[Zagros Mountains, Iraq.
Thursday, May 30, 2003.]
𝚃𝙰𝚁𝙶𝙴𝚃 𝙻𝚉
𝟷𝟾:𝟺𝟼 𝙷𝚁𝚂
As the helo landed in the Zagros Mountains, everyone — now donning gas masks — filed out but stayed in a crouching position. "Hey, Joey!" Nathan Merwin called to the lance corporal who looked over to him to see him turn around, doing exactly what José Gomez told him not to do moments earlier.
"Why the fuck did you have to go and do that?" Joey shouted, nearly pointing his rifle at Merwin which bewildered Y/n L/n to the core since it was basic knowledge to never point a gun, loaded or not, at another human being.
Joey shifts his body to face the building, pulling out his cross necklace and putting it up to the nozzle of the mask as if he was kissing it whilst Merwin cackles. Letting go of his necklace, Joey shakes his head. "Think nothing of it," Y/n quietly mumbles. "He's just trying to get a reaction out of you." She consoled him.
"I know, I know..." The helicopter behind them then took off as Lieutenant Kolchek and Sergeant Kay passed the squatting trio, taking the lead. This prompted the three to get off the ground to follow them.
As they neared the building, a figure could be spotted. "The Americans! The American soldiers are here!" The man shouted in Arabic which caused everyone to hit the deck in case the individual was armed.
"Sir, we've been made! Awaiting orders!" Nick kept his gun pointed towards the subject, but it was customary to never shoot in the Marine Corps unless the enemy shot first. It is a rule. It was a foolish question in Y/n's opinion as she brought her attention towards Kolchek, silently hoping that he wouldn't bend the rules due to superstition.
"Fan out and hold fire! We're going PSYOPS this shit."
Y/n let out a sigh of relief, feeling as if a weight has came off her shoulders as Jason uttered this. However, she couldn't help her mind drift back to the incident at the checkpoint and this alone caused her demeanour to become bitter once more.
The assault on Target LZ continued. Rachel King, who was sitting comfortably in the helo, "We are the US Forces! Exit the building with your hands raised above your head! We mean you no harm." Her Arabic transmitted through the speakers of the helicopter — making it perfectly clear what their demands were.
A few seconds later, three figures exited the building as they obeyed Rachel's orders. "Down! Down! On your face, now!" Nick gestured for the group to get onto the floor but to no avail, they didn't understand.
Joey then approached the couple with his gun raised high, "Hands behind your back!" He repeated the gesture that Nick did and they immediately complied. As Joey kept his eyes locked on them, the remainder of the group — Merwin, Kolchek, Kay, S/n, and a handful of others entered the building to scope it out. Merwin even kicked down a door on occasion.
"Clear room!"
"Clear!"
"Compound is secure. Prisoners are playing ball." Nick, who can finally relax, spoke to Jason with ease. "Roger. Get Corporal Merwin to pop yellow smoke at the LZ to bring in the Colonel." He gave the sergeant a new set of orders.
Moments later, everyone was waiting outside one of the main buildings and watched as Eric, Rachel, and Clarice Stokes approached them all. They had all taken off their gas masks at this time. "This raid's a bust! These people are not the enemy. They're just shepherds." Nick complained as he exited from the entrance to give Jason an earful who only glared at him in response.
Kolchek, without another thought, left his side to greet the Commanding Officer. "Lieutenant Kolchek, a sitrep, if you will." Eric King casually ordered as the southern man began to walk with them.
"No shots fired, sir. No casualties," Jason started. "The farm is secure and we're processing captives." He briefed the lieutenant colonel.
"Captives?" Rachel gaped as she deliberately made her way into their not-so-discrete conversation. "Have you located an entrance to the underground silo?" Eric questioned Kolchek.
"Negative, sir. If there is one, it's well camouflaged."
"If there is one?" Eric stopped in his tracks as he repeated Jason. "What does that mean, lieutenant?" He asked in an accusatory manner.
"We have yet to carry out a full search..." Jason trailed off, restraining himself from sharing his doubts on how there might not be a silo, to begin with. "We'll find it, sir." He reassured the blond.
Eric nodded, understanding where Kolchek was coming from. "You took a risk giving up the element of surprise, lieutenant, but it looks like it paid off. No casualties and clean work." He gave the brunette a backhanded compliment.
"Thank you, sir."
"Nonetheless, any holdout Iraqis might now be on high alert," Eric warned the lieutenant. "My team's ready for anything, Colonel." The Squad Leader humbly bragged as they resumed their trek towards the building where Y/n L/n was waiting near the entrance with Nathan Merwin and Nick Kay.
