button hooks in the elephant grass

sergeant chambers hadn’t slept in 32 hours and his mind was starting to play tricks on him. his recon unit had been on a prisoner snatch just north of the phnom penh border when all hell had broken loose. there wasn’t going to be any rescue choppers coming for them, after all, they weren’t suppose to be in cambodia. the standard operating procedure in the event of enemy contact was to return fire only if fired upon, then fall back, regroup, and hump it the 24 miles back through the jungle to the extraction point. sergeant chambers had been in country 8 months and had been on countless missions, but this was his first one in charge. he squatted behind a thick patch of elephant grass and held up his fist without looking back. he flashed two fingers up, then three down and the soldiers behind him silently rolled to their sides, disappearing into the tall reeds. something was moving, something was breathing. chambers crept forward in a stooped attack posture and slowly bent the tall grass to the side with his barrel. it was evans, he was hit and it didn’t look good. “can you hear me evans?” he whispered. he was unconscious, and bleeding bad. he would have to be carried. a whistle sounded in the distance and he slung his rifle over his shoulder, heaving the limp soldier in his arms and struggled to stand up. the unit jumped into the small clearing beside them with a panicked look. “okay boys, attack and evade procedure, two to the left and three to the right, button hook pattern, barns and conner fall back on my command, go go go!” the howling of dogs meant they were getting close and the hounds had picked up their scent. “aaahhhhhh!” he screamed out running with private evans across the kitchen floor. “i don’t think so mister!" his mother said as she removed the large wooden spoon from the boiling pot of spaghetti, “you put your little brother down and go wash up, dinner is almost ready.”