Obstacles

by David Wilson

  Looking at everyone in the dim light, Talon went around the circle and got head nods from everyone. Mat was the first with a question, raising his hand, he asked, “How many were in this last team that you took care of?”

  Talon paused, thinking if he wanted to answer Mat’s question but decided they had the right to know, “There were ten that made it here, I think there was more, but they had a little trouble with some of the locals on the way in. But I will also say, they almost trapped me, if they had been three seconds faster on opening fire, well let’s just say I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you right now. The leader of that group was not stupid, and he had a set of balls on him, he somehow sent four of his guys across the river and distracted me with his group as they were preparing to cross the river. He waited until the guys on this side of the river attacked before he began crossing the river. I’m sure he thought they had killed me, or he never would have attempted to cross the river right there. After I took out his team on this side of the river, they were sitting ducks trying to cross in canoes.”

  Don asked the next question, “Did you get any other information from the phone call, and also can we use that phone to contact someone in our government about these guys?”

  “To answer your question about contacting our government first. We could if we knew any of the numbers to contact. But that would also let the Iranian know exactly where we are at that time. So no, we cannot use the phone. To answer your first question, they didn’t give up much information, but from what they did say, there are a bunch of terrorist cells scattered across the country, and they do have communications. Beth did the group that took you captive attempt to call anyone, or did they receive any phone calls that you know of while you were there?”

  Beth answered, “The first guy that was holding me at the window and that you killed was on the phone the whole time, but it sounded, just by the tone of the conversation that he was talking to someone that he knew. After you shot him, the next guy was a lot more uptight talking to whoever was on the other end of the phone. After the second guy was killed, no one else stepped forward to take command. The phone did ring several times, but no one would answer it.”

  Ben stepped into the small circle and asked, “Should Mat and I go back down there in the morning and see if we can find any usable gear?”

  “Good idea, but no, we should stay away and just lay low for the next couple of days,” I said, “I will want the two of you to go down and see if we caught any fish first thing in the morning. Take some bait, just in case you need to re-bait a hook. Go ahead and leave the YoYo’s out as we are not going anywhere tomorrow. Just make sure you do not go out into the open by the river. We do not need to draw any attention to where we are. Everyone needs to catch their breath for a day or two.”

  “OK, that’s enough for the night, I’m wiped out and just want to grab a bite to eat and get some sleep, we will discuss more about this tomorrow. Ben, Mat, get back out there, please stay alert, wake up Don and me at 0200.”

  Chapter Nine

  Waking with a jerk, it took me a couple of seconds to remember what had happened and where I was. Ben was standing back a few feet from my hammock, from where he had been tossing small sticks and pinecones at me to wake me up. Hell, how did I get this sore, then the events of the day before came flooding back in? Knowing in the back of my mind that I needed more rest, but then again, every single one of these guys could say that, I promised myself that I would take a nap later in the day. “I’m awake, you mind staying on post for about 15 more minutes while I get cleaned up a little? I still have on wet stuff from last night.”

  “Sure, no problem, just give me a call when you are ready to take over the watch. I’m just 50 or 60 yards due west of here,” Ben said, pointing back over his shoulder, “The water is hot on the stove if you want coffee or a bag of chow.”

  “Thanks, Ben,” Talon replied, as he had meant to eat a bag before racking out but had just climbed in my hammock, dirty boots and all as soon as he had put it up last night. Swinging his legs out of the hammock, he groaned as he attempted to stretch out the kinks. Grabbing his headlamp from the hammock centerline, Talon cupped it in his hands and flicked it on. After making sure the red lens was in place, he bent over and grabbed my M-4 that was lying on top of his chest rig. Groaning again and trying to keep it to himself, putting the M-4 back down and stood up and headed over to his bike and cart. Getting there slowly as the kinks began working themselves out, Talon bent over his pack and dug for his medical bag. Opening the medical bag, he pulled out the Ranger Tabs and dry swallowed two of the horse pills. They didn’t go down easy or taste good, but he knew that the faster he could get it into his bloodstream, the faster h would get to feeling better.

  Putting the medical bag away, he dug out his clothing bag and a large pack of baby wipes. Carrying these back over to his hammock, he stripped down and took a couple of minutes, putting the baby wipes to good use. Stripping the knee pads out of his dirty CRYE trousers, he took the time to get them fitted into the clean pair he had just put on. Hopefully, he would get lucky in their travels to find a store that carried CRYE products. Yesterday the knee pads saved him from damaging his knees several times. Feeling refreshed after the wipe down and clean clothes, Talon grabbed his gear and coffee cup and headed over to the camp cooking area. Tossing in a pack of instant coffee and filling the cup with hot water, Talon sat his cup down by the fire to let it cool. Stepping over to the supply trailer, he pulled out an ammo can of 5.56. Carrying the ammo can in one hand and his cup of coffee in the other, he cautiously made his way across camp to take over the watch from Ben.

