Kombat
Kids by GhostRyder
Chapter 52: It's
Hard to Soar With the Eagles, When You're Surrounded
by Turkeys
Looking
back at the events that shaped the Unit and the party
that was almost two weeks ago, James stood in the hallway
watching as the last of the Squaddies followed Matt
to the third deck and the arms room. He squared his
cap on his head and headed up to the first floor and
on to the range, remembering both the good and the bad
times he had experienced since the Unit came in to being.
Sighing, he climbed into a HUMVEE and drove out of the
garage and out to the rifle range, a slight smile on
his face. Reaching the range, he eased out of the HUMVEE
and limped up to the range office. Entering the office,
he found the Gunny sitting at his desk working his way
through the stack of paper work that never seemed to
get any smaller. James smiled at the older man and
said; "Tell me you didn't know about this 'Turkey
Shoot' Matt has set up for today."
The Gunny looked up and smiled at James; "Actually
I did, Matt reminded me about it around 19:00 last night.
I figured you knew all about it and were ready for it,
was I wrong?"
"Yeah ya were" James nodded. "Matt blindsided
me this morning, him and the rest of the Unit. He and
the kids were about ready to drown me as I chased him
up stairs after he woke me with two gallons of ice water.
I swear ta God I felt the ice cubes hit my back when
he dumped that bucket on me while I was still sleeping.
That's okay, he'll get his, he won't know when or where
it's going to happen, but I guarn-damn-tee you he's
going to get his."
The Gunny was laughing so hard he had to grasp the arms
of his desk chair to keep from falling out of it. "Now
James, you wouldn't really hurt your only brother now
would you?"
James smiled for a minute before replying; "Naw,
but I'll still figure a way of getting back at him when
he least expects it." James gave the Gunny an
evil smile before continuing; "So Gunny, what's
my rotten little brother have set up for the 'Turkey
Shoot?'"
The Gunny smiled back and said; "Nothing much,
it's going to be a standard '100 yard' competition,
with one exception." Gunny Mcnaughten gave a nasty
little chuckle as he turned to the three boxes stacked
in the corner of the range Office. Picking up the top
one he laid it on the desk and began opening it. Much
to James surprise, it contained a Marlin single shot
bolt action .22-caliber rifle, just like the one Jap
had used when he was part of the ambush they'd pulled
against the National Guard Green Berets. Before James
could ask, the Gunny said; "Matt and I figured
it would be unfair to the other guys to let Jap, Jacky
and the James boys use their own, or even a standard
issue rifle. This way, the other guys at least have
a chance of winning."
James started laughing, when he was able to get himself
under control, he asked; "Does anyone besides us
know we're gonna make them use the .22's?"
The Gunny got that nasty grin on his face again; "Nope,
we figured we'd surprise them, kinda let them think
they had it in the bag and then spring these on them.
Course, I plan on standing as far away from Jap as I
can when Matt tells them that they gotta use the .22's,
but hey, what the hell, Matt's a big boy, he should
be able to handle one skinny little redheaded thirteen
year old." The Gunny's smile turned in to a frown;
"At least I hope he can."
James
smiled at the Gunny's frown, shook his head and asked;
"Anyhow, has Matt briefed you on what's going down
today, if so how about cluing me in. Like I said, the
last thing I heard about this was last March and I'm
totally in the dark about what he's planned."
"It
looks like it'll be a standard hundred meter shoot,
forty rounds total, ten rounds each from the prone,
sitting, kneeling and standing positions. Best groups
from all four shooting positions win. He's got some
. . . . shall we say . . . . unusual prizes for the
winners. I like the way he's going about it too, nobody
can win more than one of the positional prizes and he's
set it up for first, second and third place overall
winners. The thing is, I think he's got a prize for
everyone of the Squaddies, and one special one for Jap.
The overall winner will be the one with the combined
highest group score and rifle range score. Matt wants
to make sure that everyone does his best in both the
individual and group competitions." The Gunny said.
James
smiled at the Gunny's last comment; "What exactly
did my scatter-brained little brother get as prizes,
and, I hesitate to ask, what kind of special prize has
he got waiting for Jap?"
