The overall operation Emily’s company was taking over was the protection of the fifteen mile stretch of the K-G pass. The K-G pass was a sixty-four-mile mountain road that starts in the Khost province and ends in Paktia Province. The road is a one lane rocky road that is carved right out of the side of the mountain range. The road is bracketed with sheer walls of the mountain on one side and a steep cliff on the other side of the road. The road is littered IEDs and is a nasty place to be ambushed.
The FOB’s mission was to protect the fifteen mile stretch of the road with small unit patrols with company snipers. The typical patrol would consist of two or three snipers with three to four riflemen for protection. Someone had taken out several patrols quietly leaving no bodies. Emily’s Platoon's mission was two-fold. First, find out who or what was taking out the patrols. The second was to search for and recover the bodies of the missing servicemen and woman.
Emily climbed out of the back of the truck that she had been sitting in for the past eight hours and got a good look at the Fort Lighting. It was a single tier fort that was on top of a mountain peak overlooking the road. There was no way to drive to the fort so they had hiked up the side of the mountain to get to the fort. There were only two paths to the fort. One on the right side and one on the left side that zigzag up to the fort. Heavy gun emplacements dotted the front of the fort with SK cannon towers rising above and behind the fort. An American flag hung over the middle of the fort.
Emily followed the first platoon up the path to the fort. The air was a lot cooler here than where they started the journey. While Emily didn’t feel the cold nearly as bad as her fellow Rangers she was still glad she had packed her winter clothes. As she climbed into the fort Emily noticed that the soldiers who were manning the fort looked worn and tired. They seemed for the most part happy to see Emily’s platoon. They just look really tired. As Emily made her way towards the barracks bunkers she noticed someone had set up a memorial with a pair of boots, an M16, and a helmet. Hanging off the trigger guard of the rifle was a bunch of dog tags that rang like wind chimes whenever the wind blew from the east.
Emily found herself a bunk and threw her stuff on it. Then she headed back down the mountain to gather more supplies. It took about an hour for them to get all their stuff up from the road and into the fort. As they were getting their stuff up the hill the platoon that was leaving was taking their stuff down the mountain. It wasn’t long before the platoon left and Emily’s company officially took over. The platoon left the memorial behind as they left the fort in Emily’s platoon’s hands.
Captain Hood the replacement Captain after the last Captain was sent back to the states missing a leg gathered them together to explain their duty and patrol rotations. “We will be doing continuous ten to eighteen-hour patrols along the road. Never, don’t get comfortable here you’ll be spending most of your time on patrol. I understand you don't need that much sleep. Correct?”
Grinding her teeth Emily nodded cursing the new Captain mentally.
“Excellent. The platoon sergeant will have the duty rosters posted within the hour. I want the first patrol out by then. Settle in people we may be here a while.” The Captain said dismissing the platoon.
Emily grabbed a few MRE’s and drinks then headed out to meet with the patrol. Sniper patrols were different from regular patrols. While regular patrols wandered almost the entire time they were out. Sniper patrols normally only wandered from one sniper nest to the next. Emily’s first patrol was made up of two sniper two riflemen and her. She took point and led them into the darkness for their first patrol.
The first patrol wasn’t bad. They wandered a couple of miles following the road and found a place to hide behind and waited. The two big thing about a sniper patrol was that sniper patrols were normally longer than regular patrols and the constant stop and go of the patrol. The patrol would stop for about fifteen minutes scan the area then move on. If they spotted something like IED they would radio it in then wait for whoever placed the IED to come back or until the bomb guys came to disarm it.
What the primary patrol in the K-G pass was looking for was either signs of an IED or enemy movement. So the patrol would find a place to settle in then the snipers would scan the road. They would stay until the snipers were satisfied and off they would go to the next nest. The patrol would crisscross behind the fort so that the patrol wandered randomly up and down the whole fifteen miles of the road that they had to cover in their patrol. Ten hours later the first patrol ended. The Captain gave Emily just enough time to grab some MRE’s from the supply bunker before she headed out on the next patrol. Emily told herself, as she went out on point again, that she didn’t care.
