Demon Book: Chapter 2

Chapter Two
It turns out the kid was worst off then I thought he was. While I waited for the ambulance to pick him up I tried to check him out, seeing that I’ve dealt with a fare share of injuries since I was in a war. During the War on Terror I saw a lot of not only injuries but death, anything you can think up I’ve most in likely seen it, I don’t mean to sound all He-man but when you’ve seen all I have, nothing scares you.
For instance I remember just only two weeks into my duty; we were just on our route to Afghanistan’s bordering town of Bolagh Tughaneh, for a routine patrol of the streets and small villages. We were in one of the rocky passages’ that lead to the next sector when an explosion went off.
Later it was reviled that since a few squads have patrolled through there prior to us, the insurgents were ready for us with explosives plated along side of the road inside the rocks. I guess you can call me the lucky one since I was inside was of the three jeeps, instead of being mounted on the gun like my friend Johnny.
The explosions came all at once, the jeep in front of us that was holding my squad leader was hit the worst. Not only from the blast alone, but also since they had the bombs planted in the rock walls they blast sent chunks of the wall everywhere, and sadly their jeep was no exception.
The mounted gunner was ripped apart in an instant buy the shrapnel rocks, body going limp even before the car flipped, and flipped it did. The first blast made the car do a front flip, and lucky enough it didn’t explode, but then came the second blast that was well placed about 50 feet from the first. This blast not only made the jeep explode, but also sent it flying into the rock wall. All hope was instantly lost for our fellow soldiers that were in the car.
The blast were over but the battle had just started, we were at an instant disadvantage seeing how our enemy’s were above us on the rock walls firing what seemed to be AK-47’s at us, and since the explosion’s happened in front of us we couldn’t just gas it and be like a bat out of hell.
We didn’t dare leave the armored jeep’s for our own safety’s, and sadly our gunner’s including Johnny was damned to a quick death, or at least I hope that much for them since they were ambushed and fired upon first. We returned fire via rolling down the windows just enough to blind fire out of, almost never hitting a single target.
Realizing that we were very limited on options, we did something that is very uncharacteristic for Marines, turn tell and run like hell. Sometimes it’s better to play the cowards part then to lose the rest of your friends. So Martinez, -Our driver- did the only logical thing which was throw the two ton bitch into reverse. Under presser it turns out Martinez is not the best of all drivers seeing that he successfully flipped the car over by trying to make a quick u turn while driving over some rocks that dipped down.
I quickly recovered from the surprise and seeing that I was riding shotgun, and the car flipped onto its left side. So I reacted as quickly so I climbed into the back pulling Johnny from the gunner’s hole, which a mix of both pain and relief by seeing that he was killed by a round in the skull. Now you might be asking me why I wanted him to die quick, it’s because nothing is worse then seeing you find slowly bleed out in pain.
So pulling his lifeless corpse out of the hole I quickly barked out and order at Martinez, to get moving before he gets blown up next. Once outside I realized how dire my situation had become; the passage way we entered from was about a half of a click back, meaning it would be impossible to make it back out the way we came in seeing that we had at least seven insurgents ready to kill us if we made one wrong move.
But there was another problem that quickly formed itself inside my mind; the longer we stay here, the more app they are to change their positions and have a clear shot on us, and also I couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might have they might have ether fragmentation grenades, or even a rocket launcher. Ether would be our death without any dispute.
Seeing that I was now sitting with my back to the armored car I decided that all Martinez and I could do is stand and fight and pray that we would be able to live to die another day. When Martinez was finally out we quickly went over our options and he also agreed that the only way out of this mess would be through the enemy.
So I took the safety off of my G3-A3 Assault rifle, while he was radioing in our new found problem. Sadly they said that it would take at least 15 minutes before any kind of support could reach us, and that was more time then we had available to us.
I peeked out slowly to try and get a view of where our enemies where, but before I could even register what I was seeing, bullet fire was rained down on me causing me to return to my cover unless I felt like joining my fallen brothers. I tried once more and this time though gratefully they were not as quick to respond and I saw that there was two sitting on top of the rock wall on my immediate left hand flank. They forced me back into cover once more but I was more then happy seeing that I now hard a sound hold on their locations.
As they say the third time is the charm, and by god it sure was for me. I swung out of cover once more this time already having my gun trained on the immediate zone that I last spotted them in, since they haven’t moved far I was able to fire off a three round burst killing the first, and wounding the second where he fell off the fifty –or so- high foot rock wall and smacked the ground meeting a fate that I would never want to see.
I went back into cover and checked my clip, which had twenty seven rounds inside of it, and two spares inside my back pack. I let my mind wonder for a second to the possibility that I might survive this after all. We spend the next ten minutes slowly picking our targets off, making certain that they are the ones making the fatal error and not us.
Finally according to our original estimates, -and also the fact that we could still hear them scuffling around on top of the wall- that there was two maybe three still left alive, and since I still had a half of a clip left I knew that I was in excellent shape. What I didn’t expect was the reinforcements to arrive so soon, but there they were in all there glory… Well in truth we didn’t see them until about a minute after we heard the sound of their thunderous approach.
It was pretty fun to hear them start screaming in Arabic as they ran for their lives yet sadly our joy was overshadowed quickly by the lose that our teams had sustained. I grabbed Martinez and gave him a hug before he could even realize what was going on. “We did it!” I screamed at the top of my lungs with new found power that made even the rocks shake.
So in hindsight not only am I very luckily to be here telling you this today, but also I know my fair share or blood, gore, and death as you can see. And in truth didn’t the simple fact that I was a Marine tell you that much?
