I know it's been awhile but give me a break, I just had exams. On a completely different note: WHOO, chapter 11 baby. Double digests. By the way, this celebratory part was supposed to be for chapter ten but I forgot. So anyway, here's chapter eleven. Enjoy.

Chapter 11

He could not feel his hands or his face anymore. During the torture session it had not taken long before he lost all feeling in his arms because his blood circulation was cut off. About sixteen face slams later he lost feeling in his nose and forehead. Then his jaw went numb. Now he could barely see the Viet Cong soldiers that were dragging him to a prison room because his eyes had swollen almost completely shut. He relied on his hearing to get him through the day.

What he heard was the scraping of an old steel door opening to a new holding cell. He knew what they were doing; they were secluding him from the other prisoners. They had done that with the sergeant too….right before they killed him.

The two NVA soldiers threw him onto the floor of the new cell and closed the door. He heard them laughing as they left. Darkness enveloped his world and for the first time in weeks he felt truly scared and horrified. He curled up into a ball on the floor and let a single tear drag down his face. Then, he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

A month and three weeks earlier

It had all happened so suddenly that Will had had to pull Ronny down behind cover to keep him from walking into the gunfire. Ronny had just been walking with the rest of the platoon in a line through the elephant grass toward the trees. The trees went on for a while and eventually gave way to two mountains with a river between the two peaks. Ronny had seen it from the helicopter.

The private had just been listening to a black corporal who was carrying an M-79 grenade launcher and wore a Boonie Hat over his short dread locks. The corporal had been complaining about how the government was treating the black society like shit. Ronny had barely been paying attention.

"Yes sir, our gove'nment startsin' wars an den sendin' us blacks to go fight it fo' dem," the corporal said, unknowingly speaking his last words.

The next second he was dead, shot in the head by a 54 millimeter round. The round had been fired from a sniper with an SVD (Dragunov) rifle who was hiding in the tree line while most the rest of the North Vietnamese soldiers charged through the field. Ronny had not noticed he was dead until Will had pulled him down and he saw the diseased corporal. The dead body twitched violently for ten more long seconds.

Then it stopped and Ronny smelled the stench of the dead body releasing its bowels. The young private stared horror stricken at the lifeless body, unable to contemplate what had just happened. Next to him Will had gotten up on one knee and was firing off round after round. He stopped to reload and saw Ronny still staring at the dead body.

"Ronny," he shouted in his friend's ear. "Get your shit together; we gotta get to better cover!"

The blue-jay looked up at him and Will saw realization come to his friend's eyes. He nodded and slowly picked up his shotgun. Ronny switched off the safety and pumped once.

"Let's get goin'," he said.

Will grinned and got up into a crouch. Ronny followed his lead and they both ran parallel to the oncoming Viet Cong soldiers. They were running so hard and so fast that Will practically tripped over a wounded marine that the medic and the black haired sergeant were trying to revive.

"You two," the sergeant yelled as soon as Will stumbled across them. "Stay here and cover our asses now! Don't let any gooks get to us. Got that?!"

The two friends nodded and quickly got on one knee. Ronny got on the left of the dying marine and Will got on the right. Ronny waited, every muscle in his body tense. Suddenly he heard a war cry and accidently stood up.

There, two feet in front of him, was a charging Viet Cong. Ronny's shotgun was up before the Viet Cong noticed him. The private did not wait longer than a split second before pulling the trigger. The shell sent the Viet Cong's now lifeless body back a foot.

Ronny got down and pumped the shotgun again. He repeated this way of killing three more times. The fourth time he shot the Viet Cong and was about to crouch down again when he noticed a marine running towards him and the other marines.

"An evac chopper's here," the marine started yelling. "An evca chopper is-," and then Ronny heard a click.

A second later the marine's legs were blown to bits as the land mine went off. The legless man landed right next to Ronny. The blue-jay stared down at the marine who returned the same surprised look. Blood was starting to drip and bubble down from his mouth.

"Oh…oh g-God it hurts," he started sputtering, accidentally spitting blood onto Ronny's boot. "Help me," he whispered. Then he yelled, "Help me."

"I-I, uh, oh Jesus," Ronny stuttered.

"Move," the medic said, pushing Ronny out of the way. "The other one's dead, Sergeant Homes. Take his tags and help me get this boy to the chopper."

The Homes appeared next to the medic a minute later with the dead marine's dog tags and they started to drag the legless man away. As they did Homes yelled at Ronny and Will, "You two cover our retreat and stay with us!"

Ronny and Will did so, running to catch up with the three marines. They kept their guns raised as they followed, keeping their eyes on the fields. Will sniped two Viet Cong and Ronny killed three more before the group got to the helicopter.

Two Hueys were already full and up in the sky. The one on the ground was a medical helicopter. Two crewmen jumped out, took the wounded marine, and got him on a stretcher in the Huey. Then the medic, Homes, Will, and Ronny got on.

Will sat on the edge and started picking off Vietnamese soldiers. Ronny sat down in a seat next to Will and slowly let out a sigh of relief.

"We're alive," Ronny muttered as he wiped the sweat off his brow. "Oh thank God, we're alive. We fucking made it."

"Damn right we're alive," Will said as he reloaded. Then he looked back and smiled at Ronny. "I guess I won that bet."

Ronny laughed once. Will turned back and continued sniping. As the chopper took off Homes sat down next to Ronny and the medic took the seat across from Ronny.

"That the first time you two seen action?" Homes asked, looking over at Ronny and Will.

"Yes sir," Ronny said.

"Well you two handled it well."

"Thank you sir," Ronny said. The blue-jay turned back to look at the field that was slowly getting smaller. "I just can't wait to get back to base."

Unfortunately, Ronny and everyone else on the medical helicopter were unaware of the Viet Cong with an RPG that was almost right under the helicopter. The RPG was loaded and ready and as the Viet Cong took careful aim he felt no regret. Then, he fired. The rocket flew through the air and exploded against the side of the chopper, right behind the medic.

Shrapnel sliced into the medic like a knife threw soft cheese. The medic's dying body was thrown against Ronny. Then, before Ronny could contemplate what was happening he had slipped and accidentally knocked Will off with him. They both plummeted to the ground.

Ronny landed hard and his vision went fuzzy as he witnessed the helicopter spiral faster and faster toward the ground. Just before it hit the ground Ronny saw a figure that he thought might be Homes jump out of the now burning helicopter. Then the Huey impacted against the earth and exploded.

Figures started running up to the crash site and pillaging it. A couple of figures pulled someone out of the helicopter. The man was thrashing and kicking. They threw the man on the ground and one of the figures raised a rifle. Ronny saw the muzzle flash which was immediately followed by the sound of a gunshot.

Suddenly Ronny felt someone grab him and he was turned around to see a brown stock of an AK-47 falling fast toward his head. There was a sharp pain and then blackness.

The next time Ronny woke he was being dragged by someone. He looked back to see a Viet Cong dragging him. As he stared the Viet Cong noticed he was awake and punched him hard. Blackness, again.

The third time Ronny woke was when he was tossed onto a dirt floor. He slowly looked around to see the walls and ceiling were made of dirt. Will and Homes landed on either side of him before he heard the bamboo gate shut. Then he knew. He knew…that he was now a prisoner of war.

Surprise, surprise for those of you who haven't caught on yet, Ronny and Will are the prisoners. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and I'll try to get chapter 12 up as soon as humanly possible.