The Forest
Chapter 2
"Close Call"
Gunshots were going off members of the United States Army ran from bunker to bunker, hiding from the pieces of metal that could bring certain death. Though the individuals in the Army wore forms of protection from bullets, they still got killed in the field. Bullets would miss their shields or they would step on a mine blowing them into pieces all over the war zone. Christian Dirk was a rookie out in the field, this was his first time in action, he joined the Army so that they would pay off his college tuition when he left. However, he has spent more time in the force than necessary, forgetting about his education and his need to get a good job. He decided to stay in the Army, for the leadership skills, for the reputation, for the excitement, and for the glory. From good old San Diego, California, Christian spent a lot of time in the city and being in the Army let him breath the fresh air of the world, instead of the distorted air of the car fumes.
Christian was in a group of four other men, squatting down in a ditch the five reloaded their guns and tried to plan some sort of strategy. Bullets flew by their heads as they tried to think, it was extremely hard to do that with the grenades flying over their heads, and exploding. Christian clenched his fists and leaned against the hill behind him, watching the others getting ready to fire back. This wasn’t going to be a pretty trip to the next bunker, and deep down the rookie Christian knew that all five of this squat won’t make it. The next few moments will be the last time all five men breathed. The other four men had a feeling that Christian would probably be the one to get hit as they moved forward, and they knew they had to keep a careful eye open for him. That was the one thing that Christian hating being, a hassle to everyone else. He always wanted to be the one that people depended on and trusted. Right now he had to earn that, and he was determined to.
“Alright men, lets move on my count.” The leader of this squadron said.
“Copy...” One of the men said hesitantly. They all knew someone wouldn’t make it.
Pulling the trigger, Christian jumped out of the ditch first, catching the attention of the opposing force. Dust flew around of his feet as he sprinted, he was drawing all of the fire from the opposing safe haven that was shooting at them. As soon as he got out of the ditch, two of the others came out, firing for their lives. The captain of the squadron and the last member sprinted out soon after. As soon as the last member jumped out, he was shot, blood spraying off of his chest and into the air. He screamed for a second, but then just hit the ground motionless. The captain fired a few times, checked the body and then continued his sprint. Christian was taking down the opposition left and right, his eyes were focused and his blood was pumping. This was his way of earning his trust and respect in the Army ranks, and he was doing just that. Christian held his position, which was behind a fairly large rock, while the other three continued to sprint towards their safe point. Stopping his firing rage, the rookie turned around behind the rock and began to reload his gun. However, before he could roll out and fire again the two men that ran out after him were down. One of them was shot square in the face, silence went over his body, the other was shot in the leg and fell to the ground. Without hesitation Christian flew out of his hiding spot, firing at everything that moved as he moved towards his fallen comrade.
Dodging death and injury, Christian made it to the fallen right when his superior officer made it to the ditch they were running for. The captain of the squadron let out mad-fire to cover Christian and the fallen soldier. Dust was being sprayed throughout the air, not only from the haste in Christian’s movements but from the close shots that were being fired. With some sort of adrenaline rush, the rookie through the wounded onto his shoulders and carried him towards the captain’s position. All the while, Christian’s automatic rifle kept firing and his strength only began to grow as he made it closer to the safe spot. He knew that not only his life depended on him making it, but the life of his comrade did as well. A couple dozen feet away from the captains position a radio call transmitted over the fallen’s radio, stating that the air strike force was moving in to take out the enemy. A sigh of relief escaped the captain’s lips through the loud firing of his rifle. A sigh of desperation went over Christian instead, as he saw a hand grenade land right at his feet. Only a few seconds and they would either be in pieces or the rookie’s legs would carry them far enough. It really depended on when the thrower of the grenade threw it, but Christian wasn’t going to try and take a guess. Immediately his feet took off, even with the weight of the fallen it was like he was running for the gold. It wasn’t far enough to get away from the blast, the force of it lifted Christian’s feet of the ground and his fallen comrade went into the air. A scream was heard from the direction of the captain, but it was barely heard over the ringing in the rookie’s ears. Another explosion went off close by, and Christian knew it was going to be a close call. His eyes widened and prepared for the worst.
