The force of the explosion ripped through the gate, and the SUV's door slammed shut. Ben covered his head with his hands as the windshield cracked and shattered around him.
After a few minutes, he lifted his head. He saw flames and dust everywhere. Feeling a sharp pain in his hand, he looked up to see a large piece of glass embedded in the back of his left hand. He pulled it out, barely wincing. It hurt, but he had worse things to worry about. He sat up and patted himself down. He was covered in glass. It was in his hair and all over his uniform. Warm rivulets ran down his face. When he tried to open the door, it felt like he was trying to move a mountain. The shock of the blast had drained his energy. He used all of his might to force it open and climb out.
It was still dusty and he could barely see through the smoke. His eyes burned and he started coughing. He began to look for survivors. He thought it was safe to assume that whoever was in the car was done, and if they weren't, fuck 'em. He hoped they slowly burned to death for the shit they'd just pulled.
He felt woozy as he walked around, unsure whether he was really okay. He tried to be careful of where he stepped. Sometimes IEDs didn't fully detonate. There was still the possibility of a second explosion.
As he approached the guard shack, he found a uniform-clad body with half its face blown off. Despite having been through many battles, Ben still had a hard time looking into the face of death. He reached down to check for a pulse. The guy appeared to be dead, but people had survived worse. No pulse. He searched the rubble until he found another body. This guard's face was intact.
Ben bent down and checked for a pulse. Nothing.
Damn. He'd known it was unlikely that anyone had survived, but still. The blast had taken out the gate and the guards, and everything else within a hundred feet. He was lucky to have survived.
He heard a gasp. One of the guards was alive!
"Hey, buddy! Hey. You with me?"
The guard groaned. Blood was pouring from behind one of his legs. Ben gently felt around until he located a piece of bone sticking out the side of the man's leg. When Ben touched it, the man moaned.
"I'm sorry, dude."
The guard opened his eyes and looked at Ben. "My mom. She hated that I joined the corps. I should have listened to her."
"You're gonna be okay. Just don't move around, okay? I gotta get something to stop the bleeding."
Ben looked around for something to cover the gaping wound. It looked like t guard had suffered a compound fracture of the femur. It wasn't necessarily fatal, but he could die of blood loss if he didn't receive treatment soon. Ben could find nothing suitable in the immediate area. The guard was nodding off.
"Hey, I have to go find help. But I need you to stay awake."
"Don't leave. I don't want to die."
"You won't, dude, but I need to get help. Your leg—"
"My leg? I can't feel anything." He sounded short of breath.
Ben tried to adjust the guard's body armor so it wouldn't constrict his airway.
"Please," the guard gasped, "tell my mom I'm sorry I didn't listen. I should have listened. Now I'm gonna die here."
"Dude, please, just hold on. I can help you."
"You can't do anything to help me."
"Just trust me."
"I should have listened to her." He started to fade again.
YOU ARE READING
No Place for Females
Action"I wasn't even suppose to leave the base." The only thing Lena Jacobs ever expected to do in Afghanistan was work at the military base clinic to which she was assigned. But when she arrives she finds out that she must fill in as a medic for a U.S. M...
