Danforth was one of the last to get to rally point number two on his own.
Coletta got sight of him coming thanks to his night scope and watched him get closer. When he was within hearing distance, in an audible whisper, he called out to him. He was particularly careful to whisper his name as calmly as possible so that he didn't scare the shit out of him.
Danforth had made his entire way towards the clearing where they were by walking, albeit blindly, in the dark. When he finally reached his team’s red light, he realized that they were all there and standing around him.
“Fuck, you guys,” he said, but no one commented back.
“That was a fucking close call. Are we all here?”
“We’re all here,” said Ortega from somewhere nearby, but it was so dark that Danforth couldn’t actually look him in the face.
The entire Team wasn’t there however.
Danforth took his gear bag off his back for a second so he could check his equipment and give his stuff a quick look over as well.
The rest of the team didn’t say anything, and just stood there staring at him.
Sooner or later, from the corner of his eye he would have glanced at each of them, unconsciously registering who was there and by default, who wasn’t. Eventually, he would’ve noticed Krakauer's absence.
In fact, it didn't take him long at all.
“Where's Krak?” he said, but no one answered.
“I said where the fuck is Lawrence!”
Again, there was a long moment of silence, at the end of which Joseph 'The Eagle' Danforth began to shake his head.
“No,” he said still shaking his head in disbelief.
“No, it can’t be, no.”
“That’s all of us,” – Skorpio said, interrupting him.
“Let's go.”
“Ortega,” said Danforth.
The group began to set off.
“No, no... ORTEGA!”
Danforth grabbed Ortega by the arm and he stopped without turning to look at him.
“I want to hear you say it, Ortega. I want to hear you say it at least.”
Ortega looked down.
“Lawrence is dead,” he said. Then he turned so he could look him in his eyes and understand whether it would be enough for Danforth or not. Obviously, it wasn't.
Danforth stared blankly at Ortega as though he hadn't heard a word of what Ortega had just said.
“He's dead. He landed on a trap with his parachute in the dark. He didn’t have a chance.”
“Where is he?” Danforth asked.
Ortega was starting to lose his patience because he didn’t intend to stay in Charlie's territory a minute longer than necessary.
One more word out of Danforth and Ortega would have told him to go back to where he’d just came from. He’d also help him get there with a swift kick in the ass.
He rolled his eyes up to the sky instead. A wasted gesture that no one saw of course, being as dark as it was by then.
He took a deep breath to calm down, and then said:
“Messner... No, I meant 'we'... We decided to leave the body. First because we had too many VCs on our backs and second because that's the way it works 'across enemy lines’. You know that as well as anybody else does.”
“I’ll go get him.”
“What?” exclaimed Ortega almost in disbelief.
“I said I’m going to get him.”
Danforth must have been out of his mind to say something like that and especially to Ortega.
What he didn't understand however was that Ortega had no intention of putting the team at risk.
He wouldn’t let them get caught all because of Danforth.
Ortega grabbed Danforth by the arm initially, but quickly let go and raised his arms at him instead. He didn't want to get physical right from the start.
Berry Delmore seemed to have the same idea so he intervened.
“Let him go,” said Delaware from somewhere out of the darkness, in an effort to back his team leader.
“He’s dead Joseph, so just let him go.”
“Did you hear me, Joseph?”
He didn't reply.
“They’re right you know,” Rambo said, coming out from the back.
Danforth didn’t react or give an answer to either of them however.
He just couldn't do it. It was too hard for him.
“Pull yourself back together for fuck’s sake,” Ortega pressed on.
“Do you hear me? You’re a Special Forces soldier, Goddamn' it! Get the fuck back in you and get a grip of yourself, soldier.”
“It’s either that, or go,” said Berry Delmore.
“Go back there and get yourself killed in the process if that’s what you want. Better make your mind up fast though because there’s no fucking way we’re gonna’ get ourselves killed over a corpse. “
If you thought about it, the reaction Danforth had was actually quite normal. Ortega had seen it happen a thousand times before on his first tour of duty, back when he was a machine gunner on heli-ambulances.
It was always like that.
When a friend of yours died, you could never believe it at first.
You had to see it with your own eyes at least and if you didn’t, you just didn’t give upon it.
Without any concrete proof at their disposal, you could imagine a thousand scenarios before you actually got around to accepting it.
Ortega could imagine Joseph taking off on his own to look for a friend that “could still be” alive but only in his head. He might disappear into the night and never come back from there alive and well. Not with the Vietcong that close behind them. It would turn out to be quite the reverse and walk straight into the lion’s mouth.
Ortega drove away that thought with a shiver down his back.
He couldn't let him go, period.
“Come on Eagle, let's go,” he said in the end.
With a moment of uncertainty, oddly enough, Joseph agreed to leave with them, fortunately.