“There it is.” Niki’s arm shot over his shoulder, pointing at the three rocks in a row. The boulder was a brown, smooth rock that went up to Tom’s chest and was twice as wide. The other two were gray and half the size and half again. Pine trees thickly grew out from both sides of the trail. Between the trees dark dirt, pine straw, and in spots where the sun reached the ground green grass grew in patches.
Mike moved up to the rock and let Niki slide off his back. “Al you got Niki duty. Tom pace off two hundred meters through the trees and wait for the rest of us.”
Randall looked off into the trees. “I thought you said?”
“Changed my mind.”
Without acknowledging Tom faced perpendicular to the trail and started.
Mike faced the rest of the patrol. “Stay directly on Tom’s trail, walk in his steps if you can.” He pointed toward where Tom had left the hard packed trail. Al acknowledged, picked up Niki, and followed. Mike put his palm out fingers in the direction of travel. Randall and Julia left the trail.
He searched the trail as it curved left and right and disappeared in the trees. No signs of life. Although he still had a slight ringing in his ears, he was able to hear the gentle gusts of wind passing through the pine branches. There were no sounds of animals or humans to be heard.
He found a pine branch and walked back down the trail a hundred meters. Turning around he swished the branch back and forth wherever he saw a footprint. When he reached the three rocks, he repeated the same action on their tracks into the woods. Behind him, Tom and the rest had disappeared out of sight. He should have been able to see them. The forest floor dropped down, it had to have, but he couldn't tell where. If it was a man-made or natural depression, Mike couldn’t tell. But from his vantage and no doubt from the trail, it looked like the ground was a continuous flat plain.
Throwing the stick away, he continued to walk backward through the trees. Pine trees obstructed most of his vision of the trail, but the large rock with its two sidekicks stood out. They also gave him a reference point.
His hearing was getting back to normal, but when the first Afghani walked past the rock, he didn’t hear a thing. Mike dropped and pushed his body backward feet first into the low ground. Another man walked passed the rock, then another. They appeared from behind the trees, moved past the rock, and disappeared again. They were quiet, no talking, no rattle of equipment. They all wore sandals, cotton pants, long shirts, vests, and the wool rolled-up hats common among Afghan men. Their clothing was a mixture of black, brown, and beige. Most had AK’s with chest rigs for their spare magazines a few had RGP’s. More men silently walked through the opening in the trees. His eyes widened in hate. The Giant walked by. More men followed him.
He remained prone as far down into the trench as he could be and still see the rock. Something tapped the bottom of his boot. Mike turned his head. Tom's crouching form waited expectantly. Mike brought up two fingers to his eyes. His next motion was a gun signal turned upside down, finger pointing at the trail. Enemy.
Tom nodded, found Al’s eyes on him, put his finger to his lips, and gave the same signal for enemy.
Mike waited another minute and slid down.
“How bad?” Tom whispered.
Mike shook his head. “It’s not good. I counted twenty-five AKs and a few RPGs.”
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“We’re not going to make it to Pakistan now are we?” Randall adjusted his glasses, glancing around.
“We were never going to Pakistan. I said that for the camera in case someone could read lips.”
Al looked up and down the length of the trench. “How long till they figure it out and start backtracking looking for us?”
Mike inhaled through his nose. “I tried to cover any tracks we made. I figure they’ll figure it out in a couple of miles or so. We got half an hour, an hour at best.”
Niki sat on a rock and rubbed her ankle.
“The cache?”
Al spoke before Niki could inhale. “There.” He pointed to one end of the trench. Three rocks rested in the middle of the depression the smallest facing them.
“Al.” Mike lifted his head toward the rise in the trench. “You got security.” He stepped off toward the rocks. “Everyone else, let’s find that cache.”
“I don’t know where to look.” Niki hobbled behind them. Her ankle was acting up.
They looked in all directions around the three rocks. The biggest was about the size of a basketball.
The rocks sat in the open, no bushes or trees nearby.
“From the looks of it, buried would be my guess.” Tom found a sharp stick.
“It's going to be next to or under the rocks. Anyone leaving the mountain would be in a hurry and wouldn’t have a lot of time to search.”
“I’ll start digging behind the big rock,” Tom said. “Randall give me a hand.”
“I’ll take the front then.” Mike grabbed the rocks and flung them out of the way. With a stick to dig with, he dropped to his knees. Julia found her own stick to help.
The soft black earth was easy to dig and pull out. The dirt came up quickly. He pulled several more times then used his hands to get the doughy earth out of the hole and into a pile. A rich moist dirt smell hit rose up from the ground.
The pile of dirt steadily grew to about a two-foot high two feet long sized mound of soft rich earth.
“Found it.”
Mike jumped up and saw the top of a plastic case. More dirt was cleared exposing the black, thick plastic lid and sides of a black plastic case. Julia dropped down and helped. They pulled dirt from around the sides revealing the latches that kept the case sealed.
Finished the three of them undid the seven latches and opened the box. The case was about the size of a footlocker about three feet long, two feet wide and a foot and half deep.
Mike smiled when he saw the inside of the box.
Tom handed him two pristine AKS-74Us wrapped in wax paper. Next up were two ammo vests holding four full magazines of ammo. He put the vests aside in time for Tom to hand him two claymores. The anti-personnel mines were in their original carrying bags. One side held the mine. The other held the clacker and a spool of wire. Mike checked and found tripwire in both bags.
Tom couldn't contain his grin. “Hungry?” Inside the box were twelve MRE’s, a two-gallon plastic clear bag full of water, and plastic cups.
Mike brought his wrist up his watch indicated only a few minutes had passed. He looked at Al.
Al gave him the thumbs up.
“We haven’t eaten or drank anything in forever. Five minutes is all we’re taking, eat and drink as much as you need, this will probably be the last meal we get in a while.” He grinned he was hungry too, but more interested in the contents of the wax paper package. He ripped the wax paper off the new AKS. Inside was a fifth loaded magazine. He unfolded the metal stock of the airborne troops' version of the weapon. The magazine slid home, and he jacked a round in the chamber. He smiled at the familiar feeling of the weapons stock in his hands. He found one, in air quotes, on a mission during his last deployment. It was one of his favorite guns in the world. The rifle was shorter than the AK. With the metal stock folded against the side of the weapon, it was far more maneuverable in tight spaces. It fired a smaller 5.56 mm round same as ammunition used by NATO troops. The Ak-47 shot the larger 7.62 bullet. “I’ll relieve Al now, Tom when you’re done relieve me.”
Tom nodded, his mouth already full of food.
“You get the other AKS. Give Randall your AK and spare mags.” Mike handed Julia his AK and mags.
“I get the weapons,” Julia said. “Running for your life you may need a gun to fight with, maybe food even, but why the claymores?”
“You’re running for your life, you set these up on the trail behind you. Your pursuers trip one, after that they’re not in such a big hurry to catch you.”
Julia tore open a package and stuffed something brown into her mouth. “Hmm, makes sense,” she said between chewing and swallowing.
“Right.” He walked down the trench and relieved Al.