Chapter 1: The Clearing

One minute, I was riding in the back of the big 10 ton truck, up the main highway. The next, a tremendous bang! I was thrown forward into the ammunition boxes we were carrying. I must have been knocked unconscious for a moment. I felt liquid running down my face. Upon examining it, I found that it was blood.

The first thought that went through my mind, was that the ammunition had exploded. I checked, and found it hadn't. WOW! How relieved I felt.

I struggled out over the tailgate, and saw that the trailer we had attached, was still there. It was even in an upright position. But, to my surprise, there was no road! I climbed down, and looked around. There were about ten or twelve crashed vehicles nearby (cars, vans, and trucks), but some looked as though they had been there for many years. The absence of the road still puzzled me. We were in a large clearing, and were completely surrounded by large trees. There was no sign of broken or crushed ones, to allow the truck in. On examination, I could clearly see (as the ground was fairly soft) that the tracks of our vehicle started suddenly, about 10 yards behind the trailer.

I suddenly thought of the driver, and the young officer, who were riding in the front of the truck. I went around to the front, to check on them. There was no need to check any further. Both had been thrown out through the front windscreen, and had crushed their skulls on the wrecked truck that we had hit.

I walked around to examine the other vehicles, and found some that contained skeletons, that had been there for many years. Other vehicles contained bodies that were in various states of decomposition.

Where the hell am I? And how did we manage to get here, with no visible sign of passage!

I shouted, but all I heard was the sound of birds. I could hear no traffic sound. This was odd, as we had been driving down the main arterial, the busiest road in the country. It had heavy traffic, almost 24 hours a day.

I decided to go and investigate. Since the truck was facing south, I decided to go north. That should be the way the road went.

I had only gone about 50 yards, when I saw what could only be the remains of three humans. They were two adults, and a small child. That was about all I could tell, from their skulls. It was plain to see that their remains had been disturbed by wild animals.

I went on and into the wood, but after a few yards, I found that it was getting a lot denser.

Nearby, was a large chestnut tree, with easy access. I decided to climb it as high as possible. I wanted to get a good view of the area, and hoped to spot the roadway from there. I climbed well above the surrounding trees, and still I could see nothing but forest. No electricity pylons, no houses or roads. Nothing! Impossible!

I thought, 'There is no place in this country that has so large a forest, without it being cut up somewhere with a road, or with fire access lanes.'

I made my way back to the crash scene, and attempted to assess my present situation.

I had been on my way to shipping out, to a posting with a UN peace force. I was to take charge of a sniper observation section, in another jumped up province that wanted independence, but couldn't be bothered doing it through the ballot box. They tried it through terror (no doubt supported by our greatest ally, the United States CIA, which seemed to be behind most of these flare-ups, now-a-days). The truck I was travelling in was full of ammunition of various types. And the trailer, which held about 3 tons, was our "Compo" rations, these were usually made up in 'seven man packs', or 'one man packs'.

I myself was carrying my sniper rifle. I had full field equipment, right down to my "Gilly suit" (This is a camouflage Hessian suit, with multiple pieces of Hessian attached to it, to break up the body's outline. This is for when one is lying up on an observation, or other covert operation.). I was well equipped to survive in the field, for quite a while. That is one of our primary roles, anyway: To live in enemy territory, for long periods of time.

I retrieved my kit from the back of the truck, and examined my rifle in case It had been damaged by the crash.

Rather than the standard L96A1, I had the Parker Hale M-85, which I thought was a far superior weapon than the L96A1. I liked it because I could fit a flash suppressor, and the added extras onto it. It also had a 12 x 50 Schmidt and Bender scope, rather than the standard 6 x 42.

All seemed to be in good order. I would have a practice shoot to check it out, though, sometime soon. However, I had no ammunition. None had been supplied, as I would have been issued it, on arrival at our destination. To be on the safe side, I decided to search the truck for any sniper 7.62 ammunition. I found boxes of Ball (sniper long range), Styx, and AP (armour piercing) rounds. I took 50 rounds of each, which was more than I normally carry. Somehow, I felt that I needed to arm myself for any occurrence.