Chapter 5: "Mission Day One"

 “Oh my God, my head aches”, cried Kristine as she tried to got up from the tent.

   The sun shone so brightly and she believed she walked up late since her colleagues were not there anymore. She tried to stood up and walked towards the area where they partied last night. From the distance Kristine could smell brewed coffee.

 “Good morning Kris”, shouted Myla and was waving at her.

  “hurry and join us”, Des invited.

“how are you, not dizzy”, asked Angel.

 “a little bit”, Kristine replied.

“you drink too much last night”, added Myla.

“I think so”, Kris answered and was now sitting with her friends.

“why so silent? where are the people from the tribe?”, asked Kris as she noticed that no one was around except them and the troops.

“that we cannot answer, same question here, it is impossible if they are still asleep. It is almost eight in the morning, usually people from mountainous area get up early but I wondered why here is quite different”, Myla stated.

“since last night Myla, they don’t look like ordinary people to me”, Angel sentimentalized.

As they were talking one Filipino soldier approached them panting.

“Ma’am Des, have you notice our team leader? We were looking for him since last night but we weren’t able to find him”, reported the soldier.

“really? No, we did not notice him. Is everything alright?”, replied Des.

“it is very weird we have been working with him for such a long time but never did he was gone for this long”, replied the soldier.

“we asked the US soldier but they said they did not notice him as well, the last time they saw him was last night when he was drunk”, he added.

“maybe he was just somewhere, maybe taking some fresh bath”, suggested Marga.

“speaking of fresh bath where can we fitch water?”, she added.

Everyone looked at her with disappointment. She only thinks of herself most of the time.

She got up and decided to leave the group. As Marga walked towards the tent, she saw someone behind the tent. She walked fast and checked who was it but saw nobody. She got confused because she noticed some footprints. When she opened the tent she shouted as loud as she could.

“oh my God, help! Help! Help!”, Marga shouted. She ran as fast as she could.

She cried heavily and was panting.

“what happen?”, ask Adam.

Marga got muted because of fear, she was terribly shaking.

“Lt. Aliya, Jim and Augustos, you stay here with the volunteers. Lt. Dan and I will check the campsite”, Adam ordered his subordinates.

“copy major”, they replied.

“the rest of the soldiers go and guard the borders. Report to me if there are evidences that someone entered our perimeter” ordered Adam to the four remaining soldiers.

“Copy major”, they replied in unison.

“the volunteers will not go anywhere without our permission and supervision, is that clear?”, Adam demand to the group of volunteers.

“copy major”, they replied.

 Sergeant Adam and Lt. Dan immediately checked the campsite. They prepared their weapons and gun for any possible attacked. Major Sgt. Adam signal Lt. Dan to searched from the opposite direction to checked from there. The two of them checked carefully every tent but found nothing suspicious.

“negative major”, reported Lt. Dan.

“I found nothing too”, replied Adam.

“Major, do you hear me, over?”, a voice came from the walkie talkie.

“go ahead”, Adam replied.

“negative, the border is clear major, over”, the soldier reported.

“copy, just stay in your post”, Adam replied.

    Des and Myla immediately assisted Marga. She was shocked and her hands was cold. Her tears kept falling and her body was still shaking.

“Marga, inhale and exhale”, ordered Myla.

“drink some water”, Alfe added.

“do not be afraid, we are here”, Lt. Aliyah assured Marga. She noticed that the woman was really scared for whatever she saw.

Marga just nodded her head but was still sobbing. Few minutes later when her fears subsided. She started to talked.

“I saw a chopped dead body I cannot tell if it was a man or a woman. It has no hair. The face was indescribable”, she stopped and cried again as she was trying her best not to be afraid from what she saw.

“please continue”, Lt. Aliyah encouraged her.

“the face was destroyed, no eyes, no nose, no mouth”, she mumbled.

“those are the only things I can clearly remember I was so horrified so I did not look much”, Marga added.

The women were terrified when they heard the testimony. Each of them became silent and no one dares to talked.

“ladies, do not overthink yet, let us wait Major Adam and the team to verify everything”, Lt. Aliyah said.

They just nodded. It was past twelve in the afternoon. Nobody felt any signs of hunger. All of them were waiting for the major to came back.