The man in the black jacket opened his eyes quick, blood dripped down his forehead and into the water beneath him. The look of confusion came upon his face as he glanced around, wood was floating around him, he was laying in a bout 6 inches of cool water. The sun was so bright as it reflected off of the refreshing water, his black jacket was torn and his head was hurting quite badly. However, after realizing he just fell over 300 feet down a waterfall on half of a boat he knew it could be a lot worse. It was quiet, no sounds of screaming, boat breaking, thunder, explosions or gunshots. Wait...gunshots? The man shook his head to clear the cobwebs. Slowly he began to sit up, the loud crashing of the waterfall about fifty yards behind him wasn’t helping his headache too much. His eyes began to scan the area as he placed his hand on his head, there were other survivors of the plunge down the rapids. Actually, more than he expected. Footsteps through the water could be heard coming up behind him.
“Excuse me sir? Are you ok?” A woman’s voice whistled into his ears.
“Yes, just a little scratch.”
“Nah, you better let me have a look at that, I’m a nurse.” The woman said squatting next to the man.
“Eh, sure, why not.” The man said smiling gently. “As long as it’s a free check up.”
“Funny.” The woman said slightly smiling. “Someone at least has a easy goin’ attitude around here. Even after that fall we took.”
“I’m just glad there are survivors, from the look at it things could have been...Ouch!” The man reeled back quickly.
“Stay still...” The woman pulled him back. After a brief pause in the conversation the woman introduced herself. “I’m Beka, by the way. And yes, it could have been a lot worse. But, seeing as I’m the only registered nurse or doctor that survived I’m looking at this a little different.”
“I see your point...”The man said looking around a bit, there were a few corpses floating in the water, and much more injured around the calm cove. “My name is Christian...”
Christian let the nurse slowly examine him, making sure there was no further head injuries other than the small cut on his head. The birds around the area were loud, and the waterfall was getting louder and more annoying to the headache. Slowly, he began to stand with a little help from Beka, he was fine besides the headache. Although, his nice leather jacket was ruined, ripped in several places and actually one of the sleeves were missing. Sighing, he took the jacket off and looked up at Beka.
“This was my favorite jacket...” He said gripping the leather in his fist.
“Well, at least its not too cold out right now right?” Beka said she would have smiled again if she didn’t just experience the crazy night. “I better go check on the others, since your injury seems livable.”
“Tell that to the pounding in my head.” Christian said as Beka turned away and started walking toward the next injury.
“Oh by the way Christian,” She stopped in her walking and turned around slowly. “Thanks for saving everyone’s lives.”
The black jacket then fell into the water and started to float away, and the Army reserve didn’t know what to say. Her words were kind, but he could tell that she was under a lot of stress, once this headache of his went away and more survivors came to Christian would help the young nurse out in some form. Right now though, the thirty year old reserve walked out of the water onto dry land, holding his head from his pounding headache. Memories from the night before began to flow through his head, then his eyes began to look around once more. They were at refuge at the base of the waterfall, around them was thick luscious trees and grass. Beautiful flowers circled the area, and insects even looked pretty in this place. From the way everything looked, they crashed in the middle of one of Brazil’s rainforests and they were probably miles away from civilization.
Christian slowly walked to a tree that was a little while away from the waterfall. His dark brown hair was ruffled around, his bangs gently touching his forehead. He ran his fingers softly through his small beard that he was beginning to grow and his pale blue eyes continued to dance around. The tight white t-shirt he wore clenched against his upper torso and his blue jeans were sticking to his legs. As he looked down he noticed that he only had one shoe on and twiddled his toe of his bootless foot. Carefully he sat down against this tree, and closed his eyes, trying to take in everything that has happened.
“You were the only one to survive the mission we sent you on, Officer Dirk.” A deep voice said.
The voice was coming from behind a large desk in a dimly lit room. The only lights that were on were hanging above plaques of recognition of duty in the Army. Obviously the person speaking was some sort of high command, his face was gently outlined but mostly out of view. Christian stood on the other side of the desk, his arms behind his back and his body was as straight as a rail. There were cuts on his face, and a few on his hands when they became visible. He took a little beating but he seemed to be in one pieces with all his limbs.
“Yes sir...” Christian said.
“You let your commanding officer take the lead, and compromised your whole mission.” The high-leveled officer said. “Am I correct?”
“Yes...you are sir.”
