the Hill (1995) by Scott Leonard B

Author:Scott, Leonard B [Scott, Leonard B]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Paddy McGuire sat down beside Ty. “Cat, Mickey hit his five hundredth.”

Preoccupied with cleaning his rifle, Ty set the oily rag on his lap. “Huh?”

“Mickey Mantle hit his five-hundredth home run against the Orioles. He’s from Oklahoma, isn’t he?”

Ty began to put the weapon’s receiver group back together. “Yeah, he’s from Spavinaw, up in the northwest part of the state. It’s just a podunk town, but they sure play some mean baseball. Better check your magazine and see if your ammo is cruddy.”

Ty was worried about the apple-cheeked soldier. He knew Paddy had gotten his information from Stars and Stripes. Paddy always read the paper cover to cover eight to ten times out of desperation for contact with the outside world. He was in Nam in body only. His mind was always back home.

Paddy took off his helmet and took out the folded paper from inside his helmet liner. “Things aren’t going so good at home. In New York City they had a peace rally protesting the war. One-hundred-thousand people walked from Central Park to the United Nations building.”

“Is that a long hump?” Ty said. He inserted a magazine and stood up.

“It isn’t very far, but that’s not the point, Cat. Those people think this war is wrong.”

Ty let the rifle bolt slam forward. “Wonder what Deets and Teddy Bear would think about that. Come on, we have our own little protest march to make.”

A minute later, Ty and Paddy joined Cowboy in the center of the platoon perimeter. Sergeant Hammonds approached with Goldie, who was carrying the radio. “The dinks haven’t had any GI’s around lately, so you might catch them half-steppin’. If you see something, give me a call and we’ll come like the cavalry. Don’t take any chances, and take it slow and easy.”

Cowboy smiled confidently. “If they’re there, we’ll be findin’ ’em.”

They moved to the north for thirty minutes, with Ty leading and the Texan covering. Goldie was third, followed by Paddy, who was rear security.

Ty stopped at a small creek at the base of a hill covered with scrub trees and motioned Cowboy up to him. “This trail we’re on hasn’t been used in a while. If there are any dinks around here they’ll be close to the water. I think we should follow the creek.”

Cowboy looked at his map. “Yep, you’re right. This is the only creek for several klicks. Take it to the west ’cause it flows through a small valley between the hills.”

They had walked only four hundred yards along the creek when Ty froze. He heard voices coming from around a bend in the stream. Cowboy heard them, too, and cautiously moved up. Both men exchanged glances and smiled at each other. Cowboy signaled for Goldie and Paddy to be quiet and follow closely behind.

Ten long minutes later, the four men had made it to the far bank and began crawling. The jungle was thick next to the streambed, but farther inland it thinned out, except in spots where the sun penetrated the canopy of branching hardwoods.

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