Alexei and Walter followed me out of the cave. I kept scanning the ridge lines and shaded areas. As we moved to the ridge overlooking the… well, I hesitate to call it a valley. It was not big enough to be confident in saying it was a valley, and it’s too big to call it a ditch or dip. I shrugged. It didn’t really matter.
We stopped for a second just before the ridge line so we wouldn’t be skylined. I quietly told Walter to provide cover from here. He nodded and crawled forward into a bush. I just told Alexei to follow me. As Alexei and I made our way down the hill, I could hear clack, click, smack from behind us as Walter loaded his machine gun.
We slowly approached the kid. He was face down on some grass, but I wasn’t focused on him. Instead, I was scanning all of the trees and bushes I could. I was acting like I was in a long-range patrol in Nam with how my eyes were darting around. Alexei had to stop me from stepping on the poor kid by grabbing my arm. This broke my PTSD focus on every single bush. Now that I finally got a good look at the kid, he was wearing the remains of a woven tunic and shoes that were just a piece of leather folded and stitched together.
Alexei picked him up in a fireman’s carry, and we started moving back up the hill.
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Walter had been given an order. So now he was trying his radio, but it didn’t seem to work.
“Harly, you there.” silence. “Shit,” Walter softly cursed to himself. Even if he couldn’t use the radio, he could still see the figures of Harly and Alexei as they moved back. The problem, however, was that at least four other figures were overlooking the valley. Walter couldn’t see anything weapons that could hurt the figures in the valley other than a short bow. They were skylined atop the ridge, so he couldn’t make out much.
Walter decided that he would just keep his sights on them for now. If they did anything, they would die.
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Me and Alexei were moving cover to cover. I didn’t trust that we didn’t have someone’s eyes on us. I am mostly trying to make them not take a shot. It’s hard going, though. We are switching who is carrying the kid at every piece of cover we can find. Going down a hill with a slight chance of getting shot at and moving up a hill moving cover to cover because your paranoia called ‘combat senses’ are kicking in are two very different things.
After a few minutes of running and ducking under branches, we reached the tree line’s end. I caught sight of the bush that Walter had crawled into. Looking a bit closer, I could see jack shit. Bugger was well camouflaged in there. I was carrying the kid. He didn’t weigh more than a full rucksack. I look over to Alexei and then to the bit of open ground in-between us and the ridge. “Fuck it,” I whisper to myself as I prepare myself.
But, before I can start across, Alexei runs out there and crosses the intervening space before I can move, as if he is calling me slow. ‘That bastard,’ I think as I follow him. During the run across that open space, I saw my life flash before my eyes. Of course, nothing happened, so I felt like an idiot after I jumped through some bushes. But I kept up with Alexei. While scanning the ridges and hills for any pursuers. That’s when I spotted them. I whistled to Alexei to look at me.
I try to gesture at the figures I spotted overlooking the valley we were in. It turns out that gesturing with a 100-pound kid on your back isn’t the easiest. I sigh and just say,
“There are a few figures on the ridge that I was trying to point at, but I got this guy on my back, so just go find Walter and tell him “don’t shoot first.” I don’t want to start a war because we don’t know the political landscape. Believe it or not, sometimes politicians don’t send us in for a reason.”
‘I really have gone insane. Thinking politicians are doing their job or something.’ I thought as I walked into the cave.
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The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Bemal and his barracks brothers had followed the kid into the night. His mother had caused one of his friends to lose his life. With two others having been wounded badly. They had chased him through the night, their rage filling them with the energy they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
It was a dark night outside the flames they had created. They routinely lost his tracks in the low light. As it was turning light, they had finally caught up to the little bastard, only for their prize to be plucked from in-between their fingers.
Ranco scoffs and says, “Well, I didn’t think the mountain troll stories were genuine.” The fear and rage in the air were so palpable you could make it into a drink. They all had heard the stories of mountain trolls. As strong as three hobgoblins, tall as a small tree, covered in green and with tan skin. Yep, mountain trolls, alright. Another of his barracks brothers placed his hand on Bemal’s shoulder. Bemal, for his part, had suddenly gotten very tired.
“Those mountain trolls are going to finish the job we started,”
Bemal said, sounding very tired.
As Bemal started to turn away, he saw Ranco’s eyes. They were wide and darting around the place. Bemal shook his barracks brother’s shoulder and said,
“What is it? What has caught your attention.”
“The mountain trolls, they’re gone,” Ranco said slightly shakily. This piece of information made everyone turn around and start scanning. Just as Ranco said, they were gone. We all stood there for a few minutes, looking around for the trolls. No one said what everyone was thinking, ‘are we next?’
Ranco spotted a green figure running across a small open field and pointed, “there!” all of their eyes flicked over to that part of the mountain just in time to see a green and tan-colored figure run across the same field. On its back was the boy. They both soon vanished behind some bushes. They all looked at each other, then back to where the trolls had disappeared.
“Well, time to get the hell out of here,” Ranco said. They all followed as Ranco turned around and started the long trek back to camp.
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I deposited the kid by the other guy. The other guy wasn’t doing too bad. He just hasn’t woken up yet. But to be fair, my medical knowledge is limited… to say the very least. So I put the kid down on the sleeping bag. The kid had some serious dark circles under his eyes. He must have been running throughout the night, poor kid.
I turn around and check my rifle’s chamber as I move out of the cave and through the tarp. I quickly move into cover so I won’t be spotted by whatever those figures were. I slowly crawled and crouched over to the bush Walter was in. Thankfully Walter hadn’t moved at all, and Alexei was there too. Alexei was laying in some ferns that camouflaged him very well if you looked from the ridgeline across from us. But, if you were coming up behind him, he would be dead obvious.
That was a good thing, though. It meant me, and Walter could still see him. I crawled over to him and started talking in a whisper. “You still see them?”
“Na, they went back over the ridge a couple minutes ago. Also, we might have a bigger problem.”
“What is it?”
“Our personal radios aren’t on the same channels.”
I took a second to think.
“Fuck, well, there’s not much we can do about that right now. But, we should be worried about those guys flanking us.” At this point, I started talking a bit louder so Walter could hear me.
“Alexei, you got a watch?”
“No”
Sighing, I continued, “alright, you stay here and watch the ridge line. Walter,”
“Yes?” replied the german.
“I need you to move back up the hill and watch our flanks. Then, I will go to the other side of our hill and watch our backs. Then, in 30 minutes, I want you to bring Alexei to the campfire. Stay hidden unless they get too close, then ‘improvise.’ Y’all got the plan.”
A “Yea” and “Yes sir” came back from the two. It was tempting to go full sergeant on them about the ‘sir’ part. But we had shit to do that complaining about being in charge wouldn’t do anything to clean up.
Keeping low, I move around the hill and make sure to avoid the top of the hill and its clearing. While looking for a good spot for an ambush, I stumble onto a game trail or a goat path. I don’t know the difference, but it makes for a great ambush spot either way. The brush on this side of the hill is very thick.
This trail seems the only way up this side of the hill. I find a nice spot on the right side of the track and settle in to watch and wait.