by Chris Bostic
Leisa shot him a curious glance that he promptly ignored by bending over to grab his coilgun.
“Better take this thing with me.”
Before the group shouldered their backpacks, Leisa suggested another quick snack. They stayed silent as they quickly munched on more of the gritty granola packets.
“That hit the spot,” Joe said he choked down the last bite.
“Yeah, I could go for miles now,” Pete said.
Leisa gazed up the hillside. “You might have to. So let’s get going.”
Pete snapped off a crisp salute. “Yes, ma’am.”
Joe took the lead at first, though he never relished the role. He missed Danny more in those first few steps than he had since the guy had been killed by the savages. The life, or rather short life, of a point man was decidedly not for Joe.
As the group slipped through the trees toward the base of the hill, Joe’s eyes constantly darted left and right. He hunched over in a semi-stealthy stalker’s crouch in an effort to move more cautiously through the forest, especially since they knew it could still be crawling with savages on the move.
“I thought we were in a hurry,” Pete called from the rear.
“And I thought savages didn’t move much during the daytime,” Joe replied. “But you’re welcome to take the lead.”
“Nah, you have a point there. I’m good back here.”
“Thought so.”
Joe was sweating uncontrollably by the time he reached the base of the hill. The sun beat down mercilessly, but the fear of walking into a trap was the real reason. With labored breathing and not even having begun the climb, Joe stopped to suck in a deep, calming breath.
“C’mon, you got this,” he muttered.
“You talking to me,” Pete’s voice echoed in his ear.
“Um…” Joe left the word hanging to stare up the hill. Heavy tree cover blanketed the slope along with vines draped between branches. The ground was rocky, which made it fairly clear of shrubs and other trips and tangles. That left only the sheer steepness of the slope to contend with. They could walk right up it, but only with significant effort.
“Let’s do this,” Joe said, and placed his boot on a sharp rock. “Just be careful.”
“That’s my middle name,” Pete said.
“I thought it was dumbass,” Leisa deadpanned, making Joe let loose with a cackle.
“That’s what Connie always said,” Joe added.
“Whatever.” Pete huffed and took off after his companions. “You jerks.”
Joe ignored him and slowly picked his way up the hillside. He hadn’t gone twenty steps before Leisa unexpectedly moved up to hike alongside him. He nodded approvingly, and she replied with a smile.
He almost wished she would close her visor so he wouldn’t have to see those perfectly rounded cheeks and sparkling emerald eyes.
I have to quit thinking about her, he chided himself. The photograph proved she had a boyfriend back home, and a reason to get there. Besides, it wasn’t the time. It would never be the time. He just needed to put one careful foot in front of the other and worry about climbing that hill.
By having to concentrate so much on his footsteps, there was something about sharing the lead with Leisa that helped reassure to Joe. Two sets of eyes were better suited to spot the enemy, though he obviously hoped the savages were miles away by then.
The sun had climbed past its zenith and was well into its decline. Maybe three hours were left until dusk settled in. There was no way Joe was going to go around creeping in the dark. He’d seen for himself that the savages had big eyes like owls, which had to make them perfectly suited for getting around after sundown, no matter what Connie had suggested earlier.
Joe had already decided that he would have them burrow under some rocks at nightfall and hide out until morning. They could make it if they stayed quietly buried in the vegetated security of the hillside. They’d had no problem hiding from the savages while they’d crossed the river. His group would only need to be quiet—and preferably spot the savages first. They could do that if they stayed alert. If they built themselves a tight, compact shelter. If they kept their eyes open and their voices down.
“What are you thinking?” Leisa asked when his eyes strayed back to hers again.
“That we need to be quiet,” he whispered.
“Sorry.”
Joe switched off his microphone. “Don’t apologize for Pete,” he said, playing off her earlier comment about him doing the same thing.
Confusion blanketed her face. “I…I wasn’t.”
“He’s the one making all the noise.” Joe pointed a thumb behind himself toward his friend, who seemed to have a habit of finding the wobbliest stones. The rocks clunked and he slipped often as he staggered his way up the steep slope.
“I heard that,” Pete replied between ragged breaths.
“I thought you meant talking,” Leisa whispered with her microphone covered.
“Nah. You can talk to me anytime.” Joe shook his head, and cursed himself for his inability to quit flirting with her. “But we better be quiet,” he added.
“Uhm, okay.” Leisa’s eyes narrowed. “I really don’t get you.”
“No one does.” He refused to look over at her, hoping that might keep him from saying something else wrong. He needed to stay strong and focus on the mission. Letting her talk might be exactly the thing he needed for easing his nerves, but he knew the distraction that would also create.
Connie was right, Joe decided. Women have no place in combat. He only found himself wanting to protect Leisa, to talk to her, to forget about everything except getting close to her. And that would only make him want to protect her more.
But maybe that was a good thing, he argued. If he cared more about his team members, then he would be a better teammate. If he could give his life for his squad members like Connie had so easily done, then wouldn’t that make him the best possible teammate?
Joe was utterly confused. He was torn between the notion of protecting himself and looking out for the others. As Connie had said, “Survival is incidental.” But Joe remembered that Connie was referring to the mission. Only the objective mattered, not who made it out alive.
