Chapter Seven

Shit! An infantry squad's worst nightmare. A sniper. Ripcord's mind processed all the information as fast as it could. He already had one man hit. Location of sniper unknown. Fastdraw was lucid and Covergirl was keeping him that way. He had to find the sniper. The trick was doing it with the without the sniper knowing. He had to stop yelling commands out. He crouch-walked forward to where Heavy Metal was. He couldn't make himself a target. He was certain the sniper was head-hunting, that's why Zap was allowed to pass. With the combat equipment and camouflage paint the team was hard to tell apart. Fastdraw was physically closest to Ripcord. But how did they know? Ripcord pushed the speculation away. Right now he needed to save his people, he could worry the rest later. As he reached the prone form of Heavy Metal he dropped down as well and tapped him on the shoulder. He could feel a slight jump as the tanker twisted his body. "Radio." Ripcord whispered as he motioned for the headset. Heavy Metal quickly slipped the headset off and handed it over to Ripcord. Pressing the ear piece and microphone to the side of his face he keyed it. "Fastdraw, can you hear me?"
"Yeah I hear ya." Came back a response through gritted teeth.
"I need you to tell me about your wounds." Ripcord said in a hurried response.
"Well you'll be pissed to know I'm alive. But I'm wounded so it'll be easier for you to finish me off." Fastdraw shot back.
"Damnit Fastdraw, drop it. I made a mistake. Now if you want some pay back against this sniper, I need you to help me." Ripcord spoke swiftly, knowing he had to hurry to catch the sniper.
"All right," Fastdraw said after a long pause that had Ripcord worried for a moment. "What you need to know?"
"Where are you hit, where's the pain?" Ripcord asked.
"Shoulder, there's pain all in it, front to back." Fastdraw returned.
"Can you breathe fine? Is your collar bone broken? How big's the hole? Do you feel blood on your back?" Ripcord spoke as fast as he could without losing any of the details.
"Yeah, my breathing is normal. Collar bone looks intact. Hole's about the size of a dime. Yeah I feel blood on my back." Fastdraw responded quickly. Ripcord strained to remember his first aid training. Dime sized hole. Had to be 5.56mm round. Had an exit wound, not common for a 5.56 unless it was close range. Snipers preferred the high ground. His gaze shifted upwards. The trees. He could just make out where Zap was pressed up against a tree trunk off in the distance. It had to be that one, it would explain why Zap was only fired on when he approached Fastdraw. He was under the sniper's firing arc. But where in the tree? He had to find the exact spot, but he hated the only way he could do it. There had to be another way. Despite his best efforts, nothing came to mind. He let out a heavy exhale and shifted up onto a knee, pointing his weapon at the canopy above. Then he felt a knot form in his stomach as he keyed the radio's microphone.
"Zap," He started, then faltered for a slight moment before pressing forward in a firm voice, "I need you to try to get the sniper to fire. Do you know the rough point where he starts firing on you?"
"Yeah, I already got my zones staked out amigo." Zap said, his voice steady despite the orders he knew were coming.
"I need you dart in and out of his firing arc. I need a muzzle flash so I can find him." Ripcord said in lowered tone, feeling as if he was betraying his friend.
"Not a problem, tell me when you're ready." Zap said, his voice not skipping a beat.
"Go." Ripcord spoke solemnly. He dropped the headset and brought the G-41 up to his eyes in a swift movement. A flash. A sound. Left. Up. Nothing. Wait. There! Right. Wait. There! Ripcord pulled the trigger. He wasn't expecting what was next. A feminine yelp was heard from the trees followed a second later by a rifle falling from the tree tops. "Move!" Ripcord yelled out before the rifle had hit the ground. Zap and Covergirl rushed forward towards Fastdraw. Both took hold of his ALICE gear and dragged him towards the others, Covergirl reassuring him, until they finally reached the spot where the others had gathered. As soon as they stopped Ripcord knelt down, tearing open Fastdraw's ALICE gear and ballistic vest. The left shoulder of Fastdraw's BDU top was covered in blood. Ripcord quickly worked open the buttons of his BDUs then tore the open the man's brown t-shirt. The blood was oozing out of a hole in the younger soldier's shoulder just above the collar bone. Ripcord slipped his hands from the black utility gloves and press down, running two fingers across his collar bone. He shifted Fastdraw up into a sitting position, noticing another wound in the man's back. A quick glance to the man's ballistic vest showed the bullet still lodged in the inside of the vest's back. It would hurt like a bitch for a few days but he'd be okay for now. Time for damage control. He gaze shifted to Heavy Metal. "Heavy Metal take some battle dressings from Fastdraw's ALICE gear and dress his wounds." He gaze then panned over the rest of his soldiers, "Everybody else, set up a sparse ring perimeter around the tree, if this sonuvabitch comes down I want him. We can't wait any longer than fifteen minutes, in case he got off a transmission. If he doesn't move by then, we do. Move out." The grouped nodded then broke, bleeding back into the jungle.


