by Dave Hazel
Standing beside Staff Sergeant Campbell was Sergeant Freeman another of the original Lost Patrol. “This is Jackson’s rifle,” Sergeant Freeman pointed down into a slight gulley on the side of the path that led into the trees. “I know for a fact this is Jackson’s M-16,” he shouted. “That’s a picture of his two little kids taped to the butt of his rifle. Look at this here,” Freeman pointed. He had much experience walking point and had always been alert and watching for oddities while they moved through different areas they patrolled.
“Whadda ya got Freeman?” Mykal asked and looked at the ground where Freeman was pointing into the trees, the trees of the Black Forest.
“Look at those two gouges in the ground,” Freeman said to the two little slight trails dug into the dirt.
“What in the world is that?” Mathis asked and looked to Mykal to see if he knew.
“I’d say someone was dragged off,” Roy Jr. suggested matter-of-factly. “Those look like they could be the heels of some boots of someone who’s been dragged away.”
“What the hell?” Finley shouted and rushed to the scene when about half the men had been gathered. He looked at the ground. Clearly the forest floor of broken twigs, leaves, grass and dirt showed what could have been something pulled through the dirt. There was no denying Sergeant Jackson’s rifle lay on the ground. “Do we know what the hell was going on?” Finley shouted when he saw the paper wrapping of a field dressing on the ground in the same area. “Look, it looks like a little bit of blood was on Jackson’s rifle and there are some small spots of blood on the leaves,” he shouted and pointed to the new discovery. “How the hell did no one see what happened here?” He yelled as if he angrily accused everyone’s lack of attention.
“Sir, Sergeant Jackson was my assistant gunner,” declared Sergeant Fish the Green Beret M-60 machine gunner. “When the enemy broke through the line I was carrying my M-60 back to the vehicle because I couldn’t fight hand to hand. My back was to Jackson and the few men in this area,” Fish said and pointed toward the edge of the path where the trees started. “I heard someone yell I’m hurt. It could have been Jackson or it could have been anyone. I heard the gunfire neutralize the attack of the enemy. Right after I heard someone yell ‘I’m hurt’ I heard someone else yell ‘I’ll get him’. And I assumed it was one of the medics. I guess, it could have been Sergeant Thornton who assisted him, but honestly Sir, I was trying to get away from the attack because I couldn’t help and I was in danger.”
“It was Sergeant Thornton over in this area,” Sergeant Nikopolous confirmed. “I don’t know if he went off the edge of the path, meaning this road,” Nikopolous said and pointed to the ground. “I was busy shooting the enemy who tried to break through our position here. After we took control I moved forward attacking the enemy so I didn’t see what was going on here.”
“Did anyone else see anything?” Finley shouted.
Norg the leader of the four Dwarven warriors spoke to Nuckhorn in their foreign tongue. Nuckhorn had a camouflaged bandaged wrapped around his head. He had dried blood down the side of his face where blood seeped from the bandage wrapped around his head. Blood also coagulated in his thick dark brown beard. Norg nodded and listened to Nuckhorn.
“My friend,” Norg spoke to get everyone’s attention which turned the area into a den of silence. “Nuckhorn say, see things when struck in head. Not sure if real. Not sure if dream. Struck head hard. Enemy Strike with axe. Nuckhorn block yet strike head. Nuckhorn not see. Sleep short time.”
“What?” Finley gasped with impatient frustration. Trying to understand the half size long beard was a waste of precious time. His emotions were getting the best of him.
“I think what Norg is saying is, Nuckhorn was struck in the head and he was knocked out for a little bit,” Mykal said. “That’s why he couldn’t tell if what he saw was real or a dream, right Norg?”
“Yes. Think so. Think right.”
“What else happened?” Mykal asked the thick bearded warrior.
“Nuckhorn say look to trees. See big black movement. Movement big. Struggle big. Look creature, big creature. Not see hoomins. Not see friends. See only big black movement like bear. Big fur. Big black. Not see hoomins.”
