The year is 2016. Joseph, a survivor of 9/11 follows his father's footsteps and enlisted in the military. Not long after, he along with two of his friends were deployed to Iraq among the ranks of some of the best American fighting men: the US Army...
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2004
Woodville, Texas
United States of America
A warm and sunny day in the rurals of Texas it was. Under the sun, a group of five young children ran towards a brown rocky hill on the other side of the field. One kid, an 9-year-old boy, rushed ahead of his mates.
"Race y'all to the hill!" the boy shouted.
Yep, that's me, your guy Joe. Throwing my feet to the ground, one after the other, I soon covered half the field in a flash. The others, three guys and one girl, lagged about five to ten meters behind me.
Heh. I'm winning.
"Bring it on!" the girl shouted.
Before I knew it, she started to sprint ahead of the others and nearly caught up to me. The fattest guy in our group, who we call Smokey, started to pant and stopped. Looks like he'll continue the rest of the distance walking. That leaves four of us still in the game.
Soon enough, after running past a few bushes and grass we reached the foot of the hill. There is a slope, alright. But... knowing me, I was looking for a challenge. An eight-feet cliff face was just right of me. Rocky outcrops and plant roots stuck out of the rocky incline. Left of me was a grassy, gentle slope.
The two other guys, Jack and Carlos, took no fuss. Without even stopping, they ran up the slope. They'll reach the top of the hill in... well... less than a minute. It's not even that big of a hill, only ten meters tall. Smokey would go that way as well.
The girl, Carrie aka CT, stopped beside me. She just moved in a couple months ago from South Carolina with her family. We do meet at school a lot, and we hang out alright. She's always been basically "one of the guys", more often hanging out with us guys than the girls. But today is the first time she joined us on the evening run for the hill.
"First time, I know," she remarked.
"Well, duh... Left if you're smart, right if you're feeling tough. And crazy..."
She bumped her fist onto my shoulder and laughed. I looked to her direction and she already grabbed an exposed root to climb up. She then raised another hand on a rock ledge, and pulled herself up as she looked to me.
"Joe. If I win, buy me a popsicle."
"Eh okay. Flavor?"
"Chocolate!"
"Yep! It's a bet!"
I grabbed a crack in the rock face and pulled myself up, as I stepped on a ledge below me. I looked to her and nodded. It's a go. I raised my right hand on a grip, and stepped on a root. Pulling myself up once more, I saw CT put her hand on a ledge. She pulled herself up.
