A Hero of War
-Recruiting Office-
"Hmm.. papers seem to all be in order." said the recruiting officer, a large, doberman who calmly read from my papers. I stood there, some sweat dripping from my face, the office was hot but the fact that I was about to go to war made it seem hotter still.
As the officer took a final look through my papers, I let my mind wander, visions of medals and getting respect from my old man, a hero in the second World War, flashed in my mind. Growing up in a patriotic family was great, and my family almost pushed me into the recruiting office when I said I was thinking of joining the army.
I was proud to fight for my country, under the only flag that I know and trust, but first I, like many others, have to get threw the recruiting office and then the training. As I continued to ponder what I'll do the recruiting officer stood up, handed me the papers saying, "Well, everything is good, congratulations-" he checked my papers on last time to find my name, "Congratulations Nick and welcome to the U.S. Army." with the biggest smile on my face, I shook the officers hand and walked out to tell my family waiting for me back home.
-Boot Camp 12:21 P.M-
"Come on you maggots! Push ups can't be THAT hard!" Screamed the drill instructor, a tiger that told us to only call him "Sir", he didn't care about telling us his name nor did he really care about ours. I cursed as I got to my 30th pushup, being pretty fit it wasn't too hard. The only problem was that it was late and the rain had come down just a few hours ago, making the ground slick with mud.
"Man, this guy is a real hard ass." Whispered a panther next to me, his name was Alex, I nodded in agreement but kept my mouth shut, a few people over the drill instructor was yelling at a fox that had slipped in the mud, "Come on you lazy bum! Get moving or it's twenty more!" That got the fox movin, pushing himself back up with all the strenght that he could muster. I didn't pay much attention I had to get to fifty push-ups then I'll be able to go back to my bunk and get some sleep. Finally getting to fourty I looked at the panther, his yellow eyes concentrated on the ground, I was pretty amazed, for a wolf I was pretty muscular but I was at fourty and already my arms hurt, Alex was nearing fifty and seemed like he could go a hundred more.
"Nick! Move you ass!" I realised I had stopped doing push-ups and snapped back to it, pushing up and down in the mud, nearly slipping a few times. I was glad though, tommarow was weapons training, where I finally got to use some REAL fire power!
-Final days of Boot Camp-
"Men. it has been a great honor to mold you into the fighting machines of this great country." Said the Drill Instructor as he spoke to the crowd of soldiers standing in front of him. I stood in the third row, next to Alex. Both of us had become great friends since the beginning of Boot Camp. I was happy and Alex was happy, out of all the furs in Boot Camp, few were able to graduate. I glanced behind my and was able to see the fox that had slipped in the mud, now it seemed like it had been a year since then and even the fox seemed different, he had looked weak back then and now he was changed, I looked back at the Drill Instructor a slight smile on my face. The Drill Instructor seemed to gleam as he gave the ending of his speech.
I felt abit of pride swell in my gut as I thought of when I went to the target range, though I was nervous I managed to be the best shot of all of them, telling my father about it later in a letter to home.
"Hey, Nick, I heard that you're in the same unit as me." Alex whispered to me
"Sweet." I whispered back, with the same smile on my face. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with my best friend, maybe it won't be too bad.
-First mission, mission brief, escort a convoy of supplies to a nearby town-
I was excited, even in the sweltering heat I seemed to be as cool as can be. Walking in formation in front of a cargo truck carrying food, water, and medical supplies to a town, The weight of my assault rifle comforting in my hands. Alex was taking up rear with a few other furs.
As we turned a corner, we stopped. In the middle of the road was a car. The hood of the car was up an a horse was working on it while his family sat in the car, female in front, kids in the back seat. The captian ordered the truck to back up a ways as he sended someone to check it out.
"John, go check it out." ordered the Lepoard. John was a lizard and also a pretty good medic. With his rifle raised, he crept forward, shouting something in Arabic. This caught the horses attention who said something back to him. John moved closer, not putting his rifle down or taking his eyes of the apparent driver. When John got close to the driver, he lowered his rifle and began talking to the driver, first pointing to the car, then pointing to the cargo trucks. Finally John started walking away. He took two steps before the car bomb exploded, shrapnel blowing the lizard to shreds.
Before I could respond, I could hear shooting comming from the rear and someone yelling "Ambush!" The hills around us seemed to spring alive as soldiers took up positions around the tops of the hills. Already two soldiers went down, raising my gun and firing at the same time I managed to get two coming down the hill. Getting into a prone position, I steadied my aim and fired, catching a rabbit in the chest, he fell , rolling down the hill and stopping at my feet.
When I looked down I saw that he was still alive. I felt pity for him but quickly but it aside and shot him in the chest again. Taking a quick look to see if the front was secure I ran to the back of the truck, using the single round option on my rifle to snipe two terrorist. Switching to a three round burst I took out a few more before I saw Alex. He was using the truck as cover.
I saw a terrorist sneaking up behind him, took quick aim and fired, hitting him in the head. Alex looked over his shouldier, saw the terrorist then nodded a thanks at me, I gave him the thumbs up and continued fighting. Soon the fighting was over and, after taking care of our wounded, we continued the mission, getting to the town in a very short amount of time.