The trio climbed over the machine gun nest and walked across Joe's driveway, a few familiar people from school walked past him, their faces pale and blank. A few of them were crying or holding on to each other. A yell from across the street brought every ones eyes to two soldiers pushing a stretcher with a soldier who had a bloody stump for his leg, he was screaming in agony as they were dropping morphine onto his wound as a painkiller.
Mr. Raidon wanted to see if his wife was alright, so he, Joe, and Mike split up, but Mike followed Joe around to see if they could find all they're friends. They walked all around the camp, it was like a scene from an old war movie, some men were sitting under a tree, smoking and talking. Others were sitting at desks writing letters to their loved ones, and others were sleeping.
After a few minutes of walking, they found Brian and Mark stuffing their face with rations and canteens of water. Once they saw them, they dropped their food and ran towards Joe and Mike.
"Dude! Your like a celebrity, everyone is talking about you" said Mark with his mouth full of beef.
"Yea, I know" said Joe with a chuckle "So how did you guys get out of the school?"
"Well, we were still in the closet after you guys left, we heard gun shots in the room behind us and hallway, and hoped you guys were alright. So after about 15 minutes I'm guessing, two men walked into the room, and someone started to whimper, and the men heard it." Mark said after swallowing his food. "So they ripped the door open and pointed their guns at us and started to yell for us to get out, and lined us up on the wall. They started to say how we were going to become part of a new generation of fighters, and started to ramble on about some crap with having the world united with only one government, them, and why not start with the strongest country in the world, us, the U.S.." finished Mark
Mark then punched Brian in the shoulder and shoveled more food into his mouth.
"Well, I guess I have to finish it now" said Brian, "So after they lined us up, they started to ask us questions, who are parents were, what are favorite things were, it was really creepy. Then they started to, I guess, try and intimidate us, by saying that we weren't going to win the war against them, and that America was going to lose. They were both psychos and brainwashed by their leader. So after a few hours of just waiting there, getting interrogated by these two psychos, we heard a few explosions around the school, men and gun shots every where. We all ducked and ran under our desks. The classroom door then shot off its frame and four or five men came running in. They had 'U.S. Military' patched onto their sleeves and the two men immediately surrendered. The men that just ran into our classroom, made us follow them outside of school to what seemed like a huge amount of some armored vehicle, and we ran inside them and they brought us here."
After that Brian then took up his plate and started to eat, but not as fast as Mark, since Mark was choking on something, turning his face blue. Since all four of them were still tired, they walked down to Joe's basement and a few more beds were set up. They laid down on them and went to sleep.

Chapter 3
Rebel HQ

Joe awoke to someone standing over him, shaking him. Through the window, Joe could see it was still dark out.
"Joe...Joe! Wake up! Cortez wants you guys now!" said Amaril
"Ugh, what time is it?" asked Joe
"Its 1:30, ready for your first spec ops"
"You're kidding" Joe said as he bolted up in his bed, his eyes wide with excitement.
"Nah, Cortez thinks you'd be perfect, but he might change his mind if you don't hurry up"
Joe jumped out of bed, woke up Mike, Mark, and Brian and they quickly put on their shoes and jackets and ran to Cortez's tent. Inside the tent's walls were lined with maps of all local areas, from highways, to baseball fields, to corner stores.
"Good evening gentlemen" said Cortez looking up from a map that was on a table. Around that table were a group of rugged men, dressed in all black, with silenced machine guns shouldered on their backs. There was Sgt. Birm, who was a tall and muscular man; he had short brown hair and stubble on his face. Next to him was a shorter man, his name was Private Ritter, he had thick glasses on and long blonde hair that covered his eyes. Across from Private Ritter was a black man, his name was Lt. Richmond, he towered over everyone, including Joe, being 6'7, he had a heavy machine gun in his arms, and chain ammo crossed his torso
"I want you to meet your squad, Joe" said Cortez, gesturing towards everyone at the table.