“But what’s the objective?” Joe said out loud.
“Getting home safe,” Leisa replied, tilting her head to look at him questioningly. “Right?”
Joe nodded reflexively, and couldn’t have been any more confused.
CHAPTER 19
Joe continued to ruminate on the conflict raging in his mind as they approached the ridge top. He supposed the strategic objective to their original mission had been to pressure the PVA forces until they splintered to oblivion, but that objective had been lost the moment he tumbled halfway down the hill in an unexpected K-NAP onslaught.
A secondary objective hadn’t even been considered other than simply staying alive. If there had actually been one, it might have been holding their flimsy line to blunt the counterattack. But the savages had poured in like fuel on a dying fire. It had been heartbreaking, especially since they weren’t even supposed to be in the war.
“We were almost home yesterday,” Joe announced. “Just think where we were, on top of that mountain, mopping up barbarians like we’d be home in a week.”
“Don’t remind me,” Pete groused as he staggered up the hillside behind Leisa and Joe.
“It’s hard not to.” Joe sighed and slowed his approach on the summit. Only another hundred feet remained after a couple hours of steady climbing. “If those savages hadn’t…” Joe exhaled exhaustedly.
“Expect the unexpected,” Pete said. “Isn’t that what they say?”
“I thought it was something like…be ready for anything,” Leisa suggested.
“Fortune favors the…uhm…” Joe’s voice trailed off. He hung his head with hands on knees. “I dunno. I give up.”
Pete wasn’t ready to quit. “Early bird gets the worm,” he offered, eliciting groans from the other tw
o. “An apple a day…”
Joe looked up. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“We can share platitudes all day, or we can climb this hill,” Leisa interrupted the guys. “I’m all for finishing this and digging in for the night.”
Pete groaned. “You tryin’ to be Connie again?”
“Someone needs to be,” she replied.
“You man enough?” Pete asked with a less than playful tone.
Before Leisa could retort, Joe straightened up. “Whoa now. We all need to stop this and get going.”
“Yes, sir,” Pete said, grating on Joe’s nerves. “Like Connie always said…a soldier’s life is to suffer.”
Though he didn’t disagree with that last one, Joe bit his lip to keep from saying something that might spark another round of unproductive chatter. He motioned for the others to move out. Leisa followed right away, keeping pace with Joe, but Pete lingered.
She switched off her communicator. “We need to be done for the night, Joe.”
He snuck a look over his shoulder and shook his head at the still unmoving Pete. So much for teamwork.
“Yeah, soon,” he agreed, covering his microphone. “I just want to get a look over this ridge first. Maybe we’ll spot our lines.”
“I wish, but I’m not counting on it.” Leisa also turned to check on Pete. “At least your buddy’s coming now.”
“My buddy? Not yours?”
“I know you guys are close,” she replied. “He gets on my nerves.”
“Same.” Joe couldn’t help acknowledging his own frustrations with Pete. “He drives me crazy sometimes, but…yeah, we’ve been through a lot.”
“All of us have.”
“That’s true, buddy.” Joe winked at Leisa.
“Back at you, bud.”
Joe slowed so Pete could catch up. The three of them joined together not far below the summit of the hill. Afternoon had turned to early evening. The sun had dropped below a distant ridge, leaving not much over an hour until total darkness.
Clouds had filtered back in during the last couple hours. Joe decided that no moonlight might be an advantage when it came to hiding later, but he also grew anxious. They needed to get a good long look over the ridge top before nighttime settled in.
“C’mon, guys,” he encouraged, waving them forward. “Just a little farther.”
No one argued. Leisa stayed within an arm’s reach on his right side. Joe tried to urge Pete to keep up with him on his left.
He dropped to an even lower crouch as they neared the rocky, spiked point. The very top of the hill was an undulating spine that stretched endlessly in both directions. Barren of trees and brush, the very top was littered with a couple rows of jagged boulders like shark teeth pointing to the sky.
As they reached the edge of the woods before the stone, Joe held up a hand. There was no telling what might be on the downhill side. Thankfully, no bug eyes peered from between the teeth watching them approach, but Joe wasn’t taking any chances.
“We go extra slow now,” he whispered.
“I thought we already were,” Pete said.
Joe backhanded his friend across the upper arm. “Shut it, bud.”
“Yes, sir.”
Joe glowered and otherwise ignored the smart-aleck reply. Turning to Leisa, he motioned for her to approach the spine with him. “You wait here,” he told Pete.
With his coilgun gripped tightly, he put one cautious foot in front of the other. The boulders grew in size, becoming much more than just tripping objects to watch carefully. They couldn’t even clamber over several of the larger ones. The last ten yards was as much of a lateral move as they slid to the side, creeping around shoulder tall boulders as if they were going door to door clearing hostiles from houses in the middle of a city.
One last boulder remained. A narrow gap only big enough for one person at a time blocked their way.
“Ladies first,” he quipped and waved for Leisa to go ahead, but lunged ahead of her before she had the chance to take the lead. If they were going to come face to face with the savages, he wanted to be the one to do it first.
“Hey!”
