Captured: Dreaming of home

© Copyright 2008 – 2009

Written by Banzai Ben

ben@banzaiben.com

 

Chapter 17 – Sniper School Sunday 16 September 2007

 

Khudabah, Pakistan – Morning of day eighteen

 

Sleeping in a bed was much better than hanging from the ceiling, and would have been almost perfect if the bed didn’t have bedbugs and lice in it. It also would have been nice if they hadn’t tied me down so tight that I couldn’t move. I never thought I’d have to compare, but being bitten by bedbugs and lice is better than the fucking rats trying to eat me. I didn’t sleep much better, though; I’m conditioned to vigilance because of the rats, so I still woke up many times during the night. .

 

Today, when the guards and Zarika come in and move me back to my cell for the day, I tell her about the bedbugs and the lice. She looks so pissed. She promises to see what can be done. There is a nice side effect of my condition – when she tells them, the guards stay far away from me for awhile.

 

Then they come in, tie me back to the ceiling, strip me, and throw buckets of what smells like bleach on me. It hurts like hell when it gets in my eyes and cuts. I want to punch someone.

 

Now one of them cuts off all my hair. I feel some relief; my hair has been feeling shaggy compared to my normal buzz cut. When they shave me, I almost feel human again. They throw some more bleach water over me, and leave me literally hung out to dry.

 

Zarika comes in later, after I’ve dried, and looks at all the bedbug bites, putting ointment on the worst ones. She checks me to make sure she can’t find any lice. It’s embarrassing to have her examining my privates, but I sure as hell am glad it’s her, and not one of the towelheads.

 

When she’s decided I’m clean, she gives me new pants and has the guards tie me to the chair. She redresses the rat bites and the bruises and cuts on my face. She says she’s already eaten, but she goes and gets some food for me and feeds me.

 

Hussein and Mustif come in after I’m cleaned up and fed. Hussein apologizes about the bed and assures me they’ve burnt the mattress and found me a new one to sleep on tonight. He asks if I feel better today, and I tell him it is still a good day to die.

 

He hit Mustif and called him some names after I said that. Hussein and Zarika leave me with Mustif, and he has the guards untie my left hand. We play chess for most of the day. Mustif keeps trying to talk to me, but I ignore him.

 

It really pisses him off, and he shoves the chessmen and chessboard onto the floor, pulls out his syringe, and gives me an injection that puts me in dreamland again.

 

Then he starts asking me questions and I started giving him bullshit, but seems happy that I’m talking again. I wonder what Hussein will do to him when he finds out that Mustif drugged me again.

 

As if he knows what I’m thinking, he assures me that if I tell anyone about getting drugged, he’ll come back at night and kill me. The look in his eyes leaves no doubt that he’s serious. He injects me three more times with lighter doses.

 

When Zarika walks in with our food, she can tell with a glance that I’ve been drugged. She turns to leave, to tell Hussein, but Mustif grabs her and threw her to the floor. Then he gets really close to her and hisses something in her ear that really scares her. The son of a bitch, stood up and kicked her twice before he left, laughing.

 

I’m going to kill that bastard some day.

 

Zarika is frowning and her eyes shine with tears she’s holding back. I hold her in my lap and stroke her hair with my free hand. When she simmers down about ten minutes later, she tells me that Mustif threatened to kill her and that he is dangerous.

 

We eat in silence, both still upset. I can’t stand that this one decent thing in our captivity is being stolen by that asshole’s actions. I start telling Zarika some stories about America to cheer her up. She is really interested in Jens. I think she has a little crush on me. Shit, I think I’m the only man who’s ever treated her with respect, so I can understand it happening.

 

Zarika checks the bed for bugs when the guards come in and take me up to it. The guards tie me just as tight as last night; I guess they’re afraid I will escape. I’d be afraid of that, too, if I had abused a US Marine. I’ll kill them if I get the chance, and they know it.

 

Worst of all, they are keeping me from Jens.

 

 

Kaneohe Bay Hawaii – Sunday Day Sixteen

 

 

Jens sure knows how to wake a guy up. She was hugging me tight and had me in a serious lip lock with lots of tongue.

 

I held her and returned her kisses. Things escalated until we finally come up for air.

 

“Good morning my fiancé”, Jens said. “It’s about time that you woke up, sleepyhead. I got tired of waiting for my morning kiss.”

