Title: Back To Barak, Chapter Five
Disclaimer: "Over There" and all its characters belong to FX Networks and other entities that may have been involved with its production. No infringement of copyright is intended. This story was written for personal enjoyment and to share with other "Over There" fans.
Summary: When Lieutenant Hunter volunteers the squad to infiltrate and capture Iraqi insurgents, all hell breaks loose.
Warning: Be warned that this story does include depictions of war; these depictions may describe consequential injuries and death, and while not over graphic, they may cause some readers discomfort.Please read at your own risk.
"Holy shit, Angel! Run!" Dim had screamed at him after the first mortar round exploded behind them. Angel hadn't needed any encouragement; he was certain
that he'd run faster then he ever remembered running in this life. He'd just
gotten across the road when he heard the second mortar behind him and scurried over the small berm, throwing himself down on his stomach. He quickly flipped over, and looked to his left expecting to see Dim lying right beside him, except Dim wasn't there! He popped his head up over the berm and looked across the road; though his vision was partially obscured by a huge cloud of dust, he was certain he could make out the general shape of his squad mate, who was grabbing at his left shoulder.
Angel saw the other man suddenly turn around and move away from the road, stumbling blindly. "Dim"!" he called out. "Dim over here!" but there was no response. He was about to call out again when he heard the sound of engines and several large vehicles coming from the direction of the bridge onto the uneven road; they were almost upon them. Angel dropped down behind the berm and prayed, 'Dear, God, please hear my prayer! Please don't let kill him!'
Angel watched as the insurgents piled out of their vehicles and began to pick up the boxes and stack them into the trucks. He kept carefully lifting his head trying to locate Dim, but he didn't seem him. He had to be there! Angel thought. There's nowhere to hide!
He watched as the men began to walk from soldier to soldier and strip them of any weapons they might have on their persons and then for their personal possessions as well, and that's when he saw a slight movement on the ground. He dropped his head back down as one of the men ventured near the edge of the road and stood unmoving for several minutes. He heard a burst of laughter and as he peeked back over the berm, his eyes going directly to the spot where he'd seen-
"Oh, dear Lord! He thought, taken a inhaling deeply. It was Dim! He was pulling himself towards the truck-
There was the sound of laughter again, this time much more raucous, and he quickly dropped his head back down. He could hear doors slamming, and the engines turn over as the trucks pulled back onto the road and returned over the bridge.
He lifted his head one last time. There was no sign of Dim anywhere. He quickly turned and high-tailed it back to the rest of the squad.
He'd run all the way back to where the squad sat waiting behind cover. "Don't shoot! It's me!" he yelled," as he saw Tariq's head come up at the sound of his footsteps. He leaped over the small hill, sliding down the other side into the sand, landing on top of Smoke and nearly toppling him over.
"Angel!" Silas Screamed. "What the fuck happened! Where's Dim, goddamnit?"
"I don't know! One minute he was there, the next minute he wasn't!" he said hoarsely. "He…..he…"He started coughing hard enough to choke.
"Okay, okay. Calm down soldier, drink something" Scream said, pulling the tube of Angels' CamelBaka bit further out of his body armor.
Angel grabbed at the tube and drank quickly, causing him to choke and spit the water back out. It was several minutes before he was able to drink and swallow. Meanwhile the rest of the squad was gawking at him.
"Man your posts and keep your eyes peeled goddamnit!" Scream snapped at everyone. He turned back to Angel." You able to talk yet?"
"Yes, sir…Sorry Sergeant, I just…." Angel began. "We got over to the other side of the road just fine, but that soldier was already gone. We got up and started to head back when mortar went off behind us. Dim yelled at me, told me to run…he was right behind me, and when I got over that berm at the edge of the road, suddenly he wasn't!"
He told Silas that he was certain Dim had been injured, about the insurgents moving in, seeing him crawling under the truck. "I know he's out there, Sergeant! We can't leave him there; we gotta go back and look!"
"Jesus! Hiding with fucking dead bodies." Silas heard Tariq whispered; he watched Doublewide cross herself, and saw Mrs. B turn a deathly shade of white.
"We're not gonna leave him there!" Silas said calmly but firmly. "But there's almost no cover here and none were we got ambushed, so we're going to have to wait till dark. And that's not gonna be much longer. We'll move forward, and use the NVG's to-"
"SHHH! What the Fuck!" Smoke whispered, quickly turning and aiming to the extreme left. "You all hear that?"
They'd all heard it. Silas raised his hand to his neck and made a quick side to side motion signaling everyone to shut up. He pointed to Smoke and gestured for him to stay where he was and sent Doublewide to cover the opposite side. He signaled Tariq to be ready.
The sound of footsteps in the sand came closer and closer… they could hear the sound of panting, a raspy throat sound, and then a tall frame came into sight, bent slightly at the waist. A hand came up, and a hoarse voice gasped "don shoot!" but not before Tariq leaped from his position and slammed hard into the man, tackling him and laying him face down in the sand. Immediately Dim and Silas had them covered.
The man struggled and flipped Tariq off of his back, then succeeded in rolling over; Tariq leapt back on top of him and punched him quite hard in the jaw, once, twice, a third time, then just as suddenly, he jumped up off the man and took several steps backward.
"Got Damn!" Smoke said, rather annoyed. "It's just Underpants!" He shut up quickly as Silas gave him a look.
Hunter slowly rolled over and got to his knees, appearing rather shaken.
"Lieutenant Hunter!" Silas asked." Are you injured, sir?"
