Kyle Wessex, or as his friends called him, Kye. This was day three of his self imposed isolation. See, Kye, was ex-special forces in the Australian military. He'd finally qualified at 23 for the training and spent the next 5 years becoming the best of the very best. That was until one fateful day in Iraq. He was leading his squad of 6, through enemy territory. The mission was simple. Surveillance on enemy compounds and forces south of home base. It was routine. Simple. They'd done it dozens of times before. The rocky and mountainous landscape of the war-torn country made thousands of travel arrangements possible. Simply fly a drone over the area for a quick scout, then his team would follow and collect detailed information. While drones were good, they could only collect a snapshot. They couldn't stick around for days watching the comings and goings.
It should have been routine...
Two days into their march, an enemy battalion rolled through the area. It wasn't normal behaviour. Not expected. Not planned. There was only one reason an entire battalion would be rolling through this particular area... There was a mole... Hell, it could be anyone those days. One of the translators might have a family member being held, hostage. Maybe a local cop was slipped a few hundred dollars. Hell... Maybe they'd simply been spotted by some poor bloody farmer going about his day. It didn't matter. What mattered now, was the trip home.
It was almost immediately apparent that something was very wrong. Our team was able to slip through their screening forces easily enough. But it seemed almost like they knew we were on the move. Like someone was feeding them our general location. Every time we stopped for a rest, we'd have an encounter. Not a violent encounter. We would see them coming and move into a more secluded area.
It was the morning of the fourth day when everything went wrong. We'd barely managed to escape the hills into the grasslands that surrounded our base. That's when the first shot was fired. Sparky, our frontman, and my best friend took the first shot in the base of the neck. I caught the second shot high in the shoulder. We all hit the ground, scrambling into every small depression in the ground for cover. Naively I'd believed that this close to base, the enemy would leave us alone... I walked right into an ambush.
It took 15 minutes for reinforcements to arrive. Those 15 minutes may as well have been 15 hours. When the first APV arrived, I was the only member of my squad still firing back at the enemy. When I woke up from surgery, I'd had three rounds removed from my lower abdomen and shrapnel from a mortar removed from my legs. An hour later, I was informed that I alone survived the attack. Sparky, Don, Michael, Maree and Sam. All gone... All because of me.
There was an investigation of course. In the 18 months, it took for me to recover, physically, they'd found the GPS planted in Sam's radio. Seems it had been playing up and he gave it to the tech team for repairs. The tech team was training a few nationals, one of whom, left his prints on the hidden device. I remember him breaking down during interrogation. The enemy had his wife as a hostage. His instructions were to bug any equipment he could. And while I couldn't blame him for his actions, I couldn't help but wonder if the lives of all my team, were worth one Iraqi woman. It's just one of those questions you shouldn't think about. After all... Wouldn't you do the same? Hell, I still would, and my wife divorced me after my second tour. I don't blame her... She couldn't handle the combination of being alone while I was on special deployment, and me not being able to talk to her when I came home. It ate her up inside and she left. Thankfully, she agreed to a quick settlement, took what was rightfully hers, kissed me goodbye and left. Last I heard, she'd found a new husband. This one worked in a bank, made decent money and doted on her and their two children. I didn't have the heart to be mad.
But that brings me to today. I'd been cleared of all wrongdoing by the military. Some peacock tried to blame me for not radioing in when we first caught trouble. That peacock was quickly discredited when I calmly explained the meaning of 'radio silence.' Since then, however, I'd been given my papers, an honourable discharge, and a pension. It had been a week, and I was going stir crazy in my unit. When my ex left, I'd sold up everything I owned. I bought this cheap unit, put basic furniture in it and invested everything else. With the housing market, the unit was worth almost twice what I paid for it and my investments meant working was a luxury. Problem is, intelligence gathering, espionage and close-quarters combat, don't look real good on a resume.
Hence my self imposed isolation. In three days, I'd re-packed my bags and started walking west. It hadn't been since the morning before when I had heard the last vehicle. This was truly no man's land. The true beauty of Australia, is outside of every major town or city, is isolation. All you need to do is pick a random direction and drive for an hour or so, and you have the whole world to yourself.
So here I am, the sun is setting on my third day. It's nice out here. The air is clear and smells clean. I've just rolled out my swag and I'm currently in the process of getting a small fire started. It's a full moon this evening, I can see it already, just over the horizon. The only thing I missed was a decent meal. I'd brought my survival knife, which had a slingshot for small game. But so far I hadn't found anything worth my attention. But I still had a dozen MRE's.
