Trouble
I sat up and looked around. I nearly yelled when I saw a goat standing next to me but I kept my mouth shut and slowly got up. I stood up and carefully walked backwards, making sure I didn't trip or make any noises. Soon enough, I heard voices following the goats. I looked and saw Sheppard's coming our way.
There were three of them. Two young boys and an old man. One of the older boys was talking and walking backwards at the same time but jumped when he stepped on one of the boys. I looked and saw Marcus holding his foot and as the boy started running, Axe tackled him to the ground. We all ran out of our hiding spots, showing our positions.
I tied the old man to a tree as Marcus tied up the youngest boy. He looked up at me and explained, "Stepped right the fuck on me!"
"I know, I saw."
Danny was trying to contact someone on the radio as we tied the three people to trees. I banged my head against a tree nearby, cussing under my breath. Of all people, this had to happen to us. It turned out, Danny's radio wasn't working and Mike was getting more pissed by the second.
"So now I'm going to be that guy calling on an unsecure sat line because your shit ain't functioning."
"Talk to the mountain, sir." Danny responds.
Mike got a connection to base and waited to talk to Kristensen. He was trying to get our situation across but before we knew it, the line was dropped. He started to try to dial the number again but it wouldn't work. The signal out here in the mountain sucked.
"Well, we could light the goats on fire, smoke signal our way outta here." Marcus suggests.
"Yeah, I could walk down to the village, ask to borrow a plane." Danny adds.
"You'd get some interesting tile ideas down there, bro. Afghan Dirt Brown, Goat Skin Blond. Shit, she'll dig that a hell of a lot more than, what is it, fuckin' Honey Cream?"
"Not the time to joke around, guys!" I warn.
At that moment, the older boy get up and starts to run but Axe throws him on the ground once more and up against a tree, closer to the group. I looked towards Mike and wondered what he had for ideas as leader. "Way I see it, we got three options. One, we let them go, hike up. We'll probably be found in less than an hour. Two, we tie 'em up, hike out, roll the dice. They'll probably be eaten by fucking wolves, or freeze to death."
"Three?" Danny asks.
"We terminate the compromise."
It was silent between the five of us, thinking of the options and what would be best. Axe was the first to speak his mind. "Shah's down there. We let them go, we're lettin' him go. Mission fails."
"No, Mikey." Marcus objects. "I don't like it. I don't fucking like it at all. What are we gonna do? We gonna kill them? Huh? Ok, we kill them, right? What, then what? Fuckin' bury 'em? They get found, then what?"
"Then what?" Axe repeats.
"What do you mean, then what?" Marcus challenges.
"And then what?"
"What do you think? This shit's gonna be private? Huh? It's gonna be out there for the whole fuckin' world. CNN, ok? SEALS kill kids. That's the fucking story forever."
"It's nobody's fuckin' business what we do up here. We do what we do. What we have to do." Danny jumps in, looking at Mike. "This is the fuckin' Navy and you're the fuckin' boss, so you make the fuckin' call, sir."
"Guy's calm down." I try to stop. "We need to stay calm right now and try to make the most reasonable choice, here."
"Hey, you know what? You have no say in this, Crystal! This is all your fuckin' fault, anyway!" Marcus yells.
"My fault? How is it my fault that three Tali's wandered up here with their goats?!"
"You were supposed to be on the fuckin' look out! It's your fault because you didn't do your fuckin' job! If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be in this situation right now!"
"I'm sorry but we were all exhausted! It seemed like everything was fine and I never saw anyone near the mountain! I thought we were clear!"
"Yeah, well, clearly, you thought wrong!"
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, clenching my fists and see the guys watching me, waiting for my next move. "What do you want me to do, Marcus? Shoot myself as fuckin' punishment?"
"You know, that's a wonderful idea! That would solve a hell of a lot of problems that we have right now!"
I stare at him hard as he glares at me. The training we went through to be in the Navy taught us how to be tough and be strong when we were shot but they taught us nothing about how to stay strong when you lose a friend or when you and a friend fight. At this moment, I almost regret joining the Navy with my best friend.
"Alright, that's enough, you two! Let's focus on the task at hand here." Mike interrupts.
Tears well up in my eyes as I look away, taking a shaky breath. I nod my head a little and took a few steps back. I felt someone gently grab my shoulder and turn me towards them. Danny looks at me with a sympathetic yet caring look. I shake my head at him, silently telling him I didn't want to talk and I didn't trust my voice. I knew that if I talked barely above a whisper, I would break.
Thankfully, Axe stepped in and continued with the main situation we had. "Shah killed twenty Marines last week. Twenty. We let him go, twenty more will die next week. Forty more the week after that. Our job is to stop Shah. Why do these men have the right to dictate how we do our job?"
"Rules of Engagement says we cannot touch them." Marcus quietly says.
"I understand. And I don't care. I care about you. I care about you. I care about you. I care about you." Axe says, motioning to all of us. "I don't want your mom seeing your head, your decapitated head on Al Jazeera. That is Shah."
"I don't see it that way." Marcus damn near whispers.
"Where do you think he's running to? Two hundred friends down there."
"Got guys in Leavenworth doing twenty for taking home trophy guns. What do you think they're gonna do with two fucking kids and an old fucking man?"
"Fucking look at them, man. They fuckin' hate us." Danny adds.
"Look at him." Axe gestures to one of the kids. "That's not a kid, that's a soldier. That's death. Look at death."