Gunny
Mcnaughten chuckled then broke out into a belly laugh
before saying; "Follow me." With that said,
he stood up and led James out of the range office and
over to the rear of one of the Unit's HUMVEE's. As James
approached, he opened the rear door of the cargo variant
HUMVEE and James saw a very large metal cage. Moving
closer, he found the cage contained the largest turkey
he had ever seen. After staring at the turkey for a
few seconds, he turned to the Gunny and was about to
ask where he'd found the giant bird when he heard a
HUMVEE pull to a stop at the front of the range office.
Instead, he said; "Sounds like things are getting
ready to start, let's go and try to get this circus
on the road."
After closing and securing the rear door of the
HUMVEE, the two men walked over to the HUMVEE and greeted
Matt, Keener, George Babcock and Gunnery Sergeant MacCarver
as they were climbing out of the cargo configured HUMVEE.
"Well, it looks like my baby brother's got everyone
involved in this 'Chinese Fire Drill,' how come I was
the last one to be reminded of it?" James asked.
The three Marines tried to
maintain a look of innocence on their faces, but failed
miserably. George Babcock cleared his throat before
saying; "Well you see James . . . “
Matt broke in laughing and
said; "It's my fault, I told them not to say anything,
I thought I'd be fun to 'fuck' with you a little bit.
I guess I shouldn't have done it, but this is the first
time I been able to pull one on ya for a long time and
I couldn't pass up the opportunity."
James smiled at his little
brother, "Okay."
Matt blinked at James and asked;
"Okay. That's all you got to say is 'okay?'"
James smiled at him again,
a rather evil smile if the truth be known, and said;
"Yep, I can't think of anything else to say right
now, maybe later I'll come up with something, you know,
special."
As he finished saying that,
Squaddies started arriving, the first was Bobby Bauer,
followed closely by his boyfriend Marty Morton. Phil
Martin and David White arrived close behind them. Shortly,
in groups of three or four, singly or in pairs the membership
arrived and waited quietly (for them) broken down by
squads or sub-groups. Matt, James and the four Marines
moved to the front of the assembled boys, Matt holding
a wireless microphone. Bobby Bauer, Matt and James’
Aide-de-Camp (ADC) yelled out; "Attention on deck."
The Unit came to attention, all talking and movement
ceased as they waited for Matt to speak.
"Morning troops, ya'll
ready to pop some caps?"
The boys all responded with
a variety of calls; "Hoo, Yah, brrrrrrp, haw-yoo
and the like, all picked up from the various members
of Army, Navy and Marine Corps that they had interacted
with over the previous year and a half.
Smiling, Matt continued speaking;
"We've got a lot of activities to get through today,
besides the turkey shoot we're going to have competitions
at the confidence course, the vehicle test track, and
the 'JJ Course.'" Matt stopped talking and thought
about how he was going to continue; "Some of the
competitions won't be the 'Traditional' type that we've
done in the past, ya'll have to compete in all of them
to have a chance at the grand prize though. So do we
have any questions before we start?"
Naturally several hands shot
up, knowing he might as well get it over with, he pointed
to Jap first. "All right Jap, what's your question?"
Jap looked at Matt for a second
before he asked; "Whatcha mean when you say the
events won't be 'traditional'?"
Matt
smiled at the little redhead and said; "You'll
find out when you get to the specific event, until then,
you'll just have to wait."
Marty
Morton was next; "What's the 'Grand Prize' sir?"
Matt
smiled again before saying; "That's for me to know
and you to find out." An implied 'neener, neener,
neener' type smirk was displayed on Matt's face when
he finished his answer.
Marty
just shook his head and threw his hands in the air;
"Sure, be that way. Just remember sir, what goes
around, comes around."
Matt
just laughed at him and told the Squaddies to fall in,
after everyone was in ranks he said; "Okay guys,
this is the way we're gonna run it today. Squads One
and Two will start on the 'Confidence Course,' Squads
Three and Four will run the three mile 'JJ' track twice;
Five and Six will be on the rifle range. Snipers, their
spotters and security detail will run the long distance
'JJ' course. Jumpers will swim twenty-five laps of
the outdoor pool while the Divers will be taken by helicopter
halfway to the airstrip, fastline to the ground and
make the fastest possible transit time back to the range.
Questions?"
Bobby
Bauer raised his hand; "How are we being judged
on the different activities?"
