//------------------------------//
// New Friends and Newer Friends 
// Story: The Jungle's Insanity 
// by Eagle 
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Most of the time we spent around the barracks at first, just screwing around or doing whatever. It sure didn’t feel like we were in a war. It felt more like a vacation with some high school friends. We passed the time by joking, drinking, playing games, listening to music. I also didn’t dream any during this time, so everything was ok for the most part.

Home really didn’t feel all that far away, especially since this was going to be our home for a while. With all the fun I was having around the base, it felt more like a summer camp. Nothing was very threatening about this country at the time. 

But, inevitably, we had to venture out, and Mother Nature was a lot harsher up close than from a plane in the sky. Everything about this place was dangerous, come to find out. The advisors already there and the South Vietnamese began to lead us on little tours and tell us what to watch out for.

The jungles were the biggest problem, with over three-fourths of the country covered in it. Filled with big plants and tall trees, the trainers said it was perfect ambush ground for the VC. And it wasn’t just a hiding ground for the commies; there were pests, too. Swarms of mosquitoes, massive rats, and dozens of different species of snakes we had to watch out for. There were so many different things that could kill us naturally; I was starting to think I had a better chance of dying from the jungle rather than getting shot.

I hated this terrain, it felt so…constricting. Everything was so thick and unknown in every direction that I had to stay on the path; the same path the enemy wanted to ambush me on. I felt like I couldn’t control it, and I hated it. And the rain…the damned rain; there was so much of it. We got rain back in my town, but here it was heavy and endless. And if you got caught in a storm in the jungle, everything about life in that period of time was just deplorable. 

The next thing we had to learn about was the marshes, which weren’t quite as bad for me, personally, but still bad all the same. The water we had to wade through was thick, muddy, and could come up to your shoulders, requiring you to hold your weapon over your head to keep it dry. The water itself was filled with leeches, snakes, and other nasty pests. I wanted to start shooting the wildlife more than Charlie. 

And after we got out of neck-high water, we went into Elephant grass that towered over us. This stuff was taller than most men, and had ends that were razor sharp. Cutting through this stuff was exhausting and painful in itself. After a while, we finally got used to it, to a degree.

The biggest threat of all was, of course, our enemy, the Viet Cong. We were told about their tactics and strategies; most of the time they hid out in tunnels and villages or deep in the jungles instead of coming out to fight directly. Going along this path, they also made hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and left booby traps for us in the form of mines and Punjabi steaks. 

The enemy combatants could actually be broken into two groups, the North Vietnamese Army, or the NVA, and the VC. The NVA was the official army of the North and was better trained and equipped for a fight than the VC. The Viet Cong were home grown guerillas from South Vietnam, usually dressing as civilians and making them harder to identify.

“Helluva way to fight,” I remember Bishop saying. “Hide where we don’t want to go, dress as the people we don’t shoot, and attack in ways we can’t defend.”

“We’ll just have to pick and dig ‘em out,” I replied.

“Yea, but I wonder what would happen if we fought them in the same way, y’know?”

Bishop was always thinking of a new way to get the job done, and he deserved his position in the squad. As I said earlier, squads are broken down into two four-man fire teams. Sgt. Bishop was the leader of fire team ‘Alpha’ with rifleman Pvt. Silver, grenadier PFC. Noriko, and auto-rifle Cpl. Lee. Fire team ‘Bravo’ was made up of Sgt. Benjamin, Cpl. Davis, PFC. Taylor, and Pvt. Terry. This was the starting roster for the squad on our first tour. 

Everything around the airbase at Da Nang was normal for a good amount of time. I didn’t dream anymore, which furthered the idea that it was just a one-time deal. That idea, and our idea of an easy stay on guard duty, ended with our first little firefight, along with many other things. 



“Hey, Deer,” Sgt. Benjamin called, interrupting a card game between myself and Silver; one I was winning, I might add.

“Something up?” 

“No, just saying hey; and I do sleep in the bunk you’re sitting on.”

“Oh, sorry; we’ll move if you want.”

