The Army Girl (lesbian) completed

13. The Journey.

The flight took off as my squad sat in the hanger of the jet, everyone falling asleep shortly after take off. I could never sleep on these journeys and today it seemed like I wasn't the only one not asleep. I glanced down the seats and noticed Sergeant Smith was also awake fidgeting nervously with her rank slides.

I unbuckled myself and moved down the jet to sit next to Sergeant Smith, I pulled two protein bars out of my combat jacket pocket and offered one to her, she accepted with a small, nervous smile.

"Is this your first tour?" I asked, taking a bite out of my bar.

"Yeah, is it that easy to tell?"

"Nah, you just look exactly like I did on my first tour." I explained.

"How many tours have you been on, Lance Corporal?"

"My first one was about a month after I turned eighteen, I've just turned twenty one, so in these last three years I've done five. This is my sixth tour and I've extended it this time round." I calculated in my head. "By the way, my name is Carmen."

"Five tours and you've only just been promoted to Lance Corporal? My name is Megan."

"I wasn't really in this career for the ranks, plus, I've been with my squad since I turned eighteen and up until our squad leader left Sergeant Llewelyn, Sophie, was the second in command. So until recently, I wasn't needed as second in command therefore didn't really need a rank." I explained trying not to be offended.

"Seems to me like you would be a better squad leader than me." Megan complimented, sounding defeated.

"You wouldn't have been made squad leader if they hadn't seen something special in you. You will do fine, you'll learn the ropes now and when we join your squad I'll be there to support you."

"Thank you, Carmen. Those aren't military issue tags, are they?" Megan pointed out as I subconsciously played with my tags.

"One tag is military, the other two were a gift." I explained as looked down at them and ran my thumb over the engravings.

"I see, gift from that special someone?" Megan enquired.

"Kind of." I responded as Megan raised an eyebrow in question, "My best friend had them made for me. She's special to me and she knows how I feel just like I know how she feels, but, we aren't in a relationship."

"How come? If you both feel the same, why aren't you in a relationship?"

"I don't think she can be with me while I do this as a job, leaving for months on end and being in danger. I think if we crossed that barrier between friendship and romantic relationship it would cause more devastation if anything happened to me." I spoke softly.

"But, won't you both regret it if she's finds someone else or if you do?"

"She's the only one I want to be with, so, I won't be with anyone else. Before I left, she told me to come back to her, so, I'm assuming she doesn't want anyone else either. It's very complicated, but, I know in my heart that we were made for each other, so there won't be any moving on or regrets unless I die." I chuckled slightly.

"How long till we get to camp?"

"Won't be there for hours yet, get your head down for a bit Sarge, there ain't nothing but sleep deprivation where we're going." I chuckled, as I leaned back and relaxed, closing my eyes so Megan would follow suit.

Megan fell asleep shortly afterwards and I moved myself to the floor of the jets hanger so I could clean my rifle. I took the rifle apart and delicately cleaned it spotless using my new kit. Lucas and Sophie woke up briefly as I finished putting together my rifle and I took theirs from them to clean them too.

Once I had finished cleaning everyone's rifles I woke them all up to get them to eat something before we landed. They obeyed me, giving me grateful looks as everyone, except Sergeant Smith, knew once we landed we had a long drive ahead of us. We left our rubbish in a bolted down bin in the jet and buckled ourselves in for the landing.

We landed on an airstrip and were ushered toward the armoured humvee. We all got into the Humvee and I took the drivers seat with Sophie next to me. We traveled in silence, following the map we were given to the location of the camp. Sophie lit a cigarette and passed it over to me, knowing from experience that I get cranky without my nicotine fix.

Everyone fell asleep again, while Sophie kept me hydrated and supplied with nicotine and some coffee she had brought with her for me. The drive took about three hours, but, we had made it to camp safely. We ditched our kit in the makeshift barracks we were assigned before reporting to the commanding officer, letting him know we had arrived.

The rest of us were dismissed while both Sergeants were briefed on the mission, information that would be shared in discretion with the rest of us. The rest of us sat around a fire while we waited for the return of our Sergeants. Surprisingly, fifteen minutes later only Sergeant Smith had returned.

"The Commanding Officer wants you the report to him Lance Corporal." Megan spoke quietly in my ear.

I left the group and joined Sophie in the Commanding Officers tent, saluting as I entered.

"Thank you for joining us Lance Corporal. I wanted to share this information with you two, rather than sharing it with the newbie Sergeant. We've received intelligence that hostiles have set up camp not too far from here and plan to try and over run our camp. Now, your squad is being sent in early before they gather enough forces, the numbers we've received from our insider indicate that as a squad you will match the hostiles group by number. They haven't yet gathered their forces, so your job will be to take over their bunkers and either capture or eradicate if necessary so we can move our forces in and gain some ground." The officer explained.

"When do we move out sir?" I asked.

"It's best to travel by night. At night fall you will travel to a location near the bunkers and set up camp for the rest of the night. You will move in at dawn and take them by surprise. You will set up camp here," he pointed out a position on a map, " and the bunkers are here," he pointed to two different markers, "rendezvous point, just in case, will be here," he pointed to another mark, "Now, you will collect your ammo and any supplies you need, it's a quick mission so you won't need temporary shelters, you'll be camping under the stars so you don't draw attention to yourselves. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir!" Both Sophie and I responded.

"You're dismissed, soldiers."

We saluted and left gathering the squad and our equipment and making our way to set up our camp for the night. It was a quick trip and we all took turns at sentry duty, I was first on with Lucas and Sonja came to relieve me a short while later so I could finally get some sleep. I leaned myself up against a tree, with my rifle in my grip and close my eyes to catch as much sleep as I could.