Murder in Name Only
By:AliasCWN
Chapter 2
"Prepare for an attack!" The call came over the radio in the halftrack and the driver passed the warning back to the crew in the rear.
"It's the Americans!" Gunter shouted. He checked the action of the big gun before he searched the desert around them for the two small jeeps. The minutes ticked by with no sign of the fast moving adversaries, causing Gunter to curse nervously.
"Perhaps it's not them." Karl suggested.
"Who else would it be?" Gunter demanded.
"Perhaps Arabs." Fritz suggested before Karl could answer.
"Or other Americans." Karl added.
"We are too far behind our own lines for it to be any other Americans." Gunter argued.
All three of them fell silent as their halftrack followed the convoy into a valley with high dunes on both sides. Sweat rolled down their faces and burned their eyes as they searched the high mounds for any sign of movement. The sun blinded them when they looked up but that was where the enemy was most likely to be so they braved the glare.
The halftrack seemed to crawl along the narrow road as its tense crew continued to scan the desert around them. Only silence and dust devils rewarded their efforts.
"The Americans know that this convoy is ready for them." Gunter boasted as the jeeps failed to put in an appearance. "We have scared them off."
"Don't get overconfident." Fritz warned in a low voice. "They may be waiting for us to drop our guard."
"I am not afraid of them!" The burly gunner bragged. "Let them come!" He patted the heavy machine gun in front of him. "If they dare to challenge us I will get my revenge for Otto at long last."
"Otto is dead!" Fritz barked in frustration. "And if you don't pay attention we may all join him much sooner than we wish!"
"I am paying attention." Gunter replied with a little less bravado. "But they won't come." Gunter sounded disappointed.
For his part Karl preferred to avoid a confrontation with the Rat Patrol altogether; with the Arabs too if the truth be known. He wasn't immune to the effects of a bullet and he knew it. Delivering the supplies with no trouble and returning quietly to the base sounded good to him. That hope was dashed as the first shot shattered the tranquility of the day.
The driver immediately picked up speed in order to get the vehicle out of the tight confines of the valley. Bullets bounced off the side of the armor as the driver raised his metal shields.
"Get us a clear shot!" Gunter yelled over the din of the gunfire.
"A clear shot at what?" The distracted driver yelled over his shoulder.
The truck behind them exploded as its cargo of ammunition was hit by the bullets that rained down on them from above. A mortar shell hit the next truck in line and that one burst into flames and ground to a halt. The burning truck blocked the narrow passage through the valley making it harder for the remaining trucks to escape the destruction.
Karl turned and saw the last halftrack in line take a direct hit from another mortar shell. The heavy vehicle was tossed into the air before dropping onto its side and blocking any retreat in that direction. The trucks trapped between the two vehicles rolled to a stop as their drivers jumped to the ground to take cover and make a fight of it.
Ducking below the armored sides of the halftrack Karl looked for a target to shoot at but there was too much smoke and dust to see anything clearly. Above the rising dust the attackers had a much better view. Their fire continued to decimate the trapped convoy.
"Get us out of here!" Fritz called over the roar of the battle.
The driver didn't need any encouragement. Flooring the gas pedal he pushed past another truck that had fallen victim to the ambush and followed the leaders of the convoy out into the open desert. Even as they cleared the valley an American tank topped a dune and fired on the lead halftrack. The shell flipped the heavy vehicle throwing the crew onto the sand at the mercy of the tank's gunners. The disoriented crewmen were easy targets for the American guns.
Karl swallowed a lump in his throat as he watched his countrymen die. His own weapon was useless against a tank and so far he hadn't spotted any targets he could hope to defeat. The tank turned its turret toward them and Karl yelled a warning to their driver. He lost his balance and fell as the vehicle veered sharply to the side and nearly tipped over when it hit a newly formed shell crater. The driver straightened it out and swerved again as another shell hit in front of them. Dirt and rocks pelted them as they ducked to avoid the worst of it.
