Chris waved away hungry mosquitos and hummed softly to himself as they walked along, keeping his eyes on the landscape around him, dropping every few steps to check the ground. The popping sounds in the distance caught his attention, it might have been AKs but there was other gunfire mixed in.
“Shit,” he said, looking towards the tall figures scrambling towards them. Americans, obviously. He did not have time to react to what was chasing the men when he was yanked to the ground by Davis. The young man got his rifle up and ready, feeling the panic kick him in gut as the grass obscured the enemy but he could see the bursts of fire from their rifles among the vegetation. The two men looked beat up but were still able bodied as they crashed into their position. Chris raised his rifle as the M-60 started firing off to one side. The adrenaline kick started his heart, it felt like it wanted to punch through his chest, the thrill of fear racing down his spine. These were not the VC they were worried about coming to the crash site, that was another direction, these were even more. Fuck the hills around them were crawling with Charlie who obviously had nothing better to do than track down a handful of lost soldiers. Didn’t they have fucking water buffalo to take for a walk? Assholes.
Looking up sharply when Sergeant Davis grabbed his jacket and hauled him towards the log, Chris scrabbled forward, “Yeah, Sarge.”
He followed instruction, the habit ingrained in boot camp that was still fresh in his memory. Chris aimed at a conical hat bobbing and lowered it slightly, sighting the chest and fired. The urge to go full auto was strong but if the VC didn’t kill him, Davis would surely strangle him for wasting ammo. Instead, he took a deep breath, picking another man who was raising what looked like an American made Garand rifle and Chris shot at him, leading in as the man dashed towards the cover of a thorn bush.
Pop, pop, pop!
Closing his eyes instinctively as the bark flew up and hit him in the face, he was glad for once for the birth control glasses the Army forced him to wear. Turning his head, he spotted Charlie with the offending AK-47, shooting rapidly as the Cong ducked back down.
“Fuck!” he swore as the man returned fire, Chris could hear the snap of the bullet as it whizzed by his ear. Charlie was aiming right for him, personally trying to kill him. And it pissed the laid back surfer off. “Fuck that asshole!”
Squirming down, he fired over the log, risking Davis’ wrath by spraying the area he saw the shooter duck down in. It worked as he saw the flash of the AK stop and never start back up, he must have hit him. “Yeah, man, got him, Sarge.”
He had to pause and reload, glancing over at Bobby D as he pounded his position with the machine gun, Buck right there to feed the hungry pig. Chris rolled back over and took another few shots before the M-16 jammed.
“Damnit!”
A new rise of panic hit him, with his gun he was a god, without it he might as well have been a rabbit cowering. Chris fumbled with it, putting the safety on and yanking out the magazine as his hands shook while he tried to unjam it. He banged the mag against his helmet and slapped it back in, unclicked the safety and turned back to fire once more. It worked, his gun jumped back to life as he pulled the trigger.
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