Chapter Nine

Major General William Robinson stood next to an old man of eighty nine years. He watched the man pick a cigar from the pack and light it. Sitting in the old man’s lap was the Washington Chronicle, dated forty one years ago. The major headline was: SOLDIER SINGLE HANDEDLY NABS TERRORIST HEAD. And the man in the picture was Major General William Robinson back when he was twenty-five.

The General wasn’t comfortable standing next to his father, Mr Atkinson Robinson. There was no love lost between the two of them.

Atkinson sighed. He flipped the newspaper, looking for nothing in particular. “You know,” He started. “those were the days when you used to be something.” He put the cigar in his mouth and drew his breath gently. “I remember sitting in that old chair looking at the TV and smiling.” he looked at the General, smoke puffing out of his mouth as he spoke. “And I thought to myself: look at my boy doing something great at such a young age. You were twenty-five then.” he coughed. “But now, when I look at you, I just shake my head and ask God; oh Lord how has the mighty fallen?” he found it funny, but the smoke in his lungs made laughing hard. He coughed hard.

“You know,” Atkinson continued. “when you were born, your mother, God rest her soul, and I was so happy, you were so young and handsome, we decided to get you a sibling to play with. And four years later, we gave you a brother, and oh, how happy you were.” he chuckled. “But look at that brother of yours, and look at you. He’s up there, and you’re here taking orders from him.”

General William Robinson just watched the man, waiting with every passing second for him to collapse, dead. He would have killed him, but the man would probably die anyway. He wanted him to die a slow and painful death.

“The doctors said I should quit.” Mr Atkinson said, dropping the roll on the table beside him. “But it’s  addictive. It’s  like cocaine, you get addicted to it easily.” he laughed.

General William was irritated by the sight.

“Your life was perfect sometime ago. It was beautiful when she was in it, you know with that her two second smile. But it’s  good she left you, because now, she’s taking care of me any time she’s around.”

The General smiled. So this was what the matter was all about. Rose. His father knew nothing about the woman he was praising.

“Anyway, why did you come here?” Mr Atkinson asked.

“Just wanted to see how you were doing.” The General replied.

“Want to see if I’m dead huh? Well, I’m not. You wanna kill me?”

The General pulled out a retractable knife and flipped it. He drew the blade across the old man’s wrinkled neck. The old man flinched. The knife had pricked his thin skin. Though the wound wasn’t enough to kill him, it was enough to prove a point.

“I could kill you,” The General said, returning the knife to his breast pocket. “But you’ll die anyway. The cancer would kill you better than I could ever do. In two, three days, you’d be dead, so what’s the rush?” there was a satisfied smirk on the General’s face. It made the old man very uncomfortable. “I wouldn’t want to stain my hands with your blood. There just too dirty for me.”

“I couldn’t help but notice.” The old man joked. He was evidently shaken.

The door to the house flew open, and someone poked his head in.

“General.” he said. “We have to leave, some one just pulled up.”

“Get the car running. I’ll head out through the back.” the General turned to his father as Lyons went out to start the car. “I’ll see you at your funeral.” he laughed a sinister laugh, slipping out of the house through the kitchen door.

Lyons pulled the car out of a curb as the General slid in the back seat.

“How’d did it go sir?” Lyons asked, driving away from the small bungalow.

“Old man is crazy as hell. Could get nothing from him.”

“He probably knows what you’re after. Remember you told me that he’s smart and also very cunning. I’m sure as hell he knows.”

“Well, he would not live past tomorrow.”

Lyons smiled. “What do you want me to do boss?”

The General stared out the window as the black BMW rounded a turn and joined about a thousand other cars that drove on the main road.

“Watch him die.” the General chuckled.

                                                 ***********************************

The mission was beginning to bore the seven man team walking aimlessly in the forest. Kurt especially. They’d been walking the forest for almost an eternity, with no encounter with anything. Not even wild life. The forest was all too quiet.

Kurt kept groaning, and Tyler couldn’t stop complaining about everything. Sam walked behind, his face hard as a rock, with no expressions. He couldn’t frown or smile, only twitching every thirty seconds. He held the AK47 to his chest, waiting for the slightest opportunity to shoot at anything that wasn’t wearing khakis.

At the front of the wavering line was Cory and Leigh. Cory was engrossed in sorting out the map, trying as much as possible to get the team out of the forest. He only looked up to reassure himself that they were heading in the right direction, whilst Leigh was more focused on watching the young boy do his job than in knowing where they were headed.

“Fuck this!” Tyler snapped suddenly. “Do we even know where we’re going?” she pushed her way to the front of the line, stepping over stones  and pushing at branches that tugged at her clothes.

“We sure as hell know that we’re heading somewhere.” White replied, falling in behind her.

“Yeah right, that’s reassuring enough. We’ve been walking this forest for days, the people we were supposed to meet are dead, we don’t know what killed them, we don’t even know if we are going to be alive after we see what had killed them. We might just die of hunger.”