It wasn't supposed to happen this way. She was a professional, not one of this organization's flashy uniformed lackeys. She had been hired to train snipers here. This morning her mission changed dramatically. She had been sent out to find the man that had almost killed the base commander. She preferred it that way. On her own, only her rifle as company. That's where the problem first developed. Her contact had promised her a pre-production prototype of H&K's new PSG-1 rifle but he had caught a snag and with her SVD destroyed on her last job, she was restricted to using her backup weapon, a Steyr AUG. Then her description of the target was about as vague as possible so with these soldiers wearing no insignia and camouflage paint, which made it all the more harder to identify her mark. So by the time she'd realized her mistake it'd been too late. Unfortunately, the clock couldn't be turned back. She tried to make the best out of a bad situation. She had tried to use the wounded soldier to lure the others other out. Then it happened. As she was lining up to hit the soldier who'd kept running out from under the tree she was in, a white-hot pain exploded in her arm. The sudden intensity of the pain causing the Steyr AUG assault rifle to slip from her hands. The pain also caused her to forget herself for a moment as a small yelp escaped her lips before she took control of the pain and pushed it away. By the time she had bandaged up her tricep which the bullet had passed through, the soldiers below were gone. She waited and watched. Normally waiting, even for days at a time, didn't matter to her. It was what she did. She was a sniper. But a sniper was nothing without their rifle. Especially her. Her rifle was an extension of her body. A part of her. A part of her knew she shouldn't have come out here with only the assault rifle. After ten minutes had passed she felt she could wait no longer. She moved among the branches to where her escape route lay. She quickly hooked the thick nylon rope around the snap link which was attached to the rappelling harness she wore and threw the coiled up rope towards the ground below. Once the rope hit the ground she immediately jumped off the branch. She couldn't afford waste anytime, to take any chances. As she hit the ground and began to unhook her harness, she saw a figure running towards her. A woman. As the woman came to halt and brought up her weapon, Sniper Wolf reacted immediately. Before the female soldier had finished bringing her weapon up, the female sniper took hold of the rope and kicked herself off of the tree. Her move sent her flying towards the soldier. As the soldier tried in vain to track her, she let go and twisted her body into a spinning hook kick. She felt resistance and saw the kick knock the M-16 from the woman's hands. As soon as she landed and her long blonde hair had cleared from her sight, she flashed out a round kick at the woman. Apparently the woman could fight without a weapon. The female soldier caught the kick and lifted up, forcing Sniper Wolf's rear leg to lose it's footing. A curse in Russian escaped her lips as she recovered and swept her leg out, knocking the soldier off her feet. The female sniper shot forward, landing on top of the woman and driving her elbows into the soldier's chest. As the woman fought to recover the breath that had been knocked from her lungs, Sniper Wolf noticed a bandage on her temple. She saw the weakness. Immediately she shot a hand up and began to claw at the bandage. The woman winced in pain but then gave better that she got. Her left hand reached up and clamped down on Sniper Wolf's damaged tricep, while her other landed a hard right hook to the female sniper's jaw. Sniper Wolf yelped in pain then shot her knee up into the woman's pubic bone, loosening the woman's grip just enough for her to break free. The woman's team would be there within seconds. She couldn't stay to finish the woman off, she had to run. As she sprinted off into the jungle she shot a look back to the woman. Sniper Wolf wouldn't forget her face.


"Bitch!" She said through gritted teeth, slamming a fist into the ground as the sniper took off. Not only did the final shot hurt like hell, but it enabled the sniper to get away. "Fuck!" She brought her knees up first, rolling to her side in a fetal position for a second to breathe, not sure what hurt worst at that point. The gash on her forehead now reopened, blood oozing from beneath the torn bandage now forming a small pool on her eye. She wiped it away often, more to make sure it was just blood and not tears. She had just gotten up on her elbow when Ripcord, Heavy Metal and Zap cautiously approached... weapons drawn. Covergirl pointed in the direction she'd seen the sniper run off in.
