Nightmares and Monsters

Part 1

Chapter One

Qatar - Middle East, 2007

Captain Caliene Meredith sighed as she made her way over to the rest of her squad, she was tired, dirty, and wanted nothing more than to have a warm shower and just sleep on her cot in her shared tent for the next 72 hours (She shared a tent with the only other 8 females on the base, and they were either Medical or Communications personnel).

Captain Lennox was getting everyone ready for the airlift back to base after a grueling two weeks out in the deserts of Qatar looking for any problems from the locals that had been reported in to the US SOCCENT Base they were currently working out of.

She walked over to the Commander of the squad; the sound of incoming V-22 Osprey's cheering her up somewhat. "Hey Lennox, looks like the birds are here, everyone is ready to head on back to base, and I really want to put my baby away clean into the armory, this sand just doesn't help her any." she said as she patted her M-24 SWS, it was possibly the only thing she could stake her life on other than her squad and Lennox.

Lennox looked at her and smiled, "Yeah, well this blasted sand doesn't do much for any of our weapons let alone where it gets into the uniforms, Cali. And don't worry about your baby," he said pointing at her weapon, "I know you'll get the chance to clean her right, but after you help me with the reports for the Colonel, all right?" he asked, a slight smirk on his face as he waited for her response - it was well known that Caliene hated paperwork with a vengeance.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Sir! Just wait 'til I write to Sarah about your jokes on the squad when you're bored out of your mind on a mission. Not something she would want to hear, now is it William?" she replied with an evil smirk on her face now - they were constantly bickering back and forth about stuff (all in the name of fun), but it kept everyone from going stir crazy on these missions, Spec-Ops teams were hard working almost all of the time, and it wasn't unheard of for a few to go completely insane either from the pressure of the job or just because they couldn't handle the solitude at times.

Caliene knew all about solitude, she was the only female in this squad, but she was the best damned Sniper they had, and she was good at hand-to-hand fights also. It didn't hurt the fact that she knew some of the languages of the surrounding areas.

Now, here they were loading up the last few pieces of their gear, she looked around trying to figure out who was missing as she watched everyone else climb aboard the V-22 Osprey. Lennox turned to her and whistled. "Hey what ya waiting for Cali, get in here, they wanna leave and if I don't mind saying so, so do I." he said after she looked at him.

"Hang on a second, Lennox we're missing someone again, care to take a guess as to whom?" she asked him as she turned her attention back to a small patch of hillocks about 10 feet away.

"Oh let me guess, either Fig or Epps. And my money is on Epps, and I am guessing you are betting it's Fig?" came his response.

She looked at Lennox, nodded and walked forward towards the Osprey then looked back and yelled over her shoulder, "Anyone who wants out of this sandbox needs to be here in the next 20 seconds and onboard before we either make you walk back to base with all of your gear or sling you from the undercarriage of the Osprey, your choice!" Both she and Lennox laughed when they heard a yelp and cursing in Spanish, yep, definitely Fig, she grinned as Lennox handed her a twenty dollar bill. But the question remained where was Epps? That thought was answered when she reached the seating area of the bird and saw Epps coming out of the cockpit and sitting on the opposite side from her.

Donnely was sat down the same side as Epps, who now had his iPod plugged into one ear and listening to some of his music, she smiled at Donnely seeing as he was younger than her and the others maybe mid-twenties by her guess, whereas everyone else in the squad was late-twenties to mid-thirties, he was sat cradling his rifle almost like she did her M-24, as if it was the most important thing in his world - to most of them it was, they either lived or died with that weapon, he smiled at her as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, she nodded at him in return and settled down to think.

Soon after takeoff a conversation was struck up by Fig and Caliene just sat back to enjoy the ribbing that would happen to him.

"Oh God, five months of this. I can't wait to get a little taste of home. A plate of mama's alligators etouffee."

"You've been talking about barbequed 'gators and crickets for the past two weeks. I'm never going to your mama's house, Fig. I promise." Epps' reply came as he shuddered a little at the thought of crickets being eaten or any bug for that matter.

"But Bobby, Bobby, 'gators are known to have the most succulent meat." came Fig's comeback.

Caliene just shook her head as the conversation kept going, "I understand." was all Epps said as Fig kept on going just this time he had switched back into his native tongue of Spanish. Caliene reached over and slapped Fig on the back of his head as Epps smirked slightly at that and said "English, please. English."

It was after Epps said that that Lennox went on to add, "I mean, how many times have we.... We don't speak Spanish. I told you that." Caliene was trying her damnedest to not laugh, especially since she could speak Spanish, but they all liked to tease Fig about it - it boosted morale for the rest of the squad.

It was then that Fig came back at them with his favorite response: "Why you got to ruin it for me, man? That's my heritage." then he started rattling off in Spanish again, making Caliene snort with suppressed mirth as she understood what he was saying, Lennox looked at her one eyebrow raised in question, and she mouthed back to him that she would tell him later what was said by Fig.

So Lennox decided to respond to Fig's Spanish outburst again, "Go with the Spanish. Whatever."

Donnely decided that he was going to add something to the conversation by asking, "Hey, you guys remember weekends? Huh? The Sox at Fenway; Cold hotdog and flat beer."

Fig answered this time in English, "Perfect day. What about you Captain? You got a perfect day?" he aimed at Lennox, knowing as we all did he was still highly strung about his wife and baby girl back stateside.

"I just can't wait to hold my baby girl for the first time." Lennox said as he tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling of the Osprey. "He's adorable." came Fig's laughing tone closely followed by Epps' "That's too...." just to have Lennox face them and tell them "Shut up!" with a smirk.

Caliene just nodded at him until he asked her what her perfect day would be. She looked shocked but she had to be honest she really hadn't thought about it all that much, the Military was her career since she graduated High School, and after 10 years of service she was thinking of re-upping that fall for another five years, gotta love being in an all Military backed family - Dad was Navy, Mom was Air Force, and her, well she was Army all the way - SpecOps no less and of only a handful of women in the group made her folks proud that did.

"My perfect day.... Hmmm, never really thought on it that much guys, but I guess I could say spending down time stateside with Mom and Dad, go fishing, or even make it home for Deer Season - get that 10 point that's been running around the pastures, maybe give you guys some of the Venison." Caliene replied as she saw their eyes widen at the mention of hunting and the possibility of fresh Venison - men they all think with either their guts or their little heads.

They heard over the intercom from the cockpit that they would be landing in about 45 minutes and to make sure everyone and everything was strapped in for landing. Caliene was so looking forward to that shower now, maybe some real food and not MRE's like the past few weeks - they could get rather boring after a while, so Lennox and Caliene checked over everyone and everything and then strapped themselves back in for the landing. Caliene just wasn't looking forward to the paperwork that was awaiting them once they landed, and apparently, Lennox thought the same thing as he cringed - great minds think alike.