[Rat]

The sun beat down on Rats back, causing the sweat to trickle down his back and his face, leaving tracks in the dirt on him. He was on his knees again, looking at the sign on the trail he was following thru the dense bush. Walking point for the past hour had put his nerves on edge. He smelled a trap somewhere ahead, and didn’t like it.

Back a few meters, the Lieutenant leading this stick was impatient, and kept motioning for Rat to pick up the pace. Rat continued to ignore him, thinking that going slow was betting than getting blown up. He had run across two rather poorly set trip Chinese grenades in the last kilometer, and had gotten the impression that they had been left to be found on purpose. This made Rat suspect the next one would be rather cleverly hidden.

They were chasing a group of Gs from ZANLA who had slipped over the border and raided a farm, torturing and killing the men and raping the women at the farmhouse. The Gs were now trying to slip back across the border into Mozambique. Rumor had it that a white man had been leading this group. Rat suspected either a Russian or East German trainer was helping show this group the ropes.

The Lieutenant had finally gotten fed up with Rat. He motions for Rat to fall back into the stick and someone else move forward on point. Up from the group of men slides Daniel, the young Englishman from Leeds. He was a teacher up there, before he had come to Africa to learn about war. Daniel slides up beside Rat and pauses for a moment. Rat motions that Daniel should be careful, that Rat thinks there’s trouble ahead. Daniel looks at Rat, and give him a big wink, and a nudge on the shoulder, and moves forward. The rest of the stick moves on up, and Rat falls back into line behind the Lieutenant.

The stick continues to move forward slowly thru the dense underbrush, watching and peering for trouble on all sides. Daniel is in the lead, 20 metres ahead, and sometimes disappearing from view. The day has turned into a mind numbing, hot, humid inferno. The sun beats down mercilessly on the men slipping thru the brush.

The tremendous explosion takes Rat by surprise and knocks him to the ground.. Dirt and dust fill the air. All the members of the stick quickly point their weapons out, expecting incoming fire at any moment. Yet all remains quiet. The medic quickly pushes past Rat and the other men, headed for the front. Rat has a sick feeling in his gut, knowing what the medic would find. The Lieutenant follows the medic up to the front. Everyone continues to watch the brush, looking for a sight of their elusive enemy.

The dust settles and the sun comes out. An order is given, and one of the men reaches into his pack and pulls out a body bag. No words are necessary as its passed up the line to the Lieutenant. Rat knows who is to blame for this. For a moment, Rats hand tightens on the grip of his rifle as he looks at the Lieutenants back. But no, that won’t changes things. It seems that the G’s had linked a rather large anti-tank mine to their last booby trap. Daniel hadn’t suspect it was rigged, the sloppy way it was set up, and triggered it. A mine meant for a multi-ton tank shreds a man.

While some of the men put what was left in the body bag, the radio crackles and coordinates are given for a helicopter to come and pick up the remains. Men grab the body bag, and the stick heads off for a clearing a half kilometer away. Rat hangs back and plays rear guard for the stick as it makes its way to the clearing. Upon reaching the clearing, the stick fans out and soon the helicopter comes in and lands. Troopers run out to the copter and place the bag in it, and run back from the rotor wash.

The helicopter lifts off and banks away. Rat stands and watches it take Daniel away. The Lieutenant stands and calls to the stick. “Right, we need to catch those blokes before they get to the border. Lets move. Rat, take point, and pick up the pace”.

Rat thinks about shooting the Lieutenant again.