Shadows - Melody Anne

Prologue

Three Years in the Past

Time: 0400

Date: November, 18, 1999

Location: asdfasddfadsf, Korangal Valley, Afghanistan

Team:

Pilots: Jeremy Rohns, Patrick Malone

Crew Chief: Kevin Keller

SEALs: Jon Eisenhart (“Eyes”), James Bond (“Morph”), Carl Schwartz (“Sleep”), James Bond (“Clapper”), James Bond (“Stogie”), Jonathon McCck (“Rain”)

Operation: Mountain Anvil

The continually furious thawump, thawump, thawump of the Blackhawk’s blades over the last thirty-five minutes was almost enough to make Sleep fall asleep.

Almost.

Unfortunately for everyone in the chopper, he was a high energy, mile-a-minute talking and moving team member who didn’t allow a lick of rest for himself or anyone around him. When it was time for action, though, there were few better to have at your side.

“Hey, Eyes, do you think there’ll be enough powder on the ground to build a snowman?” Sleep asked, finding himself amusing as the pilots flew through the Korengal Valley, which happened to be blanketed in a light layer of snow. Before Eyes could formulate an answer, more words were already coming over the com system.

“I remember a massive snowstorm we had in Philly when I was a kid,” Sleep said, a smile in his voice. “I think I was eleven, maybe twelve. Anyway, around three feet dumped from Friday night to Sunday morning. We were out of school for the entire week. Hell, the whole city was shut down for a few days. My friends and I gathered a bunch of other kids from up and down Cottman Avenue, then went over to Northeast High and made about twenty snowmen on the football field, staging them so it looked like they were playing a game.” They could hear the joy in his voice as Sleep got lost in old memories.

“It wasn’t long before some of the kids made snowballs. One got chucked over our icy football team and hit this jackass kid from Cedar Grove smack dab in his smug face. The very well-known bully began crying, which they all do eventually, then stomped away from the field, threatening to tell his mom. We were all busting a gut at that one,” Sleep continued.

“Dang, you’re making me homesick,” Rain said, his own memories of snowball fights as a kid being conjured.

“Me too,” Sleep said with another laugh. “Of course, after the first snowball was thrown, it started a war. We were in the middle of an epic battle when the bully came back, but he wasn’t alone. It was worse than his mom; it was his older brother with three of his brother’s friends. These were big high school kids. They figured we’d cower like kicked dogs. I think it was in that moment I knew I was gonna be called to a life of making questionable decisions.” He got lost in his thoughts and his team waited. They all had stories like this from their past and they knew exactly what he was thinking. It was what separated them from 99.9 percent of the rest of the world.

“The kid’s brother began calling out for who had dared hit his brother. He wanted the person to step forward and take his punishment, whatever the hell that meant. I looked at my boys: Roger, John, and Jeff. They knew trouble was about to show up when I gave them my famous shit-eating grin, shrugged my shoulders, then yelled back at the bully’s brother that it was me who threw it. I stepped forward, making sure they saw me, and then I winked at the bully who was cocky now that he was hiding behind his big brother. I finished up by asking what the prob was.”

Clapper, one of his teammates—an overly hardened type who didn’t laugh at much—had his funny bone hit hard by that and gave an actual belly laugh. Sleep, happy with that reaction, smiled because, though they were tough as nails, deep down they were also kids who enjoyed an epic adventure.

Sleep, looking back at Clapper, kept the story going “I started walking toward the teens while taking off my gloves. Nearly to them, I pretended to trip, which made the asses laugh. I was glad their defenses were down, because they were a lot bigger than me, and I knew I’d need any advantage I could get.”

“The bigger they are, the better it feels when they fall,” Stogie chimed in. Sleep’s entire team was giving him their full attention as he continued his teenage tale of woe.

“Big brother began mocking me as he closed the gap between us. Just as he reached me, I stood, gave a look over my shoulder —