1 Just another day

It's another boring night shift for John, a US marine that has never experienced war since his induction to the marines some years ago. John was posted to a UN's refugee camp in Azraq, Jordan about ten months ago. John, Shawn, Alex, Toby and Sarah who preferred to be called Chess were to guard the front gate. Shawn, Alex, Toby and Chess were posted a few months earlier than John but since that time, they have gotten used to each other. They became very close friends, they kept each other company and supported each other in different ways. Shawn was in charge of their team because he had the highest rank. He was a sergeant while John, Alex, Toby and Chess where corporals.

John was standing at the camps gate looking out to the desert when Shawn slowly walked up to him. John heard footsteps so he turned to see who was coming.

"hey man" John said to Shawn before turning back to stare at the desert. Shawn stood beside John and joined him in staring at the clear desert.

"another boring night huh?" Shawn asked John.

"yea…" John replied in a low bored tone.

"man this is not what I signed up for when I enlisted to become a marine" John added. Shawn scoffed after hearing this "you still want to fight huh, Chess is ready to beat your ass tomorrow you know" Shawn said jokingly. John smiled and scoffed but then the smile quickly disappeared from his face "I'm serious man. I really want to fight you know, do something that matters you know, like you, Alex, Toby and Chess. Heck, Chess has more experience of war than I do". Shawn smiled and looked at Chess who was standing in the watch tower "Well, I'm pretty sure Chess was sent to war cause of her anger I mean…" Shawn said in a joking manner. They both laughed and made more jokes about Chess before Shawn faced changed back to a serious mood with a little smile on his face, he advised John "man being a marine is not Call of Duty. You can actually die man. Like without any warning you get shot and that's it. Your life's over". "I know man. I thought about that before signing up and that's a risk I'm willing to take" said John. "man you really don't want to go to war. I understand you but it's not a fun experience man" said Shawn. John sighed in disappointment "well, it's not that I can change it anyway so…". Shawn tapped him twice on the shoulder to comfort him and then slowly walked away. Throughout the night they switched posts and took turns resting until they all got a break in the morning when another team took over.