Joe shook hands with each one of them, Birm winked at Joe, Ritter nodded, and Richmond just stared. Then Cortez handed Joe a badge, it was the symbol for a Sergeant Major. Cortez noticed Joe's surprised look and started to speak.
"You have shown more bravery and skill in battle, then most of the men in my command; you deserve this, squad leader."
At those last two words, the men at the table saluted Joe, he couldn't do anything but salute them back, not being able to believe anything was happening, he figured he would just wake up in his room, and have to go to school, but that wasn't happening. He was at war with someone who took over his town, he was a soldier. Cortez then handed the four of them an assault vest, he patched on Joe's badge to the sleeve of the vest, and then told them to follow him as he left the tent. Joe was ushered into another tent across the street from Cortez's, it was the main armory.
Cortez then waved his hand as if to say "Choose what you want", Mark, Mike, and Brian had followed him inside, and immediately Mike ran around, cheering and laughing. He picked up some body armor, strapped it on himself, and started to stretch to see how much his movement was hindered. He then picked up an M16A1 Rifle, which is the main gun for the U.S. Military. Joe, Mark, and Brian did the same, and then they took black sweaters, black pants, black boots, and black caps to hide themselves in the darkness as much as possible.
As soon as they were all ready, Cortez brought Joe back into his tent, and gave him the mission briefing.
"Sgt. Roy told me that you had passed Red's field HQ for this area, which is North of here, so you and your squad, are going to infiltrate that area tonight, and try to capture as many leaders as you can, and steal documents, I choose you because you obviously have a knack for working B.E.L." Cortez finished by chuckling.
As Cortez finished the briefing, a short stubby man came into the room
"Captain, the squad is ready; they are in the baseball field just across the street"
Cortez nodded to the four boys, and they headed out with the short man and followed him across Bloomfield Ave. to a baseball field, that was very built up for a Little League field. A few soldiers and citizens stared as the four of them walked past; surely seeing such young teenagers with more ammunition than a S.W.A.T. member caused some discomfort for them.
The boys walked down a paved driveway which passed the Home dugout, the conference house and lead to the bleachers. By the dugout there was an open gate, and the four of them walked through it. Inside were Birm, Ritter, and Richmond and a few other men. Their orders were to ascend the hill that was just behind the field, and walk around the smaller two baseball fields on top of the hill. They were told that there was a pathway back there that leads to a road that would take them to another street that would lead right to the Rebel HQ, but from behind.
After fifteen minutes of walking, they reached the top of the road that they were supposed to be on. Just a few hundred feet downhill, was the big mansion that was the Rebel HQ. The street ended with a wall of hedges, the only entrance was a small opening cut into the hedge. From the top of the hill, the team could see over the hedges, there was a mansion all the way in the back of a field that took up the space of 4 houses. The huge front yard of the mansion was littered with M1 Abram Tanks, Humvees, and infantry. There were also seven tents the size of small houses around the yard. All of them had their flaps closed, through the light coming from lights inside the tent; the team could make out silhouettes of men moving in them.
"Alright men, this is the real thing, now listen to what the Captain says." said Birm, looking at Joe, intending for Joe to give them their orders.
"Um...alright, Brian, Mike, Mark, and I will flank the mansion from the south side and the rest of you will, um, suppress from the east. I'll try to get inside and get any leaders and documents as quickly as possible. Move out"
As the men moved, Joe thought he heard Birm laugh under his breath. As they crept down the hill, Joe started to think about his family before this all happened, his three sisters, his parents, his dog, and his cousins. He started to have second thoughts about doing this mission, maybe let someone else handle it. As he started to have even more compelling thoughts to turn back, a loud explosion brought everyone to the ground.
Joe could hear a loud engine come down from the road from the North, and he saw a small red car swerve through the road, hitting the side walk, and skidding sideways across the road and then turning onto the hill where Joe's team was. As the car came close, every man stood up and pointed their gun at the car that was now slowing down.