“I see some disturbed dirt by the triangle rock.” One of the snipers said. Emily was currently on her twelfth patrol. She was trying to catch some time to sleep while they were stopped so she was annoyed that they had found something. It was going on six days and she had maybe five hours total of sleep broken up in fifteen minutes or so intervals. It was the first time they had found something while on patrol.
“Yup I see it too.” The second sniper said. Emily looked up from where she was laying. One of the snipers was resting on a sharp rock his rifle pointed down towards the road. The other sniper was above her lying awkwardly facing downwards with his feet above him pointed towards the top of the mountain.
“What do you want to do? Detonate it or call in a tech?” The first sniper asked.
The second sniper was quite for a while before saying anything. “Hey Never, you feel like being bait?”
“Sure what do you have in mind,” Emily asked.
“Get close to the road and detonate the IED but be obvious about it. Let's see if anyone takes a pot shot at you.” The second sniper explained.
“Ah hell, I knew you guys like me. Sure why the hell not. I got nothing else to do.” Emily said worming her way on her belly down to the road.
The first sniper called it in on the radio as Emily left the patrol behind. Once she was about ten feet away from the road she asked “You guys ready?” on the talk-around channel.
“Ready when you are.” Came the reply over the radio.
Emily stood up giving everyone a clear shot at her. She took her time lining up her shot and fired a single round at the dirt pile with her M9. The shot hit were she aim at it but the dirt pile didn’t explode. Emily waited still standing up listening to the echo of her gun ring off the mountain walls. When nothing happened she asked on her radio. “You want me to fire off another round?”
“Yea we got you covered. Go ahead.” Came the reply from her radio.
Emily took her time again and fired a second round. This time the dirt pile exploded. Emily ducked down behind a bolder but she was still pelted with dirt. She stayed low until her radio chirped again. “Ok, we got nothing. Good job Never. Come on back.” Emily crouched on to her stomach again and made her way back up the mountain. The Captain thought the use Never as bait was a great idea and added a standing order if they patrol spotted an IED they were to use Never.
Emily was exhausted. She had no idea what number patrol she was on. She was working her way down to the road again for another possible IED. She had done this so many times she lost count. So far she found one possible IED to be just trash on the side of the road. All the other times it was an IED. So far no one has shot at her or tried to ambush her. They still have no clue where the people who were setting up the IEDs were coming from.
Her current target was some trash on the side of the road. There were some wires exposed so they sent Emily in to shoot at it. She paused and looked back at the patrol’s location.
`“Screw it. I am far enough they won't know where the patrol is.” Emily thought to herself and stood up.
“Never what the hell are you doing.” Came the immediate question on the radio.
“Being bait.” She said into her radio.
She walked into the road and walked down it until she was close enough to shoot the trash. She put several rounds into the trash without pausing but it did not explode. Shrugging she walked towards the trash.
“Never, stop. What the hell do you think you are doing.” Ask the patrol leader.
“Checking the trash,” Emily said into her radio. She walked the last twenty feet in silence and without pausing kicked the trash out of the way. The wires were just wires and were not attached to anything. “It's just some wires. No IED.” Emily said into the radio. She paused to look around the road then walked to the far side to look down the cliff.
“I could jump.” She thought to herself. “It's not like it really matters. My superpowers would keep me alive. They always keep me alive” She turned away and headed back into the mountain.
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The patrol leader watched her crawl back to the patrol. Emily couldn’t figure out his expression when she made it back to the patrol. He didn’t look mad. “We're done here. We’re heading back.” Emily frowned while she had no idea how long they were out it didn’t feel like it was time to go back. Shrugging she turned to take the point. “Never wait. Wigs you're on point. Never take the third position.”
Emily paused for a few seconds to see if she care. She found that she did. If something happened she should be the one to die not wigs. “It’s ok I got this. Wigs looks tired.”
“Never!” The patrol leader said raising his voice slightly.
Emily walked ahead of them pretending like she didn’t hear him. She led the team back to the fort. Once inside of the fort Captain Hood came storming out of his Command Post and started yelling at the patrol leader. Emily found she didn’t care and headed off to the supply bunker. In the supply bunker, she grabbed an MRE and sat down. She didn’t eat it she just placed it on her lap. She couldn’t remember when the last time she ate. She found she didn’t care. After a while, she put the MRE back and headed out to where the next patrol should be forming up. There was no one there so she sat down and waited on the next patrol to form up staring off into the distance. She felt so tired. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
“Never?” Someone said shaking her shoulder and waking her up.
