In the meantime, Rambo was still waiting and in position.
It was awful listening to the sound of battle without knowing how it was really proceeding or being able to do anything. It was excruciatingly hard.
Rambo had bandaged his foot and a few more minutes passed when he heard something. A noise he shouldn’t have heard.
Judging from the sound, they were at least six or seven men coming quickly forward on the main road. They had to be a patrol team who had heard the battle taking place and were now rushing back to help their comrades.
Rambo looked around in despair, but there was nowhere to take cover, no holes, nowhere at all. They were coming towards him from the worst possible direction and they would have annihilated him straightaway.
Rambo moved to run away but was his wounded foot blocked him immediately.
He couldn’t escape in time.
It was all over.
It may have been over for him but maybe for his team too because that patrol team was coming at their backs. As it was, Delmore and the others were about to be taken by surprise.
He was supposed to be covering their backs.
It was his responsibility.
If he died without putting up a fight, his mates would be ambushed as a result.
Rambo swiftly looked around again, but the screaming was so close by then that he didn’t even have time to move. At least not in his state anyways.
Rambo anxiously leaned up against tree, looked up at that treetop, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
Yes – he thought as he secured his AK onto his back.
It might just work.
He quickly brought up his arms and started to climb the tree using all the strength he had.
He would climb that tree using only one God damned foot if he had too.
*
Here they come.
When the North Vietnamese got to the base’s main gate, they slowed down and proceeded much more cautiously than before.
Wait – thought Rambo.
He felt his jaw clench.
His position on that tree was very uncomfortable. Rambo had multiple targets, some of them right under him and he could barely move the arm holding his AK. Not to mention, his foot was bleeding, God damn it.
Plick – made the drop of blood as it dripped down below onto a leaf next to the tortoise-shaped helmet of one of the North Vietnamese.
In Rambo's head that sound was deafening, but, in reality, the sound of the battle raged on, and it saved Rambo's life. In fact, the North Vietnamese soldier passed right by the bloody leaf simply ignoring it while Rambo, who was above him, followed his movements through the iron sights of his AK.
He didn't hear it.
He didn’t notice anything.
The entire North Vietnamese team, he counted all eight helmets passed under Rambo while he stayed still on his trustworthy branch.
There was no point in waiting for them to get further away.
By that point, the time had come.
Rambo calculated that hitting the first three would be easy but the other five would have had time to react. That meant that they could easily turn and open fire or get under cover. Whatever their reaction was going to be, Rambo was going to have to face them.
John then closed his eyes, took a deep breath, re-opened them and then shot in full auto.
KRRACK
He managed to hit four of them.
All of the others suddenly turned to return the fire exactly as Rambo had foreseen.
But the thing is that they aimed at ground level. Not for a moment did they think of shooting up at the tree.
That moment of hesitation was more than enough for Rambo to kill them all.