Savage Sniper

“The rest of you will be happy here. You will do as you are told. You will work hard. There will be no complaints.”

Yamagata turned toward his own men and shouted something. Just beyond the grisly scene of Lucky’s body, the prison gates were slowly closed again.

CHAPTER TEN

With no time to spare before dark, Patrol Easy headed back into the interior of Leyte, leaving the beach behind. The tropical sea breeze was soon replaced by the stifling heat and humidity of the island interior. The breeze had kept the worst of the insects at bay, but the flies and midges now returned in hungry, biting clouds.

“Here we go again,” Philly grumbled. “I thought the front lines were dangerous, but what do you know, hanging around too close to HQ turns out to be just as hazardous when someone decides to volunteer you for a mission deep into enemy territory.”

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Deke agreed. “It’s gotten so that I can’t tell which one is hotter.”

“But if it means getting those poor bastards out of the POW camp, then it’s worth it,” Philly pointed out.

“Let’s just make sure we don’t end up in the boneyard in the process, or ambushed. We won’t be much use to anybody if we’re dead.”

After that brief exchange, no one seemed inclined to say more. As the vegetation deepened around them, a silence settled over the group.

Even just a stone’s throw from the sea, the jungle grew lush and thick right up to the edge of the dirt road. The jungle was a riot of green, with trees of all kinds and sizes. Deke was more than familiar with the mountain forests where he’d grown up and could identify oaks, maples, and hickory trees. He didn’t even know where to begin here, these being far different from the species back home, but the trees were just as impressive.

Overgrown vines hung from the trees, the creepers adding to the lush vegetation that snaked down from the canopy.

The scary part was that Deke realized he was starting to feel right at home. There were hidden dangers lurking in the jungle, to be sure, but it also provided cover. The protection offered by the forest was a lot better than feeling exposed on the beach.

In any case, it felt good to be on the move. A few hours of rest in the relative security of the beach area had felt good, but now it was time to get back into the action.

It would have made sense to head out the next morning, but even the few hours they had before darkness arrived suddenly seemed essential.

Nobody had come out and said it, but by unspoken mutual agreement they were all double-timing it. The area was securely in American hands — more or less, aside from a few infiltrators and small bands of enemy soldiers — so there wasn’t much worry yet about encountering any stray enemy units. That would come later. For now they could hurry it up.

Major Flanders’s description of the fate that might await the American POWs added to their sense of urgency. They all knew only too well what the Japanese were capable of doing. They had witnessed the enemy’s cruelty too many times to count.

Maybe Americans weren’t always saints, and the frustrations of the battlefield resulted in a few captured Japanese not making it to the rear. However, wholesale slaughter of defenseless Japanese POWs was unthinkable. Once the captured enemy troops were safely corralled in the POW compound, they were treated with respect and well fed. The men of Patrol Easy would find out soon enough that the treatment of American POWs held by the Japanese fell far short of what anyone might expect.

“Hey, Deke, do you think the Japanese will really murder those POWs?” Philly asked.

“You heard what that major had to say, same as I did,” Deke replied. “Also, you know the Japanese as well as I do. What do you think they’re capable of doing?”

Philly clammed up for once, thinking it over. He didn’t respond directly, but turned to shout with annoyance at Rodeo, who was lagging behind. “Pick up the pace, why don’t you? It would be nice to get where we’re going before Christmas.”

If Lieutenant Steele had overheard, he chose not to comment. Deke figured that the lieutenant had other things on his mind — such as how they were all going to survive this mission and bring home those POWs to boot.

The plan to liberate the POWs had sounded well and good back in the relative safety of the tent at HQ. It hadn’t taken much to get them fired up about rescuing the POWs. The plan had unhatched in the shadowy corner of the tent. But now in the harsh light of day, they were headed back in what Deke thought of as Indian country.

The last that they had seen of Major Flanders was him piling into a transport to ferry him back to General MacArthur’s HQ aboard USS Nashville, taking his reconnaissance photographs with him. Deke supposed that you couldn’t really blame the major for not heading into the field with them. That wasn’t the man’s job.

One thing for sure — they were on their own.