  Sending Ben to get some rest, Talon settled in against the tree Ben had found. It actually was a really nice find. The oak was about 30 inches in diameter; another oak of about the same size had fallen, so it was about three feet from the trunk of the tree he was leaning against. Not perfect, but good. The tree that had fallen was about a foot off the ground. Tomorrow he would have Ben and Mat find some rocks or another smaller tree they could drag over to make the position a little more secure. Just in case. Without realizing it until now, Talon had already decided that their little group would stay put for at least two days. There were a couple of reasons for that, one being everyone was wiped out from the events of the last two days, and more importantly, if there were any other groups of Iranians looking for his group, they would figure his group would still be moving west or south. One other reason he wanted to stop for a couple of days was to get some idea of what was going on. The only way they could do that would be to break out the shortwave radio and listen. Something they could not do while they were moving.

  Sitting and sipping his coffee, Talon thought again that he really didn’t want to stop, but he needed, no, he had to know what was going on around the country. Hell, he didn’t even know if the whole country had been affected by the EMP that took out the power on the East Coast. But at the same time, he was not holding out much hope of that. If that had been the case, then the military would have been all over Washington, D.C. But he had to find out. Hopefully, he could tune into some shortwave operator out of the Houston or Waco area. He had the frequencies of several Ham operators in those areas, but figuring out the wave promulgations could be tricky. But he had his books stored on an old iPhone in his Silent Pocket bag, so he should be able to figure it out.

  I need to get out the solar chargers in the morning, he thought as he finished his coffee. Sitting down the cup, he reached over and dragged the ammo can over to himself. He knew he needed to actually clean all of his magazines after yesterday, and he would later today. But he also needed to have full magazines in the meantime, just in case.

  Sitting and listening to the night sounds, Talon reached into his vest pocket and pulled out his Hunter Ear. Finding and opening the battery compartment by feel, he dried off the battery on his pants leg. Blowing gently into the battery compartment, he put both the battery and the device in his shirt pocket. Hopefully, the
device would dry out and work. If not, he had one more packed away somewhere in all of his gear.

  Pulling a bandana out of his leg pocket, Talon sat against the tree and wiped down the outside of each of his M-4 magazines as he listened to the forest sounds surrounding him. The woods were peaceful with no stress, a good sign that no one was out and about. It felt good to just sit and relax after the day they had all endured. He knew today would be a little stressful, more so for some, but he would get that out of the way right after breakfast. The team needed to do a hot wash on yesterday’s action, and it was not going to be pretty. Yes, most of the team survived, but that was because they had been dealing with idiots. If that officer from last night had been in charge at the ferry building, events might very well have turned out differently. But the bottom line was that the team could not afford to lose a person every time they encountered the enemy. Beth had ignored his orders yesterday, and the result was the death of a teammate. She had to understand that or she was worthless to the team, and they would drop her off at the first sign of civilization. He would not allow her to put the team into a similar or worse situation. Of course, Mat had to accept this also, and last, but not least, Ben had to deal with his anger. Like Talon said earlier, anyone with any issues could deal with them over the next couple of days while they rested. He needed the team to be rested and clear-headed for this final push for the cabin.

  Looking down, Talon realized he had completed the wiping down of his magazines and had reloaded them all without even thinking about it. Slowly closing the ammo can lid, he eased the lid’s latching lever down so it would make as little noise as possible. Having completed his most immediate tasks, Talon reached down to his M-4 and thumbed on his NVD sight. Giving it till a few seconds to warm up, he raised his M-4 and did a slow search of the area in front of him. Completing the search, he reached down and pressed the transmit button on his radio, “You ok out there, Grandpa?”

  Immediately Talon received the double click of Don breaking squelch, then Don’s voice came over the radio, “Need me to come over there and hold your hand?”

  Talon thought for a minute, then pressed his mic button, “I’ll pass, don’t want you waking up all the kids stumbling around in the dark like a drunk Irishman.”

  Talon could hear the laughter in Don’s voice, “I wish I were after the last four days. What time are you going to wake everyone up?”

  Talon responded, “Figure you, and I will start breakfast when the sun begins coming up. We can let them sleep until then, they need the rest. We are in no hurry today. Just maintenance and rest.”

  The remainder of the watch was quiet, and the forest remained calm for the rest of Talon’s and Don’s watch. Around 5:00, Mat came on the radio and told us he had hot water and was coming out to refill our coffee. Have to give the kid credit, he was not afraid to make decisions and to jump in to help where he could, but I also suspected there was more to it than coffee.

  It was about ten minutes before I heard Mat coming towards my position. Cupping my headlamp in my palm, I flashed the lamp on and off twice. Once he got close, I turned it on for a couple of seconds so he could see what he was doing. As he walked up, he spoke, “Care if I sit for a minute? I have a couple of questions that I’d like to discuss in private if it is alright with you?”

