Fortunate Sons

Chapter 30: Snakes in the Grass

Taylor, Mai and Truc lay in the tall, wisping grasses that covered the ground and brushed against their faces. For four days they lay at the edge of one of the camps near the edge of the Ho Chi Minh trail, watching the place for any activity or movement. Four days with no food, four days with no sleep.....just their watchful gaze fixated on the place before them.

Taylor lay against the ground with the binoculars in hand and his eyes straining to stay awake. His heart slowly beat against the dirt and his limbs had fallen asleep but abruptly snapped awake when Truc's bony little fingers pinched the base of his neck.

"You stay awake," she would whisper.

It was hard to stay focused on watching the place where so little had happened in the last three days. All Taylor wanted more than anything was sleep, Sue and decent food. Every part of him itched from the mosquito bites. His arms and the back of his neck were scratched raw until they bled. Crusty red rivulets streaked his neck, wrists and arms while his face and back were caked with dirt, sweat and grime that left a waxy coating all over his skin.

"Movement?" he whispered.

"No," Mai replied.

The three of them kept dead still while the girls had their rifles aimed at the camp in the distance and their elbows sinking into the cool dirt. They were lucky that the grass was able to conceal them as well as it had. The camp was full of people, mostly guerilla soldiers who were scuttling around like ants in an anthill doing whatever meaningless tasks were assigned to them while armed guards watched from their bamboo and thatched roof towers. Taylor felt a frantic tap on the side of his arm, yanking him from his zen-like state as Truc pointed out into the distance.

"Can you see?" she asked.

"No, what am I looking at?"

"Back path.....look."

Taylor looked out at the back path only to find that the figure walking down looked like everyone else with the same black uniform, straw hat and a rifle slung across the shoulder.

"Yeah so?"

"Co Cong," Truc whispered.

A shudder ran up the small of Taylor's back. The female VC were just as ruthless as the men and just as vicious. They were like angry pit vipers, ready to jump up out of nowhere and sink their teeth into those who weren't careful enough to watch where they stepped.

Taylor shifted a little to rid himself of the stiffness in his body. He kept wishing for someone to make a move, to do something stupid or do something out of the ordinary just so they would have an excuse to do what they had come to do.

They better make a move soon.....because I've about had enough of this shit......

The three of them kept their eyesight fixed on the compound, keeping their eyes glued to every person in it. Operatives and officers scurried about like ants, rushing into their bamboo huts and carrying boxes along with them. There had been a female member of that unit who seemed rather shifty eyed, almost as though she didn't want anyone to know what she was up to. As she went about the camp, she kept looking left and right and over her shoulder as if she was being followed by an unwanted shadow.

She's got to be hiding something.....Taylor thought to himself.

Truc and Mai both looked up from the scopes of their rifles, trying to see through the tall wisps of grass that swayed in the breeze. Their steely gazes were fixed on this woman who left and came back every so often, always taking the same route from one hut to another, around a tent and up to the biggest hut that served as the command post.