“You’ll get your chance,” he said, and ended up on hands and knees as he squeezed between the narrow gap.
So far, so good. Once clear he scrambled to the left, leaving room for Leisa to crawl in on his right. Heads just below the precipice, he took a deep breath and failed at steadying himself for another encounter.
Joe’s fingers trembled as he waited below the spine trying to work up the will to peek over the top. Leisa looked at him expectantly, and he gave her a firm nod. He held up three fingers indicating a count.
Three…two…
Pete interrupted the count. “What’s up there? Can I come up?”
Joe looked at Leisa and shrugged. He lowered his last finger, and they extended their heads like turtles coming out of their shells.
Joe recoiled.
“Dang!” Leisa pulled her head quickly back below the top and leaned into the hill in a defensive position.
“Was that?”
Leisa shook her head, her knuckles white as she gripped her coilgun. “I dunno.”
Joe could only stammer, “D-did you…”
Fortunately, Leisa could read his mind. “I didn’t see anyone.”
“Me either.” Joe sucked in a breath and edged forward. “Take another look?”
Leisa nodded and held up three fingers.
“What’s going on up there?” Pete interrupted.
“There’s a camp,” Joe said. “A huge one.”
“And a helluva view,” Leisa added. “But wait there a sec.”
“Why?”
Leisa ignored Pete and counted down. They stuck their heads over the spine again. Just below the peak, a narrow rocky area spread out flat like a miniature plateau. That was all clear, Joe was sure, as there were no large boulders for anyone to hide behind. It was more like a gravel landing pad atop that skyscraper of a mountain range.
What made Joe more anxious was camouflaged in the edge of the woods. Strangely, a table made of wooden crates. Camp furniture made of stumps and rocks rolled into position around the table. More crates and boxes off to the side covered in green netting and cut branches. And green tents spread out on the descending slope as far as he could see.
“Not ours,” Leisa said.
“Nope. Not a chance.”
“What?” Pete said.
Joe heard him scramble up the rocks behind him. “Just be quiet.”
“I’m trying.”
“That’s pathetic,” Leisa wisecracked, but quickly turned her attention back to the camp. She kept stretched out on her stomach, shoulder to shoulder with Joe, when Pete finally crawled up behind them.
“That was subtle,” Joe said. “Now get on up here and have a look.”
They watched his reaction as he lifted his head to peer over the top.
“Unholy alliance,” he uttered. “That’s…that’s not good.”
Joe and Leisa nodded and kept their eyes on the camp. Nothing stirred, though it grew harder to see by the second. The farthest tents slowly disappeared into the darkness, but Joe couldn’t pull himself away.
Pete said, “We need to get away from here.”
Joe looked to Leisa. She didn’t argue the point.
“Probably so,” he agreed. “We’re sure as heck not hiding here.”
Joe knew they had no need to go rummage through the tents or the crates. They had enough supplies to get back to their lines. They just needed a route, and going straight through the giant camp wasn’t going to help with that.
“We’ll circle around to the right,” Joe finally said, looking under Pete at Leisa.
She nodded her approval again.
“You guys know I’m not going back down this hill,” Pete said, obviously meaning the side of the hill they’d just climbed up.
“It might be the smarter thing to do,” Joe said. “We might want to steer clear.
”
“It’s easier going down,” Leisa suggested.
Pete was unmoved. “Then I’ll have to climb right back up again.”
They didn’t have the time to convince him otherwise. As they continued debating moving out, a chirping built from the hillside below. Not where they were looking, but from the way they had come.
Pete’s eyes ballooned until they seemed as big as the savages’. “Is that-”
“Crap!” Joe uttered. “They’re coming back to the camp.”
Leisa whipped her head around as the chirps rapidly grew in volume and fanned out into a giant semi-circle around their position. “We’re surrounded.”
A panicked Joe realized the savages must have been halfway up the hill before they’d heard them. He knew there was no way they could outrun them along the spine. They seemed to climb hills the way a gazelle would lope across open terrain.
“Go to the camp!” he commanded, rising to his feet. “There’s more places to hide.”
CHAPTER 20
The three stayed low as they scrambled over the spine and rushed across the gravel. Joe expected shots to ring out any second, but breathed a sigh of relief as they hit the woods without incident.
He streaked right toward the big table made of crates with Leisa on his heels. She slammed into his back as he skidded to a stop. He grabbed for her, and they both hit the ground in an awkward embrace.
“Sorry, but…”
He hauled her to her feet, and moved to check out a series of maps spread out on the table. The corners were held down with rocks, which Joe knocked aside as he snatched up the papers.
“What are you doing?” Pete screamed, having slid to the side to avoid crashing into the two of them.
“We might need these,” Joe said, wadding them up into a ball. “Now keep going.”
They took off again, sprinting past a row of crates marked with foreign writing that looked more like hieroglyphics than any kind of alphabet. Ammunition, he assumed, but didn’t stop to check.
As they entered the field of tents stretching out unendingly under the tree canopy, Joe began to second guess himself. He wondered if he should’ve set a quick booby trap or otherwise blown up the supplies. Or maybe cracked open a crate to check for mortar shells or grenades, if he could’ve found any.