A fat bald man craned his head out of the window.
"MOVE! THERES A TANK BACK THERE THAT'S TRYING TO FREAKIN KILL ME!"
Next to the man was a woman looking horrified, who had a small boy on her lap. He looked to be about six or seven and had tears streaming down his cheeks. All the men lowered their guns and let the car pass, as the car sped up the hill, a tank rounded the corner at the bottom of the hill, and aimed at the team.
A few un-intelligible yells came from the field, and Joe saw tracers fly around the night sky, lighting up everything in what looked like hundreds of fire flies flying around. The team scattered once the tank came. Joe ran into a nearby house's backyard and took cover behind a fence that faced the mansion. Mark and Brian took cover behind two cars on the street, Mike hid behind a dog house in the back yard of another house. Richmond and Ritter kicked open the door of a house right on the corner and set up Richmond's machine gun in a window and started to fire on the HQ. Birm took his radio and yelled.
"We need support here NOW! We were spotted and we woke up the whole damn area, we don't have enough men, we need more. I repeat, we don't have enough men!"
As Joe hid behind a fence, sometimes pointing the gun over his head and firing blindly, he realized he had never been this scared before in his life. Knowing that a small metal cylinder could hit him at any moment and kill him, rendered him almost paralyzed, as he waited for the reinforcements.
After what seemed hours, which in reality were only a few short minutes; Mike kicked open the side door of the house that lead to the backyard Joe was in. He had a soldier on his back with a bullet wound in his leg. The man was moaning quietly but still, seemed to be in a large amount of pain.
"Joe!...Joe!"
Joe was in a state of shock, he had read books and seen movies about war, but being in it was a lot different. His eyes were wide and he was trembling slightly, he seemed to not be aware of anything going on, he was leaning against a tree, bullets whizzing by, but seemingly un-aware of them.
Mike dropped the unconscious body on the ground, and ran up to Joe. He started to shake him.
"Joe! Hey Joe, you alright?"
Joe was slowly coming back into focus, life crept back into his face and he shook his head.
"Yea, just a little bit freaked out, I'll be alright though."
"Good" said Mike pointing to the body "I found this guy yelling in pain on the ground in the house I just came from, and reinforcements are coming soon, so I'll get a medic to patch him up, all I've done is stop most of the bleeding, but I have nothing to wrap it up in."
"Oh, I think I do" said Joe, fumbling around in his vest, and after a few moments he pulled out a long roll of bandages that Cortez recommended he bring, and handed them to Mike "Here, these should do the trick"
They both walked over to the body, and Joe elevated the wounded man's leg, while Mike, gently, but firmly, wrapped the bandages around the wound. After they felt he was bandaged enough, they gently carried him behind better cover and gave him some water, told him to stay there.
"Ugh...not like I'm going anywhere, right" he said with a deep voice, and Joe then realized that this man was a senior at Nutley High, his name was Joe, and he also played guitar with Joe a few times. The man then chuckled which ended up in a coughing fit. Mike gave him some more water, and the two left Joe, who was sitting there uttering curses into the night sky.
As Joe and Mike walked back onto the road, there seemed to be a considerable increase in the amount of soldiers fighting, the reinforcements had arrived. Mark and Brian were still behind mailboxes firing into the night sky when Joe and Mike ran towards the mailboxes and crouched behind an APC just across the street from them which was firing at a jeep riding around the battlefield. A man ran by them with no right leg, he was hobbling as he went, crying out into the night sky as he screamed for help.
"Medic!" yelled Richmond as he fired his chain gun, "I need a damn Medic!"
"MEDIC!" yelled Ritter behind Richmond, screaming into his radio.
Just moments later a Humvee with a stretcher attached to the roof and back of it came down the road, two husky men wearing white bandannas jumped out of the rear seats and picked up the wounded soldier and put him on the hind stretcher, they then strapped him down, jumped back into the car that was now speeding up the hill.
