It was December seventeenth when I took Alexis out in a supply truck to deliver one of the first loads of aid supplies to the families of the area. The UN staff had carefully surveyed every household they could to get an assessment of needs, and now we were supposed to hand out things like baby formula, aspirin, clean water, and hygiene products.
To be honest, I’d been looking forward to this trip for a few days. We planned to go to the village down the road from camp but also to some outlying areas. It meant spending the whole day locked in a truck with Alexis, and even though I’d promised not to come on to her anymore, even though it might mean my job if I touched her, I had this strong pull to be in her orbit. I knew she belonged to someone else, but I couldn’t seem to control the direction my thoughts took around her. The simple truth was I wanted to fuck her for about five days straight, take a nap, and start it all over again.
We loaded up the truck and left at about seven a.m.
“I didn’t even think about how we’re going to eat if this is going to take all day,” Alexis said as we started out.
I slammed on the brakes. “Oh, shit!” I hollered.
She jumped about eight inches off her seat and yelped. I laughed as I started up the truck again.
“It’s all right, babe. I’ve got it under control. MREs are super and the canteen water only tastes a little metallic. You’ll get used to it.”
Poor girl. She was spunky as hell, but I watched her face fall as she anticipated eating the Army’s infamous meals in brown plastic wrapping.
I took mercy on her. “Hey, I actually have a whole lunch the kitchen packed for us. No MREs, I promise. Just the usual crappy sandwiches.”
She sighed in relief.
“So, the plan the squad leader gave us is to start at the farthest point from base and work our way closer throughout the day. The other trucks in the convoy will be coming about a half hour after us. They had a last-minute repair to make. We’ll meet up with them at the first stop. It’ll take us about forty minutes to get there, so kick back and enjoy the lovely views of the rocks and dirt we’ll be surrounded by all damn day.”
She laughed. “It’s not terribly beautiful, is it?”
“Not the landscape, but the people . . . You know, it’s weird. They can be really beautiful and then again they can be barbaric. There’re a lot of contradictions.”
Nodding, she looked out the window as we bumped along the road, dust churning in our wake. I watched her profile, wondering why it was I found myself wanting to talk to her, actually talk to her, when I rarely talked to women longer than it took to get them into my bed.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked as I took the turn off to our destination, traveling through the craggy cliffs that surrounded the basin where our camp and the adjacent village were located.
“Sure.”
“Can you tell me about your boyfriend? I mean, I’m not trying to pry, but you’re sort of young and you seem really serious about him.”
She stiffened a little. “I’m not that much younger than you,” she said, somewhat indignantly.
“Yeah, and you don’t see me with a serious boyfriend, now do you?” I joked.
She chuckled and rolled her eyes. “I think I’d pay to see that.”
“What? You think I can’t get myself a serious boyfriend? Shit, I’ve had more offers than you have, I’ll bet.”
“God. I can’t imagine any guy who’d be brave enough to hit on you. You’d beat the crap out of them.”
“Hey now, I’m very tolerant. I put up with the ass pinching every day. I do draw the line at Jefferson crawling into bed with me at night though. He’s just so damn needy.”
Alexis was full-on laughing at me now, and I decided I really liked the sound of her husky voice when it was that happy, even if it was at the expense of my manhood.
“You’re avoiding my question though, aren’t you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
She sighed. “What exactly do you want to know?”
“Just the regular stuff. How’d you meet, how long have you been going out, is he as hot as me . . .”
She started laughing. “You’re unbelievable. He’s different than you, so I couldn’t ever compare. But we’ve been dating since I was sixteen. We’ve always known each other—same neighborhood, our families are friends, all that stuff.”
“And he goes to UT with you?”
“Yeah. We went together. He’s a sophomore though. He went to Texas State at San Marcos his first year so he could stay with me until I graduated.”
My stomach sank and went sour. This wasn’t some quickie boyfriend she’d picked up in college. This was someone who had a history with her that I never could. Someone who understood where she came from, knew who she was deep down. Fuck, that hurt.
“Okay, well, sounds like you two have it all worked out then,” I quipped.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she bristled.
I didn’t answer as I slowed down to negotiate a hairpin turn that took us along the edge of one of the cliffs. Luckily I was going slowly when the shell exploded about fifty yards ahead in the middle of the road.
Alexis screamed as I hit the brakes, skidding on the dirt and sending the truck into a fishtail that took us way too close to the drop-off. Glass broke from the passenger window next to Alexis, and debris from the explosion rained down over the windshield and roof, making it impossible for me to discern if it was rocks, shrapnel, or bullets.
