Lost in Magadan: Extraterrestrials on Earth

“Just going by what we have seen so far, I don’t think we are going to find a passage to the valley,” Tom complained.

“We’re not giving up that easily,” Dale whispered, “let’s keep going.” Dale had every intention of getting off this mountain alive; returning to the battalion without a solution was not an option.

“Wait,” Tom hissed, grabbing Dale’s shoulder and pulling him down. Tom handed the German StG44 to Dale. “Look there.”

Dale and the others lay on their bellies, weapons pointed into the dark. Dale stared through the Vampire scope. The gun was heavy and awkward; the scope was large and made the rifle difficult to wield, especially from lying on the ground. He repositioned himself to lean against a tree so he could support the weapon by propping his elbow against his knee. At first, he couldn’t see anything. It was out of focus. After giving it a minute to focus, trees, bushes, and rocks all came into view. He scanned the length of the steep cliff. He felt a gentle pushing on the barrel of the gun; it was Tom pointing the barrel in the direction of the Germans.

One, two, three, four Germans creeping along the ridge, mirroring their own actions. Except these Germans were heading toward them and the American battalion.

“I see four men. Two hundred yards out. They’re heading in this direction,” Dale whispered.

“If we had not stopped and used the night vision, we could have bumped into them in the dark,” Adam said, as he lifted his BAR into position, as if he could see them.

“Easy does it.” Dale waived at Adam to put the gun down. “We need to avoid these Krauts. They are not the mission.”

“The mission is a failure. We can’t go around them and we have not seen any evidence of a pass to the valley,” Tom objected.

“We can’t pass them, but they can pass us. Then we can continue,” Steve whispered from behind. “Or we could light’em up with this bad boy,” he said patting his M-9 bazooka.

Dale could almost see the gleam in Steve’s eyes as he said ‘light’em up.’

“No. Move off the ridge, twenty-five meters. Take cover; they won’t see us as they pass,” Dale ordered.

The squad slowly moved out of the Germans’ projected path and took cover in the thick underbrush. The other two groups, 50 and 100 yards back, took cover as well.

Dale was settled in behind a fallen tree as the Germans were passing between him and the ridge. Three Germans materialized out of the darkness 20 meters to his left. They were traveling north to south along the ridge, heading toward the Battalion’s encampment. Then, another five Germans materialized from the foggy darkness. The Germans were moving almost silently through the night, but there was not just eight of them, they kept coming, more and more.

Dale wondered if the listening post would even detect them. There were four listening posts reporting back to the battalion, but, at night and from this direction, Dale figured there may be no warning from the post.

Tom huddled up real close to Dale and whispered in a concerned voice, “Looks like every third one has a night scope. They could see us. More importantly, they can see the Battalion.”

“Their night scopes cancel out the advantage our troops have by being dug in,” Dale warned.

“Our troops will be firing blindly into the night while the Krauts pick ‘em off,” Adam said, shaking his head in concern.

“What can we do?” Tom asked.

“How many are there?” Dale asked Tom.

“Eighty, maybe 90. Looks like a couple dozen have night vision,” Tom shrugged, as he assessed the enemy through the Vampire scope.

“Twelve against 90; we would just slow them down. It would alert the Battalion, and at least they would not get hit by a surprise attack,” Dale said.

“Now look whose gunning for the medal of honor,” Steve said.

“What if we circled in behind them and followed them back to camp? The last thing they would be expecting is an attack from behind,” Dale proposed.

“While they are busy attacking the battalion, we will hit them from the rear. They will never expect it; hell, may not even realize from where they are being shot,” Adam said with a smile creeping across his face.

“I may even get me one of those fancy German storm rifles, Vampire scope and all,” Steve said.

As the last group of Germans were slowly creeping past, a loud explosion was heard about 50 yards back down the trail. A group of Germans, not 15 yards away, dropped to their knees and took cover behind some trees. They were not looking at the four men. They were staring down the trail to where the explosion was heard.

“What in the hell was that?” Muttered Adam, who was now lying on his stomach, beside Dale.

“Sounds like someone stepped on a land mine,” Steve replied.

“I hope it’s not one of ours,” Adam said.

Just then, the sound of numerous machine guns firing broke the quiet night air. Dale could see sporadic muzzle flashes down the trail, near the place where he assumed the rest of his squad would be hiding.