The Lost Journal (A Secret Apocalypse Story) Read Free

instead of my usual M40 sniper rifle. Having two Squad Automatic Weapons was a great luxury. Probably saved our lives. We were able to return a pretty effective line of suppressive fire.
    At that point we were just hoping they didn’t have any mortar rounds or any grenades. If they did, they would reduce this tiny village to dust in a matter of seconds.
    Luckily they didn’t. They were basically taking pot shots. Shooting and hoping.
    Gordon eventually got through to command. He requested immediate air support and a medivac for the boy.
    We were able to hold them back for another thirty minutes or so before a couple of gunships showed up. Apache helicopters. When we heard their rotor blades echo through the valley we all gave out a cheer.
    They flew in low and fast. Gordon was able to give ground support and advise the pilots, helping them locate their targets.
    The Apaches unleashed a couple of hell fire missiles each and that was the end of the skirmish.
    The choppers were gone as quickly as they had appeared.
    After the brief encounter we were back on our feet. The villagers emerged from their homes.
    The boy’s mother was there, waiting, pleading with her eyes for some good news.
    But there was nothing good to tell her. We had no idea what was wrong with her son. We had no idea what he had been poisoned with.
    I did not want to be the one to tell her that her son was probably dying.
    A few minutes later Command finally confirmed the ETA of medical chopper. Soon after the Apaches had cleared out, the medivac arrived with a full team of doctors and first aid staff. They went back in an examined the boy again.
    We were asked various questions by the doctor in charge.
    How long had he been in there? When did we arrive? Was anyone hurt during the skirmish? Did anyone receive bullet wounds or shrapnel wounds? Or open wounds of any kind?
    Luckily no one had suffered any injuries. And luckily it was just the boy who had been poisoned. Apparently he had been poisoned with a powerful neurotoxin. The toxin was the reason for the violent, sporadic movements and the loss of feeling in his limbs.
    Hopefully, the medical team would be able to pump the boy’s stomach, get him on a drip and flush the neurotoxin out of his body. Not to mention fixing that nasty compound fracture.
    But the village seemed to have gotten off lightly.
    Twenty minutes later, the boy was removed from the hut. He was taken away on a stretcher. His arms and legs were still bound. And he was tied down to the stretcher.
    The chopper flew up and out of the valley. And we were left behind, forced to trek about eight miles to a separate extraction point. The boy’s mother continued to cry, wailing to the point of exhaustion.
    The other villagers carried her off and helped her back to her home.
    As we walked away and began the trek back down the mountain to our base, we could still hear her crying for her son.
    I don’t know why this has had such a huge effect on me. I’ve been in worse situations in my short time here. I’ve confronted my own mortality on multiple occasions. But since that incident I haven’t been able to sleep.
    The psychologist said it was because I saw myself in the boy. I was struggling and fighting. I was raging.
    She said I saw my own mother in the swollen, red eyes of the boy’s mother.
    She said I was angry because I had cut myself off from my parents and because I’d left without saying goodbye to Rebecca, for not telling her how I felt.
    She said I wouldn’t be able to move on until I had sought forgiveness.
    Redemption.
    I needed to be aware of this.
    I hope she is right.
    Jan 12th - Run in with Green Berets.
    Actually I don’t know if they were Green Berets or not. But that’s what they called themselves. Apparently they had been operating in some of the more isolated areas of the Hindu Kush mountain range for over a month. They had been helping the local villagers build better shelters, teaching the men and some of the older