"Captain, what the hell are we supposed to do now?" yelled Ritter looking distraught.
"Do we have any tank or air support?" asked Joe
"We might have a few Apaches but that's as much as I know, sir!" answered Ritter.
"Alright, ask for those Apaches to at least lay suppressing fire on this machine gun nests by the hedges and make sure they DO NOT fire on the building itself!" ordered Joe
"Roger!" said Ritter as he started to yell into his radio.
As helpless as they all felt until the helicopters arrived, they still fought valiantly, after about thirty minutes of constant fighting; the sound of a helicopter engine could be heard in the distance. The sound of a heavy machine gun starting its rotation in the air brought all eyes upwards, there were three of them, all painted black as if to be camouflaged against the dark sky. Joe would probably have run away if he didn't know they were on his side. The Apaches then fired all over the field making soldiers and vehicles run either into the many garages of the mansion or inside the mansion.
Once all the enemies were hiding inside the mansion, which, for reasons they did not know, was not being attacked; every eye was on Joe, since he was the highest commanding officer.
"What are you waiting for, CHARGE!" yelled Joe, Richmond actually showed a hint of a smile as he rushed.
Every soldier yelled at the top of their lungs, Joe never understood why, but now he did, it was a sign of courage and patriotism, to show that you were not going to stop until you or the enemy was dead. As they yelled, a window on the southern side opened up, and a machine gun was seen being placed on the sill, but before they could fire, the Apaches hard already fired into the window, making the gun drop out of the sill and fall onto the ground.
Ritter then yelled "I said DO NOT FIRE on the building, we need all their leaders alive and the documents not turned into debris!"
A muffled voice came through the radio and Joe couldn't hear what the voice was saying. He figured the pilot apologized for Ritter put the Radio back into his backpack.
A loud explosion erupted just behind Joe, and the soldier nearest to it was struck with a piece of debris and fell in the ground yelling in agony, a soldier with a red cross on his helmet ran over to him and started to apply pressure to his wound and wrap bandages around his back, where blood was pouring out and spilling onto the ground. A few more identical explosions erupted all over the front yard.
"Artillery! Get to cover!" yelled Richmond as he picked Joe up by his collar and threw him into a nearby bush and dove in after him.
The field that was once green grass erupted in an inferno of flames and explosions as each artillery shell landed, creating a crater in the once beautiful landscape, dirt and ash flew into Joes eyes, causing him to clench his eyes shut and rub them. Bright lights preceded every explosion, followed by a rumbling and a deep cacophony as the shell plunged into the soil.
Once the barrage ended, Joe crawled out into the open, and surveyed his surroundings. At least seven men were either in pieces on the ground, their limbs severed from their body and laying several feet away, or with giant pieces of shells stuck in their chest or other parts of their body, their faces blank and eyes wide open as if they were suspended in the emotion of being surprised.
Feeling his blood boil at this un-needed war against their own kinsmen, was fueling a deep rage Joe had never felt before, Joe recognized two of the dead as his friends Rob Woll and Raj Kothari. As he felt remorse for his two fallen comrades, tears started to well up in his eyes and then eventually streamed down his cheeks. He turned towards all his men, raised his gun in the air.
"If you did not realize it before, I'm telling it to you now, this is war, and some of you will not survive, but I'll be DAMNED if I let those bastards win this, we already lost great men, so lets win this battle and avenge their deaths, lets strike a blow into the hearts of those who caused us such grief, they broke up our families, destroyed our homes, and disrupted our lives. Let's make them pay!" and with that he fired into the air and ran straight towards the mansion yelling at the top of his lungs, almost as if he were mad.
As silent as it was before the barrage, now an ensemble of voices rivaled the volume of the artillery as every man under Joes command roared and followed their leader. Joe reached the door and kicked it in, as other men either followed suit or jumped in first floor windows.
