Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Camp Bastion was like a golden city of sand and dust.

Buildings were made out of containers, tents erected in rows symbolised the houses and medic centres and the few trailers which were dotted about the place marked the expensive apartments, mainly because they had the electricity output for a fan.

But since they were occupied by their leaders, Julia guessed they weren’t available for hire.

Roads had been created, compacting the sand beneath their feet into hard ground, restaurants in the variety of Pizza Hut and Subway worked out of containers with window cut out of the metal.

It was a city of sand and metal.

And yet it was beautiful; the sun rose from the east and plastered them all in warmth, glittering off the surfaces and ground.

Julia found herself wearing her sunglasses almost everywhere she went; she envied Ray for the first time since she met him for his blindness.

After exercising that morning, Julia retired to her women’s only tent.

She hadn’t taken it well when she was separated from the others but, as the man had told her repeatedly, it was protocol.

So, for the first time in a while, she found herself occupying a bunk in a tent full of women; most of them were medics, running out in the middle of the night as a new casualty was brought in.

A few others were army but she was the only marine. It made her feel singled out rather than achieved.

She had been in the company of marines her entire time on this journey and now she found herself sharing with other divisions of the forces.

Patting her hair dry with a towel, Julia spun when she heard someone enter the tent.

It was one of the medics. She gave Julia a small, tired smile, wisps of blonde hair falling out of her bun as she collapsed atop her bunk and took a deep breath.

Blood had dried on her arms where she had missed cleaning it off and Julia found herself unable to look away.

She knew she was being rude and in her mind her mother’s voice was telling her off but for some reason Julia could not look away.

She knew before she left that this was a fate that she may face out here. It was the same fate Jules had signed up for and she did not seem to worry about it.

But Julia did worry about it; she had gotten lucky the last time. What if she was pushing her luck by being here this time?

Had she been wrong to come?

“I’m sorry,” The girl spoke when she spotted Julia watching her, “We haven’t been very welcoming.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Julia quickly turned away, pretending to dry her hair but all she could see was the blood on the woman’s arm.

“No, it isn’t,” She stood up and offered Julia her hand, “My names Emily.”

“Hi,” Julia stared at her hand and saw that it was free of blood, “I’m Julia.” She shook her hand.

“I hear that you’re with that group of marines,” Emily didn’t say it in a mean way but it highlighted to Julia just how much their presence was felt here.

“Y-yeah,” Julia swallowed as she took a seat on the edge of her camp bed, “Amnesia,” she pointed to her head, trying to make a light joke of it.

Emily didn’t know what to say and the air became tense.

“Saw some action?” Julia nodded to the blood.

“Oh,” Emily licked her thumb and tried to wipe the blood away, “A small skirmish with a few insurgents. A bullet managed to lodge itself in a man’s shoulder.”

Julia frowned, “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’ll be fine. Took a bit of digging about but we got the little blighter,” Emily smiled proudly, “He’ll be sent home ahead of the rest of us.”

Julia nodded her head, she had heard about the forces being withdrawn but that wouldn’t be for months yet and a more prominent thought was occupying her thoughts.

“How far away was the skirmish? I mean, the soldier was on patrol here right?”

Emily saw Julia’s apprehension.

Julia thought that Camp Bastion was meant to be safe from the insurgents; it was meant to the places further away that they were charged with clearing and protecting.

But if they could be shot outside of their base then it called into question how safe Julie truly felt.

“I wouldn’t worry,” Emily brushed it off, “He was on patrol in the mountains a few kilometres away.”

Julia licked her lips, knowing that she should listen to Emily. At this point she knew more about Afghanistan than Julia did.

“Besides,” Emily lay back on her bed, “You’ll be shipping out soon to your own base.”

Julia snapped her head up.

“You- You didn’t know?” Emily muttered.

Julia shook her head slowly, “No.” She blinked, “No, I didn’t.”

“Oh,” Emily bit her lower lip, “I heard it on the grapevine. Your officer will be around shortly so I’d start getting your stuff together if I were you.”

It took a moment for Julia to snap out of the dream she had been, “Th-Thanks, yeah, I’ll do that.”

Emily could see that Julia was clearly shaken up so she leaned over her bed and reached beneath into her rucksack.

“Here,” Emily extended her hand and resting in her palm was a small gold necklace.

Julia frowned as she uncurled the necklace and let it dangle between them.

Swinging at the bottom of the necklace was a plain gold ring.

Julia looked across at Emily and the emotion that was clear on her face, “Why are giving this to me?” It was clear that this meant a lot to Emily.

Emily took a second to regain her composure, “It was my grandmother’s ring, I keep it close and it helps me through my tours.”

“That’s nice,” Julia smiled; she wish had something like that.

But as she thought about it she kind of did, or had. She was engaged to Marc, there must have been a ring but Julia could not remember finding one, in the box or otherwise.

Her mother had not kept it from her so where was it? Maybe she never had one but something odd struck her about it, as if there was something important she should remember but couldn’t.

It was frustrating.

“I want you to have it,” Emily swung her legs over the edge of her bed and looked Julia in the eye.

“What? No!” Julia immediately tried to give it back to her but Emily refused, “I can’t take this from you.”

“I’m nearing the end of my tour,” Emily informed her, “I’ll be going home in a few weeks and not coming back here. You need it more than I do.”