“You let my brother take the bullets that should have brought you down.” A cold tone went over the voice of the officer, silence went over Christian. “He worked his whole life to get to where he was, and he took the bullets that should have taken you down. Hell, your whole squadron took all of your bullets, I don’t understand how you came out of this alive.” Again there was silence from Christian. After a few moments he tried to speak.
“Sir, I did everything in my power-“ He was intrupted.
“Don’t give me that shit.” The officer said cutting him off. Christian’s eyes narrowed gently.
“Your brother took the lead without informing me of his position. I moved back to try and save Lieutenant Tyler-“ Christian was cut off again.
“Some good you did with Lieutenant Tyler eh Dirk?” A smart comment from the officer. “Just get out of my sight, we will handle your punishment tomorrow.”
“...Punishment for what sir?”
“Failing your mission, and the deaths of your squad.”
“...I understand I failed my mission but there was nothing I could do about your brother’s squad sir.” Christian said a bit harshly.
“Don’t disrespect me son. Now leave my office at once...” The officer said turning around. “NOW.” Christian didn’t speak, walked out and slammed the door.
The brown haired young woman who was in the back of the ship with Christian survived. Actually, only two people out of the group that Christian led to the back of the ship didn’t survive the crash. Her named was Rhiannon Douglas, Rhia for short. She has already been checked out by Beka, and didn’t have any major injures. A few cuts and some minor bruising were all that she really suffered from. Currently Rhia was close to the waterfall, washing out those minor cuts and trying to rinse off the dirt on her face and arms. Luckily for the survivors of the crash the half of the boat that was tossed over the waterfall was full of the passenger’s luggage. This made it possible for them to search the area for their belongings and for supplies they needed for the injured. A lot of passengers had medicine with them, which might help Beka try and heal the wounded. About twenty yards away from the brown haired girl was the man in the white shirt, that went into the crew level to try and bring them up with Christian’s group. He wasn’t moving at all, and hasn’t since Rhia first saw him over there. Beka hadn’t made it over to his body, but it was assumed that the man was dead. His body was resting right at the end of the water, peaceful. As Rhia rinsed off her hands she kept glancing over at the man, hoping he would move.
“Rhiannon Douglas right?”A man said from behind her. She jumped slightly and stood up, turning around.
“Yes, that’s me...” She looked at the man for a second. “Oh, Mr. Powell! I’m glad to see you are OK.”
“Yes, it’s sad to say that Kaila didn’t make it however. And please, call me Lukis.” He said walking closer.
“Was Kaila the third member for our search?”
“Yes, she was the only one that knew the forest terrain. Never the less, even under these circumstances I think we should start our search.” Lukis said. “Do you still have all your gear and research?”
“I think I found my bag in the forest a few yards in.” Rhia said hesitantly. “You want to leave now? After nearly dying?” She sounded concerned. “I mean, do we even have the right supplies?”
“We leave in fifteen minutes, be sure to get your stuff ready...” Lukis said as he started to walk away.
“Lukis! Do you even know where we are?” Rhia said, a little confused. Lukis continued to walk, ignoring her.
Christian was still slumped over at the tree he was resting on about an hour ago. All of it seemed like a fantasy to him, like it was a dream, one of those dreams that feel so real that you can taste it. However, he knew that it was reality, because his head was telling him so. It was still pounding, but not nearly as bad as before. The weather seemed to be holding up, clear blue skies, and a little humid making it muggy and hotter than it actually was. Sweat trickled down Christian’s forehead, he was sort of happy that his jacket was torn to shreds at the moment. The sunlight was peering in through the tall trees, and was only truly visible over by the waterfall since all of the branches covered the ground from the sun. Christian sighed softly as he slowly began to stand up, he didn’t really know what to do now except for sit and wait. Somebody had to have known that the ship was going down, but then he remembered that the captain was dead right before they went over the waterfall. Maybe he didn’t ring in the possibility of the boat sinking. From the corner of his eye he saw an older black woman walking up towards him. She was carrying a bag she found in the forest not too far from where they were. Christian walked up to her.
“Let me help you with that.” He grabbed the handle of the suitcase and walked along side of the woman.
“Thank you angel. You know, if it wasn’t for you I dunno if we would still be standing here.” The woman said politely.
“I was just doing what I thought was the smartest thing to do, nothing more.” Christian said modestly, smiling.
“Well, some of the survivors aren’t sure what to do next sweetie. Maybe you should try to guide them to help them get their minds off of what just happened.”
