Thread: Embedded (Gunner x LingeringDesire)

Eric watched her go, liking the view of her form behind, even if she was just a mess of pretentious, dead weight. He sighed and went back to his platoon area. By the time he racked out for bed, he found his thoughts wandering back to Presley. Back to her slim frame, her dark piercing eyes, her facial piercing, which he found attractive... By the time Eric made it to the chow hall, he'd been up for hours. After wake up, he did PT, showered, worked on a correspondence course, checked his gear, and finally made it to chow hall. They were just finishing up. Eric checked his watch and said something quietly to the other soldiers, who stood and cleared their plates. He motioned to a table set out with honey buns, oatmeal cream cakes, granola bars cliff bars, obviously meaning for her to grab something to eat on the road, although he, and all of his soldiers grabbed an item or two themselves. They all filed out to the briefing area and took their seats on the benches. Most of the briefing was nothing major it seemed to be a routine mounted recon, going about forty kilometers out, then turning around and coming back along a different route. She had some good opportunities for pictures as the lieutenant stood up in front of them, tracing their route along a map while most of the soldiers took notes about the exact route. Once the briefing was done, they randomly picked soldiers to quiz on their rules of engagement, escalation of force, recovery procedures, and actions on contact. After that, each squad lined up, and their squad leader went down the row, inspecting each soldier, another good opportunity for photos. Eric moved as a steady pace, checking their armored plates, ammunition, weapons, camelbacks, and their individual first aid kits, ensuring everything was to par. Their body armor was much heavier than hers as well as bulkier, but the soldiers wore it, along with helmets, knee pads, gloves and ballistic glasses almost like a second skin. After than, they loaded up in their HMMWVs. Wright quickly introduced the 'crew' to her PFC Dale, his driver Specialist 'Ski' Boyarski, his gunner. The other two seemed a bit aloof towards her, but at least they were ignoring her, not being actively sarcastic. The only time one of them spoke directly to her was when the told her that if he starts kicking the back of Eric's seat, to pass him another box of ammo from the back of the vehicle. The patrol went well, although it was relatively boring probably a good thing. They reached their turn around point and were about three quarters of the way back when it happened. Eric's vehicle was lead truck, about fifty meters in front of the others when something on Presley's side of the humvee exploded, just off the side of the road. The blast was deafening, and powerful enough to slam the back end of the heavy, armored vehicle sideways a bit. Both windows on that side of the vehicle were scored scarred, but they didn't break. The vehicle kept going however. Eric was yelling, first at the driver to 'Go! Just go! GO!', then at his gunner, Ski, making sure he was okay. The humvee's speed picked-up as they cleared the kill zone, and Ski stuck an arm down to give a gloved thumbs up. They kept going as the sergeant tried to raise somebody on the vehicle's radio, finally getting pissed, slamming his fist into the radio next to him, and using his personal radio to get a hold of the other vehicles. He turned back to Presley. Are you okay? he asked, yelling over the ringing everyone was hearing.