"That went smoothly." Merwin pointed out the obvious as he leaned on a wall, pridefully looking at his higher-ups. "You think?" Rachel asked, not impressed in the slightest.
"Got the place locked down tighter than a virgin's—" before Merwin could use his metaphor, Rachel swiftly cut him off.
"Do not finish that sentence, Corporal," Rachel advised and then the Asian raised his hands in the air. "Are there any ready for questioning?" She let out a sigh.
"Yeah, just don't ask them any tough physics questions." Merwin got one last joke in before the once-married couple entered the building. Jason looked between the three, "Stay sharp. If anyone so much as raises an eyebrow, I wanna know about it."
"Copy that."
"I don't know about you guys, but something doesn't feel right about this place." Clarice looked around anxiously. 'You have Merwin to thank for that.' Y/n thought to herself as she recalled when he turned around when disembarking the helo.
"Oh, yeah?" Merwin's eyebrows raised at her superstition. "So is that this, uh, women's intuition I keep hearing about?" He gave a toothy grin.
"Yeah, you want to see what happens when you piss it off?" With that, she joined Rachel, Eric, and Jason in the house.
Y/n waited until Clarice got inside before speaking up, "Better luck next time, Merwin." She cocked her head to the side, smiling when she caught a glimpse of the disgruntled look on his face. "Aw, c'mon!" Merwin's nose scrunched up as she chuckled. "Don't you start now!" He added, playfully.
Rachel King entered one of the rooms where three of the captives were on their knees, being held at gunpoint as Jason Kolchek stood at the door. "Stay still. I'm just going to pat you down." A marine reassured one of the individuals before Rachel started to interrogate them in their native language.
"As-salamu Alaykum, brother," Rachel squatted beside him. "I'm going to ask you some questions and you must answer truthfully. Where is the entrance to the silo?" Instead of speaking up, Jason stayed respected and appointed to remain quiet. "I'm going to ask you one more time. Where is the silo located?" After she repeated herself, the hostage quickly looked behind him at a makeshift symbol that hung from the ceiling.
Jason tilted his head to the side, "The hell is that?"
"Some kind of effigy..." Rachel responded, returning to English. "Possibly pagan," she assumed before looking back to the hostage to question him further. "What does it mean?"
"You'll find out soon enough." The shepherd gritted his teeth under the cloak that covered his face.
Curious about what it was, Jason yanked one off from the ceiling. "What the fuck?" He mumbled to himself. "How many of you are there here?" Rachel went on with cross-examining the shepherd.
Kolchek seethed as he grazed his thumb over the top of it, accidentally cutting it in the process which caused droplets of blood to fall onto the ground. "Ow..." he frowned and then turned around to watch the examination.
Rachel stood up, fed up when she had no results, "I've had enough of this. Corporal, keep an eye on the captives."
"You heard her, marine." Jason backed her up although there was no point in doing so.
After everything was all said and done, Lieutenant Kolchek began to search around the room to find broken and used gas masks prior to leaving to enter the adjacent bedroom with Rachel where only a singular captive was being held. "This one was armed, ma'am." The marine brought this to Rachel's attention.
"Everyone in this country is armed." She rolled her eyes before going down to eye level to discuss with the guilty party. "That's a mighty big gun you've got there, brother. Surely too big for scaring the jackals away from the goats." She transitioned to Arabic once more. "Where is the entrance to the silo?" Rachel cut to the chase but was met with the shepherd spitting in her face, causing her to gasp.
Jason raised his gun high above the captive's head intending to hit him but decided against it last minute.
"Do that again and I'll tear you up into pieces and feed you to the fucking jackals," Rachel threatened in English and then stood to her feet, muttering under her breath in resentment. "Are there more captives?" She looked over to Jason.
"Yeah. In the other hut," he admitted. "Follow me."
As Rachel backed her way out of the room, her gaze remained on the shepherd. "I'll be back soon and then you are going to talk," She said. "Keep a firm eye on this one." She demanded the other marine in the room.
Exiting outside, Jason hurried to Joey's side — who momentarily stopped his whistling — to discuss his worries with the lieutenant, "I swear Merwin's brought some bad juju down on us." He frowned.
"I don't believe in curses, the tooth fairy, or Santa Claus." Jason retorted, tilting his head back. At his statement, Joey couldn't help but crack a smile.
"The tooth fairy, yeah, but Santa? Say it ain't so!" Joey went on with the joke but Jason didn't reply. The Southern man simply copied the lance corporal's smirk. "You've truly fucked up Christmas, man!" Joey went on, teasing.
