In Enemy Lines

By Jason Gutierrez

It was a cold winter night in December. Snow was falling, the breeze was blowing, and men were falling. The ground was covered with a blanket of red. Gunshots were going off and men were screaming and running for their lives. I popped my head up looked down the ironsite of my rifle and shot. BANG! Nailed him right in the chest. He fell to the ground. I aimed down site again, pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I dropped back in cover and reloaded. I grabbed a grenade from a dead body next to me, pulled the plug, and chucked it into a pit where some enemies were. BOOM! Yells of pain went off and men went flying in the air. A wave of blood went up in the sky and fell back down covering the dead bodies in a coat of red. I looked around the corner and BANG! I fell to the ground and everything went dark…

...When I regained consciousness I woke in a hospital. But this wasn’t any regular hospital; I looked at the wall and saw the symbol of the enemy. The red snakes forming an X. I tried to get up but couldn’t. I looked down at my chest and immediately remembered what happened. I got shot in the chest. But why did they take me with them rather than letting me lay there to die. “CLANK, CLANK, CLANK” I heard footsteps coming down the metal stairs. I layed back down. “Get up!” I looked over to him and saw he was armed with a rifle. I listened to his command and got up. He grabbed my arm and escorted me to their army camp. He said to me, “Welcome to the army. You work for us now.” He escorted me to their general. “If you don’t listen to us and work we’ll send you to the shooting range… but you will be the target.” said the general. “Now get some rest or else you're no use for us. The guard escorted me to my jail cell and threw me on the mat. I just layed there on the mat till my eyes started to close and I fell asleep…

…(the next day) “Wake up you dirty animal!” yelled the guard who the day before threw me in this cell. I got up and he escorted me to the showers. “Go take a shower you smell terrible. Your new clothes will be back in your cell. The clothes you're wearing... throw those away on the way back.” He said. “When you get dressed head out to the training course. You need to get back into shape.” He continued. I took a shower, threw my old clothes away, and got dressed. Instead of heading to the training course I went ahead and went to the shooting range. I opened the door. No one was in there. I grabbed a rifle on the rack, got some ammo clips, and head out. I had to be stealthy to escape. I ran down the corridor, took a left, and ran into a room. I lifted up the air vent door and began to crawl inside. I wasn’t sure where it would take me but I hoped it would get me outside of their borders and out of gun range. I kept crawling, but then, at the end of the vent I saw the light. I kept crawling till I made it to the door. I looked out of it. All I saw were trees. I opened the vent door and hopped down. I took off on a full on sprint. “Wait! You there; what do you think you’re doing?” said a guard. I looked at him. He was aiming right at me. I tried to jump behind a tree then BANG! The noise of the gunshot was ringing inside my ear. I looked down at my leg. Blood was flowing out. I grabbed my gun and shot. He fell to the ground dead on the spot. I torn part of the clothes I was given and tied up my leg. Knowing other guards would be close by I took off running as far away from the base as possible. I hopped the fence and found a jeep. I got in, hot wired it, and took off. I drove through the next fence, threw the rest of the forest, and drove on home to the base.