in a rush to get the words out in time. ‘Mum, card’s gonna run out soon. I can’t call for the next four or five days, so don’t worry or …’
‘What’s happening? You doing anything dangerous?’ The worry was back in her voice again.
‘Mum, it’s all right. I just have to wait for my new phone card, that’s all.’
‘I love you.’
‘Me too, Mum.’ Then the phone line went dead.
As I put down the phone, I suddenly felt very alone. I missed my mum, even though I really did want to be out in Afghanistan. I felt my eyes prickle with tears and decided to stay where I was for a bit to calm down. Didn’t want the lads to see me blubbing, did I? They would have even more to take the piss out of. I sniffed loudly, trying to fight back the tears, and hoped that no one could hear me on the other side of the canvas.
I’d been telling everyone I wanted to get back in the Green Zone, but now that I’d got it, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go after all. It just didn’t feel exciting any more. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I could hack it. It was just luck that I’d got myself out of a drama and killed that Tali. What if I couldn’t do it again? Si had really got me thinking and I was pretty scared now. I was hoping Toki was right about me. But what if I ended up letting my mates down when it mattered most?
I quickly wiped my eyes before pulling aside the canvas flap. I had to switch on and get a grip of myself before we started shooting the Taliban once again.
Chapter Fourteen
It was about five-thirty in the morning and we had been back out in the Green Zone for over seven hours. It wasn’t going well. We had been in major contacts with the Taliban all night long and, in the confusion, lots of us had got split up from our platoons.
MacKenzie had ordered our four-man patrol to move to a new location so he could link up with us, but that was easier said than done. Firstly, it was pitch dark so we couldn’t see where we were going. Secondly, during all the fighting, we’d got surrounded by Taliban. They were taking regular pot-shots at us, and judging by the amount of fire coming our way, we were seriously outnumbered.
Toki got on the radio to MacKenzie to let him know that we couldn’t move anywhere. Worse still, our ammunition was seriously low. We had completely run out of ammo for our rifles, and we’d only got about half a mag left on our pistols, so we had about six rounds each left. That was it.
MacKenzie said he would send two Apaches out to us. They’d be there in thirty minutes. Once they started firing their 30mm cannons into the maize fields, we’d have plenty of fire cover to get out. All we had to do was stand our ground until they arrived. Toki said MacKenzie had wished us all luck. The Tali rounds were getting closer by the minute, so it looked like we were going to need it.
I wiped the sweat off my mud-caked face, and tried taking deep breaths to calm my breathing. It wasn’t working. ‘Toki, they’re getting closer, mate.’
‘We are all right, Briggsy. They’re just firing into the dark, trying to flush us out.’
‘They will soon. It’s nearly first light.’ I was beginning to wonder if we were going to get out of this one. Another twenty minutes or so and the sun would be up – and there was no way we weren’t going to be seen.
Flash was obviously thinking the same thing, and when he spoke, I could hear that he too was breathing heavily, which made me feel a lot better. ‘How we going to stand our ground until the Apaches get here?’
‘Mate, soon as it’s light, they’ll be able to see us,’ added Si. He sounded as scared as the rest of us. ‘Mate, we’ve got no ammo.’
We fell silent for a moment, and waited for Toki to come up with something. I was desperate for him to come up with anything that sounded like a plan.
Just then, two of the Taliban started shouting at each other in between firing off a few rounds across the maize. They definitely had a plan, and chances were it involved us.
My heart was beating even faster