Part 5 (1/2)
A cold wind whipped inside.
”Everyone out,” ordered Cole.
When the last man stepped out of the pod, Cole looked over at Sheridan, who was looking around, trying to get his bearings. With dark clouds covering the sky, it was impossible to determine which way he was looking.
They had come down beside a lake in a heavily wooded area. For as far as they could see, tall pines trees extended to the horizon.
”Sir, check your GPS,” suggested Agnar.
”Private Agnar, my GPS, like yours is useless,” replied Sheridan. ”The first thing the Kurgans did was disable all of the satellites above the planet. Our comms gear will be equally useless. Until we make it to the capital, we're well and truly on our own.”
”Sir, my first name is Agnar,” pointed out the blonde-haired Marine. ”My last name is Freyenlund.”
”Like the officer said, Private Agnar, nothing is gonna work,” said Cole. ”It's old school from here on out, navigation will be via the stars and the sun. You'd better hope that we get it right and aren't walking away from the capital instead of towards it.”
”Where's the rest of the crew?” asked the crewman, s.h.i.+vering in the cool breeze.
”I don't know,” replied Sheridan honestly. ”In these woods, they could be ten meters away and we'd never know it.”
”What's your name?” Cole asked the man.
”Crewman Hailu Shawul,” answered the man. He was slender with East African features.
”Ok, Crewman Shawul, there's a spare rifle in the pod, it's yours from now on.”
Shawul unenthusiastically nodded his head.
”Sir, what are your orders?” Cole asked Sheridan.
”We can't stay here. No one in the capital will know what happened to the Churchill. However, it'll be dark soon, so I say we establish a camp here for the night and then hope that we can get our bearings in the morning. I don't relish the idea of being out here any longer than we have to.”
”Why's that, sir?” asked Garcia.
”This planet is a lot like Earth. The indigenous species are quite similar to the ones back home with one small difference.”
”What's that?”
”They're huge. The bears here are over ten meters in length with four, not two arms. There's a breed of giant saber-toothed cats in these parts that have been known to track people for days before killing them. Also, the spiders here grow as large as a dog back home. So I wouldn't wander too far from the camp tonight.”
Agnar clenched his rifle in his hands and peered into the impenetrable forest. ”I don't like the sound of that. Not one bit.”
Cole looked at Agnar. ”Turn off the pod's homing beacon. We don't want the enemy to use it to find us.”
A half-hour later, with a fire going, Cole sat down beside Sheridan and handed him a ration pack.
”Thanks,” said Sheridan as he checked out his meal. It was beef stew, not his favorite, but in their situation, something was better than nothing.
”Sir, we've got plenty of food and water. Each one of us has a rifle and Garcia has her med kit with her, so we're ok in that regard. If we don't b.u.mp into any Kurgan patrols between here and the capital, we should be able to get there in one piece.”
”What about Tartov?”
”I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. I've teamed him up with Agnar. I did the same for Garcia and Shawul. It's not that I don't trust the crewman, it's just that he's not a soldier.”
”I think you're right not to trust Tartov,” said Sheridan as he dug a spoon into his ration pack. ”Sergeant, do you think it will clear tonight?”
Cole looked up. ”It's hard to tell. It might snow on us, knowing our luck.”
”G.o.d, I hope not. We don't have any winter clothing on us. Dying of hypothermia in the middle of nowhere is not how I figured I'd die.”
Cole grinned. ”Well then sir, you'd better get us to shelter before we die out here.”
”Marvelous,” said Sheridan under his breath.
A hand shook Sheridan. Instantly awake, he reached for his rifle and looked up. Cole was standing above him.
”Sir, you need to see this,” said Cole.
Sheridan checked his watch. It was just after three in the morning. He took a deep breath to clear the cobwebs from his mind as he pulled his thermal blanket off his body and stood up.
”What's up, Sergeant?”
”That,” replied Cole pointing up at the night sky. Sheridan looked up as hundreds of lights streaked across the heavens and then began to descend behind a tall mountain in the distance.
”I guess we just figured out where the capital is,” offered Sheridan as he watched the first wave of Kurgan forces drop from the sky.
”You know what this means, don't you, sir?”
”I sure do, Sergeant. We are now behind enemy lines and our only hope of salvation leads directly through who knows how many tens of thousands of enemy soldiers.”
The next morning snow began to fall from the sky, quickly blanketing everything.
After briefing the four other members of the group about the Kurgan invasion forces, Sheridan asked Cole to divvy up the food, ammunition and survival gear. He was not surprised to learn that Cole had already split up their supplies. Agnar, because of his size, ended up carrying more than his fair share of equipment.
Sheridan picked a point on the mountain range in the far distance and used that as his bearing. With him in the lead, they left behind what they could not carry and left a message in case any of the Churchill's survivors stumbled across their escape pod. The two Marines with the naval ratings followed close behind while Cole brought up the rear.
The lack of warm clothing wasn't a problem while they were walking. As soon as they stopped, the cold seeped into their clothes, making all but Agnar s.h.i.+ver. The weather seemed to be having absolutely no effect at all on the tall Dane. After a short pause for lunch, they pushed on through the day. An hour before last light, Cole suggested that they stop and set up camp. Sheridan picked a spot that was covered by a rocky outcropping. It wasn't much but as he pointed out, they would at least be dry.
As soon as they stopped, Cole put the survivors to work. Shawul was put in charge of cooking the rations. Garcia built a fire and melted some snow to replace the water they had drunk during the day. Tartov and Cole set up a small collapsible shelter, while Agnar stood sentry.
A short while later, the food was handed around. Sheridan didn't even bother to see what he had been given; he hungrily ate his meal while he recorded the day's events in a journal.
”A little premature to be writing your memoirs, wouldn't you say, sir?” said Cole, taking a seat beside Sheridan.
Sheridan smiled. ”Without a map or functional GPS, we're going to have to record the detail as we go along and hope that it's of some use to the intelligence section when we finally reach the capital. How far do you think we walked today?”
”No more than fifteen kilometers. The woods are thicker than any I have ever seen back home. The longer we go on, the slower Tartov and Shawul will become. They're not used to hiking for hours over broken terrain.”
Sheridan looked over at Tartov. The man was asleep, sitting up. His food lay uneaten on the ground beside him.
”Someone wake up Tartov,” ordered Cole. ”He can sleep after he's eaten all of his food.”