The Ashes of Iwo Jima
Chapter 8: Night Raid
Mike sat by himself inside the dirty trench. He stroked his hand over the rough scar that had been permanently engraved in the side of his face from the officer's katana. When he looked up he saw all the beautiful stars in the sky and wondered if he would ever see his hometown of Seattle again or if he would die on this miserable, foul-smelling rock. The silence was periodically shattered by the spasmodic chatter of automatic weapons and the loud bangs of bolt-action rifles.
"Hey, what are you doing?"asked Clark as he walked up and seated himself down to Mike's right.
"Not much, just wondering if I'll ever get back home to see Seattle again," he sighed.
"Yeah, I know how you feel," said Clark.
"So," he said in a surprisingly cheerful and upbeat voice. "Is there a special woman waiting for you to get home, she'd like a medal laden hero like you," he said, mockingly.
"No, nothing like that, no," replied Mike, hurriedly.
Clark laughed heartily then became very quiet as if he were contemplating some deep thoughts.
"What about you?" asked Mike.
"What about me?" responded Clark.
"Do you have someone waiting for you?" Mike restated.
"Yeah I do," he replied. He then pulled a picture out of his pocket and proceeded to show it to Mike.
Mike couldn't see the picture clearly so he fumbled with a box of matches and finally lit one to have a look. The woman staring back at him was absolutely stunning. She had a nice full face, beautiful, sparkling eyes, and long blonde hair from what Mike could tell from the picture.
"Wow, it's been a long time since I've seen a face like that. She's real pretty Clark," he commented.
"Thanks, we're supposed to get married when I return. I get letters from her every day," he said as the pocketed the picture.
"Eyes up ladies," came a quiet but forceful whisper from the new company commander. All the soldiers looked up to see what the commander wanted.
"Now, we have new orders from God. They specifically instruct us to silently approach these defenses while the Japs are asleep. Then we burn and blast those bastards off the face of the Earth itself. Do you understand me?" he bellowed quietly.
His question was met with nods and the occasional, silent "yes sir". Soon all the men were ready to storm the hill. This is crazy, we're all going to die thought Mike as the men scrambled up the trench wall and dashed up the hill. Amazingly not a single shot was fired and the troops entered the Jap lines completely undetected. Mike and Clark rounded a corner and saw a Japanese soldier standing there with his back to them.
"I've got this one" whispered Mike. Clark nodded and moved back. Mike detached his bayonet and laid his rifle down. Silently and methodically he snuck up behind the soldier, wrapped his arm around the man's neck and finished him with the knife. He then cleaned off his bayonet on the dead man's pant leg, reattached the bayonet and moved on with Clark. Shortly they found another soldier completely unaware of their presence.
"This one's mine," said Clark. He moved up then broke into a run.
"Hey Jap!" he said. The soldier turned just in time for the butt end of Clark's BAR to connect with his jaw and shatter it with a sickening crunch. The regular slumped to the floor. As Clark and Mike reached another bend in the passage, they also heard talking. Mike stuck his head around the corner to see.
"It's a Jap command post. I count six, one officer, two radio operators, and three soldiers," he told Clark.
"Let's take them out" suggested Clark. Mike nodded and the two took up firing positions. Mike pulled the trigger and dropped a soldier instantly. Clark opened up seconds later and soon all the Japanese were dead. As they walked into the room Mike immediately ran over to the wall. On it was a Japanese flag, he quickly unpinned and folded it and placed it in his empty bag that once held spare field dressings.
"Hey Mike, we got a live one," called Clark. Mike walked over and saw Clark standing over the officer who was writhing in pain on the ground.
"Try to help him, we will spare his life" ordered Mike. As Clark turned around, Mike heard an ominous click. He turned around and saw the Japanese soldier prime a grenade in his hand.
"Clark, look out!" he yelled as the officer banged the grenade on the side of his helmet to speed up the timer.
"Banzai!" yelled the officer as Clark turned. The grenade went off in his hand, killing both him and Clark instantly.
