by Chris Bostic
The sweat was ever-present south of the Yula River. The high, humid mountains steamed the troops like vegetables in their uniforms, and Joe found himself without a fresh change of clothes—or cold water. That was almost enough to bring him to tears. But he held them back.
He’d let Leisa see him nearly bawl like a newborn over his failure to save Kayla. He didn’t even know what to think of the woman. She had been strong, confident, and willing to challenge Connie. All good things, but her personal life had been a blank screen. She had a few years on him. Possibly old enough for university, maybe even a career, but she’d been relegated as number two under a bitter, cruel man. It didn’t give Joe much hope for the Republic’s future.
Though it was better than halfway to dawn, Joe’s mind wouldn’t turn off. He kept asking himself, where will I be in another five years? Still slugging it out in the hills? Back in the city somewhere, maybe with a softer job in the police force or with an occupation army?
Probably buried under a pile of black rock on some distant, useless land, he decided.
“Everyone got ammo?” Connie’s voice rose from the ground next to Joe. He leaned over to retrieve his helmet and pulled it on.
“I’m on my last magazine,” Joe replied after a couple others sounded off.
Connie didn’t answer him, and instead asked, “Power packs are okay, right?”
“All good,” Danny said, having swapped his out with Pete during the retreat. Perhaps that was what Joe should’ve done, but he’d been preoccupied with other things.
He wondered if maybe his mouthpiece decided to quit working again. Realizing no one was going to reply to his request for ammo, Joe rose from sitting to his knees to look around. Pete should’ve been barely off to his right, but his buddy remained out of sight in the dark jungle.
We’re going to shoot each other in here, Joe thought. He wondered if they shouldn’t close up ranks tighter so someone didn’t get overwhelmed like Kayla had earlier. At least they’d know where each of the others were at.
Seeing no sign of Pete and not wanting to call out for him, Joe turned toward his rear to see if he could find where Connie had decided to dig in. It was even darker looking into the heart of the forest. Somewhere in those depths, Joe heard the gentle falling of water as it ran around the rocks of the stream, spilling and splashing in cool pools of refreshing wonderment. Joe thought again about bugging out, but not for long. Especially not knowing where Connie was hiding.
Leaves rustled from the front of his position. Joe went on high alert. As he whipped around, a shadowy figure rose in front of his hiding place.
“They’re on us!” Joe shouted, raising his gun to fire.
“Don’t shoot!” Leisa’s voice crackled over his earpiece. She threw her arms up, her coilgun slung over her shoulder. “I’m bringing you ammo.”
Connie’s voice cut in. “Knock it off over there! Danny’s on point. He’ll sound the alarm.”
Joe ripped off his helmet. “What are you doing over here?”
Leisa pulled her helmet off and dropped it to the ground. “Helping you out.” She came no closer and extended an arm to show him three fresh magazines. “And you just about lit me up.”
“What’d you think? You came up right in front of me.” He sucked in a quick breath and remembered to apologize. “Sorry. Where are you dug in at?”
She pointed into the blackness. “Not far…kinda over there.”
“Good luck finding your way back,” he mumbled.
“What?”
Joe cleared his throat. He licked his lips and swallowed down a ball of dirt and fear. “Nothing. Just thanks.” He took the extra magazines and slipped them into the cargo pockets on his uniform pants. “I’m really sorry about that.”
“That’s what I get for wandering in the dark.” Her eyes flitted to the side. “I can’t see anything in here.”
“Yeah, it’s bad.” At that moment, Joe desperately wanted to tell her not to leave. To stay with him, but that wasn’t possible. They had their assigned position, even if Connie had been vague about where he wanted the girls.
Joe shook his head, and a heavy pause settled between them like a sudden chill. There was no future, no reason for Joe to think otherwise. Military discipline wouldn’t allow her to linger there, nor would Connie.
Everyone knew the women were off limits. Joe had already thought about her too much. She was a soldier, and nothing more. A weak one at that, if a person listened to Connie. But Joe knew better.
