Chapter 7

As I watched, one of the lads turned back and headed back toward me. I hunkered down. Had I been spotted? I was sure if I had all the platoon would be coming for me.

I watched the lad as he found a stand of bushes, he put his AK47 down and unzipped his trousers.

I put my own gun down and unsheathed my Fairbairn Sykes Commando Knife. It was an old-school knife, but it had never let me down.

I started to move in on my target. He was humming as he pissed. I was ten feet behind him and from the way he was tugging on his cock he was nearly finished.

I moved in clamped my hand around over his mouth and slid my blade between his ribs and into his heart. He was struggling but I held him tight and made sure he did not utter a sound.

Now some guys in the army do not like killing a bloke so up close and personal. They do not mind the distance a gun gives you but using your bare hands or knives is different gravy.

I did not mind, the guy in front of me was the enemy.

He would not bat an eyelid if he had to kill me.

I felt the life draining out of the guy as he struggled to get my hand off his mouth. Then I felt his sag in my arms. I dropped him to the ground and made sure he was dead. I swiped the blade of my knife across his throat.

I searched him, he had a cheap knife which I tossed into the bushes and four mags for the AK47, which was a God send. I felt more confident now I had some more rounds.

I stuffed the mags into my pockets and dragged the body into the bushes. I went back and picked up the lad’s rifle. It was a cheap and battered-looking AK47 copy. I stripped the mag out of it and tossed it into the bushes.

It was time to make my way back to our sangars. I fetched my AK and headed along the path. The platoon must have been missing their man. I had only walked ten yards up the track when I heard men coming back toward me.

I stepped off the track and ducked down behind a stand of rocks. I got to my favourite firing position, on one knee. I made sure the AK was set to semi-auto, and I put a spare mag on the floor beside me.

Three men walked down the track. I let them get a tad closer before I lined up the middle guy and gave him a three-round burst. He was dead before he hit the ground.

The lad to his right raised his gun but I put three rounds into his chest before he had time to return my fire. The other lad had his gun on the strap over his shoulder.

He never had time to react. My rounds drilled into his guts. I waited; two more lads ran along the track. I fired, and the rifle clicked to tell me it was empty. I swapped mags and fired again. Rounds hit the rocks I was hunkered down behind.

I ducked, rolled, and got to one knee. I lined up a lad that was running toward me. I put three rounds into his chest, taking him off his feet.

The other lad looked at his mate and then turned toward me. The time he wasted checking his mate was all I needed to aim and fire. Three rounds hammered into him.

I heard shouting from behind me.

Fuck I had men behind me and men in front of me. I headed forward, I did not have time to search the lads on the track.

I ran along and more shouts came from behind me and in front of me. It was time to make a move. I saw the rest of the platoon taking a fag break. I dropped to one knee and started to take out targets. I killed three men before they even made a move.

Some ran, some dropped to the ground, and some reached for rifles. I made sure every round counted. Men were dropping like flies. Rounds started to come my way. They were hitting the ground in front of me.

I saw the lad that had me in his sights and I drilled three rounds into his torso. He rocked backwards. I stood up and took the fight to them. I stepped to my left and targeted a guy who had stripes on his arm.

He had a pistol in his hand and was shouting at his men. Three rounds hit him and took him off his feet. An older guy to his left turned and lifted his rifle. I put two rounds into him. I kept moving forward. I had the AK’s stock tucked into my shoulder.

I fired out the rest of the mag and killed two more men. I swapped the mag and tossed the old one to the ground.

Two men stood up and fired at me. I dropped rolled and fired. One guy had an AK the other had some sort of carbine. I killed the guy with the AK first. To me, he was the more dangerous of the two. The other guy fired twice before three rounds hammered into his chest. He dropped the rifle and grabbed his chest before dropping to his knees.

The sound of men running behind me got louder and I knew that I had to make a move.

I ran over to the lad who had died with the AK in his hands. He had three spare mags. I took them, put my head down and ran.

For about ten minutes I put ground between me and the enemy. My throat was dry, and I was eager to get some water. I stopped running and checked behind me. There was no one close.

I started to walk along the track, it was taking me in the right direction.

Then i hit the deck as rounds came at me from the right of the track.

I dropped and commando crawled toward the edge of the track. At least two men were firing at me. I could not see them, rounds chewed up the ground around me. Stone chips showered me.

I saw a pair of legs, I fired twice, and the guy hit the ground. He was looking at me and he was still alive. He grimaced and tried to bring his weapon around to fire at me.

I put a couple of rounds into him. His mate was still firing. I returned his fire. He was firing off his mag with no control. In the SAS we are taught to use three round bursts. Okay, we could not always stick to the plan but nine times out of ten...

I heard the familiar click of a gun that had run out of ammo. I rolled out onto the track, aimed, and fired. The lad never even got time to reload. The rounds hit him in the chest, and he just dropped backwards into the bushes that he had been hidden in.

I stepped over the first guy and ripped a water bottle of his belt and after checking behind me I continued up the track. I opened the water bottle and emptied it in four long slurps.

The sound of fighting from the camp was less intense and I figured that Spike, and the lads were running low on ammo.

“Spike, mate, are you there?” I said into my comms unit.

“Yes mate, are you okay?” he replied. I could hear the tension in his voice.

“Yes, I have at least one platoon on my arse, but I am okay” I said and glanced behind me.

“We are heading back up the to the sangars. You made quite a mess down there!” Spike said.

“Yea I got lucky; I am now a goat track heading back up to the FOB!”

“Right, we will be back there on zero ten minutes,” he said.

“Any problems?” I asked as I continued my walk toward the sangars.

“Bazza has a flesh wound, nothing serious and JJ caught a stone chip in the face,” he said.

“Happy days, right I will radio in when I am closer mate!” I told him.

“Roger that pal!” he said and almost at the same time I heard movement behind me.

I turned and saw three guys around a hundred yards from me. They saw me one pulled a huge old school radio out of his backpack and the others dropped to the ground.