Chapter 6
On route to the southern boarder, everything is running smoothly until a couple shots are fired. Due to the penetrating bullets into the front of the van, Cal loses control of the vehicle.
"We have trouble! Brace yourselves!" Cal exclaimed. As he tries to regain control, the van swerves off the road and crashes into a tree.
A couple Koreans in army uniforms are approaching from the right side of the van. The side door opens. Gibbs and Tony pop out with their assault rifles blaring as they shoot. The unsuspecting Koreans fall to the ground as they were only aware of one person being inside the vehicle. Chioke remains lying on the floor inside of the van as he covers his ears. Gibbs and Tony are now just outside of the vehicle; near the side door. They're shooting at the oncoming Koreans. While still inside of the vehicle, Cal moves into the back of the van. He looks out all of the windows, in every direction and shoots at who he sees.
There's a large rock near where the van crashed. Gibbs dashes toward the rock as Tony stays near the van in order to protect it. Gibbs quickly looks around the rock to see three Koreans coming toward it; just a couple feet behind the rock. He finally leans over the side of the rock. He pulls the trigger. The three Koreans drop to the ground. Gibbs notices a couple other Koreans. He turns and fires. One of the Koreans he shot before begins moving. Gibbs turns and aims. He pulls the trigger. The weapon is empty. The Korean is close to standing. Gibbs runs around the rock, toward the Korean. As Gibbs approaches the man, he drops the assault rifle and takes out a knife. He slashes the Korean's throat. The man falls and bleeds out. Gibbs picks up on of the Korean weapons, turns and aims at a man who is trying to sneak up to the vehicle. He pulls the trigger. The sneaky Korean drops dead. Gibbs makes his way back to the van.
Suddenly, there's more gun-fire from the surrounding area behind the men of the Korean army. A couple rebels jump out shooting their guns.
After all of the Korean army men are laying dead on the ground, the rebels approach the vehicle. All of the rebels are pointing their weapons at Gibbs and Tony who are pointing their weapons back at them. The leader of the rebels begins yelling in the Korean language.
Cal exits from the vehicle. He speaks. There's tension as Cal and the rebel leader are arguing back and forth. After two minutes, the rebel leader gives the order to lower their weapons. They do. Cal motions for Gibbs and Tony and lower their weapons as well. They do. The rebel Koreans begin to walk away.
"Cal… Who are they?" Tony wondered.
"They're rebels who are against the Korean government." Cal replied. "More of the army will eventually come here. We must go with them."
The three of them walk to the van.
"Chioke… Come here." Tony said as he motions for Chioke to come to him. Chioke crawls to Tony.
The first thing Gibbs reaches for is the satellite phone. Upon realizing it's damaged and useless, he places it down; leaving it in the van. Gibbs and Cal grab everything they can carry. Tony lifts Chioke into his arms. They follow the rebels to their vehicles. Once everyone is in the vehicles, they drive away.
Eventually, they reach the rebel camp. The vehicles are parked and everyone gets out. The rebels at the camp stare at the foreigners; Gibbs, Tony and Chioke. A couple rebels approach and begin yelling at the foreigners as they don't welcome them in the camp. The leader of the rebels who helped them shouts back.
A Korean man, the commander of the rebels, approaches into the vicinity. Out of respect, the men stop arguing. The men speak in the Korean language to each other. The commander listens to both sides of the argument. Afterwards, he looks to Cal and asks for an explanation of why these foreigners are here. Cal explains everything.
The commander grants them the privilege of remaining in the camp and welcomes them by placing his hands together and bowing slightly. Gibbs does the same as does Tony. Chioke realizes the bowing is out of respect, so he does the same. With seeing Chioke bow, the commander chuckles and gently rubs Chioke's head.
Cal mentions to the commander that Chioke has an injury. The commander kneels down next to Chioke. He lifts Chioke's shirt and see the injury; the torn skin from the second strike with the cane that he received for sneaking food to the other slaves at the trading camp. The commander becomes slightly angered by this as he's against slavery. He speaks in a louder, angry tone of voice; bad mouthing the Korean government. The commander motions for a lady to come over. The lady is a nurse.
The lady looks at Chioke's injury. She speaks to Cal; telling him that if she doesn't take care of this now, the child may run the risk of infection. Cal looks to Tony.
"What did she say?" Tony asked out of concern for Chioke.
"She has some medicine which will prevent Chioke's injury from becoming infected." Cal said.
"Please, by all means." Tony said to the lady. The woman looks to Cal who tells her that the father gives his consent for her to treat his son.
The lady extends her hand to Chioke. He places his hand into hers. The woman, Chioke and Tony walk away.
About an hour later, Cal is speaking with the rebel commander about purchasing a vehicle. Gibbs is off somewhere; nowhere to be seen. Tony and Chioke are sitting at a table near one of the huts.
'Why not save others?' Chioke signed with his hands out of concern for the other captives.
For a minute, Tony is silent as it's a very tough question to answer. He finally opens his mouth and gives an explanation.
As Tony is giving Chioke an explanation, Gibbs comes running into the area. He waves his hands at them.