 

“I’ve never been woken up like that before, but it was pretty nice.” I answered. I held her to my chest and started sniffing in her ear like a puppy dog, tickling her until she was thrashing around and trying to escape. I held on tight and kept it up for several minutes.

 

Finally Jens squeaked, “I’m going to pee my pants if you don’t stop!”

 

Not wanting to cause an accident, I relented.

 

With a quick kiss, she jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom. I made the bed and headed into my bathroom to get ready for the day. As I went through the living room to my bedroom, I heard Jens singing in the kitchen, so I made a detour.

 

Jens was busy making breakfast. She was wearing her short shorts and a t-shirt and was barefoot. When she turned sideways to me, I saw that she had stuffed a shirt inside of her t-shirt and looked pregnant.

 

Smiling at me, she said, “Tell me, don’t you fantasize about keeping me barefoot and pregnant?” She laughed.

 

It was a good thing I didn’t have a cup of coffee; I would have choked again, I was laughing so hard.

 

“I guess I hadn’t thought about it.”

 

Jens started pouting.

 

“But I do have to say you’re the most beautiful ‘pregnant’ woman I’ve ever seen,” I added.

 

She smiled and tried to hug me, but her fake belly got in the way so she pulled out the t-shirt and let it fall to the floor. She hugged me tight, even picking me up.

 

I teased, “I didn’t think pregnant women were supposed to lift heavy objects.”

 

“Oh, I guess you’re right,” Jens answered. “Perhaps I should just sit down and let you do everything.” She put me back on the floor. I scooped her up, making her squeal with surprise, carried her over to her chair, and sat her down.

 

“No problem my princess. You just sit your cute butt in that chair, and I’ll finish breakfast.” I took over cooking.

 

“I’m your princess and I have a cute butt?” Jens asked.

 

“Of course you’re my princess, and yes, your butt is very cute. Why do you think I let you run in front of me? It’s not because you’re faster.”

 

Jens answered, “Oh lawdy me, Ah do believe Ah’ve been abducted by a lecherous old ma-yan  who only wants me for my body.”

 

I replied talking like a pirate, “That’s wrong thinking, missy, I’s a pirate and I’m only after yer booty.”

 

She broke into laughter and choked on her coffee. I hurried over and whacked her back until she stopped choking.

 

“Hey, you make a pretty good pirate.” She winked. “Perhaps you’d like to plunder my treasure?”

 

Seeing me turn red, she laughed. “You’re so cute when you blush.”

 

I ignored her comment and finished cooking the oatmeal. When I served the toast and cereal, Jens started to pray, so I bowed my head.

 

Curiosity was killing me. I had to ask. “My honey and my love, (she got a worried look on her face) I don’t want to upset you, but I’m wondering why you pray every time before you eat.”

 

She smiled and placed her hand on mine. “I wondered when you were going to ask me about that. So, you finally got brave enough? I bet you know me well enough to answer this, but I’ll tell you anyway.

 

“I looked at things and analyzed all the information and came to the conclusion that this world couldn’t have happened by an accident or by evolution. It was created by a superior being. Your Cherokee ancestors called him Unayquah or Great Spirit, my ancestors called him God.

 

“I’m convinced that He put both of us on the Earth at this time to be together.” She chuckled. “You might say that ‘we’re on a mission from God.’” She imitated the Blues Brothers.

 

Then she was in earnest again, and squeezed my hand. “I’m also sure that He protected you on some missions before we became a couple. So when I pray, I just thank Him for the food he has given us, and I thank Him for you. In time you will acknowledge Him.”

 

I was relieved to get that question out of the way. It was much easier than I’d thought it would be. I wasn’t sure about the ‘acknowledge’ part, but what she said made some sense.

 

“Thanks, my love,” Jens said, reading my feelings. “Of course we will never fight about this, but I do know there will come a time that you’ll meet Him.”

 

Jens smiled at me, “See, it’s getting easier for you.” And yes, it was, that had happened without really trying.

 

I leaned back and thought about the plans for the day. We needed to clean up the house and get our weapons and ourselves ready for the sniper competition on Monday. Plus, the General and Mrs. Donaldson were going to stop by later along with our advertising firm. Shit, I could hardly believe that we need an advertising firm. It was just so strange.

 

If we had time later, a swim in the bay would be nice…

 

Jens picked right up on that. “That sounds like a good plan to me, and it does seem strange that we have an advertising firm. I’m not sure how to feel about that. But I do trust Daddy, and if he feels that we need this, then I believe him.”

