There was nowhere to go but straight down. Carter and Sanders had been examining possible escape routes. But they ruled out the best ones because of heavy fire from HIG fighters. So they turned their attention to the back side of the mountain.
They quickly discovered that there was no enemy fire from that location. But the landscape was daunting. To reach the bottom, they would have to find a path on the side of a cliff that dropped nearly sixty feet to the wadi. Not an easy thing to do without carrying the wounded. An impossible task while hauling soldiers with life-threatening injuries.
Still, it was the only way.
Without gunfire, at least they had a chance. If they used the switchbacks they had taken up the mountain, the wounded soldiers would be easy targets for the HIG fighters. That’s why Walton had ordered them to find another way.
Now they had to use all their skills to find the best route. While Carter found some narrow ledges leading downhill, the drop-offs between some of those ridges were wide. In a few places, ten to twenty feet separated the two ledges. At those points, the soldiers would have to hang from one ledge and drop to the next. Their landings would have to be perfect or else they could roll off the mountain. If that happened, the fall could kill them—they could tumble down and their bodies would be smashed as they landed on the sharp, jagged rocks.
And there were other problems, too. They had to carry their guns and gear. More importantly, they had to haul several seriously wounded soldiers who were barely alive. Glancing at the possible escape routes, they wondered, How could we do it? Could the wounded soldiers survive those drops?
Carter and Sanders tried over and over to navigate their way down the mountain. Several times, they slipped on loose rocks and had to hang on to shrubs. The two had taken an Afghan commando with them to help. But he was useless. He was too afraid to move from his position, so finally Carter and Sanders had to push him out of the way.
As Carter climbed, his hands hurt. They were bleeding. Drenched in sweat, he dug his fingers deep into the dirt and the rocks cut like a knife. His muscles felt ready to explode. There were too many drop-offs, and this was freestyle rock climbing. No ropes. They just used their strength to pull up or to hold on when they were headed down. It was frustrating. You had to be Spider-Man to scale these cliffs. This is a bad place, a fucking bad place, Carter thought.
“Shit, I don’t know,” Carter said to Sanders. “This is going to be tough.”
Sanders agreed.
The soldiers were exhausted. They had been fighting for hours and there was no end in sight. Covered as they were in blood and dirt, it would have been easy to give up. But they had to keep moving forward. Find a way off. Everyone was depending on them. So with the firefight raging in the background, they resumed their mission. They climbed up and down the sides of the mountain, desperately trying to find the right path. They even retraced their steps. Maybe there was something they’d missed. Finally, Sanders found a route that might work. There were still some extreme drop-offs in the beginning. But about halfway down, the drop-offs weren’t as bad and the path wasn’t as steep.
Sitting on the rocks about halfway down the mountain, Sanders turned to Carter. “If we go this way, we might make it.”
Carter knew what he meant. This route seemed to provide enough traction. Not as many loose rocks. And there were some shrubs to hold on to just in case. Not perfect. But it was the only way. This was an emergency. They had run out of time. Even in a best-case scenario—if the firing had stopped and they could move quickly down the mountain—the wounded soldiers could die. But with the incessant fire, the battle was far from over.
Carter took a deep breath and looked at Sanders. He liked the way this Special Forces soldier handled himself. He was diligent. He didn’t give up in the face of a difficult challenge. The irony of this assignment wasn’t lost on Carter. They were both pressed into an unbelievable situation. They were an unlikely pair. And yet they were the ones who found the path that could save the team.
“Let’s do it,” Carter said to Sanders.
So Carter and Sanders bounded back to Walton.
When they reached the captain, he was still on the radio. But he quickly turned his attention to the men.
“Can we get them down? Are they going to make it?” Walton asked.
Carter paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. “Yeah, they’ll live, but it’s going to be a bitch getting them down.”
Sanders agreed. “Well, are broken bones going to be all right?”
Walton didn’t hesitate. “Fuck it. Let’s go,” he shouted.
It was time to pack up and leave.