FicWad

Gerard's POV

“LET’S GO LADIES!” The drill sergeant calls out, turning the light on in our bunk.

The blinding white light consumes us as we quickly jump from bed, throwing our army greens on.

“T-TEN MINUTES LADIES!” He yells again before marching out of the room.

I look over at my little brother across the room and sigh with a smile. He waves sheepishly, putting his combat boots on. Looking to my left, I see my best friend of ten years finishing dressing.

“Morning Frank.” I mutter out, tying up my own boots.

“I’m sick of being called a fucking lady.” He says angrily.

Frank never was a morning person.

“You know the serge is just a prick who can’t get laid.” Our good friend Ray says, walking up behind us fully dressed, pulling us into a sideward’s hug.

Frank and I both mumble our agreements as Mikey comes bounding up to us.

“You guys, I’m fucking ready for tonight!” He says excitedly.

“It’s just a dance Mikes.” I say pulling him towards me, digging my knuckles into the top of his head.

He pulls back angrily, straightening out his hair. “If you get me any extra drills today cause of this, I’ll kill you.”

----- x -----

“OK LADIES! ONE MORE GO AROUND THE OBSTACLE COURSE!” Our drill sergeant calls out, eliciting a group moan from all of us. “And then you can get ready for the USO dance.”

He fires his gun and we take off, running towards the first obstacle. Frank darts ahead and shimmies under the barbed wire, through the mud, ahead of the rest of the group. He’s always been good at shit like that, being so small and what not. I stand back and let Mikey go ahead of me, causing us to fall behind the rest of the group. He struggles to get through, completely un concentrating.

“You ok Mikey?” I ask, shimmying up next to him.

He nods quickly and pulls himself the rest of the way through. We run towards the A frame wall, beginning our climb up the rope. Mikey, once again, struggles to make it up. I help him through it but stop him as we get to the top before he can rope swing down.

“Something is clearly bothering you today kid. What’s going on?”

“Nothing! God, just please let me get through this?!”

I sigh and hand him the rope, watching him swing off but fall in the mud pile below. I catch the rope as it swings back and jump, landing safely away from the mud in front of Mikey.

“Ok FINE!” He yells as I help him out of the mud. “I’m asking Her to marry me tonight at the dance.”

My heart soars as I remember Mikey telling me how happy he has been with his girlfriend, though he hasn’t gotten to see her a lot since we all enlisted together.

“Are you serious?!” I ask excitedly, pulling him into a big hug.

He sighs happily against my chest and nods. “I have the ring back in the barracks.”

“You HAVE to show me when we get back. I cant believe you kept this from me!”

We hurry through the rest of the course, coming in dead last. Frank, as usual, was first and is the first to laugh at us and we limp up to the group, completely covered in mud.

“What the fuck happened to you guys?” Frank asks unbuttoning his army jacket on our walk back to barracks.

“Mikey, you HAVE to tell him!” I say excitedly.

“I’m asking Her to marry me tonight at the dance.” He says with a huge grin.

Frank stops and hugs my little brother. “I’m so proud of you.” He says smiling. “We totally have to celebrate tonight!”

----- x -----

“I wonder when the girls are getting here.” Mikey thinks out loud, nervously. He waves the bartender over for another drink.

“Calm down kid.” I say, taking it from him. “You don’t want to be drunk when you ask her!”

“Says WHO.” He snatches the drink back, causing his arm to knock over Ray’s drink. We all laugh out loudly.

The next hour goes by perfectly. We just sit there at the bar drinking, reminiscing about life before we enlisted. Frank and I had talked about maybe joining a band together after college. We talked about the time we all went out and got matching tattoo’s. All in all, it was a pretty decent time. I can’t remember ever laughing so hard.

“I’m gonna kick so much ass over seas!” Ray says, tipping his cup back towards his lips.

“Get over yourself Toro!” Frank says laughing loudly. “You’re a fucking medic!”

I feel Mikey stiffen next to me and I look over, seeing our girls slide into the barstools next to us. Mikey quickly pulls his girlfriend into a kiss, before dragging her away from the bar. Frank and I grab a hold of our dates and drag them onto the dance floor. Ray stays behind with his to catch up on things back home.

The band kicks in and we begin dancing, holding each other close.

“When do you get to come home?” She asks.

“It should only be a couple more months. We’re supposed to go over seas once this go about.”

She lays her head on my chest as we sway to the band. “Just promise me you will come home?”

“I promise.” I kiss her softly before hearing cheering from the bar.

Frank and his date had managed to make their way back over and were loudly congratulating the newly engaged couple. I pull my girlfriend behind me on the way to the bar.

“Mikey, congratulations!” I yell, pulling him into a deep hug. He rubs my back before pulling away. “And you?!” I say to his fiancé. “Welcome to the family!”