Abandoning Joey's side, Jason then was stopped when looming toward the entrance of the other hut by Nick, "There ain't shit here."
"You got something to say, Sergeant?"
"Look at the ground. What'd you see? Jack shit!" Nick clenched his jaw. "If there was a silo, where's all the tracks? No, man, this is a fishing expedition. His precious Caelus has got it all wrong!" He slandered the mission, dragging Eric's name through the mud.
"We follow orders, Sergeant. This search is far from over." Kolchek ignored Nick's natural pessimistic nature. "Aye aye, sir." The sergeant bit his tongue to reframe from complaining more but allowed his sarcastic tone to slip out.
Rejoining Rachel who was in the process of inquiring about three more hostages, Kolchek looked around the room and spotted a tapestry that strongly resembled a rug that hung on the wall across from where they sat. "I represent the government of the United States of America. You're in some deep shit, and it is important you tell me the truth," she approached one of the captives. "Where is the entrance of the silo?" She didn't bother to bend down this time, learning from her mistakes last time.
The shepherd didn't respond to her but did look at one of the rugs on the ground, almost as if he were motioning to it. Jason and Rachel stared at each other for a moment before he put down his gun, removing the carpet from its current position to discover a trapdoor that was hidden under it. A marine hurried over, pointing a gun at the hatch in case there were any hostiles underneath as Jason opened it.
Taking a peek inside, Kolchek let out a frustrated groan, "That's heroin."
"Just keeps getting better by the minute," Rachel says in a falsified cheery tone. "These people are nothing but common crooks. What the fuck was Eric thinking?"
"I want this place turned inside out," Jason said loud and clear, greatly disappointed that they have made no progress on finding this alleged silo.
Just then, an explosion could be heard which causes Joey to look up to see that one of their helicopters has been hit by — what he assumed was — was a missile. When it crash-landed, unforeseen forces started to reign fire on the American troops. Joey ran to get to cover only to be caught in the crossfire as blood seeped through his pants and torso. "Fuck! I'm hit!" He shouted before ultimately laying down, being unable to move.
"Motherfuckers!" Merwin cursed as he aggressively forced Y/n inside the building before himself whilst Eric King followed suit. Clarice, on the other hand, refused to move from her spot and balled up in a fetal position and brought her hands to her head.
"Shit! Fuck!" She screamed.
Lieutenant Kolchek ran outside of the hut, peering around the corner only to catch a small glimpse of Joey's body out in the open. "Get down! Get down!" Jason yelled in hopes that his comrade would hear him. He rapidly snapped his body back just as the enemy shot in his general direction while Nick Kay joined him. "They're up on the ridge! Return fire." He granted one of the members of his group permission to engage.
The two came out of hiding and started to shoot up at the mountain before rushing over to a stone ledge where Merwin and Y/n hopped over to meet the pair, squatting as low as they could. "That was fucking close! Wooh!" Merwin laughed, his adrenaline kicking in. "What a fucking rush, huh?"
Y/n, on the other hand, couldn't reciprocate his excitement since she knew that Joey was injured — having seen him for a split second before they regrouped with Lieutenant Kolchek and Sergeant Kay. She whimpered as she felt the tightening of her throat, her intake of breath falling short. Her eyes were wet with tears and her body wracked as she desperately fight herself from crying.
"Hey..." Merwin overheard Y/n sniffle which caused him to bring his focus toward her. "Pull yourself together, S/n!" Merwin gently elbowed her and she nodded, acknowledging that it wasn't the time to get so emotional.
"I'm sorry..."
A handful of Iraqis took their place on the other side of the plain as they advance, but Merwin stood to his feet and began firing away, "Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!" He exclaimed and ended up successfully taking down one in the process. Joey wailed in pain as his body twisted and turned. He still lay there in the designated No Man's Land. "Motherfuckers are dug like ticks," Merwin growled.
"They're closing in. We gotta get to Joey!" The lieutenant stated. The adversary cursed in Arabic at the Americans. "Yeah, fuck you, too!" Kolchek stood up and returned firing, also taking one a singular Iraqi.
"Let's burn the fuckers out with W.P.!" Merwin turned to rash decisions and, though it was inhuman to use it on another person, it would benefit them tremendously.
"We can't use phosphorous against people!" Nick argued over the gunfire, but listening to Lieutenant Colonel King's previous orders was out of the question. They had to take any means necessary to ensure that they make out of this alive. "Aw, come on! You rather us hold hands and sing Kumbayah around a fucking campfire?" Merwin grimaced at the sergeant's insolence.
