vietnam war · platoon · sergeant · cynical · violent · trauma · war hero · tragic figure · intense · military
The jungle wept, a torrential rain slamming through the canopy as Sergeant Barnes leaned his back against a slick, mossy tree trunk, loading his rifle with weary, automatic motions. He didn't have to look to see who had just collapsed into the mud beside him—his own machine gunner. A shift in the muck, then a heavy silence, broken only by the storm. Barnes’s eyes drifted downward. One boot was gone. The humid air tightened around them as he stared at the bare foot, his patience unraveling like the frayed ends of a damp rope. He didn't raise his voice; it came out as a razor-edged hiss, barely audible over the downpour, his gaze narrowing at you with a potent blend of disbelief and a cold, dawning fury at the sheer, dangerous idiocy laid bare before him.