“Are you saying he saw something big and black like a bear but didn’t see the humans?” Mykal asked and gasps started among the men.
“Think yes. Say Nuckhorn. Think bear. Big fur, not normal beast. Not bear, think bear when look up from ground. Head injured from strike of blow. Not sure real. Not sure dream world.”
“It was some kind of a creature that was big and black and furry like a bear?” Mykal asked.
“Not yes. Not no. Not see creature in past. Many creatures. Many big black fur. Not one,” Norg explained.
“Are you saying it was more than one creature?” Mykal gasped again and looked to the trees. “Did he see the humans in there at all? Or was it all in his head from the injury?”
“Not know. Nuckhorn say not see hoomins. See big black fur movement. Eyes dizzy, eyes not clear. Head hurt. Like said, not sure real. Not sure dream world.”
“Okay, what I’m gathering from this, Nuckhorn had been injured and suffered a blow to his head so he’s not sure it he was dreaming or imagining this or not. But he thinks there could have been a couple of creatures like a big furry bear, and I guess there could have been more than just a couple of them,” Mykal added and shrugged. “If Jackson and Thornton were beyond the trees they could have been taken by the bears. It looks like one person was dragged off by the heel marks Roy Jr. pointed out, but we don’t know for sure. If Jackson was injured, Thornton may have gone there to help him. We see the paper wrapping of a field dressing and we see blood as well as Jackson’s rifle,” Mykal said and sighed.
“Should we go in there as a group and see if we can find them?” Lieutenant Finley asked.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Captain Diaz objected. “Let me take that back. We can go in there for a short distance with a long line of men to see if we can find anything, but I don’t want to venture too far into the Black Forest. If we see something that would be promising we could try going further, but I think we are putting the men at risk. It’s dark and I know if we wait till morning light then we’ve wasted a great deal of time.”
“Alright, let’s at least try,” Finley almost shouted. “Let’s go at least fifty feet, or seventy-five feet so we can see if we can find anything,” he said with a raised voice that expressed his anxious frustration.
“Okay, let’s go, but we’re coming back shortly due to the time of day,” Diaz said or he was going to cancel the small trek into the trees if there wasn’t an agreement.
6.
“I’m sorry Finley,” Mykal said when they all returned to the path. “They could have been taken by someone or something and they could have been taken into that friggin forest, but it’s too dark to try to do anymore.”
“I know. Damn it,” Lieutenant Finley huffed angrily. “I hate the idea of those two men being lost in that forest let alone being the prisoner of something in that damn forest. I don’t know if they’re dead or alive, being tortured or abused or being used as a meal.”
“Well, we’ll have men call for them periodically through the night on the PA system,” Captain Diaz offered. “We’ll just make sure our guard duty is heavy tonight. I want the guard duty rotation to be double or triple what is normal and I want everyone to know they could be woken at a moment’s notice just in case we get attacked.”
“Talk to the Elves and have them split up during guard duty,” Mykal said. “They have exceptional hearing and so does Towbar so if we hear anything during the night they would be able to hear it first. Also, have we heard from the Hawkmen? Do they know what Nuckhorn tried to explain what he saw? Did it sound like something they may know?”
“I’m hoping to speak to them shortly,” Captain Diaz replied. “Before we went into the forest I told them I wanted to speak to them after we came back.
Lanorear said he would do what they can to help us. Lanorear did say there are strange creatures inside the forest, but he had never heard of something that would be classified as big and furry like a bear. I will question him more closely when I get with him. Just so you know, Lanorear said we should be safe if we set up a camp here for the night.”
“Can I say something here Sir?” Gunnery Sergeant Ratner broke his silence. He and Sergeant First Class Lemon were listening to the top three and planned only to speak if spoken to.
“Sure Gunny,” Diaz said and waved his hand as if to invite him in.
“I know we’re planning on camping here for the night Sirs, but let’s make sure we put a lot of men on guard duty during each shift. I heard a number of men who said they are spooked. With all the dead bodies around us, and all the fear attached to the Forest of Death they are fearful that the bodies are going to rise during the dead of the night to come after us.”
