Dancing With Bullets

First Combat

I silently sat up in my bunk, my legs dangling off the edge of the stiff mattress. The night was dwindling as the first rays of sunlight fell upon the tiled floor through the skylight in the curved ceiling. I grew restless and found myself going outside in nothing but my white shirt, camo slacks and hefty black boots. Without a word i slipped past the heavy steal door to the barracks. As i took my first steps into the morning air, the sharp and frigid breeze slashed against my exposed skin, but i had other matters to worry about than a pesky cold. Today was when i'd be seeing my first combat, and needless to say i was fretting over it as a mother would over an ailed child. Rune had said we'd be fine, and that we'd come back to do that dreadful night shift. Why was i so anxious about dying? It was the soul reason why i was here. My gaze shifted from the gravel road ahead of me to the cloudless skies above. It all seemed so serene and calming, a great opposite to the events leading forward. A voice, echoing from a doorway rung in my ears, calling out my name. I spun on my heel to face this seemingly disembodied voice. Rune paced up to me, already dressed in his fatigues.

"What are you doing here?! c'mon you need to get ready we're rolling out in ten minutes." His fingers laced around the hook of my arm and dragged me away before I had a moment to reply. I scrambled with my dark clothes to the changing rooms and threw them on before heading for the armory. Around 9 other people were up and about the outpost, getting ready. 10 people in total would be sent out on this outpost retrieval mission. They all hurriedly walked about, getting ready for the hell ahead. Most were hoping and praying to get out alive, I must of been the only one who didn't feel the need to survive. Thus, I took only an AN 94 off the gun rack, some clips, and a trench knife. Others laid themselves with many more weapons than I had.
Soon enough everyone was gathering by the Humvees that would be taking us to the red army outpost. As soon as everyone was ready we clambered into the vehicles and took off, wounding up at a ledge overlooking the outpost we were to invade. There were to be two groups of five, splitting up and taking either side of the outpost to prevent the enemy getting away with the hostages. This outpost was relatively small, consisting of a watch tower, barracks for ten people, radio tower and building, and a tent resembling a cafeteria. I bounded off my vehicle and dropped on my feet steadily as a cat would. Others clambered down, splitting up into groups of five. Sadly, Rune had been assigned being on the other team, but Atleast he wouldn't blabber about nonsense too much.
I was the first to begin the descent down the rigid slope. My team members followed me soon after, taking cover behind the pine trees dotting the mountain side. I had to be careful where I let my feet stand, else a rock might come loose and risk the success of the ambush. My heart began palpitating rapidly as we drew closer and closer to the barb-wired fence. I clutched my rifle, with the muzzle down, close to my chest. Finally, I slipped down the last ledge and soundlessly came up to the fence. Scar, one of my comrades, huddled up to me and began working away at the fence with some heavy duty pliers. Once through, other other team gave the go ahead and the battle began. We took the soldiers in the outpost by absolute surprise, meaning none were prepared for the attack besides those patrollers who somehow failed to pinpoint us. I rushed into the middle of battle, gunshots rattling my eardrums as I pounced on a soldier adorned in his blue and red uniform. He struggled as I wrapped my arms tightly in a chokehold around his neck. The soldier then stomped on my foot with his heel and threw a lopsided punch towards me. I caught his fist in my palm, and with my freehand, lifted the barrel of the rifle in line with his chest and fired off two bullets. The enemy was dropping like flies, but we weren't going to come out unscathed either. From the corner of my eye I spotted a peculiar looking brunette with his hair naturally fashioned into two tufts upon his head. He lurched forward, mercilessly plunging the bayonet at the end of his SKS into my comrade. A sudden feeling of dread and fear settled in the pit of my stomach as he looked awfully familiar. Just then this man turned on his heel to fight others, only to be faced with a stunned me. Now I had a good look at his appearance. Sharp, silver eyes, Oddly shaped caramel hair, and peachy, light skin. The son of the red leader.
For a good few seconds out gazes had locked and we were perfectly still. That is until the man began strutting his way towards me. I took meager steps back but began to trip over the rocks behind me. However he didn't hesitate to move towards me in the most menacing way. One rock decided to hook on my heel, causing me to stagger back and fall. My rifle left my grasp and crashed against the gravel ground some few feet away. I made an attempt to reach for it, but the brunette had gotten to it first and kicked it farther from my reach. My state flickered from my rifle, to the man, only to see myself on gunpoint from a desert eagle. I stared down the barrel of the handgun, trying to accept my fate. My sight lifted from the pistol to the threatening yet handsome face of my greatest enemy. In that moment of silence, I kicked my legs to hit the back of his knees and cause him to topple down. I kept to my feet and pinned the Norwegian, trying to wrestle the gun from his grasp. A stray bullet was fired in the process but had seemingly missed me even though I thought it'd hit my shoulder. Finally I yeeted the desert eagle yards away from his reach, to which I smirked. He growled a string of curses under his breath but then in a quick sequence of events I found myself to be pinned. Another Norwegian voice hollered out to this man, who had a ghost of a smirk at his success to pin me. His stared down at me as he called out in Norwegian,
"Hva?!"

"Vi må ut herfra!!" They called back urgently as he let it a groan. He sprang up and bolted away, leaving me on the ground dumbstruck. Even after tussling for so long, I expect to be scraped up but I hadn't even gained the smallest of abrasions. Well, it was the least of my worries but I know that 3 or four of the red soldiers had gotten away. I should've killed the man when I had the chance, but at the same time my gut was telling me that I wouldn't have been successful either way.
Either way, the mission was a win, but we still had three casualties and another two severely ailed. I'm just glad it wasn't as hard as i had imagined it to be, and that Rune got out alive aswell.