  Talon replied, “Sure, grab a seat.” Mat first reached out and handed me a thermos of hot coffee, then turned on his own headlamp to find a spot to sit. Again I was impressed, as he had cupped the headlamp in his hand to reduce the amount of light.

  Giving him a minute to get settled, I felt around and found my Snow Peak Titanium cup. Using my drinking tube, I squeezed the mouthpiece and leaned back against the tree to squint some water from my Camel Bak into the coffee cup to rinse it out. As Mat got settled, he said, “That’s black coffee.”

  Thanking him, Talon poured himself a cup and offered the thermos back to Mat. Mat took the thermos and produced his own cup and poured himself a cup. They just sat there listening to the night sounds for several minutes before Mat broke the silence.

  “Sir, Ben told me how everything went down yesterday, I just wanted to apologize for the way Beth acted towards you, I had no idea that all of that was caused by her actions,” Mat confessed. He started to say something else but stopped when he heard Talon cleared his throat.

  “Mat, I was planning on talking to everyone as a group to about what happened yesterday. I appreciate that you wanted to talk to me in private, and we will, but we are still going to talk about this as a group. We, as a group, have to know that we can trust each other and that one of us is not going to do something that puts the group as a whole in danger. What Beth did yesterday was disobey a direct order in combat conditions. In the military, she would be court-martialed for what she did.”

  Mat began to protest, but Talon held up his hand and continued to speak, “I know, she is not in the military, and this is not a military unit. But I will be blunt with you. If she cannot obey orders, then she will go, or I will, right now, today. Her actions yesterday directly cause Jeff’s death, and for no reason other than she didn’t like the way I was handling things. That’s fine, today we will find out if she will correct her behavior or I will leave the group. No ifs, and, or buts. I will not have the selfish actions of a spoiled brat, get someone else that I have taken responsibility for killed because she doesn’t like me. Now you can speak, but don’t make excuses for her, she is an adult and can make her own decisions, like the bad one she made yesterday.”

  Mat started and stopped twice before he spoke, “Talon, Beth is really confused with everything that is going on, mostly she is in some form of denial about how things are now from how things were four days ago. She is still in shock about Jeff. She keeps saying she cannot believe that those men killed him.”

  Talon held up his hand again to stop Mat, “Those men didn’t kill Jeff. Beth’s actions got Jeff killed. Those men were Iranian military who have attacked our country and killed no telling how many Americans, but I will tell you this, if what is happening is what I think it is, they are just starting. They will continue to kill until they are ordered to stop or are killed themselves. There are other Iranian teams out there ordered to hunt our little team down and to kill all of us because we stumbled onto their little operation and took out a bunch of them. What is Beth going to do if a young kid, oh about the age of that kid you shot yesterday, comes up to camp asking for food. Is she going to obey our rules and turn him away, or is she going to invite him in to feed him while he sits there with his bomb vest on and waits until we all gather around to meet Beth’s new friend. Will she shoot someone that she tells to stop and they don’t stop? Tell me, Mat, what has she said to you today to make you think she will do what is best for our team and not just what she wants to do in her little dream world? What if that had been you yesterday riding point with her? Would we be having this conversation, or would your Grandfather have already shot her or kicked her to the curb? Think with your brain instead of your dick before you open your mouth to defend her again. I’m not saying we are going to cast her out to defend for herself, but I will tell you that our decision will be based on her actions and her comments when we talk after breakfast. But for right now I want you to go grab Ben, not Beth, she is not going anywhere as a backup, so go grab Ben and check the YoYo’s. If you need to re-bait them, do that, as we will be here for at least two days. Do not let anyone see you. Go straight to the YoYo’s and straight back, make sure your radios are on and working. Any questions?”

  Mat stood and said, “Yes sir, get Ben, and go check the YoYo’s and straight back.” Mat began to turn away, then turned back, “And Sir, thanks. Jeff and I were really close, and I know you did everything you could to save him yesterday.” Talon nodded, and Mat turned and disappeared back towards camp.

  Talon remained where he was and wondered if he had been too hard on the boy. Then he sighed and said in a low voice, “Come on over and have a seat, you old goat. I know
I was just thinking the same thing. But you and I both know there is no time left to coddle these boys, they have to be hard and grow up fast if they are going to survive this new world.”

  “So how long did you know I was standing there,” Don asked.

  “Not long, but I smelled that damn French Vanilla coffee creamer you use,” Talon retorted, “So what do you think, am I overreacting? It just burns my ass that she is acting the victim when she knows damn well she got Jeff killed.”

  “No, I don’t fault you for feeling that way, but you may be wrong to say she knows that her actions directly led to Jeff’s death,” replied Don. Even in the dark, he must have sensed that Talon was about to strongly disagree with him as he continued before Talon could. “I’m beginning to think that you don’t have much experience with teenagers,” Don continued with a slight chuckle in his voice, “Am I right?”