Behind the door was a trio of men dressed in the same as the men in the classroom, body armor and balaclavas over their faces. They each had Benelli M1014 shotguns. They each fired one after the other at the cluster of soldiers now running into the door; Joe saw his class mate Lou Saporito clutch his chest as his eyes widen and pieces of his chest and ribs flew out of the cavity that was now part of his torso. He fell to the ground without uttering a moan.
Joe felt a pressure against his upper torso and saw a shotgun shell fall off it, it was a dud, before the trio could fire again Joe whipped out his knife like a trained commando and jumped at the men wielding the shotguns and jammed his knife up to the hilt in the middle man's neck, it was such a perfect stab that no blood emitted out of the wound.
Joe saw the eyes of the man behind the balaclava and saw the fear and panic that Joe's enraged and satanic face caused. Joe ripped the knife out of the man's neck which was followed by a jet of blood that emerged from the stab wound. The man fell to the ground making gurgling sounds and after a few moments, stopped moving and laid still. A tall tan, Hispanic man mimicked Joe on the man to the left, and the man on the right ran back towards the corner of lobby and tripped over a bookcase, Joe took this as his chance to attack; he lunged towards the Rebel that was now crawling on the floor, and put four bullets into his neck and head.
After Joe and a few soldiers ran around the entire first floor, they only found a few hostages or a soldier facing the wall with his hands behind his head, in obvious surrender.
"Man, where are these guys holed up?" Mike asked to anyone who could hear him.
"They might be upstairs, or in the basement, is there even a basement in this giant house?" answered Mark.
"Not sure, we need to find a staircase though, anyone have an idea?"
"Well, I saw a small window in the front of the house before while waiting for the barrage to end, now that I think about it, I'm sure it was from the basement, so there is a basement, but what if they're waiting up stairs? They could just evacuate while we're in the basement and then bomb this house to the ground while we're all in it." Said Joe
"So, what do you want to do?" said Birm
"Well, how about we take half our men and bring them downstairs, and have the other half go upstairs, if you find stiff resistance, call, and we'll bring the other group up to help. So Birm you take the upper floors with Mark and Mike and half our men, and then Brian, Richmond, and Ritter will take the basement with the other half." Ordered Joe
"So what are you doing?" asked Ritter
"I'm going to take care of some unfinished business" answered Joe with a slight smile and before anyone could ask what that was; he had already disappeared from the room.

Chapter 4
Unfinished Business

"Sir, General Evans wants to speak to you"
"Tell him I'm in a meeting"
"But, sir-..."
"I said tell him I'm in a meeting Marissa!"
"Yes, sir, sorry"
As he kicked his feet up onto his desk, cluttered with random papers and pictures, Mr. Narcia sighed. After being in Red for over 13 years, he was glad to be out, but they still wouldn't leave him be. His abrupt leave, made many question if Red was really going to pull through.
He was one of the founding members of RED, back in 1983, with Sid Evans, Martin Arberria, and Lucas Marshell. They were all soldiers in the army, until they realized that America was doing things wrong, they believed that with such a powerful military, they should be taking over countries, declaring war or alliances with the world leaders, and trying to dominate the world.
In June 1982, they all left the army and headed off in their own directions, but still kept in touch. In September, Evan's had a stock that made him rich, he invested his money in such a way that he was give back three times the amount he had, an enormous amount.
They all started to talk about their realist ideas with America and how if they could only control the government. It was a dream, but this dream turned into an obsession. The obsession turned into a reality. By December 1984, the group had amassed over 30,000 members, through discreet meetings, and propaganda. On New Years Day, they dubbed the group "RED" which stood for the "Realist and Effective Dictators" a name that suited the domination-type style that the group led.
In 1993, the membership had reached over 400,000, and a few bribes and threats kept the government from investigating. They recruited high ranking officials in the Military, who allowed them control of many weapons that only the Military was allowed to. Tanks, guns, vehicles, and air power were only a portion of what they had. They were given billions of dollars by big corporations that were promised an even bigger sum when world domination was accomplished.