Another shell whined as it passed them and Karl covered his head, expecting more rocks. The driver drove into the resulting dust cloud and headed for a small dune that extended out from the larger hills they had escaped.
"Are you crazy? Take us out into the open desert!" Fritz yelled at the driver.
The driver ignored him and continued to head for the shelter the dune offered them from the attacking tank. By the time the dust cleared the halftrack was behind the dune and headed for anywhere that was away from there. Karl and Gunter watched for the tank as the halftrack drew further and further away from the convoy.
"Where are you taking us?" Fritz screamed at the driver.
The man either didn't hear him or refused to answer. Karl wasn't sure which explanation was correct but his own ears were ringing from all of the noise. He realized that he could no longer tell what was happening with the rest of the convoy. There was still some gunfire and an occasional mortar round being fired but they were so indistinct that he couldn't decide who was winning.
"Where are we going?" Fritz turned to Karl and Gunter. "We need to go back."
"Back to what?" Gunter asked. "Back to surrender or to die? They have tanks, we are just one vehicle. Four men, what can four men do?"
Karl thought of the Rat Patrol and the conversation he had had with Gunter earlier but he kept silent.
"The others are back there." Fritz argued.
"They are either dead or prisoners." Gunter argued. "The Americans had tanks. They had mortars. You saw the other halftracks being destroyed one by one. What would you have us do Fritz?"
"Then we are lost." Fritz sighed. "They will hunt us down or we will be lost in the desert and die of thirst."
"Doomsayer." Karl snorted. "We have a vehicle and water. Our driver is experienced and he will get us back to our base. Things are not as bad as you would have us think."
"Our driver is running scared and won't even answer our questions." Fritz responded. "And in case you haven't noticed, our vehicle was damaged by that last shell."
For the first time Karl noticed the grinding sound coming from the track on their transport. With each rotation it groaned in protest. Dropping to the floor Karl covered his face with his hands. "All right." He murmured after considering their options for a few minutes. "The driver will get us as far as the vehicle will take us. We are less than a day from our destination. Surely we have enough water for the four of us to walk that far."
Fritz kicked the water can on the floor by his feet. "Some fool forgot to fill it." The hollow echo told them clearer than words that the can was empty. "And we don't have any canteens."
"We are lost!" Gunter wailed in despair.
"We are not!" Karl insisted. "We can walk at night. All we have to do is let the driver guide us."
"Do you mean that driver?" Gunter asked in defeat. He pointed at the man behind the wheel of the halftrack.
Karl and Fritz turned to see the soldier leaning awkwardly to one side. He still gripped the wheel and his foot was still on the gas pedal, but if the amount of blood was any indication, he wasn't going to be driving much further.
Karl looked behind them but there was no sign of any pursuit. Lowering his weapon to the floor he climbed into the passenger seat and reached for the driver. Even as Karl stretched across the seats the driver's body shuddered and collapsed limply against the door. His foot came off of the gas pedal and the halftrack slowed and stopped. Without the constant screeching of the damaged track the vehicle ceased to drown out the occasional shot in the distance.
"They are still fighting." Fritz observed.
"Not for long." Gunter replied. As if an omen, an explosion followed a flurry of shots. The gunfire stopped and the desert fell deathly quiet as he three men listened.
"We have to go back!" Fritz insisted.
"We can't." Karl argued. "Our vehicle is damaged and we don't know how far it will take us. Besides, the three of us are not going to make a difference now. It sounds like it is over." He thought again of the four men of the Rat Patrol and what they might accomplish. Wishing they were there, he tried to decide what they would do in his situation. After a moment of thought he realized that they would focus on what they could do to save themselves.
Fritz looked at Karl and then at Gunter. "Karl is right." He admitted with a sigh. "We would not be able to do anything to help them and our getting caught would help no one."
"Then we agree?"
"Agree to what?" Gunter asked.
"We go as far as this vehicle will take us and we walk the rest of the way." Karl explained.
Gunter and Fritz looked at each other and Gunter nodded. "We agree." Fritz replied.