“But how will I get it back to you?” Julia frowned.

“Here,” Emily quickly scribbled down what looked like an address and stuffed it in one of the outer pockets of her rucksack, “You can mail it to me.”

Julia tilted her head, she didn’t like the sound of mailing it, the ring looked expensive and loved and Julia didn’t have enough trust in their mailing system not to lose it.

“But . . . why?” Julia couldn’t grasp the reason behind her actions, “We barely know each other.”

“You’re a soldier. That makes you family and family help each other,” Emily made Julia feel more loved in that minute than she could ever remember.

“Besides,” Emily leaned back on her bed, “I’ve found that if you owe somebody something you’re more likely to live.”

Julia laughed lightly at her words but something told her that Emily had faced a few hard difficulties.

“I’ll look after it for you, I promise,” Julia clipped the necklace immediately around her neck before feeling where the cold ring rested against her chest. She made a vow then never to remove that necklace.

“I know you will,” Emily smiled, “And maybe when all of this is over we can go for a coffee?”

“I’d like that,” Julia nodded, able to look forward to something after this brief stay.

Emily and Julia simply remained there smiling at each other for a moment when there was a knock at their tent door.

“Come in!” Emily shouted, expecting it to be a call for a medic.

Instead it was a message for Julia; it was her shipping out orders.

“Be ready for 0500 tomorrow morning.” The young man said his goodbyes and she never saw him again.

Julia turned back to Emily as reality seemed to crash into her; she was going out there, into the thick of it.

The necklace suddenly became very heavy around her neck as she started to clear away her things.

Emily said nothing.

* * *

“You’ll be placed into a live base,” Their commanding officer informed them, shouting over the raucous of the helicopter blades, “Those able will assist in daily patrols with the squad already based there.”

That meant her, Julia swallowed as both excitement and fear coursed through her veins.

But the blistering wind against her face and the constant battering noise helped to mask her fears. Ray was clutching onto her arm beside her, his blindness making him afraid of flying.

Julia could understand. If she was blind she wouldn’t like to be in the air either with open doors on either side of them.

“Those who cannot will assist in communication and medic. Be clear that this is a live base with live ammunition and real threat. Are we clear!?”

A shout of unison went up around the helicopter, “Yes, sir!”

Julia’s fingers tapped lightly against her assault rifle, reminding herself that it was there.

After a short one hour helicopter ride that showed them rolling countryside with mountains in the distance and an abundance of sand they landed outside of the base.

Leading Ray off the helicopter, Julia’s training immediately kicked into gear as she knelt by the helipad, her back to the assaulting wind.

Once it had taken off safely, they were lead quickly into the gates and behind the walls to safety.

A small rush of adrenaline pushed Julia’s heart to race faster before she unclipped her helmet and gazed around at her new home for the foreseeable future.

Four walls, made with brick and sandbags, had been erected around them to make up a large square.

It contained everything they could possibly need from a medic centre, canteen, showers and communication tent.

Julia even spotted a small gym and goal posts painted on the wall; up to twenty men inhabited the base at any one point including those on guard duty.

And the presence of a female and other injured males had brought the current tenants running to the gate.

Julia wasn’t expecting to know any of them when they approached but as she fiddled with something on the strap of her rucksack, she spotted a man looking at her strangely.

Lifting her head, Julia felt her brows furrow together in confusion when she looked upon his face.

He seemed familiar. His bronze skin, warm chocolate eyes and the heavy set beard reminded her of someone.

It was strange; it was as if she saw him in a dream somewhere but she couldn’t place it.

“Jules?” The man squinted his eyes as he took a few steps forward, as if he thought he was seeing a mirage, “Jules!”

Before Julia could react to her old name being shouted the man had wrapped his arms around her waist and hurled her off the ground in a tremendous embrace of joy and shock.

Julia could do nothing until he set her back on her feet and even then he cupped her hot face in his hands, his eyes looking over her features with relief.

She was shocked to see his eyes shining with unshed tears.

“Do I-” Julia frowned, “Do I know you?”

“Do you know me?” The man laughed outright, thinking she was joking, “Jules, it’s me! Ramirez!”

Julia shook her head lightly, “Sorry, I don’t . . .”

“Julia, are you okay?” Ray found his way to her side.

Ramirez barely glanced at the new arrival, “Julia?” He sneered, knowing she hated to be called that, “Jules, what’s going on?”

“Carlos!” A voice called from behind them, “Carlos, it’s your turn to deal the- Jules!?”

Julia whipped her head towards the new man approaching and found that he too looked familiar, slightly more familiar than Ramirez which was entirely possible.

Julia’s dreams, or memories, had been coming more swiftly recently. She could have remembered them and then forgotten again.

“You’re back!” The new man sent up the alarm and soon everyone was running towards them.

As the crowds gathered around her Julia felt as if she was suffocating as people kept calling her name, calling for her to remember them but she couldn’t.

They were simply strangers to her with familiar features.

About to push her way out, Julia turned and saw the one face she recognised entirely.

She swallowed out of shock as she gazed into his stern eyes, “Marc.”

*NOTICE: British and American Forces have now withdrawn from Afghanistan and Camp Bastion has been decommissioned but for the purposes of the story, which is set in 2013/early 2014, as that is when I first started to write the story, Camp Bastion is still operational. Thank you. *