Day 2: 1100 Hours
As the group disperced from hearing the good news about Blackjack and Lilly, Humphrey and Kate headed towards the barracks. Humphrey hadn't noticed it, but Ricoh was watching him carefully. He nodded and quickly rushed to catch up to Humphrey.
"Hey Humphrey hold up for a second," Ricoh called. Humphrey and Kate both turned to see him and smiled.
"Hey Ricoh what's up," Humphrey asked.
"Humphrey, I need your help over in the medical tent for a minute. It shouldn't take too long," Ricoh explained.
"Alright, I'll be there in a second. I'll see you back at the barracks Kate," Humphrey said smiling at her. She smiled back and kissed him on the cheek. He blushed slightly and kissed her back before turning to follow Ricoh. Ricoh opened the door of the tent to let Humphrey in to the empty tent.
"Alright Humphrey this is going to sound weird but pull your pants down," Ricoh said shrugging.
"WHAT," Humphrey asked jumping back in shock.
"Look just trust me for a second,"
"No I'm not taking my pants off, look if you're gay that's fine but I don't-"
"I'm not gay dumb ass, look," Ricoh ducked behind Humphrey and sliced out a square of his trousers.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU-,"
"Here, look for yourself," Ricoh barked Ricoh handing Humphrey the square of fabric. Humphrey took it in pure shock. It was stained completely red with blood and there was a hole in the middle of it, obviously from a bullet.
"Oh my god, I've been shot," Humphrey said almost falling back onto one of the beds. As he sat down he jumped up in pain, finally feeling the effect of the shell.
"I don't know how anyone else hasn't saw it, but you've been limping on your leg. At first I thought you had just sprang it, until I saw the blood on your pants. Thankfully it looks like just a 9 millimeter round so it shouldn't cause much harm. But I don't know how long it's been there, so it could be getting infected. Do you have any idea of when this might have happened," Humphrey thought about Ricoh's question but shook his head.
"No, no I- wait, yeah now that you mention it, I do know when it happened. When the attack first started, Kate's dad got killed, and well, I ran back to get his .44 magnum for her and as I was running into the trees I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I got up as quick as I could and just kept running," Humphrey explained. Ricoh nodded and started to dig around for some gauze wrap, tweezers, and alcohol.
"That would explain it, I guess you've just been running off such an adrenaline rush that it's comepltely covered up the pain. Well, since it's not that serious I'm just going to wrap you up and let you keep fighting. Aha, here we go," Ricoh grabbed a small first aid kit and instructed Humphrey to lay on one of the beds. Humphrey did so and Ricoh got to work. He pulled out the tweezers first and began to examine the wound.
"Well you're pretty damn lucky. The bullets maybe half an inch in you. The guy must have been pretty far away. Hold on a second this might hurt,"
"OH FUCK ME THAT HURTS," Humphrey shoted as Ricoh pulled out the mangled hunk of lead.
"Oh come on you big baby that was nothing. Now I have to clean it with some alcohol to make sure it's clean," Ricoh laughed slightly as he poured some alcohol onto a cotton ball and pressed it against the bullet wound.
"HOLY SHIT THAT'S EVEN WORSE," Humphrey howled loudly. Ricoh laughed at his gross over-reaction and started to wrap his leg with the gauze.
"Want a lolly-pop to make it all better," Ricoh laughed. Humphrey rolled his eyes and ungripped his fists.
"Next time why don't you warn a guy before you do something like that," Humphrey panted. Ricoh smiled and gave Humphrey a pat on the back.
"All patched up buddy. Now, I can't let you go around with a hole in the back of your pants, so let me write you a note real quick," Ricoh scrummaged around some more and found an index card. He scribbled on it for a minute and handed it to Humphrey.
"Here you go, take this over to the supply building and give it to Gavin, he's the S-4 around here, he'll get you what you need," Ricoh explained. Humphrey nodded and took the note.
"Alright, thanks Ricoh," Humphrey said stuffing the piece of paper into his pocket.
"No problem buddy, now if you'll excuse me I have to discuss with a certain general about bringing in some certain ordanances we may need," Ricoh said with a sinister smile.
"Alright, see you later Ricoh," Humphrey said as he walked from the tent. Outside there was movement everywhere. Vehicles continuosly pulling in and dropping off supplies, hellicopters taking off and landing, and the roar of an AC-130 spectre as it shot off the runway. Off in the distance Humphrey could swear he heard the sounds of the war off in the distance. He shook his head as he reached the supply building and found the door wide open. He cautiosuly stepped inside to find a mess of boxes sitting all over the floor and a few uniforms hung on racks.
"Hello, I'm looking for Gavin," Humphrey said as he looked around at the clutter. The next thing he knew an older wolf with glasses jumped up from the mess and smiled at Humphrey.
"Well you just found him. What can I do ya for son," he asked walking over and shaking Humphrey's hand.
"Well Ricoh sent me over here and told me to give you this," Humphrey explained handing Gavin the note. Gavin took it and looked over it for a second then nodded.
"Canadian forces, well then, welcome to our little home away from home. Hang on and I'll get you what you need," Gavin said as he searched through the racks pulling out a jacket, a pair of pants, and a new set of boots. He handed them to Humphrey and looked over Humphrey's uniform for a second.
