by Sage du Toit
She moved her hand into his palm and signed, “I love you too.”
They lay quietly under the tree roots. They could hear more men shouting and then suddenly they were firing their guns. They were shooting them into the trees and she could hear them hitting the tree above them and the trees splintering around them as the bullets hit them. Tom wrapped himself around her, protecting her. There were foots steps coming near and she hoped they didn’t leave a blood trail behind, of course any tracker would see where they low crawled. Unless...Tom must have gone back and covered their tracks.
Randomly someone would fire a gun and footsteps went back and forth past them. She heard the wrenching sound of metal being forced and occasionally one of them would “Whoop!” over something that was pulled out of the Bronco. She knew just when they found the flashbang grenades and tear gas because they tossed one of each into the woods. Luckily none of the tear gas seeped into the roots or under the tree.
Sam didn’t know how long they lay under the tree. At one point Tom eased his arm up and under her head, he removed his gas mask and then her mask. She guessed since they were underground it was probably safe to do so. She hurt all over but realized her head and neck hurt worse than anywhere. She reached up and touched her forehead. There was a big gash and she could feel the sticky congealed blood. He must have sprinkled some stop bleed powder over it. She wondered where else she was injured and where he was injured.
She was thirsty and starting to get hungry and everything seemed to be hurting more the longer they waited. Of course, she told herself, you were just in a major car accident, the first in your life. She wanted so bad to talk to Tom, but she knew better. She reached up and put her hand on his face and he pushed his cheek against her hand and kissed it. She felt comforted by it, but still wondered how much longer they would have to wait. As she lay there waiting for the rowdy thugs to go away she thought how lucky they were that neither of them had broken bones.
Sam drifted in and out of a light doze, after what felt like forever it sounded like they finally left, there was the sound of vehicles pulling away and tires squealing on the road. Sam thought it sounded suspiciously loud and she wondered if they were trying to draw them out of hiding. She recalled last night when she heard the vehicle. She wondered if it was them, did they set this trap up for them? How did they know which way they would be going? Or that they would be using Night vision goggles? They had hidden the spikes from view of the goggles. She hoped she would never find out. She just wanted to be out of this hole and away from here.
They waited for what felt like another two hours and then she heard a man say, “Ain’t no body here! They’s long gone. They pro’ly took off runnin’ t’ru da woods a fore we got hears.”
Sam barely understood what he said through his thick accent. But it sounded like they were walking close by. The other guy replied, “Yep, I recon yous right. Let’s get home, Earl said we only had to wait til dark, it’s a’most that now, don’t ya recon?”
Sam could have laughed out loud at their thick accents. She was always teased about her Texas accent, but it didn’t sound anything like that!
They waited awhile longer and Sam felt like her bladder was about to explode. She signed into Tom’s hand that she needed to go and he signed back, “Soon”.
She was getting very uncomfortable and was afraid she was about to lose control when she felt Tom put her gas mask in her hand and she realized he was putting his back on, he then reaches up and push the detritus back a little. The light was fading from the sky and not much filtered through. He wiggled forward and poked his head out. He motioned for her to stay and then he wiggled the rest of the way out and reached back in and took one of the M16’s.
She didn’t hear anything for a while and she assumed he was scouting the area to make sure they were gone. She knew he could move faster and quieter than anyone she had ever met, so she waited as patiently as her bladder would let her. She considered there might be enough room inside now that he was out that she could squat and ease her bladder, she was that desperate.
As she was seriously contemplating it, Tom pulled the detritus and leaves completely back and quietly told her to pass the bags out and her M16. She scooted around and pushed first one and the other up to the opening. She then held out her M16 and let him pull her out of the hole with it. She took two steps and pulled her pants down and peed right there. She looked up at him in apology but he was also standing by the tree peeing.
He helped her put her pack on, which hurt like hell and then he put his on and they both walked out to the Bronco. When Sam saw the Bronco, she was amazed that either of them had survived! The top was completely crushed and the side of the Bronco was smashed in, wrapping the Bronco around a tree on the driver’s side. She didn’t know how Tom managed to get both of them, their weapons and kits out and 50’ into the woods before those men got here, how was he not dead or at least seriously injured?
Sam looked at Tom in awe. Then she looked at him in concern. She noticed for the first time that he was limping. She moved next to him and signed the question, “Are you hurt?”
He whispered back to her, “Only a little. You’re in worse shape than me, you need stitches.”
Sam found an unbroken mirror on the side of the Bronco and tried to look at her face. Her gas mask covered most of it but she could see she had a big gash across her forehead like she suspected, but it was even bigger than she realized. It was seeping blood around the edges of the wound powder. She happened to look down at just the right angle after looking in the mirror and she saw her thermos and atlas were still under the seat. She leaned in the broken window after removing some glass and grabbed both and when she pulled the atlas out the backpack Maria had given her came out too, hooked to the spiral of the atlas.