As I scraped the last of what pretended to be mashed potatoes from the package, I still really had no idea what I was even doing. Sooner or later, I was going to have to turn back. I just didn't know if it was worth it. If I kept going, eventually I'd return to my squad. Eventually, I'd make up for leading them into the ambush. Eventually, I'd atone...
A loud crack woke me. I snapped awake in an instant, reaching for my service weapon... That wasn't there... This wasn't Iraq... We're not under attack... I'm in the Australian outback, 3 days walk from home. And something was moving through the scrub in the dark towards me. Something large, and moving quickly.
"She's over here, circle round!" A harsh voice called out into the night.
Now I could hear several things... People... Running through the scrub. What... The... Fuck...
I dragged myself free from my swag. Pulling on my shirt, I quickly located my knife. If I'm lucky, this is just a pair of pig hunters... Just something about how they described, whatever it was they were chasing as a 'she,' made me nervous. Then a high pitched scream let out. I could have been forgiven for mistaking it as the death squeal of said wild pig. The problem was...
"Please... NO! I don't wanna go back!" The high pitched, obviously female voice cried out.
"Shut up bitch!" A man called out, this voice not as rough as the one earlier. But it was punctuated by the sound of an open hand striking soft skin.
"Jenson!" There's the rough voice, "don't mar the merchandise."
"Please... I'm sorry... I won't run... Just don't hurt me," the woman pleaded.
I listened to the two men, I was certain there were only two. As they tied up the woman and started dragging her back towards the direction they had come. At this point, I figured, whatever was going on, was bad... I wasn't about to let anything else happen. The woman, clearly, didn't want to go with them.
I quickened my pace. It probably wasn't necessary, they weren't moving very quickly. But the sooner I could release the woman, the sooner I could get her away from here. Slipping out from around a tree, I finally caught sight of my target. Two men, one older and grizzled, one younger but very muscular. Typical types to see out in the cattle ranches that were out west. Tough, dependable and not too bright, or at least not interesting in being bright. It was a shame for them I could now see the young woman being dragged by a rope behind them. She was completely limp, a rope wrapped around her midsection, being dragged backwards. As the older man lit a cigarette, I quickly made out pale skin, red hair and she was dressed in torn rags.
Sneaking closer to the group, I was careful to match my footsteps to that of the larger, young man. But honestly, between their conversation and the dragging of the poor woman, I doubted they'd hear anything. But there were still two of them, and I wasn't sure if they were armed. Clearly they were into human trafficking or something, so my chances weren't great. A few more meters and they seemed to stop for a quick rest. I was surprised to see, the woman was still very much conscious. The moment they stopped pulling, she was able to sit upright. Where she froze... She was staring right at me... Of course, full moon, I'm not invisible. I brought my finger to my lips, hoping she'd understand to keep quiet.
She lifted her head slightly and I spotted the slightest smile. When her face hit the moonlight, I held my breath. She was gorgeous... Heart-shaped face with large bright eyes. Button nose and full lips. It was almost as if someone had sculpted her face from a porcelain doll. Before I could recover, she was yanked backwards as the men started dragging again. I had to figure something out, and fast. Looking around, I found a fist-sized rock. A quick heft to check it's weight, and I had a plan. It was stupidly simple, but a plan nonetheless.
I followed just behind the group, ignoring those big bright eyes from the bound woman until I spotted what I was looking for. Just an ordinary old bush. One casual toss of the stone and the crashing sound immediately caught the attention of the two men. Both of whom drew pistols... Fortunately, when I threw the rock into the bush, I stepped in the opposite direction and now I was standing behind the younger man. In one swift action, I drove my blade into the base of his neck. As his body collapsed, I caught him by the arm, retrieving the pistol from his slack grip. The thud of his body hitting the ground was the only warning the older man got before a bullet tore through the back of his knee.
I was on him in an instant. Kicking away his weapon before dragging him a few paces away from the woman, before searching him properly. I ignored the man's screams as I fished a phone, wallet and spare magazine from his pockets. Yanking his boots off, I also found a small knife. Thank you for my training, Special Forces. Yanking off his boots also had the added benefit of causing the man to pass out from the pain. So I finally had some quiet.
"Hello?" Called the woman.
Almost forgot about her... I quickly moved around where she could see me, "are you ok?" I asked.
"Yes... Please... Don't hurt me..." She said with a hopeful smile.
My heart just about broke... She didn't look much older than 18, someone this young, in this country, shouldn't be asking questions like that. "Don't worry, you're safe now. I'm going to get you home where you belong."
She gasped in shock, "NO! Please, don't take me back!"
