Pacific Sniper

Lucky for them, the clearing also proved to have a pool of water fed by a spring. It wasn’t exactly free-flowing, but there was enough motion for the water not to be completely stagnant. At this point, with their empty canteens, they couldn’t be too picky. Lieutenant Steele ordered them to refill their canteens and use a double dose of halazone tablets. They all agreed that the resultant drinking water tasted like chlorinated cat piss, but it was more or less safe to drink.

The lieutenant radioed to HQ but didn’t have anything useful to report other than that Patrol Easy was still alive. However, he received some disturbing information in return.

“One of the other patrols got wiped out,” he told them. “Apparently, they walked right into a Jap unit. We’ll post two guards during each watch tonight. For all we know, this jungle is crawling with Japs.”

Tony Cruz walked into the dark cave. A couple of bats flew out, their wings more than a foot wide.

“Oh boy,” Philly said. “I think I’ll take my chances out here.”

“You sure about that?” Deke asked. Already, it was getting dark under the jungle canopy. They were completely exposed in the clearing. Under the cover of night, it would be all too easy for any two-legged interlopers to walk right up on them—or four-legged interlopers, for that matter. “You saw those claws around Tony’s neck, right? He didn’t order that necklace out of the Sears, Roebuck catalog. No sir, he got those claws off a big-ass cat in this here jungle. I reckon the Japs ain’t the only thing we’ve got to worry about.”

Reluctantly, Philly followed Deke toward the cave mouth.

The interior wasn’t all that bad. A previous traveler, or perhaps Tony himself, had left a pile of firewood within the cave. The Chamorro guide already had a fire going. The flames lit up the relatively dry walls of the cave. A few pairs of eyes glittered down at them—more bats. Deke reckoned they were harmless enough. He noticed that Philly stuck the Jap sword into the ground nearby so that it was within reach.

After a few minutes, Whoa Nelly started barking at something in the cave. Deke looked in that direction and spotted a dark shape scuttling across the bare stone cave floor, and he used the Jap sword to spear a spider nearly the size of a dinner plate.

“Holy crap! Look at that thing!” Philly said, sounding near panic.

Nearby, the Chamorro guide just laughed. He babbled something at them in the local dialect, but Deke caught only every third or fourth word. The giveaway was Tony Cruz holding his hands apart as if demonstrating the size of something.

“Huh.”

“What did he say?” Philly was scanning the cave floor anxiously for more of the large, eight-legged critters.

“I ain’t exactly sure, but I think it’s that he’s seen spiders a whole lot bigger.”

“Just great.”

Deke walked to the cave mouth and flung the spider’s carcass away. He couldn’t even see where it landed, because the darkness swallowed it up. Already, it was so dark that he could barely see the trees at the edge of the clearing twenty feet away. The jungle was coming alive with a whole different set of sounds, noisier than ever with the buzz of insects and night birds.

Gladly, he returned to the firelight and handed Philly back his sword. “Better hang on to that,” he said. He followed the Chamorro guide’s example and spread his blanket on the cave floor, suddenly exhausted.

Lieutenant Steele and Yoshio had taken the first watch. They sat with their backs to the cave, and the lieutenant kept his shotgun across his knees. He had borrowed Whoa Nelly and had her on a leash beside him. Yoshio didn’t inspire much confidence, but between the dog and Steele’s twelve-gauge, Deke reckoned that they were well guarded. He couldn’t help but be reminded of how secure he had felt as a boy, when he had lain in the loft upstairs in the early-morning darkness, hearing his father getting the coffee ready downstairs. With the reassuring sound of his father up and about, he had drifted back to sleep, knowing that all was right with the world.

This cave in the jungle was a far cry from the cabin where Deke had grown up. But as far as Deke was concerned, the cave was a whole lot better than trying to sleep in a foxhole filled with water, worried about Jap infiltrators—which was where they had been the night before. He rolled himself in his blanket and muttered to Philly, “Sweet dreams.”

“Yeah,” Philly said, then gulped and clutched the sword tight.

They were up and moving at first light. If night came quickly to the jungle, then morning liked to sleep in. Mists hung about among the trees. Reluctantly, the sun made its way through the canopy, turning the clouds of mist into bursts of rainbow colors that mixed among the brilliant green foliage.

Deke, who had an eye for the natural world, found the morning jungle stunning. But he knew all too well that they weren’t here to sightsee.