A man crouched down behind some bushes, mud smudges covered his tanned complexion and in his brown gel slicked hair, his brown eyes gazing intently on a gate covered with barb wire not 50 feet away, the man gently moved back careful not to disturb anything, once out of earshot he got up and ran through the forest, ducking and jumping avoiding low hanging branches. He was quite tall standing just a few inches under 6 foot, he was muscular and had an army regulation uniform hanging from his frame.
"Psst, oi Jimmy we got another one just a few metres away"
Another man came out from the undergrowth again in army regulation uniform but he had blue eyes that sparkled and blonde hair, his complexion was also tanned but lacked that many mud smudges
"Cool, get in here Aiden before they hear you"
Aiden slid under the flap, before Jimmy pulled it over them.
They were in a tunnel that led off about 19 metres north before turning a sharp right and coming out in a big room with sand bags moulded into chairs, hammocks and straw mattresses lined a bit of it, some of which were occupied by more men or boys for none could be older that 20. Lights were shimmering all around being plugged into a battery pack that was leaned up against a wall with a few more spare hanging around it plus a few more doors leading onto other rooms.
There were 12 boys all together if you counted, Aiden and Jimmy there was also two more blonde kids one with green eyes who's name was Daniel he was a practical joker and another with brown eyes whose name was Jonathan or Johnny for short he always came in handy for secrecy as he was the most quiet and stealthy. There were three black haired guys, two of which were twins with blue eyes, the only way you could tell them apart was one had a scar running down the side of his face, his name was Peter while his twins name was Kevin, who was slightly more stockier around the shoulders than Peter. The other black haired man had grey eyes, who like everyone had muscle but he had slightly more than the others and had the most broader shoulders his name was Luke, he was also the oldest and looked it with his face stern mostly all the time.
There was one kid with red hair which was usually hid under a helmet, he had bright sky blue eyes, he also had a scar going through the corner of his lip, his name was George, he was the medic by trade. And the last four had brown hair; Gary had chocolate coloured hair with bright lime green eyes that shone and sparkled when he was up to mischief or just generally happy, Gavin had dark brown almost black, curly hair that again was usually flattened by his helmet with dark blue eyes, Brian also had dark brown hair but not as dark as Gavin, his usually spiked up in all directions no matter what he did with it, and last was Samuel the baby of the group he had light brown hair bordering on blonde with baby blue eyes and was quick to laugh at anything. The only thing the all had in common was their mud smudged faces and uniforms, some had tears and holes in, proof of the hardships they had, had.
That was the team, they were all American but not in the army, they were the Vietnamese resistance, set up by Aiden when the war had first began. All had moved to Vietnam before the war to start a new life of some sort, but had found themselves in the middle of hell in a heart beat. There was many more at one time nearly 40 of them, but either they had run, became POW's or had died from injuries they had all received. All had scars from one wound or the other. They had a very tricky job indeed; they had taken it upon themselves to liberate POW camps all over Vietnam.
They had liberated over 8 camps and had saved over 500 men so far all over the place.
Now was the big one, the biggest camp ever to have existed but still the American Army knew nothing about it even though it had nearly 300 soldiers in it alone. Every night you could here screams from those being tortured and the smell of decaying bodies made everyone underground ill.
"Okay, George how are we looking with medical supplies?" George looked around, clearly doing a mental inventory
"Well, it depends Aiden, how many are we planning on getting out of there?"
"We get them all out, like always. So there'll be around 300 wounded by the camps size" George shook his head
"We'll have to stock up soon but we should be able to manage"
Aiden nodded
"Good, Luke, ammo, are we good to go?"
"Ready and waiting sir" Aiden grinned
"And food, we looking good in that area, Brian?"
"Yeah, anyway we can always hunt if we run out; Water doesn't look to bad, got about 9, 10 gallon tanks left"
"Okay, we go tonight 0100 hours, Sam, Gavin you get the guards. Peter, Kevin the two watchtowers, Johnny you search the perimeter take Jimmy, Brian and Dan with you, and the rest you come with me, then when you lot" he pointed at the eight who were performing other duties "you will help us in the camp, then we'll rendezvous back here" Everyone had gathered around to listen to their tasks, nods came from all directions.
At exactly 0100 hours, 12 lone shadows quietly crept through the jungle of Vietnam, hardly making any noise what so ever, about half a kilometre away from the camp they split up, moving to their various positions.
4 VC's fell dead soon after and that was when all he'll broke lose, Aiden at the front M-1 cocked and ready leapt forward and swiftly took out the gates with one kick and they swarmed into the camp, taking out VC's as they went.
Soon everything was over, dead Vietnamese soldiers lay scattered over the floor, their blood seeping into the already soggy ground turning it red, they were now getting men out of bamboo cages and rope traps and handing out the recovered dog tags. Aiden left the others going around the back, his trained eyes quickly seeing the tell tale signs of a hidden cage in the ground. He quietly shifted slinging his M-1 over his shoulder and moving grass and leaves off of the bars.