“No, it's fine. Just thought of getting a little rest, but you guys can finish up first.”

“We are finished,” I said. 

“What makes you think that, Sarge?” Silver asked with a sly grin on his face.

Before I could answer, Benjamin interrupted us again.

“Wait, you guys hear that?”

We stopped talking and listened closely.

“There it is again.”

I heard it that time; it sounded like a muffled roar.

“Yea, I hear it,” I said.

There was another roar, this one louder and more distinct; probably closer.

“Sergeant, are those…explosions, maybe?”

“Is there anything else it could be?”

I wasn’t being sarcastic; I really wasn’t sure if anything else made a sound like that.

“Should we go check?”

“I…I think they’ll come get us if they need us; we might just get in the way of something important.”

“But, what if-”

The door to our barracks swung open, giving us an answer.

“You!” a Second Lieutenant yelled. “Are you the airborne guys?”

“Yes sir!” I replied.

“Don’t you hear what’s going on? Get out here!”

“We hear it sir, but…are they really explosions?”

The officer looked at us, stunned for a minute.

“Of course they are! What in the hell else would they be!?”

“Sir, I’m not sure, sir!”

“Well, get out here and see what they look like!” he ordered. “And bring your gear, too.”

“Yes sir.”

The men didn’t need to be asked twice; we may be inexperienced, but we were still trained. We each grabbed our individual weapons for our jobs, my personal one being a normal M16 Assault Rifle. The TLs also had M16s, grenadiers had their M16s and M79s, the riflemen had M14s, and the auto-rifles had M60 Machine Guns. We also strapped on whatever articles of clothing we weren’t wearing; helmets, boots, and whatever else was needed. 

Once we finally looked presentable, we shuffled outside quickly. The scene was like something out of a movie; explosions were going off here and there almost randomly; a building here would crumple and collapse, a plume of dirt would rise up, some vehicles turned into fireballs. I could also see some of the planes parked out in the open damaged and burning; that would be a real pain for the Air Force. 

“Ok, 101st guys,” the officer called us.

“Sir,” I replied, leading the men over to him. “What’s happening, sir; are we under attack?”

“No, everything is just randomly blowing up for no fuckin’ reason, rookie,” he snarled, then sighed and rubbed his head. “Look, I’ll explain things to you guys. Just follow me, and please save your questions until the end of the tour.” 

He started walking along casually towards the gate, while we flinched every time an explosion went off.

“To answer your earlier question; yes, we are under attack. The VC is throwing mortars at us from a position a ways away from the base, somewhere in the field to the northwest along the path. I’m short on men, so you guys are going to go with one of the squads from the 1st Cavalry to try and find them.”

He stopped next to a couple of running personnel carriers, along with another waiting squad.

“You can ride with 2nd squad in the M113s; they’ll drive you down the path to search for anything. If you do find anything, report it back. You, radio!”

“Sir, Specialist Wilson, sir!”

“Alright, Wilson, we’ve got a couple of Huey helos for a fast response force. They’re already armed and fueled. If you guys run into any trouble just call ‘Whiskey’ over the radio three times and they’ll be at your position as soon as they can.”

“Yes sir got it.” 

“Ok, you 101st guys had better be as good as they say you are; mount up and get it done. 2nd Squad, you guys take the lead APC.”

“Got it,” the other staff sergeant said, ordering his squad in. 

“You heard him, squad,” I said. “In you go.”

The ten of us crammed into the carrier, taking up most of the space inside. The lighting came from the bulb inside the compartment, as well as sunlight from the gunner’s hatch that led to the machine gun on the track’s roof. The conditions were rather cramped, but it was better than walking all the way there.

The machine lurched forward a bit, and we were on our way. We didn’t have any way to look outside, so there was no telling how far we were from the base, just how long we’d been driving. Everyone in the squad seemed to have that same sense of reality enter them in a different way, all coming together in the message ‘this is happening’.

“Hey, you guys really from the 101st?” the driver asked over the noise.

“Uh, yea, we are,” Lee answered, being the closest one to him.

