CHIBOK (COMPLETED)

CHAPTER ELEVEN CONT'D

"Ambush!" he heard the shout and jolted upright, back behind his gun again.

"Son of a bitch!" Captain Onuh swore as another barrage landed repeatedly on the side. Jang could see the shadowy figures materialize from their hiding.

A click of metal confirmed that the cocked weapon was off safety, he scanned the surrounding bush, all he could see was sporadic sparks over the distance and throngs of bullets inching past, some denting the metal case of the side of the vehicle. Jang hastily pressed the protection over his ear and reacted by a wild exchange from his gun, feeling the recoil against his chest as he fired at his first target, one of the insurgent that was now jumping out of the far bush and running towards the convoy, taking cover behind the trunk and shadows of trees. He released three more shots and could almost trace the ammunition inching through the air as if thrown at his target, another man, who twitched as he fell then curl on the floor, twitch again and remained still.

"First platoon over! Ambush assault, We are in contact! I repeat we are in contact!" the commander was saying. Then came the muffled reply that made Commander AY, turn to the other trucks. "Fox four, five, and six go hot on the main guns." He ordered the groups in the trucks, through the com. The men were already shooting at the approaching hoards of insurgents. And Jang could guess that the platoon up front was also engaged.

"We have contact! Assault through the damn ambush, over!" the commander was shouting on the receiver and giving orders at the same time. Whatever the reply was, he still wasn't happy. He grabbed his M60 and began to shoot too through the window.

He could only imagine the dissonance of sound that throng the air, he was partly glad he got to wear his ear protection. Still it was a sense overload, the air was smoky, sparks scintillation on both sides and dust swirling from nowhere in particular.

"Enemy position 9 and 3 o' clock! Over!" the commander shouted at the receiver, "second platoon is in contact. I repeat_" he went quiet as an explosive rolled underneath the truck that have moved ahead of them, sending the hunk of a metal tilting to the side till it was pointing at the sky, then finally crashing on the ground on its side, it's heavy wheels still rolling in the air.

"Four is down, I repeat, four is down, five, give us cover!

"Running out of ammo!" Sergeant Jang thought he heard someone in the next truck shouting to the phone, he knew they were done for. The truck rolled over to the side of the lying tank, and Jang opened fire on the approaching hoards, yet they approached with more stamina than they had, more men were taking the place of the fallen.

The soldiers in the downed truck struggle to get over head towards the other side, but the insurgence were attacking on both sides now, one of the men rolled on the ground clasping his shank with a shout, though he could hardly guess who the figure was, it wasn't hard to guess that he was already shot. A lieutenant crouched by him, placed the injures soldier's hand over his neck and moved him between the two trucks that now served as some sort of parapet for the team as they engaged the ambush from both sides.

More men struggled to extract the wounded while at the same time trying to fight the approaching men.

Fire for fire, it rang through the still night in a cacophony of deafening salvos with the sound of shattering glass and denting metal.

The farther they moved through the road the more intense the assault became. Though Jang had no visual of the convoy behind him as smoke screen took to the air blinding them to just a few feet view. Jang was sure that this planned assault had them all at the enemy's red zone.

Few of the lieutenants in the armoured tank ran from the line of fire to join the open truck while Jang shot blindly around, just as each of the soldiers did, for bullets were still inching through smoke, and men in the formations were getting wounded.