Sterling A. Hill is a private in the American army during the Vietnam War. It is early April 29, 1970 and today South Vietnamese and American units are being sent on a mission to Cambodia in attempt to destroy the Central Office for South Vietnam which is the headquarters for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong combat operations in South Vietnam. The helicopters are taking off soon and all units are checking their supplies and weapons before boarding. Sterling is now sitting in the cab of the helicopter with four other men whom he has never met before. As the roar of the engines and propellers starting up sounded the pilot turned his head and while raising his voice over the helicopter announced that they were now taking off.
The other units in the helicopter were talking and cracking jokes, but Sterling had not gotten proper sleep for the last few days so he decided to nap for the trip. In his sleep, Sterling dreamt of obscure and some rather terrifying visions of the upcoming battle. While in the most horror-filled dream that involved the helicopter crash landing after being bombarded by a missile, he was woken by a fellow soldier and told to gear up. After assembling his supplies Sterling found himself starring at the floor of the cab day dreaming. All the sinister visions from his nightmares ran from his brain and projected into his eyes, he was seeing, reliving his dreams. His daze was cut off by the same soldier who had woke him up moments ago and was now yelling, “There’s a projectile heading for us!” Sterling looked out the sliding-metal-door with just enough time to see a shiny object with a trace of smoke fallowing behind it. It was headed right for them.
In awe at the sight before them all units froze. Sterling was replaying and comparing the events from his dream. In the few seconds it took for the object to reach the tail the helicopter, which to the soldiers seemed like minutes, Sterling could already tell what was to come. The alarm sounded and the helicopter spun around vigorously throwing sterling out the open door before smashing into forest ground on its underside. Sterling landed about thirty feet away from the helicopter onto the muddy terrain. He laid in place for a while before peering up at wrecked helicopter. He forced himself to his feet and approached the vessel. He walked around to the nose to monitor the pilots. Shattered glass lie across the area. There was a faint moan from the co-pilot’s half of the cockpit. Sterling ducked under the roof to stick his head in the window and found the co-pilot in his seat bleeding out the mouth with a large shard of glass lodged in his mid-chest area. The co-pilot’s eyes began to go disoriented before rolling back and the painful expression on his pale face turned blank. With a final exhale the co-pilot was dead, and Sterling quickly spun around back outside to vomit. When he stood up and turned back around the other four soldiers and pilot were standing outside the door laughing at chance they’ve been given by surviving the crash. They all simultaneously glanced at Sterling, One of the soldiers who went by Galvin saying, “Oh my God, Hill! I thought we lost you.”
Another soldier named Conor said “Alright lets grab the co-pilot and get outa here.” Sterling looked back at the front of the helicopter. “He… he’s dead,” said Sterling grimly. All units stood in silence for a moment before the pilot said “Where would we go anyway Conor?”
“I don’t know, but we should move from this crash site,” said Conor.
“There are other choppers still air-bound. I’m sure they can locate us and send a search team out to get us,” said the pilot.
“No, it’s too dangerous,” said Sterling. “The enemy is probably on their way now!”
“We landed in a safe zone, they can’t find us if they tried, the problem is that there isn’t a base for miles. If you try to reach it you’ll die for sure, or just get lost in the woods.” Said the pilot, now getting annoyed at the resistance of the others.
“Well you can stay here and wait for your death, but I’m going to search for that base, so who’s coming with me?” Said Conor, now confident in his choice.
Galvin and a soldier named Rick stood next to Conor. Another soldier named Marcus stood next to the pilot, Sterling standing off to the side of the two groups alone. The pilot turned to Sterling and said “Well, what’s it gonna be kid?” Sterling walked over to Conor’s group. The pilot showed Conor and Sterling the direction to go while Galvin and Rick regained their strength for the walk ahead of them. The groups said bye to each other and with that they parted ways. Hours after they left the soldiers found themselves at a large swamp.
“How deep do you think it is,” asked Rick.
“About as deep as your waist area,” explained Galvin.
“Alright well hold your belongings up high, and let’s get through this muck,” said Conor.
Sterling was the first to go, followed by Conor, then Galvin, then Rick. They were at the middle when Rick stepped in a small under-water hole, buckling him over into the murky water. His whole body went under except for his arms, still holding his bag of supplies. The group stopped for a minute until Rick submerged back up out of the water and said he was fine. They continued walking in a line, with Rick off the side a bit from the path they were walking because his fall had knocked him slightly of course. As they nearly reach the other side a single tick sound came from the last step Rick had taken. The rest of the group stood still and looked back at Rick. They knew what the tick was, and as soon as Rick lifted his foot a detonation engulfed him in a wall of water. It was a landmine, and where it detonated lied a motionless Rick. Galvin tried to run to his body as if there were a chance he’d survived, but Sterling and Conor grabbed him and warned of the possibilities of there being more mines. Galvin was prevented from going near Rick’s body but he had managed to get off the path that Sterling and Conor were taking, so Conor sent Galvin on another course that seemed more likely to not have any landmines. Galvin was near the end of his new safe course when a tick met the settling of his foot. He looked across at Sterling and Conor who now had reached land when an explosion took Galvin’s place in the murky swamp. Sterling and Conor took cover as chunks of mud showered over them.
Quickly cutting their losses and continuing their walk Conor and Sterling found themselves at the base of a small hill. After a short walk they reached the top and peered off a ways. They spotted a base using their binoculars and were able to identify it as the base they had been searching for. There was still much terrain to cover and no fast way to get there.
“Is there some kind of signal we can use,” asked Conor out of breathe.
“Wait, in my supply bag I have a flare gun,” said Sterling franticly digging through his bag. “Got it!”
Sterling fired a flare up into the air, and the red ball of light tore a far path high into the air. After waiting half an hour a search helicopter arrived and transported them both to the base. As they rode the pilot looked at Sterling and Conor and said “You boys are lucky we found you, we were about to close up cause we didn’t think there were going to be any more today.”
“Any more of what,” asked Sterling curiously.
“Any more soldiers to rescue,” said the pilot. “Our last rescue mission was hours ago, a helicopter went down miles from here. We only recovered a pilot and one unit. They said the rest of the team split up and that there were four of them. We’ve been expecting those four all day now, you two haven’t maybe come across them at all today have you?”
Sterling and Conor exchanged the same grave facial expressions, and neither of them answered the pilot.