“We know this is foolishness Sir,” Lemon added. “But some of the men are truly fearful of such things. Especially after the incident with the zombies under the mountain we had to deal with.”
“That is why I wanted to make our camp away from all of these dead bodies,” Captain Diaz said. “But with two men missing I think it is more important for us to stay in this general area for tonight. Just for the possibility they may return during the darkness. I would hate to leave and they make it back to this area during the middle of the night only to be here by themselves,” Diaz added and shook his head. “I really believe the chances of that are slim, but if it is possible I want to be here.”
“What are we going to do in the morning?” Finley asked.
“We already canvassed the forest for a good couple of hundred feet. We only saw a couple of droplets of blood that didn’t really give us an idea of where they could have gone to,” Diaz said as if laying the ground work for his answer. “So when day light comes if we don’t have any promising signs that we may be able to find them, we’re going to have to leave and treat them as K I A even though they are, as of now, only M I A.”
Mykal looked at Finley. It was clear Finley wanted to object, but he knew he had nothing to back up his position to delay their current mission. Mykal would side with Finley if time wasn’t such an important factor, but the dead line for rescuing Doninka was drawing near and drawing near fast. He didn’t even like the fact that they were spending so much time in one area, but he had to be sensitive to the possibility that two men who volunteered to help rescue Doninka could be in the general area and be in need of serious help.
“Well, let’s get some rest for the night,” Diaz said to call an end to their meeting. “Gunny, make sure the men get a good meal, set up the guard duty roster, a strong and deep guard duty roster, and we’ll see what we can do in the morning before we have to head out. I’m going to try to speak with Lanorear and his Hawkmen and hopefully learn something helpful. Maybe they will be able to find and hopefully be able to communicate with these big, dark, furry bear type creatures. If that is the case then maybe they will be able to return our men to us.”
“I’ll be available for most of the night to help,” Mykal said as he turned away. “I gotta go find Towbar.”
While Mykal walked away from their little group Green Beret Sergeant Freeman approached him. “Hey Mykal, do you have a quick minute?”
“Yeah sure. What’s up? Any new info on the two missing guys?”
“No. Sorry Myk,” Freeman shook his head and made a sad face. “I do gots to thank you cuz you told me earlier that I should apologize to one of my homies cuz I got angry when he was talking smack. Sergeant Jackson was the one I had to apologize to,” Freeman said and shook his head.
“Oh yeah,” Mykal replied and whistled when he realized he heard the heated exchange between Freeman and Jackson. It was the same Sergeant Jackson who was one of the missing men.
“I don’t know if Jackson is gonna come back to us or if’n he is dead. But I gots to thank you Mykal, cuz if’n I wouldn’t have apologized to him. I’d be mad at myself for letting our friendship end on a sour note.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m glad I was able to help in a small way,” Mykal said and shook his head again. He wasn’t really sure what to say. “I’m really glad you did the right thing. See, I’ve been in that situation where I let some junk come between me and some people and then they ended up dying. I never got the chance to make things right so that was why I said what I said.”
“Don’t take this wrong Myk,” Freeman said and paused as if he was questioning himself on admitting what was on his mind. “But when you first told me that, I honestly thought, ‘what does this crazy white dude know about what I’m dealing with here?’ I gave it a moment and you have always been a straight shooter with me, so I thought, ‘what the hell? What’s it gonna hurt?’ So I did and I’m so grateful I did, cuz if my homey Jackson is dead,” he paused when he started to choke on his words. “I just didn’t want him to die thinking I was holding a grudge against him.”
“Thank you for telling me that Freeman. I’ll talk to you later. Hopefully they will come back to camp during the night.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN 01/26/1984
1. Thursday, January 26th 1984
0508 hours, Camp on Path in Black Forest (19th Day)
“Hey Mykal. Hey Mykal,” Private First Class Anka whispered as he tried to stir Mykal from his sleep. Mykal slept in a sitting position inside one of the vehicles. “Hey Mykal, I was told to get you up at oh five hundred hours.”
