Obstacles

by David Wilson

  Taking a deep breath and pushing it back out just as fully, Talon snuggled down behind his weapon and prepared to fire. Afterward, Talon could not explain how he knew or why he acted at that particular moment in time. The slight movement he had observed when he had looked to his left had taken a second to register and signal an alarm to his brain. Without thinking, Talon threw himself to his right out of his hide site and rolled down the riverbank into the edge of the water just as four light beams switched on and bullets from at least four AK’s pounded his now abandoned hide site.

  Barely managing to hang onto his M-4, he struggled to grab onto anything on the riverbank as the current of the river attempted to drag him down into its murky depths. Just as he was about to panic, Talon heard his old Scout Swimmer Instructor scream at him, ‘Don’t fight it, make it work for you.’ Letting go of attempting to find something to hang on to, Talon relaxed and let the current take him as he was pulled under by the weight of his gear. As he was pulled under, he found the river bottom and pushed off to propel himself downstream towards the ferry still docked where they had left it. Using the current to assist him, Talon was able to surface for a few seconds and grab another lung full of air. As he surfaced, Talon heard the Iranians on the riverbank yelling, and again there was a string of automatic fire. Ignoring the action above, Talon knew they could not see him as their night vision would have been ruined by the weapons firing and the flashlights. Talon caught a glimpse of the ferry in the muzzle flash of the AK’s. It was coming up fast as the current pushed him away from the riverbank and directly at the side of the ferry. Panic almost overcoming him, Talon drew in as much air into his lungs as he could and dove under the water. Pulling himself down with the aid of his equipment weight, Talon wondered to himself if this was the stupidest thing he had ever done. Stroking as hard as he could, he reached the bottom and felt his M-4 briefly snag on something. Reaching up with his left hand, he located the sling strap and pulled it as tight as it would go.

  Talon knew that he would have to surface soon as he resisted the urge to breathe in a lung full of water. Pulling hard for another two strokes he began to see bright points of light in his eyes and knew he had to get to air, summoning the last of his strength he used his legs to push off the river bottom towards the surface. As he pushed off, he raised both hands over his head so he would not ram his head into the bottom of the ferry. Luckily his hands felt air and not steel. Gasping for air Talon attempted to suck air into his oxygen-deprived lungs, but at the same time not to make any noise. He rapidly realized this second part was unnecessary as the Iranians were doing enough screaming and yelling to cover up any sound he could make and the bright flashlights still swinging around wildly, had already ruined their night vision. Judging by the lights, Talon swimming and the current had swept him down the river and past the ferry by about 30 yards.

  Stroking as hard as he could for the riverbank, Talon finally was able to grab a tree root sticking out from the riverbank. By this time, he was a good 100 yards downriver from the ferry boat. Pulling himself up onto the riverbank with the last of his strength, Talon rolled onto his back and just laid there grasping until his breathing settled down. Reaching up with his right hand Talon pulled his maybe ruined Game Ear out of his right ear and stuffed it into his front pouch on his chest rig. Hopefully, it would still work after he let it dry out. Glancing down he could see his M-4 was covered in mud, he removed the magazine and locked the weapons bolt to the rear. Holding the M-4 by the sling, he rolled over onto his left side and dunked the M-4 several times into the river and was able to wash most of the mud off. Looking down the barrel Talon shoved the small light hanging from the front of his chest rig into the chamber of the M-4. Seeing the light shine through the barrel, he shut off the light, glad that something was going his way. He had been worried his barrel would be plugged up with river mud. Rinsing off the magazine he had taken out of the M-4, he struck it back into his chest rig and drew a fresh magazine and shoved it into the rifle. Next, he checked both of his Glock’s, and other than having to rinse them off in the river and wipe the RMR glass off, both were good to go for now. He cringed a little inside with the cleaning he would have to do later tonight. But first, he had some terrorist rag heads to deal with. Double checking that his NVD and ACOG was still operational, he grinned and thought, ok, my turn. Standing Talon began looking for a place he could climb the riverbank.

