Pappa Zulu – Chapter 17
“Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.”
-Michel de Montaigne
Every step produced its own slick, wet sounds. Just a few feet into the mouth, and already the ground was covered in trickled of rain water, mosses, and something grey Saunders couldn’t identify. She could only assume this was the vaunted “Whiskey shit” Whitman had mentioned.
The look on his face seemed to confirm as much. And he was right, it did smell like death. But worse, it confirmed that there some undead bastards were in here recently. And since the darkness just kept extending in front of them, that could only mean they had gone deeper…
The comm came on. “Viper One Actual to Viper One One, what’s your status over?”
Saunders cursed quietly and keyed the comm. This deep into the cave, they were still getting reception, although it was somewhat crackly. She had to answer.
“Viper One Actual, this is Viper One One. We are negative for contact, over.”
“Roger that, Viper One One. Proceed to rendezvous point and be ready to move to the next target, over.”
She quickly keyed the comm again. “Viper One Actual, request permission to recon. Target Alpha runs deeper than expected. Hostiles may be embedded, over.”
There was a pause. She anticipated another argument in the near future. “Viper One One, clarify, over.”
Saunders cursed a little louder. She looked around at her squad. “Hold here, I’m going back to get a better signal.”
They uttered affirmatives and held their positions, keeping the lights they had mounted on their rifles trained into the ongoing recess. Making her way back into the light, she was greeted by Majorca, sitting on a pile of stones and holding the detonator in his hand. She snapped out a salute to him and grabbed hold of the comm again. This time around, she promised herself, it would be by the book. And he had been quite clear on what he expected, should the need arise…
“Viper One Actual, this is Viper One One. Request face to face, over.”
His reply was quick and curt. “Viper One Actual, coming up.”
She waited and paced as the intervening moments passed. Eventually, she heard the tell-tale sound of brush rustling and twigs breaking as his footsteps approached. He emerged from the treeline a second later with Grayson in tow, and she snapped him a salute.
“Sir, thank you for coming.”
“At ease, Sergeant,” he said coolly. “So what’s the situation?”
“Target Alpha, sir. Our bait didn’t lure any Whiskeys to the mouth, but we’ve since determined that the cave runs deeper than previously expected. Possibly deep into the mountain, to an underground river or spring maybe. Wind coming from the inside has also been coming outward, which might explain why the mist dissipated as soon as we threw it in.”
He squinted and eyed her men who were just barely visible near the opening. “You ordered your men to recon the cave, Sergeant?”
She looked back in their direction and tried to think of a way that would make it all sound kosher. She had, but that didn’t necessarily equate to insubordination, not if she told it just right.
“Private Whitman confirmed the existence of Whiskey excrement in the opening, sir. I wanted to be sure so I went forward to inspect. The balance of first squad accompanied me to provide cover.”
He also saw Majorca, who was standing by his ordinance at attention. “The Private there was manning the munitions?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “Just in case we needed to fall back in a hurry. It was never far from our minds that we might stir up whoever was within.”
Braun seemed to be processing everything she had just said, scanning it for any possible signs of disobedience or a breach of the ROE. Whether he was trying to find something or rule it out, she couldn’t tell. At this point, his thoughts were about as alien to her as the enemies.
“I understand,” he said finally. When he looked back at her, his eyes were still cold, but his words were much more amenable. “It’s a good plan, Sergeant. Guess your two for two.”
Her eyebrows raised themselves involuntarily. She wasn’t expecting that.
“Thank you, sir,” she said, hesitantly. “Shall we continue?”
Braun drew a breath and seemed to think that one over too. He eventually nodded. “Fourth Squad will come up to cover the entrance. You’re squad will proceed inside and…” He stopped and turned to Grayson. “Sergeant, what’s the platoon’s store of cee-four look like?”
“A good five pounds, as of our last inventory, sir.”
“Good, get to the supply truck and obtain all of it, double-time back here.” The Sergeant issued a loud affirmative and proceeded off in a hurry. Braun turned back to Saunders. “If it proves deeper than fifty meters, you’re to lay explosives and seal the entrance, copy?”
She nodded. “Yes, sir.” She grabbed a hold of her comm and signaled Mill. “Corporal, pull the men out, we’re standing by on a shipment of Charlie Four for the cave.”
“Yes, ma’am,” came his voice, which almost audible even without the comm. He and the others emerged from the darkness a second later and joined Majorca. All looked suddenly impressed to learn that they would be participating in a demolitions run. For most, it would be the first time. Saunders counted herself amongst them and was kind of excited herself. The chance to blow the crap out of something and possibly kill a whole lot of bad guys in the process. Kind of cool really…
Her and Braun stood there quietly for a moment and waited. Eventually, a small smile cracked on his face and he spoke again.
