Eric is a war-hardened sergeant first class. He had seen it
all, heard it all, and been through it all. As a young Private First Class, he
had been drilled through the first years of the Iraq War. Now, he leads a
platoon of good, young soldiers. After a sweltering summer in Fort Hood, Texas,
he was ready to get out of the military. Four deployments and twelve years of
service allowed him to hang up the dog tags. First, he had to ensure this last
platoon of soldiers he had would be handed the tools to prosper and make a good
life in the outside world. The soldiers of his current platoon were young,
incredibly so. The average age of the forty-two soldiers was eighteen. He had
three Non-commissioned Officers that were not all allowed to drink. "Shit.
It looks like I have quite the young platoon this time." Eric says with a
grimace.
Sitting back in his chair, Eric notices the first sergeant
walking by. "Hey, Top, you got a second?" He calls out. The Military
Intelligence community is small and interconnected, and the company's first
sergeant was Eric's first NCO when he was a young soldier. The two knew each other
well. "yeah, what's up, Dryer?" First Sergeant says as he comes into
the room and shuts the door. "I'm going to be straight with you, Top;
these kids are not ready," Eric says as he places his face in his hands,
rubbing his face. The First Sergeant laughs at Eric and pats him on the back.
"Neither were you, kid." He says jokingly as he reminisces about
their deployment together. "Who would have thought that you and I would be
going on our last deployment
together?" The man says with a chuckle. "if you would have
told those worry warts from back then that Sergeant Hamond and Private Dryer
were gonna be a first sergeant and sergeant first class, one day, they woulda
yelled at you." The First Sergeant pats Eric on the back and gets up.
"You got this, bud. We have three months. Surely you can get these kids
ready. Now, go home. I know you like to stay at work because your wife left, but
you're still young. Get out there and live a little. If you don't, I'm gonna
put my boot up your ass." Eric stood up, looking at First Sergeant Hammond.
Both men stood above six feet as they chuckled together, each reminiscing of the past in their own way.
"Roger that, Top." Eric says simply as he walks out of the office.
Once back to his house, Eric ruminates over what first sergeant
Hammond had said. It was true that since his ex wife left him, he had done little
in the way of going out or enjoying life. He had mostly done what pretty much every soldier does: "drink until the memories don't exist." Eric looks into the mirror, a man with sad blue eyes and unkempt dirty blonde hair looks back.
After a brief moment of introspection, Eric decides to go play
pool at his favorite pool hall. He had been playing there for years, and had spent many years engaged in the BCA tournaments held there. His mind set, Eric showered and changed. He slicked his hair back, put on some black ariat boots, and wore his favorite combination of boot cut blue jeans with a black grunt style hoodie.
Once Eric arrived, he went to the table he always played at.
His ex wife Victoria and him had always played in the corner where there was the most space. The newly cut cloth of each diamond table gleaned against the bright lights hanging overhead, this was in sharp contrast to the dimly lit bar elsewhere.
As Eric practiced some drills with his new Viking cue, three
men approached him. One of the men he recognized. It was Jonny vargas. Jonny and Eric had always had a bit of a rivalry in their pool league days. Jonny looked at Eric as he practiced and smirked. "Hey man, its been a while. Wanna play some?" Eric sighed in resignation. It is true that he came here to play, but he didn't really want to deal with this clown. "Whatever, I can just beat him a few times, and then he will go away." Eric thought to himself as he nods to jonny. "Sure, just don't be too sad when you lose." Later, Eric would realize that had been his first mistake. He had put himself in a bad situation with someone he knew would not react well to losing.
Throughout the three games they played, Jonny got louder and
louder. With each consecutive loss, his buddies cheered him on while laughing. Apparently, Jonny had hyped himself up too much before playing Eric. With each missed shot, Jonny would make excuses. "Fuck! I haven't played in so long!" He said after missing a particularly easy to make corner shot. Eric had said very little throughout their matches, simply beating Jonny with that same quiet confidence he always carried. After the second game, Jonny went from being obnoxious, to being irate. He then said the one thing he never should have. "I see why you are so good now! Victoria left you, so you have more time to sit back and practice."
Silence. Dead silence hit the bar after jonny said that. The
air almost seemed to sit still before Jonny looked up at Eric. Rage and fury was
evident on Eric's face as he seemingly walked like a predator stalking its prey
towards Jonny. Jonny backed up, slowly realizing what he had done. His cockiness always got the best of him, and today… Jonny woke up with a start as he saw a bright light being shone on his face. He looked around, and a sharp pain on his face caused him to gasp. He looked up, seeing Eric being taken away by cops, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He remembered the last scene he could before waking up. Eric had
seemed to move too fast for the human mind to comprehend. As Eric was taken away in cuffs, Jonny muttered "Fucking monster."