The Guardian Angel

Chapter-3: James

I stood, watching over the shifting sands for any sign of danger. The same dessert that was hot and arid during the day, became mercilessly cold at night. I had been sent to Afghanistan. I would tell you where except I didn't know where I was. There had been reports of attacks and the local government had called on the US government for help, and now we were posted to help them.

We had set up camp here a few weeks ago to sweep the area for any signs of terrorism. None turned up. This was one of the most barren parts of the Registan desert.

I sighed deeply. That's when my friend Jeffrey came to stand beside me.

"All clear sergeant?" He joked.

I ignored him.

His face morphed into one of concern.

"Hey man, what happened?" He asked.

"Nothing Jeff. It's just that, I haven't been able to contact Natalie for so long. I know you can't exactly call someone when you are hunting for terrorists in the middle of a desert."

He laid a hand on my shoulder and said, "Look man, love life isn't exactly easy. Especially when you're in the army. I would suggest you—"

He was cut off by the radio coming to life.

Status report.

He spoke into the radio.

Unit 0050 coming in. All clear.

It had been about 2 months since I'd met or even talked to Natalie. I was dying to see her. Even when I was leaving for the tour she couldn't wait. She'd had some urgent meeting back at her office. She kissed me passionately and ran back to the car.

That night we spent chatting and looking over the endless plains of sand.

As dawn arrived, the sky was lit with a reddish hue. The reddish sky met the dunes of sand where the sun was slowly starting to peek out. This was one of the few moments of tranquility you would get in a desert. Without the heat or the cold whipping at you with mercilessly either hot or cold sand beneath your feet.

We made our way back to camp, where they were making arrangements to leave. As I had said before, our search on this part had revealed absolutely nothing. So we got a call from the base asking us to get back so that they may send us somewhere else.

We reached base and came to the sight of the camp already being cleared. We reported to the commanding officer, who directed us to the transport which will be taking us back.

It was a bus, protected by a metal mesh. It's color I would have told you if it wasn't covered by dust and sand. Frankly speaking, the only part of the bus that was visible was the windshield. The bus could easily fit about 50 at a time.

Jeff and I, with about 20 others, filed into the bus. All of us were grim. It had been 2 months since we came to Afghanistan. All of us were homesick and tired of the entire thing. This camp was one of the many we had set up to sweep an area.

The bus started with a lurch and took us down the road. The rocking of the bus combined with my fatigue of standing watch the entire night, lulled me to a deep sleep.

I had a vague dream I wasn't quite able to recollect. It was fading fast from my mind. By the time I had fully woken up, the only thing I could remember was that there was this girl who was being pulled by the wrist by a man. Both of them threw frantic looks over their shoulders as they ran.

Before I could process it, a deep voice shook me out of my reverie.

"Both of you passed out cold." The voice spoke.

I looked around to find Ryan, another comrade who happened to be a part of my team. He was a private. Jeff was a corporal. I was a sergeant.

Did he say both? I looked down and saw Jeff deep asleep on my shoulder.

And he had drooled all over it.

"Eww. Disgusting man! Get up!" I shifted my shoulder and pushed him straight up. He sat up straight, with wide eyes.

"Wh–wha-What?" He stuttered. He looked around, turning his head wildly. He looked down at the drool traveling from my shoulder down my uniform and swatted at it with his handkerchief with a goofy smile. He ended up launching the entire bus roaring with laughter.

We reached the base a while later. It was late at night, so we just ended up crashing into our bunks.

The next day, we went to have breakfast. Whatever we were going to do next, was not known to me. So I decided to enjoy the food. I had just started eating, when my reporting officer, Sergeant first class, walked towards me.

"Sergeant Major wants you to report to him, Stat."

With that, he turned his back on me and strode out.

I wolfed my food down and ran towards the Sergeant Major's office. I took a minute outside and composed myself. Took a deep breath. Then knocked at his door.

"Enter." He answered.

I entered, saluted, and stood in attention in front of him.

He gave me a curt nod.

"James, I am aware that you just returned from your previous sweep. But I need you to go on a mission." He gave a pause to ensure I was following, then nodded before continuing. "Your team is the only one available and small enough to go on this. We captured a terrorist at one of the sweeps towards the south of a camp. They request transport and a team to get him back to base. You are to take your team and bring him back alive. We still need to question him." He finished.

With that, he dismissed me to prepare my team to leave.