“The good thing is, whatever killed them is still in this forest.”

“Oh that is really the best news.” She eyes him and he smiled at her.

The team fell quiet, Tyler walked over to where Sam was, he seemed like a man who had no business with those he was with, he kept looking around like he was expecting something to jump out from behind the trees, she watched him intently, taking mental notes.

“Fair judgement Sam, what are you expecting?” She asked.

Sam looked over her head, no, he looked right on top of it, like something was sitting there, he stared at it for a bit and then turned his attention elsewhere.

She didn’t like the way he looked, he was not scared, he was just… there, his face straight. She peered at his muscles, they were tight, the way he held his gun told her that he was ready. Ready for anything.

“There is something in this forest.” Same finally said. The group turned to him with raised eye brows, surprised at his sudden statement.

“Yeah,” Kurt started. “I think we are all clear about that up to this point.”

He shook his head and continued. “It is worse than what you think it is. I can feel it.”

“Okay Sam, now you’re really beginning to freak me out.” Tyler said

“Well, you’re gonna be even more freaked out.” He turned to her. “Because we’re getting closer to it.” He paused and did a mental check on his statement and then corrected himself. “It is getting closer to us. It’s following us, stalking and waiting.”

“Okay, stop this bull shit!” Kurt said to him. “Why are you saying all these man, you’re scaring the shit out of me.”

“It’s simple facts.” He shrugged his shoulders, took a glance around and walked to where Cory and Leigh were. “Where are we boy?”

“Well, judging by the scale of the map, we’re about seven hundred and fifty kilometers south-east of Columbia, a thousand, two hundred and fifty kilometers from Peru and a few more kilometers away from the other countries.”

“You could really tell all that by looking at a map?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah. It’s pretty easy once you scale it right.”

“That’s…”

“Impressive huh?” Leigh completed.

“Which one is the closest boy?” He asked, ignoring Leigh.

“Well,” The boy peered into the map, running his fingers through dotted lines. “Bolivia and Columbia are about a thousand and seven-fifty kilometers respectively. Brazil is just a little over one-thousand-fifty.”

“Then Brazil is where we’re heading.” Sam said.

“Woah! Woah! Woah! Hold up there captain.” Kurt interrupted. “Brazil is about a thousand kilometers from here, and Columbia is just seven-fifty; according to Cory. Why don’t we take the shorter journey and get out of this place?”

“Because Brazil is the country we came here for. It only makes sense that we go to them. Besides, we don’t know how these other countries might treat us if they find military men walking into their country from the rain forest. That’s not a very popular sight, and you know that.”

“Look Sam, we might as well take our chances with them.”

“Wrong Kurt, we’re not taking any chances. I’m the captain, and I say we head towards Brazil. Case closed. Come on Cory, lead the way.”

“I better not get killed on the way.” Kurt muttered under his breath.

The gang set out for Brazil, heading east and walking at a steady speed of one kilometer an hour. Only Sam was silent. He didn’t know why, but he wasn’t comfortable walking in the forest at that speed. He had never felt this uncomfortable before, and this wasn’t his first mission. His father always told him that great soldiers always had a sixth sense. ‘In the battle field, don’t trust your eyes.’ His father used to say. ‘I’ve seen a dozen men blow themselves up, and still end up being called heroes. Your instincts are your greatest weapon.’-That was the truth Sam had grown up with. Now, walking behind these people, Sam couldn’t help but trust his instincts. And his instincts told him that they had a slim chance of survival.

Cory took the lead. He seemed to be undisturbed. All of them except Sam seemed to be okay walking in the forest. But he knew they all had doubts about their safety, they just did not show it. He was the most worried among all of them, and that bothered him.

“-don’t even ask.” Sam heard Kurt say. “Somethings are better left unknown.”

“Uh-huh. Somethings like what?” Tyler asked.

“Don’t push it Tyler. Don’t push it.”

Tyler looked at Kurt. He had always fascinated her. The man had a sense of humour that put him ahead of the rest, and she felt safer walking beside him than she felt when she was walking with any other person in the group.

“You know, when we get out of here, I’m thinking of retiring from the army.” Kurt said to Tyler. “I like the guns and all, but I just feel like I’ve got something else to do. I don’t know what though.”

“Probably something fun?” she asked.

“Yeah, you can say that.” Kurt blushed.

“He’d probably be going after women. That could be his new job.” White joked as he brushed past Kurt and  Tyler.

“Glad to see your still alive. I thought you were dead.” Kurt returned.

“Ain’t nothing better than staying alive.”

“Depends on how long though.”

White just shook his head as he took the lead.

“You walk like you know the way.” Kurt joked.

“I gotta pee, my bladder’s full.” White said and walked further from the group. He stopped a few feet ahead.

“Meet us in front soldier.” Sam said, tapping White’s shoulders.