All Along The Watchtower

Welcome To the Jungle

He sat on a crate as he looked out into the jungle, watching, waiting. He knew they were gonna come back; they didn't accept defeat so easily. They were gonna come back, just like at the fort. But he wasn't the only one that knew; everyone at the base knew that they were gonna come back, the only problem was that no one knew when. So he opted to sit there, most of the night, wathcing the jungle for anything. And that quickly became boring.

"Sir? Are you still out here? You should really get some sleep."

He looked to his right and saw one of the newly transfered marines(a.k.a New blood), comming towards him with a beer can in his hand.

"Private, how long have you been here?" He said casually.

"Uh, about two weeks, sir." The private replied.

He turned to fully face the private, and stared him directly into the eyes.

"You better prepare yourself kid, you're on a one-way-trip to hell, now you're gonna take watch for the rest of the night."

The private frowned at this but didn't say anything, as he walked to the mounted M-60.

He stood up, stretched, and began walking back to his bunk. As he did so, He looked around at the base, which had almost been completely destroyed by the combined forces of the North Vietnamese Army(NVA) and the Vietcong(VC). It was a miracle that they were able to hold the base, but no one knew how they had gotten to the base without anyone noticing.

The base wasn't very big: around the size of a football field, but it had what a base needed. Or at least, it used to. Now, it was all destroyed.

"Hey, Alex."

He turned around to see who disturbed his thoughts.

"Hello, Carl, how are you holding up?" he said to the man infront of him.

Carl Wilhelm was from the Philippines. He was about the same height as Alex, and also the same built. He had black, short hair, and brown eyes with a scar that went verticaly down his left eye. He was a sharpshooter, and was armed with an M40 sniper rifle.

"Pretty good, but i'm kinda worried about you."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

"Look, ever since the attack you've been restless. You need to get some sleep."

Alex sighed and looked at the ground. "I know," He looked to his right, looking at the jungle. " but i can't help but feel that they're out there, right now, wathcing us,"

Carl nodded and looked at the jungle himself. "I know, i know." They stood there for awhile, just looking at the jungle, looking for anything out of place.

"Hey, Carl?" Alex said.

"Yeah?" Carl responded.

"Do you remember The Valley of Fire?"

Carl shivered and looked Alex in the eyes. "I dont think anyone can ever forget something like that,"

"Yeah," Alex looked at his hands, and for a second, he could have swore that his hands were covered in blood. "That shit will haunt me for the rest of my fucking life," He looked back to Carl. "I'm gonna go sleep now."

"Later, Alex," Carl pointed a finger at Alex " but if i find out that you didn't sleep, you're gonna get arm pit sweat,"

Alex chuckled at this. "Alright, goodnight."

Alex made his way back to the place he had come to call home: a little room that had been dug out to become a small space just big enough for a desk, a bed, and a locker. He walked in and began removing his uniform for the night, placing it on the chair by the desk, and placing his M-16 by the side of his bed. When he was down to his t-shirt and underwear, he took a little hand mirror from the upper drawer in his desk, and looked at himself.

Alex was a six foot (1.82m) tall man with an average build, and short, messy, dark brown hair, and blue eyes with a scar that went diagonally down his right eye, and another scar that went horizontaly across his left cheek.

He put the mirrior back into the drawer and grapped a little picture that was on his desk. It was of three marines, all of them smilling; rifles raised above their heads, as they stood on top of a destroyed Vietcong bunker. The upper parts of their heads were mostly obscured by their helmets. He smiled a little. Ah yes, back when we were the new blood. he thought.

He put the picture back on the desk and went to his bed to sleep.

* * *

Early the next morning, Alex and the rest off his teammates were gathered at the command bunker, being briefed of the situation.

The commander paced back and forth, looking at all of them one by one.

"Alright, listen up ladies. We have come to the conclucion that the Vietcong has multiple hidden weapons, and munitions stashed somewhere.  We need to find them, and destroy them. You will be given a map that shows your patrol route. You all know what to do when you find those weapons. Sergeant Merserver, you're gonna be leading the fireteam on this patrol," his eyes narrowed and his tone became much colder. "and if you see any VC, you are cleared hot. Dismissed."

After the commander finished up, everyone went to prepare. Alex went to the munitions shed by the firing range and began loading up on ammonition and grenades. He had his standard loadout: his M-16, his Colt .45, his Ka-Bar, several grenades, a black bandana, and a zippo lighter with the insignia of the 1st Marine Division. When he was done he went to the Bell UH-1 helicopter where the rest of his team were waiting. He got on and soon they were in the air.

* * *

"Alright boys, this is your stop. Stay safe down there," The pilot said to them.

They had reached the drop off point: a little clearing in the dense jungle.

They all got out of the huey, and formed on Sergeant Merserver

Sergeant Merserver was a tall, heavily built man, who thought nothing could touch him; he was armed with an M-60

"Alright." Sergeant Merserver said, as he pulled out a map from one of his pockets. "This is where we are," he pointed to a spot with a red circle. "And this is where we are patroling." He dragged his finger across the red line on the map to another red circle, he looked at the three marines. "Any questions? No? Alright, lets move, we're gonna fuck up Charlies party plans," Merserver said, with an evil grin.

There was another marines with them. A newly transfered marine who had only been in Vietnam for a week. His name was Jimmy Gaines. Jimmy was a little smaller than Alex, and looked like he was constantly shaking. He was the new corpsman on the team, and was armed with an Car-15. Carl was also with them, he was looking around at the jungle, looking for any signs of movement.

With everyone ready, they began their long walk through the jungles of Vietnam.

* * *

They had been walking for roughly an hour with nothing happening, besides a few monkeys fighting over a banana.

"Hey, Alex?"

