Chapter 25



“Come on, you piece of sh-” Marcus grunted just as the truck finally took fourth gear after plenty of grinding metal, “-Ah, finally!”

Hitting the accelerator once more, Marcus found himself wishing he was at the wheel of a Humvee rather than a truck that looked, and felt, older than he was.

With thoughts about Julia, base and the showers waiting for him, Marcus looked in his side mirror only to have all of his hopes dashed.

Unable to do anything but watch, Marcus found his fingers gripping the steering wheel with vigour as he watched Julia swerve her truck, blocking the jeeps that had passed them on their way out.

Marcus wanted to spin around and help but there was nowhere they could turn, they were blocked on both sides by mountain and he had to think about the dozens of children they had on board.

The same children that were whimpering with fear as they heard the bullets over the rumble of the truck engines once again.

As soon as they got back to base, Marcus was demanding two weeks of hot tubs, sunbathing and relaxation.

“Come on,” Marcus willed Julia as he watched her block another jeep on the opposite side, his stomach churning as he could barely make out the outline of her body behind the wheel through the sand-ridden window.

If they could make it to the end of this strip then Marcus and Carlos could spin around and help them but even as he thought it, he knew that the odds of them surviving were growing less and less by the minutes.

Trying to keep his truck straight, Marcus turned his head and looked in his opposite mirror when he saw the two-vehicle column that had crept up Julia’s right hand side.

“Shit!” Marcus cursed under his breath as he knew he could do nothing to help her.

He was trapped and he hated it.

Marcus reminded himself that Julia had Kazeem with her, but it did nothing to aid his worries. He wouldn’t be satisfied she was safe until they were both back at base with his arms around her.

But that would have to wait as he watched Kazeem leaning out through his door, something bulky on his shoulder.

Marcus squinted at the mirror, the golden horizon flying past his window, and cheered when he recognised the RPG.

“Yes!” Marcus screamed when the RPG hit, blowing up the cars in a plume of smoke, “Whoo!”

The detonation rang out in the wind, shaking everybody to the core as he heard Twitch calling from the back of the truck.

“What the hell was that!?” Twitch shouted with concern.

“Kazeem blew up the jeeps!” Marc called back, hitting the steering wheel in joy as Twitch shouted Kazeem’s name with excitement, no doubt scaring the children.

Marcus let out a deep breath as he saw the end of the strip coming up. All they had to do now was hang in there for a few more minutes-

Marcus’s thoughts were cut off as a second, smaller, explosion hit their ears.

Looking in his mirrors, Marcus felt ten years get taken off his life as he watched the back wheel of Julia’s truck get blown off, right before the cab drove head on into the mountainside at speed.

His body froze, unable to comprehend anything, as he kept his eyes glued to Julia’s truck, praying for a sign of movement from the cab.

It felt like an eternity had passed when, in reality, it was probably only a few minutes, but there was still no movement from the truck.



* * *



“Ah,” Julia winced as she slowly regained consciousness, a soft hissing noise filling her ears.

Her head felt like her skull had been cut in half, her joints cracked when she moved and something wet was running down the side of her face.

Peeling herself off the steering wheel, Julia fell back into the seat and lifted her fingertips to her head, her eyes clocking the other two trucks still driving on ahead.

Wincing as her fingers brushed something painful, Julia pulled her fingers back to find fresh blood coating her fingertips.

“Great,” Julia rolled her eyes, pressing the heel of her palm against the cut, as she turned her head to talk to Kazeem but found him slipping from the passenger seat.

“Kazeem?” Julia called, her eyes darting around the cab for her rifle.

She soon found it on the floor by her feet.

Feeling better once it was back in her grasp, Julia turned and pulled on the handle of her door to find it jammed against the side of a large rock.

Groaning in mild pain, Julia turned and crawled down the seat towards the passenger door which swung freely open.

“Kazeem?” Julia called once again as she leaned forward enough to peer around the edge and spotted Kazeem, walking down the side of the truck.

“Kazeem!” Julia tried to call him back as she remembered the third jeep.

