The sky is overcast. There's a mild drizzle. Mild enough not to obscure my vision. I can sense the sun shining just behind the dark clouds. No matter. I love overcast skies and mild drizzles. It reminds me of calm lazy days. Days very different from this one.
I have located myself behind a window, in a building that sat beside a road. My comrades of arms are scattered around the buildings overlooking the road. Our objective for today is to ambush a resupply convoy coming to refit the outpost our small band are harassing. My location provides me with good view of the road that runs between the building, our ambush site.
After about an hour of waiting, I started to feel a rumble from the ground. The rumble grows louder and louder, like a distant storm that is coming towards us. The rumbling continued to grow until i could feel that it is coming from the entry road that leads to the ambush site. I can see that my comrades are also aware of the loud rumbling and everybody was looking at the entryway. Anticipating. Anticipating what? We are expecting a resupply convoy. Trucks and infantrymens at most. This rumbles feels more like a main battle tank. And like a wish gone wrong, an Abrams main battle tank cornered into the road. My heart raced. The convoy was not supposed to include tanks.
As the tank moves nearer, i can see that my mates are getting restless. There's a growing confusion amongst the men. Everybody was glancing around at each other, trying to get assurance that nobody was capable of giving. Then, just a surprising as the appearnce of the tank, a room in the building opposite of me erupts in an explosion. Rifle shots can be heard coming from inside of the building. Then a couple of my mates exited the building next to it, into the open road. They ran, but alas they didn't get far, for the ground around them started to erupt with dust and pebbles. They are beind cut down by the main battle tank's anti personnel guns. One by one dropped down like ragged dolls.
Looking at my mates's cowardice, i wondered, why are they stupid enough to run away from their posts? We could've taken the tanks with RPG's. Then my question was answered when i caught a glimpse of infantrymen storming into the opposite building's rooms. And it dawned on me, we are being ambushed.
Sitting there helpless, i could only look at my mates being killed one by one. It's either death by the infantry's rifle or the tank's guns. There's is nothing more to be done here, i thought to myself. It it better to run now and fight another day, then dying here in a senseless massacre. As i was turning around to leave my own hiding place, the door behind me burst open, revealing an infantryman wielding M16s. With a sneer and a bemused grin on his face, he said 'Die Infidel' and let loose a barrage onto me. I was thrown back and out of my hideout's window.
An amusing fact about M16 is that, it was not designed to kill the enemy. Rather, It was design to inflict a decapitating wound. Enough a wound that would make you useless in combat, but not lethal enough to kill you. The rationale of this design was so that wounded soldiers will slow down his company. Furthermore, wounded soldiers could be used to gain intelligence.
So there i was, laying on the road, looking at the overcast sky with mild drizzle falling softly on my face. In times like these, you want to have people you love close to you. Your mother, if it is possible, your family at the very least. Then, if no family is around, your friends. And so, I reached out my weak arm and pulled my SVD closer, clutching it close to me. I think to myself 'everybody is dead now, it's just you and me now'.
With my last dying breath, i mumbled "yertzak~ gahh". With that, my mind sputtered its very last comment "Yertzak~ gahh? That's a waste of breath. And a final one at that!"
No comments:
Post a Comment