When We're All Used Up

Chapter 18: New Perspectives

Chapter 17 bullet points, as promised:

• The platoon marches for a long time.
• The platoon gets ambushed by VC.
• Sebastian Carlos dies.

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[Private Jordan "J.J" Jackson]

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I watch as medics swarm Corporal Sebastian Carlos' dead body. I watch as they call him dead and leave him there.
"What was that...why would he do that.", I say. I rush over to his body and pull him into the ditch. I look at the target he drew on his head. The gunshot wound is square on the bullseye.
"Oh my god...", my good friend Private Anderson Brooke says.
"Check his pockets...maybe he has something of value for us...", I tell Brooke. His pants pockets yield a black permanent marker, which he used to draw the target on his head, and a wallet with a couple of South Vietnamese Dong and U.S. Dollars. We search the rest of the wallet and nothing else showed up except for a picture of a kid, a woman, and man at some kind of park.
"Guessing this was his family?", I say as I give the picture to Brooke. He flips it over and says
"Gabriela Carlos, Alexander Carlos, Me. And it's got a heart under his parents' names and smiley face under 'me', yeah, his family.". I check is chest pocket and find a piece of paper from his notepad.
"It says... 'You may be questioning my decision to do what I did. The short answer is, I am done with the war. Long answer, I feel like we make no progress and yet we run away. This is nothing like World War Two, or Korea, on any other war for that matter. This is a horrible thing that we cannot beat. And I do not wish for my mom to view me as a murder or killing machine.'. Wow. That's something.", I say, flipping over the paper when I finish reading.
"It's got some...Spanish...I think? On the back.", I hand it over to Brooke. He tries to read in broken Spanish but stops after five or four words. I don't even understand what he's saying, let alone understand who that's meant for, my best guess is his family. I snatch the photo and note and put them both in his chest pocket.
"Leave everything else alone, we got anything of value. Just check his pack now.", I tell Brooke.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's check the pack", Brooke says. We reach into his pack and take some food, a lighter, medicine, and a pack of cigarettes which we shared a couple days ago. I light one of the cigarettes and give it to Brooke. He takes it and I light another for myself.
"Hey. Brooke. What are you going to do when you get back home?", I ask him.
"I'm probably just going to make an honest living and all that.", Brooke says, then he looks at me.
"I'm probably going to try to memorialize the dead.", I look at Carlos' body.
"We need to leave, now. The bodies will start decomposing soon.", I grab my M-16 and walk over to the platoon Sargent.
"Sir, we need to move. Now. Before we get into an even bigger mess.", I watch him think it through.
"How though, for all we know we're surrounded.", he looks over at me and I think.
"What if we wait until morning, then we call an airstrike on the tree line and then a gunship for air support so we can pack up and leave fast. And call in an evacuation for the dead.", he looks at me and says,
"That might work. We can try.", the platoon Sargent thinks some more. I walk away and tell Brooke
"We are going to try to leave in the morning. For now, get some sleep.", Brooke looks at me then lays all the way down to sleep. I do the same to. And I finally get some rest.
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Private James A. Brooke
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I wake up in the hole in the ground. The sun is still rising with a beautiful and dazzling mix of oranges, reds, and light blues in the sky it's beautiful. I check my watch which I hid under my sleeve. It's still early morning. It looks like most people are awake and more are awaking slowly. They look around and then I hear the BRRRRRR of a plane overhead, followed by the whistling of a falling object, followed by a loud POOOOM. Another plane comes by, a gunship this time, and it starts shooting into the jungle.
"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE", people yell. A Huey helicopter lands behind us.
"LOAD IT UP WITH THE DEAD", then we do as we were told. We load up the Huey and start running away from the firefight. We keep running and running and running until we no longer hear the sounds of the gunfire. The platoon Sargent puts up a fist, signaling for us to halt. He looks around at us, making sure that no alive person was left behind. Once the last few people trickle in we to the left. The platoon Sargent looks back at us and says.
"ALRIGHT MEN! WE MADE IT THROUGH THAT, BUT WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG WAY!", people groan and get ready for the walk to the Air Base.
"THANKFULLY HOWEVER, TRUCKS ARE AVAILABLE TO PICK US UP AND TAKE US OPER THERE!", people cheer and laugh at that. We wait against the tree line waiting for the trucks to arrive. I join some people in playing poker and I notice someone took the Ace of Spades and put it in their helmet, the card is decorated with a design that looks like a flower, or a chandelier.
"I give up man-", I say before I'm interrupted by the horn of a Gun Truck, the platoon Sargent runs up to the driver of the first truck. We all watch like cavemen discovering fire, and wait impatiently. I give my cards to the soldier with the box before putting in my pack and slinging my M-16 over my shoulder. Everyone does the same and the platoon Sargent yells
"ALRIGHT I WILL CALL YOU BY SQUAD AND YOU WILL GET INTO YOUR RESPECTIVE TRUCK!", we all yell in celebration wait for our squad to be called. When ours is called out we haul ourselves into the second to last truck's cargo bed, the truck has two M2 Browning .50 Caliber machine guns mounted on the left and right sides of the back. I sit down on the floor while the two men manning the machine guns scan the tree line for enemies. The first truck honks two times and we start moving. I look at Jackson and he looks back at me with a smile on his face. I smile back start talking with him, we go on for a couple hours before we finally reach the Bien Hoa Air Base front gate, we look at each other with a face that says 'finally'. I grab my stuff and stand up. The gun truck stops and I'm flung to the right, toward the front of the truck. The truck starts driving again I hold onto the truck and look at the barren air field. The truck pulls into the barracks and someone opens the door. We pick up our stuff and jump out the back.
"Thank you very much.", I say as I leap out of the truck. We line up in front of the truck's cargo bed like everyone else. The platoon Sargent yells out,
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE, THE BARRACKS IN FRONT OF YOU ARE WHERE YOU WILL BE STAYING UNTIL WE LEAVE! THE BARRACK IN FRONT OF YOU WILL BE YOURS AND YOU WILL SHARE THEM WITH ANOTHER SQUAD!", everyone says,
"YES SIR!" Before running into the barracks. When we reach ours we put our stuff in our bunks. Once I do I immediately go to sleep, along with everyone else.

[Thank you for reading, I am canceling the other series I gave the sneak peek for beforehand. I am going to write something that will...push the boundaries to say the least. I am going to begin writing it now and it should be over by early 2025, however, I am wondering whether to upload episodes as they're made or to release it in chunks. It will begin uploading by November 2024. And as always, I'm glad that you wonderful people read my stuff and I hope that you recommend people to read my stuff, it's not the best compared to some people, but I'm just happy to be using my imagination to make my own original work.]

-With love, S.C.