She was tucking the thermos and atlas inside the back pack as Tom came back around the Bronco and he when he saw what she had he gave her a big thumbs up. They checked all around the Bronco to see if they missed anything else. The thugs had pried the back open and threw out anything that wasn’t of use to them on the ground. Their big tent was pulled out of the bag and ripped and their pillows were on the ground too, they looked soaking wet and she imagined it wasn’t water. She didn’t pick them up to see. Their stack of bundled wood was busted open and, on the ground, right behind the Bronco. Everything else was gone. Sam was reminded of the pillaged trucks at the Welcome Center.
In a hushed voice Tom said, “I know you are hurt and I wish we could take a minute more to rest, but we can’t. They could come back at any minute. Can you walk for just a little bit?”
Sam hesitated for a moment and replied, “I will try, but are we going back to Fort Jackson or toward Atlanta?”
“We can’t go back toward Augusta, that is where they went. I think we should keep going, it will be a long walk to Texas but we can scavenge from houses on the way there and honestly, I should have realized how dangerous driving there was going to be. A running vehicle stands out like a sore thumb!” Tom reached into his rucksack and pulled out a set of Night vision goggles. He was putting them on over his gas mask when he told her that hers were too broken to wear, which explained the giant gash on her head. He motioned for her hand and gently holding her hand, he guided her back through the night darkened woods.
They walked for about an hour and then she started stumbling. He hadn’t pushed her hard, but he kept up a steady space, sometimes guiding her over fallen logs or warning her when there was as a stream or thick roots. Her boots were soaked because he walked them down a shallow stream for part of the time and her teeth were starting to chatter from being wet and cold. They skirted around the outside edge of a few houses and one big open area that she thought might be some type of ranch from the fences and barn she could see in the distance.
Finally, he let go of her hand and told her to, “Hang tight” and then helped her take off her kit and put it on the ground. It was too dark in the trees so she couldn’t see what he was do
ing without night vision goggles but she could hear fabric rustling so she thought he might be putting their small two man tent up. He quietly told her to open her sleep system and take her sleeping bag out.
She felt around her bag and located the straps on the bottom and unbuckled them and pulled the string out to open the bag that held her small sleeping bag. The bag was rolled up tight and had a thin ground pad wrapped around it to go underneath it. She pulled both out and felt her poncho liner she had stuffed in there. She pulled the poncho liner around her shoulders and she felt Tom take her sleeping bag.
He asked her if she needed to relieve herself and she said no, so he guided her to the tent and had her sit down on her ruck sack. He helped her remove her boots and socks and then rubbed her feet hard before he helped her put on warm dry socks. He then guided her in the tent, feet first and into the sleeping bags that had been zipped together.
Tom soon followed her, pulling both of their rucksacks into the front of the tent, stuffing their wet boots at the end of the tent and zipping it closed. The tent was long, low and narrow. Sam removed her gas mask and heard some more rustling and then she heard a pop and a low glow filled the tent, Tom had a glow stick in his hand and was attaching it to a small plastic hook hanging from the top of the tent. There was just enough room for Tom to sit up if he ducked his head a little.
He looked at Sam and removed his gas mask too. He placed both of them on top of the rucksacks. Upon seeing that she was still shivering he lay down and wrapped her in his arms, pulling the sleeping bag up to her neck. She buried her nose in his chest and tried to control her shivering. She realized it wasn’t just that she was cold, but her body was releasing the stress from the day. Tom was lightly rocking her and she realized he was crying, he murmured in her ear, “I thought I had lost you. Your face was covered in blood and you weren’t moving, I thought you were dead.” He was squeezing her tighter, but she didn’t mind. “My training kicked in and I grabbed the bleed stop and sprinkled it over your wounds and my wounds. Then grabbed our gear and pulled it and you out of the window and ran as far into the woods as I could get.”
He buried his face into her hair and continued on saying, “I love you Samantha, I’m sorry I haven’t said it before, but I don’t want to lose you!” Sam moved her head back and reached her hand up and pulled his face down so she could kiss him. He moaned and quietly said, “Ouch, my neck is sore.”
Sam’s neck also hurt, she whispered back to him, “Tom, I love you too, and I didn’t want to say it and scare you away. Thank you for telling me.” She massaged the back of her neck and asked, “Do we have any food and ibuprofen?” She had stopped shivering and now she was feeling the pain and hunger again.
They both sat up and Tom adjusted their rucksacks so they were standing up on end to give them more room. He found his first aid kit and an MRE and pulled them out. Sam looked at the glow stick and asked him if this was also a black-out tent and he said yes, but they didn’t have much option for light. Their lantern had been in the other gear. Sam realized she was thirsty and took out her canteen. It was only about half full.
Tom had opened the MRE and was heating up the main course from the pouch, using water from his canteen. She asked him how much water he had. He held up his canteen and indicated it was almost full. She had a fleeting concern about water and food for the future but then he handed her a cracker with cheese on it and her hunger took over.
They shared the MRE and discussed conserving their food and water until they found more. They even shared out the powdered drink mix, eating it like the powdered candy Sam remembered eating as a kid. But they needed the sugar and calories for energy.
