Radioman (A 2/19th Spinoff) - Complete

A Little Drive Up the Mountain

We drove for several hours, until we started heading toward a white peaked mountain. It was larger than the others, clawing far above them, the top lost in the clouds, and again I felt that cold flutter of fear I'd felt when I'd seen the E-2 that was sleeping in the front seat of the van.

The big Texan had talked the whole way. It took a little while for me to notice he wasn't saying much, mostly finding out about us. A few people asked about the sleeping guy, who the Texan still referred to as simply Ant, but the Texan evaded all the questions pretty easily. The other three guys were all sulky, all of them previously higher ranking who had all been court martialled. One for assaulting an officer, one for beating his wife almost to death, and the last for selling drugs.

We reached a road that went nearly straight up the side of the mountain and stopped at a gate. I saw two big Armored Personnel Carriers, both of them with fifty caliber machineguns manned and loaded with heavy bullets. There were four guys crouched down behind sandbags, and four more in the gate house. One came out, saw the Texan, checked the paperwork inside a camo patterned folder, then waved us through.

Lot of security.

We went up the road a long ways, my ears popping twice, till we were on post. I noticed that all the buildings were the same style as the towns we had passed through on the way. Instead of stopping at one of the barracks we drove through post, hitting a dirt road and following it. We slowed down at a corner that had a sign "This Corner Has Killed 13 This Year" on it. There were two guys replacing the number and a wrecked truck smashed against a tree. I noticed that the van leaned toward the trees, toward the outside of the corner, rather than being angled correctly.

We passed the snow line, which startled me. It was the first week of March, and the snow quickly got to at least five feet deep beside the road. Twice we went around corners with no snow on the outside of the corner, one of them I could see the tips of the tree tops, the second one was just empty air.

My ears popped painfully and my head swam as we drove into the fog.

"Anyone having trouble breathing?" The E-2 said. I hadn't noticed that he was awake.

"I am," The wife beater said.

"Put your head between your knees, breathe from your belly, slow and even, hold your breath in for a three count, oxygenate your blood," The E-2 snapped. His voice was rough, hoarse, and I wondered how old the guy was.

We passed another corner, this one stating that eighteen people had been killed already this year on the corner and warned you that you could be next. The corner was angled wrong again, and I noticed that it had to be at least a five hundred foot drop. That one scared the hell out of me, since we were driving in fog and it loomed out suddenly.

The snow was almost ten feet in drifts on the sides of the road when we finally got out of the fog. I realized with a shock that they were low hanging clouds with a mirror smoothness on the top. We went through another hairpin turn, this one with a large section of ground at the edge of the corner.

The sign warned that four people had been killed so far this year.

We passed a large, squat building that looked like something the Russians might build. There were three ambulances outside of it and a helicopter on the roof. We passed by and I saw a half dozen people standing outside smoking cigarettes. I saw that one was an officer and wondered why she would be smoking with the enlisted.

"That's the medical dispensary," The Texan said. He looked over. "Want me to stop, Ant?"

"No," was all the E-2 said.

The next building we passed was long and narrow full of windows. At the back there was a a pair of five ton cargo trucks like I'd seen in movies and people offloading sacks and carrying them through the open cargo doors of the building.

"Chow hall, don't know if it's open yet," The Texan said. I saw the E-2 raise his arm, pulling back his sleeve and looking at his watch. The crystal was cracked. He listened to it, shook his arm, listened again, and shook his head. I checked my watch.

"Fifteen hundred," I told him. He just grunted, rolled down the van window slightly and lit two cigarettes, passing one to the Texan. Again I wondered if they were gay.

The next building was on the left rather than the right like the other two. One of the switchbacks we'd gone up had put the mountain peak on our right. I noticed that it wasn't snow at the top, but rather a glacier and snow. On the right was a fence, with three guard towers, on the left the huge building, one, maybe two city blocks long, five stories high. It was an ugly looking building.

"That's yer new home," The Texan said, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Ours too. Ain't none of us stayed here yet, but Ant and I, we're on the start-up crew, and now ya'll are too."

"Goddamn place looks like a nightmare," Ant said. He sighed then burped, making a face. "Goddamn morphine."

"Gives me the willies," The Texan said. "Place gives me a bad feeling, Ant." He shook his head, "Sorry I weren't here last time."

"Wasn't your fault."

"Told you we'd stick together, brother," The Texan answered. The E-2 nodded.

Again I wondered if they were gay.

Ant chuckled, a rough, merciless, humorless sound. "You were there when that fucking Blackhawk crashed. You pulled me out of the wreckage, I'd have burned alive if it weren't for you."

The Texan laughed. "You pulled me outta the river when Sergeant Oliver passed out drunk behind the wheel, brother, I'd've drowned, we're even." He pulled into an empty parking spot on the right, stopping between a Chevy pickup truck and a two and a half ton cargo truck that people were pulling disassembled beds out of to fire-brigade line them into the building.

Nope. Not gay.

"Grab your gear," Ant said, opening the door and climbing out. He took a last drag off his cigarette and tossed it into the snow on the incline at the front of the van that the fence sat on top of.

I waited till my dufflebags were handed to me.

"Let's go, privates," The Texan said. I noticed that neither one of the men acted like Privates, acting more like NCO's or Officers than enlisted. The three former NCO's, two of which outranked the two men, both looked like they wanted to object, but saw the E-2's glare and the pistol on his LBE and didn't say anything.

Both men looked hard as hell, and I wondered what made them look so old.

"Let's get you some rooms, find out what platoon you're in," E-2 Ant growled. I noticed he had a limp as we headed for the heavy cinderblock and cement building.

Something about it made my stomach clench.

I'm going to die here, went through my head.