Still carrying two rucksacks, Ortega stared down at the ground as he walked trying to block out his tiredness. It was becoming painful for him too at that point, but no matter how tired he was, his thoughts as the team leader still unremittingly hounded him.
How much time is this taking? – He asked himself.
How far have we come already?
How much longer can we handle this marching speed?
Once he was certain the enemy was off their tracks could they slow down a bit, but not yet.
What they had to think about right then and there was getting as far away as possible from that damn half-built base.
If they continued to go on at that speed while carrying all that weight, Ortega was sure he’d unquestionably had stiff legs the next day.
You can do it – said a voice in his head.
You’ve got to do it.
He wanted to moan a loud but in enemy territory, it probably wasn’t a good idea.
He’d have to do his suffering in silence.
About an hour later, Ortega believed that they’d 'run' enough, so they stopped for a six minute break to change roles.
Ortega and Danforth went away from the rest of the group to scout out the area.
Once they were alone, Danforth spoke openly to Ortega.
“You can tell me now, Skorpio”
“What?”
“The plan boss, I mean, where are we going?”
“We’re heading West”
“I have a compass too, smartass. I know we are going West so they lose our tracks. What I’m asking is if we’re going to turn to North or South. Where are you going to give calling the choppers a try?”
“Nowhere. When I say we’re going West, that’s exactly what I mean”
“What?”
Danforth stopped Ortega with his hand and the two were now facing each other.
“We can't go even deeper into Laos!” said Danforth.
“We are in Laos already”
“Jesus Christ”
“Keep walking Eagle”
Danforth resumed walking but quite slowly.
“The border is way too far and entirely at the hands of the Vietcong” said Ortega.
“We knew that from the very beginning, the moment we decided to attack anyhow, right Eagle?
So now, here’s where I’m going with this.
The Vietcong doesn’t know we lost our radio, so they think that we’re going East, East because that’s where all the best LZs are, and the border is nearest too. They’re probably patrolling all of the LZs East of us already. Am I right?”
Danforth nodded unwillingly, so he went on:
“So what do you want to do, Scorpio?”
“Take your time, survive and escape, remember? We know how to survive in the jungle. We will wait a couple of days, two or three at most and we will do it in here, inside this shitty gorge. Look at this”
Ortega pulled out his map and showed him the zone he meant.
“There are no roads or villages here, nothing at all. This zone is too steep even for the Vietcong hand-carriers, so it has no value for the Ho Chi Minh trail. It has no value for anyone”
“We have rations for eight people, and there’s twelve of us” Danforth replied.
Then, he added:
“Even by using the emergency rations....”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll use the emergency ones too, and we’ll also have to hunt”
“The prisoners are not like us. They can't eat like us, they’ll die.”
“The prisoners will eat our rations and we will live by hunting and collecting. It's going to be extra-tough but we can do it. In a week from now, the Vietcong won't remember we even existed”
“A week is a long time. They will give us missing in action status but the problem with that is we are not in Vietnam here. They will stop looking for us”
“Do you have a better plan?”
Danforth didn’t say a word.
“I didn’t think so. Now, tell me something Eagle, when you voted to free the hostages, did you think about what would come next even for second? What about how to get them home, when we even had a radio at our disposal? How about the way to get them to the nearest LZ without becoming VC prisoners while we did it? Or did you only think about destroying that fucking base and that was it?”
“Uh... sincerely speaking, I thought that once we had levelled that damn base to the ground, the cavalry would have just showed up. Exactly like in a goddamned movie”
“As far as we are from the border and in the middle of Ho Chi Minh trail? Not a chance in hell Joseph. You just didn’t think about the next move. That's the reason I am the team leader, and you are not”
Danforth looked straight at Ortega and his smile was gone. He wasn’t making a joke but stating a fact. Danforth knew perfectly well that it was the fatigue in Ortega talking, not him. That's why Danforth chose to ignore Ortega’s low blow.
“Now you have to trust me on this, Eagle. Let's disappear and wait. Trust me. That's the only thing to do. Let's let the Vietcong run out of gas, 'cause if we cross them now, we’re fucked. They’ll run out of steam, you’ll see. If we manage to disappear for forty-eight hours more or less, then the Vietcong will think that we somehow arranged a chopper pick up during the night or whatnot. They might even give up on us. The only thing we only have to do is get to that fucking gorge I am talking about. There we can rest and let Rambo's foot heal for a couple of days too. That will give him a better chance of completely recovering”