Shadow Warriors

by Chris Bostic

  I tried to forget about my little stumble, but the sound of rushing water up ahead was a constant reminder. If I went down again in the big river, I had a feeling I’d be washed away in the current.

  It turned out to be not quite that serious. The river was impressively wide, but not a raging whitewater like the sound had indicated. Perhaps it had been the swirling hum still racing around inside my ears.

  Spotted Owl led us out into the river, then stood slightly off to the side to wave and let the rest of us file past. “Be careful up there,” he whispered. He gestured with his head to the top of the tree-lined bank behind us. “It’s not far to the building. We’ll go down a little and set the bombs.”

  Somehow I ended up at the front of the column with my mother and the two strangers trailing behind me and Katelyn. Now that Mom didn’t have buckets, she was acting as the unofficial guard for Noel and James. They kept plodding along, none the wiser that they were being watched closely.

  In addition to less current, the river didn’t turn out to have quite as treacherous a footing as I’d expected. There were no flat rocks, and seemed to be fewer boulders, as well. The bottom was more of a cobble of stones of varying shapes, though most were baseball-sized or even smaller.

  Spotted Owl stayed at the rear. He didn’t have much to say. I turned to look at him a couple times, but couldn’t read anything on his face. He mostly seemed to be alternating between watching the placement of his feet and staring at the thick vegetation at the top of the bank.

  Someone else should’ve been watching their feet more closely. As I was looking up to see if I could catch sight of a building, I heard a splash so loud that it sounded like a whale jumping. I spun back around to find a person totally submerged in the river, and Spotted Owl soaked to the waist.

  The big man waded to the edge. He dropped wet buckets before heading back into deeper water. He reached in to grab the shirt of the man, who came up blubbering. It was James, the least likely of anyone to fall. The kid had carried only one bucket and had seemed fairly fit, no doubt from grueling physical training in the military.

  James coughed loudly. It was to the point that I wanted to mash a hand over his mouth if a scowling Spotted Owl didn’t first.

  “Shut up.” Spotty dragged the man to shore. Over his shoulder, he said, “Someone find his bucket.”

  Katelyn and I set our buckets on the dry ground and jumped into action. We waded out until the water was past our knees, and felt around where James had gone under. Something that heavy wasn’t going to float downstream in the current. It didn’t take long to find.

  I brought it over to the bank where Spotted Owl was still scowling at James.

  “Were you trying to get the buckets wet?” he accused the shivering kid. “You should know, that’s not gonna stop ‘em.” His eyes narrowed, and he turned to me. “Unless he cracked the lid open. Did he mess with it?”

  I examined the lid. “It looks okay.”

  “So you’re just clumsy,” Spotted Owl whispered harshly at James. “Or did you think you were gonna take out my phone?”

  I hadn’t thought about that and was instantly concerned. I patted my own pant leg, wondering if I’d gotten my phone wet. With an exhale, I remembered that I’d put it in my backpack.

  James didn’t answer. I thought the kid’s shivers were more like trembles as he cowered under the bulk of the big man.

  Spotted Owl reached into the cargo pants of his soaked jeans and pulled out a plastic bag. Water dripped from the sack.

  “I always keep the important stuff sealed in case of accidents.” He spat the last word. “They’re fine, but you won’t be. Knock me over again and I’ll leave you in the river.”

  Having seen the rage come on quickly, I was glad I hadn’t knocked into Spotted Owl when I’d slipped earlier. Also, seeing the way the kid shivered, it was a good thing I hadn’t soaked more than a pant leg. But it felt strangely helpful at the same time. Like the blisters, the cold water had eased the pain in my knee, which would no doubt bruise something fierce from my previous fall.

  His tirade over, Spotted Owl glanced up at the top of the bank. Thick vegetation would hardly let me see over the side, but Spotted Owl seemed to recognize something. He stood back slightly to get a better angle, and then came back to squat next to his buckets.

  “It’s time to get these ready. We’re close enough.”

  He pulled the blasting cap and cell phone conglomeration from the plastic baggie.

  “Like I was saying earlier, we need some extra pop to set these off. So shove both caps down into the mixture and leave the wires hanging out.” He cracked open the lid on his first bucket to show us. “Then snap the lid back on, and set the phone on top.”

  “Simple enough,” my mom said.

  “Very.” Spotted Owl looked back up the slope. “Putting ‘em in place…that’ll be the real challenge.”

  CHAPTER 31

  I was happy to be getting rid of the buckets, and volunteered to set the charges behind the first building. Now that the blasting caps were inserted and the phones hooked up, my tension level went from frayed to unraveled. Every footstep was a jolt that could potentially set the bombs off, at least in my mind.

  Spotted Owl had assured us that the mixture wouldn’t combust without a spark from the phone, but I couldn’t help but wonder if we would be blown to smithereens any second.

  When I’d cracked the lid to insert the blasting caps, the mixture had smelled like pure death. The pungent ammonia smell of the fertilizer mixed with diesel fuel was enough to practically melt the hair in my nose. More than anything else, that vile smell had struck home how serious it had all become.

