Chapter 18



The sun was blinding as it rose above them, limiting their view of the mountain side.

“Stay down!” Marc’s voice shouted over the cascade of bullets that shattered the rocks behind their heads.

She was tempted to shout something back at him but when she looked in his direction, concerned for his safety, she saw that he was talking into a radio.

Looking over their small group, Julia saw that they were isolated.

Steve “Twitch” was occupying the boulder beside her. Kazeem was knelt next to the rock he had previously been sitting on but it was only big enough to cover his knees, his entire upper body was exposed.

Marcus and Carlos were stretched out on their stomach, keeping low as they shot into the distance and Ray was beside her, keeping his head tucked into his knees.

“Ray-” Julia ducked when something popped on the boulder they were crouched behind. She guessed whoever was shooting was getting better at aiming.

“What’s happening!?” Ray shouted, placing his fingers inside of his ears.

“We’re getting shot at!” Julia shouted back at him as she forced herself back up.

Fear was coursing through her body until it felt like she couldn’t move, her mind swarming with thoughts of her accident.

She had survived an explosion. What were the chances of her surviving a gunshot wound this far away from the compound?

Julia didn’t like to think about the chances on that.

“Ray, stay here! I’ll be back in a minute!” Julia tapped Ray on his shoulder, letting him know that she was leaving.

Crawling forward on her stomach, Julia knocked her helmet back when it shifted on her head, covering her eyes, and approached Kazeem.

“Kazeem!” Julia shouted towards the Afghan, “Get down!”

But Kazeem ignored her, continuing to shoot into the distance.

Raising her weapon, Julia kept her finger off the trigger, fully aware that shots were being fired around her, and looked in the direction that Kazeem was shooting.

Scouring the mountainside and cliff tops, Julia couldn’t see anyone. Kazeem was shooting at nothing.

“KAZEEM!” Julia screamed at loud as she could, startling the man to look at her over his shoulder.

“Get down!” Julia reached out and gripped his shirt, pulling him down to the ground, “Stay low!” She tried to explain before she turned and returned to Ray.

Spinning around, loose rocks and sharp edges digging into her skin, Julia began to crawl back to Ray when she managed to glimpse over the rock edge and down into the ravine below.

A small creek ran through the mountains but as Julia looked up, a sudden burst of light blinded her.

Instantly recoiling from the bright light, Julia opened her eyes again to see something from her nightmares.

Looking to her side she saw Marc and Carlos, stretched out on their fronts with no protection.

Without thinking, Julia charged to her feet, the gun hanging by her side and her lips opened in a guttural cry of warning.

“RPG!” Julia screamed as loud as she could over the sudden whizzing sound that filled her ears.

Unable to process anything else but the pounding of her heart and the stinking heat, Julia collapsed on top of Carlos and Marc, shielding their bodies as a gigantic boom sounded above their heads.

The entire mountain seemed to shift beneath them, beside them and around them. Everything they were stood on seemed to jolt with movement.

Keeping her head down, too afraid to look up, Julia felt the tumbling of rocks as debris came flying down on them, hitting her everywhere possible.

She felt them knock her shoulder, her legs, her hands and her helmet.

Julia could only squeeze her eyes shut as she felt her head get knocked forward from the tumbling rocks, afraid of what it would mean.

But as she opened her eyes, the rain of rocks growing silent, Julia found that she remembered everything and she released a breath of relief.

Groaning out in pain, Julia rolled herself off of Marc and Carlos and grappled for her gun as a cloud of dust seemed to surround them, choking the air from their lungs.

“Julia!”

She heard her name being shouted and looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder, her eyes clearing through the dust to find Marcus laid before her.

“Are you okay?” Marc pleaded with her to tell him.

Julia gave a nod of her head, coughing softly when she was given a sharp reminder that the insurgents were still out there and the gunfire resumed.

“Is everyone alright? Is anybody injured!?” Marc gave a shoulder a small squeeze before he tore himself away to see to the others.

Julia squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head to dislodge the grogginess, and remembered Ray.

Hurrying as fast as she could on her front, Julia reached Ray’s side and inspected him for any injuries. She was thankful to find that he was safe and so was Kazeem.

“Are you injured?” Twitch called across to them, his hand clasped around his medic’s bag, ready to rush to their aid.

