Alex is 28 years old, has a bulk body, blond hair, blue eyes, and is a good looking man with a loving family. He is serving in the US army in Afghanistan, because all able-bodied men over the age of eighteen must serve to protect their country. The US troops are in Afghanistan to protect the country from being over run with terrorists. Terrorist rebels from nearby Pakistan have been killing Afghan tribal civilians and have been attacking US reconnaissance troops.
Alex is a sergeant in charge of protecting the entrance gates to Sector 8, which is a small US army base. The base is camouflaged in the mountains by trees and rocks.
His family is very nervous that he is in charge of such a dangerous position. His mother Lucinda has heart problems. His grandmother is in the hospital for lung cancer. His daughter has a mental disability, and relies on her mother to assist her.

In Sector 8 there is a scarcity of food for the soldiers. As a result, they are far from there peak of their physical strength. The water is contaminated, which makes it necessary for them to boil the water in order for them to drink it. Many of the men are sick from drinking the horrible water. Alex and his men are very tired and weak because of the lack of nutrition they receive.
The sun is constantly shining on the soldiers, burning their skin. They are constantly thirsty. There is no escape from the harsh rays of the sun. At night the temperature drops to 0 degrees making the soldiers shiver, since they have to sleep outside with no protection from the elements.

Alex discovers the real reason why he and the other soldiers have been put in sector 8. Through his infrared binoculars one night, he sees a large group of Pakistani rebels roaming around the base. He begins to suspect that these rebels are using the nearby stream that runs through sector 8 to design radioactive materials. Their plan was to contaminate all of the rivers in Afghanistan. It is these very same materials that are making his men and him so ill. The water now contains these same radioactive materials.
On the same night that he makes this discovery, the Pakistani rebels decide to attack to eliminate the US soldiers who would stop them from making the radioactive materials. Alex was unaware the rebels were about to attack. While they were approaching the entrance to sector 8, Alex was on duty at the front gate, but was sleeping. He had fallen asleep because he was sick and weak from drinking some of the contaminated water and hadn’t eaten for days. Finally, the Pakistani rebels notice Alex sleeping on duty, and sneek in through the gate. They put a bag over Alex’s head, carried him and then threw him into a truck and drove off. The other soldiers realized that Alex had been kidnapped by the Pakistanis a few hours after it occurred.
They quickly informed Alex’s entire family. Alex’s mother Lucinda had a heart attack, His grandmother died the second she heard the news, and Alex’s little sister died because no one was watching her as she crossed the street to inform her neighbors of what happened and got hit by a car and died.
Not aware of any of this, Alex was taken to an obscure mountain in Pakistan and the rebels told Alex that he would never see his family again. Ironically, his family was already dead. The Pakistani rebels tortured him to the extent that he couldn’t even walk. They told him that everything was going to be okay and that they wouldn’t kill him. Every time they said that, however, they would beat him until he couldn’t even speak.
After months of Alex being tortured and getting fed very little, they told him they would let him go. That morning the rebels took him back to sector 8 and instructed him to walk towards the front gate. They yelled at him not to look back for any reason. The US soldiers saw Alex walking towards them and they were all so happy that tears were coming out of their eyes. A smile spread across Alex’s face, and suddenly, a bullet struck through the back of his head. The Pakistani rebels cheered and screamed as they left Sector 8.