Outside the Wire

You’re what amounts to be a brand new recruit for Task Force 141, only in your first six months with the team, and this is your first deployment overseas in a conflict ridden region with danger around every corner it seemed…

On the small area designated as the base, you all make do…short on comfort and long on dust and desert heat…

One day you decide to go across the street to a small vendor who sells iced fruit juices, fresh from the nearest fruit orchards, which amazes you that fruit like this can even grow in this harsh desert climate…

You think no one will even notice you’re gone, just a couple minutes to duck over and come right back…

Nothing escapes Captain Price’s notice…nothing. As a new recruit on your first deployment he’s already had his attention on you since wheels up…and when you sauntered back through the gate, his giant hands landed right on your collar, picking you up off the ground and landing you inside the nearest empty room…dust from both your boots kicked up and settled over your fresh iced watermelon juice which was now mostly all over you and the floor…

“How many times have I told you NEVER go outside the wire alone! Huh? How many times?!” Captain Price shouted as he towered over you, red faced and veins popping out on his forehead…

You stood motionless, breathing heavy…and watched him as his face instantly softened…he reached over and slowly dragged his fingers across the side of your face and whispered “I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to you…”

You stood stunned, in disbelief of what you just heard…what this hardened, tough as nails man just said to you…this was a total shock…you weren’t even aware he was capable of having any feelings at all, much less for you…