  Moving as quickly as he could so, the terrorists in the canoes would not spot him. Talon slung his M-4 around his body to his back so it would not get muddy again as he grabbed the large roots sticking out of the riverbank and pulled himself up until he could get a good handhold and foothold to scamper over the lip of the riverbank. Rolling into a prone position, he pulled the M-4 into his shoulder and peered back upriver towards his former hide site.

  There appeared to be four of the individuals who had somehow made it across the river to outflank him. Talon reminded himself to never underestimate these bastards again. Whoever that little shit of an officer was over there, he had a good set of brains. Guess I was just lucky his men were not as good as this guy is proving to be. I still can’t believe that he would use himself and his senior NCO as bait to buy his team time to get across the river.

  Glancing back upriver, Talon saw the Iranians were still shining their flashlights around the area he had hidden in and down into the water. Chastising himself for almost getting himself killed by underestimating his enemy, Talon swept his rifle around to the right to check the progress of the individuals in the canoes. The first of the three canoes had launched. Two of the troops helped steady the third canoe as the officer, and his senior enlisted climbed in and sat down. While he could not make out the words without his Game Ear, based upon the arm-waving, yelling, and from the tone of it, it appeared that none of them were excited about crossing the river in the unfamiliar boats. But regardless of how they felt, the other two canoes launched right after the first one, and for a moment, Talon was concerned as the first canoe was caught in the current and was being swept downstream. But as the men in the canoe began stroking hard with their paddles, they got the canoe under control and moving across the river. There was some more yelling, and the three canoes began to make headway across the river.

  Stepping into the tree line, Talon cursed again to himself as the tree limbs brushed across his face, “Damn it that was my favorite Boonie hat.” Moving slowly, but steadily, Talon advanced from tree to tree, attempting to keep the majority of trees between him and the Iranians up on the riverbank and those still crossing the river. Stopping about ten feet inside the tree line, Talon quickly found a spot that overlooked the boat ramp. Thinking to himself that this was a better position than the one he abandoned. He swung the M-4 back and forth between the canoes and the men on the bank a couple of times.

  Satisfied with the results, he took a deep breath and slowly let half of it out as the horseshoe-shaped reticle settled on the lower chest of the farthest man on the river bank. Stroking the trigger, Talon didn’t even wait for the man to drop before he shifted to the next man and again stroked the trigger. Talon’s scope momentarily blacked out as one of the two men remaining swung his flashlight in Talon’s direction; however, the NVD compensated for the light, and Talon was able to reacquire his reticle and put three rounds into the center of the third terrorist chest. The fourth man must have had enough after seeing all of his team mowed down and attempted to duplicate what Talon had done and dove for the river bank. Coming up short by about two feet, he was just gathering himself for that last leap when two of the three 5.56 rounds slammed into his chest just to the left of his armpit, ripping out both of his lungs and exploding his heart.

  Smiling evilly with his results, Talon was operating on muscle memory and training as he swung his M-4 towards the canoes when he more heard and felt than saw the flash of an RPG rocket. The rocket had been fired at about a fifteen-degree angle and exploded as it impacted about 60 feet behind and 20 feet up in a large oa
k tree from where he was. The distance of the miss had been slight, but due to the angle and distance, a miss of six inches was as good as a mile, Talon was already on his feet and charging forward.

  Talon hit the river bank and flopped and rolled, coming to rest on his elbows with the bipods already extended. Without thinking, Talon dropped the partially used magazine from his M-4 and slammed home a full magazine. Passing over the man attempting to reload his RPG in the lead canoe, Talon briefly took note of the screaming man sitting in the back of the canoe holding his hands to his face. Talon’s subconsciously noted this terrorist was not an immediate danger as the backblast of the first RPG had more than likely blinded and burned him to the point that he was out of the fight.

