The team had entered the tiny valley, of
sorts, and gained only about two hundred meters when a 50-cal opened up on them
followed immediately by small arms fire from among the deep shadows. Two
soldiers directly in front of her, spaced at about three meters distance, each,
went down in a hail of buzzing bullets. She recognized the 50-cal immediately;
it sang a song-of-death like no other fear. If a mortar called your name, the
wisdom predicted that, at least, you would hear it coming. Might not do you any
good, but there would be a slight interval to duck; a 50-cal stalked deadly
silent towards its victim. Oh! Sure enough! One would hear the staccato burp five round spread, but the bullet
with your name on it was immediate. Either way---you’re…Dead!
The Sergeant dared a quick look around;
she could see seven unmoving bodies and one trying to pull itself to a rock for
cover. She heard a short bevy of AK fire, saw the body go rigid and then relax,
not to flinch, again. Damn!
The desert monsoon thunderstorm
intensified; in a lightning flash she saw Pvt. Revoir, the only other female in
the squad, across the now flooded ravine just a bit forward of her own position
behind a small protrusion much to tiny to afford her much protection. For the
moment, the torrent precluded any enemy fire, they were probably holding up,
also. McGonahue dared a slight wave toward Revoir, the private failed to notice
as she had her head down. Good!
Trying to improve her tiny fortress
without making too much of an announcement with movement, the sergeant scraped
hands full of sand from behind her to deepen the depression.
A stream of rain had gathered above her
position on the rocks and fell in several rivulets across the roof of her tiny
fort. She imagined that the display might be enjoyable to watch from the other
side. Sort of like a cascading waterfall. She shook her head, trying to
concentrate.
The onslaught suddenly seemed to
subside, even if only very slightly. These infrequent desert thunderstorms
could be fierce but usually were of short duration, ten to twenty minutes, or
so.
Their real danger, aside from the crackling lightning jolts, was the flash
flooding downstream of the torrent, drowning was a much greater hazard than
lightning. The valley was already a raging river with ten feet of rolling,
muddy flood water cascading through the narrow passage.
She peered toward Revoir’s position but
couldn’t see her so she squinted into the rainstorm.
A slight “tink” on the edge of the rock serving as her “roof” and a dull grey
metallic glint as a lightning jag illuminated the darkness screamed panic and fear into her confused brain. Without thinking, even for a
micro-second, she reacted to the danger and flung her body backward and down as
deep as she could get as the explosion immediately shook her sandy retreat. Grenade!
One of the enemy was on the rock above
her! How far away, she couldn’t know, but close.
The flash of the grenade exploding below
her position provided an instant light frame of Revoir across the valley some
thirty meters away. She, too, had been served a grenade. The explosion
propelled the private two feet into the air. In a flash-of-lightning,McGonahue
saw the soldier’s rifle sail into the darkness spinning like the silver baton
of a marching drum majorette..
The sergeant exhaled an audible grunt
from her chest and her eyes widened. OMG!
The sergeant’s military mind processed
the information, immediately. The events revealed that there were at least two
enemy out there. When that reality settled into her consciousness she found
herself surprised at the revelation; she had fully expected there might be “ten”
or more.
Taking a few seconds to recover from the
unnerving experience, the sergeant quickly began to assess her situation. Now,
she knew the enemy had a pretty good idea where she was. And, there might be
only one of her squad still alive. It was a long twelve hours until daylight.
When the Lieutenant did not check in with HQ they would initiate an extraction
order but because of the darkness that evacuation attempt would be delayed
until dawn, at best. She was alone!
After a half minute, or so, just as her
trembling began to subside and she contemplated rescue the sergeant was
abruptly brought back to very harsh reality with another deadly “tink” broke the silence. She had barely
steeled herself for that concussion blast when the grenade exploded, this time
farther down the rock formation and more to her right.
The second attempt did not shake her resolve
as badly as the previous assault; her training had kicked in and she was more
properly reactionary as this second attack, not completely surprised. While the
continued effort was certainly unsettling, her military training led her to
expect it.
Also, the second grenade told her that
the adversary did not know her position, they were guessing. That small success
gave her some confidence that she might actually “win” the contest.
She relaxed, even allowing herself a
small “congratulatory” smile. Yes!
She could “Win”!
The torrent lasted another fifteen
minutes, gradually diminishing until it finally flickered out taking the
lightning and thunder and rain to the southeast; it got dead silent and very
cold.
Whoever was above her had gone silent.
They might have retreated to a tidy camp of food and warm fire, or, just be
waiting for her to make a mistake with noise or other give-a way. She tried to
breathe quietly, remain calm. At least, no more grenades came her way. Twelve
hours to go.
(Part 3 of 4 Tomorrow)
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