---Incubus
Jack Vendi sat perfectly still in a position over looking the city of Baghdad. His breathing focused and controlled. His eyes were focused on what looked to be an Iraqi civilian wit something in his pocket. He watched the man slowly make his way towards the roadblock. The unsuspecting Marines were to busy checking the cars to take notice of a man walking up behind them in civilian clothes with a kid latched to his leg. Master Gunnery Sergeant Jack Vendi's job was simple, make sure no one with a gun got close to his fellow Marines. Simple enough, if every Iraqi insurgent liked to walk around with an Ak47 in the air and screaming Allah like the movies.
There were several things suspicious about the man with a kid on his leg and a hand in his pocket. For one, he hadn't said a word to the kid in the five minutes Jack had been observing him; the kid was probably just a shield to stop the Marines from unloading into the guy. It was unlikely he was a suicide bomber, the way his shoulders were scrunched up and held forward said he was probably getting ready to run, or get into a fire fight. Most suicide bombers had a relaxed expression, why worry if you're about to die right? The way the Iraqi had his hand in his pocket was very telling, his elbow was bent towards his back, like he was ready to whip something out at any moment. He watched him walk towards the Marines slowly increasing his pace, until he was running at them, Jack would have fired, but the Geneva conventions were to fresh in his mind.
"Don't shoot, until you see a gun" he repeated to himself quietly.
It happened in an instant, the Iraqi pulled up the kid to chest level and whipped out an Ingram MAC 10, the marines turned to look at the man with the gun, but Jack had been ready the moment he saw the look on the mans eye's and already had his scope dialed in to account for wind, temperature, humidity, and even the curve of the earth. Jack fired and watched as the force of the bullet caused the man's body to visibly quake to the ground. Jack grinned and got on the radio to the Marines at the roadblock.
"Guardian Angel to block 45, do you copy?"
"Block 45 here, that was one hell of a shot. Guardian Angel."
"Copy that, when am I relieved?"
"Depends guardian angel, can all snipers pull shit off like that?"
"You bet your ass we can. Block 45"
"Good cause we just got your relief in now, head in as soon as you see him"
"Copy that block 45 I'm out"
"Over and out"
Jack started bagging up his rifle and pack, and when the other sniper had arrived he was ready to go, his gillie was wrapped up and on top of his pack, and his canteen and such had been strapped to his back.
He greeted the other sniper with a smile and said,
"How are you max?"
"Right about now I'm wishing I could see some action, the shot you pulled off is all the fuckers at the block are going to talk about for the month."
"Yeah, see you at the tent, bro."
"Yeah, bye Jack"
Jack walked down the small inclined dune and south, to wear the "tent city" was located.
When jack saw something out of place, a crow. He followed the crow's flight path directly over his head, and when he looked down again in confusion at seeing a crow. He was quite simply floored; he was in a forest.
It was obvious his situation had changed, somehow, how it happened wasn't important right now though, how to survive what happened was another story.
Jack wasn't sure what was going on but he wasn't about to be caught unprepared.
He dug through his pack until he found at the bottom his jungle cammies, and his gillie net.
He put on his jungle camo and paint almost immediately.
For about an hour gathered lush bushes and some of what looked like Spanish moss.
He then began to weave all the plants and burlap in with the moss acting as a filer.
After about three or four hours he had a gillie suit much better suited for the jungle.
He then donned his gillie suit, and got his rifle out. He was never one to be caught unprepared, and kept an entire box full of ammunition for his sniper rifle, which came out to be about 300 rounds of ammunition for his M40A3, and his trusty pistol, named such because he had to buy it and clear it for use in combat, his Heckler and Koch
USP. Unfortunately this made his pack much to heavy to do any real humping with so he had to cut some things out, like his field shovel, blanket, and just about everything except for his 5 MRE's and his ammunition.
So the hot patrol north began, Jack wasn't sure were he was, but head in one direction long enough and you have to find something eventually.
Jack wasn't crawling very long before he heard the clatter of a city. He rose over a bend and below him around 1000 yards out he saw an entire city, he decided he should keep quiet and observe the situation, better that then run into hostile territory.
He glassed the area with his binoculars, and quickly spotted several running figures, taking their description down mentally. One of them a tall platinum blonde with his gaze fixed on something, he was obviously chasing something, then there was an older man with an almost bloodthirsty expression on his face, he seemed to be chasing something too.
Then there was a man with brown hair, and he was moving fast so it was very hard to make out his pupils, and the man up front had on a mask and black cloak, he seemed to be following something as well. Curious at what they were chasing with such vigor, Jack glassed ahead and saw a little boy, about twelve or thirteen. As Jack was watching the man with the mask caught up to the boy and delivered a vicious kick to the back of his head. The boy went down and was miraculously conscious as the other men caught up to him and started kicking him mercilessly. Jack was faced with a decision of his morals.
Jack decided not to intervene but had his scope dialed in regardless.
"The kid probably stole something, or hurt somebody," Jack thought.
Then Jack saw the man wearing a mask pull out what looked like a short sword.
"Oh Christ, what the fuck am I doing!" were the last words Jack muttered before quickly assessing which one to kill first.
The one with black/brown hair didn't have pupils so he must have been blind, or maybe a birth defect, either way he was less likely to be able to make his way to Jack and kill him. Not that there was much of a chance for any of them, Jack was 1245 yards out, being seen while in a gillie from that range without the aid of a seeing device was impossible.
The old man didn't seem to be a threat.
The one with platinum blond hair was an able bodied man, but the one with the mask was the fastest of the bunch, so most likely the bigger threat to the kid. Jack made up his mind and fired on the one with the mask.
The bullet impacted the man right in the back of the neck, and he dropped like a sack of potatoes.
This chapter was edited 10/28/07