The first incident that made Eddy Narcia start to doubt what was happening was when RED first started to face conflict, a small New York gang had found out what was going on, and wanted in. After a cold refusal, the gang turned violent and attacked RED, emotionally. Eddy's four year old daughter was murdered, along with Sid's son, Martin's granddaughter, and Lucas' brother. Martin, Sid, and Lucas were too greedy to care about these issues, but Narcia still had some morals left. In 1996, when the group started to make plans about domination, Narcia realized this isn't what he wanted; he didn't want millions of innocent people to die because of his greed.
By the end of 1997, Narcia had quit, and to hide his identity, he became a teacher in Nutley High School. The trio that led RED didn't find out about Narcia's new identity until 2007, which is when they planned their attack to that area of the World first, the East Coast of the U.S.
As Narcia put down his cup of coffee, his secretary, Marissa, opened his door.
"Sorry to bother you again sir, but an armed boy, a student of Nutley High school, requests an audience with you."
"Bring him in here"
Narcia had stood up to greet the boy when one of his students appeared in his doorway. This student was Joe, someone who Narcia admired at his intelligence of what was going on in the world, and his enthusiasm to speak another language. He stuck out his hand
"Joe, Joe, Joe, such a charming young boy, what brings you here?"
"I want to know why the rebels are looking for you!"
"It's not very polite to yell at someone whom you've just met"
"Just met? I've been your student this entire year"
"Yes, it seems you have, but you do not know the real me"
"What the hell are you talking about?
"The reason RED" he said with a certain sternness "wants me, we are not rebels, is because I was once a co-leader of it"
Before Narcia could finish that sentence, Joe had his rifle trained between Narcia's eyes.
"You are too impulsive, if you had listened to what I said, I was once a leader, I am no more a member of that evil group."
"Why did you leave?"
Narcia told Joe all that happened to them, but Joe never let his gun rest.
"Do you really expect me to believe all that?"
"No Joe, I didn't, which is why I want you to drop that gun and get out of this situation because you can't handle it, let me do what needs to be done and all will go well"
"Like that'll happen, what are you really going to do? You have no men, no weapons, it's just you and your staff and this tiny office"
"Joe, you don't get it do you? I was once a leader of them, they want me back so badly, I have so much control over them, and they don't realize it. I can craft my way into their ranks, and rip their hearts out before they know what hit them."
"You don't know if they will let you back in, and how are you going to destroy them from the inside out?"
"I'll play it year by year, boy, and if you don't think I can get into their ranks, look at this"
Narcia pointed to a pile of hundreds of un-opened letters, all sealed with a golden stamp with the words RED on them.
"Read one of those."
Joe picked one up and ripped open the seal, inside was a letter in script. It read

Dear Mr. Narcia,
My dear old friend, what has become of you and your sudden change of heart, was it the loss of your daughter, because, we can destroy that gang and make them pay for making us suffer those losses, or did you just become bored with the dream of us three? Didn't expect it to take so long did you? Well, master plans are not made over night. They take years to plan, and then even longer to be put into action and even longer to have effect. You, my friend, will be treated as a traitor unless you come back and join us. We will forgive this back stabbing if you just come and join us, you can't win on the other side Eddy, you CANNOT WIN!

"It's not signed by anyone"
"Of course not, Sid never wrote his signature, the absence of his signature became his trademark, if that makes any sense"
Joe slightly nodded, looking confused
"It doesn't sound like they want you back, its more along the lines of, join us, or die, not really begging you to come back like you said it was."
"Once again, it was a trademark of Sid to write all his letters as though he were angry, quite brilliant really, gets the point across."
"So what is your plan then? How are you going to get in?"
"That, will take some planning, something you have nothing to do with" and with that he beckoned two of his guards to "escort" Joe out of his room. Before he left, Joe shot a quick suspicious glance back at Eddy and left the room.