After they were done eating Tom opened his first aid kit and asked her if she had cleaning wipes in her kit. She opened one of her outside bags and took out her hygiene bag and pulled the wipes out. He told her to clean her face and hands. She considered that she probably should have done that before eating, but she had been too hungry to think about it. Even now she wasn’t thinking very well for herself and depending on Tom to tell her what to do.
She wiped her face and when she looked at the moist towelette she was surprised at the amount of blood on it. She continued wiping, being careful to not wipe the gash, until the towelette came back clear. She also wiped her hands and arms. Tom had done the same thing to himself, but it didn’t take him as long, even though he had blood all over his hands and arms. He was slipping his pants off and she saw he had a long shallow cut on his right thigh.
She asked him if that happened in the accident and he said it happened when he was climbing out of the window. She helped him clean it with alcohol wipes and then she spread an antibacterial ointment over it and taped a long gauze pad over it. He had another cut on his left forearm, but he had already cleaned and bandaged it.
Sam also discovered that she had a few long scrapes on her arms and Tom doctored those over but they didn’t require bandages. He then started cleaning the gash on her head and the bleed stop that had formed a barrier started coming lose and blood started leaking out. He told her that he was going to have to remove the barrier and it would probably start to bleed again, but he had to make sure it was completely cleaned out before he stitched it.
He had her lay down with her head propped up on a rucksack and put a towelette over her brow and along her hairline to catch the blood. He had her hold a flashlight so he would have better light. He cleaned the bleed stop out and then wiped it with alcohol pads, which was more painful than the cleaning itself. Sam ground her teeth and tried to bear the pain. He then used a wipe that he said had lidocaine in it and should help to deaden the skin a little as he stitched it.
She still felt every stitch and when he was done, she had counted five. He smeared some ointment over the wound and then covered it with a bandage. He cleaned up her forehead, wiping gently, making sure there wasn’t any blood left in her hair or where it had run down by her ears. He finished off by leaning down and kissing her nose and then lips. They both took four ibuprofen and then laid down to sleep.
As she was drifting off to sleep she had a thought and asked Tom, “How did you know there would be a space there under that tree? It was so well hidden they didn’t come close to finding us.”
Tom explained that he and his brother use to play in the woods a lot as kids and they often found trees like that in the low-lying areas that had been flooded and they would make play houses under the tree roots. Plus, as a Green Beret he was taught how to hide effectively.
Chapter 21
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18 November 2020 N-day +131
Somewhere in GA
The next morning Sam woke up stiff and barely able to move, but her bladder was telling her to get up or get wet. Tom was already up and the rucksacks had been moved out of the tent. Sam grabbed her boots from the end of the tent and after she slipped them on she realized they were still damp.
She climbed out of the tent without lacing her boots up and walked a short distance and squatted down to pee. She was already missing civilized toilets and beds. When she walked back Tom said, “That bad huh?”
She grinned and nodded, “Do we have any coffee?” she asked hopefully.
Tom held out a steaming mug and she gingerly sipped the aromatic brew with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes up Tom was holding a Honey bun out to her.
In surprise she said, “Where did that come from?” He said he found several in the bottom of her coffee back pack. She hadn’t looked into the backpack other than to take the coffee out, and she said a silent thank you to Maria.
They sat on the ground outside of the tent and ate Honey buns while drinking their coffee. She asked Tom how those Thugs knew to set the road spikes up for them since they never even saw anyone else. Tom said he had wondered about that too and the best theory he could come up with was she did hear a vehicle when they were at the Welcome Center and someone must have been hiding inside of the Center
in such a way that his thermal scope didn’t see them. They probably guessed which way they were going to head based on the direction they had come from. He said they had probably set it up soon after she heard the vehicle just to be sure.
Sam thought about it and then asked, “Why didn’t they just come kill us in the tent?”
Tom paused a few moments while he thought about it then answered, “Because they’re chicken shits?”
Sam laughed and told him he was probably right. It was a cowardly way to attack someone, setting a trap so they wreck. They didn’t even get their hands dirty.
They packed up and each took more ibuprofen, Tom told her that moving around and walking would help to loosen up her muscles and she would feel better later. She had a hard time believing him at the moment. They slipped their gas masks on and checked the area, Tom had buried their trash with the e-tool and covered the spot up with leaves.
They decided to cross over the Highway and walk in a north westerly direction so they would be on the north side of Atlanta when they finally reached it. Sam was nervous crossing over the open freeway and they both ran across as fast as they could. They followed a thin line of trees that ran along the side of the road until after they passed some businesses that looked like they had been ransacked. They had to cross over another road and then they were in the woods. They stayed back from the highway but occasionally she caught a glimpse of it through the trees.
At first Sam was drinking sparingly of her water, but Tom told her she needed to stay hydrated and reminded her he had a water filter in his bag. After that she got the tube out for her hydration pack that was full of water and attached it to her gas mask so she could take sips as they walked. The water helped to keep her hunger at bay, they were going to try to eat only one MRE between them a day. She knew that meant hunger for both, but until they found more food, it was best to conserve.