"Court..." He started saying, but cut himself short. He knelt beside her, pointing to Zap and Heavy Metal, then to the woods, indicating they should keep searching. Once alone, he grabbed her hand, placing his other over the stained bandage. "Courtney!"
"She got away." She replied defeated, wiping the blood once again. "She didn't have their uniform, no Cobra sign, sounded Soviet... How's Fast Draw?"
"Slow down, slow down. Fast Draw's okay, clean wound. He'll be sore, but fine." He reached into her ALICE grabbing another dressing, putting pressure on her bruised forehead. She cursed softly, more out of anger than pain. She was starting to understand his accept no kryptonite attitude. She softened when she saw his eyes. "What about you?" He asked.
"Just pissed she got away more than anything." She told him. He nodded, as Zap and Heavy Metal returned.
"Nothing, not even a trace." Zap told them, making her curse again. Bitch. At least he'd found Covergirl's M-16, returning it to her.
"Can't worry about it now." Ripcord told them. "They know we're here, the best thing we can do is keep moving."
"Best thing we can do is pull out..." Heavy Metal muttered. If Ripcord had heard him, the comment was ignored. If command said they stayed, they stayed. She limped for the first few steps, making a quick 'glad I'm not a guy' comment that the three men winced at. A dull pain shot through her bruised bone and she clenched a fist. Bitch.
"Here's how it's going to go..." Ripcord told them as they regrouped by Heavy Metal. "We're going to double back..."
"Through the minefield?" From Heavy Metal. "That's crazy."
"They wouldn't expect it," Ripcord tried explaining.
"Right, because it's crazy." Heavy Metal shot back. "We've done the mine field, almost three times now, how much longer do you expect luck to hold out?" The lack of sleep and near miss with the sniper was putting everyone on edge.
"Watch yourself." Was Fast Draw's comment to Heavy Metal. "You piss him off, old Skyboy is likely to shoot..."
"I told you to knock that shit off..." from Ripcord.
"C'mon, cool off everyone..." Zap tried. "We've had enough fighting for one day without adding each other."
"You may be willing to die because this guy says to, but I have something to go home to..."
"Something to go home to? You sonuvabitch! I got three kids at home..." It was getting ugly. Ripcord shook his head, distancing himself from the situation.
"Listen, we have to hold this together...."
"Oh, yeah, you held it together real well yourself, Skyboy..."
"Would you shut the hell up? He's right...." Covergirl started saying, but Fast Draw cut her off.
"What a shock... sticking up for her boyfriend...." He emphasized the word boyfriend. "Told you you're going to end up getting yourself killed." Sonuvabitch..
"I'm not the one with a bullet hole, Hotshot."
"HEY." The sound of Repeater's voice instantly quieted the entire team, frozen in their tracks. He stared at each of them for a second, before slowly speaking again. "Hotseat left Ripcord in charge. He calls the shots. We double back." Heavy Metal started to grumble once more, but probably thought twice, remembering the tree incident back at the minefield. They moved slow, they moved cautiously, but they moved, doubling back through the minefield then following the tree line East. Repeater, Heavy Metal and Zap took turns helping Fast Draw, who seemed to complain every step of the way. Patrol. She held her breath; The team becoming more adept at blending in with the jungle. No need for hand signals, they knew what to do. They don't stop - we don't kill. Just another walk- through- the park. Daylight would be breaking soon. Would be harder to keep from being spotted. Finally Ripcord gave the hold up signal, she saw him flinch as he held up his right arm.
"Five minutes." He told them indicating they should take a rest. "Zap, buddy, check his wound. The rest of you just..." he coughed twice before finishing. "Just take five." She cursed under her breath, exchanging a worried glance with Zap. He knew it too. Ripcord was hurt and getting worse. "I'll scout ahead..." She knew what that meant. He was still trying to somehow protect them. She made an 'I'll get it.' Gesture towards Zap, who nodded as he checked Fast Draw's bandage. He hadn't gone that far, far enough to be out of sight, out of earshot, leaning up against a tree so he could swear. His right hand clenched in a tight fist, his left supporting his ribcage as he coughed once more, then took a second to catch his breath. "Go wait with the others." He told her, not looking back.
