Upside-Down

Chapter 2: The Call to Arms

            The last couple of weeks have seemed to be the same to Brett. It starts with a 5:55 wake up, then a 1-2 hour workout, after that they begin their military activities at 8 A.M., have lunch at 12, team sports at 2, dinner at 5 or 6, then military instruction at 6 or 7. Brett has made a few friends in the past two weeks as you would expect from a kid who was always the most popular one in school. One friend's name was Michael Freen. He was around 6' 2'', with dark black hair; not as strong as everyone else but still a strong man. He was new here also, probably why him and Brett became friends so easily.

__February 19th __

         Brett wakes up feeling well rested today as he found it very easy to fall asleep after yesterday's workout. He begins his 6:30 workout after first meeting up with Michael. About 45 minutes in, a loud flashing red alarm goes off. He begins to panic! Brett and Michael grab their weapons and begin to look around for answers as to why the alarm is going off. Brett finds the staff sergeant Samuel Stevens he met his first day and he tells them they are under attack! Brett nearly has a heart attack, he has hardly had 2 weeks of training and now he is being pulled into a combat situation? He hears gunshots behind him, he turns around ready to fire when he sees one of his other friends John West fall to the ground dead. He freezes in his tracks. Horrified at what just happened Brett couldn't move. His friend Michael pulls him into cover just as two enemies come around the corner. He looks at their uniforms and sees what they are wearing and quickly realizes they are Japanese Special forces. Given the circumstances Brett and Michael know they must run. Under all the adrenaline and the confusion Brett and Michael get separated! Brett finds himself in a hallway, M16 rifle in his hands. He sees a tall enemy soldier at the end of the hallway with his back turned to him. He quietly and slowly brings up his rifle to fire. He aims down the sights and... cannot convince himself to pull the trigger! In frustration with himself he shouts. The soldier turns around and readies his gun. Brett sees he is in trouble and dives for a cover in a room next to him.

        The feeling he had on the first day was right. He was un-able to shoot a soldier. Even with a few weeks of training he was still not able to pull the trigger. He thinks, now he knows that he must pull up the courage to fire the trigger and kill an enemy. Brett quickly surveys the room trying to find something to use. He comes up with a plan to lure the soldier and shoot him. Brett realizes in the confusion the enemy had lost sight of him so he must be looking for him. He finds a trashcan and purposely kicks it against the wall. The metal trashcan makes a loud banging noise and Brett hears footsteps coming down the hallway. He finds a place to hide and waits. The enemy soldier he first saw was now walking into the room. The Japanese soldier looks around the room for Brett. That is when Brett stealthily pulls up his gun, looks down the sights, puts his finger on the trigger... AND SHOOTS! A perfect shot straight to the heart kills the enemy soldier with one bullet and he falls to the ground. Brett becomes relieved that he has killed an enemy, shaken the doubt, and proved himself as a marine who can be both efficient and effective.

         Brett knows his work isn't even close to finished, he knows he needs to get out there and help his friends. Brett picks up his pace, exits the room, and runs down the hallway to go help the rest of the soldiers fighting. He takes a left at the end of the hallway opens the door and exits the building he was in. Now he realizes he is in the shooting range. He is alerted by machine gun fire to his left, it sounds close. He turns to see Staff Sergeant Samuel Stevens in a shootout with another enemy. Brett jumps to help him out. He takes a stealthful approach; however, he makes himself known to the staff sergeant. He goes to the right and takes cover behind a shooting dummy on the opposite side of the soldier. When the Japanese soldier takes cover he knows he has a perfect shot. He readies his gun, quickly mentally prepares himself and pulls the trigger. The Japanese soldier falls dead to the ground with a bullet in the chest. At the sight of the dead soldier Sgt. Stevens comes out to thank Brett for his help. But the moment is cut short by gunfire, sounds far away and they both rush to help. On their way to where they heard the gunshots they notice a lot of dead soldiers on the ground and it seems they are winning this ambush by japan. They finally reach the sight where they heard the gunshots coming from and there is a Japanese Special forces soldier who seems to have bled out. Michael then pops out from cover relieved, and proud of himself for the kill. Those 3 begin to walk back to the training site together, they realize there is still dew fresh on the tall grass and know the fight couldn't have lasted more than an hour. They begin a body count and see that there is only one friendly casualty, John West. The corporal appears walking out of a large black building and calls an emergency meeting. He leads them down a hallway, The same hallway that Brett got his kill in. They make there way to the end and turn into the briefing room. As soon as they all get seated a tall dark-skinned man with a black briefcase walks in. The soldiers at camp all immediately recognize who this is, stand up, and respectfully salute.

        "At ease soldiers!" Shouts the general.

Everyone almost simultaneously sits down. And turns their attention front. The general makes his way to the front and slowly opens his briefcase. He pulls out some papers and written in red, on the side, they say CLASSIFIED. He begins to tell them what has happened. 

       "Men, I am here to tell you that the U.S., in response to the attack by japan has declared war on the Japanese empire."

Some murmuring goes through the rows of soldiers.

      "We are still unsure as to why they have attacked us, It may possibly be a random act of aggression, but what I do know is that we are Americans. We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We WILL return fire. We WILL push back. I know you all think we won this battle but its not all smiles today, because one young man has lost his life. That man is John West. As of now we must not dwell on what has happened and move on to prepare for war."