A Dying Soldier

I am a dying man; slowly but surely. The only thing I have now, is the experience of Hell I went through. Men in all generations don't live forever, but our stories will never die. It will be joyous to see mines stay alive.

Groaning!

"Glad our patrol is over. Why did I signed up for this shit!"

"Wait, what did you say? Couldn't hear you with that petty dick in your mouth!"

Laughing!

My name is Lance Corporal (LCpl) Malik Abdulsalaam; United States Marine Corps. That person who's complaining like a punk ass, well that's LCpl Akeem Bond. Me and him have been through a lot from freshman year all the way to bootcamp; he was my best friend.

"The feeling of relief for a couple of hours before I got to get my ass back up."

Chuckled!

"Yeah, but…"

I reached to my side and grabbed my canteen. Doing so, he lifted his arm off his face to see what I was doing.

"Best job we ever had?"

I raised my canteen in the air waiting for him to grab his and he gave me a grin.

"Yeah, best job we ever had."

We clashed our canteens together, took a sip out of pur canteens, and stayed up any past than we expected.

Stick snapping!

I heard noises outside of our tent. When I looked up and around, my heart sank deeper than most times; it sunken to the abyss.

"Yo G, you good?"

"Yeah just thought I heard a noise outside."

"Nah man you just being a-"

Multiple shots fired!

I got down to my knees and covered myself from the gunfire but a bullet caught me on my side.

"AH! AKEEM!!!"

He looked down at himself slowly shaking by fear. When he finally looked up, blood was dripping out the side of his mouth and fear was dripping out of his soul.

"Malik, h-help me."

Those were his final words before he dropped to the floor. You know the saying 'real men don't show their sensitive side'? Well, I surely showed mines.

"Akeem, don't you leave me. Don't you fucking leave me!"

I crawled to him and pulled him into my arms. Just when I thought he was dead, he responded back to me.

Soft groaning!

"W-what did you say, couldn't hear you with t-that petty dick in your mouth."

Relieved chuckle!

"Akeem, you son of a bitch."

"Yeah, the one and only. M-malik, I don't feel too good man."

"Just stay with me, the patrol squadron will arrive soon, just hold on."

"Okay… okay. M-malik?"

"Yeah buddy?"

He reached down by his side and grabbed his canteen sitting strapped on his thigh. With his canteen, he slowly raised it in the air with all his might; all of his energy.

"Best job we ever had?"

A tear fall down my cheek. He knew…I knew it; it was his last goodbye. I quickly grabbed my canteen that was knocked over on the floor and raised it in the air.

Snifling!

"Yeah, best job we ever had buddy."

"Come on man don't cry."

Akeem reached down and pulled his sleeve up; showing me his wrist tattoo "EHFAR".

'E-everything happens for a reason.'

Then…well, there's nothing else to it; he died. Akeem took his last breath and his soul left its transportation.

Crying!

"He is in a good place now."

I ran my hands over his face; paying my respects and gently ran my fingers over his eyelids. Patrol-2 finally came, but they came too late.

"Hey, are you-holy shit! What the hell happened here!?"

At this point, my adrenaline wore off and my crying stopped. I felt as if I died right along with Akeem.

"We got ambushed. One guy, probably a terrorist came and shot up our tent. Akeem was the only casualty."

"Alright boys, let's take him to a corpmans.''

"Don't waste your time; he's dead."

" Okay, yeah but your not! Look down, you've been shot!"

When I looked down and saw the wound, right then, I felt the pain entering into my body and I passed put right on sight.

"Alright, that's enough buddy, let's get you home."