It hadn’t been blown up in the explosion and when she turned her head to look back at the two other trucks, she saw that the jeep wasn’t following them, which meant he had hung around with them.

Julia hit the truck in frustration when Kazeem ignored her once again.

Gripping the handle on the side, Julia climbed out of the truck, wobbling slightly when her boots hit the ground and found that her legs felt like jelly more than ever before.

Pressing the rifle into her shoulder, Julia followed Kazeem’s tracks, her eyes scanning the hilltop facing them.

A sniper could hide behind a rock and they would never know.

Julia looked back at the trucks still speeding away from their position. Julia was hurt but she hadn’t given up hope.

Marcus would never leave any of them behind. She just hoped she was still alive by the time they got back for them.

Her thoughts were cut short when small gunfire broke out at the back of the truck, her head whipping back to see Kazeem, stood just behind the truck, take a bullet to the leg.

A short scream of pain was torn from his lips as his hand reached down to grasp at his leg.

“Kazeem!” Julia ran forward, placing her arm beneath his to stable him, as she raised her rifle and shot a burst of ammunition blindly.

Pulling Kazeem back, dust blowing up from where he was scuffing the ground with his boots, Julia placed him on the ground; his back leant up against one of the remaining wheels.

Julia crouched by his side, rifle raised at the opposite end of the truck.

“How many are there?” Julia asked as Kazeem applied pressure to his leg, blood pooling in the sand beneath him.

“Th-Three,” Kazeem grunted, followed by an explicit in his native tongue.

Julia did not have to speak Dari to understand a curse word when she heard one.

“Hold pressure and you’ll be fine,” Julia breathed heavy, her heart pumping inside of her chest as she realised that they were alone.

Peering beneath the trailer of the truck, Julia could spot the jeep parked up by the same mountainside she had driven the truck into, along with three pairs of legs.

Two of them were at the back, probably inspecting the children as Julia heard their renewed screams fill her ears. However the third was further back by the jeep, as if watching.

If Julia went around and shot the first two, she would undoubtedly be shot by the third and Julia wasn’t about to leave Kazeem and the children to their wrath.

Besides, she had only just begun to get her memory back. She wasn’t about to go and die and lose it all again when an idea sprung into her mind.

Turning back to Kazeem, Julia heard two men start to speak in their native tongues. They sounded stressed and in a rush.

“Wait here,” Julia told Kazeem.

“What are you going to do?” Kazeem gripped her arm, his eyes wide with fear.

Julia picked up his rifle from the ground beside him and pressed it to his chest.

Kazeem swallowed as he took the rifle, nodding his head affirmatively as he regained his strength.

“I’ll be right back,” Julia reassured him as she slowly got to her feet.

Keeping her body low, Julia hunched beneath the trailer and carefully approached the rear of the trailer.

Forcing her breathing to slow, Julia kept her footfalls as quiet as possible as the two men remained at the rear of the vehicle, checking the children that had almost escaped them.

Well, Julia was going to make sure they did.

When she was close enough, Julia lowered herself to the ground until she was lying flat on her stomach, her rifle stretched out before her.

She was close enough that Julia didn’t need to use the scope.

Switching to single rounds, Julia fired a bullet into each of the men’s legs, the children screaming above her as they heard the gunshots so close.

They howled in pain as they collapsed to the ground, their legs no longer able to support them.

As they hit the deck, their heads rose to look at where the shots came from and Julia locked eyes with them. And, without a second thought, she shot a bullet into each of their foreheads.

A moment of silence passed as Julia stared at their lifeless bodies, her throat working against her as she smelt their blood and saw the brain matter that splashed out behind them.

Julia was engulfed in the killings so much that she failed to notice that the third man had moved.

When she looked up she saw that he was no longer resting by the jeep.

Her heart began to palpitate with fear, her stomach churning, as she scanned around her but the man seemed to have vanished until she heard Kazeem shout something behind her.

Glancing over her shoulder, Julia let out a sudden scream as a hand clamped around her ankle and dragged her out from beneath the truck.

