The waiting game had never been one of Troy's favorites to play, but war never left anyone with a choice, it felt like. And so here the three of them were, buried in the sand-just like the jeep next to them.

Waiting.

They lay in stiff silence beside each other and watched the horizon begin to fill the African desert with light. Troy glanced over at Moffitt and Hitch, who were situated closer to the jeep than he was. Moffitt gave him a serious eye and a slight nod, and Hitch glanced over to offer a falsely confident smile.

This had to work, Troy knew. They couldn't have driven safely and quickly in the dark and so hiding had been their only option. If the Germans discovered them, they were all but defenseless, with their largest gun and all their ammunition buried in the sand next to them, out of reach.

"Sarge!" Hitch's whisper brought him back to reality, and he squinted to see that in the morning sun, the German column had begun the journey for the day. They were just starting to come around the dune, heading (by the looks of it) in a line that would pass right in front of The Rat Patrol. They wouldn't be more than 15 yards away…

The silence from before seemed to press in on them, not one of them daring to make even the slightest adjustment in the quickly heatening sand. The minutes ticked past and the Column came in close. Troy could see the soldier watching from the first car, and crossed his fingers that it wasn't Detriech-that was the last thing they needed.

The Sergeant realized he was subconsciously holding his breath, and he forced slow air from his mouth as he took in their enemies.

There was a Lieutenant leading the column, and Detriech was nowhere to be seen, only several soldiers driving two tanks, three armored jeeps, and three large trucks. One by one, the vehicles began to inch past their hiding spot, and still no one seemed to notice their lump in the sand.

And that's when it happened.

The first car, an armored jeep that was carrying the Lieutenant (who was most likely the acting commander of the column), was flipped on its side as a loud explosion filled the morning's silence. The procession abruptly stopped, and all soldiers went on high alert, looking for their attackers. Troy clenched his fists in the sand as the soldiers looked in their direction, but a few commands were shouted in German and the men turned their backs on the desert and jumped to help their comrades.

Though he couldn't understand what they had shouted (and they were much too close for him to ask Moffitt) he guessed that their leader had mistakenly led his jeep straight onto a landmine from a past battle. The jeep hadn't been thrown far, but was now burning and smoking, the men just having dragged the driver and Lieutenant from the wreckage.

But something else caught Troy's eye, and he mentally cursed to see Hauptmann Detriech approaching the scene from one of the trucks farther down the column. He had a flanking of two bodyguards at his side, which Troy noted as strange as he watched the German Captain kneel down next to his injured men.

They were too far away to hear anything that was said, but the Sergeant watched as Detriech counseled his soldiers, looking around and pointing in the Patrol's direction as he spoke. There was something different about the way that all of the soldiers were acting, hesitating as they looked to their leader, but Troy quickly pushed his curiosity to the back of his mind as he realized what they must be discussing.

A man of action and knowing that there wasn't much time to act, Troy slid backwards out of his shallow covering of sand, army-crawling quickly past his comrades. "Moffitt! Hitch!"He sharply whispered and the two of them immediately followed him behind the Jeep. "They're going to come around the mines-our only chance is to get away before they have time to react!" He was already pushing sand as inconspicuously as possible off of the jeep in the direction of the column, and Hitch and Moffit wasted no breath or time in helping him.

"Troy-Detriech-"

"I saw him!" Troy cut off his British comrade as they quickly finished what they could do to uncover their ride without attracting much attention, "the tarp! On three!" They all grabbed an edge of the large tarp they had used only hours before to hide their only mode of transportation, and the Sergeant glanced to see that no one had noticed them (which they certainly were about to) before breathing, "One, two, three!"

Sand flew into the air as they ripped the tarp up, and Troy reached for the machine gun he'd stored on his shoulder during the night, quickly peppering the sand towards the column with bullets. The Germans immediately jumped to high alert again, a few shots already ringing back in the Patrol's direction.

Moffitt and Hitchcock were quick to continue ripping the tarp away, and Troy hoped that the blankets had stopped the sand from burying the tires. If not, they were going to have a much tougher time getting away.

The Germans were starting to recover from their scare, but were sent back into confusion as Moffitt tossed a grenade to the side, farther down the column, to make it look like there were more surprise attackers than the three members of the Rat Patrol and their buried jeep. The Sergeant reminded himself to thank Moffitt later, and watched as Detriech shouted a few orders to his men, a tardy response to what Troy would normally expect (though he wasn't complaining), and they began to receive more return fire.