The kid though will never make it as a Marine, that’s all to clear with all his bitching and crying on the way to the hospital. When the Paramedics showed up you’d think that the mere sight of them would easy the boy’s soul, instead what I got was an extra dosage of profanity and him starting to cry out that I pushed him off his skateboard.
“Is this true Mister Jones?” Asked the officer that had to come along as protocol, seeing that this was considered a break in he was required, really in truth though he kind of reminded me of a fat bald version of Brad Pitt. I looked him level in his eyes and tried to be as nice as possible as I said. “Yes officer that’s what I set out to do today, to come to work fall asleep on the job bang my head on asphalt and then hunt down a skateboarder just to push him off and get myself arrested by you. By the way I never did get your phone number officer.”
Now in hindsight that was not only a bad joke, but also probably the worst thing you could do to a cop besides trying to pull his own gun on him. But as my luck always do hold out, and since this cop which name was Edward has made this call out here to this garage five times in the past three months he doesn’t care.
If I really wanted him to get angry though I’d use my nickname for him, -which is Eddie-boy- and start making real bad references to him being the vampire pop culture phenomenon that he would be if he wasn’t around 225 and sporting a set of man breasts that would put most women to shame. So in return he just let out a loud sigh and started walking back towards his car.
I decided that I’d let the kid slide if it came down to my say in it, I remember when I first tried skateboarding myself… Let’s just say there is a reason why I don’t anymore. Eddie came back up to me and started in on me. “Ok Clair, is your boss on the way yet?”
“Yeah I gave him the call about ten minutes ago, is there anything else we need to clean up?”
“Nope, just don’t doze off again at you job, one day Jonathan is going to catch your ass and I’ll be the one laughing.” He started walking off but I still needed to ask one more thing. “Eddie!”
“What now? Can’t I just leave my joints hurt for Christ sake!”
“Oh it’s nothing really, just was going to remind you…” I trailed on purpose hopping he would follow, just like go old Eddie always does.
“Remind me of what Jones? That every time that I come down here I have to deal with even more of you dumb antics, or are you going to remind me of my one to many flaws?” During his speech he turned and walked all the way back over to where I was sitting on the edge of the third floor safety barricade. And seeing how angry he was now I was starting to think he was going to push me over to my death.
Seeing though that I brought him this far I wouldn’t have the heart not to make my joke now. “I just was going to say you still haven’t given me your number yet sweet cheeks.”
He dropped his head; I still don’t know if it was out of defeat, or disgust. He turned and let out a short bitter laugh followed by. “One day, just one day Clair. I’ll have this badge ether off of me, or you’re going fuck up. Then all of those smart ass jokes are going to come back to haunt you.”
So with that Edward left my life yet again, giving me that cold feeling with just his eyes alone. Yes, that was a Twilight rip, so what? I love those books!
And now it’s time to call my boss. Yes I know I told Eddie it was already done, but I tend not to want to call the man, because even as a Marine he still scares me half dead. I pulled out my cell phone and thought for a second if I could get away with not telling him about this, I mean we get skaters almost ever night in here… But most of them don’t get injured.
So with grave reluctance I dialed his emergency work line, lucky for me he picked up on the second ring. “Hello Clair, what happened now?” Came from a voice that has obviously had one to many cigarettes, I paused to look down to figure out what time it was. Damn it’s 4am and this guy is still lighting them up, I hope I didn’t wake him up. He tends to have a short temper so you making it through even one phone call with him without him raising his voice at you is a miracle by anyone’s standards.
“Hello sir, I hope I didn’t wake you. How is your night going?”
“Cut the foreplay Jones, what going on over there? Am I going to have to come down there?” Yep, he is not in a good mood. Better start now on the EDD forms.
“Well sir seems as if a group of skaters…” He didn’t let me finish, like always.
“You fell asleep again? What the hell am I paying you to do take beauty naps over there or something! Didn’t they teach you discipline in that jarhead squad of yours!”
“Yes sir, they did teach me discipline and also more. But as I have noted before even the best will become a little lethargic seeing that as I do noted have anything to do…”
“You’re at work, you do work! Not sit around and watch TV and jerk-off.” He stopped talking for a second, for my guess ether lighting a cigarette, or taking a drag off one. “So what happened this time?” He asked while exhaling so forcefully I thought I could smell the smoke leaking through the phone.
I stopped walking because I was beginning to lose my cool, which is something very hard for me to do. “Well when I went to go chase off the skaters that were on the third floor of the complex, upon stepping out of the elevator one of the skaters had already started their run and hit me full force…”
“You impotent fool! Can’t you do anything without falling asleep or falling on your ass?” I lost my cool then. But instead of telling him to go to hell or something, I kicked the car to my left triggering the alarm. “What’s going on now?” Jonathan screamed at me, obviously hearing the alarm that I triggered out of rage.
I quickly thought up a lie that I prayed he would buy. “I was just passing by one of the cars in the garage, don’t worry about it though, nothing happened. The owner just has the sensitivity set to high.” That happens a lot in truth, we get these Porches, or BMW’s in and the owner is so scared that someone will steal it that even if a pigeon fly over it, it triggers the alarm off.
“Ok, fine I get the point. Listen I’m not going to deal with your shit anymore! You do one more thing wrong and I’m going to fire you on the spot, you hear me?”
“Yes sir.”
“And stop that yes sir bullshit. You sound like a government robot!” And with that he hung up.
I stood there for the better part of the next five minutes trying to calm down a bit. There are very few people in this world that makes me mad, sadly one of them happens to be my boss. My head was propped up against my fist that was clenched tight and against the wall. I looked down at my wristwatch; it was now 4:17 am. My shift isn’t over until 6, and that still is over an hour and a half away.
I started back towards my both, but not before getting one more kick into that car.