Inside lay 4 men, 3 white, one black, who all looked like skin and bones, 4 pairs of eyes looked up at him in fear until they found the uniform where they calmed down
"Okay hold on, I'll get you out in a jiffy" Aiden grasped the bars and started to heave, until a butt of a gun landed squarely between his shoulder blades causing him to roll to the floor, he got up and was met with a punch to the face, he returned with a round house kick to the head, which sent the Vietnamese sprawling, he quickly recovered and pulled out a revolver and shot, once, it hit him in the leg,. Aiden launched himself forward, manipulating the man's hand back on himself before pulling the trigger and blowing his brains out.
Mess cleared he scooted back over to the cage and heaved again pushing the lid off and offering a hand down. The oldest white man grasped the hand and was pulled up, then the black, then the blonde and finally the curly, brown haired guy.
"Thank you…?"
"Aiden"
"Colonel John Smith"
"Pleasure, come on, we got ta' get out of here before any more VC's want ta' take a swing at me"
He carefully got up, favouring his right leg, while holding his gun ready with his right hand, before limping out, looking around with a quick eye, looking out for danger, while the other four followed.
It wasn't long before they all climbed through the tunnel, into the comfortable room, where they all fell down exhausted onto chairs or onto the floor. Aiden sat down with a thump right under the tunnel, shutting his eyes and breathing deeply through clenched teeth. He finally noticed everyone looking at him
"We were the last?" he asked Sam who was the closest
"Yeah, we were getting worried 'bout ya' when you weren't back"
George was beside him, tweezers in hand ready to pull out the bullet, he ripped the trouser leg, before pulling out the bullet pressing a cloth onto the wound, emptied a sashay of sulphur powder onto it and quickly bandaged it up as tight as possible. Once the wound was covered and he was satisfied he moved onto the survivors.
"Hey, Gary toss me one of those"
Gary nodded opened the beer fridge again and tossing a bottle over to him, he opened it with his teeth and took a few deep swigs before leaning back content.
Face stared at this boy in shock, he couldn't be more than 18, what was he doing wandering around the jungle with a bunch of others killing Vietnamese soldiers
"What you doing here Kid?"
"We live here Colonel"
"Yet you're American"
"Yeah, we moved 'ere before the war, seemed like a good idea at the time, but then we saw what these VC bastards were doing to our boys in these camps, we decided we would help, liberate camps, free American soldiers, you get the jist"
Aiden took another chug, wiping his mouth on his sleeve
"Where did you get the uniforms?" Face asked "If your not in the army"
"The Dead, we found out that soldiers in those camps react better if they see something familiar than just a guy in civilian clothes, they tend to panic"
Sam looked up and nodded "Yeah and it usually ends up with them getting hurt more or one of us getting hurt, then having George nag on us about us being irresponsible, trust me that ain't pretty"
Everyone in the resistance laughed, with the exception of George who gave Sam a wallop over the back of the head as he passed.
Gavin who were handing out water amongst the grunts and flyboys with Gary and Brian suddenly chuckled
"You remember how Peter got that scar, stupid idiot?"
Peter looked up from sharing out food an indignant stare on his face, while Kevin laughed out right before clapping his twin on the shoulder
"How could I forget, it bloody hurt" he scowled and started grumbling about 'stupid recruits' and 'not being able to keep their hands to themselves'
"Okay, stop picking on him, it's not the kids fault he's got no talent in keeping people calm" Luke said from his position on the floor helping Jimmy reset a mans arm
"Why me? You always pick on me, Why not pick on Sam for a change, he's done a lot more stupid things than me" Sam gave a squawk of outrage, turning a heated glare on him distinguishing the tense air around them with laughter.
"What I still can't get is how we fitted 300 people in here?"
"With difficulty maybe, but we managed it, I'm glad you insisted on the 5 rooms Dan"
"Yeah Danny, since it was your idea you and Johnny go make yourselves useful and start handing out food and water in one of the other rooms"
"Yes Aiden" they both walked through the maze of men and through one of the other doorways.
Aiden looked back over those sitting in this room, everyone else had moved on to help in the other rooms leaving him stuck with the evacuees, who in turn all stared at him. He cleared his throat awkwardly. Still not used to talking
"We'll start taking you back, to the nearest base in a few days, we'll take you in small groups so it will be harder to pin-point out our location, probably in groups of 20-25, two of my men going with each group and setting out in different directions"
He took another chug "If only the VC's hadn't torched the choppers then Gavin and Gary could fly you out of here, much safer"
BA glared "How do ya fink we go' in this mess fool?"
"Shot out the sky, so technically not the flyboys fault" BA frowned before looking over to Murdock who looked up at the kid in front of them.
"How do you reckon?"
"We've done it before, it easy, we salvaged two hueys and had fun putting them back together" he shook his head with a rueful smile "God those were the days, we left 8 guys here while Gavin and Gary flew us out of here while Jimmy and myself manned the door guns"
Aiden looked up to them, a grin making his face look thinner than it already was