As Pappi made his way through the woods, he came across a small stream. Rather than trying to ford the stream and continue to move through the woods in the direction of Belarus or Latvia, he waded into the stream and proceeded to move with the water. He hoped that by walking through the stream, it would throw the dogs off of his scent. “After a mile or so of walking in the stream, I will return back to dry land and resume my overland trek to freedom,” he thought. “I saw it in a movie once, so it has to work, right?” Although it had been nearly two decades since he had been through SERE school, he thought he vaguely remembered them telling him to do something like this as well.
Three hours went by. His feet were killing him. The sound of the dogs began to drift further away until he no longer heard them. Looking at his watch, he knew it would be dawn in a few more hours. He needed to find a place to rest for a while; he wanted to continue, but after five hours since ejecting from his bomber, he was exhausted. He had been in the air flying for nearly seven hours before he was shot down, and had been awake for nearly that long before his flight. The stress and the long hours he had been working these past several weeks was starting to overtake him. He also knew if he was captured his ordeal would only be beginning, which is why he needed to find a good hiding spot to set himself up and rest.
Breaking News
“This is Brett Mitchel, coming to you live from Moscow’s Red Square, where less than ten minutes ago, the National Defense Control Center just a few blocks away was hit by an American bomb or missile of some sort. A projectile appears to have also hit a nearby residential building, killing hundreds, perhaps even thousands of civilians in their homes. As you can see, there are fires in several sections of Moscow from what we are being told was an American bombing raid on the capital. The images we are seeing are just horrific. Hundreds of building have been evacuated, and smoke continues to billow out of the subway lines here. Stay tuned to RT News, where we will continue to keep you updated on the latest developments as we get them.”
Images of the bombing attack were spreading across the various news outlets and social media sites. They kept showing the part of the National Defense Control Center where the bomb had penetrated the building; the flames and destruction made for good viewer ratings. The apartment building was probably shown even more frequently; there were a lot of clips of rescue workers pulling body after body out of the wreckage of a giant smoldering ruin. As the saying goes in the news, “If it bleeds, it leads.” This was especially true when the victims included children and the elderly.
Retreat
It was 0200 in the morning as the last soldiers of second platoon, Nemesis Troop, loaded into their remaining vehicles. They were under a tight timeline to get out of the area and fall back to Kiev. The order had finally come down to get out of dodge — it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Russians had pulled back after a brutally failed attack. Childers, for one, was glad someone had finally ordered them to retreat. He was concerned that Lieutenant Colonel Munch would have had them fight on until they were either surrounded or completely overrun.
2nd Lieutenant Taylor hopped into the LATV and signaled for the driver to start driving. Childers looked over at the LT. “So, what did you learn from the colonel?” he asked, hoping to see if he had a better picture of what was going on with the war. It had been a rough 24 hours, and they still had no idea what was going on in the world. All they really knew was they were at war with Russia. They were as starved for information as they were for sleep.
“I wasn’t able to learn much. What had been passed down to him was that all NATO Forces were being pulled back to Kiev where we’ve been ordered to make our stand. He did say that the rest of his division should be in Kiev in the next few hours,” explained Taylor. He sighed deeply. “If it’s all right with you Sergeant, I’m going to try and catch a little bit of sleep. I don’t think I can keep my eyes open any longer.” He leaned his head against the side of the vehicle, falling asleep in mere seconds.
“What I wouldn’t give to know what in the world is going on right now,” remarked SFC Childers out of frustration, speaking to no one in particular. The private who was driving the vehicle just nodded his head and grunted in agreement. Childers was exhausted. He just wanted to get to Kiev in one piece, and hopefully find a quiet place to sleep. Everyone in the platoon was exhausted.
Lieutenant Colonel Brian Munch was exhausted. His ragtag command had finally arrived in Kiev a little after 0420 in the morning, exhausted and beaten up. The Russians had only tried to attack them once by air. A group of Su-27s had swooped in and taken out several of his tanks and Stryker vehicles. He also lost two of his Avenger air-defense vehicles, but not before they shot down two Su-27s. He felt lucky the Russian armored forces didn’t press home the attack. If he were the Russian commander in charge, he certainly would have, but he was glad they gave him a bit of a reprieve.
Once they entered the outskirts of the city, the first thing LTC Munch ordered the units to do was to find out where the other NATO forces were. He wanted to know if his forces were needed elsewhere before they could get settled in and finally get some rest.
When they entered Boryspil, Munch saw the devastation of the international airport and the NATO side of the airport. He also observed that a German armored brigade was well-entrenched and ready to meet the Russians when they showed up; fortunately, the German unit was fresh, having just arrived the previous evening. He also saw the remnants of the American units, mostly the 82nd Airborne’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which had arrived the day before hostilities started. The 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, was still held up at the Pryluky Airbase.
As they passed through the German/American positions, LTC Munch ran into a US Brigadier General, Matt Fenzol, the Deputy Commander of the 82nd Airborne. “I want to commend you on your gallant effort in stopping the Russians the day before. I want your soldiers to take up a position in the forested area around Prolisky, and get some rest as soon as possible… that’s an order. I will be holding a leadership meeting at 1300 hours, so I want you and your officers to be present, but not before you get at least four hours of sleep. I must insist that you all get some sleep… otherwise you all will be useless.”
LTC Munch didn’t fight General Fenzol at all. Most of his ragtag group had been awake and in combat for nearly 48 hours. He needed them rested and ready to meet the Russian force that would probably hit their positions sometime this evening.
Sergeant Childers made sure the rest of second platoon had their vehicle camouflage netting up and their vehicles hidden from any potential air attacks. Once that was done and the bulk of his troops were getting some much-needed rest, he found a quiet spot where he could also get a few hours of shuteye. He crawled underneath the LATV he had been sitting in for most of the evening and morning, and quickly fell asleep.
Several hours later, he was jolted awake by the violent shaking of the earth by a bomb that went off nearby. As his senses came back to him, he heard the unmistakable sound of an explosion and someone yelling that they were under an air attack. Luke grabbed his rifle off the ground next to him, searched for one of the hastily-dug slit trenches that the engineers had dug a few hours ago, and swiftly dove in. As he laid there in anticipation, he could hear multiple jets overhead, several heavy caliber machine guns firing away, and the unmistakable sound of more bombs falling towards them.