  Katelyn wasn’t about to let me go alone. We didn’t need three buckets at the first building, so she left hers behind with my mom.

  “Be careful, kiddos,” Sunning Bear said. She set down Katelyn’s bucket long enough to wrap her arms around both of us.

  I felt a shiver in the hug. It could’ve been my own for all I knew.

  When I went to pull away, she kept me in the embrace until Spotted Owl cleared his throat.

  “I love you,” she whispered as she finally let go.

  “I love you too, Ma.” I smiled and tried to act confident. I hoped I pulled it off. “Don’t worry. We’ll be right back.”

  “It’s a mother’s job to worry,” she said, and retrieved the bucket from the ground.

  “We’ll be headed down the river,” Spotted Owl told me and Katelyn. “I’m doing the next building, then we’ll meet up with Mouse and Austin behind the third, I hope.”

  I didn’t like the addition of the last two words. I wanted to think that Spotty meant hope in terms of meeting up with our scouts instead of how setting the bombs might not work out the way he had planned.

  “Good luck,” Spotted Owl said. “Now get moving.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I eyed the slope, searching for a quick way to the top. It was over head height, but not more than ten feet. By itself, that wasn’t insurmountable. The bigger issue was the near-vertical aspect. Climbing would be difficult, but adding in the heavy buckets would make it that much harder.

  “Let me get up there.” Katelyn pointed to a rocky ledge a couple feet above the water’s edge. “Then I’ll hand you the buckets when you get to the top.”

  She moved ahead of me and scaled onto the pile of flat rocks. It was all dirt and saplings the rest of the way up the bank.

  “Hand ‘em over,” she encouraged, and I lifted up the buckets to her before starting my climb.

  I settled onto the ledge next to her, and looked downstream at the rest of the group fading into the distance. “It’s just you and me now, babe.” I flashed a crooked grin. “I thought they’d never leave.”

  “You’re stalling.”

  “Maybe.” I examined the slope and picked out seemingly decent footholds and vegetation to grab. “Just choosing out a path.”

  “These things are heavy,” she whisp
ered, rocking the buckets in her hands. “Get to going.”

  “You could set ‘em down.”

  “And you could climb.”

  “Point taken.” I tested my boot on the soil and found it a little softer than I preferred. I reached up to grip a sapling, and was pleasantly surprised to find it held my weight. “Here goes nothing.”

  “Don’t talk about yourself like that,” she quipped, and set the buckets down. She sidled over behind me as if she was going to push me up.

  “You might not want to get behind me,” I said, and lunged forward to grab at another sapling.

  “You gonna fart or something?”

  “You’re gonna get dirt in your face.”

  My boot slipped at about the same time, sending rock fragments and soil tumbling toward her. She turned her head, bouncing rocks off her helmet, but evidently took some dirt in the mouth. I heard her spit and say nothing else as I reached for another branch and nearly made it to the top.

  I wished I’d dropped the body armor and helmet along the river before I’d started the climb, but it was too late. With one final foothold, I reached up to wrap my hand around a thicker young tree. It held steady, and I looked back down as I teetered just short of the top.

  “Ready,” I said through gritted teeth. “Pass ‘em up.”

  Katelyn picked up the first bucket and tried to lift the handle to me. She was plenty tall, but not quite enough to get it all the way to me. Her face turned bright red with the exertion as I strained to reach her.

  My boot slipped again. She shook her head, and ended up having to stick out her lower lip and blow to clear the worst of the dirt away. “Thanks,” she muttered, and strained once more to reach me.

  It wasn’t going to work.

  “Maybe lift the bucket,” I said.

  “Duh. I’m trying.”

  “I mean like put your hands under the bottom,” I explained.

  She nodded. “Sorry. I’ll try, but it’s heavy.” She lowered the bucket into her arms and leaned her body against the slope. “Can you even grab it that way? I was trying to get you the handle.”

  “We’ll have to try.”

  With a grunt, she shoved with all her might. Pushing the bucket over her head, it wobbled on outstretched arms. I went for it, letting myself slide a little farther down until I could touch the lid.

  As my top hand threatened to release from the tree, I made contact with the handle and somehow grabbed hold of it. With a yank, I pulled the bucket up and planted it on the ground at the top of the slope.

  “One down,” I said between ragged breaths, and leaned back over for the next one.

  “Thank God.”

  We worked together to bring the second one up. It went easier, but then it was time for Katelyn herself.

  “You want to wait?” I asked.

  “No way.” She eyed the slope the way I had earlier.

  “You’re stalling,” I kidded her with her own jibe from earlier.

  “Just give me a hand. I’m gonna charge it.”

  “I think I’d go slow,” I said, but it was too late. She tried to race up the slope, but slipped on the very first step. She sank into the slope and melted back onto the rocks in a ball.

  She straightened up and considered my suggestion.

  “Hang on.” After finding a better foothold and a stouter sapling, I was finally in a position to grab her. I wrapped my free hand around her wrist, and pulled her all the way to the top.

  I scrambled up right behind her, and ran face first into a tangle of bushes.

  “That was rough.”

  “This doesn’t look much easier,” she said.

