Comrades In Arms (In Love and War Anthology)

by Lindsay McKenna

  “Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay, babe. Just stay where you are. I see the mine. You’re okay for now. As long as you keep the same amount of weight on it, it won’t blow up. Whatever you do, don’t shift your body. Hear me?” He wiped his mouth as he nailed her with a look meant to make her understand that if she moved, she would die.

  “Yeah…yeah, I know. You drilled me on this,” Tara rasped.

  “Hold on…I’ve got to alert my men. We have to get you out of this….” And he turned, moved away and then slowly unwound and stood up. His team had stopped their vehicles a hundred feet away and were dismounting. Dave hurried back toward them.

  Tara could hear his voice in the distance; could hear the terror barely concealed in it as he gathered his team around him. She saw them all turn toward her. The stricken looks on their features only made her more fearful. Oh God, how was she going to get out of this alive? And what if one of them tried to help her and the mine went off, anyway? It would kill him, too.

  Raising her hand slowly, Tara wiped her mouth, which felt cottony and dry. Suddenly, she was dying of thirst, but her water bottle was back in the crater with her pack. With her heart pounding in her breast like a runaway freight train, all she could do was stand helplessly and wait. Dave quickly gave orders and his men dispersed and went back to their packs, which were still in the vehicles.

  Tara knew another strong gust of wind whipping down from foothills could make her lose her balance. The least movement would cause the mine to detonate. She’d be dead.

  Suddenly, as she stood there, she realized she didn’t want to die. Watching Dave trot back toward her, his long knife drawn and in his right hand, Tara wanted to scream out in fear. But she didn’t. Instead, she swallowed hard, several times.

  “Take some deep, calming breaths,” Dave told her as he approached. Seeing the fear in Tara’s huge blue eyes, he tried to keep his own voice low and soothing. It was nearly impossible. She was hunched over, her fingers tangled in the webbing of the M–4 rifle on her left shoulder. Her loose Afghan clothing whipped about in the inconstant breezes.

  “Yeah…okay. What are you going to do, Dave?”

  “First, I’m going to check the land around you to make sure there are no other mines. Then,” he said slowly, as he got down on his hands and knees, “I’ll carefully remove the sand from around the mine you’re on.”

  “Oh God…”

  “I know, I know, babe…just take it easy. Don’t panic on me. Just stay exactly where you are and we’ll get you out of this….”

  She watched with wide eyes as Dave began to slide the tip of his knife into the sand, an ever widening circle around where she stood. Lifting her head, she saw Sergeant Burt Lovell approaching, carrying his own knife in his hand. His face was dark with worry, too. The rest of the team was staying back out of harm’s way.

  “Burt?” she called.

  “It’s okay, ma’am. Me and the captain have done this before. We’ll make it go twice as fast. We need to make sure there’re no more mines near you. Just take it easy, okay?”

  Jerkily nodding, Tara watched him get down and go to work as Dave was going. Breathe, she ordered herself. Slow, deep breaths. You’re still alive, Tara. You’re still breathing….

  “Gusts are coming!” Private Doug Seabert called out to them.

  Oh, no! Tara tensed. The first gust struck. It slapped at her. Don’t move. Don’t move. Shutting her eyes tightly against the thick, yellow dust, she bit back a cry. No movement. None!

  “You’re doing fine,” Dave called to her. He was now twenty feet behind where Tara was standing. Lovell was going the opposite direction, probing the earth with his knife. Trying to get a handle on his escaping emotions, Dave wanted to scream. Tara could die. Oh, God, he couldn’t let that happen! Why hadn’t he told her he loved her? Right now he couldn’t. His men couldn’t know of their relationship.

  Tara felt her muscles beginning to shake. She was so tense and rigid that the muscle groups were beginning to complain.

  “Dave…I’m starting to tremble. I can’t stop shaking….”

  He looked up for a moment. Tara’s eyes were narrow with fear. “Try to relax. You can relax but keep the same weight on that leg. It’s okay, try it. You won’t blow us up. You’ve got to relax your muscles or you’ll get so tense that your trembling could set it off. Understand?”

