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“Move, move, move,” I screamed at Moore as I knocked Brown in the head to wake him from a dead sleep. Fire licked the side wall and traveled up to the roof like a lit matchstick. “Grab your shit, Hill!” I dove outside and drew my gun into position to scan the perimeter. I rested my cheek on the butt of the stock of my M4 and tuned out the crackle of flames as they consumed the hut. I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath to focus.
My sixth sense had never let me down before, and it had surfaced just in time. I rolled quickly to one side and zip! zip! I sent two bullets to my eleven and heard a groan. I sent another three to my twelve and caught sight of a man as he twisted and fell, blood sprayed high in the air. I felt the heat of the flames on my back and knew it was time to move.
Moore’s hand landed on my shoulder as he low crawled up next to me. We moved as one away from the burning structure and out into the night. There had been a time when this terrain made it difficult to move about, but now it was second nature to us. The rocky mountainside still made us work hard as we picked our way up. Thank God for the military issued kneepads.
Zip! Zip! Zip! Bullets nipped at our heels as we scaled the side. We kept low to use whatever cover we could find.
“I thought we lost these fuckers thirteen miles ago,” Brown hissed. “They’re like friggin’ bloodhounds!” The last word was cut off as bullet hit right above him. “I seriously hate this place. I need a desk job.”
“You wouldn’t last five minutes in a cubicle,” Moore barked as I covered him, and he made his move. More bullets rained all around us.
“They look at us the same way we look at them.” I motioned for Brown to move up behind Moore. “Kill or be killed.”
Hill took Brown’s place and glared at me. We’d had tension between us ever since we made the decision to stay behind and accept this volunteer mission. The rest of the troops had all been called back to the US. I knew he wanted to go back but probably felt like an ass when the rest of us voted to stay. He’d kept his mouth shut then, but now it was apparently my fault he was still here. I didn’t care; he was the one who made the decision. I was glad he’d been put under Captain Flex’s command. Trouble was now, ten days in, our teams were tangled up after we’d been ambushed and some of our men were switched up. Flex had two of mine, and I had three of his, and one, regretfully, was Hill. Our mission was compromised, and now both our teams were scrambling to make it back to the rendezvous point where a chopper would meet us to get us the hell out of there.
“Go,” I ordered Hill, and he waited a beat and glared at me before he moved. Rivera then wiggled up into his spot and waited for his turn to head to the top. He was a good soldier, but he was tight with Hill and had a real attitude problem with my guys, so I kept an eye on him as well. I nodded at him, and he left. I was last.
I rolled on my back and arched my neck to watch Rivera’s boots disappear. Then I started to shimmy upward. I kept as flat as possible. Bullets peppered around, but thankfully none hit me.
Once I reached the top, Moore slapped my shoulder, then we all froze when we heard the unmistakable whistle of a rocket launcher.
“Duck!” I shouted, and we dove for cover wherever we could as it hit the side of the cliff. It shook us like a carnival ride, dust filled our lungs, and rocks flew about without mercy.
I blinked back the grit that layered my pupils and made out an opening now exposed where a rock had been. I called out to the others. We took turns and shimmied inside the cave to seek relief. As we caught our breath, we all did a quick body check to see if we were injured. The shock of an unexpected attack sometimes left you momentarily numb to pain. Thankfully, we all seemed to be in one piece.
I cracked a glow stick, so did Brown, and we did a quick scan of our surroundings. It seemed safe enough to spend a little time there. I knew we all were in desperate need of sleep, and with the lack of camaraderie among the team, tempers were at a fever pitch.
“Hill, watch the entrance,” I ordered, and he shook his head at me as he fought to catch his breath. I held up a hand. I wasn’t in a mood to tolerate his pushback. “You don’t want to be here, no one’s stopping you.” I inclined my head at the opening to the cave. He glanced at Rivera, who looked away. Good. Brown got down on his belly and crawled to the opening.
“That was close.” Moore puffed his cheeks at me and blew out hard. The adrenaline still rushed through our veins. “I can still taste gunpowder.” He flapped his arms to relieve the stress.
“Maybe if we hadn’t sat like ducks on low ground, we would’ve been better prepared,” Rivera butted in.
I tuned them out while I tried my radio. It crackled with static, and I strained to hear around it. The reception was terrible here. Two different tones could be heard, so my guess was that Captain Flex was radioing in at the same time.
“You were the one on watch,” Moore shouted, and Rivera rose to match his stance. “Maybe we should be pointing fingers at you. You were probably asleep!”
“Enough.” I was tired of their shit. “We’ll spend a few minutes here to rest, but they aren’t far behind. We need to keep moving. So shut up and take a break.” I moved to the opening and relieved Brown. I needed to get away from all the friggin’ bickering. I knew we should stay on the move, but we also needed clear heads, and the proof was in their tempers. We needed rest. We’d only had about three hours of solid sleep in the past ten days, and now that we’d been outed, they were gunnin’ for us hard.
My team had been a well-oiled machine, but when we collided with the other team a few days back and got split up, tension built. I found a space to tuck myself into that still allowed a panoramic view of the hillside below. I needed to watch for any possible unwanted company.
Shots could still be heard, but it seemed like they were on the other side of the mountain. Where we were seemed relatively safe for the moment. I took a minute to admire the stars that shone brightly above me while I rested my body. My mind remained alert for any sound.
I’d spent just over eight years in this country, in a continuous battle with faceless men. I’d seen women and children treated like animals by their own kind. The idea of freedom was merely fiction to those who lived in this place. Hope for some kind of life might still be there, but it was buried deep with fear.
When I was ordered to return to base camp with my team, I wasn’t sure what it was all about. When we were told we were going home, part of me was confused. The fight wasn’t over; these people still needed our help. Then while I attempted to get my head around it, my commanding officer pulled me aside and explained that one of our officers had been taken and we needed to get him back. He had some crucial information that we couldn’t let the Taliban have knowledge of. I knew they were experts at interrogation. Though it was proposed as a voluntary mission, we really didn’t have a choice. I stepped up quickly. I wasn’t ready to go back to the kind of normal I knew I’d face back home, anyway. Of course, my team followed my lead. Since Flex had been in the room with the rest of us at the time, he not so willingly spoke up for his team, too.
It was important for us to remember that some of the locals were willing to put themselves out there and offer us supplies and help if need be. The citizens of Afghanistan had asked for our help, and I’d done everything in my power to do what I could. That’s why I struggled hard when I watched our troops being loaded onto a plane. They were about to leave a war that wasn’t even close to being over.
“You good, Beckett?” Moore slumped down next to me with a sigh.
“Yeah,” was all I offered. He listened to the bullets hit randomly on the back side of the hill and allowed himself to relax for a second.
“I’m nervous if Hill and Rivera meet up with Flex. I don’t trust they won’t mess with some Taliban and get us in trouble before the chopper arrives. They’re reckless. We shouldn’t separate again.”
“Yeah, agreed.” I closed my eyes with a nod and hated that I couldn’t trust their motives.