Emily turned towards the person shaking her should. “Yea?”
“Hey, Captain Hood wants to see you in the CP.” A soldier said standing beside her.
“Ok,” Emily said standing up.
She headed towards the command post. Inside was the monitor post. Sitting at the desk was a soldier who she couldn’t remember his name. “Aaron, Don, or was it Bruce?” He looked at her like she was in trouble. She found that she just didn’t care. She walked into the Captain’s office to find both the Captain and the First sergeant waiting on her. The First sergeant looked mad.
“Private Emerson excellent. Please have a seat.” The Captain said motioning to a chair in front of his desk. When Emily sat down he continued. “Private Emerson it has come to my attention that you are not getting enough sleep while out on patrol. Look at you. You're walking around like a zombie. You need to find more time to get sleep when out on patrol. You are putting your fellow soldiers in danger. If this keeps up I am going to have to give you an article fifteen. Send you up in front of the old man. Now we both don’t want that.”
He continued on along those lines but Emily stopped listening to him she found that she didn’t care. She looked around his office. He had a really crappy desk made out of plywood. There were a couple of pitchers of him shaking hands with a bunch of people hanging on his wall behind him. Some were in military uniforms some weren’t.
“Private Emerson!” The Captain suddenly yelled at her.
“Yea?” Emily replied.
“Look Private I know this looks like an informal setting but we must adhere to military courtesy. When you answer you will answer yes Sir!” The Captain told her.
“Ok” Emily replied.
“Look I know you're tired so I will overlook this just once but if you push me I will send you up for an NJP.” The Captain said angrily. When Emily didn’t answer he continued. “I asked you a question. I asked why you are not getting enough sleep while on patrol and I don’t want to hear that you don’t have enough time.”
Emily remained silent. There was nothing to say.
“Look Private, I want you to get more sleep while on patrol. When I send you back out tonight I want to see you well rested when you get back or I will send you up for an article fifteen.” The Captain said leaning forward. When Emily didn’t say anything he asked “Well?” Thinking he was dismissing her Emily stood up and saluted then walked out. The Captain started to yell when she got to the door but Emily wasn’t paying attention. She walked out and closed the door on the angry Captain. She wondered what he was mad at.
The Patrol was waiting on Emily when she left the CP. On their first stop, one of the snipers reported suspicious movement. Looking over at the road Emily didn’t know what he was talking about. It was just some guy with a donkey walking down the road. A bunch of them walked up and down the road all day.
“Hey Never let’s not piss off the Captain anymore why don’t you get some shut-eye. We will watch this guy for a while.” The Patrol leader said moving slightly getting comfortable.
“Ok,” Emily said using a rock as a pillow. She closed her eyes and was almost immediately was asleep.
“Hey Never, it's time to get up.” Someone said shaking Emily awake.
Emily blinked and looked around. It was dark out and it was starting to snow out. It was the middle of the afternoon when she laid down. “How long was I out?” Emily asked her patrol.
“Six hours.” One of the riflemen said beside her.
“Six hours? It seemed like I just laid down. Wait why are we still here?” Emily thought to herself as she stood up and took point leading the patrol to the next nest.
“How did we get away with that?” Emily asked as she skirted a bolder temporarily blocking her view of the road.
“Suspicious man had a suspicious meeting in the middle of the road. Don’t worry after a long while it was determined to be a broken down car and not an OCS handoff. Oops, our bad.” Steven the heavy gunner said and the rest of the patrol laughed.
Emily blinked. They had lied to command and stayed put to let her get some sleep. “Thanks, guys,” Emily said huskily blinking back tears. The snowfall was getting harder.
Patrols in the winter were horrible. First, it was constantly cold and even though Emily didn’t feel it like the other she did get uncomfortable constantly laying down in the snow. Also, their movements were fairly easy to track. Just follow the tracks in the snow. That meant being a lot more cautious and almost always alert in case of ambushes.
