Dark Mountains (5 page)

Chapter 8

Two years later and I was still stateside. I’d finished my training and was now Corporal Colton Andrews. They were sending me to the Middle East soon and I was getting three weeks of leave before I had to report to Pendleton.

The war on terror had escalated and though the fighting had diminished in Afghanistan, the violence in Iraq had grown to horrific proportions. More soldiers died every day and with grim resolution, I wanted to go home and say goodbye… in case I
didn’t come back at all.

I called Libby to let her know I was coming and surprised her by picking her up at the news station. She had worked up the ranks quickly, all while going to school to earn her bachelors in journalism. She was now the co-anchor for the morning news.

I took her out for ice cream, something we’d done every summer of our teenage years. We sank right back into our normal routine, taking the back roads home and aiming for every muddy pothole along the way. I turned down the gravel road that led to my parent’s house then turned onto a newly cut driveway that led up the mountain. Libby sat up straighter in her seat when she saw us leaving the road.

“When did this road get here?” She questioned, looking around as we drove up the winding drive.

“It’s been that long since you’ve been back here?” I questioned.

“I haven’t been to your parent’s since we got back from your graduation,” she explained. “So where does this new road go?”

“You’ll see,” I murmured with a smile. A few minutes later, we rounded a corner and Libby saw where we were.

“Oh no,” she whispered. “Did the mining company decide to use our lake?”

“Not exactly,” I whispered as the trees cleared. Libby gasped as our lake came into full view. Sitting back off the shore was a new log home. The huge glass windows faced the lake and the deck extended all the way to the rocks where we spent so many summers swimming.

“Yours?” she asked softly. I nodded and she squealed a little before covering her mouth with her hand. “How did you get this, Cole?”

“The owner of the land is a veteran and has a soft spot for soldiers.” I grinned when she shook her head in disbelief. “I got a fairly nice sign-on bonus from the marines and living on base is practically free so I saved up enough money that I didn’t even have to get a big loan. The construction company just so happens to be owned by a veteran too so I got a really decent price on the cost of building.”

“You’ve been working on this and I didn’t have a clue.”

“I wanted it to be finished before I showed it to you,” I whispered.

“Oh, Cole,” she murmured.

“Come on, have a look around,” I said, grabbing her hand and leading her up the porch steps. I unlocked the front door and Libby gasped again. I flipped a switch and a large antler chandelier came to life, illuminating the foyer. The room opened into the large living room with a natural stone fireplace.

“Wait ‘til you see the upstairs,” I told her and she laughed and danced a little. She practically ran up the staircase, sighing as she moved down the hallway. The bedroom doors were all open to good-sized rooms, with large windows and comfortable beds. She paused in the doorway at the end and I took her hand and led her in. The master bedroom had a wall of windows facing the lake.

“It’s beautiful, Cole,” she murmured, walking over to the glass doors that led onto the balcony. My hand rose and gently moved a strand of hair that had fallen over her eyes. She smiled, a blush spreading across her cheeks.

“Cole, I…”

“Come down to the lake,” I whispered I opened the doors and led her out onto the balcony and the staircase that went down to the porch. I led her out onto the boulders and we sat, our feet dangling over water.

“I have to leave, Libby,” My voice shook a little and I took a deep breath, trying to settle it. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.” I sighed as Libby’s lip began to tremble. “They’re sending me to Iraq.”

She gasped her hand flying to her mouth. We’d all seen on the news lately, how dangerous it had become over there. Soldiers died on nearly an hourly basis.

“I want you to share this place with me, Libby.” She gasped again, but I tried not to look at her. If I saw tears, I might not be able to tell her everything
I’d wanted to say for so many years. “I want to give you so many things, Libby. I want to make a life with you.”

“Cole,” her voice was shaking as she reached for my hand. I shook my head, unable to tell
whether it was rejection I heard in her voice.

“Libby, I know it’s not fair of me to ask you this, right before I leave. I don’t want you to make any decisions either, in case… in case I don’t make it back.” I could hear that
she’d sucked in a breath and was holding it. “I know it’s a possibility, Lib. It is for every soldier that goes over there. But I couldn’t leave without telling you how I feel.” I looked at her then, seeing that her eyes were filled with tears.