Matt
smiled at the boy; "Good question Bobby, when everyone's
cycled through the different courses, the squad times
will be used to determine the winners of the grand prize.
The scores recorded during the shooting range portion
of the activities will determine the overall winner
of the 'Turkey Shoot." Matt looked at the assembled
boys for a few seconds before asking; "Any other
questions?"
Justin
Stanton raised his hand, when Matt pointed to him he
asked; "What do we wear when we're swimming the
twenty five laps Sir?"
"Another
good question." Matt said; "You can wear anything
from skivvies to MarCam, or nothing at all, your choice."
"Anything
else?" Matt asked. When their were no other questions
asked, Matt yelled out; "Unit One, ten-hut, Divers
to the parking lot for pickup, all others to their designated
courses, oh yeah, make sure everyone uses the hydration
stations on each course. Fall out."
The
Divers double-timed it toward the parking lot in front
of the house, half way there; a Marine CH-53 could be
seen landing. General Stanton had 'loaned' the large
aircraft to the Unit after Matt had contacted him and
explained what was happening that weekend. As the Divers
rounded the corner of the building, they almost ran
over the General as he was about to enter the garage
to pick up a HUMVEE. Barton Fisk, the Divers Squad
Leader hurriedly called his squad to a halt. Facing
the General he saluted and started to apologize; "Sir,
please excuse us, we had no idea you were here until
we rounded the corner and . . . " Was all he could
get out before Phil Stanton smiled and said; "No
problem Squad Leader, I should have known you'd be en
route' and took a different way to the garage. You
better move out, the chopper's waiting for you and your
Squaddies."
Barton
let out a sigh of relief before responding; "Aye
aye sir." He saluted the General and turned to
his squad and yelled out "Detail, forward march."
After the squad marched four paces he then yelled; "Squad,
double time, march!" The squad took off at the
same pace they had been going when they almost ran over
the General. As they approached the rear of the copter,
the crew chief of the big helicopter signaled for them
to move up the rear ramp and find a seat. Inside the
copter, there were six other Marines dressed in MarCam,
one of whom was Gunny Johansson. When the Divers were
all seated, the 53's crew chief closed the rear ramp
and notified the pilot the ship was ready for launch.
As the helicopter was lifting off, Gunny Johansson started
to brief the Unit One boys about what to expect over
the dedicated team intercom.
While
the Divers were boarding the helicopter, the Jumpers
had started swimming their 25 laps in the outdoor pool,
while the rest ran the two JJ courses and the confidence
course.
Jap
and Jacky were on the long JJ course (eight miles) running
side by side. The two boys were maintaining an eight-minute
mile, Jap kept up a running conversation with his boyfriend
as they ran; "Sure am glad they didn't make us
wear our rucks, this is almost fun."
Jacky
snorted at his lovers' last statement; "Yeah, I
imagine you'd like this, after all the times they made
you run JJ's with a full ruck, I can see how this is
almost a stroll in the park for ya."
Jap
glanced at his friend as they continued to run, shaking
his head he flipped him off; "Fuck you, if I didn't
love you so much, I'd kick your ass."
Jacky
started to laugh and suddenly doubled over and fell
to his knees with his arms clutching his sides and his
head nearly touching the ground, his whole body shaking
as he appeared to be gasping for air. Jap, his and
Jacky's spotters and the sniper security detail all
rushed over to see if he was okay.
Jap
dropped to his knees alongside his boyfriend, wrapping
his right arm around Jacky's shoulders, with a look
of concern on his face he cried out; "Jacky, Jacky,
what's wrong? Are you hurt, what can I do . . . . .
please Jacky, talk to me?"
Tears
were dripping from Jap's eyes, a deep look of concern
on his face as he kept asking his lover to talk to him,
to tell him what was wrong. The rest of the guys in
the group were clustered around the two boys, all of
them with concerned looks on their faces, all of them
wanting to help but none knowing what to do. Jacky
stopped shaking and straightened his body too an upright
kneeling position, using the heels of both his hands,
he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked at his lover
before gasping out; "You, you, ha, ha, ha, you
whip MY ass?"