  “Yeah…yeah, I understand….” Fresh fear shot through Tara. How was she going to relax and yet stay steady enough that the mine didn’t detonate? She had to try.

  Dave finally met Burt on Tara’s right side. “No more mines?”

  “No, sir, none. We’re good to go.”

  “Okay, go fetch that wooden plank you found. And I need a rock that weighs as much as she does.”

  Burt slowly rose to his full height. He slid the knife back into its sheath. “Yes, sir, I’ll be right back.”

  “Find the right rock, Burt. You know what to look for. Have Seabert bring me the plank.”

  “You bet. I’ll be right back….”

  Tara watched the sergeant leave. She heard Dave get up, then come around in front of her, his brows drawn down, his eyes narrowed. “W-what are you going to do? How can you help me out of this?”

  “We’ll get a piece of wood and a rock that weighs as much as you do.” Kneeling down, he used the tip of the knife to begin removing sand, just enough to expose the land mine Tara was standing on.

  Confused, she watched his very slow, careful movements. Heart pounding, she whispered rawly, “Oh, Dave, I’m so scared. I’m sorry I stepped off the path….”

  “Hush, babe, you didn’t do it on purpose. The wind here is bad. There’s been more than a few times we’ve all been knocked sideways by it.”

  “Y-you could have stepped on this mine….” Tara closed her eyes for a moment.

  “Yeah,” he rasped grimly as he smoothed the sand away from the metal rim. The mine was round and rusty, and he recognized it as a Russian-made one.

  “I thought you and your men cleared this area yesterday?”

  “Most of it,” Dave corrected. “Not all of it. We had gone over this area, but we must have missed this one. We don’t have a mine detector with us. All we have are our knives and our eyes. We screwed up.”

  Tara shook her head. “You’re all doing the best you can, Dave. I don’t blame you or anyone.”

  He sat back on his heels and looked up at her, close enough to reach out and touch her. “I blame myself. I don’t want anything to happen to you, babe.”

  Seeing the love for her burning in his eyes, Tara sobbed. She pressed her hand to her lips and forced herself to remain very still. “Oh, Dave, I love you. I should have told you before, but I was afraid….”

  Holding her tear-filled gaze, he whispered raggedly, “And I love you, Tara. Never forget that. Now, just hold on. We’ll get you out of this in one piece. No way are you going to die. I just found you….”

  Dave saw Burt coming back, staggering beneath the weight of a huge white rock. Tara weighed around a hundred forty pounds, and the sergeant had to estimate as closely as possible that the stone was that same weight, or more. Was he right? Dave didn’t know. Eyeballing the boulder that his sergeant struggled with, he thought it probably came close.

  Tara saw Private Seabert approach with a rectangular piece of old, dried out planking. It wasn’t more than two feet in length or a foot in width.

  “Give it to me,” Dave ordered Seabert, “and then back off. I don’t want anyone else hurt if we don’t do this right.”

  Nodding, Seabert said, “Yes, sir…” and handed him the plank.

  Dave set it carefully at his side. He was kneeling on Tara’s right side, the land mine mere inches away. He would be the one to do the dirty work. No one else.

  “Okay?” he asked Tara, looking up into her tense face. He noted that two tracks of tears wound their way down her dusty cheeks.

  “Y-yeah, okay.”

  “I’d reach out and pat you, bu
t I don’t want you to move,” he teased her quietly.

  “Right now, all I want to do is fall into your arms, Dave, and be held by you.”

  “Hold that thought, babe….” And he swung his gaze toward Lovell, who was huffing toward them with the boulder in his arms.

  Tara watched, barely breathing, as the sergeant carefully placed the boulder behind her right foot, about six inches away from the exposed land mine. She listened as Dave quietly gave the sergeant instructions.

  “Okay, Tara,” Dave said, looking up at her, the plank in his hands. “Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to gently ease the edge of the plank beneath your right heel. You’re going to have to allow me to slide it slowly in between you and that mine. All the while, you’re going to have to maintain the same weight on it. Once the plank completely covers the mine, Burt is going to roll the boulder forward on the exposed edge of the planking. As he does so, you’re going to have to slowly slide your foot forward, giving him more and more room to roll the boulder up on the plank. The mine won’t go off if more weight is on it than was there previously, it will go off if there’s less weight. Understand?”

