Perspective: Jamsey
As Cormac started telling his little story, Jamsey leaned back
against a tree
and relaxed for the first time in the last 4 hours. This
kind of work was hard.
Given a choice he would have much preferred an organised raid
like the one that
was being described in such detail by the teams' scout.
It was kind of funny in a way, in spite of having been part of
the group that
was being described he had never heard Cormacs account of what
had happened. To
be honest when the subject had come up in the past it had always
degenerated to
gales of laughter. Any time he recalled the look of disgust
and horror on his
friends' face when it was covered in the brains of that
woman. Black humour?
Perhaps, but wasn't that the very best kind? Look death in
the eye and comment
on her dress sense?
Jamsey shook himself, he didn't like getting into all that
philosophical crap,
best to leave that to the smart arses like Cormac.
Then as he was beginning to get a real appreciation for the
comfort this
particular tree the Captain called softly "Cormac, time to
move out." Jamsey
stood as well and shifted his pack into a comfortable position
before assuming
his position at point on the line. Then, precisely two
minutes after Cormac had
left, he set out following the approximate directions agreed upon
earlier when
they had planned the days search pattern.
A veteran of many black operations, Jamseys' mind immediately
became more alert
as they entered the unknown. Unconsciously he tried to
reach his senses out as
far as possible to discern any threat to the team. He would
be very glad when
this mission was over, but until then it would get his undivided
attention.
It was hard to watch everything at once. The trees
loomed in close, blocking of
his view of anything further than an arms length in front of
him. Apparently
the magic types were unable to do their sensing stuff through a
combination of
everything being so vibrantly alive and wanting to eat
them. After an encounter
that had occurred earlier in this expedition he was well aware
that the next
vine that he pushed out of the way, could well be a snake.
The faint noise he
could hear was probably another herd (they were that damned big)
of mosquitoes.
His paranoia working overtime Jamseys' body retained that relaxed
state of
readiness that was so important in his line of work.
Perhaps an hour later everything changed. One instant he
was looking at the
area ahead trying to work out which path was best to avoid a very
impressive
spider web that had been strung between several of the larger
trees. The next
he was diving forward and bringing his weapon to bear on the
source of a
disturbance behind him. Turned midair his brain registered
that the sound had
been the gurgling scream of a man with holes in his chest.
No target. Landing
heavily on the decaying carpet of leaves that had so conveniently
deadened
footfalls for the week he had been in this god forsaken place he
heard the
muffled sound of suppressed weapon fire. Still no
target. The jarring and pain
of impact did little to stop him from aiming his weapon at the
area from which
the gunfire originated. The next step in his response
however was interrupted
by the actions of a gunman who, although originally thrown by
such a fast
reaction, had adeptly adjusted his aim. Bullets smashed
into J!
amseys' arm and weapon rendering both effectively useless.
A second burst
caught him full in the torso, wreaking havoc with the internal
workings of his
body. A third was concentrated in the general vicinity of
his head and were
enough to finish the work and him.
Weeks of nothing and in less than two seconds Jamsey and his
companions were
dead.