Sand in the Wind by Robert Roth Page B

parallel to the road, then we sweep back on-line. The last tree line is about one klick from the road. We’ll probably set-in there for a couple of hours.”
    Chalice said to Forsythe. “That doesn’t sound too bad, only six kilometers. We did about ten yesterday.”
    “Yeah, but those ten klicks were on a road. Today we move through rice paddies and brush. That’s no picnic. We’ll be moving on-line, and when you do that you don’t go around heavy brush, you go through it.”
    Kovacs called for everybody to form up. The company again moved out in two columns. Chalice’s leg and shoulder muscles felt ready to tear away from his bones, but he was glad they had started early so as to take advantage of the early morning chill. It seemed only a few minutes had passed before they turned off the road towards the mountains. As Chalice stared at them, he felt more confident, telling himself that three kilometers didn’t seem too far.
    The rice paddies began about fifty yards from the road. The first dike was only a few feet high. Chalice put one foot on it and hopped over. The water came halfway up his thighs. Not used to the weight of his pack, he stumbled and almost lost his balance. Moving through that much water was hard enough in itself, but the foot of soft mud underneath it made matters worse. Before he’d gone ten yards, he knew what Forsythe had meant. He felt as if he were walking on a huge piece of flypaper.
    When he stepped up on the next dike his pants legs bulged with water. Hamilton yelled to him, “Unblouse your trousers and roll up the cuffs.’' “What about the leeches?”
    “Fuck the leeches. You can’t carry around ten gallons of water.”
    The dikes were only twenty yards apart. When Chalice reached the next one, he unbloused his pants legs. The man in front of him had already crossed the next dike. Chalice hurried to catch up. He could now move more easily, but by the time he caught up he was out of breath. After traveling through a kilometer of rice paddies, they came to a hundred yards of high ground. Chalice took a few steps on it and found the difference hard to believe. ‘If only I’d known, yesterday would have been a pleasure.’ When they reached the rice paddies again, he dreaded jumping off the dike. Twenty yards into them, he was more exhausted than he’d been all morning.
    Hamilton again offered some advice. “Don’t follow the trail of the guy in front of you, make your own. Step on the rice shoots. You won’t sink in the mud so deep.” Hamilton’s advice helped, but not much.
    It took another hour to reach the base of the mountains. The last half kilometer had been on high ground and relatively easy. The two columns meshed before turning left along the foothills. When the entire company had made the turn and was parallel to the road, the order to hold up was given. Chalice noticed the men checking for leeches. He pulled up his left pants leg and found three huge ones, bloated with blood, attached just above his sock. “Hey Hamilton, how do you get these things off?”
    “Here, use this bug juice.” As soon as the insect repellent touched them, the leeches dropped off, leaving his calf smeared with blood.
    The word was passed to start sweeping. Chalice concentrated on staying even with the men to each side of him. There was constant yelling about keeping the line straight. The men moving on the better ground tended to get ahead of the men moving through the deeper paddies, so they’d have to stop every few minutes to let the others catch up. As the company approached the first tree line, Chalice thought about what he’d been taught. ‘Don’t go through breaks in the brush — might be booby-trapped. Better to go right through the brush than around it. Look for trip wires, but keep your head up. Have rifle ready to shoot.’
    Twenty yards into the tree line the vegetation got thicker. Continually tripping over the undergrowth, Chalice decided to put his rifle on safe