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.