Teddy slumped against the cave wall, massaging his leg. He’d kept falling down, passing out, all afternoon. Each time the unit leader had kicked him back to his feet. Fourteen hours straight. And since they hadn’t made quota, they’d been sent back to the cave hungry, pushed away from the chow line. Just corn gruel, tasteless, stale, and icy cold, but he and one of the guards had locked gazes for a long time before Teddy had lowered his head and shambled off.
This wasn’t the first time they’d discussed escape. He and Pritchard had talked it over on and off since they’d arrived. Each time, they’d concluded it might be possible to get up the bluff and over the wire. Or, alternatively, that they could make their way along the bluff at night, and attempt an escape via the town side, although they didn’t know what was down there. Teddy had hobbled a mile in that direction when it was warmer, and he hadn’t felt so weak. But he hadn’t seen a way out, just passed more culm piles, pits, and huts. And what lay outside the wire? At SERE, the Escape phase had emphasized two points to plan for: cooperation of the locals, and food supplies en route. Neither seemed promising here.
The other airman, Bill Shepard, said, “We can’t live without the ration.”
Fierros said, “But they’re not feeding us.”
“You heard the wolves,” Pritchard observed. “We leave the wire, mytes, we’re the fooking food.”
“Those aren’t real wolves,” said the pilot.
Teddy did a double take. “Fuck you talking about? I’ve heard wolves howl before. In the White Mountains. Those are fucking wolves, dude.”
“They’re recordings of wolves,” Fierros said. “You haven’t figured that yet? To scare us off escaping.”
Teddy hoped he was joking. “No, those are real wolves, swim buddy. Ever seen a grave around here? I haven’t. I figure, they just put the dead up on the bluff. That’s what’s attracting them.”
Trinh looked disturbed. “You say… animals eat them? That is where they took Phung?”
“That a problem, Major?”
“No, no, not a problem… I am a Communist. No matter, what happens to the body. After one is dead.” But he still looked disturbed, and muttered something in an undertone to Vu.
They debated this, Fierros stubbornly maintaining his point, but Teddy thought the guy was getting lightheaded. So was he, for that matter. Fantasizing about roasting that guard’s breasts. Jesus. She was probably on the Camp 576 People’s Itty-Bitty Titty Committee. But nobody knew they were here. No one had ever seen anyone from the Red Cross. The Geneva Convention said you couldn’t make prisoners work. But here they were being worked to death. And now, not even being fed.
They had to either escape, or just die one by one.
“If we did, where would we go?” Teddy said.
Fierros shrugged. “Only one way from here, Scarface. West.”
“Into Tibet?” Pritchard said.
“No, amigo. Tibet’s actually to the south of us.” Fierros’s dark eyes glittered as the fire flared up. “We head for Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan. Possibly, northern Pakistan, but I don’t think we’re that far south. I flew missions in Afghanistan. From the sun height at noon, I think we’re about four hundred miles north of the latitude of Kabul. That’d put us somewhere in the Tien Shan mountains.”
Magpie said, “Where you say we’d be headed. They friendly?”
The pilot shrugged. “Who knows. When we were flying out of Bishkek, they were neutral. Manas Airfield. But even if they interned us, wouldn’t we be better off?”
“At least they’d feed us.” Pritchard smacked his lips, as if the words themselves could be sucked for nutrients.
Teddy nodded. “Yeah. And probably, eventually, turn us over to the nearest allied forces. How far would we have to go, across the mountains?”
Fierros said, “I figure two hundred and fifty, three hundred miles.”
They all stared into the fire. “On foot?” Magpie said at last.
“No, we take the train,” Teddy said. “Of course, on foot. Ragger, how sure are you about those distances? And the direction? We can steer by the stars. But we don’t know where we’re starting from.”
“I’m pretty sure about it,” the pilot said, but Teddy, remembering that the guy didn’t think those howls at night were from real wolves, figured they’d better build in a Jesus factor. At SERE they told you that traveling at night and laying up during the day, you could make fifteen to twenty miles in twenty-four hours. Even at the low end of Fierros’s estimate, and the high end of miles per night, that would hang them out in hostile territory for two weeks. From the looks of the hills around the camp, it would be slim pickings along the way. And they weren’t in good shape to start with.
“I see what you’re all thinking,” Fierros added. “But I’m at the point where I’m gonna say, fuck it. They shoot me on the wire, I’m not hungry anymore. Who’s with me? Teddy? You’re probably the fittest here, except for that foot.”
“Uh-huh,” Teddy said, feeling like he was stepping over a cliff into deep water. “Yeah… all right. So, when do we leave?”
“Sooner the better. Two days? Three?”
“The longer we wait, the weaker we get.” Teddy leaned and spat. “Maggie and I did some exploring, before you got here. There’s a spot three-quarters of a mile down, where a ravine cuts. It’s narrow, steep, but there’s a power cable leading up.”
Shepard said, “You serious? Climb that bluff?”
“Anything can be climbed. If you take your time, and have the balls. What we find at the top could be another story. We could pop our heads up and be looking into an IR-sighted machine gun.”
Trinh tossed the grass chew into the fire. It flared up, illuminating haggard visages. “But are you saying, Americans only? Because we want to go too.” He tilted his head at the silent Vu.
“I’m not an American,” Pritchard said. He coughed hard into his hand, and hid it under his haunch. “But I’m going.”
“You can barely drag your dick out to piss,” Fierros said.
“Nevertheless, I’m going.”
“He’s going, all right,” Teddy said. “Major, we’re not leaving you guys here either. Okay, it’s Ragger, Magpie, Vu, the Major, and me.” He looked at the other airman. “Bill, you in?”
“Somebody has to stay,” Shepard said.
“What?”
“To buy time. You’re going at night, right? In the morning, I’ll say everyone’s sick in our cave. They’re too scared of whatever everybody’s dying of to come in and look. That’ll give you a day, maybe more, head start. Until they figure you’re gone.”
“You sure, amigo?” Teddy asked him.
“No,” the airman said. “But I’m gonna stick it out here. I wish you guys all the luck.”
The fire flared up once more, and they sat silently around it. Then, one by one, each drew a thin blanket over himself, and nestled against the others, drawing warmth from the rest.
The next day Magpie stayed in the cave. He said he was too weak to walk. The rest mustered at the road, but Trinh stepped out from the ranks when the guard arrived. Not the girl, this time, but a hard-faced oldster whose iron visage gave away nothing as the Vietnamese explained they had to have some food. They couldn’t work without eating, and there’d been nothing the day before. He kept bowing. The guard fingered his rifle. Teddy, gripping the screwdriver under his jacket, tensed to jump the guy if he took the safety off. Instead, at last, he only nodded. “He says there is not much for the troops, either,” Trinh said, shuffling back in line. “But he will ask. Pass our concerns up.”
Their work unit pecked away at the seams all morning. Teddy was getting better with the pick. He could swing hard, and hit at an angle that chipped off several flakes of the quartz-heavy, sparkling ore. When he’d knocked free a couple of cubic feet, Ragger or Trinh or Shepard or Vu would rake it into a basket, hoist it, then set off on the trek back up to the breakers.