Calling It A Night (Mac, Seacoal)

[Cpl. Robert Anderson]

Current Time: 0734 P.M.
Weather Conditions: Dark, warm and windy.

Robert was sitting in his bunk trying to find ways to entertain himself. He saw a few other guys in his Barracks but, didn't know any of their name's. He recognized them from around but, never really took time to get to know them. He didn't really want to make friends because he knew the pain of losing one was quite painful.

He was done with just sitting in his bunk not doing anything so he decided to talk to one of the guys he had seen around the base.

"Hey,you. What's your name? You wanna go do something? Most anything's better than sitting in here. He said to one of the men that was sitting in the bunk two down from his own. Robert thought it would be a good idea to socialize a little bit. After all, he was just in a boring old barracks.

Robert didn't care if the man came along or not. He just got up and started walking out of the Barracks heading towards nowhere. He just wanted to be out and about. It was a nice night. Why should he have to be stuck in a boring little bunk? He loved the outdoors. His father really got him hooked when he signed him up for football. He missed his father and football. Those were two of hs fondest memories of the states. Not to mention all of the pretty girls.

Robert seemed to lose himself as he kept walking and looking up at the faded stars. He remembered the time when he and his father were hunting deer back in Alabama. The tent they had brought got ripped when they got to the site so Rob just slept under the stars. He wasn't back in Alabama anymore, though. This was war. He had to be on guard at all times. So he stopped looking up and looked forward.

"Well bud. What should we do?" He asked hoping someone was beside him to answer so he didn't look crazy to anyone who was passing by.

[Cpl. Seth Seacoal]

Seth slipped a small, round tin polish can out of his seabag and propped his boot up on the matress of the bunk and attacked the weathered old shoe with a wire brush. Grunting quietly as he scrubbed, Seth peeled off caked on layers of dirt and scratches in the leather, craving a ciggarette. Still scrubing, the Marine turned to a man reading a dirty magazine in the bunk next to him. "Hey, buddy, you got a ciggy and a light?" The naughty soldier looked startled but still fished a squashed up ciggerette from his pocket and light it clumsily, handing it to Seth. "Thanks kid, your okay." He said to the man, who was already once again engrossed in his contraband magazine.

Sucking on the ciggerette and scrubbing away, Seth found himself humming the tune of "Me and My Shadow". Bordom was part of a soldiers life, and Seth had trained his mind to think of it as a good thing, a time to clean and to just relax. At least it wasn't a drill. He thought of his 13 weeks at Parris Island, the endless stress, the frightening swamps, and the accursed Drill Instructors.

Seth jumped when a voice entered his ears. "Hey,you. What's your name? You wanna go do something? Most anything's better than sitting in here." Seth looked up at the man with tired brown eyes, but the soldier was already heading for the barracks door. "So thats how you wanna do it, tough guy." Seth whispered under his breath and followed the soldier away.

It was a nice night. It was humid, the kind of day that makes your skin stick together with sweat. He dropped the ciggerette and snuffed it out with the toe of his newly cleaned boot. Seth walked on with the silent mystery soldier, until he stopped abruptly and the Marine had almost ran into his back. He asked what they wanted to do, and Seth replied after a moment of thinking. "Well, I was following you. There is a pub near here, not bad lager. Or we could go to the shooting range, pop off a few shots, or just mill around."

[Mac Bargett]

“Well, this is the last one.” Staff Sergeant Mac Bargett called out from inside the back of the ‘deuce and a half’ as he carried out a small wooden crate and stacked it on top of a pile of similar boxes outside the truck. The Supply Sergeant nodded and made a final initial on his notes before reaching out a hand to help his superior down. “Ah, thanks Mac, I really appreciate you helping me out. When the lieutenant told me to unload the truck, and all of my men seemed to have disappeared with other odd jobs, I didn’t how long it would take me by myself. If you ever want anything…”.

“You know exactly what I want.”

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry, it’ll be like Christmas in July for your squad, with an extra ration in their stockings.”

“Good, and you better make sure Santa doesn’t skip our barracks, or Command might get a report of a German raid on your supply line” Although the other man had already walked away before he could finish his threat, Mac tried to finish it off by making a gun with his hands and giving a wink before turning and walking away himself.

Now with nothing to do for a while, Mac wondered where his squad was as he walked back through the base. The last he had saw them they were sleeping in at the barracks. But now that it was later, it was doubtful that they were still there though, unless there was some big crap game or something going on in it. His men were so irresponsible, they were almost like children, except children didn’t try and get drunk all the time, or drop their pants at the first sight of a lady. And their work ethic left much to be desired too. Mac didn’t understand how he could be so much different, it wasn’t like there was a difference in their ages, and it couldn’t be just because he had a few extra stripes on his shoulders. The whole thing was just so complex.

As he thought about the laziness and rudeness of his subordinates, Mac noticed two men mulling about outside a different barrack.
“Hey you two!” The Staff Sergeant called out to the corporals, and changed his course to meet them. “If you’re just goldbricking around, I can find some work for both of you. You shouldn’t forget what they say about idle minds.”