"Are your patches sewn on or velcro," he asked.
"Sewn on," Humphrey replied.
"No problem, let me get you some new ones," Gavin jumped over to a file cabinet and opened a couple droors and pulled out some random patches. He handed them to Humphrey along with a belt and tan t-shirt.
"Hope you don't mind but we don't have any patches for your unit, but since you'll be working with delta force I just gave you one of their patches, they won't mind. If you want you can use the changing room over there, I'll put your uniform on a hanger and hold onto it for you," Gavin said pointing to a room closed off by a door. Humphrey nodded and picked up all of his new possesions.
"Thank you sir," Humphrey said stepping through the mess over to the room.
"Oh please, just call me Gavin." Gavin said with a slight laugh as he turned his attention back to the mess. Humphrey stepped into the room and locked the door behind him as he took off his own uniform and replaced it with his new one. Once he was done he looked over himself in the mirror, and thought he looked pretty good this way. After giving his old uniform to Gavin for safekeeping he headed outside and made his way to the barracks. There he found Kate standing outside waiting on him.
"So what was that all about, and why are you in that new uniform" she asked cruiously. Not wanting to worry her, he decided to change the story.
"Ricoh just needed some help moving some stuff, and he decided it was better for me to be in an American uniform so we wouldn't be mistaken for enemies," he didn't like lying to her, but he didn't want to worry her with his injury. Their conversation was instantly over-roared by several M777 howitzers which opened fire. Kate rolled her eyes and they decided to head indoors so they could understand one another. They sat down on a bunk Kate had claimed as hers and she leaned her head onto his shoulder. Humphrey sighed happily and smiled. There may have been a war raging, but he didn't have a care in the world.
*Meanwhile*
"KEEP UP PRESSURE WITH THE 2-40 BRAVOS, WE CAN'T LOSE THIS POSITION," Candu shouted as he ducked into a trench holding his injured shoulder. There weren't many of his platoon left. He knew Hutch would have gotten away safely with Kate, and there was still no sign of SGT. Humphrey and fourth squad. He assumed they were K.I.A. but there were no bodies, so he couldn't be sure.
"RIGHT FLANK IS ALMOST COMPLETELY OVERRUN SARGE," he heard over the wireless radio. He slammed his fist into the dirt and pulled his hand from his bleeding shoulder. He grabbed for his H&K sive-seven and slid out the empty magazine and threw in a fresh one. Unfortunately for him it was his right shoulder that was hurt, and he was right handed.
"HOLD OFF AS LONG AS YOU CAN," he ordered laying his weak arm on the top of the trench to shoot. With each recoil of the pistol it felt like a million needles were slicing into his shoulder. But Candu kept firing, if he was going to be killed, he was going to go down fighting. Then it happened all at once. All of the gunners around him clicked empty as their last shells fed through the LMG's.
"RELOADING," they shouted to get cover from the rest of the platoon. But it wasn't enough. Without the heavy fire of the heavier weapons the Russian forces began pushing forward. A massive explosion burst from behind the trench, sending dirt flying all over Candu. He fell over in sheer pain but tried to hold himself on one knee. He looked up with tears heavy in his eyes. He heard the rumble of the approaching armored collumn and shook his head.
"It's over," he whispered to himself. He looked up just as the radio operator rushed up to him holding the radio close to him.
"SARGE AMERICAN FORCES ARE HEADED OUR WAY, THEY'VE ALREADY GOT A C-130 OVERHEAD AND APACHE'S HEADED IN FOR AIR SUPPORT," he shouted enthusiastically. Candu's face lit up with joy and a new energy filled him. He jumped to his feet and started running back and forth the length of the trench.
"HEADS DOWN, STAY UNDER COVER," he demanded, "AIR SUPPORT IS INBOUD."
"Canadian forces this is "Spitfire," we've established an orbit at 30,000 feet and have 105 round's loaded for fire support. Use white smoke to mark the targets," Candu heard buzz in through his headset. Candu threw his rucksack off and dug threw it until he found a white smoke grenade. He pulled the pin and lobbed it as far as he could. Seconds later a thick white smoke began to pour across the enemies mass.
"We see it, keep your heads down this is danger close for the task force. Rounds incomming," the voice was soon drowned out by background noise, which was instantly followed by an absolute hellish barrage of 105, 40, and 25 mm rounds. Had they not been in the trench they would have been dead.
The bombardment lasted for a full minute before it let up. The noise settled and things started to grow quiet, until two AH-64 Apache's burst over the tree-tops. 30 mm rounds sliced through the air and 72 mm rockets blasted craters in the earth as the two helicopters performed a lethal strafe run. The two whirled around and flew back overthe dug in platoon who cheered and shouted in rejoice.
"You're all clear, a Marine CH-53 is inboud to pick you up and bring you to fire base "Phoenix", ETA, 3 minutes," said the pilot. Candu managed to pull stand up and wave his helment to the Apaches as they circled back around and hovered to keep them covered until their evac arrived. Tears flowed down his eyes as the entire platoon began hugging one another in joy and all of the sounds of hell and gunfire were replaced by hope.