"Just let me take a look, retape them..." She said softly.
"I'm..."
"No. You're not. I see it, Zap sees it. You're not fine. "
"Listen, I appreciate...." What the hell was he trying to prove?
"Take your Goddamn shirt off Weems and let me rewrap your fucking ribs before you cough up a lung." Even she was surprised at how sharply it came out. He finally turned to face her, chuckling for a second, a small smile forming on his lips. The anger she had felt just a second before melted, causing her to do the same. She made a "have to work on my bedside manor" comment while helping remove his LC-2, ALICE gear, ballistic vest, BDU jacket and T-shirt. She decided to simply wrap over the existing tape, a two fold reaction. First, so he wouldn't feel the sting of duct tape being removed from bare skin, though sweat and wear and tear had made most of it come loose, but also so she wouldn't have to see the damage again. "Have you coughed up any blood?" She asked softly, fearing the answer.
"No." He told her, not turning around. "I'd be dead by now if I was." She was wondering if that was supposed to be comforting or not. She stayed behind him, not letting him see the two or three hot tears that streaked down her camo painted face. She wished she was a medic, that she could do something about it. Machines were easier to take care of, something breaks, you fix it. Can't be fixed? Replace it. But no one could replace Ripcord. "It'll be fine." He said softly, almost as if he was reassuring himself, not only her. Not facing her either, he pulled down his damp brown T-shirt. "It'll be fine." The sound of a heated argument snapped them both back into 'soldier' mode, her running her fingers through the thick camo paint to make sure no tear tracks showed, him grabbing his ALICE gear. "They're going to get us all killed..." Ripcord hissed through clenched teeth as they headed back to the others. They argued about water. Heavy Metal accusing Fast Draw of drinking more than his share. Out of everything, water was in the shortest supply, Ironic, she'd thought, considering the amount of time they were soaking wet. Zap had it under control by the time the two returned. Ripcord surveyed the team, rubbing a hand over tired eyes before deciding their next move. "Heavy Metal, you're with me, we need to get the equipment back up and running, the rest of you grab some sleep, rotating..."
"Oh come on!" From Heavy Metal. "This is the second time in a row..."
"Listen, you're the best person I've got as far as operating this equipment goes. If something goes wrong I'll need you there." Heavy Metal grumbled again, but grabbed his gear and headed towards the perimeter with Ripcord. She took first watch, knowing full well she wouldn't be able to sleep, not after what happened just a few hours back, waking up with a gloved hand on her throat... She shook her head, better not to think about it. Zap helped Fast Draw get comfortable before heading over to his own tarp. She watched as he took a small medallion out of his top BDU pocket, clenching it in a tight fist and saying some sort of low prayer, before putting it away. She'd seen him do the same once before after getting out of a tight situation. She smiled, knowing it had to be important to him. He'd given up the picture of his family back at Pope AFB along with his wedding band, keeping the medallion hidden and to himself. The light drizzle that had stayed with them through the night started tapering off as the sun started peaking through the canopy. One hour down. She could wake up Zap, but didn't see a reason. Her adrenaline level from the 'fight or flight' syndrome before was still high, still seeing the sniper's face. Cold, that's the only way she could describe the facial expression. Her hand went up to the damp bandage covering her forehead, damp mostly from the rain rather than blood. She'd been worried about it before, now she knew it was inevitable. It would scar. She shook her head. Stupid thing to be thinking about. At least she'd managed to get a few good shots of her own in before... She dropped to one knee, hearing something. Not footsteps... something, almost like... like whimpering, maybe. Immediately she thought Fast Draw. He was wounded... maybe in pain, but checking his tarp he was sleeping peacefully. To his left, Zap also lay exhausted.
"NO!" She jumped, swinging her M-16 towards Repeater, who had cried out in a low whisper. She cursed, scanning the area frantically, but saw nothing except for the large man sitting head in hands on the tarp.
"Hey!" She whispered, jogging towards him. He didn't look up. "Repeater?" Still watching the area, she put a hand on his shoulder. "You... you alright?" He quickly pulled away. He said nothing, just stood up silently, taking his weapon. "This sulking thing is getting a bit old already..." She tried as he walked away. He stopped for a brief second... uttering a single word indicating he'd take the next watch...
"Sleep." Ripcord's approaching footsteps told her it would have to wait.

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