"Get in the hut!" Gibbs yelled. "The army is coming!"
Cal, who is the only Korean in the camp who knows English, begins yelling in his native language. The rebels scatter around the camp to find their weapons. Tony and Chioke move into the hut as does Gibbs. Cal runs to the hut shortly after.
Chioke lies on the ground inside the hut and covers his ears because he knows it's about to get very loud. Gibbs, Tony and Cal grab their assault rifles and prepare for the raid. Unfortunately for them, their position is close to the middle of the rebel camp.
The sound of gunfire begins as the camp is raided.
From inside the hut, Gibbs, Tony and Cal aim their weapons. They fire at the oncoming enemies. With the raid underway, Gibbs realizes he needs to get them out of the hut and away from the camp before more of the Korean army arrives.
Gibbs leads them out of the hut. Tony and Chioke are in the middle; with Chioke right behind Tony. Cal is in the back; behind Chioke. All three of the men are armed and ready for combat as they will now move toward the back of the camp in a cautious manner. As they move, they fire their weapons at the enemy.
They approach a small house. While passing the door, it opens. Chioke grabs onto Tony as he's startled. Tony quickly nails the man in the face with his assault rifle. The man stumbles backward into the house. Tony quickly points the gun and fires. The man drops. They continue to move.
As they move around the house, two enemies point their weapons. Gibbs points and pulls the trigger first. The two men drop to the ground. Gibbs' reaction time was quicker.
Once at the side of the house, there's a fairly large gap of open space to get to the next building. They all crouch down near a couple large boxes and containers. Tony and Cal remain alert of the surroundings. Chioke hides behind Tony. Gibbs peeks out around the house. The coast is clear.
"Cover me." Gibbs said. Cal moves to Gibbs' position as he runs across the open space. Gibbs successfully reaches the building and gets behind some cover. He motions for them to come.
Tony puts the assault rifle strap over his shoulder. Tony lifts Chioke into his arms; leaving one hand free to hold his sidearm. Cal gets ready to move with them. They run into the open space. As they're making their way across the open space, Gibbs notices a couple enemies. He provides cover fire. While running, Cal also fires.
They finally reach the building. Tony puts Chioke down and places the sidearm in the holster at his side. He takes the assault rifle from his shoulder. The four of them continue moving.
They approach another spot with a bunch of boxes, containers and other forms of cover which create an L shape from the corner of the building. A large amount of armed soldiers are approaching from the other side. The armed men start shooting at them. Gibbs, Tony and Cal shoot back. Gibbs moves into a different position a couple feet away in order to shoot at the soldiers that the others can't see. Cal remains near Tony. Chioke is right next to Tony inside the corner of the L shape cover as the gunfight with the soldiers continues. Chioke notices a soldier exit from the door at the building they're near. The only one who sees the soldier is Chioke. The soldier has yet to notice them because he was close to an explosion; he can hardly hear anything that's going on right now. From the place of cover and the position of the building from which the solider came out from, no bullets are flying in the immediate direction.
Chioke grabs the sidearm from Tony's holster. He points the gun at the soldier who finally sees him. Chioke's hands are shaking. The soldier smiles evilly as he pulls out a knife. Chioke's hands shake even more as the soldier moves closer. Chioke's little finger begins to pull the trigger. Tony, who needs a reload, ducks behind the cover and finally sees the soldier and Chioke about to shoot him.
"No!" Tony yelled. He uses his hand to push Chioke's arm to the side. The gun fires; the bullet hits the dirt to the side of the soldier. Tony grabs the gun out of Chioke's hand as the soldier charges. Tony smacks the gun into the soldier's face. He points the gun but the soldier kicks it. The gun flies off the side. Tony tackles the soldier.
Tony and the soldier are wrestling over position of the knife. After a minute, the soldier has Tony pinned. He's trying to push the knife into Tony's chest. Tony is holding it back but the knife is getting closer because the soldier is stronger. Chioke starts kicking and punching the soldier. After a couple hits, the soldier shoves Chioke away.
"You bastard!" Tony exclaimed in an angry tone of voice. He punches the soldier in the face. With the force of the blow, Tony is able to turn the tides of this match-up. He finally pins the soldier to the ground and pushes the knife toward the man's neck. The knife is less than one inch from the soldier's neck. Chioke jumps on Tony's back. With the little extra weight, the knife penetrates into the soldier's neck. The soldier bleeds out as Tony and Chioke look down at him. Chioke slides off Tony's back and sits down. The soldier finally dies as the gunfight finally stops. Tony turns to Chioke.
"I killed him, you hear me. You had nothing to do with his death. You never touched the knife. It was all me." Tony said. "I know you were trying to help. But his death is on my hands, not yours. You played no part in it. I killed him, you got it."
Chioke nods in trusting what Tony said about him not playing a role in the soldier's death.
"Come on, time to move." Gibbs said as he approaches.
Tony lifts Chioke into his arms.
They continue moving. After passing one more hut, they make it to the woods. As the gunfight continues between the rebels and the army, Gibbs, Tony, Chioke and Cal disappear into the brush.