Jap's
mouth dropped open; he stared at the larger boy for
several seconds. During the time he stared at his lover,
his face got redder and redder until it was almost the
same color as his hair. Sputtering and growling out
dire threats, no promises, of great bodily harm, Jap
started to reach for the larger boy's throat with both
hands all the time becoming more and more pissed. Jacky
didn't give his little man a chance to strangle him,
before Jap could throttle him he was on his feet hauling
ass up the trail as fast as his feet would carry him.
Jap
jumped to his feet and sprinted after the larger boy,
slowly gaining on Jacky. Jacky should have been able
to outrun Jap, but he was laughing too hard. Jap closed
on the man he loved, the man he intended beat the shit
out of, after fifty yards, he leapt on his back and
both of them fell to the ground. From the rest of the
guys' point of view, all that was visible of their two
friends was a dust cloud and once, or twice, a flailing
arm or leg. While it was unusual to see Jap and Jacky
fighting, it wasn't unheard of. Because the two boys
were "Alpha Males," that is, they always seemed
to gravitate to positions of authority; you know the
ones most everyone else deferred to. So it was natural,
actually a foregone fact of life that every once in
a while, the two would disagree on a subject. With
Jap's mercurial personality, nine times out of ten his
disagreement manifested itself in a physical confrontation.
Jacky on the other hand usually didn't lose his temper,
that is usually. Even though his laughing had lit Jap
off, he was just a little pissed at his boyfriend right
now; Jap had gotten through his guard and had busted
his lip. Jacky still wasn't pissed off enough to hurt
his little buddy, but he was irritated enough to want
to give him a good spanking. As the other boys in the
group caught up to the two feuding guys, the dust had
started to settle and the found Jap lying over Jacky's
outstretched legs. Before any of the guys could say
anything, Jacky had Japs' trousers and skivvies pulled
down to his ankles and proceeded to spank his bare ass.
“Oww! Fuck! You son of a bitch! Oww, come on Jacky
stop it, damn it man, stop it. Pleassssssssssssse.
I give, I give all ready, please stop.”
With
Jap’s surrender, Jacky flipped him over and looked him
in the eye before saying; “Ya know I wasn’t trying to
hurt you, but I needed to get your attention and I couldn’t
think of any other way. If you weren’t so damn hard
headed we wouldn’t have to go through this shit every
time you throw a tantrum.” Jacky leaned in to Jap and
gently kissed him on the lips before lifting him to
his feet, glancing down at Japs’ crotch, he noticed
his little lover was well on the way to having a full
blown ‘hard on’” Laughing a little he reached out and
gently squeezed Japs’ dick and said; “Whoa dude, calm
down we ain’t got time for that now.”
Before
Jap could respond, Toby Bishoff, Clint Davidson, the
James Brothers and Jeff Dunlop surrounded the two. Jeff
sighed; "Come on you guys, you're gonna fuck up
our chances of winning." Jap turned to look at
Jeff, but before he could say anything, Jeff blurted
out; "God damn it Jap point that thing somewhere
else before it goes off and puts somebody's eye out
will ya." The other guys started laughing as Jap
turned bright red while trying to pull up his skivvies
and trousers at the same time trying to sputter out
a come back. Failing in both attempts, he lost his
balance and fell on his cherry red ass. Jacky moved
over to him, grabbed him under his arms and set him
back on his feet while standing between Jap and the
other guys. Jacky looked down at his lover and spoke
softly; "Pull your trousers up little buddy, don't
worry about them, I'll block their view while you get
your shit together."
Jacky
turned around and faced the other guys and said; "Okay,
that's enough shit flipping. It's over with so let's
get our game faces back on and as soon as Jap's ready
we need to make up for lost time."
While
Jacky was talking to the guys, Jap hurriedly pulled
up his skivvies and trousers, adjusted them and took
a deep breath to calm himself down. Reaching up, he
grasped his lovers shoulder, squeezed it gently and
said in a soft voice that only Jacky could hear; "Thanks
Jack and I'm sorry I started the shit."
Jacky
turned his head and looked down at the boy he loved,
with a soft smile on his face he nodded his head, accepting
Jap's apology. Turning back to the other boys, he said;
"Okay guys let's move out, we got to get caught
up or we're gonna loose our ass."
