The Scrolls of Xavier (Military Science FictionAdventure--Xavier Series Book 1) by John Ashley

Author:John Ashley [Ashley, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-09-10T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

“What the bloody hell’s going on?” Roberts said as I continued to nudge him with my boot.

“Get up, Private.”

Roberts came fully awake. Realizing the urgency in my voice, he quickly rose.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Get your gear. We’re moving out.”

I hastily went and woke the squad until they were all gathered in a circle.

“Where’s our company?” Collins asked.

“The same place the Scrolls they stole are, wherever that is.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“How long ago did they leave?” she asked.

Her demeanor had changed in a second to one of a cold hard tracker. I glanced at my watch.

“It couldn’t possibly have been more than two hours,” I said.

“We shouldn’t have any trouble tracking them in this type of ground,” she said, “The problem will be catching up. We’d better get going.”

Jackson threw his pack around his shoulders and jacked a shell into his sidearm. I was immediately horrified with the idea of shooting down American soldiers, but they were traitors, and taking them prisoner wasn’t an option. They had stolen my rifle, so I pulled a pistol from my belt and jerked back its slide. If we caught up with them, the protocol would be kill-on-contact.

* *

Despite their hopeless attempts to cover their tracks, we discovered them almost as soon as we were off the rock. As far as the beam of my light could reach, I saw the two sets of boot-prints extending into the forest.

“Where do they think they’re heading?” Stillworth asked.

I pulled the crumpled map of the Marsh Tribe’s territory from my pack and turned my light onto it. After studying it for a second, I drew my conclusion.

“Those two are going back to the DoubleEs.”

“Why do you suppose they’d do that?” Rice asked.

“I have an idea,” I said “But I hope I’m wrong.”

* *

Stifling back a yawn and brushing a vine from my path, I continued marching. It was nearing dawn and for the past three hours we had been trudging nonstop through the thick marsh, with no sign of Colonel Langley or Gunny Blake. Just as I’d expected, their tracks had led all the way into the DoubleE camp, but then turned around and headed east. I leaned against a tree trunk and inhaled deeply.

“We’d better catch our breath,” I said, “There’s no sense in killing ourselves.”

Relieved, the squad took off their packs and slumped onto the ground.

“Whew, I don’t think I can go anymore.” Gatling said.

I sighed. Gatling wasn’t the only one who was exhausted.

“We’ll hold up here for a while.” I said.

I slid the pack from my shoulders and casually tossed it onto the ground. Beads of sweat rolled off my forehead and onto the swamp floor. The thermometer on my watch read a hundred and five degrees. We were nearing closer to Xavier’s southern pole, however, unlike Earth, the closer you get to the South Pole of Xavier, the hotter it becomes. Due to Xavier’s extreme tilt, the South Pole can reach one-hundred and fifty degrees and never get dark, while the North Pole can get down to negative two hundred and never see the sun.

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