A Mercenary's War Chapter 3: Escape

Chapter 3: Escape

Gao Yang desperately covered the magazine with his hand to muffle the sound as he reloaded. Once the gun was reloaded, he couldn’t help but let out an internal sigh.

Gao Yang only had two bullets left, one in his barrel and the other in his magazine. Although there were only three enemies, it was obvious that they still had a lot of ammo.

Gao Yang knew he had to find some way to escape. Even if he took one of them out with a bullet, the other guys would kill him. Gao Yang couldn’t rely on his knife again nor did he know if the enemy had any backup. 

The only good news was that it was getting dark. Gao Yang estimated that there was only an hour left before sunset. If he could hold out until nightfall, he'd have a chance to escape.

After Gao Yang put the magazine back, he got up to examine his surroundings. There was no sign of the enemy, but this time Gao Yang didn't wait. Instead, he got to one knee to scan the perimeter while trying his best to conceal himself.

Gao Yang didn't have to wait long before a head slowly crept up from the grass. He looked around before hunching his back and stealthily ran forward a few steps. After just two or three seconds, he quickly hid in the grass again.

A few seconds passed before another man appeared a couple of meters away. After running a short distance, he also hid in the grass.

The enemy slowly began to intercept his path up ahead. The two men were situated forty to fifty meters away at most, which was a dangerous distance. Gao Yang felt that he could no longer let the enemy easily get any closer.

He held his breath, lifted his rifle, and aimed in the direction of the first man in hiding. Just then, the same man peered up again. Even though he was now thirty to forty meters away, he ran at lightning speed. Gao Yang pulled the trigger without hesitation. 

He specialized in shooting moving targets.

Gunshots sounded and death followed. Gao Yang was on his fifth bullet. He had killed four men earlier, and although he brought upon a shooting frenzy, the enemy didn't dare reveal themselves. Gao Yang, however, didn’t feel threatened in the least by their blind shooting. Still on high alert, Gao Yang advanced slightly before stopping again. He examined the last two enemies' movements. His last attack seemed to have intimidated them as they didn't dare reveal themselves or attempt to ambush him. 

When Gao Yang confronted the two combatants directly, nobody dared to make the first move. In that moment, Gao Yang wasn't the only one scared for his life. The enemy didn’t know that he only had one bullet left. While he feared that the two of them would charge at him together, the enemy feared that if they showed themselves, they'd be shot to death. As the saying goes, “When fighting a wolf with a flex stalk, both sides are afraid of the other.”

*TL Note: Describing a standstill between two parties, one who is cautious, and one who is bluffing 

As time went by, the skies darkened and the chances of Gao Yang escaping grew slimmer. The two remaining enemies didn't move an inch. In that moment, Gao Yang had already started contemplating which route to take for his escape. 

A hundred meters to the east was a river, while his enemies stood in the northwest. Gao Yang only had two escape routes to choose from – head south and run, or first head south and then enter the river after breaking away from the battlefield.

Gao Yang planned to head south and escape by the river since he found it difficult to move with his injured right knee. It would be a lot easier for him to swim away.

Gao Yang decided to wait for the skies to completely darken before setting out. But just when he was about to go, Gao Yang realized that he'd made a grave error.

He was wearing his bright orange eye-catching life jacket, a necessary item if he were to escape by river as he needed it to stay afloat. He could swim, but with his injury and intense hunger, he'd die if he took off the jacket.   

Although the life jacket was really bright, during the day the thick grass acted as cover, so there wasn't a problem. But now that it was dark, Gao Yang was stunned to find out that the jacket glowed in the dark. It was bright enough that anyone far away could notice him. He wouldn't be able to slip away undetected if he got in the river. 

Gao Yang could neither laugh nor cry. Hastily, he pulled off his life jacket and tried to tear off the two illuminated strips, but soon realized that if he tore off the strips, air would leak from the jacket.

In that moment, Gao Yang heard some shuffling and knew he could not wait any longer. Regretfully, he left the life jacket, and started to slowly crawl south.

Gao Yang was patient enough to rapidly leg it, but continued to crawl. He knew that the enemy couldn't see him at that time. As long as he wasn't too loud, he would be alright.

Gao Yang crawled for quite a distance before he suddenly heard a burst of gunshots behind him. He assumed that the enemy had fired when they discovered his life jacket.

Knowing that the enemy had given up their pursuit, Gao Yang stepped up his pace. Suddenly, a thought came into his mind; perhaps he should come up with a plan to draw them away.

After some hesitation, Gao Yang turned around to crawl up the riverbank, stopping periodically to listen for any movements.

With just over twenty meters from the riverbank, Gao Yang stopped crawling since there was no more grass to act as cover. Gao Yang wanted to move in the water instead of sneaking around in the grass and risk getting caught.

What annoyed Gao Yang was that after crawling for such a long distance, he never encountered a single rock or found anything useful. After some thought, Gao Yang gently lowered his magazine, and then threw it in the river.

Because his final bullet was already in the gun's chamber, there was no need to carry an empty magazine.

The grassy field was dead silent as the previous battle scared off all the animals in the surrounding area. Once Gao Yang threw the magazine into the water, a clearly audible splash resounded in the air. 

It didn't matter where the magazine was now. This time, Gao Yang did not hesitate. He headed deep into the field, until he could no longer had the energy to crawl any further. Only then, when he was a sizable distance away, did he roll over onto his back to take a break. 

He was starving and he had no strength left in him. He calculated that he had at least crawled three to four hundred meters.

The situation was dire for Gao Yang as he desperately needed to recover his physical strength. With little choice left, Gao Yang took out the few pieces of chocolate he had remaining. He unwrapped the small package and took a few bites.

Finally, with some food in him, Gao Yang felt heaps better. The chocolate gave him enough energy to help him for awhile. He took a small break and felt some of his strength come back to him before setting off again. Gao Yang examined the perimeter behind him to his pitch-black surroundings. Unable to see anything, he decisively stood up and headed south.

Despite the pain in his right knee, he continued on at a slow pace. Gao Yang didn't dare to stop for a moment.

He didn't know how far he had travelled, but he knew that a long time had passed. After walking for five minutes, he would take a fifteen minute break or longer. He was thirsty, hungry, and extremely exhausted. If he hadn't been so determined to make it home alive, Gao Yang would have collapsed a long time ago.

The moon was already up. Thankfully, it wasn’t a full moon and only weakly lit up the surroundings. Otherwise, Gao Yang would have been exposed if they had pursued him from behind.

Judging by the position of the moon, Gao Yang estimated that it was about two or three in the morning. Simply unable to continue on, he decided to finally stop.

He sat down against a giant tree. After distancing himself from the war zone, he was overcome by the many wild animal calls surrounding him. There were even some that sounded like they were very close by.

Although he couldn't distinguish between the different animal calls, Gao Yang knew that three ferocious African beasts moved at night: lions, leopards, and hyenas. The hyenas were especially active during the night. Gao Yang counted himself lucky for not meeting any wild beasts up until now, but who knows? Perhaps he had already crossed paths with them without knowing.

In actuality, the threat of wild beasts wasn’t a big issue. What he feared most was the overwhelming amount of mosquitos and other flying insects. They not only stung like crazy; they also carried infectious diseases.

Fortunately, Gao Yang had taken the necessary travel injections prior to his trip to Africa. He could live with anything else missing from his first aid kit, except for mosquito repellent. That was an absolute necessity. 

After he sprayed the repellent, Gao Yang didn't care much about anything else. He pulled out his gun with the last remaining bullet and hugged it as he drifted off to sleep.

Chapter end