"Shut the fuck up for a second and let me think" Jason looks down at the ground, trying to calm himself down, but Merwin wasn't having any of that.
"What's to think about, huh? We're getting massacred! Permission to use W.P.?"
"Burn 'em out." Jason approved Nathan's wishes. Merwin didn't waste a second and shot a white phosphorous grenade, catching four Iraqis in its smoke as their uniforms were lit aflame — leaving them all wailing in pain while they started to burn alive.
Kolchek stands up and takes down another one before returning to the trio, "I'm gonna flank 'em. Give me some cover and get Joey out of there!" He then leaps over the wall and crawls through a gap in a wooden fence. On his way to find shelter from the gunfire, he fires in the direction of an Iraqi but directly hit him before ducking behind a large pile of materials.
After seeing that Lieutenant Kolchek was safe and sound and shoot a W.P. Grenade at a soldier, rendering the Iraqi unconscious due to the blast, Nick jumped over the stone wall as well and does a somersault over Joey to sling him over his shoulder. Joey slightly fumbled off his shoulders, too weak to try anymore, causing Nick's knees to buckle — preventing himself from falling by kneeling as he made sure both of them were safely behind a tractor as Joey lays in front of him on the ground.
"I'm fucking dying, Nick..." Joey coughed in-between wheezes, blood making its way out of his mouth as he held onto his comrade for support.
"Bullshit, man!" Nick shakes him slightly, causing Joey to wince at the action. "I know you're hurting, but you're not fucking dying," he disregarded the state that Joey was in. There was a lump stuck in his throat which made it hard for him to speak. "Hold still, calm down! It's a flesh wound. It's a paper cut... just hold still." The light scent of metal was in the air, wafting to his nose. Nick felt his heart clench against his chest and he couldn't breathe as the reality of what was happening sunk into his mind.
With all the strength he could muster, Joey pulled him down and slightly lifted his upper torso, their faces inches away from each other before he spoke in a gentle tone of voice. "Liar." Joey frowned as his eyes became devoid of any emotion, blood trickling from his nose as it pooled on his cheek.
Nick felt Joey's soul leave his body, his corpse going limp in the process. Nick wasn't given any time to react and he only stared at Joey, with slightly wide eyes and parted lips. He felt weak, powerless. Slowly, his dark hues trailed down to Joey's necklace as he held the cross in his palm. "Say a prayer, my friend." He whispered before yanking on the accessory, and taking it.
With great haste, Eric King sprinted outside with two marines accompanying his side. "What are you waiting for? Spread out and fight back!" He ushered them. "All call signs, this is Dropkick. Silence lifted. Can someone give me a sitrep on the contact? Over." He talked into his microphone.
"Dropkick, this is Killjoy Two, we are under fire and going down!" The pilot in the last helicopter confessed. "Targets have advanced into the LZ!" He screamed.
Eric watched as the nose of the helo hit the surface and then lurched forward and slammed down on its back, exploding and demolishing the metal bird. "Could this get any worse?" Eric groaned as a small tremor shook the ground, making him lose his footing slightly.
Jason Kolchek goes to the perimeter in search of more Iraqis that may sneak up on him and his team only to find one of the shepherds. Instinctively, the lieutenant points his gun at him. "Get down on the floor or I swear I'll put a fucking hole through you?" As the lieutenant intimidated him, Jason watched as the shepherd turned his back on him — hobbling his way out of his sight and into safety. "Fuck," he mumbled. "Doesn't anyone speak English anymore?"
A cock of a gun coming from behind him caused Kolchek's eyes to widen. He let out a shaky sigh, "You better not miss."
The air around them was tense as it was still in question whether or not Salim was going to kill the American. "No more killing." he removed his finger from the trigger.
SALIM OTHMAN
LT. IRAQI GROUND FORCES
STUBBORN
COURAGEOUS
SELFLESS
Jason turned around and saw Salim pulling his arm away from his gun, confirming that he was going to spare him. Jason copied Salim's mannerisms. As the two were just about to rest their weaponry on the ground, an aggressive rumble disrupted their truce.
With panic rushing through his veins, Kolchek's entire body uncontrollably vibrated; he couldn't grab anything to stop himself from shaking and watched as the ground tore and divided were soon swallowed whole by the ground underneath, succumbing to whatever awaited them within.
//////
these lyrics from "back to the old house" from the smiths reminds me of joey to y/n:
- "and you never knew how much i really liked you... because i never even told you. oh, and i meant to."
i love joey sm and i will not stand for any slander. 🫂