Chapter 3

I could hardly wait for the voice to contact me. I was so impatient, I actually barked at a couple of my men out of pure impatience. I apologized right away and there were no hard feelings when I explained why I was so tight this morning. Everybody was interested in any edge that we could get.

Good morning, Sgt. James Haggerty. I sense that there is some disturbance in your mind this morning. Please tell me about it.

Trying to talk to him in my head was a little confusing, but I didn't want everybody to hear if I got chewed out. I guess that's a normal reaction, but there it was for whatever it was worth. Yeah, the first thing I would like is to know your name. I need something to call you, and I am uncomfortable with "Master!"

The voice actually laughed. Yes, I can see that you would feel that way. OK, since you could never hope to pronounce my true name, why don't you try calling me "Voice?"

Before I could say anything else a small stack of magazines and clips appeared on the table in front of me. There were also 14 of the Kraut grenades. Now, that's what I call service!

As usual, the map for today can be found in your uniform shirt pocket. Good bye and have fun.

I called the men over and explained what the pile of magazines and grenades was all about. Each man took an appropriate magazine and two of the new grenades. I told them to load their weapons with the new hollow point bullets to start out with, but to keep the alternate magazines and clips handy in case there was the need for a quick change.

I pulled out the map for today and looked it over. This route was a little different in that the trail led near some caves that were not to be our resting place. We had to assume that there would be monsters hiding in those caves, so we had to be alert as we passed.

We started on our way, and halted long enough to see the fancy hotel disappear after we got outside. Well, twice in a row must mean that it was deliberate. I still worried about what happened to the women we left behind.

The first monster we saw was one of those Dr. Teeth things. Charley tossed a concussion grenade at the head that was all that was sticking out of the ground, and the thing gobbled it down before it could explode. There must be a lot more explosive inside that can than what we were used to in the GI issued grenades because the monster seemed to explode out of the ground in pieces. There was no doubt that it was dead. Suddenly, about a dozen of the Rabbits showed up and started eating the pieces of the Dr. Teeth that were lying around. Now we knew what the Rabbits were good for.

The next thing we needed to do was to try out a stick grenade on a Rhinoceros or a King Kong. In the meantime, we stayed alert for whatever might show up.

We were in the midst of our first cigarette break when we saw a Rug Monster that seemed to be headed in our direction. It might or might not actually be stalking us, but I saw no need to take a chance. Charley tossed a stick grenade onto this one just as he had done with the fragmentation grenade yesterday. The Rug Monster rolled up around the grenade when it landed and was holding it tight when the grenade exploded. The damage seemed comparable to what had happened yesterday with that Rug Monster, except this one seemed to take a little longer to die. That could be chance or it could be a function of the fragmentation. Further experimentation was necessary for us to know for sure.

We didn't encounter any more monsters until after lunch, which was more of the more likeable C-rations heated in the can over Sterno. This time, we even had canned peaches for dessert. We must be doing something right for our slave masters to become even more accommodating.

Our first encounter with a hostile cave came up about half an hour after we finished our lunch break. We had no idea what to expect from the cave, except that it was bound to be some kind of trouble. We made our way very carefully toward it; the cave was not exactly against the trail, so I was a bit leery of the sand in front of the cave. There was about 50 feet of clear space between the trail and the cave, so we were very careful with every step we took off the trail toward the cave. We didn't detect anything, but nothing was proven by that, since we had no idea what we should look for.

I was the only one with a flashlight, and the batteries were nearly dead from their immersion in the salt water during the landing at Normandy, but nothing else was available, so I tried to use that. I clicked it on, and a dim yellow beam came out. I did get closer to the cave entrance, but all I could see was that there did look like something was living in the cave, though I couldn't tell what it was.

For lack of any better strategy, I had Charley ready one of his stick grenades and Chester to prepare his BAR. I told everybody else to stand back until we knew what we were facing. When everybody was ready, I cut off my flashlight to save what was left of the batteries, and cut loose with my Thompson. Chester started in with his BAR, and we blasted the interior of the cave with a lot of hollow point bullets. My sense was that we had not done much harm, so I called for Charley to toss in the grenade.

Not being a complete fool, I jumped back just before the grenade went off. Other than the noise made by the somewhat confined explosion, nothing was heard from the interior of the cave. A few minor pieces of monster came flying out with the smoke from the explosion, but we could not tell how much good that we had done.

I said, "We may regret it tonight, but I am not sending anybody into that cave until we have some way of getting some better light. If anybody disagrees with me, I am listening for volunteers." Not hearing any, we returned to the trail.

I called for a council of war. "Look, fellows, I know that none of us are doing this stupid killing expedition because we want to. I also know that none of us wants to die any time soon, so I plan to bypass places like these caves until we get some better equipment. I plan to ask for more and better flashlights and for a flame thrower. Hank, I know you trained with one for a while, so you will be our man if we can get one. Does anyone have a better idea?"