I REMEMBER
A Story by Ronin
a man remembers when he was saved by a stranger.
It was raining hard on that dark night when Daniel O' Conell PFC was shot in the upper arm, he remembered that most of all. Not the pain or smell of death all around him just the rain. A rain so hard it bounced off the rocks and leaves all around him.
They had just entered a clearing in the jungle somewhere north west of Nha Trang, and were in the process of moving round the edge keeping low, when all around them gunfire had erupted just as the heavens opened and the rain came down.
It bounced off them like rocks, bullets flew as the bodies fell, ripping through flesh and bone. Daniel threw himself into the tangle of bushes next to him. He hugged the ground as bullets and tracer fire flew over his head and pinged off nearby rocks, within seconds the patrol had been decimated and just before the fire ended Daniel felt a thump against his right arm. A glacial pang of pain like the stab of a dagger of ice frozen from a poisoned well ran down his arm followed by the feeling of wetness as blood flowed.
He pulled himself deeper into the jungle as silence descended and that silence now appeared to be a source of further peril.
Daniel listened hard for any sounds of movement nearby, the enemy had arrived like ghosts in the night. No warning and suddenly death was all around.
He was now in serious harms way with only his training to rely on, a training that ended just under a month ago. He tried to think but the pain in his arm made it difficult and he knew it needed to be dealt with soon less infection set in. Inch by inch he moved back into the deeper darkness of the jungle, listening out for any sound that would mean the enemy was near.
He heard a crunching sound off to his right and froze. Looking in that direction he saw silhouetted a figure carrying the familiar AK assault rifle, standard issue for the Vietcong. Rising to a crouch he tested the movement of his arm and found although painful it would still operate. The figure had his back to Daniel. Sliding out his K-bar he quickly rushed forward, just like in boot camp sentry removal training-left hand covers mouth, kick to back of knee,K-bar into right side of neck and slicing round taking out the voice box. blood gushed and silently the man died.
Daniel turned and ran head long in the dark, shouts rose behind him. He only slowed to push through the dense underbrush. Weapons opened up and the sound of his pursuers was loud behind him.
He ran on oblivious to the dangers around him, heart thumping against his ribcage like a demonic Tai-ko drummer. Adrenaline flooded his body as fear carried him on with monstrous wings.
Suddenly the ground vanished and he plunged headlong down the side of a valley, rocking and rolling all the way down. He was only halted as he came up against a fallen tree knocking him unconscious.
Daniel regained consciousness to the sounds of the sing song speech of Vietnamese women talking nearby.He pushed himself up against the fallen tree and checked himself, nothing appeared broken and the only injury apart from the bullet wound was a lump on the back of his head. By the grace of god he still had hold of his M14 rifle and it seemed in one piece. It was daylight already so he must have been out about six hours. His watch said it was six thirty so make that seven hours.
Shaking the fuzziness from his head he rose to pear over the tree trunk. Before him lay row upon row of paddy fields being worked by at least a dozen doo- mommies as he had been reliably informed they were called all dressed in the tradional ao-dai,their village could be seen in the distance with what looked like several trucks parked in the centre.