"We can't do it. Look at the soldier. They are unarmed prisoners." Marcus objects.
"And the second they run down there, we got two hundred Haji's on our backs."
"Tie 'em up. Tie 'em up. Let's get the fuck outta here."
"We can't just fuckin' leave 'em, let 'em go!" Danny shouts.
"I thought you were standing by waiting for your fuckin' orders." Marcus points out.
"I am standing by waiting for my fuckin' orders." Danny argues. "Chris, what do you think?"
"Does it really matter what I think?"
He looks at me with a sharp eye, almost glaring at me. "Yes! You're still on this fuckin' team whether you like it or not, whether Marcus likes it or not! You're still on the team and we stick together! I'm not letting you take yourself out just because of some fuckin' things that were said, got it? Now, Crystal, what do you think?"
I almost smiled at the protection and care in his eyes. I knew he was looking out for me and what he said was true. "We can't let 'em go 'cause then we'll be tracked and followed. I don't wanna die up here but I don't wanna kill them. Lives are still lives. Just tie 'em up; let them die on their own. That way, we aren't responsible for them and we don't get tracked."
"What do you think that radio's for?" Axe snapped. "They're not calling Domino's pizza!"
"I know what the fuckin' radios for!" Marcus rolls his eyes.
"That radio's fuckin' Tali." Danny informs.
"It's a cell phone to the Taliban." Axe points down to the village.
"So you just think it'll be our little secret? Huh?" Marcus questions.
It was then I realized, Mike hasn't said one word throughout this whole argument. It looked like he was thinking about the options and the best choice. Axe shook his head, getting more irritated. "That's a warrior. Schwack 'em."
"We can't do that." I say softly.
"This is a soft compromise."
"You want to go to Leavenworth?" Marcus questions.
"We don't know how many fuckin' Haji's they have down there, man!" Danny argues.
"Don't let him influence you."
"Marcus, I'm just saying, you can't just say—"
"Look at that child." Axe cuts Danny off.
"Make up your fuckin' mind and don't let him influence you." Marcus orders Danny.
"Schwack 'em." Axe repeats.
"Mikey, it's your fuckin' call. I ain't fuckin' voting." Danny shouts.
"This is not a vote." Mike announces, stepping up and making everyone go silent. "This is what we're gonna do. This op is compromised. So we're gonna pack up everything. We're gonna cut them loose and we're gonna make this peak. When we make this peak, you're gonna get comms up. When we get these comms up, we're gonna call for extract and we're going home."
We all nodded our heads, letting him know we knew what we were doing. We cut their ties and helped them up. It seemed they were all confused but once they saw us letting them go, they slowly started to walk away. We watched them descend down the mountain and once they were out of sight, we began climbing up.
It was silent the entire time we walked up the mountain, nobody talking, nobody making any kind of noise. Before I knew it, we were already almost to the top, thankfully. My feet felt like they were about to collapse from under me but I kept going, just like I was trained to do. Once we finally reach the top, I dropped to my knees, near Marcus as he swore. "Fuck! This is a false summit."
I look around and see he was right. I suppressed a yell and instead I groaned and face planted in the dirt, lying down and resting for a moment. I heard Danny trying to contact base, raising the satellite around, trying to get a good connection.
"So, what do you wanna do?" Marcus asks.
"Go home, get in bed, watch Anchorman." Mike answers.
"Yeah, roger that. What do you think?"
"I think we did the right thing. I think we let our love light shine. I mean, isn't that how things work? Good things happen to good people?"
"This is a bad spot." Axe comments under his breath, looking through his telescope.
"Danny, I got nothing here on sat. Give me something." Mike orders.
"I got fucking shit."
Mike stands up and turns to all of us. "Let's fall back to that tree line. Wait 'till sundown. If we can't make comms, we're walking home anyways, guys. Let's get some rest. Pack up, let's move."
We made it to the tree line and we set up camp on a pile of rocks and trees, disguising ourselves, keeping a lookout. I stared out in the woods, through the trees, wondering if there was anything out there. I couldn't help but wonder if Marcus was right.
Would we be in this position right now if I was paying attention and saw the three merchants coming up the mountain? Is this entire thing really my fault? Did he mean everything he said? Would it solve a lot of problems if I were to die? Many other thoughts ran through my mind, making me confused and curious.
"I'm going to do some recon. Be back in two minutes."
I jump and point my gun at the person behind me, getting ready to shoot. I'm met with a pair of shocked eyes of Mike, him staring at me and the gun. I breathe a sigh in relief and put my gun down, shaking my head to clear it. Mike gently puts a hand on my shoulders and barely whispers, "Are you alright?"
"Fine."
"Are you sure? You can take a break off watch for a while and get some rest."
"No! I can't rest, I need to stay on watch."
"Crystal, if this has anything to do with what Marcus said—"
"I'll be fine." I cut him off, looking back to the region where I'm supposed to watch. "Go. Do whatever you have to do."
He looks reluctant and does as told but very hesitantly. I go back to searching the woods and out of nowhere, I heard a twig snap. I didn't know if it was Mike or not but I got ready. I raised my gun and looked through the telescope, trying to find the source of the noise.
For a mere second, I thought I saw something black go behind a tree but I wasn't sure. I kept my eye on that tree for a few moments but I didn't see anything. It must've been my imagination but I was still on alert. I look to my right and saw both Axe and Marcus had their guns drawn and were searching around, same as me. Maybe I wasn't imagining.