Chapter 3

"Good Luck"

We all got into line with the rest of our battalion, we were all organized by company. Each battalion in the army had at least 3 Infantry Companies, but that can change, some had 2, some had 4, But on average there were 3.

As we all stood there waiting for the brigade commander to give out his speech, I looked around, some of these guys looked pretty tensed up, some of them looked excited. The brigade commander then showed up, finally. He gave off his speech which i did not listen to, but he did mention that our brigade were replacing the National Guard who were quite frankly, useless, They were all volunteers, and they had little to no combat experience, the only difference we had to them was that we were disciplined, they were all drunks who did drugs and all that malarkey. 

After the commander gave his speech, we were all separated by companies. Me and the people in my squad all looked for our company's commander. We kept walking, seeing all the other companies, I mumbled their call signs as we went past each of them.

"Alpha.."

"Bravo.. 

"Charlie.."

We then arrive where our company is waiting, I look at the sign that was implanted into the ground "Foxtrot Company, 2nd Battalion, 31st Mechanized Brigade". We fell into line by platoon, we lined up behind the 3rd Platoon and awaited further orders. 

The commanding officer from our platoon starts calling out our names which were written down on a slip of paper, his gaze looking at us after he called out our name. 

"Evans."

"Present, sir."

"Prince."

"Present, sir."

"Elliot."

"Present, sir."

"Miller."

"Present, sir."

"Oakley."

"Present, sir." I said almost immediately, my name being called out caught me by surprise even though I knew I was going to be called out, it still gave me a quick surprise.

We all stood around here, the ground was muddy from the rain only a few hours earlier, it's horrible. After about two hours of pure standing in the open, our transports arrived. An 8-wheeled armored personnel carrier with an autocannon, the armor on it looked paper thin, but it was better than a truck which had no armor or guns. There were 9 of them, 1 for each squad for each platoon, The headquarters got into the tracked carriers which had more protection, no one complained, we all simply climbed into the cramped infantry carriers.

As we climbed into the APC, We could see stains of blood and mud from the previous users. God knows what those guys went through. I don't want to know, nor will I ever want to know. It's cramped, very cramped, my shoulders are pressing against the people next to me, I was unfortunate enough to be in-between two guys from my squad, Prince and Elliot. The inside was very dark and I could not make out their faces until someone turned on their flashlight when I was able to see their faces and the inside. After about 10 minutes of waiting inside this cramped vehicle, we got moving on the dirt roads. The ride at first was very bumpy and unpleasant, only when we got onto the paved roads it was smooth and more endurable. We were on the road for 20 minutes, the driver stopped our vehicle in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, our squad leader spoke up soon after.

"Everyone, we're here, climb out and form a single file line in the ditch on the right."

The doors on the side opened, they were split into two pieces, the top half would open forward while the bottom half opened downward forming a somewhat step for us, how considerate of the designers. As I climbed out from the side after Prince and Elliot I followed them in a single file line behind the vehicle and then into the ditch which was on the right hand side. We both made our way into the ditch, it wasn't steep but it was quite deep. We all crouched down and watched as the APC reversed and withdrew from the dropoff point, the driver giving us a thumbs up through the glass as he reversed. I looked back at my squad who were all crouched down and awaiting orders. The squad leader, Ashton then spoke up.

"We're gonna move in a single file line towards our position, it's just past that treeline."

We all got up and moved towards the position in a single-file line with Elliot leading the way.