The Phantom Warrior

Better him then me

                                                                June 5th 2021
           "Contacts about 200 yards away Tom, you gotta take em' now man".
"I know man, let's just see if their gonna move up" explained John as he inserted his mag into his rifle.
"Alright Kyle, here's the deal. We've got 2 tangos by the truck and one near the village gates, no civilians in sight".
"Ok sounds good to me man, just finish the job so we can get back to camp, my wife's been waiting for a letter and she's probably worried sick by now".
"Ok let's get this over with" exclaimed Tom as he pulled back the bolt of his 50 cal rifle. He then began to check for anything in the area that he could use to his advantage. Gas cans, land mines, grenades. But nothing was their but sand and that truck.
"Hey Kyle I think I got an idea but it's risky".
"Alright tell it to meh" whispered Kyle as he adjusted his rifle.
"Our best bet is you taking out the guard at the entrance of the village and me taking a shot at the trucks engine and seeing if I can blow it up and take out both of em" explained Tom while keeping a close eye on the enemy's from a distance.
"Alright, well winds going about 2 knots right so you better be moving about 4 clicks left and 1 up to account for distance".
     As tom adjusts his shot Kyle prepares his rifle for the long ranged kill.
"Ok, on three you take out the guard and I take out the truck and if we're lucky we go home easy" Said tom as he began the countdown.

One... Two... Three!

As the air filled with smoke tom felt a blast a heat hit him in the fade as an explosion of red and orange blazed into the sky. Almost instantly you could hear the shrieks of a wounded man laying on the dirt road. In the beginning when the smoke was thick tom thought he had seen the top half of the man and assumed he was smashed by a truck but as the smoke thinned out he seen that the shrieking man was frantically trying to find his legs among the blood and dirt.
"Oh god man, poor bastard got hit bad".
"Screw that man I'm not watching him suffer like this" explained tom as he pulled up his rifle.
"Whoa man! No way in hell im letting you expose us for some freaking taliban!"
"That Taliban is a human Kyle! We are marines, not psychos" exclaimed tom as he pulled back the bolt of his rifle.
"I refuse to have this on my shoulders man, I'm finishing this!"
           Moments later the suffering mans screams were silenced with the sharp bang of the rifle followed by the cloud of smoke that caused him the suffering...

                                                          14 hours later
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Today we have a special treat for you, we have a real live legend of war!"
"Hey knock it of will ya Will" pleaded tom while reading as food magazine on his bed.
"Hey come on man, I head you blew off some freaking rats legs in the village yesterday bro! That's not legendary?" Asked Will with extreme enthusiasm.
"I was just doing my job like anyone else would of if they were in my shoes".
"Bro anyone else in your shoes wouldn't have made that shot"
"I didn't "make" any shots, Kyle was the one who took out the guard and I just shot a truck" explained Tom as he began walking out of the the sleeping quarters.
"Hey don't worry about it man... Better him then you right?".

                                                      TO BE CONTINUED