James
and Matt who'd been watching Jap's 'temper tantrum'
and Jacky's manner of tending to it on the area security
camera, both laughed. Matt looked at James and said;
"Ya know, it's a good thing Jacky's the mellow
one of the 'Dynamic Duo,' otherwise we'd need a 24 hour
sick bay attendant and an ambulance on permanent standby.
Damn, that little redheads' gonna have to learn to control
his temper better or someone's gonna get hurt."
James
nodded his head in agreement before answering his brother;
"The thing he does have going for him is that Jacky
loves the shit out of him AND knows how to restrain
him. The only thing he really hurt with that spanking
was Jap's pride, and he'll get over that quick enough.
As
the day went on, the Squaddies made their way through
the different tests of endurance and skills, Matt and
The Gunny ensured that the snipers and their teams were
the last to complete the marksmanship section of the
days' activities. When Jap and Jacky's team finally
made it to range, they found, with the exception of
four AR15's, it was bare of firearms. Jap was the first
to ask the question that was on the entire teams mind;
"Hey Gunny, where are our pieces?"
The
Gunny smiled at the mercurial little red head before
saying; "We sent them back to the arms room, we
decided that you guys needed a special handicap."
Turning to the James brothers, he once again smiled
and said; "You two go into the range shack and
drag out the boxes stacked by the door."
The
James boys looked at The Gunny with a quizzical look
and their faces and said; "Aye, Aye Gunny.
A
couple minutes after entering the shack, the boys came
back shaking their heads and carrying two boxes each.
When Jap saw what they were carrying, he started to
turn red, then he started sputtering, and then he started
to head for The Gunny. Before he could take more than
a single step, Jacky grabbed him around the waist and
held him off the ground. Jap sputtered and spit and
yelled; "Oh no you aren't, there's no fucking way
I'm gonna use that piece of shit, it ain't fair."
Matt came up and stood by The Gunny and started laughing,
pretty soon everyone, everyone except Jap that is, was
laughing too.
Jacky
Twirled Jap around and looked him in the eyes; "Calm
down now little buddy, just calm down. If you think
about it, it's only fair for James boys and us to have
a handicap, even with the 15's, the four of us would
out shoot just about everyone else in the Unit."
Jap
sputtered and spit for a couple of more minutes and
then finally ran out of steam. Looking at his lover,
he sighed deeply and nodded his head in acceptance.
"Okay, put me down and I'll be good." Turning
to The Gunny and Matt, Jap frowned at them before saying;
"Just ya'll wait, soon enough it'll be my turn
to laugh." With that said, he went over to the
boxed up firearms and searched out the one they had
issued him for the ambush of the first Green Beret unit
they had gone against, pointed it down range and opened
the bolt to make sure it was empty. Jap then walked
over to the firing line and placed it on the carpet
of one of the shooting positions and went back to stand
by Jacky to wait orders to begin shooting.
So
that the other shooters wouldn’t be intimidated, Jap
and Jacky were scheduled to shoot last, allowing the
other boys of the sniper detail a chance to shoot without
having the ‘Alpha and Bravo’ shooters breathing down
their necks. The six boys grabbed the .22 they wanted
to use and after insuring the firearms were empty, moved
to the line and prepared themselves to shoot. As would
be expected the James Brothers scored the best, but
everyone knew they’d outshoot most of the other boys
in the Unit. Surprisingly, Toby Bishoff, the youngest
rifleman on the security detail shot the best of the
group with a 377, coming within five points of Marty
James score, who was only two points off his brother
Doug’s top score of 384.
While
the other members of the sniper teams were shooting,
Jap and Jacky stood back from the line and talked quietly.
Jacky was the one who’d brought up the subject of winning
the match; “Ya know Jap, we really don’t need ta take
the match, we both know we’re good, we both know we
can beat everyone else. I been thinking, maybe we should
just go ahead and shoot a good score, just not as good
as we could.”
Jap
looked up into his lovers eyes and smiled; “Ya know
buddy, I kinda been thinking the same thing. This contest
don’t mean squat, we’re still gonna be the Alpha and
Bravo snipers, like I said, it don’t mean squat and
we can blame our lower scores on these Mickey Mouse
rifles.”