“Good job bringing this to my attention, Sergeant. A lesser NCO would have reported no contact and moved on. We might have overlooked something if that were the case.”
“Thank you, sir. That was my concern too, sir.”
His smile grew a little larger, though it looked both pained and awkward. They spent another few moments in silence, and to Saunders, they were the longest in history.
I think I liked it better when he was chewing me out, she thought. That too had been painfully awkward, but at least it had been short and sweet. No incredibly awkward pauses to speak of…
* * *
The deeper they went, the worse it got. Not only was the floor getting slicker, the soft, sucking muck seemed to be getting thicker. Every time Saunders put her boot in it, it was an effort to get it out again. The sucking noises coming from those around her weren’t too nice either. In addition to being disgusting to hear, the noise of it was ruining any chance they had of making a stealthy approach.
But what they were approaching exactly, she couldn’t say. The farther they went, the deeper the cave seemed to go. Fifty meters was damn far when stretched out in the interior of a mountain, but it already felt like they had passed that mark and then some.
The illuminated circles of their flashlights darted this way and that over the surface of the walls. Much like the floor, they were small patches of moss, water trickling in small trickles from the roof, and some patches of what looked like niter and other deposits of minerals. One had to wonder how long the caves had been here, and who else might have wandered in before them…
“Jeezus, kill me!” Whitman protested. The stink was getting worse the deeper they went. But luckily, there was a noticeable wind current coming from below. One had to assume the stench would have been worse without it. And the way it was thickening the further in they went could only mean that they were looking at a wholesale infestation down here. She was sure they had passed fifty meters by now, but her feet kept issuing her forward…
“Sarge… is this far enough?” asked Jones. The tone of his voice told her he was desperate to turn back. She could even feel the same instinct at work inside her. Plant the C4 and run, dammit, it seemed to be saying. But at the moment, it was moving uphill against the more powerful urge to keep going and see what lay ahead.
“Yeah, this is about fifty meters,” she admitted. “Start planting. I’m going to look up ahead just a bit more.”
“Sarge, the LT was quite specific,” said Mill. She didn’t bother to look in his direction. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the next spot up ahead. She shone her flashlight on it and noted that the cave dropped a few feet and curved. But there was definitely an opening in the rock, another turn leading even deeper. It almost looked like there was light coming from the other side as well.
“There’s something through there,” she said. “Might be where they’re hiding.”
Mill grunted something to the others and came to her side. “Sergeant. The LT was clear on what he wanted us to do. Prep the demos, and then get topside. The longer we linger down here, the more likely we’re gonna get sacked.”
She sighed. She knew he was right. But dammit if the suspense wasn’t killing her. Was she seeing things, or was there honestly and truly some light up ahead? What could that mean, if there was? Was there an underground river, as Mill had suggested, one which ran up through another cave network, and was letting outside light in? And if so, where did it all run? Was there an underground lagoon in here, and could that be where the shitters were spending their time now?
A thought occured just then. If there was some kind of recess below and multiple caves were running to it, then that meant they probably had more than one route to the surface. Or was this there only means of access? Would blowing this trap all of them below, or would it simply mean they’d need to find another way out?
If she could just get to within a few dozen meters of them, she was sure she would be able to hear the telltale moans and groans. Then at least they would be sure. Whiskeys were far more resourceful than most people gave them credit for. Given enough time, they could find their way through solid walls. Who was to say they couldn’t find their way through solid rock?
“Sarge, did you hear me?”
“How long til they’re ready?” she asked, indicating Whitman and Majorca who were setting the charges while Jones stood watch with his shotgun.
“Two minutes, tops,” he said. “We got to check to make sure the radio detonator will work at his depth, but otherwise, won’t be long.”
She looked ahead again and grit her teeth. “Two minutes? Just enough time to peek around one more corner.”
“Saaaarge,” said Mill, his own teeth on edge.
“We want to confirm the existence of the enemy as best we can, don’t we? Besides, if there’s a recess up ahead, those charges could lead to a whole section of this mountain collapsing. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”
He grunted. “Is that an order, ma’am?”
She smiled. “Would I do that to you?”
He did not smile back. “Alright, fine. But if anyone asks, I did this under duress.”
“So noted,” Saunders replied, slapping him on the shoulder and turning to the others. “Grunts. Finish up here and run your tests. We’re going on ahead to scope it out. Be back in one mike.”