At least once a day one of the patrols stopped with some bogus excuse to let Emily get some sleep. While she would like to sleep somewhere that there was no snow Emily was grateful to the men and woman who let her sleep. Every time they stay in one position too long there was an increased chance of getting spotted. They were risking their lives so she could get some sleep.
It took nearly two weeks for the Captain to start to catch on. Command start asking questions and wanting updates if they stayed in place too long. The crews on the patrol still made up excuses thought so Emily could get some sleep. It wasn’t much but it was something more than she had been getting.
“We got one Military age male digging in the middle of the road.” The lead sniper said looking down his scope.
“You’re clear Banker One-eight.” Came the response from command.
For the past few days, the dispatcher had started to use a code for when the Captain was out of the room. You’re clear meant that the Captain was out of the room. It was supposed to mean that there were no friendlies in the area. It was a useless thing for command to say because there was almost never any friendlies in the area, especially in the winter. If it was a fake report the patrol would come back and reply with a roger response. If it was real report the patrol would say copy.
“Copy. I don’t see any devices at this time. We will keep an eye on him.” The lead sniper replied.
It was little over ten minutes later when the radio squawked with the Captain voice instead of the normal dispatcher. “Baker One-eight what's your status?”
The lead sniper keyed up and gave him the coordinates the said. “On military-age male. Digging in the middle of the road. No sign at this time of any device.”
“Say again? Are you saying that there is someone digging in the middle of the road.” The Captain said angrily over the radio.
“Yes, sir. One military age male digging in the middle of the road. No signs of a device at this time.” The lead sniper said getting frustrated.
“Baker One-eight you are cleared to fire. Bring back the body and any devices you find. Command out!” The Captain yelled over the radio.
There was some surprised grumbling among the members of the patrol. “Sir there is no sign of any device or hostile intent. Am I still cleared to fire.” The lead sniper said nervously.
“Bring me back that body or I will court-martial you all.” The Captain yelled into the radio.
“Sending.” The first sniper said
“Send it.” The second replied. A second later the first sniper fired. The man on the road dropped. “Good hit. Target down.” The second sniper said looking through his scope at the downed man.
The first sniper keyed up on the radio “Target down.”
“Copy Baker One-eight target is down.” The normal dispatcher replied.
“Never can you get our dead body before our dear Captain has a stroke?” The lead sniper said not taking his scope off the downed man. The second sniper was busy scanning the road.
“Come little fishes. Its juicy Never on the hook. Come take a bite.” Never said with a smile as she slid on her stomach crawling towards the road.
Command asked for two updates while Never crawled down the mountain. Both times the lead sniper replied, “In the process of recovering the body.” Emily was amazed he stayed so calm.
“I am at the road. Am I clear?” Emily asked when she got close to the road.
“You’re clear. Grab the body and his stuff then get the hell out of there.” The lead sniper told her.
Emily paused to look both ways at the edge of the road. “No bad guys to the left. No bad guys to right. I can cross the road.” Emily sang in her head.
She looked at the body then sprinted across the road. The dead guy was laying on his back with his legs under him. The was a small back hole in this chest where the bullet had entered his body. He was young maybe sixteen or seventeen. On the opposite side of the road, he had left his bicycle and a large backpack. Emily ran to the bike and toss it down the side of the ravine. She picked up the backpack and turned towards the body then froze when she heard the backpack make a clicking sound.
Carefully she put the backpack down gently. She slowly opened it and looked inside. Keying up the radio she said. “Please be advised I have four mortars daisy chained together inside the backpack.”
“Copy. Wait one.” Came the reply. The radio was quiet for a few minutes before the patrol leader came back on. “Grab the backpack and the body then get out of there.” The lead sniper told her. Emily grabbed the backpack gently and carefully slid it on her shoulders. She walked over to the dead body grabbing it with one arm she made her way back to the patrol. There was no way she saw going to sneak back to the patrol's position so she made her way as fast as she could with four live mortars strapped to her back and a dead body in her right arm. She kept expecting a bullet in the back as she made her way up the mountain but she made it to the patrol without incident. The Captain had them dispose of the body and destroy the mortars in a controlled explosion once they got back to the fort. He didn’t even look at the body or the IED.