Alex looked to the source of the voise, finding it to be Carl. "What is it?" he responded.

"Do you hear that?"

Alex looked around, trying to hear something.

"No," he said eventually, "i dont,"

"Right," said Carl, "it's quiet, it shouldn't be this quiet, and it's been one hour since we began this patrol, and we haven't even hit a punji trap,"

"That's just fine with me." said Gaines.

Sergent Merserver raised his hand. "Everyone get down,"

The four marines crouched down and stayed completely still.

"I think there might be some VC up ahead. Wilhelm, get up here," said Sergent Merserver.

Carl quickly made his way to Merserver's position and crouched down.

Sergent Merserver pointed to a little Clearing in the jungle. "Do you see anything?"

Carl looked through the scope of his rifle. "Yeah, looks to be a small camp, dosen't look like anyone is home, though,"

"Alright, Conllin, Gaines, get up here," said Merserver

Alex and Gaines quickly made their way to Merserver and Carl.

When they were there, Merserver pointed to the camp. "Alright, here's what we're gonna do: me, Conllin and Gaines are gonna scope out the camp, Wilhelm," he pointed a finger at Carl, "you provide sniper cover, alright, everyone ready?"

"Ready," Carl said.

"Let's do this," Alex said, raising his rifle.

"Do we have to? I mean, can't we like, wait and see what happens?" Gaines asked.

"Yes we fucking do, and if you don't want to, i'll rip your dick off and feed it to a monkey, then catch that monkey, and make a hotdog out of it ,and then force feed it to some random gook, and watch as they choke on a dick-monkey hotdog." as sergent Merserver finished, everyone stared at him.

"What?" asked Merserver.

There was an awkward silence for several seconds before Carl spoke up. "Wow."

Gaines began to chuckle. "yeah, real funny sarge, heh-heh."

"I wasn't kidding,"

Gaines smile disappeared. "Uh, what?"

"It's true, he'll really do it." Carl spoke, much to the dismay of Gaines.

"Are you guys done fuckin' around? If you are, then lets fucking move it," Alex spoke, getting everyones attention.

"Right, Conllin, Gaines, lets go," said Sergent Merserver

The three men slowly made their way to the camp, which consisted of three tents that looked like they were made out of bamboo. When they reached it, they began their search.

"Remember, we're looking for any clues of VC activity. Look for maps, notes, letters, anything." spoke Merserver.

Alex made his way to one of the bamboo tents, in the tent were a few crates and a map. He looked over the map, it had several spots with red rings around it, there were also words on the map, but sadly, they were in vietnamese.

He then went to the crates. He craked open the lid of the first one with his Ka-Bar, and peeked inside. What he found made him smile beneath his bandana. We hit the motherload.

The crate was full of russian AK-47's. He saw more crates behind the one he opened, so he began moving it.

Click

He froze. He knew that sound, he'd heard it before, he could recognize it anywhere.

"GRENADE!" Alex shouted as he ran out of the tent, which then exploded seconds later, knocking him to the ground.

"Giết lợn mỹ!" he heard someone yell, as he got to his feet and raised his rifle.

"Ambush! Everyone get down!" Sergent Merserver shouted, as he began firing his M-60 at anything that moved.

Gaines on the other hand, looked like he'd wet himself. He was clutching his rifle close to his chest, and was trying to make himself as small as possible.

Several Vietcong soldiers came running out of the jungle, where they were cut down by Merserver. Alex began firing from his prone position, looking for muzzle flashes, but other than that, he just fired away.

"Chết mỹ cặn bã!" He looked to his left, and saw a VC Running towards him with an SKS rifle; the bayonet extended.

Alex didn't have enough time to aim his rifle, but he didn't need to as a 7.62 round connected with the VC's eye, blasting blood and brain matter on the ground as he fell. Alex knew where that round came from. Thanks Carl.

Carl was too busy picking of VC's, to notice the man sneaking up behind him with a machete.

The VC were losing more and more men, but it seemed like, everytime one died, two more would appear, and they had RPG's.

"Fuck! RPG!" shouted Merserver, getting everyone's attention.

Alex eyes widened in shock. "Run! Get out here!" he shouted as he got up, just in time too, as the rockets connected with the spot where he had laid. but he didn't stop, no,  he just kept running as he could feel the dirt raining on him.

Fueled by adrenalin, he kept running as he could hear the bullets flying around his head. He took cover behind a tree and took aim at where he just came from. He waited, but nothing came, until a bullet connected with the side of the tree he was hiding behind. He turned to his left, seeing a VC coming at him with an AK-47.

He fired his rifle at the VC just as he jumped at Alex. Alex thought he could relax for a moment.

"We kill you, G.I!" Alex looked to his right, and saw a VC shouting and runining towards him. The strange thing was, that he didn't have gun, but Alex didn't think about that when he put three rounds in his chest. But then something dropped out of his hand, which began rolling towards Alex, to which he just stared until his mind registered what it was:

a grenade with the pin pulled.

He turned to run away but didn't get very far before the grenade exploded and sent him flying through the air, his helmet flew off, as his head connected with a rock.

He began to feel queasy as he felt a hand to his head, and when he looked at it, he saw blood. He began looking around for his helmet, finding it a few feet away from him. He began to crawl towards it, growing more and more queasy the farther he went. When he reached it, he put it on, and laid on his back. He tried to move but his body refused to listen, so he just laid there, and listened to the sounds of rifles and explosions in the distance.

As he looked skyward, he began to see a white light, that gradually got brighter.

Is this it? Is this how i'm gonna go? he thought.

As the light got brighter and more intense, he began to feel numbness in his entire body. When his vision was filled with nothing but white, he heard what sounded like thunder. Then everything went black.

End of chapter.