by Steven Bird
Remaining still, hoping they would pass, he remembered his rifle on the ground next to the tree. Just keep on moving, guys. Nothing to see here, he mused to himself in an attempt to stay as calm and relaxed as possible.
Just as the six-man team looked as if they would continue and pass through the area, one of them paused and signaled to the others.
Damn it! They see it.
The soldier worked his way over to the base of the tree, looked around at the macabre scene left by the coyotes, then leaned over and picked up Nate’s rifle, holding it up for the rest of his team to see.
Still using only hand signals, the group began to systematically scan the area and the man holding the rifle looked up into the tree, making direct eye contact with Nate.
“Howdy. Welcome to America,” Nate said, attempting to muster a friendly smile.
Immediately pointing his AK-74M at Nate, the soldier shouted, “Здесь, в дереве!”
A second soldier quickly ran to the side of his comrade and shouted in English up toward Nate’s position in the tree, “Throw down weapons!”
“He’s got my weapon,” Nate replied sarcastically while slowly showing them his empty hands.
“Climb down from tree! Now!” the man ordered in a stilted, heavy accent.
“I’m injured; please be patient,” Nate said, pointing to his blood-soaked pants.
“Climb down now, or I’ll shoot you down!” the man demanded, flipping the safety lever down on his rifle and aiming directly at Nate’s center mass.
“Okay, I’m coming,” Nate insisted as he began to work his way down through the branches, gritting his teeth in pain as he went.
Once within reach, the man jumped up and grabbed Nate’s boot, pulling him down hard to the ground.
Screaming in agony upon impact, Nate felt his wound tear open and begin to bleed again. “Damn it, ahhh hell!” he screamed as he writhed in pain.
The man shoved his knee into Nate’s stomach and forced his shoulders against the ground while the soldier who had found his rifle took both of his hands, extending them over his head and placing flex cuffs around his wrists.
Once secured, the man who’d shoved his knee into him released his pressure and began to search Nate’s person for hidden weapons or dangerous objects.
Pulling Nate’s knife from his belt, he tossed it aside and said something unintelligible to his comrades. Looking back down to Nate, the man, who was clean-shaven and appeared to be in his early thirties with short, blonde hair, said through gritted teeth, “Where are others?”
“What others?” Nate asked, only to feel the man’s hand slap him hard across the face.
“Do not toy with me, insurgent.”
“I’m not toying with you. I’m just not sure who you’re talking about. Are you referring to the cave people? They’ll find us soon enough if you keep yelling like that.”
“Cave people?” the man repeated, confused by Nate’s statement.
“Yeah, cave people. I don’t know what else to call them. I don’t know who or what they are, but they’re pretty damn vicious. They’re like beasts.”
“Look, hillbilly, we’re looking for UF patrol that went missing recently. If you help us find them, we will do what we can to help you with wounds. If you do not help us find them, we will tie you to tree, cut out tongue so you cannot scream for help, and leave you for wild animals to devour... alive. Now, tell me who you are with, where they are, and what you know of UF patrol.”
“Look, pal, I’m being honest here when I say I don’t know anything about a patrol, but I do know that the creepy bastards I’m trying to warn you about are more than capable of taking out your patrol, as well as the one you’re looking for. They operate in a very unconventional manner. Almost like a pack of wild animals. They hit you before you even know they’re there.”
Looking Nate over, the man snarled and asked, “Where is leg?”
“I think it ended up right over there,” Nate answered, gesturing toward a tall patch of weeds near the base of the tree.
“You carry rifle popular with insurgents. Who are you with?” the man demanded again.
“That rifle? Hell, the AR-15 is popular with all Americans. Its presence doesn’t indicate affiliation with a certain group,” Nate replied. “It just means I found a good deal at Walmart back before the collapse.”
Reaching out and taking Nate’s rifle from his comrade, the man looked it over, and said, “This is U.S military issued M4, not civilian AR-15. Where did you get rifle?”
