Pathfinders

"we departed during the moonlit hours, our plane packed with troops and equipment. as we approached our plane was caught in several spot light beams. they lit up the cockpit as bright as day and then all hell broke loose."

Chapter 1: The Jump

Henry was knocked to the floor as a flack burst rocked the plane, white hot shrapnel burst into the troop bay of the plane. a piece glanced off of Henry's helmet, bullets came up through the floor spearing men with hot lead. The man next to him was blown to the floor by a flak shell bursting behind the wall of his seat, his back mutilated by the shrapnel.

Henry looked around wildly, the light turned red and acting on the hammered in instructions of his instructors he stood up and snapped in his static line holding its webbing in his right hand. He stared hard at the man's gear in front of him, all looked perfect. The gear check came to him.

"8 ok!" He called out

Within only a few seconds the gear check was over, the six remaining men of the drop group waited for what seemed like an eternity. everything was silent except the roar of engines none of them realized it because by the time it went quiet the green light flicked on.

"Green light! go go go!" the squad leader, Lt. Waters, jumped out the door into the cloudy night. Henry followed third to last behind Cpl. Charles the medic, behind Henry were Pvt. John and Pfc. Gordon the machine gunners. In between Charles and Waters was Cpl. Lachlan the radioman.

Henry walked down as each man jumped and watched numbly as Charles dropped from the door before him, Henry swallowed his heart closed his eyes and took the step.

It seemed like an hour before the chute opened jarring Henry and making him clack his teeth painfully. For a second or two the parachute swung side to side, swinging Henry like a pendulum in a very nauseating way. Henry luckily held down the bile in his throat. He looked down to see thick tree tops.

"This is gona hurt" Henry muttered under his breath as the trees rapidly closed.

Henry closed his eyes and shield his face with his arms right before entering the tree tops, twigs and branches wacked against his body some drawing blood and a few twigs managed to get into his helmet and dig into his scalp. The branches finally tangled in the chute and chord bringing Henry to an abrupt stop.

Henry hung in his harness with his arms over his face for a few seconds, he dropped them to see the ground covered in waist high ferns just four feet below him. Henry was about to reach for his bayonet when the branches holding his chute gave way, dropping him to the forest floor.

Henry laid there on his back for a few minutes until the sound of movement in the under growth alerted him. He intently drew his sidearm, not even disengaging his harness . He rose to a crouch pistol up and began peering into the darkness.

"Flash!" Henry called out, for a second there was no response, then a voice called out

"Thunder!"

Some rustling could be heard and two figures walked out from the shadows.

Gordon and John, Gordon with his browning 1919 over his shoulder and John with his M1A1 Carbine in hand.

"Hey you two seen Waters?" Henry whispered as the two approached low and fast. "No, you?" Henry shook his head no and undid his harness.

While Henry undid his harness and gathered up his gear, Gordon pulled out a compass.

"Well if you land here and we headed West to find you we should just keep heading west they'll be along our path somewhere" Gordon stated.

Henry nodded his head and so did John, when Henry was done with his gear the trio moved west following the C-47's flight path.

"God, I can't believe it's so quiet shouldn't there be AA and gun fire" Henry spoke to John on his right "I can't believe it either it was Hell in the plane and now it's just silent"

"Hey quiet you two Jerry could be anywhere." Gordon ordered, the two fell silent.

Henry spotted something off to his right up a slope, he held his hand up and crouched down the other two following suit.

"What is it?" Gordon asked, Henry pointed at the top of the slope. Three silhouettes with their backs turned, they seemed to be looking at something.

The three crouched walked up closer to them until they were about ten feet away, before giving the call phrase.

"Flash" Henry whispered loudly

"Thunder" a deep but low voice called back

"Looks like we found you three" Gordon whispered, smiling widely.

"Hey, get up here you three need to see this." Waters called down to them.

The three men walked up and knelt next to the Lt. looking out over the expanse of land.

"We're not in France" was all John said.

Henry was awe struck, the forest ended at the bottom of their hill and opened up to grassy plains and rising from the plains was a massive walled city. But it was no awe of beauty, the men could see siege engines tossing flaming balls of fire over the walls. massive fires raged behind the walls and black speaks danced in the sky.

"Good god where are we?" Gordon asked under his breath

"I bet the people in that city know" Waters said

The whole squad turned toward him their mouths open in shock.

"Are you crazy, Sir we can't take on an army and how do we know which side is in the right. for all we damn well know the person in charge of that city is the incarnation of the damn devil himself." Charles ranted

"Or" Waters started silencing Charles "those are good people in a fight like our country and losing to the power of the incarnation of the devil himself, before we go helping anyone we have to determine what each side's mind set is. preferably without being seen. so get some shut eye we sleep here tonight."

The rest of the men were silent they agreed with the idea, and they had no better ideas themselves. Henry found a spot where he could lay up against a tree and watch the fight, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. Henry turned as he heard the one of the other men sitting down next to him.

"Hey Lieutenant" Henry whispered his greeting.

Waters nodded his head "can't sleep huh? I was the same my first time, I was in Sicily. Just remember that the man next to you is the most important thing. Cover them and they'll cover you, we play it like that and we'll get through this one in one piece."

Henry nodded, Waters patted him on the shoulder and moved off to see what the others were up to.

"I just hope we choose the right side"