The Hunt

(Source)

The colonel sat in the front seat of the third vehicle in the column. He watched as the clouds rolled in, it looked like they were in for some rain. He got on his radio, "All units, X-Ray, stop the column, maintain tactical intervals, company commander to me. Out."

As he watched the vehicles pull off, every other vehicle going to opposite sides of the road, every vehicle covering a predetermined sector, he saw the company commander dismount from his vehicle. As that man began to walk to the colonel's vehicle, the clouds burst.

The driver started to pull the curtain separating the driver's cabin from the gun position in the roof, in an attempt to keep the rain from getting on him. The colonel told him to leave it be. As he did so, a very wet captain jumped into the back of the vehicle.

"I don't know if you noticed colonel, but this paved road ends in about 200 meters! Dirt track from then on, a muddy dirt track by the time we get there!" The captain was having to yell, the rain pounding on the roof of the car was enough to drown out normal speech.

The colonel looked up from his map, "Yes, that's one thing the map makers got right. That track leads up into those foothills..." He was about to point to where the hills were, but it was raining so hard the hills were now obscured. Leaning into the back he showed the captain the hills he was referring to on his map.

"If you look here..."

A bright flash outside made the colonel think that they were under attack, then a loud crack of thunder nearly overhead made everyone in the vehicle jump.

"What the f**k was that?!" the gunner yelled down from his position.

The chief sipped his coffee as he watched the rain pouring down. His wife walked in and put her arms around him from behind. "Looks like a real gully washer out there hon'."

"Yup, might slow down any patrols out looking for 'terrorists'."

The chief lived not far from where the paved road ended and a dirt track led up into the mountains. The rain was really heavy now, it was as if a grey curtain had been drawn over the landscape. Normally he could see the road from his front window, but not at the moment.

The bright flash followed almost immediately by the thunder made the chief flinch, "Jesus that was close!"

"Oh dear..." his wife stood away from him and peered intently out the window, "Who is that coming up the drive?"

"Shit. They're soldiers, honey."

The colonel, the captain, a sergeant, and a young private climbed onto the porch of the farmhouse. At least we're somewhat out of the rain, the colonel thought. He turned to the sergeant, who was just about to beat on the door with the butt of his rifle, put a restraining hand on his forearm and shook his head.

"Allow me, Sergeant."

The colonel knocked on the door, politely. An instant later a woman came to the door and opened it, "Yes?"

"Excuse me ma'am, we are lost I think. Might we come inside for a moment?" The colonel had seen a man sitting in the front room, drinking coffee. The man had muddy boots, which at first made him suspicious, but then he remembered his own father, farmers often had muddy boots.

"Certainly. Colonel, yes?"

"Yes ma'am, I am a colonel." He nodded to the sitting man who was starting to get up.

"No need to get up Sir, we just need to know if this road leads up into the mountains, or does it rejoin the main highway further on?"

The farmer walked over and asked, "Do you have a map?"

The colonel showed the farmer his military map, "These are a little more complicated than your standard road map, but..."

"It's alright colonel, I was in the Army as a young man. I learned how to read maps there."

The farmer looked at the map, then pointed, "There, that's my farm. You can see the gully out back, it's on your map. This road goes up into the mountains and peters out about five miles in."

The colonel cocked an eyebrow, "Peters out?"

"Ah, it's a local expression, means that the road vanishes eventually. Turns into a path, then it just ends."

"Ah, I see. Well, I thank you..."

"Would you and your men like some coffee colonel? It's fresh." The woman interrupted the colonel before he could announce their departure.

"No, thank you ma'am. We need to be on our way. We're looking for 'persons of interest' who carried out a terrorist attack on some of my men this morning. Have you seen anyone around who doesn't belong here?"

"Oh dear, that's simply awful." Turning to the man she said, "Honey wasn't there a truck that went up the trail this morning? It didn't look familiar, did it?" The colonel thought that the woman had to be the farmer's wife.

The farmer looked thoughtful for a moment, "Hhmm, yes, I remember. I don't know if it means anything colonel, we do get a lot of truck traffic through here, it's getting close to the harvest, but there was a truck that went through late in the morning. I didn't recognize it as belonging to anyone I know from around here."

"Up the trail?"

"Yes, that's what we call that dirt road that starts further up."

"Did you notice anything unusual about the truck?" the colonel probed.

"Not really, oh, wait a minute, yes, its license plates didn't look right, like they weren't from this area. Ours are white, these plates were blue, a pale blue I think. Does that mean anything?" The farmer was trying to be helpful, or at least appear to be helpful.

"It might mean something, thank you. Ah, the rain is slowing down, we'll be on our way now I think. Thank you."

With those words the colonel turned and led his men back down the drive.

"This isn't good, is it dear?" the woman turned to her husband.

"No love, it isn't. But I guess they had to figure out where we probably went some time. I mean, they're aren't many people to the east, least not for some distance." The chief sipped his coffee, he was thinking real hard at the moment. Finally he spoke...

"I'll give those soldiers a while to move on, then I'm going to drive over to Theo's."

"Won't that look suspicious?" The wife was somewhat unnerved after the soldiers' visit.

"Not really, I actually needed to go over there anyway, I have a part he needs for his tractor. Found it out back in the shed, didn't know I had it. If we can get his tractor up and running, and we can find fuel for it, that will make the harvest a lot easier."

"If the damned government people don't confiscate all of it."

"I know dear, I know. Don't fret now, a lot of people are starting to feel the same way. But for now we can't do much, the occasional pinprick, that's it."

The patrol returned to the compound well after sunset. The captain had been on pins and needles, expecting an ambush around every corner. He breathed a sigh of relief when they were all back inside the wire.

"Sergeant major, have most of the men go to bed, we'll worry about the vehicles in the morning. Just fuel them tonight. If anyone has a problem with that, refer them to me."

"Yes Sir."

The sergeant major was worried about his captain, the man was starting to get nervous. He couldn't blame the man, he had spent time in the Middle East under fire, and not that long ago. No man had an unending well of courage. Though things here had been quiet, up until this morning anyway, he could sense that the locals were starting to resent the peacekeepers' presence. But hey, their own government had requested that they be brought in after the last election had gone horribly wrong.

The sergeant major shook his head, it was about time these people learned to obey their masters. He'd learned that in his own country, they would learn it here.

Or they would suffer.