“Look, man. When it all started falling apart, the rules didn’t seem to matter much. A lot of former government weapons began circulating around. I just happened to come across this one at a swap meet.”
Glaring at Nate, the man declared, “You speak in circles with no truth. I can see you do not want things to go easy for you.”
“Look, if you think I’m some sort of wanted outlaw, then please, by all means, arrest me and take me back to your base. They’ll sort it all out there. Let’s just get the hell out of these woods before they come.”
“Before who come?”
“Them!” Nate shouted. “I’m telling you, you don’t want them to find you. I’d much rather be arrested by you and charged with whatever crime you want to charge me with than found by them, again.”
Standing up, the man walked away from Nate and joined his four other comrades. They discussed something amongst themselves while the younger man who’d found Nate’s rifle stood watch over him.
“You need to convince your team to get us the hell out of here,” Nate whispered. “You don’t wanna be here when they come.”
The young man, appearing to be in his early twenties, kicked Nate with his boot to shut him up.
Once the man who appeared to be in charge finished discussing the situation with the rest of his team, he turned and was walking back toward Nate when the sound of a horn could be heard off in the distance, echoing through the hills. The eerie sound triggered the man to stop and listen.
“That’s them!” Nate said. “It’s too late to run. They’ll just pick you off one at a time. I highly recommend you set up a defensive perimeter and prepare to hunker down for a fight. It’s coming, whether you want to acknowledge what I’m saying as the truth or not.”
Giving out orders in what appeared to be Russian, the man directed his young comrade in arms who was guarding Nate to tie him to the tree Nate had spent the night in.
Grumbling to himself, Nate wasn’t pleased with the turn of events. He knew Britney’s abductors would soon be upon them, and he did not look forward to being helplessly tied to a tree while the UF soldiers were slaughtered all around him.
The younger man, along with one of the others, stood on each side of Nate and picked him up underneath his arms. As they carelessly dragged him to the tree, Nate gritted his teeth from the pain the rough handling was causing him.
Reaching the base of the tree, Nate’s hands were untied and pulled around the tree behind him, where he was re-secured from behind. This ain’t good, Nate thought as he worried about the possible outcomes of either being attacked or abandoned in his current state. Either way, he knew the deck was stacked against him.
~~~~
“There,” Britney said, pulling the bandage tightly around Yuri’s head. “That should at least keep it clean until we can get you somewhere to treat you properly. How’s your side?”
“Better than before,” Yuri said with a smile. “Thank you for taking care of me. Shotgun blast must have merely grazed me. It hurt so badly, and bled so much, I thought it was direct hit. I thought I should be dead by now.”
Pausing what she was doing and looking him directly in the eye, Britney said, “You could have just left me there, chained to the floor in that wretched hell hole. You could have easily gotten out of there on your own. But you didn’t. You put your own escape in jeopardy to get me out of there. I’ll be forever in your debt for that. I haven’t had many people in this worl
d I could count on. You… you have no idea…”
Reaching out and wiping the tear from her cheek, Yuri sighed, “If we not meet in cave, you would not like me. You… you would hate me.”
“I don’t care who you were when you entered that cave, Yuri… um, I don’t even know your last name,” she admitted, looking him squarely in the eye.
“Kovalenko,” he replied with a smile.
“So, as I was saying, Yuri Kovalenko, I don’t care who you were when you entered that cave. I don’t care what you did, where you're from, or who you served. When you came out of that cave, you arose as my hero. You put your life on the line for me, and I will never forget that or be able to repay you.”
Amazed at her statement, Yuri couldn’t help but flash back through his memories of the training he’d received about the current state of the U.S. and the insurgency he was here to fight. He thought about the selfless way her rescuers had sacrificed themselves fighting his own kind to get her away from the murderous ambitions of the very cause he had served so faithfully. These insurgents did not seem like domestic terrorists, intent on hampering recovery efforts. The people Britney had spoken of seemed more like her fellow countrymen, who were heroically coming to her aid.