“I love you Libby. I have since that day you pulled a snake out of your pocket on the way to preschool.” She chuckled a little, tears spilling out as she sniffed. “I know this might be the last chance I get to tell you…” I
couldn’t finish. Suddenly the thought of never seeing her face again was making my throat tighten. I couldn’t swallow the lump of fear that had settled there.

“You’ll make it back, Cole,” she murmured, reaching over to touch my cheek. The muscles in my stomach jumped. “You’ll make it back because I love you too.”

She leaned forward quickly, her lips pressing against mine. I sat still for a split second, tasting the salt from her tears as my mind absorbed the fact that she was kissing me. That she loved me too. I kissed her back then, with all the passion that had been welling up inside of me for so long. I kissed her with every hope and every fear swirling around in my mind while I prayed that I would come back to her someday.

Chapter 9

Two Years Later

I was crying. I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t the only one either. Standing in a loose semi-circle, sand and smoke swirling around us, the soldiers in my unit were all wiping tears away from their dirt-streaked faces. Because on the ground in front of us lay the charred remains of a young girl.

She had been carrying a jug of water back to her home an hour before. Our unit had been sweeping the town after reports that insurgents had been using one of the houses to make IUDs.

I looked down at her body, recognizing her from the un-mangled part of her face. After doing our sweep and clearing the town earlier that morning, she’d been out on the street with her family, welcoming the soldiers. Most people back home didn’t realize what life was really like over here. They saw death, insurgents, and politicians on the news but they didn’t see the real people. They didn’t see this little girl and her family. Thankful that we were there, fighting for their freedom.

One of our newer unit members had nearly shot her as
she’d run up to me. It wasn’t uncommon for the Al Qaeda to use woman and children as suicide bombers. I shouted at him to stand-down and stepped towards her, telling her to stop in her native language. Surprise had filled her face and she had listened. I lowered my weapon as she explained she was only bringing us water. She gestured for her mother and father, who'd been frozen with fear behind her to show us their hands. Their fingers were stained with blue ink. She explained to me that they had just voted that morning because the American Soldiers had given them freedom.

She had brought me a glass of water after I told my unit to relax.  I smiled, reached into my pocket and handed her one of the Snickers bars that Libby had sent over with her latest box of supplies. The girl smiled widely, showing me a recently lost tooth and giggled thanks in garbled English before running back to her family to share the candy. An hour later, a man drove into the courtyard screaming about paradise before his vehicle exploded.

I looked down at the girl and knew that her life had been lost for nothing. No one in my unit had been injured. Only some civilians, the young girl included. Her parents knelt beside her, wailing, their words unintelligible in their grief. Their cries echoed in my head, becoming louder and louder until I had to walk away.

***

The sand swirled around my boots as I slipped silently into the building. The streets were calm, evening prayers had been said and the village was quiet. I climbed the stairs without a sound and found a gaping hole left by mortars in the western wall. I crouched down beside it, bringing my rifle forward. I checked the scope and wind speed and nodded to myself. This was a perfect hide spot. Concealed from the outside with the wind blocked by the surrounding buildings.

My unit was back at base, unaware that I was not there with them.
I’d turned in my dog tags and the picture I kept of Libby to the base commander before leaving. In the event I was captured, there would be no ID tying me to the United States Marine Corp. I glanced up at the sky and knew satellite and drones were monitoring me.

I lay prone for hours as the evening wore on, ignoring pangs of hunger and stiff muscles. I was in what my unit called my ‘sniping mode’. Nothing mattered except the target. My breathing and heart rate had slowed enough so I could expel my breath and shoot between heartbeats to minimize movement. My senses trained to take in everything surrounding me.

The distant hum of vehicles had me slowly bringing up my night vision scope. The Humvees coming down the street were about two miles out. I zoomed in on the passenger seat of the second Humvee. My target was smiling smugly as they drove in to the village.

He was a general in the usurped
Sadaam Hussein’s dictatorship. He was also the general that had ordered the suicide bombing that had killed the little girl earlier this morning. I slowly lowered my scope as the little girl’s blackened face flashed in my mind.