“With all do respect miss...?” Christian paused to catch her name.
“Desareh Robinson. You can call me Des if you wish.” She said smiling, the wrinkles on her face reflected that she smiled a lot.
“With all do respect Des, I’m not sure why you want me to try and lead this.”
“You are the one who led us to the back of the boat, I guess it is just proper to think you know what to do next, angel.” Des said stopping at the same tree that Christian was resting at.
“I don’t think I know what to do next...” Christian said looking around. “I mean, this is where I wanted to end up on this trip, but not like this.”
Des showed a look of confusion by his last comment, but decided to stay out of his business. “Well son, I think you should start looking for medical supplies for Ms. Tomalison, maybe some form of food to eat while we wait for a search party.”
Christian wondered if a search party was coming or not, but he didn’t show is concern. “Seems like you should be leading us Des.” Christian said with a slight smile. “My name is Christian Dirk by the by,” His smile still on his face. “And I guess we should start to look for some supplies to live off of for a day or two.” Christian nodded slightly and started to walk away from Des.
“Christian, thank you again.” Des said as he walked away. Christian waved gently.
Up over the waterfall and about a mile up the group that decided to swim for it continued to walk through the forest. They weren’t alone however, a handful of the Brazilian Army held all of them at gunpoint and directed the survivors deeper into the forest. Julius Sloane, the scruffy looking man, was the one who led these survivors into the waters to try and swim off the wrecking river boat. His long brown hair dangled in front of his face as they tripped over twigs and roots of the trees. There were about eight passengers ahead of Julius, all surrounded by the men with the big guns. The group has been walking just about all night, they didn’t have a clue to where they were walking, but none of them decided to ask. Except of course for the smart mouthing southerner named Julius, actually he wouldn’t shut up. He felt that it was his fault that the others were being treated like this, he should have just jumped off the boat without saying a word. Though, he would never admit his guilt out loud or even show it in the way he acted, the only person that really knew what Julius was feeling was Julius himself.
“Hey! If you’re gonna shoot me, just shoot me already! I’m sick of walkin’!” Julius stopped in his tracks. “This is ridiculous, walking around doin’ a lot of nothin’ we just swam our lives out of us and here you–“ Julius was cut off by a gun pointing to his face. The Brazilian that held the gun was speaking, but of course Julius couldn’t understand it.
“Hey hombre, don’t hold that gun unless you’re goin’ to use it on somethin’...you know what I’m sayin’?” Julius smirked gently, then smacked the gun away and tackled the officer.
When Julius tackled the officer, the man’s knife came out of his satchel on his back. The woman standing in front of Julius and his tackling partner fell down with the two, as the shoulder of the officer hit the leg of the woman. She fell right next to the knife that was jarred free, and then quickly rolled over on top of it-hiding it from view. Swiftly, the woman stuck the knife in her pocket, just as another officer lifted her off the ground. She was pushed back into the line and two other officers ran to the back of the line, where Julius was. The scruffy man got off one or two good punches when he felt the butt of a gun handle hit him square in the forehead. The force of the hit knocked him out cold, and the two officers pulled the tackling victim out from under Julius.
The final piece of clothing was thrown in his dark green army bag and Christian leaned against the wall that was holding the bag up. He glanced around the quarters one last time and sighed gently. The first time he was placed in action seemed like it was going to be his last time, due to politics and his crazy officer in command. What he did was the right thing to do, but since such a respected officer was left behind, and the rookie was the only one to survive the Army just didn’t think Christian’s story was straight. He reached down and grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder, it was heavy, it had all his belongs that he could take home. A lot of clothes mostly, but it was keeping him from walking at normal speed.
The soldiers that were in the quarters watched as he left, knowing that he didn’t do anything wrong or anything to deserve getting singled out and attacked. Officer Tyler was the closest thing that Christian had to a friend, and he tried to keep him in his life but that cost him his captain’s life. If only he could have done more, if only he could have protected his squadron more than he did. Christian was not the type to live in the past, so by the time he left his quarters he was over it. This is was his future was though, he didn’t go to college after he graduated. He went straight into the Army, hoping to have them pay for his college education when he did leave. That was out of the question now. Silently he walked off of the base, outside of the gates he threw his bag down and said some choice words. Now he would go back home, and wait for a call to get called back into his dream…