Leisa fiddled with the sling of her coilgun, snapping the nylon against her shoulder. “Well, uhm…”
“I guess, uhm, you best be off,” Joe said, shooting a glance over his shoulder. Connie was probably watching them both, waiting for a chance to go off on the girls again.
She nodded and turned to go. Joe found his hand reaching for her arm.
“Yeah?” she whirled around.
“Be careful.”
She tilted her head curiously, and stooped to retrieve her helmet. “Okay…”
“Just, uhm…nevermind.” Joe sat down, and looked up at her again. “Signal me when you get to your spot. I want to know where you’re at.”
“Yeah, good call.”
Joe pulled his helmet on and settled back against the trunk of a giant tree to watch her slip as gracefully as a panther through the woods. In a few short steps, her shadowy form blended into the blackness, though he could still track a rustling of the leaves for a moment longer.
Right when he was sure she wouldn’t find her spot back, an odd-sounding cluck like an injured chicken might make floated through the timber. Then another.
Joe flashed back to the weird chirping on the ridge before the savages attacked, but brushed the thought aside. It’s only Leisa’s signal, he thought, and memorized the direction of the clucking.
“Get some rest,” Connie said, “and stop the racket.”
“Aye, sir,” Pete reported from off to Joe’s right. “But I’d feel better if I could see anything. You sure this is safe here?”
“Don’t doubt me, boy.” Connie chuckled into the microphone. “I’ve been doing this soldier thing for years.”
“How many?” Pete asked.
“About ten, and I haven’t bought it yet. Darkness is our friend.”
Not when the barbarians attack every night, Joe thought, but soon realized that he might not see one of them on the battlefield again. The onslaught had been entirely made up of K-NAP savages, as if they’d swept through the depleted ranks of the PVA soldiers and replaced them all a hundred times over with the bug-eyed, expressionless creatures.
Joe’s mind lingered on the new enemy, to their melon-shaped heads. Sporting big, glassy eyes, the savages could probably see for miles in the dark.
“You sure about that?” Joe asked Connie. “Seems like those savages could see pretty good.”
“Contrary to popular belief, the savages can’t see any better than us,” Connie proclaimed with his usual certainty. Joe noted his sergeant tended to do that even when he was completely making things up. “Those goggle-eyes are good for nothing but looking stupid.”
Danny chortled.
“How you know that?” Pete asked, clearly not understanding that Connie was more often wrong than right.
“That’s classified information,” he said, which Joe knew was a fallback position whenever he didn’t want to admit he was lying. “Now zip the lips, boys. I need my beauty sleep.”
CHAPTER 9
Joe awoke to the sound of chirping. He wondered what Leisa wanted and opened his eyes to find the very beginning of a warm glow on the horizon. A chirp floated through the woods again, and he jerked upright to realize it was an actual bird. It had seemed so unlikely. Given the destruction to the land, Joe couldn’t imagine how anyone or anything would want to scrabble out an existence there.
Then again, as he looked around, there was enough light for Joe to notice a larger hint of life in the diversity of the little patch of jung
le. Green vines wound around solid tree trunks. A little monkey no bigger than a flashlight jumped between limbs in the top of the canopy. Water splashed over stones in the creek behind them.
And the hillside to their front came alive with explosions.
Joe cursed and uttered, “Not again.” His hands locked around the coilgun in his lap.
“Sit tight,” Connie barked in his ear. “They haven’t seen us.”
Joe wondered why Danny wasn’t the one reporting back. It turned out that Connie had volunteered to take second shift while the point man finally got some much needed sleep.
As Joe nestled into a defensive position, his eyes flitted around the forest.
“They’re just testing the hill, rolling grenades,” Connie reported. Joe imagined the burly sergeant buried in vegetation at the edge of the woods keeping a sharp eye on the approaching savages.
“Shouldn’t we bug out?” Pete asked. “I mean-”
“Sit tight, soldier,” Connie growled. “Be ready and we’ll get the drop on ‘em.”
