I was blinded…Ughh...my head...I thought painfully. I thought I was dying. I lost my hearing as well. A tremendous pain erupted in my leg. Then, I regained pieces of my sight, like a kaleidoscope. Then my hearing came back. I noticed British soldiers sprinting through this blazing desert into rundown homes where turban-wearing people with AK-47s shot at them in repetitive bursts. I realized I was in army fatigues and about 50 pounds of equipment and was clutching a L85A1 bullpup assault rifle. (A bullpup assault rifle is a rifle that has the trigger in front of the clip, instead of the regular rifle that has the clip in front.) Suddenly my memory came back to me in a flash. I was a British Army Commando (similar to the U.S. Marine) in the tag team war of the US and the UK in Afghanistan.
I tried to figure out why my leg ached so much when a bullet pummeled through the sand beside me. I quickly took cover behind a deserted US convoy vehicle that was ridden in bullets. I peeked and saw a terrorist sharpshooter (sniper) camouflaged with the sand. He was carrying a Dragunov SVD 7.62 mm sniper rifle and shot at the convoy that made a sharp ‘PING’ on impact. I saw that I had a large gaping wound in my left thigh. I had been shot.
‘PING!’ ‘CLING…CLACK...PING!’ The sniper repetitively shot at me with the SVD. I could see the shells flying in the air while another shot was fired. An American Marine stood before me, shouting at me, and then I heard a piercing ‘PUTT’ and the soldier fell to the ground, face crimson with blood. Oh my god! I thought. I shot on and off from the edge of the convoy until…BOOOOM!!!!!!!! A gas tanker exploded because a mortar hit the tanker. The shockwave was incredible. The sniper was hit in between the forehead with a piece of shrapnel, dead in his tracks. I was blown at least 10 feet away from the convoy.
Quickly, I regained balance and limped across the desert to a field medic. He patched me up, gave me some morphine, and sent me on my way, under 1 minute. I radioed a helicopter to pick me up and to take me away. I flew into the distance and away from the retched desert…