Unlikely Meetings

CHAPTER 22 - LIKE A FATHER SCORNED

Sand coated Noah's teeth as they held the cigarette into the open air of the Iraqi desert, everything was grimey to the point where it felt like showering was just pissing in the wind. He looked out over the rolling sands and stout brush wondering what in the hell he was doing here. Orders were orders yes but there were quiet moments like this on the F.O.B. where he questioned why he joined the US Army in the first place. He was twenty seven and the early stubble on his sharp features only progressed how old he looked. Some of his friends from high school have already gotten married and what did he have to show for these years he spent in?

A rank no one would care about in a few years, lingering injuries that screamed every time the weather changed and an impartial look on the fact he could die in a flash? No, that wasn't quite right. He was terrified of dying and it took his best friend getting injured to remind him of that. "Everything good here boss? Heard what happened to Wen and wanted to check on you. I know you guys are tight knit."

Noah's hazel eyes were drawn to the new voice joining him and no other feeling than emptiness hit him. "If he pulls through I will too, Top." A heavy sigh escaped his lips with the cloud of tobacco smoke sticking to his crusty lips for a brief moment before mixing with the arid air. "We got the triggerman and the engineer that made the IED. So why don't I feel better?"

"Better men than you and me have asked that question." dropping down to sit with the young staff sergeant he snuck a smoke from his pack and lit up alongside him. "Never changes how you feel, getting back at those that have wronged you. At least if you take 'em out they can't hurt anyone else and that can be a small reprieve. "

"That doesn't help my best friend in sick bay. Doesn't help me when I wasn't there. I could've—"

"Jumped into the line of fire and gotten yourself killed." More smoke billowed into the air as he exhaled. His dreary brown eyes were downcast and gleamed with the bright desert sands as he looked upon the dimly glowing ember pinched between his fingers. "Don't dwell on things you can't change. You and your friend are doing good work. It's not pretty, but we're needed here and seeking revenge won't fix those new holes inside you. Only time will heal those, and right now you gotta be more stable than he is."

The half smoked cigarette was set down next to the brooding man, their duty uniforms were bleached by the sun and stained with salt and sweat. "I'll try." No more words passed between the two men before Noah looked down to the sand between his boots, the rifle across his back weighed heavily on him as the last few days flashed through his mind like a torrent of wind and pain. He shook his head before stomping out the cherry into the hot sand. "When are we out of here bud? I just want to see those mountains you were telling me about."

Two days passed and Max was med-evaced back to the states and Noah followed three months later. It didn't take either of them long to reunite after that and soon exit the military a short year later. Luckily for Noah, the mountains didn't disappoint and neither did the young husky girl he met soon after. For a brief moment in his life, nothing could go wrong. Little did he realize he actually had something to lose now.

-

Noah didn't feel pure rage like most people, he got angry like others and would yell or break something sure but his rage? That was quiet, calculated...precise. There had never been a moment where that glowing red ember of rage ever sparked beyond brief flashes ever in his life. Nearly losing his best friend was the only other time where that ember grew into a white hot flame. But right now not only is his brother hurt but this wolf wheezing in front of him put his dirty hands on his children. It had struck his daughter. "Alright mutt, I'm only going to ask you once. Which hand did you use against my daughter?"

Pained breaths and blood laced coughs fell into the snow, staining new portions of snow around him in steaming streaks of crimson. "Kehehe... wouldn't you like to know, spear chucker." His strained laughs and snide remark brought a heavy and cold steel toed boot into contact with one of the bullet wounds Max had inflicted earlier. Leaving the wolf reeling in the snow below him with a new set of pained whines and bleeding coughs.