Vinny

1. Wartime Zero

"Okay, I'm going in. Cover me." Vince said into the small headset that connected him to the other members of his squad. His finger hovered just in front of the trigger of the semi-automatic. He hunched, trying to stay close to the ground to avoid being shot, only letting his toes touch the floor. Slowly, he began to move towards the target building. He carefully crept into the decrepit concrete building, careful not to alert the enemy of his position. He carried the M14 warily as he searched the building, keeping his reactions sharp. Vince felt this feeling that he often got when he was in situations like these, he had a tinge of sadness, this tinge stemmed from not shooting anyone in quite some time. Now he wasn't kill crazy or anything like that, but in the midst of combat each enemy death meant it was a more guaranteed success rate for everyone on his side of the battle, so this tinge was not of a purely murderous intent, but more of an obtained feeling that he had slowly grown from battle after battle. In order to not let this fully consume him he projected it onto his gun, personifying the feeling as if the gun itself grew hungry for more bloodshed. Vince tried to comfort his companion, "Don't worry baby," he began as he pet the scope, "There are still plenty of enemies to shoot."

The hunger would be ended soon enough, a small ambush of half a dozen enemy soldiers stormed in, blocking the path between the building that he was in and the building he had to reach. This left Vinny with no option but to take them out, not that this wasn't exactly the kind of situation his gun wanted to be in. Vinny focused himself, looking and surveying the area in front of him. Four were to the right of him, standing behind a cinderblock wall that ended short, indicating that a building or a full wall had been there before but now all that remained was an uneven half wall of bricks with exposed rebar sticking out the top at varying lengths. There was another enemy to the left, he looked to be wearing a heavy bullet proof jacket. The sixth man had ducked into the target building and Vinny could only assume he was setting up a short range rifle on the roof. Vince moved out into the road between the torn apart concrete buildings, ducking behind an abandoned car. A brilliant thought came to him, quickly he laid flat on the ground, looked at his enemies positioning from under the car, and planned his next moves. He stayed behind the metal protection as the enemies tore through the glass windows with their bullets. The glass shattered quickly, falling on his head, bullets started puncturing the metal near him, he had to move soon. The shooting stopped, they're reloading! this was his only chance to move, Vince thought, his plan sprang into action. He quickly moved to the right, flanking the squad of four. Vince let off a few spurts of the semi-auto, shooting all four of the men as they were caught off-guard with this surprise. The pain came first and the sound second, the bullet came from above, in one side of his left arm and out the other. The adrenaline that coursed through his body had prevented him from feeling the full pain, but it was just enough to make Vince notice he had been shot. The other gunman on the ground started shooting in the direction of the gunshots, but Vince was already on the move. He snuck up behind this enemy soldier, and with a quick cut of his knife to the neck, the man died instantly. He stepped over the dead body, moving into the target building. He looked up a set of stairs to try find the rifleman that had shot him. Bullets whizzed from the room at the top of the stairs. Ducking behind cover, Vince waited for an opportune time to ascend.

"I've got eyes on him," Kyle said.

"Take the shot." Vince replied to his squad member. Kyle laid on the top of a building, about half a mile away, but he was the best of the best, so this shot was no problem. A single, muffled sniper shot fired from his hiding spot on the top of the building. The gunfire from the top of the stairs stopped. Silence once again returned for the building. Vince walked up the stairs, "Thanks Kyle, I know you always got my back," Vince said encouragingly, but there was little time to waste, they had to move, "GO! GO! GO!" He screamed into the microphone, his muscles became tense, as he leaned forward, watching the rest of his team flood into the building that he had just secured. Providing a perimeter to protect against any returning enemies.

Kyle too felt a type of hunger, different from Vinny's, but a hunger none the less. Similarly, to his partner in combat, that hunger would be fulfilled soon, he could smell it.

"Dinner's ready!" the motherly voice echoed to the basement where Kyle was hunched over his controller.

"Guys I gotta go," Kyle exclaimed, "It's chicken parm night!" Excitedly Kyle left the controller on the seat and left his team sniper-less in the final minutes of the match.

"No no no!" the rest of the team hurriedly screamed, but Kyle was already too far away from his console's microphone to hear. Left uncovered, the small squad quickly got outmatched after Kyle had left his team a man down in the middle of the game.

"Dammit!" Vince yelled. He threw his controller into the couch as he got up, turning the console off as he left the room. frustrated by Kyle's hunger.