He heard his fellow Sergeant jump onto the mostly unburied jeep and begin using their 50 caliber, giving Troy enough time to rip the blanket away from around one of the front tires, shouting at Hitch to come to the driver's seat. The Private quickly obeyed, responding,

"One of the back tires is a little stuck, Sarge!"

"I've got it!" Troy dodged to the back of their jeep and spared a look at the tire Hitch had referred to. It was one of the tires that had been closer to the column, and so had been more deeply covered with loose sand, some of which had gotten around the blanket and buried the tire just deep enough to keep their jeep from driving away.

Troy ceased his part in the still ongoing firefight to put one knee on the ground and wrestle a large armful of sand from around the tire, shouting, "SHAKE IT, Hitch!" He pushed himself away from the tire just before getting a facefull of sand, and squinted to see the jeep lurch, Moffitt still giving the Germans fire (though much less accurate fire) and then it was away. Troy knew they would circle back around and pick him up, and so he dropped low to the ground, shouldering his gun again. He was now the weakest and slowest part of the team, and as shots continued to ring in his direction, Troy knew that he hadn't gone unnoticed. A move would have to be made. The little ridge he was laying behind was only just enough cover, and so he returned a little fire and tried to assess the situation.

A few Germans were on the ground, out for the count, but Detreich-and more than a few dozen soldiers-were left, stationed behind the first truck and jeep (not including the flaming one) in the column. Hitch and Moffitt were circling around the column, forcing their enemies to take cover from two sides. Troy ducked down again as an explosion engulfed one of the tanks, most likely from a well aimed grenade on Hitch or Moffitts part.

The Jeep was closing in on Troy again and he reached to give more return fire, but fell back back down as a bullet ripped past his right arm. It was only a flesh wound, but still began to soak his sweaty sleeve with blood as his friends prepared to pass him. He gritted his teeth to the sting and jumped up, running towards their jeep that was slowing to meet him. His sprint, however, was short lived as the blast of tank-fire hit right at the tires he had all but reached, launching him back and flipping the jeep in a cloud of sand and smoke.

When the ringing in his ears promptly stopped, Troy realized that the bullets had, too. The dust began to settle in the silence, and the Sergeant didn't make a move, unsure of where his enemies were.

"Sergeant! If you're able, come out to where we can see you with your hands in the air!" Detriech's voice called over the settling explosion, and Troy weighed their options as stubborn anger boiled within him. But he had no idea what condition his men were in, and they had no way to run, since their vehicle had been blown sky high. So with a huff of anger he clutched his wounded and sandy arm and called out,

"Moffitt! Hitch! Do as he says!" He stood on slightly shaky feet and looked for his friends as the dust cleared. He spotted them: farther away, they were standing up from where they'd been thrown by the explosion, and it looked as if Moffitt had gotten the worst of it, leaning on Hitch for support as they made their way towards Troy and the column on the opposite side of him.

The Germans rushed out to meet them, quickly disarming Troy and leading him at gunpoint back to their Captain, other soldiers passing to do the same with Moffitt and Hitch. Troy glanced at Detriech, but kept his eyes on his men as their weapons were confiscated and a german soldier took Hitch's place at Moffitt's side (much to Hitch's obvious annoyance) and the group of them walked steadily towards Troy, Detriech, and the rest of the latter's men. The soldiers had briefly patted the three of them down, yet it didn't seem as though they found anything, particularly on Moffitt. Troy hoped it would stay that way.

Detriech was talking with one of his sergeants, who appeared to be the highest ranking soldier that was not injured or dead, and he glanced over at Troy as they approached. Despite a freshly injured arm and comrades, something about the Germans still seemed off as the American glared at the all too familiar German Captain, who finished talking to his soldier and nodded solemnly to Troy,

"Good morning, Sergeant Troy."

"Captain." The Sergeant growled a curt response as Hitch and Moffitt limped up behind him, and he demanded, "my men need medical attention." Detriech's response confused Troy as he stated,

"I will relay your message."

Glancing at his injured Brit, Troy's patience waned, "You what?!"

"Troy." Moffitt panted, stopping the two leaders from continuing, "he can't give any orders, he's not their commander-he's their prisoner."

Troy whipped his head to again stare at the German, his anger stopped short by the shock of Moffitt's statement. Only now he realized the purpose of the two guards paying close attention from behind Detriech, not to mention his lack of weapons. The captain gave a little huff of a laugh and responded with a sad smile in their direction,

"I'm afraid Sergeant Moffitt is right."