“… And that’s it.”
“That’s what?”
“That’s the end of the story,” I said, turning back to my rifle. “I went to MEPS again the next day, went to the airport and that was the last time I saw her.”
“How long ago did you leave?” Collie asked.
“Hmmm… probably been a year since I left. She’s out at Stanford working on her medical degree,” I answered. “We talk through Skype every now and then.”
“Jeez… like, holy shit,” Collie murmured, before letting loose a riotous laugh. “Come on, man, you’ve got to be kidding me!”
I struggled to hold back a laugh myself. “What makes you think I’m joking?”
“Well- I mean, what the hell were you smoking? That must’ve been some hella good acid you were doing,” he said. “How many times were you arrested in that story? Or nearly killed? Come on, nobody’s life is that exciting. And no, I’m sorry, having sex with some pony princess from another world that you can enter through a portal at your school statue is maybe a little too much. Just…” he doubled over laughing, letting his rifle fall from his hands and into the hot desert sand at his feet. “Holy shit, I’m in a platoon with an idiot!”
I grinned, taking out the bore brush and inspecting the muzzle. Clean as I could manage in this place, which wasn’t very. The firing pin concerned me more, as I’d found during our last live fire that it had a tendency to jam, even with only mild dirtiness. With what was coming soon, I’d need it to work perfectly.
“Big Mac, can you believe this idiot?” Collie wheezed, turning to his friend who stood nearby, wiping down the buttstock of his M4. “You knew this guy, right? Can you take a word he says seriously?”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied, not even bothering look away from his work.
Collie took pause at that one. “Wait, what? You kidding?”
“No, he’s not,” I said pleasantly. “Hey, Big Mac!”
“Eeyup?”
“Did I lie about anything in that story I just told about how Sunset and I got together?”
“Nope.”
“Was every little detail I told you true?”
“Eeyup.”
“Well, that makes it simple enough,” I said cheerfully, refitting the pins and slapping my rifle back to SAFE. “Had enough Collie, or need I go on and try to prove it?”
He looked willing to argue a bit further, but before he could say anything, Blitz, another guy in the platoon, piped up and said, “Look out! Sergeant’s coming!”
Collie immediately righted himself and returned to working on his rifle just as our Platoon Sergeant, a monster of a man known as Iron Will, came sauntering up with his usual swagger. “How we looking, shitheads?” he asked jovially, yet again displaying his ability for colorful metaphors.
“Hooah!” Was our reply, true to form.
“Excellent. How’re the rifles looking so far?”
“Looking alright, Sergeant,” I replied, flipping it up and handing it to him for inspection.
“Hmm…” he scrutinized it for a bit, looking down the barrel for any residue. “Still got a little in there,” he assessed. “But it doesn’t look too bad. Try washing off your brush and seeing if that helps any. Private Mac, how’s yours looking?”
“He ain’t gonna find nothing on it, you know he won’t,” Collie whispered.
Sure enough… “Looks like you’re good, kid,” Iron Will replied, giving the hefty farmer a thwack on the soldier that nearly sent him toppling. “Listen, since we’ve got the training exercise tonight, go get some chow and rest. Looks like it’ll be a long one. And Collie-”
“Yes, Sergeant.”
“Don’t roll around in the dirt, you look like a damn worm.”
Collie gave a grin but was still shamefaced as we laughed, he unable to say anything in his defense.
“Alright, get the hell outta here and get something to eat,” said Iron Will. He paused as we began to run off, calling for me.
“Sergeant?”
“Relax, kid, just letting you know the internet café’s back up again,” he explained. “I know you’ve been using it a lot since we got here, so figured you’d want to give it a try.”
“Sweet. Thanks, Sergeant!” I replied, dashing off across the camp.
It’d been a long time since I’d seen home. Now here I was halfway across the world in the African desert, preparing for an invasion that never seemed like it would come. We’d taken the ground where I now stood from the Empire in the early months of the war, long before I had arrived here, and managed to push them back into Europe before they could spread any further. Now, we all knew they were lying in wait, challenging us to come into their domain. We’d taken the wreckage from leftover battles here to make training grounds that we used constantly, preparing for the inevitable assault. Thankfully, the base we had built had enough amenities for the troops sent here to call home.
As I sat down in front of the computer, I knew it was sort of a longshot, statistically, that I’d get a response. It was only mid-afternoon here, and with Sunset being far west coast, she would likely still be asleep. Still, she had promised to keep in touch and pick up whenever I called. And she hadn’t failed yet, so here was to hoping…
The screen changed and before me was a very sleepy, very tired, but very beautiful Sunset Shimmer, wearing a simple nightrobe and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. But when she spoke, her voice was as warm and comforting as it had always been. “Hey, it’s good to see you.”
“Hey!” I nearly jumped out of my skin with happiness, my heart leaping at the sight of her. “Hey, how are you, how’re you doing?”
“I’m OK, just really tired. I only went to sleep about an hour ago,” she confessed.
“What, why? What’re you doing up so late?” I asked.
“Yeah, had a paper to complete. It’s what the Biology class has been working to all semester,” she yawned. “I started worrying that it something on it was wrong, so I went and looked at it again and realized I had a bunch of spelling errors all through it, so I had to search them out one by one and get it fixed. It took me forever…”
She went on, albeit slowly, about her life in college. She’d taken on a lot of classes but was doing well. She and her roommate got along fine, campus life was fun. I always asked her to tell me as much as possible, so I could get a feel for how her daily life was and know it by heart. It was painful not being there with her, and to have made her change so many plans to get where she was now, but she never complained. Every time I talked to her she was cheerful and pleasant and always encouraging.
“So… what time is it there? Where even are you?” she asked.
I gave a small chuckle. “Nice try, baby, you know I can’t tell you that,” I replied.
She gave a wistful sigh. “I know, but I still have to ask. I really miss you, I wish you were here.”
“I know. I miss you tons, too,” I said, putting my fingers on the computer as if I could reach through and touch her. “It won’t be long before I’m back, just watch and see.”
“You know I’m watching! Always am, every day!” she insisted.
“Hey, that reminds me…” I said suddenly, fishing out a receipt from my pocket. “I ordered it a while ago, did it get to you yet?”
“Hmm? Yeah, it did, came in on Thursday. I love it, it’s beautiful. My roommate’s been going nuts over it ever since I put it on, she complains her boyfriend is never gonna commit.”
“Great, I was a little worried. I wish I could- you know, be there to put it on you myself. And sorry I can’t help you plan it all.”
Sunset shook her head. “No, it’s OK. It gives me something to do,” she said. “Just do me a favor and don’t be late, OK? Don’t stand up your girl at her own wedding!”
“Never. You know I’ll be there,” I said firmly, my heart reaching through the screen out to her, so many thousands of miles away. “I’m coming back. You have my word.”
~ The End