“here they are”, exclaimed Myla.

 “Major, is everything okay?”, asked Des in a worried voice.

“we searched the whole campsite, negative”, Adam replied.

“there was no sign of any intruders”, Lt. Dan added.

“that is impossible”, Marga shouted.

“I saw it with my two eyes. I knew it was real”, she protested.

“what did you see?”, Adam asked.

“Major, I will tell you later”, Lt. Aliyah interrupted. She knew that Marga could burst into emotions again if she would be interrogated further.

It was almost three o’clock in the afternoon when they were able to ate lunched. Marga on the other hand lost her appetite. She just stayed in the corner and was completely lost in her deep thoughts.

The whole team were startled when all the nipa huts opened. It seemed like to the tribe the day had just begun.

Children came out from their houses and begun to play at the field, then men and women begun to worked.

Nobody dared to asked questions to avoid any conflicts and also, they did not know how to speak their language. The only thing that was clear to them that moment was that the tribe was not an ordinary tribe. They needed to be more careful and vigilant.

The sultan walked towards the troops and smiled, he showed his dark teeth and greeted them in their language.

 “Hinaot nga maayo ra kamo?”, sultan said.

Everyone just nodded their heads even if they did not understand what he had said as a sign of respect.

In returned the Sultan did the same thing and leave them. Now that the team leader was nowhere to be found, they decided to fit in with the tribe and leave as soon as possible.

Evening came and the volunteers did nothing the whole day. They were astonished and overwhelmed.

“good evening everyone”, greeted Major Adam.

“we tried to searched for our team leader but did not found him. We tried to asked but their responsed doesn’t give any helped”, Adam added.

“the team will be divided into two starting tonight, let’s just used the team we had from the beginning, team A and team B, no one is allowed to move far from the sight of your team member, is that clear?”, Adam asked.

“copy major”, they replied.

“good, we the team seal six will do our very best to protect everyone, just follow all our orders. I would like to ask also if the Filipino soldiers will be willing to guard the base entrance, you can decide for your shifting schedule”, said Adam.

“Yes sir”, replied by one Filipino soldier.

“good, as for the volunteers, you continue your job, try to communicate the tribe using body language, be extra careful. Do not trust anybody”, warned Adam.

“in addition to that you need to decide who will do the chores, like cooking, washing dishes and others, in order for us to survive we need to move our ass and live with whatever surroundings we are in, I am expecting everyone to be useful in anyway, is that clear?”, ordered Adam.

“yes sir”, they replied.

“we will be giving walkie talkie to everyone, use it for emergency use only”, he added.

“yes sir”, they answered.

“any questions?”, he asked.

“when will be leaving from this place?”, asked Marga.

“we need to find the team leader and let him decide but for worst case scenario we will leave the place if everything is beyond control, for now let us try to do our mission, do your mission, I know that there are many doubts and fears in your mind but we haven’t done anything yet”, Adam stated.

“for now, get some rest and your mission day one will officially start tomorrow, is that clear?”, Adam asked.

“yes sir”, they replied.

All the volunteers proceeded to their camp. The team seal six accompanied them. When everything seemed silent, Adam and his team gathered together and started their true mission.

“those who were assigned for the surveillance camera, make sure you planted it in every corner”, Adam stated.

“copy, major”, they answered.

“let us finish this as fast as we can”, he added.

  The sound of lightning and thunders woke the whole team from sleeping. The wind was blowing so hard that made the tent moved from different direction. It was not an ordinary storm.

“hello, hello can you hear me?”, uttered Adam using the walkie talkie.

“loud and clear sir”, replied by the troops.

“do not go out, I repeat do not go out from the tent, is that clear?”, ordered him.

“copy sir”, they answered.

It was about three o clock in the morning but the storm did not subsided. It became stronger as hours passed by. Nobody was able to sleep, fearing that the wind might blown them anytime soon. They could hear the sound of falling trees. The wind blows harder and harder.

“tabang, tabang, tabang mo!”, cried the young girl.

“tabangi me”,she pleaded.

The girl tried to patted the tent to asked for help. She came from the tribe.

“no one will move, standby”, ordered the Major.

