[ WP ] A soldier in the heat of battle suddenly hears a voice that says `` I am your child 's imaginary friend . They have sent me to protect you in your greatest time of need . ''

I've been deployed on my 4th tour and things were looking like a 5th was on its way. I was on the back rotation for the week relaxing at base when an explosion sounded somewhere near by. Random attacks were to be expected from enemy combatants that snuck back in the lines and usually foundered in a ditch effort to cause as much damage as possible before they were caught or killed. 
 
 A second explosion? This one was much closer and not the normal sound of their homemade explosives. Now the alarms. I grab my rifle and what protective gear I have near. Stepping outside confirms my worries as soldiers that were relaxing as much as they could scramble to defend and enemy soldiers quickly close distance. I rush along with them toward a makeshift perimeter of supply trucks and cargo containers. 
 
 Face protection is standard issue and gave us a certain edge of fear toward the enemy seeing a mass of same faced soldiers behind rifles. One soldier in particular I notice keeps looking in my direction. I check what armor I grabbed making sure something was n't hanging off oddly, but I was n't any more half dressed as the others. I do n't get it, he should be watching the enemy. Orders being shouted over the comms of an air strike being called in. Sector H area 4 2 8, with a bearing of 163. 
 
 Shit that will put it just outside of a lethal range of our position. There's no way the enemy is that close there's only a small platoons worth of soldiers that are visible. Gunfire erupts as the time for rational thought is over and we exchange fire with the enemy. The. The scream of the jets comes in from the distance. By time they pass over head with the advancements of the engines the aircraft are long out of sight before their payloads detonate 100 meters above ground and the secondary charges scatter in every direction. 
 
 A deafening popcorn of explosives sounds and I'm thrown back, hard. Blinded from the dust and ears ringing I swear that soldier runs over standing over me rifle blazing with a serious looking wound on his shoulder, most likely from shrapnel. He pulls me to cover while I clear my head enough to shove my way along the ground with him. Gunfire accompanied by other explosions still a muted distant, experience tells me they're not as far out as they might sound. `` I'm your child's imaginary friend, I've been sent here to help you in your greatest time of need.'' 
 
 The voice clear as day like its being spoken directly into my head with how things around are distorted. The soldier who pulled me to safety being the only one near me it had to come to him, but that did n't make sense, he was a soldier same as me only lower rank. Trying to make head and tails of this all my mind barely registers the scream of the jets making another pass, there must have been another strike called in. Before I realize what's going on I'm thrown to the ground and he dives on top of me. The explosions way too close this time, those assholes called the bombs down on top of us. 
 
 Shock waves rattle every sense as the small anti-personnel bombs crackle everywhere. I'm pretty sure one of my ear drums is ruptured and the other will never hear the same as I shove the soldiers body off me and his face protection falls off. Something familiar about his face makes me freeze for a moment as I desperately try to clear my head. Everything is quiet now as my legs just wo n't let me stand. I reach over feeling around for his identification, any soldier willing to lay down his life for a commanding officer would not go unheard of and I would make sure his family is taken care of. All my hand returns with is a picture and it feels like a third bomb lands right in my head and I can hardly contain the shakes as I match the picture of my wife and child and myself on the day I left for my first tour. My daughter barely a year old in the picture and there I am, same as the soldier that saved my life holding her, now a lifeless body with dead eyes staring up into the empty sky. 
 
 My vision begins to spin and I fall over as the medics and reinforcements move in. I feel myself being lifted onto a stretcher and carried off as the medic looks into my eyes after noticing the picture. `` You're banged up, but we'll get you home to them!''