[Cpl. Robert Anderson]

Robert was just about to reply when he heard a voice call out to him and the man he was with. It sounded almost familiar in a way. He stopped and looked at the man. He squinted and tried to see if there was anything he should respect about the man. Seeing as it was getting a bit late and the sun was fading into the background it was hard to see the green uniforms that every American soldier had. Marine or Army it didn't matter which.

"You have any authority over us,sir?" Rob said as the man came a bit closer. Before the man was completely there he saw the reason why he should respect him. Not because he was bigger or stronger, which wouldn't have mattered anyway to Rob, but because the man was a Staff Sergeant. Robert quickly threw up a salute and stood at attention. "Sir. We were just taking a walk. The barracks was getting too..." He paused. "Too stuffy, sir." He said so they wouldn't be treated as if they hadn't done anything all day.

He looked back at the other Corporal and signaled him to play along with his hand that was behind his back so the Staff Sergeant wouldn't see.

"Sir. If you'd like to join us. Feel free." Robert said in an inviting way to the Staff Sergeant. He still had yet to learn either of the men's name's. He waited for the Staff Sergeant's response with anticipation.

[Cpl. Seth Seacoal]

Seth rolled his shoulders and breathed deeply through his smoke battered lungs as the other soldier opened his mouth once again to speak. Seacoal wasn't sure if he liked this man, he seemed like one of the guys who have too much civilian left in them. Seth saw himself as a soldier and a soldier only, it was as if every civilian thought in his mind was wiped away and replaced with weapons training, orders, drills, and beer.

The other Corporal was cut short by a cry from a few yards away. “Hey you two!” The second Seth heard it he could tell it was a superior. Sergeants and up had a certain tone to there voice when they were about to chew you up, and the nervous Pennsylvanian Corporal knew that the voice had exactly that tone. "Aw, shit, we're in trooouble." He whispered to the Corporal next to him, eyes fleeting to the figure melting out of the shadows.

Four chevrons adorned the Staff Sergeant's sleeve, and Seth sank back as soon as he saw him. "Aw shit, aw shit..." he repeated in a hushed tone as the NCO approached him. “If you’re just goldbricking around, I can find some work for both of you. You shouldn’t forget what they say about idle minds.”

The other Corporal was quick to react. "Sir. We were just taking a walk. The barracks were getting too...stuffy." Seth siezed that oppertunity. "Yeah, what he said."

But when the mystery Corporal invited the Sergeant along, he had gone too far. Seth gave a sharp elbow in the ribcage to the soldier and stepped up, nervously laughing. "Hehe, what my dimwit little friend here was trying to say was that we would be delighted to do something for ya, Staff Sarge, but would be happier if you just...err...escourted us back to our barracks."

[Mac Bargett]

"Sir. If you'd like to join us. Feel free."

Before Staff Sergeant Bargett could respond to the invitation to take a walk, the other corporal obviously elbowed his friend and then stepped forward to explain that they would rather go back into the barracks then go do something productive. They were just as lethargic as his squad of privates, it was like it was contagious. Mac would need to nip this general laziness in the butt before it spread through the entire army.

“Even if I wanted to take a walk, there is a war on that’s keeping me pretty busy.“ Mac realized how corny that sounded after he said it, but there was no taking it back so the only thing to do was turn to the other corporal and continue, “What are you going to do back in your barracks? Shine your boots? You know, if you really want to get some air, you two should get your kits together and go run some laps on the training field. Don’t worry, it’s not an order or anything. I don’t want to be commanding anyone around in their free time. But it’s just that you can never have too much physical endurance. We are in the army after all.”

Again with the corny comments, it must be dehydration from lugging boxes around for most of the day. As soon he was done with motivating these slackers, he should go down to the mess hut and get himself a coke.

Mac let the corporals have a moment before asking, “So, yinz think of anything to do yet?” Again he let something silly slip out. Although ever since he enlisted and was shipped over seas he had tried to suppressed it, a little bit of Mac’s Pennsylvania accent had slipped out on the last ‘you two’ of his long rant. Hopefully they didn’t notice it, since the army was a place to be the same and organized, not different.

[Cpl. Robert Anderson]

Robert felt a sharp pain in his side as the other Corporal stepped in front of him and countered what he had said. Now that Rob looked at it he knew that it wouldn't have been very fun. A Staff Sergeant? Following us around? What was I thinking? He said to himself.

Robert was listening to the Staff Sergeant lecture them. He could barely keep in his laughs. This guy's almost as bad as my recruiter. Wait a minute. He is worse than my recruiter.

"Excuse me, Staff Sergeant, were you by any chance a recruiter?" Robert said trying to keep a straight face. He succeeded in keeping his face as solemn and straight as he could.

He then asked another question. "Yinz, sir?"

Robert could tell he was from the North Eastern area of the U.S. his parent's talked like that when he was young but, Rob had more of a 'Southern Drawl" as many said.

He wasn't one to make fun of his superiors he just liked to joke and kid around with them. Know their boundaries. He also wanted to see who wouldn't take any bs from him. Them he'd steer clear of.

[Edward"Butcher"McMillan]

Moderation Post:

The following CP has been issued:

Anderson - 4CP

Seacoal - 3CP

Bargett - 3CP I WANNA KNOW WHAT "YINZ" IS TOO!!!

-JT