The shoreline was made up of jagged rocks, some nearly the size of a large car, others much smaller. The various shapes and sizes made movement difficult as their boots struggled to find traction. Kristen, her boots too large, found the going even more arduous as she moved over the uneven terrain. Fortunately, she was in excellent physical shape. Even so, she had a hard time keeping up with the SEALs who leapt from rock to rock silently, finding solid footing and maintaining their wedge-shaped formation as they swept forward with apparent ease.
Grogan stayed in the lead, constantly checking his compass to keep them on course. To his left, Hamilton moved in the darkness with all the noise of a wraith. To the right, making an occasional sound, Hoover advanced, scanning the area to their right. They moved without a word for maybe ten minutes before Grogan suddenly stopped and lowered himself to a knee, but kept his weapon up.
They’d told her if she was ever uncertain what to do, she should mimic them. So, fearful they’d been spotted, Kristen knelt down. She moved in behind a large boulder she hoped might stop a bullet and glanced around the corner of the rock, expecting to see North Koreans approaching. Her right hand brushed against the pistol, and she chastised herself for even thinking about it. She waited silently for what felt like several minutes. Finally, not hearing any instructions from Grogan or the others, she glanced up and was immediately struck with panic.
The team was gone.
She looked around, almost spinning like a top, seeing nothing but the dark rocks making up the beach.
She was alone.
All alone in the middle of North Korea!
Her heart was once again threatening to leap out of her chest, and paralyzing fear gripped her. She thought of the locator beacon on her gear and whether or not she should activate it. The probability that the others didn’t realize she was gone added to her alarm. They could be moving further away every second.
She had to move.
She had to move fast.
But which way?
Kristen looked around, trying to squelch her fear so she could think clearly. She thought about the suicide injector and wondered if she could ever use such a thing. Not that the idea of being captured by the North Koreans at all eased her growing level of alarm. The North Koreans would torture her mercilessly. She briefly wondered if she might be able to resist telling everything she knew, but then dismissed the idea as preposterous.
You’ll squeal like a pig the moment they hold the first needle of truth serum in front of you!
Kristen looked around for any sign of where the three SEALs had gone, but everything looked the same. The rocks. The dark night. Wherever she looked, everything was exactly the same. She glanced back in the direction she believed they’d come from and thought it might be best to retrace her steps and wait by the gear. Then she remembered Chief Grogan telling her not to go wandering off, and if she got lost to stay put. But that had made a lot more sense when she was sitting in the Seawolf and it had all been an academic exercise. Now that she was in the middle of this insanity, she just wanted to find Hoover and never leave his side.
A sound to her left caused her to nearly jump out of her skin. She peered into the darkness, seeing nothing. Then she heard the sound again. It sounded like something dragging softly on the rocks, scratching them. But she wasn’t sure how close it was.
Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit!
She considered her pistol. But realized she would likely shoot herself, or at the very least alert the entire North Korean army to her presence should she try to use it. She heard the sound again. It was close! She bit her lip to squelch a burning desire to shout for help. However many there were, they were close and getting closer.
She squeezed herself back into a crevice to hide. She then heard the soft clicking again.
They were right on top of her!
Once more, the thought of her pistol came to mind, and then her thoughts went to her suicide injector.
You can’t be captured! You can’t let them take you alive! You know too much!
Kristen reached for the pocket where she had the injector. She hadn’t thought herself capable of using it. But as cold, merciless fear gripped her, she knew she preferred death to revealing the vast quantity of knowledge she had on the Seawolf and the US Navy in general.
Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit!
The soft clicking had grown louder, and now sounded like the footfalls of an entire regiment of North Korean commandos. She tensed herself as she gripped the injector. They’d told her the injector was virtually painless and death would be instantaneous. A cyanide cocktail. She looked at the injector as the sound came closer.
They were right on top of her.
She was about to thumb the rubber safety top off the needle before plunging it into her flesh when, to her immense relief, she saw a crab climbing over the rocks in front of her.
“Oh, thank God,” she whispered and closed her eyes briefly, trying to calm herself while at the same time chastising herself for panicking.
Then a strong hand gripped her shoulder from behind.
She nearly screeched as she turned and saw Hoover.
“Come on, Ell-Tee,” he whispered. He sounded irritatingly calm.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I thought you guys had left me,” she explained.
He paused and turned to her, his weapon at the ready. “Then why didn’t you use the radio?”
She’d forgotten to turn her small radio on when they came out of the water. Kristen felt herself blush in embarrassment. “Sorry,” she replied. “I guess I’m a little nervous.”
“You’re gonna be fuckin’ dead if you don’t shut the fuck up, Lieutenant,” Grogan hissed somewhere close ahead.
Hoover didn’t reply. Instead, his eyes continued scanning the area with his night vision goggles. He then took her by the right wrist and led her forward. Kristen was thankful for the physical contact, feeling no longer as isolated and all alone. He led her hardly four meters and they came to a sandy road running parallel to the coastline.
She saw Grogan lying in the rocks, his rifle up and at the ready as he scanned the area through a night vision scope. Hoover positioned her in a slight depression created by the rocks behind Grogan and motioned for her not to move.
She nodded her head nervously.
Grogan was an arm’s reach away, and Hoover moved off to the right about five meters. She looked around but couldn’t see Hamilton. Kristen hunkered down, trying to disappear into the deep recess, but she kept her head up slightly so she could see what was happening and, most importantly, not lose sight of Hoover and Grogan. As she looked around, she decided that since the others were all watching the road, she should keep watch toward the rear in case some group of North Korean soldiers appeared behind them.
Great idea, and just what would you do then?
Kristen squirmed her way down into the crevice hoping to disappear. But as she did, her rifle slammed against a rock. The noise of the metal hitting the rocks sounded like a bass drum being struck. She turned her head and saw Grogan. He placed his finger to his lips.
“Sorry,” she whispered.