The convoy slowed and stopped. The general lumbered out of the Humvee, his large belly protruding from his highly decorated uniform. The soldiers guarding him were all under-weight and malnourished. Yet they served his renegade army with fierce loyalty. I wanted to shake my head in disgust as he lit the cigar hanging from his lips but I stayed perfectly still.

In the Humvee behind him, more soldiers got out as well as a German shepherd. This would delay my escape. The defeated army had started using dogs with nearly every patrol once they realized how well trained our snipers were. The dogs could smell us from longer distances and were well trained in tracking. Our escape routes often had to be changed on the fly.

I heard a shift in the sand beside me and risked a glance.
A desert cobra had slithered into the room and lay coiled on the ground next to me. I fought the urge to get up and run instead lying as still as I could as it stared. My childhood fear still welled up inside me and I found myself glancing around the room for Libby’s Pa. I took a slow breath as the snake realized I was too big to eat and slithered into another room. Jackson Michaels was half a world away and this was no time for childhood fears.

I moved my eyes back towards my target, now leaning on the hood of the Humvee as he smoked his cigar. I checked the wind speed again and lined my sights up on his greasy forehead. I let my breath out slowly as my finger gently closed over the trigger. In the space between my heartbeats, I heard the scream of a rocket launcher as my finger slowly squeezed the trigger. Another heartbeat in slow motion as I saw the missile barreling towards me from behind the target as his head flung back in a spray of blood and brains. I jumped up, flinging my rifle to my back and risked a glance back to see how much time I had. There was none.

The missile rammed into the outer wall below my hide-spot before a ball of fire and concrete slammed into me. The force of the blast threw me against the far wall. A section of the roof crashed down, snapping my leg underneath its massive weight. I screamed, knowing it no longer mattered if anyone found me. I saw the face of Jackson Michaels laughing in the smoke before I saw nothing at all.

***

Libby woke up screaming. Her sheets were tangled around her legs and the pillow was lying on the floor. Her eyes tried to focus on the room, adjusting to the darkness. She could have sworn she’d heard her pa laughing. But no one was there.

She was in a hotel in Chicago, working on a story.  She was safe here and her father was over 500 miles away.
She’d called her mom that morning and her pa had just left for his shift at the mine.

“How many times has he hit you this week, Momma?” She remembered asking her mom.

“Now Libby, he hasn’t done that in a long time,” Carol Ann had stuttered.

“Don
’t lie to me, Momma.” Carol Ann had sighed into the receiver.

“I can handle it, Libby.”

“Momma, you have to get out of there. He could kill you!” She’d pleaded with her.

“He woul
dn’t do that, Libby,” Carol Ann had reassured her.

“Yes he would, Momma. He’s not right.”

“Libby,”

“Momma, when I get home I’m coming to get you. You can stay with me.”

“I can’t Libby. He’ll come after both of us then.” Carol Ann had sighed and Libby was covering the mouthpiece with her hand so she wouldn’t hear her crying. “If I stay, he won’t bother you.”

“Momma,” Libby had cleared her throat, willing the tears back. “I won’t have you using me as an excuse to stay with that monster. I can take care of myself.”

“Libby, stop.” Carol Ann’s voice was firm. “Cole isn’t here to keep an eye on you right now and I won’t push your pa over the edge.”

“Momma,”

“That’s enough, Elizabeth,” she commanded. “I don’t want you coming over or trying to talk me into leaving. You just stay away from here.” Libby had tried to interrupt but was cut off. “Libby, I won’t have him coming after you. I will do everything I can to keep him away from you. Even if that means not seeing you.” Libby could hear her crying as she spoke. “I have to go now, baby. I love you.” The line had gone dead before Libby could argue.

Shaking her head to clear the memory, she reached over and flipped on the lamp next to the bed. The picture
she’d set on the nightstand was an old one. Her and Cole when they were ten. Covered in mud and holding bluebells out to the camera. Cole’s mom had taken the picture.

Cole had been gone two years now. He tried to call or send an email as often as he could but she
hadn’t heard from him in three weeks. He’d warned her that something big was coming up and that he might not be able to contact her for a while. She was trying not to be nervous but the fear was beginning to eat away at her.

“Oh Cole,” she whispered, running a finger down the frame. “Where are you?”