Our Lad

CHAPTER ONE

As I lay on my back looking up at the sky, all I could hear was shouting, muffled, but clear shouting "MEDIC!! WHERE'S THE FUCKING MEDIC?!!" I couldn't help but wonder what's going on, I couldn't even see or hear properly, and then all of I sudden I seen a figure running towards me and a voice speaking to me, just clear enough to make out what was said and understand that I have heard this voice before.

"You're alright Marko lad, just stay with us, we're going to get you home okay?" it was the voice of my best friend Dave. Oh, how we were always getting ourselves into trouble, only difference is this is a very different type of trouble that we were used to. After about a minute everything slowly started to come back to me.

My name is Mark Davies, I am 20 years old, I am a soldier in the British Army, currently stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan with my best mate Dave and today, I have just been shot.

As I got dragged into cover, surrounded by gunshots and flying bullets I heard another voice, a voice I've never heard before, a gentle and soothing voice.

"Alright Mark, my names Georgie and I'm a medic, I'm going to help you out, but I need you to work with me okay?" I could only just about understand what she was saying but I nodded anyway, all of a sudden I felt a sudden, shooting pain in my side and as I looked down and saw blood pouring out of my side and all of a sudden, my heart was beating much faster and my breathing got harder, I started to panic.

"OI! Don't take no notice of that you're going to be just fine, you hear me?" replied Georgie. as the gunshots stopped and I heard the squeaking of breaks on the Jeep stopping beside me, I was surrounded by 3 or 4 of my fellow soldiers.

"Okay, on 3, 1, 2, 3!" as they lifted me into the Jeep I felt that sudden pain in my side again, there were only a few seconds before the gunshots started again, only this time the gunshots were coming from the Taliban. Luckily, no one else got shot and we were just able to close the doors and speed off before the situation got any worse. With everything suddenly got quieter with only the sound of the engine, I could hear more clearly, Georgie finally had a chance to properly assess my mound and this time I could start to hear everything a lot clearly.

"Okay so we have a gunshot wound just under the rib cage, no exit wound which means the bullet is still in him so we will have to try remove the bullet before I can fix the wound." Now I'm no doctor but even I know that doesn't sound too good.

"Please don't fuck up, he's my best mate and I can't lose him I just can't" said Dave. As I felt a whole lot of pain and a lot more poking and prodding, I finally heard Georgie's voice again "okay I've managed to get the bullet out, now its time to sort out that wound" and as I was filled with relief that the removal of the bullet was a success, I only just managed to find the energy to turn my head and look at Dave. As I looked at him, I gave him a little wink, however, the look on Dave's face was ghost-like, just plain white with no emotion whatsoever. And just then as I seen a tear running down the side of his face, suddenly, everything just went black.

As I slowly started to wake up, I suddenly noticed that I was no longer in the Jeep. I was in a hospital bed back in camp, and just like I thought he would be, Dave was sat right by my bedside.

"You alright, lad? Fucking scared the shit out me that did" Dave never showed his emotions, well at least not on front of me, he has always been a type of role model for me, he was just one year older than me. Our parents live right next door to each other back home in Edinburgh, Scotland, and we have been best mates for as long as I can remember, never even fell out once, we went to the same school together and even on weekends we went to Easter Road to watch our beloved, Hibernian Football club together. our bond was unbreakable. Even when we were in school, he was always looking out for me, always getting me out of trouble and making sure I was alright. It was his idea to join the Army together. We had always wanted to join since we were young however, because he was one year older than me, he waited until I turned 16 to join the army together. All throughout our basic training in Harrogate, we helped each other through it, I could never manage to iron my uniform properly and he could, he couldn't shine his boots properly and I could. We done each other's jobs that the other couldn't do all throughout basic training, I guess that's how we managed to get through training to be honest we both helped each other through growing up and we weren't going to stop now.