Kyle woke up and turned on the television on the far side of the room with his remote. He flipped to the local news station and found it utterly disturbing for his adjusting eyes when the words “Breaking News” started flashing rapidly.

“This is breaking news. North Korea has just been identified for conducting nuclear testing in their country. The President of the United States has issued a state of emergency to us and neighboring countries and is sending most of our troops to Korea in order to stop this madness.”

Now the television was off and Kyle was now getting ready for work. Kyle was a U.S. Marine who just enlisted not long after the Cold War and so far was getting tired of all the hard work. Kyle was deployed in Oklahoma after he enlisted as a marine. Kyle was now on the road and just approaching the gate into the military base. The year was 1994 and President William Clinton urged assistance for ships to be on standby if needed.
Kyle was an orphan and had no contact with anyone, period. It has been 20 years since Kyle had lost his brother and his parents both died a year before then and any other uncles, grand parents, or anything like that were long gone by now. So it was only him and his close friend that was in the military with him. That close friend was Brandon; he was older than he was by four years only because he started late and was dropped in school for three years. (Obviously because he wasn’t the smartest one in the class but he was still his friend since junior high and followed Kyle all the way.) So the last thing Kyle needed was to lose him because he was like an older brother to him.

Kyle could just now see Brandon on the other side of the road walking toward him. Brandon stopped before the car was about to pass him and began to speak to Kyle.

“We’re leaving,” he said in a hushed voice. Kyle was just staring at Brandon in confusion on why he was making such weird assumptions.

“What are you talking about Brandon? We are not going anywhere. Our last deployment was a year ago; I mean we already served our years.” Kyle replied.

“I know that already Kyle but we’re going again!” Brandon shouted at him. “Just come with me.” Kyle parked his car and began toward the main office of the complex, curious about what was happening. They both took a left turn down the hallway into the room where the CEO of the U.S. Marine Corps base was located in Oklahoma.

“Gentleman.” The CEO affirmed sternly. “I believe you both have heard what happened on the news this morning, right? Well, the U.S. soldiers that are stationed in Oklahoma are going to be the ones getting sent out first.”



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Kyle just could not believe how sea sick he was. The boat rocked just like he was in the epicenter of an earthquake, a bad one in fact. Kyle and Brandon were cramped on a bench inside the hangar of the ship waiting for further orders.
They were out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and were between Hawaii and Japan upon the USS Abraham Lincoln. Kyle never really wanted to go out and be at the brink of war in the first place. He never really knew what it was like to see someone die in war. He just couldn’t handle it and it reminded him of losing his loved ones.

“Kyle!” the CEO exclaimed ushering him over to the bench where he sat at. “Listen son,” the CEO normally called Dave as noted from his name tag uttered in the lowest voice he had heard him speak in his career, “Do you know who that friend of yours really is Kyle?”

“Yeah,” Kyle said with assurance, “he has been my friend ever since junior high. Why?”

“Well I believe that he is more than just a friend Kyle. I had one of the guys doing reports on all of the men on the ship, you know, like background check to make sure there weren’t any spies on the ships in the fleet, and when we came across ‘Brandon’ we found something very unusual.”

“Like what? Are you telling me my best friend is a spy for Korea?” Kyle told Dave raising his voice.

Dave replied to the sudden outburst that he got from Kyle. “No. we’re telling you that your best friend is your brother.”

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20 YEARS AGO




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Kyle had just turned 5 years old and was playing with his brother, who was 9, out in the yard. Just a couple years ago their parents died through Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne infection in the USA, that the kids were lucky enough to not catch. After their deaths, Kyle and his brother Jake were sent to a foster home in Ohio not far away from where they originally lived. The foster home never really had the same kids every day since kids were taken out constantly by different parents, so Kyle and Jake always played football by themselves out in the yard, just the occasional back and forth toss. Today was one of those days that they played that game the longest and unfortunately the last.

“Hey Jake, I am tired can we go in now!” yelled Kyle from the other end of the grass field that they were playing on.

“Wait just one more toss!” Jake exclaimed as he flung the ball across the field. Kyle caught the ball without ever flinching and was running back towards Jake. They ended up going inside and went throughout the day and into the night going to bed.

“Hey Jake,” Kyle said in a hushed voice waking Jake up from his well rested nap.

“What?” he replied, sitting up now.

“Are you glad that we found this place? I mean this is the best place we could be right now, right?”

“Yeah I am, and we are.” Jake declared. “Now let’s get some rest.”

Kyle ended up going to sleep and waking up finding that his brother was gone and he was alone in the foster home.

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PRESENT DAY





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Kyle was now as mad as he could be and he was walking toward his newly-found brother in frustration.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kyle yelled across the hangar towards Jake.

“Tell you what?” Brandon replied not understanding what was happening.

“That you are my brother.” Kyle muttered as he was in front of Brandon. “Why didn’t you come and spill it out that you were back and back for so long! Why didn’t you come clean and we could have lived a better life than we did when we were young and orphans?” Kyle yelled in front of him.