They
both smiled and nodded to each other, turned and went
over to the status board to check on the leaders for
each age group scores. Not surprising either one of
them, all the Unit One shooters would have scored as
being ‘Expert,’ some just barely, but none less than
‘Expert.’ Jap having turned thirteen the previous December
twenty fourth looked for the highest scoring thirteen
year old, who happened to be Lee Chan. Lee had shot
a very respectable 342, Jap considered that to be excellent,
at least he didn’t have to shoot a score that was ridiculously
low. Jacky’s high scorer in the fourteen year old division
was Marty James, at 395. Jacky was even happier than
Jap because he would be able to shoot a higher score.
When the sniper detail cleared the shooting positions
after recovering their targets, Jap picked up his youth
model .22 and moved to the far left shooting position
while Jacky took the far right firing point. The Gunny
went through the firing line litany and Jacky commenced
firing immediately, while Jap took a minute to consider
what he was going to do. Finally deciding what he was
going to do, Jap commenced firing.
Jap
took longer to complete shooting his forty rounds, a
full minute longer than Jacky had taken. Once the firing
was complete, the rifle placed on the carpet with the
action up and open, the Gunny called the range cold.
Jap and Jacky trotted the distance to the targets, removed
them and trotted back, handing them both to the Gunny.
After a quick glance at Jacky's, he looked at Jap's
and almost choked, the Gunny looked at Jap and saw the
shit-eating grin he had plastered on his face and smiled,
shaking his head at the little redhead. Walking into
the range shack he motioned to James, Matt, George,
Keener and Gunny MacCarver to come with him. A couple
of minutes after the door to the shack closed, the sound
of laughter could be heard coming from inside. What
the other boys, Jacky included didn't know, was that
Jap had shot his rounds so that a series of 'Smiley
Faces' were created in and out of the black on each
of his four targets so that his final score would end
up to be exactly 341, one point below Lee Chan's 342.
About five minutes after the laughter was heard, the
door opened and the men filed back out, all of them
wearing huge smiles.
James
had the Squaddies fall in and smiled at the boys. "All
right guys, I'm going to announce the winners of the
different age groups and the overall winners. James
started calling the names of the boys with the best
scores from the shooting event, the only real surprise
was that Jap and Jacky weren't called to step forward.
The prize winners all received 'X-Box 4's' and a number
of games for them. The really neat thing about the
prizes was the fact that the 'XB 4's' weren't on the
market anywhere in the United Sates or Canada, and wouldn't
be for at least another six months.
The
overall winners of the day's events were the boys in
the 'Armor' subunit, they not only won a XB 4, they
also were awarded a 36 inch flat panel HD TV monitor
to go with them. All the rest of the boys in the Unit
were given $200.00 gift certificates that could be used
in any mall in the Bi-Cities, or for that matter, in
the Washington, Oregon or Idaho area. When the prizes
were handed out and the boys all calmed down, Matt stepped
forward and said; "Jap, front and center."
Jap,
with a sense of trepidation, came to attention and marched
up to Matt, came to attention and saluted, saying; "Squaddie
Peterson reporting as ordered sir."
Matt
returned the salute, smiled and said; "That was
a really interesting pattern you shot, I don't believe
I've ever seen one quite like it outside the movies."
Looking over Jap's head at the other boys, Matt smiled
and said; "Before the 'Turkey Shoot' started, it
was decided by the 'Command Group' to award a special
prize to Jap, no matter how well he shot. Sooooo, Squaddie
Jap, I take great pleasure in giving you the 'Bird.'"
As
he finished speaking the HUMMVEE that had been parked
to the side of the range shack was backed up to about
five feet from Jap and Matt. Keener and George opened
the rear doors and the two of them pulled out the cage
containing the giant turkey and placed it on the ground.
The Unit gasped at the sight of the large Tom Turkey,
and then burst into laughter. Jap just stood there
gaping at his 'prize', not really knowing what to say
or do. Finally he moved up to the side of the cage,
looked closely at the bird for a few minutes and then
turned to look at the 'Command Group' before saying;
"Oh thank you sirs, I always wanted my very own
live turkey. I know just what I'm going to call him
too. Turning back to the cage he looked at his turkey
and said in a very loud voice; "'Matt', you and
I are going to get along just fine.
End of Chapter, End of Kombat Kids
Coming Soon to Nifty and Ghost Ryder's Stories; "Attack
and Response," A Collaboration . . . . And, "Jap
and Jacky Go To College."