As a child, John never thought he’d end up a soldier in Afghanistan. He always wanted to be in the Army but never thought the war in the Middle East would last for so long. He remembered the attack on the twin towers, the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, and even the drone strikes on vital Taliban leaders. Years later, here he was sitting in a helicopter entering an American camp in Afghanistan. He was unsure of who he would be lead by or who he would be fighting with. The helicopter lowered to the helipad and touched down with a short squeak. John stepped out onto the dust-covered dirt. It was almost overwhelming, with the hot air hitting his face and the new environment. He walked with all the replacement soldiers to their barracks They met their commanding officer and squadmates. There were around 30 men total in their unit. They were a unit that went with other squads and bomb squad units to protect them. John would have the rest of the day off to rest and dig in because the next morning they would head out with a bomb squad tasked with clearing a way to an abandoned outpost on a hill looking over a known Taliban base. The outpost could be crucial for taking out the base. Morning arrived and they all headed out to the convoy vehicles after eating breakfast. Josh told him the story of how the man he was replacing died to an IED. Josh was the first person to talk to John. Josh went to the driver’s seat of the humvee and John got in the back. Their squad leader got in the front passenger seat and another soldier got on the machine gun. The last seat was taken up by a soldier and was next to the gunner. The convoy was made up of three Humvees and two bomb squad trucks, each with five men in them. Their humvee was the first humvee and the middle vehicle. In front was the two bomb squad trucks and behind were the other Humvees. They passed the gate out onto the dirt road. The convoy was four miles out of the base and started to slow. They reached no man’s land. The gunners were on high alert and ready for battle. Everyone else was either watching the trucks or scanning the mountains for movement. The air was dusty, the sky bright blue with a few clouds. They were two miles into the six remaining miles when they suddenly stopped. They almost went right over an IED. The bomb squad removed the bomb very carefully. This feat took twenty-six minutes to complete. They were on their way again. They got to a point where the outpost was around 5 minutes away at their pace and the mountains were within a mile on either side. All of a sudden, in the span of 8 seconds while the trucks were next to each other they hit a big bomb. With an enormous boom! One of the trucks got thrown off the road, hitting yet another IED in the middle and with another huge explosion, it was blown to pieces with screams filling the air. The other truck was blown in half, the front gone and the back damaged. All of a sudden Taliban started pouring over the mountains on both sides. Two of the Ten men in the bomb squad were alive. Bullets flew everywhere and immediately the gunners of the humvees went to work. An RPG came soaring at the last humvee and struck it with extreme force, sending it flying in a burning inferno. One of the surviving men made a run for their car but got torn open with bullets and collapsed to the floor. The other made a break for it as a bullet tore through the skull of the gunner. He collapsed back into the car and the survivor got in. John stood up to the challenge and took the gunner position. He immediately started firing. “Get us out of here!” The Sargent yelled to Josh. They had to bash through the destroyed truck. It was their only option. The humvee took off crashing through the truck. The other humvee was close behind and backed off a little. They took a sniper bullet to their front tire which almost caused them to lose control. The gate was fast approaching and a bullet hit the driver’s arm causing the vehicle to swerve. They started flipping and crashed through the gate. John’s vision cleared but the ringing in his ears remained. They crawled out of the car and the driver was dead. They immediately were being rushed and the other humvee blocked the entrance. The remaining soldiers held up and started firing back to the Taliban. They were steadily gaining ground due to their numbers. “If they get on top of us we have to call an airstrike on ourselves.” The Sergeant said, “Scouts saw them miles away coming for our base yesterday.” As he said that an RPG flew into a wall taking out two more soldiers, flinging them far away. They had seven soldiers against hundreds of Taliban forces. They were under intense fire for the next ten minutes until disaster struck. A tank rolled over the hills. They had two minutes before it was over. In that two minutes, their gunner took five bullets to the chest that ripped through him, killing him instantly and coming straight out his back. The tank blew the humvee away which while it was rolling away crushed another soldier. They had five men left. They started to run and the two other soldiers John didn’t know the names of were picked off. One shot through the gut and heart spraying blood from his mouth before collapsing and the other a bullet through the mouth. The last ones were the Sergeant, John, and Josh. The Sergeant called in an air strike as Josh took a bullet into his kidney. The Sergeant was saying his prayers and shooting while John tried to keep Josh alive. They were about to run out of ammo when Josh died of shock. The Sergeant ran out of ammo, pulled a pin on a grenade, looked John in the eyes and said, ”good luck” and turned away. “It was an honor sir, even though it was brief” John said in response. The Sergeant ran out of cover to the horde of Taliban and the grenade went off. Tens of men were dismembered and thrown around. Blood sprayed everywhere and a bullet hit John on the right side of his chest. He lie, bleeding out. As he looked up he saw a jet in the sky and something was falling towards him. Just then… boom, boom, boom. It got louder and louder and bright lights and screams filled his vision and ears. Then a final boom, flash, and screams. And it was all over. The pain. The deafening screams. The end had come.