"So, we can punish anybody who gets in our way," Murdock said. "Just which way are we heading?"
Ten minutes later Red and Magic came back. Red was laughing.
"Hell, we been going east all the time. We need to swing southeast. We could see the sun off the water out there. Must be six, maybe seven klicks. Quite a few small hills between us and Mother Water."
Magic got in his say. "Just over the top of the hill toward the south is another valley. Sweeps down maybe two miles. Didn't see nothing in it. No buildings, no people, no army, choppers, trucks, just nada."
"So, looks like we head south and east," Murdock said. "What time is it?"
Jaybird told him. "Almost 1700."
"Be dark in two hours. We move out of here then. Catch a quick nap or blow your nose. Tell the guys we'll be leaving combat ready at 1900."
Two hours later, just before they left, Murdock told them everything he knew. "We've got water southeast maybe five to seven klicks. That's our route. It'll be dark soon and we should be safe in these woods until then. Usual formation. No firing unless directed. We want to sneak and creep through here so the Chinese don't know where we are and zero in on us again."
They filed out of the tunnel in combat formation. Red led out as point man with Murdock and Holt coming behind. They spread out to five-yard intervals and moved up the hill.
Then minutes later Red sprawled in the grass and weeds looking over the brow of the hill. Murdock went down beside him.
"Anything?"
"Not a fucking thing moving down there. Be totally dark in ten. We wait or go on down?"
Murdock studied the area. There could be troops on both sides of the valley. They could walk into a cross fire.
"We wait for full dark. It looks too easy down there."
When they walked through the valley later, they ran into no opposition. It was empty and quiet.
They were almost at the end of the valley, where it opened on a larger flat area and slanted slightly to the east, when Red gave two clicks on the radio. Everyone hit the dirt. Red came back to Murdock.
"Company up front. Not sure how many. Sounded like a squad, maybe more. I smelled a fire. Might be cooking."
"Let's take a closer look," Murdock said. They worked up slowly, crawling the last twenty yards so they could see. They found two small cooking fires and ten soldiers crowded around. There was no attempt made at security, no effort to hold down noise or light from the fire. Why should they? This was their home turf.
The two SEALS crawled out of hearing range and then hurried back to the platoon. Murdock briefed them and sent the Second Squad to the left. He and the First Squad took the right. They formed in two lines at right angles to each other on the back side of the camp. It gave a cross fire with no danger of hitting friendly flesh.
Murdock gave the Second Squad five minutes to get in position and clear fields of fire. Then he leveled in with his AK-47 from forty yards out and fired. A soldier standing near the fire went down with a round through his chest. The rest of the SEALS opened up as well.
Murdock saw a second man near the fire take a round in the chest, and another in the head and pitch into the dirt. The soldiers scrambled for cover and their weapons. Only one shot was fired at the SEALS. Two Chinese caught rounds in their backs as they turned and tried to run out of the firelight.
The others huddled under any cover they could find. But cover from one side left them open to fire from the other side.
Thirty seconds after his first shot, Murdock hit his mike three times, a cease-fire order.
The weapons went silent. Murdock and his men moved up cautiously. One Chinese lifted up and fired a machine pistol. He missed the SEAL closest to him. Ron Holt fired his shotgun and the double-aught buck nearly cut off the soldier's head.
Seven of the ten Chinese lay dead on the ground. Nobody had shot at the fire. Jaybird checked the food. There was one large pot filled with rice that had cooked and was cooling.
"Hey, L-T," Doc called. "Look at this. A pair of chickens roasted to a turn. Anybody want to share?"
They tore the chicken apart while it was still hot and licked their fingers when it was gone. Some of the men dug into the rice. They found some hard biscuits of some kind, but passed on them.
"Ammo," Murdock said. "Find any AK-47 magazines you can. We might need them."
They reported fourteen magazines, and distributed them to the men with the AK-47's.
They moved out quickly, aware that their fire and the three men who got away would be spreading the word. Somebody would be on their tail again.
Soon they came to a small stream. "Canteens," Murdock said. "Put the pills in them and let's keep moving." They filled their canteens, added the Halazone tablets, and marched down the valley. It felt better now. They knew where they were going. They had seen water. Above all else they wanted to return to the sea from which they had emerged.
Murdock came up to Red twenty minutes later. He stood beside a dirt road waiting for the rest of them. The road angled to the right again.
"This angle should put us right back moving southeast," Red said. "Do we risk the road?"
"Damn right," Murdock said. "Maybe we can make better time and get to the water. Keep us moving."
They did make better time for twenty minutes. Then feeble headlights showed in front of them. Murdock used the radio to get everyone off the road into the dry ditches. He and Jaybird lay in the ditch waiting. When the truck came close enough to see, they could tell it was an older civilian rig. Murdock ran into the middle of the road holding his AK-47 over his head. A sequel of brakes sounded and the old rig shuddered to a stop and the engine stalled.
Jaybird ran up to the driver's side of the rig and jerked the Chinese out of the seat. He stumbled and fell, and when he hit the dirt two rounds from Jaybird's MP-5 tore into his chest.
Ross Lincoln ran up and checked the dashboard. He found a switch and hit it and the stalled engine turned over, fired, and caught. It was a farm truck with a stake body on it. Murdock looked in back. There were two bales of hay and some cans and a heavy tarp. They shoved off everything except the tarp and the men climbed in.
"This thing is older than I am," Murdock said. Lincoln drove, and Murdock and Ching rode in the front seat. They turned the truck around and drove south.
"Bound to be a village here somewhere," Ching said. "This isn't a bad road for rural China."
Murdock stopped the truck. "Is that tarp big enough to cover all you bravehearts?" he asked. They opened it up and tried. It would work. "If we need it, cover up everyone. May be a village up ahead."
They drove for ten minutes at the outrageous speed of thirty miles an hour. That was as far ahead as Lincoln could see the road with the faint headlamps.
Around a corner they saw lights ahead.
"A village," Ching said.
"Ching, you drive. Lincoln and I'll be in back. You might run into somebody we don't want to see in this little town. Play it cool as you can. If we have to, we'll shoot and scoot."
They got in back and tucked the tarp around all the SEALS. Murdock was at the driver side with his MP-5 ready and a good-sized hole in the front of the tarp that he could see through.
The village was little more than a collection of thirty or forty houses and a few stores closed for the night. They were almost through the town when a figure walked into the headlights and held up his hand. The man had a pistol on his belt and a garrison-type cap which Murdock guessed made him a local policeman.
Ching stopped the truck and the policeman walked out of the lights and up to the side of the rig.