Joe chanced a look to his side, trying to spot Leisa or Laura, but the girls were nestled deep in the jungle. If it wasn’t for the pounding in his chest, he might’ve felt slightly better about that. The whole squad had camouflage and solid cover on their side for a change.
“Here they come,” Connie said. “Hold your fire.”
Joe’s muscled tightened. He leaned far to the side and caught a clean glimpse at a portion of the hillside. Gangly arms flapped as mustard-clothed savages poured down the hillside.
“Weird they’d come out now,” Danny said, apparently awake and ready for a fight. “It’s about dawn.”
“I’m thinkin’ we beat ‘em up good last night. Probably took a while to regroup,” Connie replied. “Be ready to do it again. On my command.”
Joe watched as the moonscape gray crawled with mustard brown. “There’s gotta be thousands of them.”
“We should go,” Pete whined, and Laura started to say something.
Connie grew testy and put an end to it. “Stop that now. We’re not giving an inch.”
Pete wasn’t done complaining. “We’re gonna-”
“We rely on each other to hold this position.” Connie paused as he cleared his throat. “Your survival is incidental to the mission.”
Joe thought of Kayla as he fingered the trigger of his coilgun nervously. He couldn’t stand the idea of being overrun again. If he could’ve summoned the strength, he might’ve bailed out for the river. But then what? He didn’t see how that solved anything. Better to stay and die than abandon his post, no matter how useless the fight. His squad mates deserved that much.
“Hundred yards,” Danny said, slipping easily into the number two role. “Power up, people.”
“There’s no LED-AD,” Connie advised. “Make good shots when they hit the woods. It’s now or nev-”
Connie’s voice cut off abruptly. Joe wondered if he’d already been overrun or maybe lost communication. Before he could find out, a weird high-pitched whistle rose from the savages.
This is it, Joe thought. The last stand.
A lollipop head appeared over the brush at the edge of the woods, but stopped. With head cocked to the side, the creature stared into the jungle like a confused dog. Joe held his fire, watching the savage slowly back away before abruptly turning to his side to run.
Joe leaned over, and noticed the shift on the hillside. Savages adjusted course, following the sound of more whistling and chirping off to his far flank.
“What the heck?” he uttered.
“They’re going south,” Danny replied for the benefit of the squad. “I think we’re clear.”
“Thank your lucky stars, boys,” Connie whispered.
Even as his heart rate slowed from hovercraft to hiking speeds, Joe found it hard to relax. He kept tightening and loosening his grip on the coilgun, unable to believe their good fortune—if that’s what he could call it.
“That signal came at the right time,” Danny replied.
“You got that right. Craziest thing I’ve ever seen.” Connie rose to his feet and leaned against a tree at the edge of the woods. He looked far off to their left. “Not sure where they’re going, but it’s well south of here.”
“So we’re surrounded,” Pete deadpanned, giving Joe an unhealthy dose of reality.
“I prefer behind enemy lines,” Connie replied.
Pete stood and stretched his long arms over his head. “Yeah, that’s so much better.”
Connie was surprisingly nonplussed. He turned back to the jungle to address his squad’s defensive line. “Not to worry, our boys at Nochni will have ‘em pushed back in no time.”
“You hope,” Pete replied, keeping up the needling. “You saw how many were out there.”
“You tryin’ to take Kayla’s job?” Connie fired back. “I don’t need no more naysayers.”
Pete threw up hands defensively. “I’m not naysaying. I’m just saying that we’re,” he paused for effect, “behind enemy lines.” He looked to the side and spotted Joe still crouched beside the giant tree trunk. “Isn’t that right, bud?”
“Leave me out of this.”
Much to Joe’s chagrin, Pete wasn’t giving up. “We’re all in this together, right? So what do we do now, Sarge?”
“Calm down, Pete,” Joe said, rising to his feet to stand between his friend and the rapidly approaching hulk of an agitated sergeant.
“You want to take over, smart guy?” Connie screamed. “You can have this sorry excuse for an outfit.”