Unsure about what the truth really was anymore, Yuri looked Britney in the eyes and said softly, “You have already repaid me.”
Sitting up, Yuri looked around and declared, “Okay, we go now.”
“Go where?” she asked. “I can’t go back with you. I can’t. I just can’t.”
“Then we go somewhere else. Somewhere you can be safe,” he explained. “I will not take you back to camps. I promise you that.”
Looking into his eyes, Britney began to smile as her feelings of elation were quickly doused with fear. She saw Yuri’s smile extinguish as his eyes darted around quickly. Reaching for the shotgun with his right hand, realizing it was just out of reach, he shoved her aside with his left hand and dodged to his right.
Britney could feel the disruption of the air as an arrow flew by her face, missing her by mere inches. As she fell to the ground, she saw Yuri charge the fur-covered man who had been behind her, blocking his attempt to nock another arrow.
The large, ominous figure, covered in animal fur from head to toe, kicked Yuri hard in the chest, knocking him backward and onto the ground.
Immediately bouncing back and leaping to his feet, Yuri charged the man again, exposing the broadhead-tipped arrow he had pulled from the man’s bow-mounted quiver as he had fallen backward.
As the man tried to draw his knife, Yuri plunged the razor-sharp broadhead into the man’s neck, slicing his jugular vein, and sending him crashing down as blood spewed like a fountain from his neck.
Running over and retrieving the shotgun, Yuri made his way to Britney, who was now trying to scurry away in fear on all fours. Taking her by the hand, he helped her up and insisted, “We must run.”
Leading her through the thick forest, they hadn’t gotten far before hearing the all-too-familiar sound of the cave dwellers’ horn echoing through the trees.
Yuri struggled through the pain of his wounds. His confrontation with the archer who now lay dead had torn them loose, and blood flowed freely once again. Catching a glimpse of movement to his left, paralleling their course, but at a distance, Yuri saw a fur-clad rider on horseback galloping across a small clearing.
Yuri knew the rider was likely racing ahead to cut them off, so he began to think of ways to take evasive action, but was unsure how many pursuers they had or their exact locations. He didn’t want to make a turn or alter their course only to fall into the hands of someone who awaited them.
Leaping over a log, Yuri’s feet no sooner hit the ground than he saw a figure crouching in front of them, aiming a rifle directly at him and Britney. As the stranger reflexively started to raise the rifle, Yuri heard a man shout, “No!”
Seeing that the shout had come from an injured man tied to a tree, Yuri was barely able to make out the silhouettes of soldiers taking visual cover in the brush all around him. They wore the same camo pattern as him. They were UF soldiers.
A feeling of relief swept through his body when he heard a man shouting in his native language to drop the weapon. Doing as he was ordered, Yuri tossed the shotgun to the ground ahead of him, placing his hands on top of his head.
“Raise hands,” he turned and said to Britney.
Yuri’s feeling of relief quickly gave way to the crushing realization that she had been running from the UF, but she was now once again in their hands, breaking the promise he had made mere moments before.
Britney watched as UF soldiers appeared from the brush, pointing their weapons at both her and Yuri. Seeing Nate tied to a tree, she shouted, “Nate!” just as a hand pushed her from behind, forcing her to her knees.
One of the soldiers approached Yuri and began interrogating him in a language that sounded to her like Russian.
Looking toward Nate, she saw him mouth the words, It’s going to be okay. She was both relieved to see him alive and horrified that he had fallen captive to the ones who had set out to kill them both. If they knew who Nate was, he would surely be killed or imprisoned. And she had been witness to an unspeakable crime committed by the UF. If they knew who she was, they could never let her go. Her story would create too much of an uproar with the local population.
In their native language, Yuri argued with the man interrogating him. He pleaded with him to turn their attention to defending against the attack Yuri knew was coming at any moment. Looking to Nate, realizing that both he and Yuri had issued the same warning, the man ordered his men to set up a defensive perimeter.