 

Then I felt her thinking,  “A moonlight swim in the nude would be nice,” And I started blushing. She just gave me a mischievous look, winked at me, and smiled.

 

Damn, she‘s even teasing me in my mind now.

 

Jens grinned. “You better believe it!”

 

I cleaned up the breakfast dishes and Jens headed off to start cleaning the rest of the house. By the time she took care of her bathroom and our bedroom, I was done with the dishes and did my bathroom and the living room. We met together in the kitchen to finish.

 

I could resist snapping her cute butt with a wet dishtowel, and that got us into a wrestling match on the kitchen floor, which of course ended up with us hugging and kissing each other.

 

“It’s a good thing we have a clean floor in here, as much as we roll around on it,” Jens said. “I can’t wait till we’re married; I plan attacking you and screwing your brains out in every room of our cabin. I hear that washing machines are especially nice.” She batted her violet eyes at me.

 

“So tell me, just how much research did you do on sex?” I asked.

 

She winked at me. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

 

“Shit, the way you’re talking, you might screw me to death.” I laughed.

 

“At least you’d die with a smile on your face,” she chuckled.

 

Again, I was at a loss for words, so I started nibbling her neck.

 

She tried to wriggle away. “Hey, no fair, you’re getting me all hot and bothered, and we can’t do anything about it,” Jens complained. She was squirming and moaning, but I had her pinned, and I was enjoying how she felt.

 

She stopped wriggling and locked gazes with me. “Listen, mister: you’d better stop, or I’m going to rape you.”

 

I decided I’d better let up, but I couldn’t resist giving her one more good bite and a hickey.

 

“Did you just give me a hickey?” Jens asked. “I’ve always wondered what it would feel like. I really liked it. Let me up so I can go see.”

 

Thankful that she was distracted, I let her up.

 

She ran to the bathroom, and within seconds, I heard, “Whooo hooooo! My first hickey. I can’t wait to show mom.”

 

Oh great – she does tell her mother everything.

 

I finished up the little bit of the kitchen that we had left and went in our bedroom. She was still admiring the hickey. “Of course I tell mom everything,” she answered my thoughts. “And yes, I’ll even tell her what a wonderful lover you are after our honeymoon.”

 

I just shook my head in resignation and went to the extra bedroom to start working on the weapons.

 

Jens came in a couple minutes later. “Sorry, my love, but Mom has been my only real friend. That’s why I tell her everything. I was so far advanced in school there were no girls my age that I could talk to, so Mom just took over that role. You don’t have to worry. She loves you; you have impressed her by making me wait until we’re married.

 

“She’s the one who told me you'll be a patient and understanding lover and what a gift you have given us by waiting.” Then her brow creased. “Please don’t worry, and please don’t ask me to stop with her.” Then I saw the tears start in the corner of her eyes.

 

“My love, don’t cry. Forgive me for being such an idiot. I ought to understand having a good friendship with your mother. I guess I don’t trust them yet the way you do, and I get worried that she’ll think I’m some sort of pervert taking advantage of her innocent daughter,” I said.

 

She started laughing. “Do you realize how bad your logic is? From the very first night, I’ve thrown myself at you. I’ve even slept in the nude twice with you, and you’ve never taken advantage of me. I do have to admit though, the morning you had your hands on my breast and between my thighs, it felt really good.”

 

Shit. She did know.

 

“Of course I knew. I just decided not to do anything about it.

 

“My mom thinks you’re a Saint with a capital S. And she says when she tells daddy about all my antics and your reactions, he laughs so hard he almost rolls on the floor. They both love you and think you’re the most special man in the world. They can’t wait for my phone call every night; they say it’s better than anything on television.”

 

She’s right again.  I guess it must be pretty funny to someone watching from the outside. Until now I haven’t had someone close enough I could share things with.

 

Jens’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, my love, what you just felt is so sad. But it’s so nice that you feel you can share with me.” I held her on my lap and she snuggled against my shoulder until she felt better. Then she kissed me and got up, and we both started working on the weapons.

 

We needed to take off the sniper simulation system for the next day, because the firing range was first up on the sniper contest. Plus, our weapons had just been through four days of “jungle” humidity. They needed a good cleaning.

 

I was running the cleaning patches through the barrels and enjoying the smell of Hoppes #9, remembering all the fond childhood memories that it invoked, and thought again how if a woman wanted to attract me she would wear it as a perfume.

 

I looked over at Jens and she winked at me, picked up the bottle of Hoppes and dabbed some behind her ears and on her wrists.

