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"Are you all right?" Justin asked as he turned to look over at Lance. "You're not looking too good there."
"Just nerves," Lance replied, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling he had as the two made their ways over to small airstrip. "You'd think this would get easier the longer we've been here and we'd be used to this by now," he muttered.
"Get used to going out every day into battle strapped down with all this gear?" Chris asked as he shifted the pack on his shoulders. "I think not."
Joey nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, but at least we got the gear to protect us. I don't even want to think of how many close calls we've been in since we've been here."
"Too true," Lance said. "We've been here now for how many months and there's still no end in sight it seems."
Justin lightly punched Lance on the arm. "Don't worry. It will all have to end sometime."
The three others nodded as they joined the group of other soldiers standing outside one of the cargo helicopters.
"Soldiers, it looks like we'll be heading out into the mountains some forty-five minutes to an hour from here," the commanding officer briefed. Lance recalled that the man had introduced himself as Major Leahy, a stocky man with a brusque manner. "One of our neighboring stations has been attacked and we're going in to bring fresh supplies to our troops based there and bring the wounded back here to get treatment. Now I've been informed that the fighting has stopped for now and it's been calm, but I don't need to remind you lot that the situation can change at any moment. As always, be prepared for the worst. We'll be flying out in ten minutes. Any questions?"
When no one said anything, they were dismissed and spent the next few minutes prepping themselves up for another excursion. Lance smiled as Justin grabbed something out of his pocket and beckoned to the others. "Hacky sack?"
"Tradition is tradition," Joey said as Justin tossed the beanbag over.
Jamie stood back for a minute to watch them play before she made her presence known.
"Joining in?" Chris asked, being the first to spot her.
"Sure," she replied as she took a spot between him and Lance.
A few more moments pass along with a few laughs before a warning was given to let the guys know they'd be leaving soon. With one last kick, Chris hit the small bean bag neatly into Justin's waiting hand.
"And now for the new tradition, hand them over boys," Jamie announced with hand open and ready.
"And here I thought you were just hanging out," Lance teased as the other guys gave her their daily envelopes.
"Yeah right, not when I have work to be doing and a surgery room to prep from the sound of things," she grinned back. "Anyway, I knew you guys wouldn't leave without giving me these."
"You know us too well," Joey said as he gave her a hug. "Thanks Jamie."
"Anytime. You just watch it out there and I'll keep praying I never have to send these or the rest of the bundle back on my desk."
"We'll be careful," Chris grinned as he shouldered his pack and headed towards the helicopter with Justin after both had given her hugs as well.
"You too, okay?" Jamie asked as she turned to hug Lance tight.
"I will. I love you," he said as he gave her a quick kiss.
"I love you too. See you tonight!" she said as their hands slipped apart. He gave her one last wink and headed off to join his friends onboard. She smiled and then turned to head back to the medical area for another round with some of the patients.
"Is that the last of it?" one of the majors asked as Lance stepped away from the helicopter with another three-gallon container of water hoisted onto one shoulder.
"Yes, sir, this is the last of it."
"All right, start loading up the wounded," he barked out to a group of his soldiers who'd been waiting for that command.
Even as he made his way over to the building which in times past had served as a school but now served as a sort of command center for the troops based here, Lance curiously watched as a handful of soldiers were lifted up onto the bed of the helicopter.
"Nothing major," Justin said as he moved to walk with Lance and followed Lance's gaze. "They're lucky. Only a few bullet wounds and a broken bone here and there."
"Let's hope we all stay that lucky," he said as he moved indoors and put the water down against one wall with the other supplies. Justin agreed as the two joined the rest of their team in another room.
They had just finished refreshing themselves with some water when Major Leahy strode into the room. He took a quick look around and called out for some of the men. "Hansen, Kirkpatrick, Fatone, Moreno. Major Brunner here has requested that we aid him in doing a quick scan of the surrounding area and I need you four to join with the first patrol car to do just that. Timberlake, Bass, Stokes, you three go with the second unit. The rest of you, I need you in the next room please."
The soldiers in the room split up with half the group heading outside to where a couple of trucks stood idling. Lance joined his comrades in the bed of the second truck and quick introductions were given as the two troops familiarized themselves with each other. "Hey, you're those *NSYNC guys, aren't you?" one soldier who'd introduced himself as Jeremiah asked as the truck started to move forward after he'd taken a closer look at Justin and Lance.
Lance shrugged. "No denying it here," he said as Justin nodded his head.
Jeremiah let out a low whistle and grinned. "Man, my girlfriend will never believe this, that I met you guys! She was a huge fan of yours when you guys were still touring. You guys still do that?"
"Tour? Not so much recently. We've kinda been taking a break from that to do our own thing."
"What about the future?" another soldier asked, this time a redhead named Shane.
"Once we get out of this war? Who knows? It'd be nice to get together under non-war conditions and do that again but we'll see."
Lance nodded with Justin's comment. "We're just taking it one day at a time."
"Aren't we all?" Jeremiah added before he started rummaging around in his pockets for something. "Hey, I know you must get this all the time, but would you mind if I got your autographs? I'm serious, my girl back home would be so happy," he said as he drew out a piece of paper and a pen.
Grinning, Justin took the materials and prepared to write a little note. "What's her name?"
"Theresa."
As Justin wrote down a few words, Lance looked back over at Shane and Jeremiah. "So how long have you guys been here?"
"Six months, twelve days, and some ten hours, give or take a few minutes," came the reply.
Justin glanced up quickly. "Keeping track that closely?"
