Fair warning: Off the rails and not pretty!
Part 25: Today it's Raining in North Korea or Go Tell It to the Spartans!
Whitney didn't feel much like the star quarterback now. And no one could mistake Yanggangdo Province in the northern frontier region of North Korea for the Smallville High Football Stadium on game day.
It was cold and wet and but they sure weren't lost. Well at least not lost in the location sense due to their GPSs but they would be lost in the life sense if they didn't get to the LZ for pick up.
Whitney felt like he had played three football games back to back with no break in between quarters. Whitney knew if he a black opts sniper scout felt that way then Soon Ko Lee the beautiful but fragile North Korean scientist must be really hurting as they humped up the Changingang valley with mountains on both sides.
Whitney thanked the rain Gods that it was still coming down. Sure the rain made everyone miserable cold and wet alive but that beat being miserable and wet dead.
The moment the weather cleared Whitney knew the North Koreans would have their Russian build Mi-24 gun-ships in the air. And as long as the Gods are being thanked then thank God they don't have all weather Apaches.
There were eight in the unit but counting the package Soon Ko Lee there were nine moving hard and fast up the valley. It is amazing how fast you can move when you are dead tired but have a North Korean Mountain Unit on your ass.
Soon Ko Lee was in major pain but it was nothing like the pain of spending the last two years in the forced labor camp at Chungbong coal mine.
The special opts team had gone in to get her when her father made it clear to the US and South Korean governments that unless she got out of North Korea he was going to return. No way that could happen because Soon Ko Lee's father was a brilliant nuclear physicist.
So the choice was either go in and play the 'get out of jail free' card or kill the old man. Little did the father know that if the special opts team didn't get his daughter out he was a dead man. No way was anyone going to allow him to go work his nuclear magic for Kim Jong Li.
Better to be lucky than good anytime and except for the last twelve hours the mission had been a lucky one. The snatch out of the Chungbong mine came off ok, in fact without a hitch. Now trucking on north under a head of steam Soon Ko Lee was moving her tiny ass like a trooper rather than a concentration camp survivor. And best of all the weather was keeping the Mi-24 gunships out of the sky.
The only problem was being surprise bounced about twelve hours ago by a North Korean Mountain Unit 300 strong. So that is how this game had unfolded to this point for the team.
The plan now was to high tail it to the LZ and hope that weather clears long enough to be picked up but not long enough for the Mi-24 gunships to find and intercept them. Or option two was to rock on to the Yalu River and swim to of all places: China. Whitney chuckled at the irony. Only if your American ass is stuck in North Korea would you consider swimming to China as a rational act.
...Continued below
...Continued from above
Whitney was holding the back door and turned to bring his AWM .338 Lapua sniper rifle to his shoulder. A quick peek down the B & L 10x40 power scope told him that the North Koreans were still on the other side of the ridge.
The special opts team really had to clear this valley and get up and over the mountain ridge in front of them before the North Koreans did the same behind his little unit.
No doubt the North Korean unit would have their own snipers armed with Russian Dragunov long range rifles. There was little doubt the Dragunovs would make short work of all of them if caught in the open trying to clear the valley.
Whitney jumped up and turned to see the special opts team leader Burghardt looking at him in anticipation.
"What's up Quarterback?"
Whitney just shook his head to let him know the North Koreans hadn't cleared the ridge. The look of relief on Burghardt's face was obvious. Whitney had to laugh that Burghardt even took the time to ask. When the North Koreans cleared the ridge they would know it in seconds when the Dragunovs started to pick them off.
The special opts team scrambled up the steep slope knowing that the only safe place in the valley was over the ridge and out of it.
Soon Ko Lee was really starting to labor so the team took turns carrying, pulling and pushing her along. It was handy when it came to carrying her that she was nothing more than a beautiful paper white skeleton after two years in the Chungbong camp.
Whitney being on the team's six didn't hear the groans of disappointment when Burghardt and the lead four made the top of the ridge. Another valley lay out before them. There was no way they were going to clear this one and slip over the mountains ahead of the North Korean Mountain Troops.
"Suggestions"
"Check for passes to the east or west. There may be a side door out." They scoped both sides and of course, Murphy's law kicked in and no such luck.
Whitney knew there was the one and only option that might ensure they clear the valley. The bitch was that his option involved the guy with AWM .338 Lapua playing Horatius Cocles.
Whitney piped up with his plan, "Horatius at the bridge."
Every special forces soldier knew the story even though it happened centuries ago of the Roman hero Horatius's stand on the bridge.
"Shit, Quarterback not that option."
"It's the only one."
"Fuck Quarterback, its toast and the long shot best result is ending up a prisoner."