“What are ya’ll doing out here? I thought you guys were back stateside.” 

“They’re planning on sending the 1st Brigade here next year; we’re just here to see how things work.”

“Huh, well get ready for a rough education.”

“We already had an education,” I replied. “They told us about the bad guys and we’ve gone out into the jungle.”

“Hearing about Charlie is one thing; actually fighting is another thing all together.”

“And that’s what we’re out here for right now.”

“Maybe you’ll catch some today, maybe you won’t,” the driver said. “Victor, you see anything?”

“Na, nothin’ yet,” the APC’s .50 Machine Gun operator replied.

“Keep your eyes open.”

“Damn, I’d hate to be him,” Lee said.

“Why’s that?” Noriko asked.

“Because, his position leaves his upper body exposed to small arms fire; one sniper bullet and bam, it’s over.”

“And you’d rather be down here where we can’t shoot back?”

“Shooting or not, this thing is called ‘Armored’ for a reason.”

“The Aluminum protects us from bullets, Lee,” Bishop chimed in. “Some VC with a rocket launcher gets a shot off, and we’re all dead men.”

“They’ve got rockets!?”

“RPGs.” 

“Damn, you’re screwing with me.”

“Nope, goes right through this hull like an arrow through a sheet of paper.”

“What the hell is the-”

The conversation was interrupted by a strange noise, something that sounded like it was ricocheting off of the hull. I felt the carrier lurch to an immediate halt as soon as it started, and the gunner on top was firing his weapon on some direction. Everything changed in a matter of two seconds.

“Taking small arms fire!” the driver yelled. “Get out! Get going!”

It took me a second to realize this, but not too long, thankfully.

“Ok, squad dismount! Get out and return fire!”

I was the one closest to the door, so I was also the first one out. I ducked my head under the roof and jumped out to the right side of the vehicle, holding my gun in my right hand. There wasn’t much cover outside; on both sides were fields with tall grass that concealed the enemy, wherever he was. Only thing that was there for us was a dry ditch on both sides of the dirt trail, which I immediately jumped into. 

The rest of the squad followed my lead in. I looked forward towards the trail and noticed the other squad had already started getting outside. As the last soldier was climbing out, facing my direction, I saw his green shirt move a bit, simultaneous with a little red and brown puff on his side. We both immediately knew what had happened, and I saw his face change from a simple, serious get-the-job-done look to one of realization with wide eyes and an open mouth.

He had been shot, and when he realized it, he clutched at his side with his hand, dropping his M16. I saw his face change again to one of pain; his eyes clenched shut and grinding his teeth. He took another step, but tripped and fell into the dirt on his right side, back facing me. The mere fact that he wasn’t looking at me anymore was a blessing, I later thought, as he was hit again on his other side. This time I saw the blood and meat pop out from the back of his side and fall to the ground, like popping a zit. It all happened in about one or two seconds, but it felt like it was going in slow motion.

I heard another one of his squadmate yell something, and then reached up and dragged him into the ditch. God, that scene; it felt horrible. Every shot of it was imbedded in my mind, playing over and over. The sight of an ally lying on the ground, even if I didn’t know him, shook my soul. 

“Staff Sergeant!” Wilson yelled. “Sir, what do we do!?”

I returned from my brief trip to reality; everything was still happening. 

“Call in the helos! Return fire until they get here!”

“Sir, I can’t see them!” Bishop yelled.

“Aim for any muzzle flashes you see in the grass!” I ordered. “Bravo team, take cover in the ditch on the other side of the road! Cover the left flank!”

“Yes sir!” Benjamin said, leading his squad in a quick sprint across the dirt trail to the other side.

I heard Wilson yelling 'Whiskey Whiskey Whiskey' into the radio while we shot back. Our own return fire was rather sporadic, save for the auto-rifles. They quickly began to fire off long streams of bullets into the grass while the rest of us took potshots. The guns on the APCs were still firing, and looking back, I think it was them that kept the enemies away, as they were more elevated than us. I myself waited, looking around for a target. Eventually, I saw a quick flash in the grass at my side. I watched the area until there was another flash from the same spot. I raised my gun and looked down the sights, aiming at the area. When the third flash appeared, I pulled the trigger and sent a burst into the grass.