  Beyond a bramble of vines and other shrubs, a copse of heavy cedar trees stood in our way. They blocked our view of the building as effectively as a solid wall.

  Despite the ridiculous climb, I understood why Spotted Owl had wanted us to come in that way. We could sneak within a few feet of the building and remain under heavy cover. But my face and bare hands would not appreciate the struggle to get through it.

  I grabbed both the buckets, and said, “Follow me.”

  With shoulders bent over to lead headfirst, I stopped for a moment to pull my hands as far inside my sleeves as I could before trying to bull my way through the brambles. Thorns ripped at my backpack, pant legs, and pretty much every inch of bare flesh. One reached high enough to catch me below the helmet, leaving a long tear along the side of my neck above the body armor.

  Clear of the vines, I sank down next to the cluster of cedar trees to do it all over again—minus the thorns. After a quick breath, I charged forward again. With no free hand, I had to keep my eyes closed most of the time to keep from catching a twig in the face.

  My clothes made quite a racket as the branches rubbed against me, and I had to slow somewhat. Finally, with sweat pouring off my forehead, I cleared the cedars and dropped to the ground again.

  My eyes popped open, and I found myself face to face with the back corner of the building. The trees stirred behind me as Katelyn burst through, both arms out in front of her face to ward off the worst of the vegetation. I grabbed her wrist, and pulled her down next to me.

  “Yeah, maybe worse than the climb,” I whispered.

  She seemed too surprised by the view to reply.

  Off to our right, around the corner, a couple light standards lit up a small parking area. It was empty other than four Humvees parked fairly close to the building.

  The back side of the building was long, straight, and non-descript. I didn’t notice any doors close by, though there were plenty of windows. Though none was particularly bright, they all cast a warm glow out onto the trees crowding around the building.

  “We’ve got two buckets to set…one by each corner,” I told Katelyn, though she didn’t need a recap. She’d been there to hear the plan.

  “And then get the heck outta here.”

  “Exactly.” I sucked in a deep breath, and took the opportunity to wipe my brow with my shirt sleeve. “You ready?”

  She shrugged. “Why not?”

  I looked to the far end of the building, then back at her. “How about you set one right here?” I pointed to the closest corner. “I’ll drop one at the other end, and we’ll meet in the middle.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  I squeezed her hand, and then grabbed my bucket. “On three?”

  “Just go,” she said, and slid behind me to take the other one.

  “Right on.”

  Keeping low, I hurried through the remaining brush and burst into the exposed area behind the building. It was no more than ten feet of green space from the forest to the building, but I felt like I might as well have been standing in the middle of an open field.

  I rushed toward the first window and ducked down even lower to get well underneath it. As curious as I was about what was inside, I didn’t dare stop to try to sneak a quick look. Instead, I stayed low and rushed past four more windows. Oddly, there were still no doors.

  I passed under the fifth window and finally saw the doorway, slightly set back into the flat wall of the building. It wasn’t solid metal like I’d hoped, and turned out to be much bigger than I’d expected. The floor to ceiling glass of double doors may as well have formed a barrier right in front of me.

  I crept close enough to see the doors were completely dark. I quickly debated my options as I waited short of the nearest window. I should’ve ducked back into the woods, but didn’t want to take the time to fight the brush to get around the doorway. Alternatively, I could’ve tried to sprint past it, but really didn’t like those odds either. That left one option.

  I crept a little farther forward to drop my bucket as close as I could to the rear doors. If I got it close enough to the big opening, I figured the blast should rip through the whole building like a tornado and make up for not getting all the way to the far corner.

  Holding my breath, I tried to move slowly. I knew Katelyn had to be done by then and was probably wait
ing in the woods, but I wouldn’t go faster. I cleared the window and scooted until I was barely an arm’s length away from where the building stepped back to the door frame. As I reached out to drop the bucket, a floodlight popped on over the doorway. The handle clanked as I dropped the bomb like a load of hot coals.

  CHAPTER 32

  The cursing streamed silently from my lips. I froze for a moment like a rabbit before sprinting for the woods. I slammed headlong in the brush and ripped my way through the cedars in a matter of seconds, praying it was quick enough.

  “Over here,” Katelyn called softly.

  I adjusted course to turn to her voice, but kept barreling through the woods. Branches smacked against my helmet, no doubt making a ton of noise. If I hadn’t been scared to death, I would’ve appreciated not having to lug around the buckets anymore.

  I made much better time, and soon found Katelyn crouching at the top of the riverbank.

  “What’s going on?” she asked as I slid in next to her.

  “I think I triggered some kind of outside light.”

  “I saw that. Did anyone come out?”

  I looked at her. “I was hoping you’d know that.”

  “Heck, no. I was hiding. You made enough noise,” she joked, or at least seemed to be joking. “Let’s get outta here.”

  “Good call.”

  I peered down the slope, but wasted little time trying to pick out a path. Instead, I sat on my bottom and scooted over until I plunged. My boots dug at the earth, trying to slow me down. With a little luck, I ended up not collapsing into a pile at the bottom.

  I spun around and raised my arms to catch Katelyn.

  “I’m not jumping,” she said, though I hadn’t really expected that.

  “Just slide.”