 

“Am I irresistible now, my love?” She said with a laugh.

 

She almost was.

 

“I’ll buy you a new bottle of Eau du Hoppes for our honeymoon,” I joked, and we laughed again.

 

We finished up with the weapons and put them back into the safes, cleaned up the room, and took out the trash so that the room wouldn’t smell like gun solvent. There wasn’t enough time to go for a swim before her parents and entourage arrived, so we decided to cuddle, but ended up taking a nap, catching up on all the sleep we missed during the exercise.

 

The doorbell woke us up, and we both wandered into the living room stretching and yawning. I checked, and let in the General and the others. He walked in, shook my hand and gave me a big hug, walked over to Jens, and did the same. Mrs. Donaldson came in and did the same, throwing a questioning look at Jens.

 

“You smell like gun cleaning supplies.”

 

“I know, Mom. We were cleaning our weapons and I found out that Ben loves this smell. He finds it almost irresistible. So I dabbed a little on myself hoping – well, you know – and I forgot to take it off,” Jens answered.

 

The General grinned. “I love the smell of Hoppes.”

 

I added, “And bacon.” We both lapsed into silence.

 

Mrs. Donaldson rolled her eyes. “Wake up, you two, and get your mind on what we need to do.”

 

The advertising group came into the house, and the introductions were made. We moved into the kitchen and sat at the table, and I started another pot of coffee.

 

Donnelly and Sons, the advertising company for the USMC, was excited to handle us. They had a bunch of ideas. It was all pretty boring to me so I let the brains of the Ben and Jens unit handle almost everything. I did pay attention when they said we had made close to a million dollars off of the poster.

 

They were setting up interviews with all the major news networks. I made it clear that I would never be interviewed by CCCN.

 

“But, Sergeant Major Blaine, we–” they started to protest.

 

“–They’re a bunch of fricken Communists. If you schedule an interview with them, I know I will say things to them that you’ll regret,” I warned.

 

That shut them up real fast. They moved on quickly. The deal was done for Ben and Jens GI-JOE dolls, so we’d have to go pose for them. They also wanted to do several more photo shoots and roll out some more posters.

 

We were going to be on the late night talk shows and had a bunch of party invitations to galas with the stars. Shit. they even wanted to do a workout video. I clenched my fists as I tried to control myself, but I was starting to get antsy, shifting in my seat.  

 

The general locked eyes with me and he motioned with his head that we needed to go out on the patio and talk. We excused ourselves, I went to the bar and poured us each a drink – bourbon for him and sparkling water for me – and we headed outside, closing the door behind us.

 

General Donaldson wasted no time. “Son, I know that you don’t care for this, and frankly, I don’t either,” he acknowledged, and took a sip of bourbon, “But you need to look at this as the opportunity of a lifetime. Not just for you, but for Jens, and also for the Corps.

 

“Do you know that for the first time ever, we’ve had to turn recruits away? Not only that, with the money you two are making, when you retire you’ll never have to worry about working. You and Jens can do whatever you want, make as many babies as you want, send them all to college and create a legacy for your family that will affect the USA for many years to come.

 

“I can’t and won’t order you to do this, but I’ll tell you as your father-in-law to be that you need to get your head out of your ass and get on board with this.”

 

I looked at him, and he looked at me. I knew what he said was true. I held up my glass, clinked it against his. “Thanks Dad; I needed that.” I gave him a hug.

 

We went back in and I got into the mix. Jens looked at me with amazement in her eyes when I told Donnelly and Sons I had reconsidered and would do the interview with CCCN and that I wanted it to be with Elizabeth Morgan and in the training area at night. Then I suggested they arrange for a news team to come to Iraq with us, Jens started squirming a little in her chair. But what really blew them away was when I said I wanted to have the first ever Bravo and Juliet club jamboree before we left for Iraq and that we would attend and pay for any children who couldn’t afford to come.

 

Jens excused herself, was gone for about five minutes, and came back looking much better. She’d just gotten back when I asked the general if we could travel to the major cities and work at the recruiting stations.

 

She took one look at me, sat on my lap and gave me a huge hug and kiss, and whispered in my ear, “You got me so hot I had to go and change my underwear. Now I’m going to have to do it again.”

 

My face had to be bright red, but our guests tactfully ignored it as we kicked a few other ideas around. I had more I hadn’t even told them yet, but we had enough to keep us busy for the time being.