There was a quick disturbance in its stillness, and the corpse of an enemy combatant fell through, flattening it. He was dressed in some ragged, white clothes and had dark black hair; probably in his mid-twenties. The AK assault rifle he was carrying also fell to the ground; no doubt it would probably get picked up by the enemy after we left to be used against us again. 

My study of his corpse was interrupted by a whirling sound in the air that brought me back to reality. The UH-1Cs, the gunship version of the original Huey, came in at a low altitude and began to fire off rockets from their pods into the fields. I thought I saw a body or two go through the air, but I tried to ignore it. The helicopters then moved in closer, shooting individual hostiles with their machine guns. 

Then, everything went quiet, save for the noise of the helicopters rotors and the APC’s engines. The gunfire and screaming stopped. One of the helicopters nosed right, gained altitude, and fired a final burst of rockets off somewhere in the deep field.

“Sir, orders coming in,” Wilson announced. “The Hueys spotted and killed the mortar position, we can return to the base now.” 

“Ok,” I sighed. “Ok…mount back up and let the drivers know if they don’t already, I’ll be with you guys in a sec.”

I walked over to where the other squad was. They were currently working on one of their wounded soldiers, but it wasn’t the one I saw. No, the one I saw was dead, his corpse lying flat on its back. His face was completely expressionless now, devoid of any feeling of life. I had always thought the eyes just automatically closed when someone died, but his were open. They stared off into oblivion, glassy and empty. It was like staring at a glass jar with nothing inside of it to the other side.

“Sergeant, we have to get going!” Bishop called. “We can’t wait here all day; the enemy will be back any minute!”

“Yea! I’m…I’m coming,” I said, stumbling back over to the M113.

By the time we got back, the sun was starting to set. The officer from before walked up to the carrier as we were getting out and thanked us for the help and congratulated us on making it through our first fight with the enemy. The sergeant from the other squad said something too, but I wasn’t listening to any of it. I couldn’t even listen to what my own squad was saying. All I wanted to do was get a shower and crawl into my bunk and sleep. 

And I did just that, or I tried to. As I lay there in the darkness, my mind kept flashing back to the soldier that was killed. What if that had been me; or one of my men? It very well could be one day.

Then it went back to re-living the whole scene. The first shot of him climbing out, the second of his face and it’s rather average expression of determination. Then it changed up to the expression of realization, then to that of pain and fear. Then, finally, the shots of falling to the Earth, the killing blow, and being dragged into the ditch; and lastly, the image of his deceased, soulless face haunting longer than any of the previous ones.

This kept repeating itself. No matter what else I tried to think about, it kept coming back to that. Go through the suffering of each shot, unable to do anything, and repeat. Even as I finally began to fall asleep, they haunted me. There was just no escape.

“No!” I thought. “No, just stop! Just! Stop! Please! No! NO DAMNIT NO!”



“No, stop it! Stop! Ahhh!” I started to scream out loud, unable to keep it bottled in my mind anymore. “AHHH! UGGGHNNNNNAHHHH! END IT! NOW!”

“What’s happening!?”

I heard that voice and everything stopped, and my world was one of bliss. I realized that the voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out who it belonged to. It sounded rather feminine. 

I opened my eyes and realized I wasn’t in bed, but lying on the ground in some grass. The sun was up in the sky, bright and clear. I looked to my right and was greeted by a purple unicorn, the same one I had saw in my dream on the plane.

“It’s you!” she said. “Are you alright? Is something hurting you?”

“No, I’m fine,” I answered honestly, my mind finally clear. “And…yea; I remember you, too.”

“You do!?” she asked. “Oh yes yes yes yes!”

“What?”

“You see, girls?” she said, jumping in a circle around me. “I told you I wasn’t lying!”

I was approached by five other horses, the same ones from my earlier dream.

“Whoa,” the blue one said. “He looks kinda…weird.” 

