Reality Wave - Top-Secret

A continuous hail of bullets blows apart the upper portion of its skull. The fearsome giant staggers and collapses forward crushing a few more men! We empty what’s left in our clips into the bullet-riddled body of the creature!

“Cease fire! Cease fire!” I scream out over the heads of my men.
“I think it’s dead!” screams Lieutenant Abrams, “It’s not breathing!” as he moves closer, his rifle pointed at the head. A few more of my men close in prodding the lifeless mountain of flesh with their hot smoky rifle barrels.

Lieutenant Abrams looks over to me, his eyebrows raised, “What the Hell is this thing? It nearly wiped us out.” Abrams pushes back the torn upper lip with the muzzle of his rifle to reveal a set of double roll of teeth. “Look at that!” Then he points to the hand which looks to be more than 2 feet in diameter. But what was more astounding was that it had six fingers, and also six toes to match.

This thing somehow manages to live here in this cave for decades maybe centuries, who knows, without ever being captured. Perhaps it was so frightening no one ever dared to hunt it down.

“Lieutenant, radio command and get a heavy lift transport in here to pick it up."
"Yes sir."

Within an hour a cargo chopper drops down a harness, the kind used to transport tanks. Several of my men hook up the giant with the straps and the chopper rapidly rises away with the massive creature.

I start to recall that I knew about the creature being here. I was given top-secret orders to locate and capture if possible, this unbelievable monster from the past. All my men knew was that we were here to locate another Special Ops team sent in previously.

The Lieutenant was also not privy to this classified info. Why is much of this hazy? But if this is a dream, how can I be aware of it? This is more like I’m starring in a movie. The Lieutenant approaches me after the cargo chopper clears the mountains.

“We’re near our LZ sir. Just got confirmation from HQ, it’s over that ridge south east of here. EVAC should be on its way.”

I move up the ridge and pull down a pair of high-tech binoculars attached to my helmet, as I scan the mountainous terrain surrounding the area, I zoom in on a clearing 100 meters away. Lieutenant Abrams moves up next to me, “How do things look Captain?”

I pan the surrounding mountains, “Everything looks clear.”
Abrams remarks, Sir, we our at extraction point ahead of time."
I nod.

Abrams continues, “Well Captain, we accomplished our job today, checking out all of these caves out. Even if there was nothing in them. The missing team we found here had several fire fights with insurgents just outside the village. We got confirmation of that with their last communication with HQ. The hostiles may come back with reinforcements.”

I start to feel a little uneasy about our situation, we better evacuate soon, “There must be an enemy look out point somewhere,” I continue panning the area with my binoculars until I spot a ledge on the highest cliff, “I think I’ve found their lookout post on that cliff up there.”

Suddenly the sound of vertical jet troop transports from a distance echoes through the mountains.
I feel a sense of relief hearing those craft coming, “Let’s get out of here Lieutenant!”

Lieutenant Abrams relays my order “Alright everyone, let’s move out!” he leads the unit up the ridge to high ground for evacuation.
“Move! Move! Move!” he shouts.

The team starts hustling to their EVAC point. I stay behind until the last man is over the ridge. As they reach the flat open ground near our LZ, assault rifle fire is suddenly heard. They’re on us!
Zipping rounds pass through the team and several soldiers go down. Platoon members grab and carry them along.

Three advanced looking vertical jet troop transports rise over the mountain top like angels coming from the Heavens!

Mortar shells begin to rain in on us! Explosion surround me – bodies are thrown! One of the mortar rounds explodes near me and a platoon member – we’re tossed into the air and tumble to the ground. A cloud of dust blinds me- I’m stunned, but manage to get to my hands and knees. I have absolutely no balance as I rock back and forth. I don’t feel any pain anywhere on my body and assume I’m not wounded.

I notice everything looks out of focus as the air clears. I can see a body several feet away. It must be the platoon member that went down with me. He doesn’t look as lucky as I am. His eyes are moving about hysterically. The wounded soldier becomes aware I’m near him- he’s looking straight into my eyes. A plea for help in his expression. His breathing is rapid and his right leg is gone from below the knee, blood is spurting from an artery. I know if the bleeding isn’t stopped quickly, he will die in minutes.

I crawl over to him, " Hang on, I’m going to get you out of here," I grab him by his collar and attempt to drag him towards the waiting transport, but my own legs are still wobbly from the concussion of the blast. I make little ground as rounds zip past me, until one finally finds its mark in my side, a deep burning sensation bends me over and my legs give out completely.

The dying soldier turns to me, he knows I can’t possibly help him now. I can only stare back at him helplessly, he knows he’s going to die. He turns his face upward to the heavens. Something inside me says no! I scream, “I’m going to get you out of here!”

Against all odds of either one of us making it out of here, I again courageously grab his collar to pull him towards the LZ! Crawling slowly, rounds continue zipping overhead.

Suddenly, several rounds pump into the soldiers torso – he let’s out a grunt as blood quickly seeps from his uniform. Looking into his eyes I can tell his life is fading from him rapidly. His heaving chest start to slow down – slower and slower until it finally stops and the man’s body goes limp, his eyes are now vacant of any life.

Something left me when he died, leaving me in some sort of trance. Damn it, I’m not going to die here too! I scoop up the soldiers rifle and start to fire back into the high boulders where the muzzle fire is coming from. I can see the Lieutenant has taken a position near some boulders for cover. He screams at me, “Captain!”

He wants to run out here in the open to get me. But I can’t let him sacrifice himself that way. I wave him away, “Go back! Go Back! Get to EVAC!"
“Hell no!” he screams back and races towards me with enemy fire on him.
“I ordered you to EVAC!” I scream angrily.
“You’re leaving this party with the rest of us!” He argues back.

The Lieutenant pulls me up in a fireman’s carry over his shoulders. More rounds zip past us as he carries me towards the LZ. I begin firing back at hidden enemy in the flanking rocks, while draped over his shoulder.

I hit some of my targets, several insurgents roll off the boulders from where they're perched on, their dead bodies fall to the rocky slope below. We make it to the boulders, but the fire is too heavy, we have to take cover or will never make it.

From our position we observe the first transport lifting off loaded with platoon members gaining altitude. But suddenly a rocket plum streaks from a nearby mountain top. We helplessly watch in horror as the missile slams into the first transport, it explodes into a fiery ball of wreckage and spirals out of control. It crashes and explodes just 20 meters from us. Deadly metal shards spin by. The concussion of the explosion wobbles the second transport as it tries to land.

The Lieutenant takes aim at the insurgent with the RPG on the mountain top. “I got the son of a bitch!” The round splits the skull of the enemy, blowing out brain matter across the rocky terrain. “That was the most incredible shot I've ever seen,” as I lean up against the boulder, racked in pain, somehow I manage to give him a thumbs up.

On board machine gunners lay suppressive fire at the rocky mountain, picking off scores of insurgents. The second transport quickly fills with evacuating soldiers as rounds zip by pinging off the transport. Our eyes are locked on the transport as it starts to lift off quickly gaining altitude, deep inside we pray this one makes it out of the range of enemy RPG fire. I feel a sense of relief as it zooms off into the distance. The third transport lands, and the remaining troops board. The Lieutenant and I become the last two firing at an unseen enemy.

I suddenly feel a deep burning down to the bone, I grab my thigh- blood quickly soaks my pants leg. The Lieutenant jumps over me as the last transport starts to lift away from heavy fire. “Shit they’re leaving, it’s just me and you Captain!”

Reality Wave - Top-Secret - Chapter 30