  Talon stopped on the second RPG gunner, who was standing up in the canoe but was being threatened by his canoe mate. After seeing what had happened to the other guy that was sitting in the rear of the first RPG gunner’s canoe, this guy was threatening the RPG gunner in his canoe. Three rounds from Talon’s M-4 impacted into the RPG gunner’s pelvic area, shattering his pelvis and hips into a thousand pieces, removing that threat permanently; however, it did not stop the man from pressing the trigger on the rocket launcher. The effect of the three rounds striking the man’s pelvic area caused the man to bend at the waist, and when he triggered the RPG, the backblast was spectacular as it was pointed straight up, and the rocket punched a six-inch hole in the floor of the canoe. Adding insult to injury, the rocket also took the gunner lower right leg and foot with it as it blew out the bottom of the canoe. Shifting to the man in the back of the sinking canoe, Talon dispatched him neatly with two rounds to his upper chest and one just below his nose. As both men became dead weight and dropped into the bottom of the canoe the RPG rocket hit the bottom of the river and in the resulting explosion, caused the canoe to roll to the right and dumped both the dead men and all of their equipment into the fast-moving current of the river.

  Moving his rifle slightly, Talon saw the man sitting in the front of the officer’s canoe with an AK to his shoulder and firing bursts of 7.62 x 39 in the direction of where Talon had just moved from. Even as Talon shifted his aim to this man, his AK stopped firing, apparently ran dry of ammo, and instead of attempting to reload the weapon, the man rolled over the side of the last canoe, causing the canoe to tip over. Cursing, Talon watched carefully for any movement on the water, the lack of depth perception working against him. Reaching up, Talon flipped on the IR illuminator attached to the side of the NVD. The illuminator didn’t do much, but it was enough to get some eye shine from the man still hanging onto the end of the canoe. Sighting carefully, Talon softly squeezed the trigger, releasing three 5.56 projectiles. From what he could see, at least one of the rounds struck the man in the left eye socket, leaving a fan-shaped trail of blood and brains on the water before the man slowly sunk into the depths of the Potomac. Knowing the magazine was almost empty, Talon did something that he normally would never do, that is, shoot something with the hope of hitting something he could not see. Switching to single fire, Talon aimed at the overturned canoe and used the remaining rounds to shoot holes into the canoe. Talon knew the chances of hitting the remaining terrorist were slim, but maybe he would get lucky.

  Running the magazine dry, Talon reloaded with a fresh magazine and then slowly searched the area by moving his M-4 back and forth in a grid pattern. Hoping at the very least the man drowned, Talon lay on the bank and listened and watched for any movement. After about 20 minutes and feeling completely drained, Talon began gathering up his gear to move out and return to the base camp. Once he had his gear all situated, he moved back into the trees and circled the outer edge of the parking lot, making his way back to his first hide positon. Two of the flashlights were still lying on the ground with their beams on. Removing his M-4, he leopard crawled to within about five feet of the first flashlight before stopping and listening. Hearing nothing, he slowly crawled forward until he could reach out and hit the power button on the light, immediately rolling to his left for two rolls, Talon held perfectly still and listened. Still nothing, Talon thought it was good there was some cloud cover tonight, or he would not have tried and recover any of the terrorist's gear. After recovering the second flashlight, he quickly searched the three bodies. Finding nothing of interest other than a cheap civilian model radio, which he threw into the river, three hand grenades, which he kept and three AK’s, which he took along with their three ammo vests. Gathering up his own M-4, Talon moved slowly down the edge of the field until he came to the ravine where Ben and he had set up the YoYo fishing reels about a year ago, at least that is how it felt to Talon.

  Deciding he was too exhausted to even check the YoYo’s, Talon decided it might be best if he called in and let the team know he was on his way back into the camp. Pulling out the handheld radio, Talon reached for the power button. Just as he did, he whirled in disbelief as the sound of a truck engine starting came from across the river. Damn it all to hell, Talon thought, I bet it is that older NCO that made it away. Talon stood there for a couple of minutes as the sound of the truck faded as it drove back north. Turning back towards camp, Talon worried that this was not the end of the Iranian’s trying to kill him and his group.

  Chapter Eight

  Turning back towards camp, too exhausted to deal with anything else tonight, Talon pulled his radio out and turned it on. Mildly surprised that it worked after everything it had been through, he keyed the transmit button, “Basecamp, this is Talon, on my way back in, two minutes.” Talon paused for a second to listen and again wondered if the radio really would work.

