Pacific Sniper

It soon became clear that Tony Cruz had a destination in mind. He waved toward a line of trees in the distance, urging the men on. More jungle. The trees would provide cover, but no one was eager to begin another jungle trek. The last one had been grueling.

“Maybe I could use a little help, after all,” Lieutenant Steele admitted. Deke moved to offer him his shoulder, but the lieutenant waved him back. “You stay on point and keep your eyes open, Deke. Philly, let me hang on to your shoulder for a while.”

Philly made a show of mock offense. “What, you don’t want me to be the one keeping my rifle handy?”

“We all have our talents.”

With Philly helping to prop up the lieutenant, they made better time.

It wasn’t a minute too soon. Off in the distance, they heard the clatter of tank tracks and the roar of an engine. The faint sound of the engine that they had heard earlier had just gotten a lot closer, going from a distant purr to a deep growl. Due to the rolling topography, they were not able to see the tank yet.

“Dammit, I hear a tank!” Philly said.

“One of ours?” Yoshio asked hopefully.

“Doesn’t sound like it. Our boys are bigger and louder. Besides, there’s no way our tanks have made it this far yet.”

Deke agreed that it had to be a Japanese tank. The small, light tanks might not be a match for the heavier Sherman tanks, but if they were caught out here in the open by a Jap tank, Patrol Easy would be cut to pieces. Frantically, he looked around, half expecting to see a Jap patrol preceding the tank. Like the American tanks, the Jap tanks usually worked in coordination with infantry, which meant they were about to have company. The sound was getting closer.

Tony Cruz was pointing and whispering urgently, almost growling at them. They couldn’t understand the exact words that he was saying, but they needed no translation.

“Hurry it up,” the lieutenant said. “The tank won’t be able to follow us into those trees.”

Ten minutes later, they were entering the edges of the jungle. At the fringes, they passed what looked like hundreds of huge spiderwebs strung through the trees, the webs sparkled with dew; at the center of each web hung a large, shiny, blue-green spider. Each one looked big enough to eat a bird. The sight was so strange that, despite himself, Deke shuddered as he ducked under the massive webs.

Once again, Deke was surprised by the way that the jungle created its own climate. It was like a heavy curtain falling across a stage. The breeze dropped off and the sunshine faded away. He wrinkled his nose at the fecund smell of rotting vegetation. He missed the fresh smell of the mountain woods back home.

But underlying the smell of rot was a fresher scent of clean, running water. He also heard a vague roar. Was that the ocean? Inland, it was easy to forget that they were on an island, never all that far from the Pacific.

From behind them, they could hear another roar. But this was nothing natural. It was the high-pitched revving of a tank engine.

The tank fired, sending a round over their heads to explode deeper in the jungle beyond. Despite the intensity of the explosion, the heavy jungle seemed to muffle the blast.

“Move it!” Steele shouted. “Everybody into the trees!”

Letting the others run ahead, Deke stopped and turned to face the tank in the distance, glad to see that the tank was already having trouble getting across the rough ground leading to the jungle. Hillocks of grass, tree roots, and the steeply eroded trail were more than the tank tracks could handle. The tank halted, and its engine seemed to growl in frustration. Another round cracked from its main gun, exploding among the trees. The tank could shoot at them all day, but it couldn’t pursue them.

The troops accompanying the tank were a different story. A squad of enemy soldiers fanned out around the tank and continued to advance.

Deke knew that he had to buy Patrol Easy some time. A tank was one thing, but he could handle soldiers. He lifted his rifle, lined up the sights on a soldier, and dropped him. He ran the bolt and fired again. Another soldier fell.

He wasn’t going to be able to stop a whole squad—but maybe he could send them on a wild-goose chase.

He jumped to the top of a grassy hillock, exposing himself to the pursuing Japs. A few bullets snapped the air around him. It was a foolish thing to do, but Deke had a method to his madness. Making sure that the Japanese had seen him, he turned and ran in a direction away from the one that the patrol had taken.

He heard an excited shout and looked back.