bother" I said as I let out a little chuckle and gave her a hug. Then it was my dad's turn to say goodbye. He always has been a man of few words, so it didn't come as much of a surprise when he just gave me a handshake and said "All the best, son." My sister decided that she would walk me top the terminal whilst my parents waited in the car. As we walked into the airport, I put my arm round my sister's shoulder. I could tell that she was feeling as nervous as I was.
"Now remember what I said, mark. Don't be getting yourself shot, I mean it" she said as she gave me a hug at the terminal.
"Listen, Beck. like I said to mum, I'll be fine, me and the boys are looking out for each other, and we have each other's back" I replied.
Me and Beck shared one last hug before I got on board the plane, as I was walking through the terminal, I couldn't help but look back and as I did, I seen that Beck still hadn't moved from the spot where we said goodbye and noticed that she had started crying. I felt so bad for her. I'm her older brother and I'm meant to look after her and protect her. How could I do that when I was all the way in Kabul? As I gave her a wave from the distance, a tear ran down the side of my face. Just like that it only felt that my sick leave lasted one week when in reality it was a lot longer than that.
Well I finally arrived in England at the barracks where I would then be transported back to Kabul. I was greeted by a sergeant who had a list of names. Some other lads were called in to Kabul also, I thought it was just going to be me and although I'm glad I didn't have to endure all that distance just sitting on my own, I couldn't help but wonder why we needed so much other lads. we seemed to have everything under control. As the helicopter landed, one of the new lads patted me on the shoulder.
"There's our ride lad!" he exclaimed full of excitement. I knew that as soon as he got to Kabul, he wouldn't be so excited. After all, I've already been there. I know what it is like. Boring most of the day, not allowed to leave base unless you're going on patrol and even when you do get on patrol, there's fuck all to see apart from sand and the occasional local idiot and in fact, the only time a patrol gets somewhat exciting is when you hear a few gunshots, and you know it's about to kick off. However, I never told him all of this. Afterall, I'm living proof of the consequences of the Taliban kicking off. However, I never told the new lad all of this stuff, I just looked at him and said "have fun, lad"
As the helicopter landed, a few soldiers started to get out. A few lads I recognised, Jonsey and wee Lip, they were in our base in Kabul, and it looks like they have also been injured in action.
"Lads!" I shouted as they seen me out of the corner of their eye. When they saw me, a sudden look of surprise came across their face.
"Holy shit, Mark. Things have changed over there," said Lip.
"You really don't want to go back there" Jonsey replied. As I looked to my left, suddenly the new lad didn't look so confident. "Surely it can't be that bad though" I replied.
"You'll find out when you get there, lad we can't go into any detail outside of base, but it isn't looking very good for us." replied Lip. What was I getting myself back into?
As I was sat on the helicopter looking out the window, thinking about what Jonsey and Lip had told me, that new lad from the barracks came and sat down beside me.
"So have already been there? in Afghan?" he asked.
"I have" I replied.
"Were those your mates back at the barracks" he asked.
"Aye, they are, lad" I said. "What's with all the questions?" I asked him.
"Sorry. it's just that this is my first time in Afghan. My first time away from home, really. I was just looking for any tips on what to expect" he said, suddenly I could tell that he wasn't feeling too confident anymore.
"Listen pal, what you see is what you get with Afghan" I replied "It's pretty boring most of the day until you go out on patrol and even then, there's not that much goes on. Wi-Fi is horrendous so best save your data and hope you've got no roaming charges so you can facetime your folks" I said with a little chuckle.
"But what were your mates saying back there though? about it changing?" he asked.
"Aye, well that's something I want to figure out as well, mate" I replied to him with a sound of concern in my voice.
"Well thanks anyway, mate. Sorry, I didn't catch your name" he said.
"Mark" I replied "but my mates all call me Marko" I added.
"Nice to meet you, Mark, I'm Tom, but you can call me Tommy if you like" he replied.
"Aye, no bother Tommy, lad. Just keep your head down and try not to piss anyone off" I said with a wee laugh.
"Noted. thanks, Mark" he replied as he went off to chat to the other new lads.
And just like that I was on my own again, left with the company of my own thoughts for about an hour until we touched down in our base. It is strange how much thinking you can do on your own. All I could think about was what Lip and Jonsey had said. How could things have gotten any worse than they already were? especially when we seemed to be pretty much in control of things.
We touched down in base at exactly 19:00 hours as scheduled, and we got off the helicopter and headed straight to check in. I was greeted by the very man who I wanted to see, Sergeant Heeley. I didn't want to waste any time. What did Jonsey and Lip mean when they said that I didn't want to come back here?
"Ah, Private Davies, welcome back!" he said, giving me a firm handshake.
"Thank you, sergeant." I replied.
"We need to catch up in a little bit" he said. "I still haven't thanked you for what you done for me, and I know two people who have been very much looking forward for your return" he added.
"Yes, sergeant. I've been meaning to talk to you anyway" I replied.
"Absolutely, Private Davies, we will talk. But first, go and grab yourself some food, you must be starving from travelling for that long" he said. "Besides, Private Mackie and Private Fraser are in the dining room awaiting your return" he added.
"Yes sergeant" I replied.
As I walked into the dining room, from a distance, I could see Dave and Georgie having their lunch and as I walked up to them, I was surrounded by soldiers, some of them I already knew, and some of them were new faces. I walked up behind Dave to scare him.
"Private Mackie, you absolute bellend!" I said as he just about jumped out his skin. He turned around and saw me.
"You absolute wanker!" he said with a laugh as he threw his arms round me and gave me a hug. "I was starting to think you weren't coming back" he added.
