Urban Combat

I dive forward as the bullets fly over head. I'm able to get behind a small retaining wall blocking me from direct fire. Grit bites into my hands. Chunks of cement explode around me. I hear shouting; my sergeant is telling us to keep down. I shift my eyes to look at my sniper partner. Understanding sergeants head nod; we slowly make our way down the wall away from the fire in a snipers high crawl. We weren't supposed to run into resistance today. Ahead of us sits a small alley and at the other end sits a water tower. Thankfully the alley is on the backside of the majority of the buildings. I check every alcove or doorway for any rebels. Seeing that everything was all clear I call my partner forward. He is struggling ever so slightly under the weight of the Barrett M107 50 caliber sniper rifle. After taking position at the top of the tower we used the smaller sniper rifle I carried to protect our teams forward movement. As they got farther and farther from our position we switched over to the .50 cal. After ripping through roughly ten rebels from a great distance our team radioed us that the town was secured. We packed up the .50 and started out descent to the alley. Barely touching the ground we took small arms fire from a tiny shack to my left. I was hit in the shoulder before getting out of the way. Our radio was hit in the first barrage. Retreating to cover we used our M16's to return fire. My partner took two in the chest and as I tried to apply field dressing a shadow covered me from behind. As I turned to shoot a gunshot rung out. The sound of a body hitting the arid dusty ground broke me from my fear. My partner's hand dropped from the weight of the gun. I woke up before anything more happened.