“Get on the floor!” I yelled at Alexis as I brought the truck to a stop just a few feet from the pit that had been the road before the explosion.
She kept repeating, “Oh my God, oh my God,” as she scurried onto the floorboards of the truck and huddled in a little ball.
I glanced at her while I looked all around us as quickly as I could. She gazed back at me with huge eyes, and in the back of my head I logged an emotion brought on by those fearful eyes that I couldn’t place but knew I didn’t like. The dust started to clear and the debris quit falling. Everything became eerily quiet as I scanned the adjacent hills for signs of who might be there. There was nothing visible, but I’d been trained well enough to know that meant nothing.
I reached for my pistol and took it out of the holster before I removed the rifle from under the seat and slung it over my shoulder. “Okay,” I said to Alexis. “You’re going to stay right here while I see what the situation is.”
She whisper-yelled, “No! You can’t leave me here! Seriously, you’ll get shot and then I’ll be here all by myself!”
I looked down at her for a split second. “Thanks for all your concern, but I promise not to get killed so I can still give you a ride home.”
“I didn’t mean it that way, and you know it,” she growled.
“Look, I don’t have time to fight with you right now, Alexis. I’m guessing that we’ve got insurgents ready to hit us with sniper fire the minute we try to move, so I’ve got to scope the area and try to get you somewhere safe to wait them out. Can you let me do my job here?”
“Okay,” she muttered. “But please don’t get killed.”
“Gotcha.” I grinned at her as I slowly opened the door a crack and then slid down and out as quietly as I could.
I crouched on the ground, searching the rocks all around. There was a lot of dust in the air, and it burned my eyes and the inside of my nose. There also wasn’t a sound—not animals or wind or vehicles—and a bad feeling passed through me, leaving behind the surge of too much adrenaline. I gripped my M4 rifle more tightly and inched forward, away from the truck.
When I reached the hillside that climbed up from the road, I turned my back to it and sat. The truck obscured my view somewhat but I could still see most of the opposite cliffs. I looked along the top ridge, watching for movement. Right as I thought there wasn’t anything to be seen, I caught the tiniest shift in the picture. A brief flash of black among the beige rocks and sand. Bingo.
My mind spun, working out possible scenarios. At the very least there were snipers on the opposite hills. Most likely there were others hidden among the rocks all around. That was how the insurgents usually worked. It gave them not only the element of surprise and the ability to shoot at the enemy without being shot at but it also made it difficult for us to estimate their numbers. There could be two guys out there—or twenty; I had no idea. I was lucky the truck had ended up in the curve of the hillside, meaning when I was between the truck and the hill, I was relatively protected and hard to spot.
I decided I needed more information and there was only one way to get it. I crawled back to the truck then along the side until I came to the front bumper. I rolled my shoulders back a couple of times, took a deep breath, and stood up. As the shots exploded in the air around me, I dropped to the ground and rolled under the truck, my breath coming fast and hard, my heart beating ten times the normal rate. Alexis’s screams were echoing in my ears. As soon as the shots stopped, she stopped, but I heard her in the truck chanting, “Please don’t let him be dead. Please don’t let him be dead,” over and over.
The smell of diesel and motor oil nearly gagged me as I scooted under the truck until I was beneath the driver’s door. Then I crawled out and up into the cab. Alexis looked at me and burst into tears. I lay down on my side along the seat, my face right on level with hers.
“Shhh. It’s okay. I’m okay. Don’t cry. You’ll make me get all teary too, and that’s just damn embarrassing.”
She laughed softly through the tears. “How can you joke at a time like this? God, I thought they’d gotten you. I couldn’t see anything. I just heard all those shots.” She reached over and slugged me in the shoulder. “You suck for scaring me like that.”
I grabbed her hand when she hit me and held it as I rolled onto my back. I looked up at the truck’s ceiling while I talked. “I’m sorry about that, but I had to get a feel for where the guys are. Judging by the direction of the shots, they’re only on the opposite side of the ravine, but that might not last long. More could be on their way.”
I reached for the truck’s radio in order to warn the rest of the convoy coming after us. All I got was static.
“Damn it, this canyon must be screwing with the signal,” I told her after I’d spent a few minutes messing with the various dials and settings.
“So what do we do?”
“We make a run for it. There’s a cave a few yards down. They teach us to watch for potential fallback positions, so I saw it as we passed. Once we’re there, we can wait them out until the base sends some people for us, but getting there isn’t going to be easy. You up for it?”
