52 Through the Jungle

The jungle brush snatched at Thomas's legs and the tall trees with canopies that covered the skies gently caressed his face with broad leafy branches. He already hated this place, the musty smell that lingered, the soft ground underneath that wanted to swallow his boots, the hot moisture in the air that stuck to his uniform and caused him to sweat. The rest of his squad except for Corporal Freedman grumbled about how terrible the island was.

"Freedman how can you stand this heat? It's like dog's breath!" Smith complained.

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"Grew up in Louisiana, get used to it." Freedman Rumbled.

"Not the friendliest chap around, eh Captain?" Smith said.

"Keep your eyes peeled Smith, cut the chatter." Thomas replied, sweeping his eyes around, looking for any Japanese forward elements.

For the next hour and a half, the squad slowly made their way through the jungle. They couldn't tell, but the moon was directly overhead. They had less than eight hours to finish this operation. Along the way to their destination Smith fell into several different holes of different heights, disguised as ground that was softer than usual. Freedman fished him out every time of course. Corporal Higgins kept imagining trees to be Japanese sentries, putting himself on edge. Eventually, Thomas had to call a short stop to rest before they could move on. The squad was way too tense and would most likely miss their shots should a firefight break out.

"Alright, we'll rest here." Thomas ordered, the came into a small clearing of sorts, they had a good eye view of the jungle in any direction. The squad broke out small meal packs from their gear, nothing heavy. It was just a few crackers, some dried fruit, and some jerky. Just enough to keep their systems going. They couldn't make any coffee or have any fire at all, that would be asking for death. They all drank some of the water that was in their canteens instead, it would have to suffice until the operation was over. After another ten minutes, Thomas signaled for the squad to gather their belongings. They quickly buried their trash in a two feet deep hole, and set out into the jungle once more.

After another hour of walking, they finally laid eyes on their target, the communications compound. Thomas signaled the squad to stop with a half-raised open palm hand. He signaled the commando forward.

"Sir!" Higgins said.

"Higgins, I want eyes on that compound." Thomas pointed to the compound above them. "I'll give you fifteen minutes, I want to know how many are up there, and their positions."

"Yes, sir!" Higgins smartly saluted and then scampered off to the compound.

"Do you think he'll get spotted sir?" Smith asked.

"No, I brought the best for this mission, he's the finest in his field." Thomas explained. "This is pretty much what he does."

The two of them fell silent, waiting for Higgins to return. Twelve minutes later, Higgins came out of the brush, scaring the hell out of Smith.

"Report." Thomas snapped.

"Sir, reporting in!" Higgins saluted. "There are two and a half dozen hostiles spread between the buildings and the compound perimeter. I couldn't access the main communications building, but I assume there are more inside, sir! They have a lookout in four different towers at each corner of the compound, there's two guards posted outside the communications building. The rest are either sleeping in the barracks or walking the perimeter on patrol!"

"Excellent work Higgins." Thomas turned to the rest of the squad, "Okay listen up! We are doing this quietly, no noise. Each of us is going to take one corner of the compound and work our way in. If it goes loud, rush the communications building, we can't risk them alerting the rest of the island. First, get the sentries in the tower, second the guards patrolling the perimeter, then creep through the barracks and kill the sleeping soldiers. No one is to be left alive, understand?"

"Sir!" The squad saluted in unison.

"Get to it squad, we're burning night light." Thomas ordered.

Like ghosts, the squad silently dispersed to the four corners of the communications compound. Thomas took the far northwest side of the compound because he could get there earlier. He crept through the underbrush, sticking low to the ground. As he got closer to the compound he could see search lights in the towers, they weren't moving, just positioned at static angles. As he got closer he could make out a lone sentry standing just outside the fence, a prime opportunity to enter. He quickly flashed to the sentry, a green glow surrounding his body, it went unnoticed by anyone as it was too fast to see and could easily be mistaken for a bunch of fireflies playing with each other. As he moved his hand went to his knife, a standard four-and-a-half inch steel blade with a fine wooden grip. Swiftly drawing his blade, he appeared right behind the sentry.

Thomas clamped a hand over the sentry's mouth, his moist fetid breath warming his hand. The sentry looked wide-eyed at the knife in Thomas's hand and tried to struggle out of his grip. Thomas slowly drew the knife across the sentry's neck, making sure to bite deep so as to cut through his jugular, therefor disabling his ability to call for help as he bleeds out. Rivers of blood gush from the gap that Thomas is slowly leaving and the sentry gurgles as he tries to call for help to no avail. Thomas then dropped the sentry to the floor and dragged him to the nearby cover of some bushes while he lay there choking on his own life's blood for the last two minutes of his life.

Thomas looked at his dirtied hands, it was a clean kill so there was no blood on his hands, but he felt like there was. The blood of thousands. That's how many he's probably killed so far, and he's going to have to kill thousands more before this war is over. He put those thoughts aside, they were useless and he could think about them after the war. Right now, he had a mission to complete. He darted through the fence that marked the perimeter, slowly creeping his way across the compound. He would hide behind crates of materials when a sentry was coming by, or he would crawl across the ground in the thick jungle grass. Eventually he reached his designated watch tower. He carefully and slowly climbed up the tower's ladder, and then he was at the top. The guard on duty was leaning against one of the tower supports while surveying the land below, his back was to Thomas.

Thomas swiftly crept up behind the sentry and then clamped a hand over his mouth while simultaneously dragging him to the ground out of sight. The Japanese man tried to resist to no avail as Thomas was infinitely stronger. He swiftly punched three holes in the mans throat and one in his heart with his knife. The Japanese sentry went limp as he bled out in seconds, staining the floor red, although in the darkness it looked black. Thomas took his spot as sentry and quickly surveyed the land below. Most of the rest of the squad had encountered enemies and dispatched them with no difficulty. Time for the second phase of the plan.