Intro

It was hot. I remember sweating puddles through my uniform. We were marching down a deserted street. There was a desert to my left with a chain link fence as far down I could see. On the other side,  nothing but sand,  rocks, mountains,  and dust. On this side,  there was a deserted town with dust,  rocks,  trash,  abandoned homes,  and their insignia on almost every building,  a black "X" with a red circle around it,  spray painted on any inch of the building possible.  To my right was a blockade of cars: sedans,  taxis,  a school bus, and a semi truck with a white oil tanker on the back of it.  There were 9 of us, we marched in a diamond formation with Jr in the middle. I was on the right side with Sergio at point, the cholo brothers were in the rear. Fred,  "Torta",  Franco and Charles were on the left side of the diamond.
We marched down the abandoned street, the wind howling through my helmet picking up dust and throwing it at our faces. It was hot and dry, it was hot and dry but we still marched .we had to,  we were only hours away from base . We were low on ammo, food,  supplies and confidence,  I know that I was exhausted physically and mentally, i haven't slept in 4 days. And i wouldn't until we were safe at camp. Only because i couldn't live with dealing loosing another man pointlessly, ... like Thomas.
There was dust in the air, the streets were deserted , I can see two dogs fighting over a dirty, brownish red rotten tomato Just a few feet to my right. They were howling and growling at each other ,slobbering and showing their fangs trying to intimidate each other. They were willing to fight to the death for that rotten tomato . I thought to my self : has it really gotten that bad,these poor dogs, no home, no bed,no food. Shit that was us. We were just like them , hungry , homesick ,tired and angry . To each other we were brothers , a family , best friends. To the army we were dogs. Just like those two fighting for survival, what were we fighting for? Only thing I can think of was Thomas. Thomas was gone. It was my fault. Those bastards were going to pay. Only thing left of him were his tags and his death letter he wrote for his family. We were supposed to be back days ago. The mission was supposed to take only 3 hours,  not 3 days. No one injured,  especially no K.I.A.s. ally fault. And now,  well shit now there's only 9 of us.