Mr. Narcia sat back at his desk, drank the rest of his coffee, sat back in his chair, and sighed. This was far from over.

Chapter 5
The Plan

"Joe?...wake up!" said Mike, shaking Joe awake from a well-needed nap.
"Wah?" said Joe, still half asleep.
"Cortez wants you in his tent, he thinks he has a plan to end this war."
"It's about damn time" said Mark who was awake all night. "This war should haven't even started."
"I know how you feel" said Brian "What idiots think they can really take on the friggin U.S. Military and win."
"They obviously do." said Joe "Well are you guys going to come with me or not?"
"Nah, I'm just going to sit here and finish my journal entry" said Mark
"You have a journal?" asked Mike
"Um, yea what's the big deal?"
"Nothing, just...whose going to read that?"
"No one I guess, just something to pass the time."
Joe walked up the stairway, walked outside, and entered Cortez's tent.
"Joe, finally, we may be able to end this war" said Cortez as Joe entered.
"So, what is it?"
"Well, as you know, R.E.D. has taken over New England and most of the east coast, including New Jersey. The west coast is under heavy guard by the U.S. Military in case of an attack from the Pacific, but so far it's quiet there. Central U.S. is almost completely normal, people are living normal lives there, it's about the only place in the world. We are going to evacuate all civilians still alive there, and bring some reinforcements from the west to here."
"With those reinforcements, I think we have a chance for a final push into the North, it will probably take a few months, but I think it will work. As we speak, a convoy with all the civilians from the Meadowlands is on its way to Kansas. They'll board up in public buildings until we deem it safe to come here again, which may be soon, I hope. We have men contacting the generals on the west coast, to see if they'll send reinforcements."
With this new info, Joe was rejuvenated; finally an end was in sight, he was hopeful it was over. Just as Joe saluted Cortez, a soldier walked into the room. His head was shaven, and he was very tall. He had a slight stubble and he had a bandage on his right cheek.
"Sir, we just got word from General Thomas; he's going to send 15,000 troops over here"
"15,000? Are you sure soldier? That seems like a big amount, and General Thomas is not generous"
"Yes sir, he said has Canadian Forces over there, and over one million troops, he said 15,000 isn't as much as he would like to send."
"I'll be damned..." said Cortez, as he wiped his brow "Alright, tell General Thomas we're extremely thankful and that it's more than enough, and ask him how long until they get here"
"Yes sir!" and with that, the soldier ran out of the tent.
"Damn Joe, did you hear that? 15,000 soldiers, under my command, we only have around 18,000 here, we're going to be twice as strong, and the fact that the Canadians are now sending us forces, its just...wow, I'm speechless"
They both sat there in silence for a few minutes, thinking about how this war might actually be over before September. It was just the end of June, and they had figured the war would be over by Christmas. Heavy footsteps sounded outside the door. Both Cortez and Joe looked up at the same time as the same soldier from before came running into the room, breathing hard.
"Sir, good news and bad news, General Thomas said all of his troops and vehicles should be here by next week, but, the bad news is, the convoy with the civilians from the Meadowlands, has been attacked, we don't think there are any survivors. I'm sorry sir, that's all I know" and with that the soldier ran out of the room.
With those last words, Joes face turned deathly pale, he fell into a chair.
"Joe! Damnit, someone get a doctor over here! Joe, you alright?" said Cortez as he rushed over to Joe, who was breathing heavily and tightly gripping one of the tent's supports.
A man with a red cross on his helmet, ran into the room, and surveying his surroundings, ran at Joe and immediately, started to check his pulse. He seemed to relax and stood up, saluted Cortez and said
"Sir, this kid just went into a bit of emotional shock, I see it a lot, he'll be better in a few hours." And he walked out the tent, just like everyone else who had crowded around to see the commotion.
"Joe, come on" said Cortez giving Joe his hand "you should go lie down for a bit, I'll bring you some food, alright?"

Once again, going to add more descriptions and such.