"They won't be taking a sniper prisoner. Here is my stuff, send it to my mom in Smallville. The North Koreans won't be able to identify me and hang it on stateside."
Burghardt knew Whitney was right and in a second made the decision, "Ok Quarterback, what to you want?"
Whitney looked back across the valley they just crossed and out lined his tactical plan. "I have a clear kill zone and good angles on the flanks. They will send flanking teams moving fast. I can hold the main unit with my AWM Lupua at range as they come across open ground but am going to need high cycle firepower for the flankers when they get in close."
Whitney turned back to the special opts leader and said, "All I need is two clips from each guy and a M4 for the close in work after I finish the ammo for my Lupua."
The team quickly broke out their extra ammo and each wished him luck when they handed it over. The trooper carrying Soon Ko Lee gave up his M4.
Everyone knew Whitney was walking death. The Quarterback with his AWM Lupua rifle would sell his life dearly but with 300 North Korean Mountain troops coming at him the laws of physics regarding flying lead were not on him staying alive.
No one knew what to say so after a few mumbled goodbyes and blank stares out of them Whitney took control. "Hey guys, this is the Quarterback's show now so get your asses across that valley and the lady to safety. Now bug out."
"You heard the Quarterback, move out."
Burghardt hung back as the others started to scramble down into the second valley. Soon Ko Lee was too tired to speak but mouthed a Korean blessing and weakly waved to Whitney as she was carried away.
Whitney took in her fragile beauty for a couple seconds and thought, 'Wow, if my science teachers looked like that back in Smallville High I would have said screw the football team and gone geek.'
Soon Ko Lee was gone and he turned to Burghardt who has having trouble getting his feet moving.
"You better rock, that is a long valley."
"Is there anything I can do? I mean back home for you. What about that girl whose picture you carry?"
"No, she married some guy and doesn't even know I am alive." Whitney thought of how he feared Clark winning Lana's heart away from him. Turns out she slipped through both their fingers burning them quite nicely in the process.
Losing her to Clark, another Smallville guy who he knew loved her and would treat her right was something that he could accept in time; well a lot of time but not to some rich asshole from Metropolis.
"Nah, just send my stuff to my mum," Whitney looked wistfully around. So this is what it had come to for Smallville's 'remember him' sports hero. Not the first choice for checking out: dying violently and alone in a cold wet valley in North Korea.
Whitney turned back to Burghardt and said, "You know I really thought some day after traveling the world I would get slotted and they would send my body back to finally fill that empty coffin sitting in my grave in Smallville."
"Sorry Quarterback, no such luck."
"Ya, no such luck." Whitney smiled and gave a surprised Burghardt the push that would finally get the guy headed for safety. Burghardt fell on his ass and started to slide down the ridge. So as quick as that the team bugged out. The last Whitney saw of them they were humping ass across the valley.
Whitney started to set up the AWM Lapua and took out his clips and checked the tungsten headed .338 rounds. The M4 and the extra clips were set off to cover the left for when the flanking teams came in. Whitney took out his four grenades and cursed himself for not asking for more grenades from the team before they bugged out.
What the hell what did it matter? Most likely he would be dead long before the flanking teams got within grenade range. Whitney expected that after they spot him the North Koreans would place spotters up high to call coordinates and bring in 81 mm mortars and blow him to hell.
On the far side of the valley the first North Korean scouts came into view. Whitney watched them clear the ridge and start sliding down into the valley through the B&L scope.
He let the leaders get three hundred meters down so they would have a long bloody scramble back up. Or if they moved forward he had plenty of time to put the .338 tungsten bullets right where he wanted to before they made the valley floor and cover.
'Where is he, where is he,' Whitney said to himself as he scanned the North Korean troops that were now pouring over the ridge. Then as clear as day in the rain through the 10x40 scope he saw the one soldier he had been looking for. Whitney started to take the slack out of the trigger and a split second later the first time in North Korean history the sound of a .338 bullet leaving the barrel of an AWM Lapua at 2,970 feet per second echoed across the valley.
Whitney's view through the scope was constant due to the muzzle break on the AWM that reduced the recoil and jump of the barrel. He could follow the flight of the bullet. Some called the vortex of the bullet's journey the "wash" and others the "contrail". What ever you wanted to call it he could see the bullet track all the way across the valley and saw it strike. Arms had gone high into the air and the target now tumbled down the slope to the valley floor.
The North Korean soldier that was unlucky enough to be carrying the Russian made R-107 radio didn't have a whole lot to think about as the .338 bullet went through his spine between the second and third thoracic vertebrae and exited out his back to then kill the radio.
Whitney never broke sight holding the zero and just muttered "Go Crows!" as he threw the bolt and picked another target.
…….To be continued as Part 26: The Quarterback's Last Stand I
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