Page 52 of Wait For Me

Boots stomped against the deck as everyone widened their stance. COL. Brown looked them over. He was at least a foot shorter than GySgt. Fuimaono with graying hair and clear blue eyes, but he seemed older and weaker in this moment than Landon had ever seen him.

“What Gunny says is true,” COL. Brown’s voice cracked as he spoke and he coughed to clear it. His eyes hardened with a singular resolve. “But we are going home. The CO of this ship thought he could keep us as a personal security attachment to push into 32ND Street since we don’t know what we we’re facing. This wasn’t approved by the Joint Chief of Staff. We haven’t even been able to reach them. But he saw what he needed to see and realized there was no way he is going to safely dock or take us with him. I made sure he knew our mission wasn’t in San Diego.”

What exactly is our mission now? Even the colonel didn’t seem to know or care to elaborate. Landon touched his ring. The small tear in the silicone band was a hair width wider and his irritation began to grow. Every second they spent talking felt like another second away from his family. A few of the troops coughed from the formation beside him. COL. Brown was losing the crowd. He sensed it too and didn’t draw out the speech.

“Get to your berthing and gather your gear. The CO is setting course for the coast of Pendleton now. Be ready to disembark at 0500 tomorrow. Dismissed.”

“This has to be some kind of joke, right?” Sgt. Sierra leaned closer to Landon, whispering so no one else heard his panic. “It was like the entire city was burning to the ground. Is the same thing happening everywhere?”

Landon pushed the rest of his personal items that were still in the locker deep down into his main pack before bunching up his extra uniforms and shoving them on top.

“Doc?”

Landon sighed as he turned to his old friend, recognizing the overwhelming fear on his face and knowing he was powerless to fix it. “I don’t have any answers. I just want to get off this ship.”