The Great Loss
It was Christmas day, and what was I doing? Standing outside of a nuclear weapons facility, armed to the teeth and preparing to break in. Not very charming.
“Move out, boys,” I said to my squad. “Guns loaded and shoot to kill. Roger, you scout ahead. Jack and Damien, guard the back.”
Being in Iraq in the middle of winter on Christmas isn’t what anybody wants, but if people would stop making nuclear weapons, then I, yes me, Derek Redwood, wouldn’t have to be here.
We headed toward the entrance, the wind whipping my jet-black hair every way that is possible. Still, my muscled body moved onward. Okay, so I’m not one of those weaklings you see on TV. No, I’m more of a heavyset guy. I honestly can be quite frightening when I want to be. Then again, being six-foot four also helps.
“Alright, get in formation. We have a facility to break into,” I told my squad. “Ready, Go!”
As I said this, I brought my gun up and kicked. The door burst open and my squad entered quickly.
“We have hostiles, sir,” said a member of my squad.
“Shoot on sight, shoot on sight!” I yelled. Then my gun came up and I pulled the trigger. Men hit the ground as the fight continued. Finally, the last shot rang like a bell. As the smoke cleared, I called out, “Damage report!”
“We’re all good, Captain,” said my squad in unison.
“Good, let’s move on. We still have a lot of ground to cover, and we need to cover it quickly. You two take the path to the right. You two take the path to the left. Roger, you’re with me. Now move,” I said quickly.
As we all went our separate ways, I looked ahead. The door that was down the center path was the biggest door that I had ever seen. On it, there was a sign that read “Training Room 131.”
“You ready, Roger?” I said to my partner.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he replied.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”

“Are you positive?”

“Yes!”

“Are you sure that you’re positive?”

“Stop toying with me! I’m ready!”

“Fine. Go!”

“Thought you would never ask,” Roger replied sarcastically.

We opened the door and saw something that we didn’t want to see. Inside of the room was around one hundred terrorists.

“We have a problem, sir.” Roger told me.

“I thought there wasn’t one!” I retorted sarcastically.

“What are we going to do now?”
“I think I know the solution,” I told Roger as I pulled out five M32 frag grenades. “Let’s blow this joint, shall we?”

I pulled the pin on the grenades and lobbed them into the room. “Run!” I yelled. We took off back the way we had come. I knew it was coming. Just as we made it out of range, the explosion rocked the building. The sound it made was deafening.

“That was fun,” Roger said to me in a very casual tone, as if we were running away from nothing.

“Yes, it was,” I casually agreed with him.

We started walking back toward the room when the lights went red. We started to creep toward the door very slowly, guns aimed.

“This can’t be good,” I stated. “But there isn’t a siren going off yet, so we’re still in the clear.” I touched the door to open it, but it fell off its hinges.

“Sir, there’s a door on the other side.” Roger stated quickly.

“Move out then, you know the drill.” I retorted, slightly annoyed.
Roger ran quickly across the room and opened the door. He poked his head into the room. When he pulled his head out, he gave me a thumbs up.

“It’s a computer room!” he called out to me.
I started to walk toward the door. When I got there, I looked inside and saw a load of technology, and a huge glass window looking into a room that had a huge missile in it.

“We found the nuke,” I said in a very normal tone.

“No, I thought it was an ice cream cone,” Roger said in a really sarcastic tone of voice.

“Don’t get lippy with me, Roger!” I snapped at him.

“Sorry, thought you could use a little friendly banter.”

“You better be,” I told him in an obstreperous tone. “Now, I’m going in there and placing the charges. Understand? You stay here in case we get any visitors.” I walked toward the electronic door that led to the nuke room.

The immense rocket gleamed like the sun, which made it hard to look at. It was a glimmering silver and was about twenty feet in diameter.

I placed the three claymores on the base of the missile, activated them, and ran. I barely made it through the door when the rocket exploded into a million pieces.

“That was close! I think my neck hairs got singed off!” I said, half laughing.

Just then came the lovely, satisfying voice of the computerized alarm system. “T-minus one minute until self destruct sequence,” the computer repeated over and over again.

“Run!” I yelled out as Roger and I took off like a speeding bullet across the room. Roger and I ran as fast as we could. We never stopped running until we made it to the exit. The door was closing down as we got to it. Right before it closed, I slid under it.

When I looked back, the door was shut and Roger wasn’t behind me. Then the whole building exploded into oblivion. The explosion rocketed me off as fast as a cheetah.

When I hit the ground, I heard four of my bones break. My last thoughts before I blacked out were that my men were still in the building when it exploded, and it was all my fault. Then everything went black, almost as if a black cloud had shrouded over me.

I woke up in a hospital bed with casts on both of my legs. My arm was in a sling, and I had bandages over my ribs. I had gotten fired for the big mess I had caused. Now my squad was dead. I had nothing to be proud of now.
Maybe you will do better than me. You might not destroy everything in sight. And possibly, you just might save your buddy’s life.