Roger, Frank, Daniel and Richard enter as a patrol in full combat gear. They slowly move in formation downstage.
Psychologist Were you out on patrol often?
Charlie Yeah. I mean, you’ve got to take the fight to them, haven’t you? You can’t just sit back in the compound with your thumb firmly up your ass. But I’ll tell you, Doc, that first time I stepped outside the gate, my mouth went dry. I had to take a sip from my CamelBak straight away because … well, we were suddenly outside our comfort zone. You know that once you’re out that gate anything could happen, at anytime. And that it probably will. Every day we were playing Afghan roulette.
Roger We’d snake, spread out, change our routes. We had two Vallon men on most patrols, and ECMs. But sometimes there was nothing you could do. There were some bad days. Once, in the same afternoon, we lost two blokes and an interpreter. But there were good days too, you know, when you’re seeing them drop.
Frank We’d always be watching the atmospherics. If you see the women and children start to leave, or some bloke who might be dicking you, we’d go firm, straight away. Take no chances.
Daniel You’ve got your eyes down all the time, trying to follow the Vallon man’s route exactly, trying to step in the other man’s prints. But then you’re also trying to look for firing points, or murder holes. And trying to command. There’s a lot of tension. Then the next day we’d be at a Shura, a gathering of the local elders. And for all I knew the hand I was shaking had planted the bomb that blew up one of my boys the week before.
Angus Coming back from one patrol we saw a leg in a tree. It was a come-on. I sent an Afghan National to investigate and sure enough the Taliban started firing grenades. We still got the leg. It belonged to a marine from J Company, killed the week before.
Richard On my second tour we never saw them, not once. It was like fighting ghosts. You might see a muzzle flash, a puff of smoke, but that was it. When we did night ops sometimes they’d communicate by howling like animals, like dogs. That could be pretty scary. I took a Pashtun language course before I went out. That helped loads. I could talk to people when we were out on patrol. Sometimes they’d tell us where the Taliban were, or warn us off certain routes. I reckon that language course saved us more than our Ospreys.
Psychologist And what about relations with the locals? Did you have much interaction?
Charlie Well, yeah, sure, hearts and minds and all that. But that was the biggest change of all, Doc. I mean, knowing who the enemy were. On the early tours you could bet anyone still in the smashed-up village you were occupying was up to no good. But then later? On Herrick 12, 13, 14? It was a whole different ball game. Farmers, bazaars, kids, families. So the war card changed, didn’t it? You had to PID someone before you fired.
Psychologist PID?
Charlie Postively identify. Which I completely understand, but it was like we were stuck between these two fucking TLAs — PID and IED with old ‘Tommy Atkins’ getting fucked over in the middle.
Beat.
The only way I can explain it is that you’re not living with ‘if’ any more, but ‘when’. A company loses a man and things change. The young ones want revenge. It gets personal. You’re out there for each other. That’s it. You’re fighting for the man next to you. Fuck anything else. But at the same time you’re waking up every day expecting something to happen. It’s like there’s five of you in a car, going on a road trip, but you know at the end of that trip two of you will have lost your legs, one of you will be dead and another one will be wounded. You just don’t know who, or when.
Psychologist Do you want to talk about your ‘when’, Charlie?
Beat.
Charlie Sure. I was taking part in an op …
Simi enters. She begins singing her gospel song to the tune of ‘His Eyes on the Sparrow’.
Daniel I was commanding a company …
Richard I was on top cover …
Frank I was against a wall …
Roger I was in a Snatch …
Young Simi I was in the comms room …
Marc I was on patrol …
All When / When / When / When …
A sudden simultaneous moment of contact. The sound of explosions and gunfire. In slow motion Frank is hit by an RPG. Richard is blown from his vehicle. Roger’s Snatch turns over. Chris, Daniel, Charlie and Leroy are hit by IEDs. Simi, still singing, has joined Young Simi in the centre of the stage.
Young Simi There were two mortars, back to back. The first one killed my best friend. I was trying to get to him when the second one brought the wall down on me.
She kneels in front of Simi.
I was trapped. They were trying to dig me out. But all I could hear was Mummy, singing the song we always sang.
As Young Simi also starts singing ‘His Eyes on the Sparrow’, Simi combs her hair, as in the earlier scene. All around them the moments of wounding continue.
The non-wounded Soldiers form medic teams around those who are down. Shouts of ‘Man Down!’, ‘Morphine!’, T1 casualty reports.
John is crouched over Chris. Angus over Frank. Darren over Daniel. Marc over Roger. Dave over Richard.
As the medics work the wounded Soldiers sit up to speak.
Daniel I was blown twenty metres …
Frank I heard the rocket coming in …
Richard I was blown sixty feet …
Chris I caught the backlash …
Roger The Snatch went over and I hit the roof …
Daniel The shrapnel went through the back of my brain …
Frank It shattered my cheek bone, pierced my eye …
Richard My mates thought I’d bought it, that I was pink mist …
Chris I felt the sand hitting my face …
Roger I could hear the others screaming, as it filled with water …
Simi and Young Simi’s singing fades to silence.
Richard And then there was silence …
Frank Just this ringing in my ears, nothing else …
Chris Just a blue sky above me …
Daniel And nothing else …
All lie down to be treated again. Leroy sits up on the other side of the stage.
Leroy My mate had been shot. So I was like, fuck this! Osprey off, helmet off, dropped my GPMG. Got him over my shoulder and ran for it. Then, everything went dark. No boom, no hitting the ground, no pain. I was just lying on the floor.
He lies back down as John and Angus run over to him.