Page 3 of Unloaded
I learn she’s only twenty-three years old and one of three siblings. She joined the Marines to follow in her older brother’s footsteps. Unfortunately, he’d gone missing a couple of months before she’d been abducted. The 1Lt. is worried about her younger sister, who has to be devastated over losing them both in such a short amount of time.
“You’ll be able to call her once we get back to base,” I assure her.
“Thank you,” she whispers, “for being kind to me. I really appreciate it.”
She rests her head on my shoulder. I don’t feel any physical attraction to her. It’s more of a sisterly feeling, to keep her safe from harm. I can’t help comparing her to my sister Daisy, who’s a surgeon in the Navy. Both women are strong and joined the service because of their older brother. I think they’d get along well. Perhaps when we get back to base, I can introduce the 1Lt. to Daisy.
Over the next few hours, we run into one obstacle after another. Pitbull confers with command, but there isn’t a clear path in any direction. It seems the enemy knows every contingency plan we have, including our extraction points.How is that possible?
Suddenly, without warning, we are ambushed. The Humvee in front of us drops out of sight when the road is hit with an RPG. I don’t have time to think about those inside of it, because we begin to take heavy fire. Tanks have rolled in behind us, and the gaping hole in the road where our lead vehicle plunged into has us pinned down.
The vehicle behind us throws their doors open filing out, taking shelter between their doors and our truck. We follow suit, knowing they will defend our backs as we defend theirs. I urge the 1Lt. to remain inside the vehicle, but have her kneel on the Humvee floor, taking shelter behind the front seats.
She no longer has her own weapons, so I grab my Ka-bar from its sheath, wanting her to have something to defend herself with should I go down. She takes it from me with a nod.
The skirmish rages for several long minutes. Pitbull had been in the lead truck when it’d had crashed. His head peaks up from the crater as he scrambles up onto the road. He makes a mad dash in my direction, giving a perfect rendition of a slide into home base when he reaches me, slipping under my door and popping up beside me.
“I’m beginning to get the feeling someone doesn’t want us to make it back to base,” Pitbull declares. I can hear the concern and annoyance in his tone.
“What do you mean?” a soft voice asks from the backseat next to me. The 1Lt. staring at us with fear in her eyes. “You think we are being purposefully targeted, don’t you?” She’s watching Pitbull intently when he gives her a nod.
“It’s because of me,” I think I hear her say, but the barrage of gunfire makes it difficult to hear clearly.
“What did you say?” I ask during a break of Pitbull’s firing off rounds.
“It doesn’t matter,” she answers, staring down at the knife in her hand. “I know what I need to do.” I frown not understanding her meaning. I don’t get to ask her either, because Pitbull turns to us.
“We got to get out of here before they over run us,” Pitbull declares urgently. “Bugout in three!” He yells into comms. I grab the 1Lt.’s shoulder.
“Come on, we have to move,” I tell her. She crawls out of the tight space between the seats to kneel next to us behind the door. “Stay with me, understand?” She nods eagerly, gripping my knife tightly in her left hand.
“One!” Pitbull calls, “Two…Three! GO, GO, GO!” I take the 1Lt.’s right hand in my left, dragging her along behind me whilefiring my rifle with my right.Rat-a-tat-tatthe sounds of gunfire going off all around us. Dust flies up as bullets land mere inches in front of us.
We round the disabled Humvee, driving for cover near some rocks along the edge of the road. I check our surrounding and see an embankment not far off. If we could make it there perhaps we’d have a chance of escaping. I tap Pitbull on the shoulder and point toward the embankment. He gives me a nod before turning to return fire at our enemies.
Tiger appears at our side with the RPG launcher in hand. “What’s the plan boss?” he queries.
“I want you to fire a grenade at them,” Pitbull instructs. “They will take cover when it launches; that’s our cue to move. We head for that embankment and pray to God we can out run the fuckers once we get there.”
The odds aren’t good, but we have to try, otherwise we are sitting ducks. The other men have joined us. The hostages are breathing hard with fear in their eyes. Pitbull looks at them. “When I say, go, I want you to run toward that embankment”—he points toward it—"like your ass is on fire, got it?” They all nod. “Ready, Tiger?”
“Ready.” With a nod of Pitbull’s head, Tiger stands with the launcher on his shoulder, the last of his grenades inside. He pulls the trigger. A blast of hot smoke shoots out the back as it launches, brushing past us, and thankfully no one is burned.
“Go, go, go!” yells Pitbull. I grab the 1Lt.’s hand once more, pulling her in front of me to use my body as a shield for hers as we flee the enemy. She does well, running full out toward our destination. I catch glimpses of the others as they, too, make their way to safety.
Before we can reach our target, I hear the boom of the grenade hitting its mark. Dirt begins to rain down and gunfire erupts again.
“Fuck!” someone shouts from my left. Tiger drops, dust rising around him as he hits the ground. I run to him, noting blood pouring from his left thigh. I grab him under the arms, pulling him to his feet. “I’m good. I’m good,” he insists once he’s on his feet.
I turn back to see the 1Lt. has been stopped by a couple of insurgents blocking her path to freedom. I lift my gun, but one of them calls out to me.
“Don’t shoot, and we will not kill her, but if you shoot us, she will die!”
Pitbull is screaming in my ear to hold fire. I don’t lower my weapon, but I don’t fire either. An insurgent has a laser site trained on the 1Lt. We are now in a stand-off.
“Let us leave with the girl, and you all walk out of here alive!” a male voice calls out from above and to our right. “We have no fight with you SEALs. We just want the girl.”
There is no way in hell we will let them take her back. The 1Lt. is standing stock still between us and them. She turns slowly to face us, no emotion on her face. I expected to see fear, anger, something, but it’s just blank.
