Chapter 6

Sargent Keisha LaCroix – US Army Ranger – age 24

Our transport chopper was flying over the desert at night. Our mission was to capture or eliminate an enemy commander at a fortified house in a remote area. Any hostiles would be in the building, so we wouldn’t have to watch our backs much. The pilot announced in our headsets, “Prepare for touchdown! Two minutes out!”

I saw a red streak coming toward us from the ground. I thought missiles didn’t fly that fast. For half a moment I wondered if it was a laser, or...

I woke with a bit of a headache thirty meters from the burnt-out remains of our chopper. I checked and was happy I wasn’t wounded. I still had all my gear, helmet with night vision and radio, carbine, pistol, canteen, flashlight, knife, smoke and flashbang grenades, glow sticks, first aid kit.

My pack with tent, sleeping bag, water, meals, and extra ammo was on the ground two meters to my right. To my left, I saw a pile of the other gear we brought with us. It looked mostly intact. I knew there was a satellite phone and a scout drone in the pile of plastic crates somewhere, along with a blasting kit and ten kilos of plastic explosive. I didn’t see any sign of my squad or the pilots, no bodies or even bones.

I rolled onto my belly and looked around carefully through the scope on my carbine. Other than the pile of equipment and the wrecked chopper, there was nothing significant up to the cliffs a few hundred meters away. I saw a few shrubs and head-sized rocks laying on the mostly smooth desert terrain, but nothing else. The chopper wreckage would attract hostile attention but there was no significant cover between me and the cliffs. I smelled salty sea air, though our mission had been two hundred clicks from the closest major body of water.

I turned on my radio and heard only a quiet hiss. I called for the squad to regroup a couple of times, but nothing. I patiently checked all the channels while keeping an eye on the horizon, but got only static. The sat phone showed “NO SERVICE” no matter which button I pushed.

I checked my GPS, and it showed I was at the North Pole. The sand, warm air, and extreme lack of ice told me that was probably wrong. I always carried a small magnetic compass just in case. I took it out, and it slowly spun in a circle without stopping. Other than the cliffs on all sides there were no landmarks, so my map was useless too.

I wondered what the hell was going on. This was some seriously fucked up shit!

The only tracks on the ground were mine, from after I woke up. If the other 16 aboard the chopper didn’t burn up in the crash, how did they leave without putting boot prints in the sand? Where the Hell did they go? Even if they were 20 clicks away, I should have been able to reach them on the radio.

I had only met the pilots the previous day, but would all 14 of my people really leave without me? Even the Lieutenant? Our squad had been together nearly a year and half of them were Black like me, so a race issue wasn’t it. Morale had been great when we left base, with us joking around and ready to kick some serious ass. What in all the damn Hells is going on?

I found the container with the drone and launched it. I was a little surprised nobody shot at it. That was the enemy’s favorite reaction. I flew it up high, and saw I was in an almost square area bordered by thin lines of cliffs. There was a sea or ocean to what I though of as the East, a steep mountain to the North, and hundreds or thousands more square areas enclosed by cliffs to the South and Southwest.

I flew the drone around close to the ground near the cliffs, following the perimeter of my area. Other than a large undetonated bomb behind some shrubs 100 meters to the northeast, I didn’t see anything of interest.

The bomb looked like one of the seven-ton daisy cutters! It probably wouldn’t go off if I left it alone. Probably! I knew that if it did go off, I should be at least half a click away to avoid catching any shrapnel. With a bomb that size, there’d even be a small risk at 500 meters away. If it went off at this distance, I’d be lucky to survive. Much closer, and they could bury what was left of me in my helmet.

There was a small chance lightning or even static electricity could trigger it at any time. Even if I could forget about the mission, I still needed to get out of here before long.

I folded out the solar panels and plugged in the drone to charge it.

I saw a hint of smoke over one of the clifftops, and instinctively shouldered my carbine and clicked it off safe. I heard a repeating ‘thump’ noise. It didn’t sound mechanical, more like somebody pounding nails slowly. Since I was alone, the safest thing would be to stay back and look with the drone.

I took out one of my combat meals and got it ready. Salmon, pasta, and vegetables. Not my favorite, but it would do. I had eleven more meals of several kinds, and would make sure to save my two beloved enchilada and rice meals for rougher times. They were my favorite and would lift my spirits if things were going badly.

I looked at the mound of gear and saw packs from three other Rangers. I had water for a week or more, food for a month, and more ammo than I could carry. We had even brought along a couple of AT4 anti-tank rockets, in case the enemy had an armored vehicle or bunker.

Since I was in charge of the squad, I had brought the snacks. A lot of sergeants got granola bars or trail mix. I liked hard candy, so we had a kilo of it. Being by myself now, there were mints and root beer barrels to last me a month or two.

I ate three candies in the time it took the drone to recharge. It was just another part of military life, long periods of boredom.