"Believe me mate, if my mum or my sister had their way, I wouldn't of been back" I replied. I then turned to Georgie who also gave me a big hug, followed by a kiss. "I've missed you" she said.
"I missed you too" I replied as I gave her another kiss.
"Alright you two, get a room" Dave joked as he stepped in between us.
As I sat down beside Dave and Georgie to have my food, we talked about home, about how much has changed around the streets of Edinburgh. Georgie talked about how it's not Manchester that she misses the most, it's her family. She hates living in Manchester. I guess that's why she liked being in the army so much. We got onto the subject of what I was doing when I was back home and Dave had a little sob when I told him about Fergie. "I loved that dog" he said as he shared his own memories of Fergie. As time went on, we got onto the conversation about the new recruits and that's when I remembered the brief conversation I had with Lip and Jonsey at the barracks in England, so I decided to mention it to Dave and Georgie.
"Here, I was waiting for the helicopter and the English barracks, and you'll never guess who came off as I was waiting to go on, Lip and Jonsey" as soon as I mentioned it Dave and Georgie immediately looked at each other. "It looked like they've had the living shit kicked out of them and they told me about how much has changed and said that I really didn't want to come back, you two don't know anything about that do you?" I asked.
"Yeah we do, lad" said Dave.
"This is something that we needed to update you on with the sergeant" added Georgia.
"So lets go see him" I said as I picked up my Burgan.
"If you say so" replied Dave.
We walked to the sergeant's room, stopping past the Male's dorm where I dropped off my Burgan. We knocked on the sergeant's door.
"Come in" he said. As we entered, we were greeted by the sergeant and the platoon commander, commander Hanley. we saluted the platoon commander and requested permission to speak with the sergeant to which the sergeant suggested we spoke on front of the platoon commander which we agreed to.
"I heard you wanted to speak with me about something sergeant" I said.
"Yes I did, Private Davies. We have found ourselves in a spot of bother" he replied. He showed me a picture of a member of the Taliban.
"Recognise him?" asked the platoon commander.
"No, Sir" I replied.
"That's him that shot Private Davies, isn't it, Sir?" asked Georgie.
"It is, indeed, Private Fraser, his name is Moses Abdullah." answered Sergeant Heeley.
"It turns out that Private Davie's is now a wanted man within the Taliban" said Commander Hanley. "Sergeant Heeley was doing some undercover work for special forces within the Taliban, he found out some critical information that Moses is one of the main leaders, and that he has set up an operation to kill a well-known doctor here in Kabul whose husband turned on the Taliban. Moses found out that Sergeant Heeley was British army so set out to kill him that day you were on patrol. The bullet was meant to take out Heeley, and it would of done if Davies hadn't got in the way" He added.
"Meaning that Mark is also on Abdullah's hit list" added Dave.
"Correct, Private Mackie" said Sergeant Heeley. "We have also heard that he plans on taking us both out within the next few days, planning an attack on our base, here in Kabul." he added.
"Your fellow soldiers, Private Jones and Private Adams were tortured for information about the operation we are running here in Kabul, they wanted to know our exact movements and our exact intentions and plans" said Commander Hanley. "They didn't get much information out of them as we were able to locate them and evacuate them from within their base which has obviously pissed them off even more." He added.
"So what's the plan then?" I asked.
"We plan on taking them out before they take us out, all at the same time as protecting Dr Afri Karim" replied Commander Hanley.
"We haven't got exact details as of yet, but we will have tomorrow, I assume we will make our move tomorrow night, so until then we need to stay alert and stay prepared to engage at all times" added Sergeant Heeley.
"Yes sergeant!" said me Dave and Georgie.
"Dismissed" said sergeant Heeley.
We walked back to the dorms at around 22:00 hours and we climbed onto the roof, the roof of the dorms is the best place to go if you want to sneak for a late-night cigarette, or if you just want to have some alone time where no one can bother you. Me and Dave always sat up on there just to get a bit of quiet time or to have a cigarette before I met Georgie and we showed it to her tonight. The three of us lay on the roof and smoked a cigarette before we went to bed.
"Wow, it really is nice up here, why did I not think about coming up here before?" said Georgie.
"Yeah, it's really nice and peaceful up here, isn't it?" replied Dave.
"I like coming up here, nice and quiet and nobody to bother you" I added.
"Just the way I like it," said Georgie.
We stayed up talking for a good 15 minutes until Dave decided it was time for him to go to bed.
"Well. I'm going to go and call it a day guys, I'm knackered. I'll leave you two lovebirds to have some alone time!" he said with a cheeky grin.
"Aye no bother, lad, I don't think I'll be too far behind you" I replied.
"No dramas, see you guys in the morning, great to have you back, Marko," said Dave.
"See you in the morning Dave," said Georgie. And as Dave hopped off the roof and went into the dorms it was me and Georgie on the roof, we stayed quiet as we stared at the moon for a minute until Georgie broke the silence.
"The moon really is beautiful at this time of night, isn't it?" she said
"Well aye it is beautiful, but I'd rather be looking at you. That's a better view if you ask me" I replied with a smile.
"Awwh. You soppy bastard" she said as she leaned into me as we cuddled in the moonlight. "Mark, I'm scared, what if this operation tomorrow goes tits up and I'm not there to help you this time?" she added. I could tell that she was genuinely scared.
"Listen, nothing's going to go tits up. We're the British army. the best in the world. It's moments like this that we train for" I replied, reassuring her that everything was going to be alright, even though I knew she had a point, anything could go wrong at any given time.
"Well you had better be right, because I'm looking forward to our little drink when we can finally get the fuck out of here." she replied.
"Of course." I said as we shared a kiss and headed off to bed.