SURVIE Part 10:

Part 10

Dawn

5/12/2015, 0300 hours, Vardak Province, Afghanistan

            “Bossman, hey Krieger, wake up.”

            Krieger stirred. He had dreamt of terrible, prehistoric, monsters murdering his men.

            “Krieger, wake up. I let you sleep in an extra hour, now wake the hell up.”

            Krieger opened his eyes and saw thumper kneeling over him. “You didn’t have to do that.”

            “Yeah well, hurry the hell up. I’m tired,” Thumper snapped. “Oh, and Clinton passed a couple hours ago. Sorry.”

            Krieger got up. He had slept in his armor so that if his squad had to move he would already have it. It was a cool night, and dew had begun to form on the rocks. Padilla, already awake sat by the fire holding a cup of coffee. Krieger grabbed his rifle and moved to be next to the fire.

            “Hey kid, how’s it doing?” he asked.

            Padilla shrugged. “I mean, aside from dinosaurs running about, and the dead people, I guess I’m fine.”

            Krieger poured a cup of coffee and sat nearby. “You seen anything?”

            “Nah, nothing but rocks and dust sir.”

            Krieger took a sip of the warm, bitter drink. “Needs sugar,” he muttered. “Or honey.”

            Padilla chuckled. “If they gave sugar to soldiers we’d eat it all. Then we’d be too fat to fight.”

            Krieger laughed. The pair sat in silence for an hour, occasionally moving to pour more coffee for themselves. The cool night air felt good after such a hot day in the field, and the men were embracing it.

            Eventually Padilla muttered, “Wish it were this nice all the time,” but it fell on deaf ears. Krieger had spotted something. A dust cloud was rapidly approaching the village. Whatever was causing it would be their in only minutes, and whatever it was, he didn’t like it.

He pointed, to it, and Padilla looked. Krieger looked him in the eyes and whispered; “Wake the men, we’re moving.”

“Do you think it’s ILR?” asked Padilla.

Krieger shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t want to take my chances.”

Krieger pulled out a pair of binoculars to get a better look at the vehicle. What he saw though, was an oddity. It was a silver SUV, with the words “Masrani” and “Ingen” painted over the doors.

“Bro, I don’t think this is ILR. Masrani apparently.”

“Isn’t that the communications company? The heck are they doing here?” Asked Padilla.

“Yeah, and I think I might’ve solved our dino mystery too. Ready the squad. We're going hunting"