“Because I thought I could feel better than I was since the foster home. I just needed to get away. If I left the foster home, I knew that you wouldn’t wanna come because you liked it their so much. After all, if you did come, you would have been in a tantrum and I couldn’t risk losing my little brother to something or someone out there in the world all alone. You could have also gone back to the foster home and ratted us out. There were many different outcomes to what would have happened. I had to make a decision. So I chose the only one that would be best for the both of us. For me, it was a a chance to get away and live my life, and for you, it was to keep you in a safe place that way I wouldn’t lose you.” Jake replied.

Just then the USS Abraham Lincoln started to rock as the sound of an explosion was sent off outside. Both Kyle and Jake ran outside to find themselves being attacked by pirates in boats made up of steel and filled with armory. The explosion came from a bazooka. Also just by the looks of the armory in the boat, it looks like these pirates scavenged from battle scenes from past wars and took some of the weapons.

Now the whole Carrier was in arms and was beginning to take heed of the situation and began to take positions. However the pirates were already locking on and began firing. Just by the first shot of a sniper rifle, Kyle already saw his brother going down to the ground and realizing that his nightmare was becoming reality. Then everyone began to fire except for Dave who came over to help Jake off of the ground and into the hanger where they found a stretcher at the corner of the entrance to lay him on.

“C’mon brother, you can make it! I loosed you once and I don’t want that to happen again!” Kyle exclaimed but in a frantic voice that he was about to burst into tears. Just realizing that his brother was about to die was already horrifying enough but knowing that he won’t have anyone else to be with anymore, he would do anything to save his newly found brother.

Dave got a medipac and began to treat the wound; luckily it wasn’t that deep and the bullet was easy to take out. Now he began to bandage the wound but it wasn’t helping anything. Dave and Kyle were trying to figure out what was causing Jake not to get conscious and healed up. Then Kyle saw what was wrong. There was another bullet in his shoulder, this one deep and closer to his heart. Dave tried everything he could to take the bullet out and Kyle tried everything he could by assuring himself that his brother was going to be ok, even though he wasn’t. Now when Kyle was afraid to lose his best friend before, he was more afraid to lose his brother now more than ever.

“There is nothing I can do son.” Dave told Kyle in the same voice that he told him the news about his brother. “His heart stopped and the bullet hit a major vessel next to the heart. Even if I were to take the bullet out, he wouldn’t have made it anyways. I’m sorry.”

Kyle was speechless and just couldn’t believe what had happened. Now he was on the verge of tears and began to shake. “Why couldn’t it have been me? Why does it every time someone I love leaves or dies! Why does this always happen to me! Kyle screamed in anger.

Dave just did not know what to say anymore, he would have just made things worse, so he just walked away leaving Kyle hung over his brother crying.

Now rising up and walking to the far entrance of the room Kyle picked up a M1 Tompson resting on the rack near the entrance to the hanger and went outside. The marines were still engaged with the pirates so Kyle just began firing with the sub-machine gun and ended up killing all of the pirates in the boats.

Later that day Kyle went to go talk to Dave in his sub office on the Carrier. He walked in and sat down on the opposite end of the table to where Dave was sitting.

“I have a proposition for you. Would you be able to let me go home for a while, that way I can get some bearings of what happened and to just be away from this mess?” Kyle asked as Dave was studying his words very carefully.

“I would say yes but that would waste a trip for my men.” Dave replied

“Why is that?” Kyle asked in curiosity.
“Because we are of no need out here anymore. It seems as if the President negotiated with North Korea and figured out that it was not them who were the biggest of threat. It was actually their import partners India and Pakistan. However they have too decided to calm down as well. So the President is sending us back home already.” Dave declared.
“That is a miracle but if the pirates didn’t attack”- Kyle was cut off before he could finish his sentence.
“I know, I wish that he wasn’t gone either. He was the only one that had fallen from that attack. The others that were hit were only wounded.” Dave informed Kyle.
“So I guess this is it huh? We’re finally going to leave this forsaken ocean now?” Kyle asked with a little grin on his face.
“Yes we are.” Dave replied.


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1 MONTH LATER




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Kyle was in his house in good ole Oklahoma staring at the only picture that he had of his brother when they were young and with their parents. His whole family was in the picture and he was the only one among the living out of all of them. Two weeks ago he was at his brother’s funeral with all of the marines that were all out at sea with him. Now he just can’t believe that he is alone now, all cooped up in his house with no friends or relatives. He was just an orphan with ordinary dreams that he knew he couldn’t accomplish without anyone to help guide him.
Still staring at the picture, Kyle could just only hope that sometime along the way he can find someone and have the same love for them as he did with his best friend, mom, dad, and his older brother.
Kyle laid the picture down on the table and went into his closet. When he opened the door he saw the football that he played with Jake when they were young and at the orphanage. Kyle then picked up the football, went over to his desk and pulled out a knife. He began to cut the edge of the football and ended up cutting it in two. Kyle made the half in to the shape of the dog tag that he received when he enlisted. Then he pulled out his dog tag from his jacket and attached the part of the football onto the back of it so where it could not fall off or be taken off easily. On the piece of the football that he put on the tag said the word “Jake”.