  Swallowing, her voice scratchy, she asked, “How does Burt know the rock weighs as much as me?”

  The sergeant briefly smiled. “Ma’am, I think this rock is about a hundred and sixty pounds, by my estimate.”

  “What if you’re wrong?” Tara rasped.

  “Then we all die,” Dave told her quietly. “Don’t worry, Tara. This rock is heavy enough. You need to listen to me now, and do exactly as I say, when I say it. Are you ready?”

  No, she wasn’t. Tara felt a lump rising in her throat. She felt her muscles shaking. Still, she struggled for calm. “Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s do it….” How brave she sounded. And how scared she was!

  Dave inched the plank forward. Beads of sweat trickled into his narrowed eyes. For a moment, everything blurred. He eased the plank beneath Tara’s heel. “Okay, here it comes….” And he nudged it forward one slow, torturous inch at a time.

  For the next five minutes, Tara felt as if her life was over. But the plank was smooth from age and weathering, allowing it to slide friction-free beneath the sole of her boot. She tried to remember to breathe, but kept holding her breath.

  Dave maneuvered closer to Tara. The plank was now in position between her foot and the mine. “Okay, Burt, roll that rock up on it…and be nice and delicate about it….”

  Tara saw the other team members watching them, saw the fear and anxiety on every face. Their expressions mirrored how she felt. Hearing the crunch of sand as the boulder was eased up on the lip of the plank, she froze.

  “Good…good,” Dave murmured. “A little more now…yeah…we got it on the edge. Good…”

  Tara heard the relief in his voice. Some of her fear abated because he sounded so positive. Every joint in her lower body ached. She was beginning to tremble in earnest from the hips downward. The crunching sound started again. She felt the boulder come up against her heel.

  “Okay, babe, I want you to slowly ease your foot forward about two inches….”

  Tara realized Dave had slipped and called her by the endearment. She knew the sergeant had heard it. Right now, that wasn’t important. As she carefully slid her boot forward, she found it easy to move along the smooth planking.

  “Great,” Dave whispered. He was holding the board down with both hands, using his full weight to keep it steady. The mine wouldn’t go off under the circumstances unless it was very old. Not all Russian land mines were state of the art, he knew. Many went off without reasonable cause. Breathing through his mouth, he watched Burt roll the boulder forward, until it met the heel of Tara’s boot.

  “Excellent, excellent,” Dave whispered. “Okay, Tara, this is it. I want you to slide your foot forward and off the plank. We’ve got the boulder on it now, plus my weight. Go ahead…move. And once you do, get as far away from us as fast as you can. Understand? Run to the team. They’re a safe distance away.”

  “But…what about you and Burt?”

  “We’ll be fine. Just do it, Tara…Now!”

  Holding her breath, she slid her boot off the plank. Instantly, she heard the grinding of the boulder rolling forward.

  Rushing away, she raced toward the team, who gestured for her to run to them.

  Panting heavily, she stopped and turned around once she reached them. Her knees were wobbly and she found herself swaying dizzily. Someone took her M–4 off her shoulder. Another man helped her sit down in one of the all-terrain vehicles. Her gaze, however, was riveted on Dave and Burt as they knelt over the mine. Hands pressed against her heart, she felt raging fear for both of them. What if the rock wasn’t the right weight? What if, as Dave eased his own weight off the plank, the mine exploded?

  Seconds seem to drag like hours for Tara. She watched as Dave slowly inched back, lifting his hands away from the plank. The banked terror in both men’s faces turned to relief as they slowly got to their feet and backed away.

  Within a minute, it was all over. The boulder stayed on the board, unmoving. She saw Dave turn, sling his arm around Burt’s shoulders and slap him with hearty congratulations on the back before they both jogged forward. The entire team broke out into a cry of victory. Someone handed Tara a bottle of water. She thanked him and drank deeply, her throat parched.