He turned back to Yuri and told him in Russian, “Secure her to tree next to other prisoner. You watch both. Do not let them escape. Do you understand, Sergeant Kovalenko?”
“Yes, Senior Lieutenant Romanoff. I understand,” Yuri replied sharply.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Running through the woods at a breakneck pace, Jessie could hear the hounds pursuing him. The UF-trained search dogs were gaining on him, and he knew it was just a matter of time before they caught him, pinning him down for their handlers, or attacking him; either way, it wouldn’t end well unless he could find a way to shake them.
Splashing through a creek flooded by recent rains, Jessie attempted to mask his scent, and he ran upstream before continuing away from them. Based on his personal experiences with dogs in the past, he knew he’d have to go a substantial distance to keep them from picking up his trail once again.
As the barking grew louder, Jessie looked back to see that they were now in visual range as the hounds came bounding through the woods, guided by their noses.
Turning and running onto the dry ground on the opposite side of the creek, Jessie began running at a full sprint. The dogs had now picked him up visually and turned to run straight through the creek to intercept him on the other side.
Nearly exhausted and out of breath, Jessie knew he couldn’t pull away from them, so he began to climb a pile of slick, moss-covered rocks, hoping it would slow them down long enough for him to get away.
As he climbed the large rocks in haste, his foot slipped, and he fell backward onto the cold, hard ground below. With the wind knocked out of him, he struggled to bring his rifle up to meet the threat of the dogs that were now within ten yards and about to leap onto him with their large teeth exposed.
Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the dogs slid to a stop, growled, and then turned and ran away with their tails tucked between their legs.
“What the hell?” he mumbled, then he heard a deep, heavy growl above and behind him.
Slowly turning around and looking up the rock wall from which he had just fallen, Jessie saw a large black bear standing at the top looking down at him.
Turning to… “Jessie. C’mon man. It’s time to get moving,” Tyrone’s voice said in a low whisper.
Flinching, Jessie awoke and began frantically looking aro
und and behind him.
“Relax, man. It’s only me,” Tyrone assured him.
Grinning, Jessie chuckled, “And thank God for that,” as he yawned, stretched and sat up. “Man, that was the deepest sleep I’ve had in a long time. I guess knowing you guys had my back allowed me to finally relax a bit.”
“That’s saying a lot considering our current situation,” Q replied.
“So, what did I miss?” Jessie asked.
“Nothing much. After you and Daryl went to sleep, Tyrone and I stayed up. I watched the northern half of our perimeter, and he watched the southern half. All activity seemed to cease for a while. We heard that damned horn sound a few minutes ago, so we figured we’d better get back in the game. It sounded a long way off, but just the fact that we can hear it tells me they’re too close. But just remember, the next break belongs to me and Tyrone.”
“Absolutely, you’ve earned it,” Jessie concurred as he checked his rifle and readied himself for the threats that still lay ahead.
Speaking up, Daryl said, “Hey, guys? Um, I’ve got to take care of business.”
“Buddy system!” Q quipped. “Jessie, you’re Daryl’s buddy. Go with him.”
“Roger that,” Jessie groaned as he stood and stretched.
Walking a short distance from camp, Daryl said, “Okay, man. You stay right there, I’m gonna duck behind that big tree. This ain’t gonna be purdy. You don’t wanna be downwind of me right now.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Jessie chuckled.
As Jessie stood there, scanning the area and keeping an eye out so Daryl could tend to the business at hand, he heard Daryl say, “You know, I can’t figure out why they backed off. They had us on the run. If they would have kept the pressure up, they stood a good chance of picking us off one by one in the darkness.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Jessie agreed. “The only thing I can figure is they were taking too many losses themselves. They may have needed to regroup and evaluate the situation. Would killing four of us be worth potentially losing three or four more of their own? We were keeping their cost-to-gain ratio high. Probably too high.”