Julia waved him off, “We’re okay.”

“Ray,” Julia turned back, “Stay down, okay?”

Ray nodded his head, “What happened?”

Julia moaned as a dull pain radiated across her shoulder when she lifted her arm and placed her weapon on the rock, using it as a stand.

“What happened?” Ray coughed, “Is the air support here?”

“We got hit with an RPG but everyone’s safe.” Julia lined up the scope with her eye, peering through the dust as she tried to locate the shooters, “I don’t know about the air support.”

She could hear Marcus in the background shouting into the radio but there was no response from the other end.

Blocking out anything else, Julia focused on the RPG shooter. Julia doubted if they could survive another hit like that one; they might get caught in an avalanche.

And if they were lucky to survive that . . . well, Julia didn’t fancy being the hostage of terrorists on her first few days back.

The dust was beginning to clear when Julia tilted her rifle down, peering over the edge into the ravine where she had seen the RPG shooter.

To her amazement, he was there, loading the missile once again.

Julia often wondered where they got their weapons from but right now, she just thankful that they had their own.

Informing the others as she lined up the shot, Julia took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

She watched as the rock behind the man’s head shattered, causing him to drop to the ground for cover.

Unfortunately for Julia, he found some.

Diving behind a rock, Julia could only make out the wisp of his dark blue clothes as they flapped in the breeze.

“Stay on him, Reynolds!” Ramirez shouted across from her, encouraging her.

“With bloody pleasure.” Julia muttered under her breath, shooting another round into the front of the rock he was crouched behind, when it looked like he was about to get back up and shoot.

A few more minutes passed and they were able to locate the five separate shooters, positioned across the mountainside.

Ramirez shot one and Twitch shot another, leaving three more able to shoot at them.

Julia had to trust her team mates as she kept her eyes focused on the RPG shooter, if she even looked away for a second it could spell disaster for the rest of them.

The firing was becoming less frequent with the loss of two of the insurgents but their own recovery efforts were waning.

She could hear Marc calling for another radio but they only had one packed, a shiver of fear ran through her when she caught movement behind the rock.

She hadn’t fired in a few minutes and the man was taking a shot for it. Firing a gun towards the wildly, Julia kept her ground.

Remaining still for a few seconds, Julia waited for the man to turn and face her before she fired a single round.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she followed the shot and, through her scope, she saw blood spurt from the man’s forehead just before he dropped to the ground dead.

He never made it to the RPG.

“I see you lost your memory but you kept your aim!” Twitch slapped her on the shoulder.

Julia smiled with pride that she managed to make the shot over so many hundred metres, when she turned and looked at Marc.

She didn’t know what she had been expecting, she wasn’t sure if she was expecting anything, but when she looked she saw that he wasn’t even looking at her.

She shouldn’t have been upset. She knew this wasn’t the place or the time, but for her first recorded kill, Julia wanted a bit more than a slap on the back from a man she doesn’t know. Or, as the case may be, a man she used to know.

“Where’s the air support?” Julia asked Twitch since Carlos, Kazeem and Marcus was occupied with fixing the radio which had a large dent in the side of it.

Julia guessed it got hit by a rock when the RPG hit.

“They’re not coming.” Twitch fired a few more shots into the distance, keeping the last two insurgents they knew of at bay.

But it did nothing to stop her heart beating faster.

“But if we can’t get air support, then what are we going to do?” Julia asked Twitch but he couldn’t reply.

Julia turned and looked at Ray for support but his silent gaze only scared her further.

She was about to ask again when Marc shouted, “The radio isn’t working, so we’re going to have to get out of here ourselves.”

“We got in by ourselves, we can get out by ourselves as well,” Carlos tried to give an inspiring speech, “We don’t need any swank helicopter crew to save us!”

Everyone just remained silent as the weight of their task fell upon their shoulders fully.

Julia slipped to the ground and pressed her back to the rock, sitting next to Ray.

“Well, Ray,” Julia shouted as Twitch and Kazeem offered cover fire, “This is a fine mess we’ve got ourselves into.”

“Ah,” Ray turned and gave her a wide grin as if he was enjoying every minute of it, “You wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Julia found herself smiling back, his humour and confidence infectious to anyone who saw it and, if she was honest, he was right. This, Julia was beginning to realise, was where she belonged.