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“Kill him!” Wayde hissed from above in the birdcage. “Kill him! They’re savages just like the rest of them!”
He was right, most were, but the truth was they were just little kids who knew only violence because of the world around them.
“Di.” I flicked my head so he would leave, and he ran like a jack rabbit and disappeared into the jungle.
“Stupid,” Wayde muttered down at me.
I held my palm up to him as I sank back into the grass.
“I hope that was wise, Daniel,” Ray whispered.
“Me too.”
We waited well into the night to ensure the kid hadn’t given us away. We listened for shouts or gunfire, but all remained quiet. We had learned the hard way that nothing was what it seemed. Booby traps were everywhere, and underground tunnels proved to be our downfall. It took my unit five months to stop firing at every sound. We’d changed our mindset and learned from the enemy to use stealth to kill or be killed. Americans were being plucked off like flies. There were so many of them, and they knew how to use the terrain to their advantage. There was no way we could win this war. We had been stuck in this nightmare for almost a year with no possible end in sight. We just had to dodge death for a little longer.
“Damn,” Frank whispered in my ear as he shook his head in defeat, “does this rain ever stop?”
It always seemed to rain here. It came down in buckets, making it almost impossible to see. When it wasn’t raining, steam would rise from the heat of the place and create still another problem for us. I understood his complaint and gave his shoulder a pat as he crawled by me. We both hated this godforsaken country.
I gave the signal, and we shimmied on our stomachs toward their camp. We didn’t send any alert that we were here; this had to be slow and quiet. Once in position, I signaled the green light, and like shadows in the night, we attacked in unison. I used a rock to knock my guy off balance then sliced him across the throat before he could scream, and he silently slid to the ground. I used my elbow on the next one then quickly kicked him in the throat to silence any cry for help. Zack finished him off. We picked them off one by one as we advanced toward the cage.
Jimmy blocked a sudden punch from Frank as he got caught up in the moment. “You’re good. We’re good.”
“Yeah, yeah, all good,” Frank repeated with a heavy breath, and Ray repeated the words again to check himself too.
“Zack.” I pointed to the rope for him to give me some slack so I could undo it and release the lever. We worked like a well-oiled machine as we quickly lowered the cage that held the seven men. Ray worked feverishly to untie the door when we suddenly heard a familiar double gunshot. We’d been made.
“Move! Move! Move!” I shouted at the men in the cage as I helped pull the battle-scarred team out of the contraption. Many of them were wounded, one had an arrow in his stomach, and others had bullet or knife wounds. We pushed the strong to keep moving as we carried the weak on our shoulders.No man left behindchanted in my head as we retreated through the jungle as fast as we could toward the rendezvous spot where the chopper would pick us up.
My boots slipped on the rocks, and I tripped and put one knee to the ground as I shifted Ben’s weight on my shoulder. My muscles burned and screamed at me for relief.
“Leave me, Daniel,” he choked out. “Too far gone.”
“No.”
“Logan, it’s too late.”
“No!” I pushed on.
Then it happened. In one blink, I had a fellow brother on my back, and thenzip zip zip!I felt the bullets as they slammed into his body. He went slack, and I lost control of him. He dropped like a rag doll to the ground. I let myself slip for one second and felt the agonizing pain of his death rip through my core. I had no choice. I tore open his shirt, grabbed his tags, and pressed my finger to his eyes to close them.
“I’m sorry.” No time for anything else.
I rushed to catch up with the guys as bullets and arrows zipped by as I ran. I waited for one of them to plow into my back.
“It was the kid who told them we were there!” Wayde got in my face the moment I stepped back into our makeshift base where we waited for the chopper. “There were seven of us, and now it’s just Gibs and me!”
“You’re welcome.” Zack stood, and I reached to pull him low for his own safety. Anger would get us killed, but I knew he was right. Where was our goddamn thanks for risking our lives to save them? We had done our best.
“You want to point fingers. Well, we sure can.” I backed up my brother and nodded as Frank and Ray joined us. “Your men were underyourcommand, Wayde.Yougot them captured, andyougot them shot. We,” I poked him in the chest, “just savedyourlives while we carriedyourwounded on our backs.”
“You let that kid go! It was that kid who told them. I didn’t get them killed,” he hissed.
“And neither did we!” I ignored his comment. “None of us asked for this, Wayde. We made it this far, so get your head on straight and act like a damn soldier! We all feel your loss. We all do.”
He turned to look at Gibs, who looked like he had mentally checked out weeks ago.
“Their blood is on you, Logan.”