I could hear her breathing kick up from the fear, but she had a steady voice when she answered me. “Why will we be safer there?” she asked.
“Once we’re in, we’ll have the advantage. It’s dark inside, so they won’t see us clearly, but we will see them out in the light. We’ll have a field of vision they won’t. They’ll have to risk a lot to get to where they can take a shot. Most likely they’d rather starve us out, but that won’t happen because our guys will get us long before then.”
She seemed to think and then nodded. “I’ve got to say, just about anything sounds better than hanging out here like sitting ducks. Tell me what to do.”
“Good girl.” I reluctantly released her hand. “All right. First thing is to get any supplies we can.” I started a list out loud, more for myself than Alexis. “The rucksack’s got MREs, clothes, water, but we need the blankets behind the seat and the LBV.”
“What’s the LBV?” she asked quietly.
“Load-bearing vest—all the extra ammo.”
She swallowed and didn’t respond for a moment. “How long do you think we’ll be trapped here?” she asked.
I lay on the seat, and while I wouldn’t have admitted it to her, I didn’t think I could sit up yet; I was still trying to restart my heart after being shot at. I turned my head to look at her. She was so close, crouched on the floorboards, that I could feel her breath on my face. I could count the tiny freckles across the bridge of her nose and see the flecks of gold in her dark eyes. That jump-start my heart needed? Yeah, her eyes did it.
I cleared my throat. I wasn’t sure how much more my nervous system could take. Mind-shredding fear coupled with heart-pumping lust was a hard combination, even for a young guy like me.
“I’m hoping just a few hours, but we need to be prepared for a day or two.”
She nodded again.
I mentally gathered myself and sat up, keeping my eyes on the cliffs outside. I wondered how much the snipers could see through the window. Times like this I was really glad for military-grade armored glass. I reached behind the seat, grabbed the rucksack and LBV, and then stuffed in the lunch and water bottles we’d brought.
Once I’d gotten everything together, I said, “You can get up now. Just move slowly.”
She crawled up onto the seat, finally sitting up and taking a deep breath. “What now?”
I scratched my head. Truthfully, I didn’t have much in the way of a plan. I’d probably get us both killed, but it was only a matter of time before men arrived to do that anyway, so it wasn’t much of a risk. I wished like hell Alexis weren’t here. If it weren’t for her, I’d probably have gone and stood outside the truck and let them take me. I wasn’t suicidal, but I was realistic, and they had us tied up pretty well. There was, however, one big advantage to getting gunned down as we made a run for it. I’d never say it to Alexis, but if they got us at the truck, there was a good chance they’d rape her before they killed her. In a way, getting blasted to pieces on the way to the cave was a better option for her. My stomach twisted at the thought of either possibility.
Shaking off the negative vibes, I took one more look around as I talked her through what we’d do. “The tarp that’s across the back of the truck is the same color as these rocks. We’re going to crawl underneath the truck and then I’ll go in the back and get that tarp down.”
She looked at me and swallowed hard. Her eyes were big and scared.
“Then you’re going to wrap that tarp around yourself while you run for the cave. It’ll help camouflage you so it’ll be harder for them to shoot you.”
“What about you?” she asked in a small voice.
“I’m going to come right behind you with the rifle. I’ll shoot if I have to in order to cover you.”
“But you’ll be out there, exposed. I mean, can’t you get something to camouflage you?”
I shook my head. “No. That’s what my MultiCam is for, and I can’t see to shoot if I’m trying to hide behind something.”
She looked at me and her eyes grew even bigger, if that were possible.
“I want you to carry this rucksack.” I handed it to her. “That way, if I don’t make it, you’ll have the supplies to get you through the next twenty-four hours or so. There’s a pistol in there. If you end up alone in that cave, don’t use that gun unless someone gets all the way into the cave with you.”
Her eyes welled up. “No,” she whispered.
“Alexis,” I said sharply. “Listen to me. If you fire at guys who are shooting at the cave from a distance, you’ll never hit anyone and it’ll just waste the ammo. You have to wait until they’re a few yards from you. Not so close they can touch you, but close enough you can see their faces clearly. You got that?”
“No.” She shook her head violently. “No. We’re going to go out there and you’re going to get yourself killed trying to save me. You can’t do this. It’s suicide. I don’t want to be in that cave by myself. Let’s stay here in the truck. Please.”
My heart felt like it was bleeding a drop of blood with every drop of salt water that rolled from her eyes. I reached out and pulled her to me.