“No!” Julia tried to grasp for her rifle but her fingers slipped on the metal, the weapon falling on its side as she was dragged away.

Her eyes adjusted to the sudden onslaught of light as she turned onto her back and stared up at the barrel of a gun pointed at her forehead.

She could see nothing past it except the dark hair of a man wearing a turban, his eyes heavy and impartial to her gender.

Her chest was rising and falling in shallow gasps as Julia was faced with certain death.

But in that moment, Julia was determined not to be like the other men and have her brains splattered against the ground of a desert in the middle of nowhere.

Kazeem screamed something in his native tongue and Julia saw a flurry of movement as she charged at the other man, somehow finding his way to his feet.

A shot rang out and Kazeem hit the ground beside her, his chest flooding with red liquid.

“NO!” Julia shouted in rage as she lifted her leg and kicked the man in the shin as hard as she could.

It gave her the distraction she needed as she rushed up onto her feet and charged at the man.

Bullets hit the truck behind her where she had been laying, as she wrapped her arms around the man’s waist and tackled him to the ground.

Falling on top of him, Julia knew she had to get his weapon if she was to stand any chance so, reaching out, Julia grasped his wrist and started to slam his hand against the ground.

But her body was weak and her head was splitting with pain from the crash, so it took no effort for the man to wrestle her off of him with a quick jab to her neck with his free hand.

Rolling over, Julia got a mouthful of dirt before she was sprawled onto her back, the butt of a gun connecting with her temple.

Julia screamed in pain at where it hit her pre-existing injury.

Her fingers fumbled at the pocket on her trousers, trying to remove her own handgun, when she looked up and saw that the Afghan man had gotten to his feet.

Once again at the disadvantage, Julia crawled up onto her hands and knees only to receive a swift kick to her abdomen, knocking her back onto her side.

Her head hit the ground with a great thwack.

Opening her eyes against the pain that threatened the blind her, Julia looked down the strip and saw that the trucks were returning but they were too far away.

She and Kazeem would be dead before they got here.

“Alright, that’s it,” Anger and stubbornness pushed her on as she got back up onto her hands and knees.

Knowing exactly what the man would do, Julia waited for the man’s leg to leave the ground before she grabbed his own ankle and it pulled it away from him.

“Ever since I got here,” Julia barked at the man as she got to her feet, still holding the man’s leg, “I’ve been shot at,” Julia landed a firm punch into his knee.

“Stranded, starved,” a smile crept onto her lips when she heard the deafening crack right before she sent a right hook into his jaw, splitting open his bottom lip, “Been in a car accident, left to die and blown up. Twice!”

Julia added a second swift punch to the other jaw, just to make it even.

“And now-” Julia let out an annoyed sigh as the man raised the gun once more.

Wrenching the gun from his hand, Julia caught his wrist and twisted it in her hand, snapping his wrist.

“And now,” Julia continued when he stopped screaming, “I’ve got a headache.”

Releasing his wrist, Julia stepped back and aimed his own weapon at his head, “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you.”

Julia stared into the man’s dark brown eyes, his gaze full of hatred towards her, but also self-preservation.

Julia’s finger tightened on the trigger when she heard Kazeem begin to splutter beside her. Julia looked over the man’s shoulder and saw that the trucks were nearly on them.

She prayed they could get Kazeem back to base in time when she spotted the man’s lips begin to move.

“I am-” The man spoke with broken English, “Abdul-Azim.”

Julia paused, the gun lowering slightly as she heard the name. It was a name she remembered from somewhere before, flashes of images going off behind her eyes like a light bulb.

“Abdul-Azim,” Julia whispered, remembering the mission she had been on where she was blown up and lost her memory.

Before the mission, they had all had a briefing about the reason why they were there. And as he spoke his own name, memories of looking at his picture on a folder in the helicopter on the way to the town surfaced in her mind.

Rage flared to life inside of her once more, the gun snapping back up into place when she finally remembered who he was.

“You’re the bastard that blew me up!”