A huge smile creeps across her face as I pull her into a hug as well.

“I wish you guys nothing but luck! When’s the wedding?”

“As soon as we get back home.” Mikey says with a small laugh. “Assuming we make it home.”

“Shut up Mikes. Of course we’re coming home.” Frank says, smacking him on the back of the head.

----- x -----

“WAKE UP! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!”

We all jump out of bed frantically. This was the moment we were all dreading most.

“The enemy is advancing on our base camp over sea’s! We’re needed for backup! I know you lot of pansy’s are ready! You have 2 minutes to get your shit and get outside to the transporter vehicles!”

The sergeant leaves, leaving us all nervous and scared shitless.

“Gerard! You think I have time to call her before we go?!” Mikey asks frantically, pulling on his war outfit.

I shake my head no as we’re herded outside. We load up into the government vehicles and are rushed towards the airbase.

The airplane ride was short, just a few hours. Enough time for us to catch up on our lack of sleep. We all had a feeling we were going to need it. As we exited the plane, we were transported to another government base on the edge of the water, where we boarded a bunch of boats.

About twenty minutes into the boat ride, we could start hearing the bombs going off. Another five minutes and we could hear the guns.

“Oh god.” Mikey moans beside me. He leans over and vomits into the water. “I can’t fucking do this.”

“Of course you can Mikey.” I wrap my arm around his side. “We’ve been training for this for almost six months now!”

“I’m going to die, aren’t I!?” He yells out in panic. He begins shaking, and starts hyperventilating. I finally calm him down.

“If we get separated, just count to ten and run towards me. I wont let anyone hurt you, I promise.”

He kisses me softly on the cheek and we look forward. The scene playing out in front of us was stomach turning. Guns are going off left and right. Our brothers in arms are falling, blood being spilt like it was water. We can see the enemies slowly making their way towards our men, taking them out one by one.

Before we can blink, our boat runs aground and the front gate is dropped. Everyone jumps up and grabs their guns.

“Let’s fucking do this!” Frank shouts, holding his gun in the air.

We run onto the sand, and immediately start dodging bullets. A bomb goes off to the left and we instantly duck behind some debris. Our captain shouts of some instructions and Frank and I run forward, shooting a few enemies out of the way. We make it to a ditch as more bullets whiz right past our heads.

“You ok!?” I shout to him over all the noise.

He nods frantically, breathing deeply. That’s when I notice Mikey isn’t behind us anymore.

“Where the fucks Mikey?!”

Frank points back to the debris and we can see Mikey looking around, scared beyond all means.

“MIKEY!” I yell out to him. His head snaps in our direction and I see him prepare to run. “NO STAY THERE!” I shout as he quickly hides behind the debris as another bomb goes off.

“What are we going to do?!” Frank asks, pulling me deeper into the ditch.

A few more of our men join us as another bomb explodes.

“You guys ok?!” One of them, Bob, asks, reloading his gun with more ammo.

We both respond and I look back at Mikey. I see him take a few deep breathes and close his eyes, counting.

“No. NO!” I yell. Frank looks at me. “HE’S GOING TO MAKE A RUN FOR IT!” When he gets to ten, his eyes snap open and he jumps up. “MIKEY! MIKEY NOOOO!”

He barely makes it five feet before an enemy machine gun goes off, hitting him directly in the chest. I watch in horror as he stumbles to the sand beneath him.

“NOOO! MIKEYY!!!” I try to run to him, but Frank and Bob wrap their arms around me, keeping me out of the line of fire. I watch Ray run over and dig around his medic bag, pulling out a few things. “MIKEY!!! MIKEYYY!”

Pain angrily flashes across his face and I can hear his screams. Blood begins seeping from the open wound on his chest, through his uniform.

“PLEASE HE NEEDS ME!!!” I shout out again, trying harder to escape their clutches. They hold me down tighter.

“Gerard! Let Ray take care of him! We don’t need you getting shot too!” Frank yells in my ear.

Ray presses gauze to Mikey’s freely bleeding spot, instantly soaking it. He looks at me with sorrow in his eyes.

“Mikey!! You have to live!” I shout, not even sure if he can hear me over the raging battle. “YOU HAVE TO COME HOME ALIVE!!”

Without a last scream, his body goes limp, his eyes falling on mine, all life gone in them.

“NOOOOO!” I scream out as Ray quickly gets up and runs to attend to another fallen solider.

I go limp in their arms, unable to tear my gaze from my brothers dead body. My baby brother….




“I’m going to die, aren’t I!?” He yells out in panic. He begins shaking, and starts hyperventilating. I finally calm him down.
“If we get separated, just count to ten and run towards me. I wont let anyone hurt you, I promise……..”