 

We wrapped up the meeting, and I asked if anyone wanted a drink, and got busy making cocktails. They were enjoying their drinks, but they all looked at me funny when I had a glass of sparkling water.

 

I explained, “I have some serious shooting tomorrow, and I don’t want to dull my senses.” Jens walked to the bar, dumped out her Tequila Sunrise, and grabbed a glass of sparkling water. We all had a toast for success of the ad campaign, the Corps, and our sniper contest.

 

After the general had his aide escorted Donnelly and Sons off the base, the four of us sat around and talked for awhile. Jens was still trying to process my change in attitude.

 

She looked at me for a moment and finally asked,.“What the hell happened to you? You were just sitting there all bored. Then you went outside with Daddy and came back in and took control.”

 

I laughed and looked at the general “Dad gave me some good advice and a swift kick in the butt.”

 

Jens opened her mouth to say something, and then her eyes lit up and she pounced on me. “You just called him ‘Dad’!” She hugged me tightly and kissed the hell out of me.

 

Jens’s parents, my adopted mom and dad, were holding hands, looking at us and smiling. Both of them gave me the thumbs-up.

 

Mom winked at me and said, “I guess that makes me–”

 

I interrupted, “–It makes you Mom.”

 

Jens started crying, excused herself, and went into the bedroom. Mom went after her.

 

Dad chuckled. “Damn, that was sure funny. I’ve never seen Jens unable to handle a situation until now. You sure threw her for a loop.”

 

We stood around and discussed guy stuff until the ladies came out of the bedroom. Jens slid up beside me, wrapped her arms around my arm and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

 

 

She whispered in my ear, “I love you so much; you’re the best man in the world! Sorry I had to leave.”

 

Dad and Mom said it was time for them to go, so we exchanged hugs and kisses and promised to get together the next night. They were both staying on base for the sniper competition Brigadier General Thompson had been sent back to the Pentagon; they needed a BCO with combat experience. The general was going to be acting BCO until the new one arrived.

 

After they left, I looked at Jens, “You know, screw swimming. Order in a pizza. Let’s stay home and cuddle all night.”

 

She started jumping up and down. “Yes, yes, yes! That sounds great. We can be an old married couple tonight.”

 

“Don’t forget to wear your granny panties, then,” I laughed.

 

“Only if you’ll take them off me,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

 

Before things got too far out of hand, I went and ordered the pizza. Jens went and changed into her flannel PJ’s, and I went and changed into a t-shirt and a pair of loose shorts. We sat on the couch and turned on the TV, but we didn’t pay attention to it; we were more interested in cuddling and necking.

 

When the pizza showed up, I gave the guy a twenty and told him to keep the change. He looked at my sort of funny and said, “You’re him, aren’t you?”

 

I said, “Who do you think that I am?”

 

“Aren’t you the guy I saw on the news, the one they’re calling the American Hero?”

 

Jens walked over, and the pizza guy continued. “Oh my gosh, you’re both here. Can I get your autographs?”  We both started blushing and signed our autographs to a piece of paper that he dug out of his pocket.

 

We sat at the table and stated eating the pizza right out of the box, not even bothering with plates. “Mmmm, this is good,” Jens said as she reached for another piece.

 

“I wished they could make a pizza MRE,” I said.

 

“Eww. They would totally ruin pizza if they did that. No thank you! This is good pizza, but my homemade pizza is even better,” Jens answered.

 

“Honey, if you can make homemade pizza, I just might marry you twice,” I said with a laugh.

 

“Does that mean I get two wedding nights?” Jens asked, waggling her eyebrows.

 

“After we’re married, I think every night with you will be a wedding night.” 

 

Jens looked at me with lust in her eyes. “Are you sure you can survive a life full of wedding nights?”

 

“Well, it’d probably make you walk funny and might kill me, but I’d die a happy man.” I smiled at her.

 

“Walking funny would be fine with me, but you’d better not go dying on me. Otherwise I might have to kill you,” Jens answered.

 

We polished off the whole pizza and went back into the living room for some more cuddling, necking and talking until I yawned, and Jens followed suit.

 

“Oh, shit,” she said, glancing at the clock.

 

“We’d better get to bed,” I agreed with the unspoken thought. I nudged her legs off of mine, and stood, offering her a hand up. “We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. Come along, my sexy spotter.” I pulled her to me and hooked an arm around her waist.

 

“Mmm, you say the nicest things,” she purred as we wandered in to bed.