“What’s up?” Mykal asked and pulled himself forward.
“I’m sorry Myk, I was told to get you up at oh five hundred hours but it’s almost ten past five.”
“That’s alright,” Mykal whispered groggily so as not to wake those beside him. “What’s going on?”
“Well I was told to get you up at five but Captain Diaz said to let you sleep because you had just laid down a couple hours ago but then Sergeant Lemon said you wanted up at five. So I’m here to see if you want up.”
“That’s fine, that’s fine. I meant what’s going on?”
“Nothing Sir,” Anka replied.
“Anything on the two missing men?”
“Nothing Sir. I know Lieutenant Finley is taking it hard. He’s kind of snapping at everyone,” Anka said quietly.
“I know what you mean. It would be one thing if they would have been killed and we saw their bodies,” Mykal said with a sigh and rubbed his face. “But the fact we can’t find then and don’t know what’s going on with them has gotta be eating him up. We don’t know if they’re okay or hurt or being tortured or whatever. So I understand where he’s coming from.”
“Yes Sir, I agree. So you’re up?” Anka asked and glanced at his watch though he couldn’t see the numbers in the darkened vehicle. “I have to get back to the front.”
“Sure. Tell them I’ll be there in a minute,” Mykal said and rolled his head to stretch his stiffened neck.
“I take it they didn’t find them dudes?’ Roy Jr. whispered while Mykal started to exit the transport vehicle.
“No.”
“That’s a shame,” he whispered and closed his eyes.
Mykal found Captain Diaz, Lieutenant Finley, Gunnery Sergeant Ratner and Sergeant First Class Lemon all standing together. Mykal got the impression the discussion was somewhat heated from Finley’s input, but it all stopped when he approached them.
“Morning Mykal,” Ratner greeted him out of routine. None of them looked to be having a good morning.
“What’s up guys? Do we know any more than what we knew a few hours ago?” Mykal asked.
“No. They are still missing,” Captain Diaz replied. “We had the men call to them on the public address systems throughout the night and had men listening for any sounds of response.”
“There is no sign of them or where they could be,” Finley admitted in defeat.
“We did have several animals sneaking around the dead bodies during t
he night,” Ratner said to change the intense focus. “They were easily scared away but they kept coming back. We couldn’t really see what they were.”
“They had to be scavengers of some kind,” Lemon replied. “It seemed like they could have been large rats, wild dogs or even large raccoons. There were several different types of scavengers that attempted to feast on the dead.”
“When day light is full, we’re going to have to move on,” Diaz said. “We can’t sit here because at this moment time is one of our biggest obstacles we’re going to have to overcome.”
“Captain Diaz, have you given any thought to my idea of leaving two of the vehicles here with about two dozen men to see if they return during the day?” Finley asked. His frustration and fear was etched deeply in his face.
Mykal was shocked by the question and suddenly neared heated anger. He wasn’t about to allow their force to be split especially with no proof that the two men were still alive. This force was put together for the sole purpose to find and rescue Doninka.
“We can’t do that. I’m not going to risk that many men for the slight chance they might return,” Captain Diaz said firmly. “It would not be fair to the men who would be left behind, and it wouldn’t be fair to the men going forward if they were needed for any potential attacks from the enemy. We can’t split our forces in such a hostile land with all that is going on. If something was to happen and we would have to return to the Pass those men could possibly be stuck here for the rest of their lives. I will not chance it.
“I feel terrible that two men are gone,” Diaz continued, “but based on the evidence we saw, blood, a field dressing wrappings, a discarded weapon and the trails in the dirt, I would have to lean more to the idea,” Diaz paused because he didn’t want to vocalize the next words. “They are both dead. I am not going to risk any number of men for the slight possibility they might return here when they have had plenty of time to return or try to get our attention. All the evidence points to the worst possible outcome,” Diaz said firmly as the leader of the operation. “I’m sorry, but as much as I hate to say this we just can’t split up our force and leave some of the men here.”