  As she lowered the bottle and wiped her wet lips, she saw Dave’s gaze pinned on her. Oh, how she wanted to fly to his arms, but she knew she couldn’t. Tara sat there on the verge of tears, battling them back. This team deserved her courage, not her sobs. Another time, she would cry and release this backlog of fear from her brush with death.

  Right now, as Dave approached, she wondered what would happen next between them. In the midst of a terrible situation, they’d both confessed their love for one another.

  Chapter 5

  “We’re home,” Tara said as she walked back into the operations building where her life-changing mission had started nearly three months before. No one heard her say it because the families of the returning Spec For teams were surging around the heroes of Afghanistan. Dave had gotten separated from her by the crush of wives, children, parents and siblings who were joyously greeting the weary warriors.

  It was 0300 in the morning, but Fort Campbell’s Ops building was bulging with loved ones who would have their men home for Christmas, which was two days away.

  Shouldering her pack and rifle, Tara moved slowly through the jubilant crowd, her gaze pinned on the double doors that would lead outside to the snowy darkness. They’d had snow at Tarin Kowt before they left, and now here.

  Tara forced back her tears as sadness filled her. Her time with Dave was at an end, she knew. Because he had been assisting the team that came in to replace them in that corner of Afghanistan, he hadn’t been able to devote any personal time to her. Tara understood and accepted that; a new team coming in had to get to know the lay of the land, the procedures and protocols that had been established.

  “Wait!”

  It was Dave’s voice rising above the din of noise. Tara halted near the doors. She saw him moving toward her, his green beret on his head, his face smooth-shaven once more and a glint in his dark eyes. Instantly, her heart speeded up. The look he gave her lightened her soul and made her hope again.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said with a grin as he pushed opened the brass-and-glass door for her.

  Outside, Tara breathed deeply of the cool, refreshing air as they carefully moved down the concrete steps. Families were still coming and going, but the crowd had thinned.

  “Over here,” he said, and pointed to a stately elm that stood in the center of the snow-covered lawn. He hefted his bag and rifle as he walked alongside her.

  Tara dropped her pack near the gray trunk of the tree. Its girth was wide, indicating how old it was. Snowflakes twirled lazily out of the darkness above them. Straightening, she saw Dave drop his pack, too, and sling the M–4 over his left shoulder
.

  “This is a great night,” he told her with a grin, his breath a white mist in the frosty air.

  “Yes, it is….” Tara smiled faintly. She leaned against the tree, feeling exhaustion threading through her. “It’s great to be home….”

  “Speaking of which,” he said, lowering his voice so that only she could hear, “we haven’t had time to be together in the last couple of weeks.” Dave saw her lashes lift, revealing those heart-stopping blue eyes of hers. Since the incident with the land mine, he’d sworn to himself that he would treat every minute with her as if it were the last. Mouth tightening, he whispered, “Tara, I want you to stay here, with me…. I know you have thirty days leave coming. Stay here, babe…let’s explore what we have. Give ourselves the time we need under less pressured circumstances to see if it’s genuine. I know it is, but we need to do this for ourselves.” He stopped himself from reaching out to touch her cheek. Her hair had grown longer, the dark strands framing her oval face—a face he loved fiercely. Searching her eyes, he said, “What do you think? What do you want to do?”

  “I wasn’t sure, Dave. About us…. You know—wartime romance and all…”

  “Listen to me,” he rasped, coming closer, his head inches from hers. “If that mine situation brought one thing home to me, it’s that what I feel for you is real and deep. And lasting, Tara.” How he needed to kiss her! The last time had been two weeks ago, and he ached to crush her warm, soft mouth beneath his. To feel her strong, womanly arms come around his shoulders as she pressed herself wantonly against him.

  “I thought you might want to go home to your family?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll call them. They’ll understand. How about you? Your family?”

  “Well…I had wanted to be with you. I was going to phone them, too….”

  Heart lifting with relief, he looked around. They still couldn’t be too familiar with one another; showing affection for a fellow officer in public just wasn’t done. “That’s all I need to know. They’ve got you billeted at the BOQ, Barracks Officers Quarters?”