  After about 15 seconds, Don’s voice came out of the speaker, “Roger that, the coffee is hot and waiting for you.” Smiling, Talon double-clicked the transmit button to acknowledge his message. Another few seconds went by before Talon realized he was just standing there, damn he thought I’m getting too old for this shit. Willing his feet to begin moving, he slowly began the short walk beside the ravine to the campsite. Just about the time, Talon began wondering if he had walked past the campsite, a small point of light lit up about 25 feet from me. Freezing in place, he spoke in a low tone, “It’s Talon, get over here and take these rifles and ammo belts from me.” The light flicked out and he heard movement as whoever was on guard climbed out from behind a large downed tree. Judging from the noise, Talon figured it had to be either Ben or Mat.

  With just enough ambient light to see a dark shape moving towards him, he could see that whoever it was, was not wearing their ghillie blanket. “You might want to be wearing your ghillie blanket at night, it will help break up your outline even in the dark,” Talon stated calmly.

  Mat replied, “I have it with me and was using it, but figured it would just get in the way right now. Man, what in the hell did you get yourself into back there? Ben and I really wanted to come and help you out, but Grandpa told us absolutely not that if you had wanted our help, you would call for it and that we would just get our asses shot off walking into a firefight without knowing where you were.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing you listened to Don, now help me with all this shit. I’m worn out, and Don said he has the coffee on. Let’s get into camp, and I’ll go over what happened when we have everyone together,” Talon replied as he began handing the AK’s over to Mat.

  Everyone was awake and up when Mat and Talon walked into the camp. Talon was pleased that he had not been able to tell where exactly the camp was until Don flipped on his red headlamp. Heading that way, he walked over to the base of a large oak tree and began dumping the ammo belts and his own gear at the base of it. Leaning my M-4 against the tree, Talon turned and took the cup of coffee from Don. Seeing only Don, Beth, and Mat, he said, “Go ahead and tell Ben to come in for a couple of minutes so I can update everyone at once.”

  Don mumbled into his radio and said, “It will take just a couple of minutes for him to get here, he is only out about 50 yards or so to our west.” Talon nodded as he took a sip of the hot coffee
, damn that was good. He didn’t know what Don did, but the man could make a great cup of coffee. Looking around, Talon found a likely spot and sat down so he could lean against a small log someone had dragged over next to the cooking pit. The team had obviously been busy as the ground cover had been raked back for about a ten-foot circle. Three Solo stoves sat in the middle of a rock circle. Don saw me taking it all in and said, “As soon as you called in, I put on a pot of water. It should be ready in a couple of minutes. I figured you would be hungry.”

  Talon nodded and turned to face the woods to our west as Ben came rushing in. He walked straight over to Talon and ask if he was ok. “Man, we were worried when all of those AK’s opened up at once. Mat and I wanted to come help, but Don said no.” He stopped talking as Talon held up his hand.

  “Mat told me, and just so everyone knows, Don was right to stop the two of you. Everybody grab a sit, I don’t want this to go for long as we really do need to have people out on guard duty. I think we are ok for right now, but everyone does need to know that there are some highly trained bad guys out to get us. They do not know who we are, so we should be able to fade into the background once we get out of the area. Anyway, I’m sure everyone wants to know what happened tonight, so here is the short version. After Mat took down that last terrorist, we found out they had been talking to their leadership back in Iran, yes, they were honest to God terrorists. That team we took out was the team that killed everyone back at the water plant where we stayed last night, and yes, I did not say anything as we needed the rest, and the terrorists were already gone. But it appears the terrorists that did do the water plant then moved down to the ferry, and they were the ones that killed Jeff. The way I know they were real terrorists is that after Mat took down the last one, their bosses in Iran tried to call, and I answered their phone. So I guess I said something that made them mad and they sent some more terrorists in the area to find us and kill us. That’s what I was doing tonight, taking care of the new ones. I got all of them but one, and he got away on the other side of the river. I doubt that he will bother us tonight as he does not know how many of us there are or where. I know some of you will ask, so I’ll tell you right now that I do not know if there are other groups of terrorists that have been sent to find us. But I really do think we are ok resting here for the next couple of days as long as we lay low and don’t draw attention to ourselves. With that said, again, no one goes outside this camp by themselves. Is that understood?”