From under the protection of a weathered wooden building Steve took in his surroundings. Lightening flashed and lit the desert in a brilliant pale blue light. Mountains shone bright as day against the backdrop of an angry black sky. Thunder crashed and shook the ground under his feet. Water roared through the wash across the dirt road that led to the freeway some forty miles distant. So close yet so far away, due to the raging torrent of water that would surely drown him and his jeep. Only te...

“God this _sucks_!” Steve muttered into the night. Rain coursed over his eyes while he surveyed the flooded wash that cut across the dirt road, illuminated by his headlights. The opposite bank of the wash led to the freeway forty miles distant. Between him and that bank was a raging torrent of foamy brown water ten feet wide but of unknown depth. He ran his pale plump fingers through his dripping, bowl-cut brown hair. Two years prior, Steve had gotten his Jeep stuck in a mud puddle at the mal...

With battle lines drawn, two warring tribes of mice prepare for another day of deadly combat. Aside from a few brief times of peace, this morning will begin as it had every morning, for as long as any one in Patria or Mumia could remember. Each fighting force was made of three parts: a right flank, middle, and a left flank. As the sun rose above them, the leaders of Mumia and Patria would decide how each of their three parts would interact. Sometimes their actions would be met with success, s...

Kevin’s throat was parched. The desert sun shone brightly, burning exposed skin. Stinging sweat dripped from under his helmet into his eyes as he looked around. He was in the middle of a flat desolate desert devoid of any cover—an easy target. There were no mountain ranges in the distance, no cities or towns to be seen anywhere. Miles of peach colored sand spread in every direction. Kevin turned, continuously looking over his shoulder. His back felt exposed, and he was anxious about the threa...

Kevin rubbed his burning eyes. Crying and riding in the turret without his goggles on had dried them out. He picked through his field first-aid kit and found a bottle of saline, which he squirted into each red, swollen eye. Casper quickly located Jeff’s last coordinates, and the men fanned out to find the remains of the Iraq trail. Once located, they regrouped and followed the two tracks, predator and prey, watching for signs of Jeffrey and his spotter. The men silently walked several miles, ...

“Now change into your camo Battle Dress Uniforms, pack your gear and grab an MRE," Drill Sergeant McLeod barked. "You’ll take a bus out into the woods and receive maps with a target and a rendezvous point. I’ll pair you up and you’ll take notes on what you observe on the way to the rendezvous. You’ll be dropped far enough apart that you won’t be able to see each other. Each of you have different targets. You’ll be graded on how accurate your notes of your targets are. Anything less than you’v...

“I’ve been sitting on this bus for two hours.‿ Kevin squinted through stinging tired eyes into the back of the dark bus. He could only see one shadowy figure seated on the bus, and assumed the voice had been talking to him. “Oh yeah?‿ Kevin replied. “That sucks.‿ “Two fuckin’ hours,‿ the voice affirmed. It was higher in pitch but definitely male. Kevin yawned as he stiffly maneuvered his bag between the school bus-like seats. “Sorry to hear that,‿ he said indifferently. Ten hours of flying an...

This is the story of how I learned I can do anything. . . _anything_. I had been sick with a cold for a week. My voice was raspy, getting deeper with each passing day. This was a good thing, since I had been required to work with so many women lately that I was afraid my balls were shrinking. In an effort to fight feminization I was doing as many masculine things as possible--roughing up homeless people, setting my farts on fire, waxing my sack, etc. At lunchtime I'd even eaten a Del Taco bee...

The rising sun bathed the Arab desert in purple. Encamped Iraqi soldiers were just beginning to rise from an uneasy night’s sleep. Hours ago they had moved to this camp nestled among small hills, hidden, hopefully, from whoever had tormented them unseen for days. They knew they were American soldiers. No one else but ghosts could have moved freely around the inside of their camp, regardless of how many sentries were posted on watch. But these Iraqis had been trained to believe Americans were ...