“Shh, shh. Alexis. It’s okay. First of all, part of being prepared is thinking about every possibility. But that’s all they are—possibilities. I wouldn’t have us do this if I didn’t think we had a good chance of pulling it off—both of us.” Finally, I thought, all that practice lying to women is serving a purpose. “Secondly, I’m a soldier. We get ourselves killed to save other people every single day. It’s my job. I’ve been putting myself at risk to protect you for three years now. You just weren’t around to see it.”
She hiccupped and sat back. “Wow. I never thought about it that way.” I smiled at her. “But that doesn’t make it any better,” she declared.
“Maybe not, but can we talk about it later. Maybe after we’re settled in the cave? I’m feeling like we need to get out of here sooner rather than later.”
I saw her draw herself up, take a deep breath, and wipe the last tear from her face. She blew out the breath before looking me in the eye steadily. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s do this.”
I couldn’t help but smile at her spunk. Dammit. I needed to get her out of this alive and whole. That was all that mattered here. Just her.
I picked up her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Follow me and do exactly as I say.”
She nodded, and I crawled out of the truck with one really tough little humanitarian right behind me.
We scooted on our stomachs underneath the truck from the front to the back. I realized too late I should have given Alexis my uniform jacket because she was on her elbows in the dirt and rocks with a short-sleeved T-shirt on.
When we reached the back end of the truck, I signaled Alexis to stay put. She nodded, and I gingerly scooted out from under, a few inches at a time. When I could finally roll onto my side and curl my knees to get my legs clear of the back bumper, I gathered my resolve. In one continuous movement, I rolled into a crouch and threw myself up into the back underneath the tarp.
When no shots rang out, I nearly cheered with relief. Not only had I survived the exposure, but it led me to believe the guy shooting at the front of the truck might be the only one out there. He couldn’t see behind the truck well, and that was in our favor.
I looked around at the cargo, grabbing a few more bottles of water and stuffing them in various pockets. I finally understood why our uniforms had all those damn hidden pockets. Next I unhooked the beige camo tarp that hung across the back of the truck, keeping behind it as I went. When I got it down, I knelt and rolled it up enough to move it. My quads ached from all the squatting.
I managed the transition from the back of the truck to the ground underneath without any incidents. The tarp now lay in a pile right under the bumper, ready to provide a thin, relatively useless layer between Alexis and a high-powered rifle. It sucked, but it was all I had.
“Are you ready?” I whispered to her.
She swallowed and whispered back, “I guess so.”
“Look along the side of the hill. Do you see that opening about twenty yards down?”
She squinted against the sun that bounced around off all the naked, pale surfaces, finally nodding when she spotted the place I’d pointed out.
“That’s where you’re heading. Here’s what you’re going to do: scoot out from under here, but stay crouched down. Get that tarp and pull the edge up over your head. Stay low, but go as fast as you can. Keep your back to the road and head straight to that cave. I’ll be right behind you. It’ll all be fine, I promise.”
She looked at me with those big eyes. God, it was all I could do to keep from reaching out and pulling her to me for a kiss. Anything to take that fear away.
“And Alexis? No matter what you hear, don’t stop.” I could see the doubt cross her face, the beginning of an argument simmering. I put my finger up against her lips, caught for a moment in the vision of their plump moistness wrapped around that finger and other things. Fuck. Near-death experiences didn’t seem to do a damn thing to deter my dick.
“Don’t argue with me. I mean it. If you hear gunshots, if you do or don’t hear me behind you, no matter what you hear, keep going. Your job is to keep that tarp over your head and get to that cave as fast as you can. Got it?”
Her voice broke as she whispered, “Yeah.” Then, in a move that completely shocked me, she leaned over and pressed a sweet, soft kiss on my lips. And she was gone, scooting forward from under the truck and wrapping the tarp around her crouching form.
I was so blown away by the kiss I almost missed the fact that she was now standing up and running toward the hillside. I bolted out from under the truck, M4 in hand, my eyes scanning the opposite side of the ravine. We made it about halfway there before a shot rang out, chipping the rock just behind my head.
“Fuck!” I muttered to myself as I flattened my back against the rock and pointed my gun, shuffling quickly toward the cave. To her credit, Alexis didn’t slow down, and she was three-quarters of the way to what I hoped was safety.
Another shot rang out and exploded even farther behind me. My brain calculated that it must have been the same guy who’d taken shots at me in front of the truck, and he wasn’t in range or at the right angle to get us as we headed for the cave. Hoping I was right, I turned my back to him and ran, arriving just behind Alexis, safe—at least for the moment.