“I repeat, no one will move”, he added.

“there is a girl outside the tent, roger”, replied Des.

“standby, no one will open the tent, is that clear?”, the Major commanded.

Before Des could answer, there was a commotion happened.

“for Christ’s sake Kris!”, exclaimed Des.

“what happen?”, asked Adam from the other line.

“kris go out”, des shouted from the other line.

 Adam immediately grabbed his gun and run towards the direction where Kris was. From the distance he saw Kristine trying to console the little girl from crying.

“you are not following orders”, Adam was furious.

“how can I not pity on her? She needs help!”, Kris protested.

The girl was shaking in cold while the two are having discussions.

“I am a doctor, I am trained to respond emergencies like this”, kris exclaimed.

“but you have to learn how to follow orders doc if you want to help more people”, Adam contradicted.

“Get in the tent, I will handle this, my team will handle this”, Adam commanded.

“no, I will help her”, she insisted.

She grabbed the child’s hand and brought her to the empty tent where the emergency kits where placed.

Adam followed them, when they switch on the light the two were completely shocked by the condition of the poor child.

“oh my goodness”, uttered Kris.

Since they both don’t understand each other, Kris used actions to interrogate the child.

Her body was bleeding because of cuts everywhere. The child demonstrated that the cuts came from the sharp things that flies because of the strong typhoon. She added that their homes were blown by the wind. Every house from the tribe were all destroyed. After describing everything that she had witness. The helpless child cried and knelt down her knees to the ground.

“do not cry baby girl, we will you and your tribe”, kris uttered as she was trying to console the child.

She wrapped the child with a towel and applied medicine to all her wounds. After a few minutes the child fall as sleep.

Adam witnessed everything and did nothing but just watched Kris and the poor child. Then he noticed that Kris was very wet. She was only wearing a thin white dress. Her underwear became transparent. As he gazed more, Kris wears no bra. Her perfect figure screamed that moment. The lights from the lamp made Kristine more beautiful and undeniably attractive. Adam did not notice that he stared at her for a long time.

“anything wrong?”, asked kris.

“Major?”, she added.

“what? Yes, come again? Sorry I did not hear you”, answered Adam. He felt so nervous at that very moment. Different sensations attacked him with no warnings. His throat run dry. He couldn’t grasp any words to say. He was mesmerized.

“I said, is there something wrong?”, Kris repeated.

“nothing”, he answered shortly. He was trying to calm his self and be more relaxed.

Kris faced Adam and looked at him at the eye.

“look, Major, I am so sorry for disobeying your orders, I did not mean to do it, I just cannot help myself not to respond from her helpless voice”, she sincerely explained.

At that moment, Adam became deaf. How can he heard what was she was talking about if she would face him like that, her nipple was screaming even if it was covered by that thin white wet dress. How can Adam not be distracted.

  Clueless of what was Adam was thinking that moment, Kris came nearer, she thought Adam did not heard her because she did not receive any reply from him.

“are you mad at me? I know I put the whole team in danger, forgive me major”, kris pleaded.

She moved and stepped and Adam signaled her.

“stop, stop right there”, he said.

“I am very disappointed by your action Doc Kris, next time I want you to be more rational in making decisions, maybe this time your gut feelings did not harm you but let me warn you, sometimes your feelings will not always be right”, he lectured her.

“copy sir”, she answered.

She looked like a sheep, very vulnerable. To Adam, this woman was completely naïve. Naïve in making decisions and too naïve of being so confident talking to him having that kind of posture. She looks almost naked but to her she did not mind about it. She looks like a child, a vulnerable child. She seemed like the helpless girl she saved a while ago.

“here, take this, you are wet”, Adam uttered.

“thank you”, she replied.

“you did a good job today tho” Adam added.

“you save someone’s life. I think today is your Mission day one”

“you tried to protect me too, today is your mission day one”, Kris replied.

Adam felt guilty when Kris uttered those statements. He knew he came here for a different.

“thank you, Major! I felt safe knowing that you are here with us, your presence reminded me of someone”, Kris added.

She closed her eyes and fallen sleep. Adam just gazed at her intently. No words came out from his mind. He was sure that this woman can make her crazy.