Black Dog Escape by William Bach

Author:William Bach [Bach, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endures All Publishing LLC
Published: 2023-07-03T16:00:00+00:00

twenty-eight

I conduct a quick assessment of the location where I left the girl. Two sets of tracks had carried her back down the hill, the way we had come up from the cave. A flood of thoughts enter my head. Who took her? Where are they taking her? Why didn’t they stay and ambush me? Did I make a mistake and allow them to track me? I know what I have to do. I grab my rifle and start loping down the trail as fast as I can without tripping. The crescent moon shines dimly down the valley, barely illuminating the path in front of me. There’s a great danger of running into an ambush, but I don’t have a choice. It has to be the Taliban that took her—who else would be following me at night?

I stumble to the bottom of the valley where the terrain flattens out but I lose the tracks in the rocky river bed. I scramble back ten yards to higher ground, and scan the other side of the valley across from me in the dim moonlight. I spot movement and dial in my scope—two Taliban fighters with AK-47s slung over their backs are making their way up the valley wall across from me. The one in front has the girl slung over his shoulder. They’re about 600 yards away heading up to the ridgeline. If they make it to the other side of the ridge, I’ll lose them or they’ll have help waiting. I scan around my location, quickly find a large rock and rest my sniper rifle on it, taking careful aim. I have to control my thumping heart and slow my breathing. I quickly decide to take down the one carrying the girl first so he won’t have a chance to use her as a shield. I have to hit him low, or I might hit the girl. I aim for the back of his legs and squeeze the trigger slowly. He topples to his left, dropping the girl in the dirt. The other fighter turns across the valley toward me, blindly spraying a volley of automatic weapons’ fire. He starts to run for the cover of a stand of tall trees up the valley face. I drop him before he can reach the trees and swing my scope back on the fighter who was carrying the girl. He’s dragging her towards a rock outcropping where he would have cover and concealment, and I can’t get a clear shot with the girl on his back. For a moment he lets go of her to scramble over a rock and that’s when I squeeze the trigger. A clean headshot. He slumps over the rock and doesn’t move again. I sling my weapon and sprint up the valley face.

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