Fortunate Sons

Chapter 28: The Comanche's Army

The blood red sun peaked high above the treeline of the jungle as Taylor and the others made their way out along the patrol route with Ho Thanh and his men. The paths cut right through the rice paddies, through thick brush full of ticks and places where birds had built their nests far off the ground from predators.

They walked along dirt roads made of red clay, all washed out with ruts and ditches and rocks that were chipped and broken from bullets and mortar fire. Huge holes had been ripped into the ground after taking a beating from the artillery while in other places the foliage still burned.

"Napalm burns," Dix observed. "Shit doesn't stop burning once it's lit. It's like white phosphorus."

Taylor and Mitch shuddered at the mere mention of that horrid white powder that burned through anything and everything it came in contact with. Once it was burning, nothing, not even water, had any hope of putting it out.

The soldiers kept walking along that dusty and dirty trail, looking for any signs of whoever it was that had been taken or any signs of strange activity in the area. If they had any hope of finding them alive they had to stay vigilant.

Every soldier was ordered to keep his eyes open for signs of the enemy and to be careful of where he stepped. Their heavy boots left behind noticeable footprints in the squidgy clay with no two being alike, rutted, ragged and deeply ridged from the soles of their boots.

Dix spotted something unusual out of the corner of his eye. A large palm stood on the side of the trail but on its trunk were three jagged scratch marks, like the claws of an animal. They ran deep into the bark, as deep as the ditches on the side of the road.

"Holy shit," he muttered.

"What's up?" Ma Ahn asked him.

Dix ran his hand along the deep, jagged claw marks in the trunk of the tree. "I don't think any ordinary creature made this," Dix remarked. "Whatever's been hunting us is back."

"Wait, wait shhh!" Ma Ahn ordered. "Be quiet for a second."

Word caught on quickly and the others were ordered to be quiet and get low in the bushes. There was no worse place for them to get stuck than on the side of a road where cover was scarce and the enemy enjoyed laying booby traps. The hot breeze rustled the foliage and crept its way through the threads of their clothes. For a while time seemed to stand still as the wind died down and everything went silent.

The heavy, quiet was suddenly broken by bullets zipping through the air, chipping the trees and ripping through foliage. Flecks of dirt flew up from the road and a round exploded a foot away from them. Shouts, shrieks, screams and curses filled the air as the soldiers fired right back at their unseen enemy, the gunfire echoing throughout the forest like firecrackers.

"Get'em!!"

"Get those bastards!!"

"Give it all you guys got!!"

Another explosion sent three of the soldiers reeling backwards into the trunk of a tree with Dix included. Their breath was knocked clean out of their lungs and their heads ringing from the sheer force of the blast.

*CLICK!* *CLICK!!* *BOOM!* Mitch sent round after round into the sneaky enemy soldiers who tried to run, taking aim, pulling the trigger and sending the enemy right into the dirt. Taylor pulled the pin of a grenade and hurled it right into the bushes where it burst with a loud *BANG!* and killed at least six more.

Chaos erupted along the road. Scattered shouts of English and Vietnamese curses were barely heard over the loud explosions and gunfire that now filled the air. More enemy soldiers charged out of the woods but were shot down before they could make the road.