Semper Fido (9780545539241) by London C. Alexander

Author:London, C. Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

“Contact, contact, contact!” Chang shouted.

I heard a snap as a firefly zipped past my face.

The dirt started dancing at my feet.

“Get down!” Chang pulled me into the waste ditch we’d just crossed over. I skittered down the dirt embankment and sank up to my knees in the foul water, pulling Loki in behind me. More fireflies buzzed overhead.

It took me another fraction of a second to realize they were tracer rounds from our guns returning fire. The “firefly” I’d seen before was an enemy bullet buzzing past my helmet. I was in my first firefight.

Contact.

I pressed Loki against the dirt as I lifted my head to see where the shots were coming from. I was curious. It was a strange emotion to feel, but I’d never been shot at before. Mud kicked up just in front of my face, and I ducked down again.

“They’re shooting at us!” I yelled.

“Duh!” Chang yelled back over the roar of the gunfire. To my other side, Douglass had set the M240 on its tripod in the mud and opened fire. The barrel was smoking, hot brass casings ejecting into the filthy water around us. He had a grin on his face as his shoulder rattled with the force of the gun unloading on fully-automatic.

Chang popped up over the top of the ditch and fired a few rounds from his M16 before ducking back down next to me.

I wanted to get up and fire back, to do something, but I also had to keep Loki safe. He was half in the dirty water and half out, his face pressed down flat on his paws. He was looking up at me, waiting patiently for me to make all the noise and smoky smells stop.

I wished I’d put on his special dog body armor. I had worried about Loki overheating or tiring out too soon on his first patrol in months. Now I worried about a bullet tearing him apart because I hadn’t put his armor on him. I had my armor on, though, and I decided to stay above Loki, covering him with my body … just like Corporal Eliopulos had.

I popped over the top of the ditch, pointing my gun at the sloping mountain in front of us.

I didn’t even know where to aim. The air was thick with black smoke from the explosion of the IED that had started the firefight. I guess it went off too early to get any of us. Maybe the bad guys got nervous seeing Loki and didn’t want him to find it before they could blow it. Maybe they just got clumsy and pressed the button too soon. Whatever happened, I was glad to be alive, my heart pounding, my focus intense, and adrenaline racing through my body. I wasn’t afraid. Things were happening too fast to feel afraid. Fear came before, and maybe it would come after. But right at that moment, I just felt like doing something.

They were trying to kill Chang with his quick comebacks

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