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“Listen,” he cleared his throat, “I’m really worried about Brown.”
“I’m watching him,” I assured him, and he let it go, but I shared his concern. Brown showed some serious signs of mental wear. On a few occasions, he’d wasted ammo when he thought he saw things or reported to me on events that had happened years ago. As a captain, I was taught to watch for these signs, and I definitely saw them in Brown. But, I reasoned internally, we were only a few days away from our return to the United States. I hoped he could hold it together just a little longer.
“Remember when Brown soaked Jamie’s boots in cat pee, and for the rest of the summer we called him Catpiss?” Moore chuckled.
“You can’t mess with Brown.” I smirked as I remembered how he was always the fun one. Practical jokes were taken to a whole new level if anyone dared to mess with him, or us too, for that matter.
“I had so much fun watching him fuck with people.” He rubbed his face. “I miss that Brown.”
“Yeah, me too.” I nodded. I knew we were close to losing our lifelong brother mentally if we didn’t get him some help soon. “We should get moving.” I pulled back and struggled to my feet then called to the rest of the men.
It didn’t take long to understand why the Taliban had pushed us in the direction they had. We soon found we could no longer go any higher. We were now forced to head back down; it was the only way we could go. After a long struggle through thick, low scrub brush that tripped us up and only provided about an inch of ledge for your boot to hold on to, we found ourselves at the top of a twenty-foot slope that went straight down into dark water. Dark water of the Kabul River held God only knew what.
“Shit.” Moore struggled to keep his footing as he peered down. “Beckett please don’t tell me we’re going for another dip.”
“Shh.” I held up a hand and slipped my night-vision goggles on to scan around us. “We have five coming over the east ridge.”
“Have we been spotted?”
“I don’t think.” I ducked low, careful to balance my weight on my toes, and the others followed suit. The men threaded their guns over their shoulders and started to make their way toward us. I searched for options, but the only one that would save our asses was below us. The water.
“Rope,” I whispered to Brown through the radio. He made quick work of removing it from his rucksack. I did the same with the rope that I had and quickly tied a knot in the ends to make it longer then made a loop. “Moore, you’re up first,” I ordered, mainly because he was right beside me. He wrapped it around his waist. “We don’t have much time, so this’ll be fast,” I warned him.
“Brown, tell me when to stop.” He flipped down his night vision goggles and gave me a fist in lieu of a thumbs up. Some hand signals weren’t worth using here because they meant different things. With our heels planted, we lowered him quickly, and at a signal from Brown, we stopped him right above the water. Moore lifted the loop up over his head and let it go as he slipped into the water without a sound.
We repeated the action until only I was left. Using a root that was sticking out of the ground, I made a pulley and hoped to hell it would hold my weight. I tested it, and it felt solid. At a sound above me, I froze, and I heard them walk right over my head. Dirt hit my shoulder as I flattened to the side of the rock. I prayed the guys were out of sight in the water below. I inched my blade out of its sheath and steadied my breathing. If I was going to have to kill, it was going to have to be silent. Tonight, we were the prey, and one hell of a bounty was sure to be on our heads. One wrong move and it would be over.
I heard voices, and they seemed to be arguing. I knew they were close and only needed to go a few more yards before they would get to the spot where we’d been earlier, and then they’d soon be right on me. I had a very short window to get out of there. I moved carefully and eased my weight out and over the side then rappelled quietly down the mountain, staying as close as I could to the rock face.
Just as I slid into the water, I reached up and, with Moore’s nod, gave the rope a sharp tug at the same time as he threw a rock as hard as he could in the opposite direction. It hit farther up on the side of the mountain. The diversion worked, and the men fired their weapons in the direction of the sound. I prayed they didn’t hear the rope as it smacked hard in the water. The last thing I needed was to have them discover the rope that would lead them right to us. It sank under the water, and I gathered it quickly to me. I held my breath and kicked toward the direction where the men hid in the wet plants that grew up from the muddy bottom. I slowly coiled up the rope as I went so none of us would get tangled in it and looped it on my belt.
I led them in a slow, measured swim away from the cliffs. I was sure the others struggled as I did as we moved through the dark, murky water. I worried that something would either grab us and pull us down or we’d hit a booby trap hidden underneath. It came with great difficulty to push the thought that both countries’ waste poured into the river.
Finally, I found a ledge where I could get my feet under me. There was a spot where the brush grew out over the rocks, and we could get ourselves under it. That was where we spent the night. If it wasn’t for the cover of the brush, and the dark water to conceal our whereabouts, we’d surely be dead.
Hours later, the sun lined the mountaintops, and we drank in what was waiting for us if we dared move. There must have been at a least seventy Taliban members crawling over the mountainside we’d rappelled down. They scoured the hills looking for any sign of us.
I glanced at Brown, who’d barely moved all night. His eyes were cast straight ahead, and he seemed to be in a trance.
I slipped back into my head, too. It was all we could do. That, and pray they’d move on soon.
I remembered my parents’ faces when I Skyped them on the night I got word that our special “volunteer” mission was about to ship out. They’d thought I was about to return home with the rest of the US troops. They had music on and held sparklers when the call connected. I felt horrible when I shared my news with them, but I knew their life just wasn’t for me anymore. Not now, anyway, maybe never. They’d respected my decision to stay and tried hard to hide their disappointment and fear.
My sister, Shelly, was the only one who allowed herself to show she was pissed. She held up her daughter who was now nearly a year old and shook her head at me with tears. She told me I’d missed so much of her life already. I promised her this would be the last mission, but I knew the truth. If I was offered another, I wouldn’t hesitate to take it, and I thought she knew it, too. I was a soldier. I was meant to make a difference here. There was no end date on freedom for these people. I stayed because that was all I knew how to do. I just had to survive.
Shouts pulled me from my thoughts, and we watched as the Taliban started to cheer and hoot. They held their weapons in the air and jumped around. A few ran back up the slope.
“You think they found Flex?” Hill hissed to Rivera, who shook his head. I hoped to God they hadn’t found the other team, but they’d found something, and it was time for us to move.
We were used to all types of elements as soldiers, but it didn’t help that wet boots and slippery rocks made your ankles and knees ache. Mind over matter was what kept me going, but two hours in and Brown was dragging, so I drew back and checked in with him.
“How’s the hip doing?” Brown had taken a pretty bad hit to the hip a few nights back when we were outed, and I noticed he now had a bad limp.
“Fine.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment like his head was in a battle.
“Four days from now, I’ll buy the first round at some dive bar with greasy burgers and fries.” He nodded, and we walked a little farther in silence. His eyes twitched when I looked over at him, and I decided I should give him a little reminder of our pact we made when we joined. “Whiskey.”
“Alpha,” Moore huffed over his shoulder.