Shane sighed. "Every minute I'm here is another minute I'm missing out on my baby girl's life. My wife, her name's Amie, gave birth to our first child the day before we were shipped out. I had one day to hold Caitlyn in my arms and the next day, I'm not."
"Ouch, sorry man," Lance said, not knowing what else to say.
"And can I say it again, you're lucky to at least have your wife nearby," came from Lance's right and he looked over at, Frank Stokes, a soldier from the troop both Lance and Justin were in.
"Your wife's here?" Jeremiah asked. "Wait, hold that thought. You're married?"
Lance laughed as he took the pen and paper from Justin's offered hand. "It's one of the things that happened to me since we split to do our separate things. Jamie's a surgeon and she's helping out at the medic base we're stationed at."
"We couldn't all stay bachelors forever. Even us boyband guys need to grow up one day," Justin laughed, seeing the still incredulous look on Jeremiah's face.
"Yeah, and the day that you grow up will be the day I go up into space," Lance joked.
Laughter eased a little bit of the tension that was present whenever the guys weren't safely at base, but it helped. Light conversation and a fair amount of soldierly teasing in that truck kept the morale high as their eyes continuously scanned the surrounding forest and mountain passes for any sign of the enemy.
A couple of hours later, the two trucks were well on their way back to the base. "Another five minutes and we'll be back," Shane announced as he spotted a familiar marker on the road.
"Things looking good up there?" Jeremiah called up to the truck ahead of them above the noise of the two engines.
"All good," they heard Joey's voice call back to them. "You guys okay back there?"
Jeremiah was about to yell back in confirmation when suddenly, an explosion from right next to that first truck caused dirt and debris to fly.
The men in Lance's truck instinctively ducked and covered the backs of their heads and necks as the dirt began to rain down on them. Another explosion behind their truck left the five guys in that truck bed coughing and swearing and left the truck stalling.
Lance glanced over at Justin, green eyes meeting blue ones as dirt and an unnatural silence settled on them. "Everyone all right in here?" he asked. The men around him let him know they were all okay, but what relief they had from that knowledge was short lived as triumphant shouting was heard getting closer to the two stalled trucks shortly before a round of gun shots cracked the air.
"We're under attack! Everyone down!" Shane screamed as he pointed his gun out over the side of the truck and took aim at the first enemy he spotted rushing towards them.
Lance flattened himself as best he could and fired his rifle at another man who was screaming as he ran towards them with his gun blaring. Lance didn't even wait for that man to be completely down before his eyes were scanning the rest of the scene for anyone else coming. "You still have my letter Sprout?"
Justin grunted as he touched the pocket right above his heart. "Naturally."
"Good. Keep that safe and tell her I love her, will you?"
"Tell her yourself Lance. We're getting out of this one yet," Justin grinned as he fired a shot to his right.
The onslaught was brief and over in less than five minutes. There had only been a dozen or so guerilla fighters and they'd been ill-equipped at that. After letting a couple more tense, silent minutes pass by, Jeremiah slowly eased himself up from the crouched position he'd forced himself into and the others followed suit. "We all right in here?"
"All fine, it looks like," Frank commented. "What about the other truck?"
"Joey? Chris? Everyone okay there?" Justin called out to the others.
"A little help would be good!" a voice called back. "Our driver's out and we've got a couple of bad injuries here."
Immediately, the five soldiers and their driver jumped out of the truck and went to where the other truck had swerved off the road ahead of them. "Shit," Lance vaguely heard Frank say as they saw how badly damaged the truck had been by the blast.
"Oh God, Joey?" Lance couldn't help the panic from entering his voice, his mind not seeing how anyone could have survived that kind of hit.
"Chris!" Justin screamed from right next to him as the two rushed forward to see if their friends were all right.
"Talk to me Dwayne, what have we got?" Shane asked as they approached.
The black haired man shook his head at him. "The driver's dead, killed by that blast likely, and RJ, Chris, and Louis here are pretty close to saying hi to death too. They were sitting on the side of the truck that got hit."
It was Justin's turn to swear as he maneuvered his way onto the truck with Lance right behind him. "Chris, hang on buddy, you hear me? We got you and we're getting you out!" he said as he got some bandages out from his vest and began to apply them to his friend, even though he didn't respond.
Lance tore his eyes away to look at Joey. "Joey man, where are you hurt?" he asked, not liking how pale his friend was. Joey turned glazed eyes towards Lance and seemed to be struggling with his reply. In the end though, he couldn't find the strength and Lance watched as Joey's eyes rolled a little before shutting, his body slumping a little to the side. "Joey!" he screamed, finally spotting the blood seeping through the vest and he moved to stem the blood flow with the bandages Justin tossed his way.
"Let's load them up!" Jeremiah said, taking control of the situation. "The sooner we're back on base, the better. Hurry now."
Carefully, everyone was moved over to the other truck, and then those who were still okay hung on as the truck roared its way back to base, careful to keep the pressure on their friends' wounds all the while.
Majors Brunner and Leahy ran up to the truck as it stopped just outside the designated aircraft area. "What happened? We heard the explosions and gunfire from here!"
Lance barely heard Jeremiah's answer concerning something about a small, likely isolated incident with some of the local rebels as he carried Joey over to the helicopter with Frank's help, not even waiting for the order to do so. As soon as he'd settled Joey down, he saw Justin and Dwayne carry Chris over as well. Again, Lance met Justin's eyes, worry clearly written on both friends' faces.
It wasn't soon enough for either of them when they were back up in the air speeding their way back to the medic base.