“Hey.” Danny hurried back, no doubt to get a good look at the brewing fight. “We’re not all sorry.”
“I’ll take you any day,” Connie growled to his pet. He swung a hand dismissively at the others. “The rest of this lot can rot out here with the savages.”
“C’mon, guys,” Joe said, surprising even himself by speaking up. “We just need to get back to our lines, you know. Find the Fifth-”
“They’re not to be found.” Connie slumped down onto the trunk of a fallen tree.
“What?” Joe’s thought process derailed. “You lost contact.”
“Only after they got overrun. If anyone’s left, and I doubt it, they’re halfway back to Nochni.”
“Are you serious?” Pete said accusingly.
Connie nodded. He cleared his throat and spat on the ground.
The girls stalked closer. Joe heard them coming and turned to match eyes with Leisa. Even through the green visor he could tell she was livid.
“Why’d we sit here half the night? We should’ve pulled back,” she insisted. “What are we doing out here?”
Connie looked at her with a wry smile. “Our job, princess.”
“And that is?”
“To fight and die.” He tossed his head back and laughed maniacally. With a raised arm, he added, “For the glory of the Republic.”
Danny was utterly taken aback. He stared open-jawed at their leader.
Pete managed to stammer, “Y-you’re losing it, Sarge.”
“We’re losing it.” Connie laughed again. “We’re not supposed to make it back. We were the rear guard, ladies. The last line of defense…and now we’ve been bypassed.”
“And you didn’t feel the need to tell us any of this?” Joe said, righteous indignation burning a hole in his gut.
“Why would I?” Connie pulled off his helmet and tossed it to the ground. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“It did then,” Pete replied.
“Did it?” Connie’s brow pinched, darkening his brown eyes to a cold black. “Would you have held your post last night? Or would you have bailed when the savages charged again and again?”
No one answered right away. Connie snorted and continued. “It became our job to slow the savages down. Fifth’s C.O. told me they were overwhelmed…no way they could hold their part of the ridge. So we were the lucky ones. Battalion commanded us to earn the honor and glory. While our buddies bailed out, we got
to protect their rear by holding tight and taking the brunt. So bravo. You guys did well…very well.”
“Too well,” Danny said softly. “We weren’t supposed to make it.”
“Exactly,” Connie conceded. “They pretty much left us to die. And now my comm’s shot, so I can’t even tell ‘em we’re still here.”
“For real this time?” Pete asked.
“Yeah.” Connie leaned over to pick up his helmet. Laura gasped when he showed them a jagged puncture across the cheek piece where little wires poked out. “The grenade that took out the LED-AD almost got me too. I’m good,” he twisted his neck from side to side with a grimace, “but they cut the radio.”
The realization settled heavily over Joe like a thousand pound backpack. He leaned back against the nearest tree and exhaled, and found himself almost too tired to breathe. Even a dose of tranquilizers wouldn’t have helped the trembling in his aching legs.
He slid to the ground and mulled over the last few hours, but this time with a different lens. In a sense, Connie had handed him a new lease on life. His world had gone from charging forward in a rout to trapped behind enemy lines in the span of a night.
Becoming a prisoner was lower on his priority list than dying. But there was an opportunity here. If the Republic thought he was dead….
“So what do we do now?” Pete asked, now much subdued.
“Fight our way back,” Danny said without hesitation.
Joe scoffed at the bravado. Why bother, he decided, but didn’t voice the thought out loud. He didn’t want to be there in the first place, so why would he want to risk his life to get back to base camp?
His conscience chose that moment to kick in, and sent him thoughts and pictures of his family like a slideshow. He saw his overworked dad and sickly mom—and his little brother. The kid looked up to him.
Could he let them go on thinking he was missing in action? He figured it would be much better if the Republic told them he was KIA. Then he’d just be another statistic, and they might get a nice payout so his dad could finally slow down. But there was no way to know. As tight as the Republic was with money, he assumed they’d never pay out the death benefit until they had firm proof of his demise. He wasn’t ready to go that far yet.