“Well, of course he does! He’s not from here!” the purple one exclaimed. “And that means he’s an alien! Oh, you have to tell me everything about your planet! What’s it like? How many of you are there? Why is-”

She was quickly silenced by a hoof from the orange one.

“Uh, maybe you should calm down, Twi,” she said in a southern accent. “We ain’t even told ‘em our names yet.” 

“Oh, sorry,” she said with a blush. “I tend to uh…get carried away with studying new things.”

The embarrassment just made her look even cuter.

“Hey, it’s cool,” I said. “Not every day an alien falls in here, right?”

“Yes, but we really should introduce ourselves first,” she said, “My name in Twilight Sparkle.”

That was an interesting name; kinda funny.

“I’m Pinkie Pie!”

Were they all going to be like this?

“I’m Applejack.”

Yea, they were.

“I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria!”

“Equestria, is that where I am?” I asked.

“Yea, that’s what our country is called,” Twilight explained. “But, let’s finish introductions first. This is Rarity.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, darling,” the white unicorn said.

“And that’s Fluttershy,”

The yellow Pegasus hid her face behind her hair, or mane I guess, which just made me chuckle a bit.

“Not a big talker, huh?” I asked.

She just responded with a quick nod of her head.

“Hey, it’s fine; I’m not gonna hurt you or anything.”

She still shied away with a whimper.

“I don’t get it, did I do something wrong?”

“No, Fluttershy is just, well, really shy around new ponies-or…whatever you are,” Twilight explained. “What are you, anyways?”

“I guess you can just call me a human.”

“You guess…you’re not sure?”

“N-no I am. I’m a human, it’s just we don’t really have talking horses where I live.”

“What did you call us!?” Rarity yelled at me.

I was even more confused by this, but not really scared; this was still just a dream.

“Uh, horses; y’know? Animals, like dogs and cats and birds and stuff; they don’t talk like you guys do.”

“Oh, they’re animals,” Rarity sighed, calming down. “I’m sorry, dear; it just sounds like a more…derogatory term we have here.” 

“Wait, so these horses are similar to us?” Twilight asked.

“Here and there, but I can tell you guys are something totally different. What do you guys call yourselves, anyways?”

“Ponies.”

Ponies…now they’re just trying to make me grab them in a hug.

“But how are these horses different from us?” she asked.

“Well, there are no unicorns or pegasi, for one thing; nor are the all multi-colored.”

“They can’t fly?” Rainbow asked.

“Nope, and there are no unicorns, either.”

“So, no magic either.”

“No, it exists here?”

“Yea, always has.”

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” I said. “Anything can happen in dreams.”

“I’m sorry, did you say dreams?” Twilight asked.

“Yea, I am just dreaming this.”

Twilight looked at me with a confused look.

“I uh…don’t think that this is just some dream; we’re all real here.”

“Yea, sure,” I said sarcastically. 

“Hey, we are real!” Rainbow said. “If I wasn’t could I pick you up and fly you around?”

She did just that, lifting me up off the ground a few feet.

“Yea,” I replied.

She huffed, and dropped me to the ground rather painfully.

“Well, why don’t we continue this discussion inside,” Twilight suggested. “Just follow me Mr…I’m sorry, I never asked you your name.”

“John Denell,” I replied. “But you can just call me Deer if you want.”

“That’s a funny name,” Pinkie said, popping up in front of me.

“Well, I could say the same thing about you!” I said, laughing a bit.

“Oh yea? Well you’re fading in and out!”

“What?”

I looked down at my hand to see I was indeed fading a bit.

“What does that mean?” Twilight asked.

“I’m not sure, I guess it means I’m waking up.”

“You’re leaving!? But I’ve still got so much to ask you!”

“You act like I can control it.”

“Can you at lea-“ 

I woke up again. It was morning and the sun was coming through the windows. I felt a great disappointment when I realized I was back in my world. That place, no matter how kiddish it was, did make me feel like a kid again. It made me feel young, like there was nothing at all to fear or worry on…