We watched him for some time before I decided to place him in the crosshair of my rifle’s scope. I had the guard dead to rights for what seemed to be forever. I gave him every chance to go back inside. But he stood there smoking one cigarette after another. By the time my patience got the better of me, the man was working on finishing the third one.

The man was only a touch of a trigger away from being shot were he stood. My son stepped in front of me, just as I was about to fire the rifle. Michael was furious that I would not look for a more peaceful solution.

I asked him if he had a better idea. He paused for a moment, then turned away from me and headed toward the guard. Only a few feet away from the guard, Michael called out to the man to get his attention.

Before the man could pull the cigarette from his mouth, my son had already slammed the butt of his gun into the guard’s face. Michael turned back my way to give me a smile of mild satisfaction with the success of his plan. I ran over to the guard and grabbed the extra clips that he had with him.

I matched the bullets to the ones I had with me. Everyone must have been issued the same type of gun. I noticed that he carried a small AK47. After taking the needed items, we dragged the man over to a shadowy corner.

No sooner had we turned away when we were met with gun fire. As we were disposing of the guard, we must have caught the eye of another. The man must have seen us dragging the guy and begin firing on us. Soon after the first shot, we heard a second gun being discharged as well.

Once I found a safe spot, I met the two men’s gunshots with some of my own. Within moments it had turned into an all out gunfight. Bullets zinged back and forth for what seemed to be a few minutes. It was a good thing that I had taken the extra ammo from the first guard or I would have completely ran out.

But Michael did not get any of the bullets. It hadn’t crossed my mind that he could run out as well. That was, until he did. The two guards quickly caught on to that, and turned their fire toward him. I needed to get to my son, but he was trapped on the far side of the building.

I had no other option; I had to make a run for it!

I quickly got up to my feet and made a mad dash toward Michael. The two men turned their gunfire away from my son which was a good thing, but then they turned it toward me! I ran as fast as I could, though it appeared not to be fast enough.