"Well I wasn't until your man attacked me, Sergeant! I've got a good mind to put him on report for assaulting an officer!" He replied nastily, as he climbed to his feet and brushed himself off. ""And why are you and your squad all the way back here! Where the hell is Malatucci's squad! What are you people waiting for?" he yelled.
The squad stood there in stunned silence, but Silas wasn't about to put up with any shit after everything that had happened today. This miserable bastard had gotten half of the men he'd left with this morning, killed, including his good friend. Red in the face, his fists clenched and barely able to contain his anger , to keep from throttling the man, Silas took two steps forward and addressed his senior officer.
"We're HERE because this is the only COVER and obviously the rest of us would like to STAY ALIVE and don't give a good goddamn about how that looks on our RECORDS! We're here because we have NO SUPPORT and NO BACK UP, and because half of our unit GOT BLOWN to BITS! We haven't heard back from command for several HOURS! We've been attacked by insurgents and one of my men is now MISSING, so excuse the hell out of us for being CAUTIOUS when we hear someone running around in the sand! And as for Sergeant Malatucci and his squad, they're DEAD, Lieutenant, they're all DEAD! They were killed when we were AMBUSHED, which is why we shouldn't have come to this shit hole in the first place!"
Hunter took two steps back as Silas glared at him and adjusted his M16 back over his shoulder and then walked several paces in the opposite direction. His squad quickly moved out of the way and let him pass.
"What the hell is his problem?" Hunter asked, addressing the rest of the squad, who simply turned away from him and went back to their posts.
Dim had no idea how long he'd been sitting in the storage rack of the large troop carrier, but estimated it had been close to three hours, based on the time they'd arrived in Barak and how close it was to night fall. His legs were cramped and aching and while the idea of unfolding his body and finally stretching his legs sounded good, he knew the experience would be excruciating. He was quite certain that all circulation in his lower extremities had ceased.
The group of 10 or so men who'd ambushed their unit were met with cheers and shouts of "Al mout li Amreeka, "as they drove over the bridge and into the small village. There was an air of celebration as wives and laughing children rushed to help unloading the trucks, finishing just as the muezzin began the callto adhan. It was nearly sunset, and time for Maghrib ; the fourth of the five daily prayers. He'd waited quietly while the insurgents rushed back to their homes to perform their ablutions before turning toward Mecca and praising Allah.
Using his hands to push and pull himself toward the end of the storage rack, and then holding on tightly to the metal bars that attached it to the underside of the vehicle, Dim managed to lower himself cross-legged to the ground. He pulled the right side of his BDU collar towards him, folded it over twice, and took a deep breath, before placing the rough cloth into his mouth and biting down on it. He then reached down and forcibly uncrossed his right leg. He bit down harder and groaned thru clenched teeth, breathing in and out thru his nose rapidly, his right fist pounding the ground and he tried to ride out the pain. He panted softly and
waited several minutes until the worst of the pain had passed, and then proceeded to straighten his left leg. This time the pain seemed to shoot upward and right into his left shoulder, reminding him of his injury and he bit down on the cloth in his mouth hard enough to bite thru the fabric.
He was nearly exhausted from the pain, but he knew he couldn't remain where he was. They'd be back, most likely immediately after prayers. He was surprised that they hadn't left anyone at the bridge to guard the road, but then realized that they probably believed everyone who had been with the convoy was already dead. He shook his head, as if doing so would clear those horrible thoughts and images from his mind.
He crawled on his stomach to the end of the vehicle and quickly took in his surroundings, checking the perimeter. He didn't see anyone. Just a few chickens,
a dog or was that a goat? Whatever it was it was it was thin and scrawny. It was obvious that their human co-habitants didn't feed them, but left them to fend for themselves. He carefully crawled out from under the truck and stood up, his legs almost buckling beneath him; half-crouching, he made it to a small patch of brush and hid behind it.
Several chickens immediately began to scurry after him, perhaps thinking he might have food for them, and began clucking loudly. He tried to shoo them away by waving his hands but that did nothing. He'd be damned if he'd spent hours hunched over underneath a truck to escape being caught, and have his whereabouts revealed by a damned chicken! He kicked at several, and nearly got pecked, for his trouble. Suddenly he remembered the raisin nut mix that was left over from yesterday's lunch M.R.E, which had been the Chicken with Thai sauce and white rice, and hadn't been so bad. He reached into the side pocket of his BDU jacket and found the pack with his fingers as he scanned the area behind him, and found another hiding place. He ripped open the package, shook the mix out, and tossed the few handfuls several feet away from him. The squawking chickens immediately ran towards the food as Dim turned and ran to his next cover.
When he looked back up, he could see a crowd of people coming out of a large building, probably what doubled as a Mosque, or school; most of them were heading back to their homes, presumably for an evening meal. Three men continued toward the truck and were conferring in Arabic, when one man stopped suddenly and pointed to the ground; he walked to the back of the truck and seemed to be following……
'Oh God!' Dim thought. 'Did I leave tracks?"
The man began gesticulating wildly now and all three men were walking back and forth from the truck to just about where he'd tangled with the chickens. They kicked the emaciated birds out of their way and came forward. Dim quickly got down on his knees and began to look around frantically. He spotted a very small dilapidated building about the size of a shed several hundred feet away from him. If he could just get there-
Suddenly he heard the sound of children running down the wide dirt path towards the bridge, laughing and yelling happily. The three men immediately turned towards the children, cutting them off; they began admonishing the children loudly and pointing them back to the village. Several women came out after them and they too began to yell at the children, while the men continued to yell at the children and the women. It was during this commotion, that Dim took a deep breath…..
….and ran!
