My Army Memories

'Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Bang! Pow! "RELOAD" shouts Lionel. "LETS GO" yells Anthony. Ka-BOOM!' Pow! "We need to get out of here!" says Calvin.

"AHH" screams Calvin as he wakes up from this recurring nightmare. Confused, scared and sweat dripping from his face. He gets up, walks towards his mirror looks at his reflection. Wipes off the sweat from his face and looks over his shoulder at the clock. Clock strikes 0300, looks back at the mirror and back to bed. Some people say Do you really think all people are as bad as you think they are? and my answer is yes.

I was in the Army for 13 years; I fought all over the world and hunted down animal poachers in Africa, India, etc. I've got to see how people really are; they'll do just about anything to get what they want. Unlike humans, animals know how to respect and stand their ground. Some people say my views are wrong but they've never been in a war before and never really saw how people are under scarce conditions.

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I miss the army but i prefer to save animals more than people... they don't deserve it.

March 5th, 2018 Zimbabwe, Africa. The most popular place for poaching. My crew and I decide to go to Zimbabwe to survey the poaching area and shut it down take place. My team has brains and bronze. My members of my team include my old friend Lionel; we met during our service towards our country, my best friend Anthony our tech guy, and last, but not least our geneticist Kelsey.

Oh yeah and also our tour guide. Anthony and i met when i came back from the army. I was going through a tough time. Some said i had a case of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Every time a pan or something dropped I would have a panic attack and I would start screaming and put my head between my legs like a child. But he helped me through it. I really appreciated that. While he was taking care of me he showed me some of his new tech and how he could access anything he wanted, but all I could think about was my time in the army and the cruelty people show to animals. I told him about the poachers and how they haunt me in my dreams but somehow the army and poaching combined in my dream. That's how we ended up here in the hot African Dessert in Zimbabwe; 3 years later. We hacked into the dark web and found out their trafficking skins from Zimbabwe, Africa to here in the US. Most of the pelts they were after were Rhinos, Elephants, Gorillas, etc. But the eye-catching thing was the realtor; it was the one and only Kibwe Strom. The most popular poacher on the dark web. People even went as far as to call him the "King of Pelts". I've approached this Kibwe guy about 3 years ago after I served in the army. My men and I were in a expedition in Africa and we came across him poaching a Rhino in cold blood, even going as far as beating him to death. I should've killed him on the spot, but he brought his men with him. They had guns they started shooting at us while I gave Anthony the order to hit the gas. They missed but I didn't, Lionel and I managed to hit five of his men. But unlucky Kibwe wasn't one of them. I thought he wasn't going to be a problem anymore because we called the authorities but Kibwe managed to get away.

We landed deep in the African desert. We're on black-lifted Jeeps with 4 passengers, and another jeep behind us. The red-hot sun beaming on us, we have are guns prepared just in case we run into any more poachers. Kelsey in the back studying the animals, we drive by Anthony driving and our tour guides keeping an eye out with their huge AK-47s. Lionel and I discussing our plan to take down Kibwe and his men, and showing a message to people who want to poach animals.

"Here's my plan Lion, 1st we spot him check out how many men they have·."

"Wait what if they have more than us?" (Tires drifting on the pebbles) said Lionel

"Then we back off and gather more, but we leave Kibwe for me to handle cause I want him to feel how the animals feel when they get shot and beat then I'll cut..."

"Whoa, Calvin I know how much you hate him but isn't that way to inhumane" said Lionel

"Do you think poaching animals is humane?" said Calvin

"Touch?" said Lionel

"But we need a plan B·" says Calvin

We're about 14 miles south of Zimbabwe we reach a little town called Avon. We all get out of the car. We stop at a shack that sells this thing called "Potjiekos". Its has meat, vegetables like cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes; beer or a dessert wine. The salesman who sold the stew looks very suspicious. We gave him 800 rand for the stew but when we were making the trade he had a strange look in his eye like he was going to attack us. I'm probably just over reacting... right? after we bought the stew my crew and I sat at the tables they had, about 20 mins after I saw the salesman looks at us while he was making a phone call. I looked back at him and then he quickly went back into a shed behind the stand. I told Lionel about the impression I got out of salesman. He said

"Calvin stop overreacting, look at all these people and kids, their having the time of their lives. Plus it was probably the ridiculous outfit he was wearing!" says Lionel

"Hey, to be honest that was a cool outfit, but you can never be too careful." says Calvin

"Ha-ha whatever" said Lionel

Even so I just had a strange feeling about him and this place. I decided to just get my mind off of it so I went ahead and bought an Umqombothi. It's a beer made from maize, maize malt, sorghum malt, yeast and water, or at least that's what the woman said. I don't exactly know what maize is but whatever it is it's was really good. About 2 hours later we decide to go back on the road. But as soon as we all loaded into the car the salesman that was in the shed quickly ran out and watched us leave while he was still talking to someone on the phone.

It was about 1300 in the afternoon. The breeze on my face felt so good under the hot African sun. I decided to talk to Kelsey

"Hey Kelsey!" says Calvin

"Hi Calvin" says Kelsey

"What are you working on?" says Calvin

"Well when we took that stop at Avon, I took sometime and found feces. After running some test I figured out that gorillas are native here," says Kelsey

"Interesting, do you think that's way Kibwe and his men are here?" says Calvin

"I'm not sure yet" says Kelsey

'Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Bang! Pow!

"Whoa whoa whoa" (car drifting in the pebbles over the hard stop); everyone ducking in their seats

"Everyone quiet" shouts Calvin

We stopped and listened trying to figure out where the shots came from. We heard the grunting from an animal. I'm not sure what animal it was.

"Its sounds like a gorilla" says Kelsey quietly to me

I turned and looked at Lionel we both knew it was time. We grabbed our guns and i told everyone to be extremely quiet.

"Follow me". Says Calvin

We crawled around making sure we don't get spotted or at least not yet. We all got closer then I spotted him. I spotted Kibwe. I knew this was the day to get my revenge. I saw him walking over to the gorilla, with what looked like a bat or something.

"It looks like a female gorilla," says Kelsey

You could hear the sounds of her soft grunting. I felt the pain in my heart. I couldn't wait any longer. I gave everybody the signal. Even though we were outnumbered by 5 men that was okay because I knew I could count on Lionel. I screamed out "NOW"

Everything flashed before my eyes, before I knew it my team and I took down 5 men. As we were shooting I kept my eyes on Kibwe. He ducked behind a truck while his soldiers were taking the bullets for him. Online he had this image of being so tough, but in real life he wouldn't sacrifice taking a bullet to save his men. But frankly, I was glad, I said in my head "save the best for last". As I was getting closer ('Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Bang! Pow!) I saw the beaten gorilla then I turned my head to the left I looked under the truck. Then I saw something I could never unsee. I saw an albino baby gorilla he looked not even a year old. He was hiding under the truck. He saw his mother get beat to death in front of his eyes. He looked so fragile so traumatized so so. I couldn't even explain the look in his eyes. Just that it seemed at the point of breaking into nothing. I knew that I was no longer fighting for myself· but I was fighting for him too.