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  He had to be a soldier of some sort, Matt assumed. He stayed next to Matt, squatting down, but took his hand off Matt’s shoulder while he put his knife back into its sheath on his thigh.

  The voice then said something to Matt that would have made him cry if his eyes could. “It’s going to be ok, Matt. We’re going to get you out of here.”

  Matt’s heart jumped up into his throat and he felt dizzy, like he was going to pass out. The room swayed around him, but the gloved hand reached out to his shoulder again to steady him.

  Matt said feebly, “Water… do you have water?”

  The soldier stood up and started taking a pack off of his back. He asked as he did so, “How long have you been in here, Matt?”

  Matt had trouble making his tongue work it was so thick and dry. “Not sure… since Friday night, I think.”

  The soldier pulled a flask out of his pack and took the top off. “That’d be about three days, then. No water the whole time?”

  “No…” said Matt.

  “Ok, drink very small sips, and only a little for right now. I’ll give you some more in a minute. Too much and you’ll get sick.”

  Matt started to take the flask in his shaking hands, but the soldier held it for him. The first few sips of water he had had in three days tasted better than anything he had ever tasted in his entire life, even as it burned his throat.

  The other soldier appeared in the doorway with a blanket in his hands. He came on into the room.

  “Can you stand up, Matt?”

  Matt was already feeling better from even the few sips of water he was allowed to have. He went to stand up, but felt dizzy again and almost lost his balance.

  Both of the soldiers reached out to keep him steady and help him stand up the rest of the way. They wrapped the blanket around him so he was no longer naked.

  The two soldiers looked at each other and made a few gestures between them, but Matt heard no words. Now that he was almost totally used to the light again, he could see their mouths moving slightly under the black fabric masks they wore, but he heard nothing.

  The second soldier left the room again as the first soldier offered Matt a few more sips of water.

  “We’re getting ready to bug out of here, but you have to listen to me. We’re not supposed to be here, and we’ve got to be quiet, ok?”

  Matt nodded.

  “Quiet like our lives depend on it. You understand?”

  He nodded again.

  The soldier explained, “We’re going to have to walk a little bit, though, but you’re going to be safe, you hear me?”

  Matt said, his voice shaking, “Thank you.”

  The soldier put his hand on Matt’s shoulder again and directed, “Put your arm around my shoulder and support yourself. You’re still pretty weak.”

  Matt did as he was told and they started out of the room. Matt walked through a doorway that he didn’t think he’d pass through alive. He looked around, for the first time seeing what was outside of the room he had been held in. There was a short hallway that led past another room next to the one he had been kept in. They walked beyond that, Matt supporting himself on the soldier next to him.

  The hall lead to a small, dirty kitchen area, and Matt almost became nauseous when he saw the scene. One of his captors was dead in the corner of the kitchen, a large, gaping hole where his heart should have been. Blood was sprayed everywhere… all over the poorly stocked shelves, walls, refrigerator and cooktop in the kitchen. The smell in the kitchen overwhelmed Matt; it was like corroded, rusted iron, pulled from the depths of the sea. Matt felt sick, but couldn’t look away from it. He had never seen anything like it in real life, and he hoped to never again.

  There were three other soldiers in the kitchen, all dressed the same as the first. One, a few inches taller than the others, was packing up some items on the kitchen table into a rucksack; another was peeking out of the small window that led outside from the kitchen area. The third had a large something wrapped up in a blanket and thrown over his shoulder.

  As Matt got a better look at the soldiers, he felt like maybe he should be as scared of them as he was of men that had kidnapped him. And if it weren’t that he felt like he had nothing to lose, he probably would have been. The fact that he couldn’t see them at all, the fact that they were covered with guns, knives, and who knew what other kinds of equipment, made them terrifying. At least with his captors, he could see their eyes on the few rare occasions they had come into the room. Looking at their eyes, he knew where he stood with them, and felt appropriately scared. With these men, they were blanks, armed to the hilt. They seemed inhuman, like there could be anything underneath the camo, boots, helmets, gloves and masks for all he knew. They had been kind to him, but, they looked so frightening and he wasn’t totally sure he wouldn’t still wind up like the body on the kitchen floor with a hole in its chest.

  Matt glanced in the room beyond the kitchen and saw more blood splattered all over the furniture and carpet. Thankfully, this time, he couldn’t see any more bodies, but he knew they were there, somewhere.

  There seemed to be more coordination among the soldiers, but without any words passing between them. The one at the door cracked it open slightly to see if the coast was clear outside.

  Matt happened to glance down at the things the tall soldier was putting into the rucksack. He noticed something of his and said, “That’s my laptop.”

  The soldier held it up and looked at it briefly. This soldier had a brighter voice coming from behind the mask. “This yours?” he asked.

  Matt nodded, and the soldier looked at it again. He held it out for the others to see the stickers on the lid of the laptop, “Check it out! We got us a pole smoker here! You got pics of all the assholes you’ve eaten filling up the hard drive on here? Huh, cockbreath?”

  Matt was too weak to respond. What would he say if he could? He didn’t get a good feeling, though.

  The soldier at the door opened it fully and they started to make their way down a flight of steps on the outside of the building. The two soldiers in front had their rifles out and pointed in case they encountered anyone else that might give them trouble. It was dark outside, with only a little light from the moon and a weak floodlight several buildings over. Matt’s eyes were able to relax a little getting back into dimmer light, and he was glad to be away from the bloody and gored body in the kitchen.

  But as he took just a few steps down the stairs, even leaning on the soldier that had helped him, his vision started to gray and he felt his legs start to give way. He gripped the soldier’s shoulder a little harder, and despite his fierce attempt to stay conscious, Matt blacked out.

  ~~~~~

  When Matt came to, he was lying down and staring straight up. And what he saw when he looked up was a night sky dotted with stars and the faint, ghostly outline of a few clouds. For a moment, he forgot everything about what had happened and just looked at the stars. So beautiful in the night sky. So peaceful. Except… for that sound.

  Matt became aware of an annoying sound in his ears, one that sounded like some kind of motor buzzing near him. Then he felt the bouncing.

  He looked to the side slightly and saw the four soldiers seated around him, their blank void faces looking down at him. They were all bouncing up and down with him. He didn’t understand the bouncing.

  He could feel the large object next to him, the thing that one of the other soldiers had carried, pressed up against his side. And he realized he was practically lying on the boots of the soldiers in the tight space. Suddenly, Matt felt that his entire back was soaking wet and he could now feel the occasional spray of water.

  Matt started to panic when he realized he was lying in the bottom of a tiny rubber boat, the soldiers sitting up on the sides around him. Matt tried to sit up, ignoring how his head was trying to sweep him into unconsciousness again. He couldn’t be in a boat. Not like this. Not in the water. Anywhere else would be fine, but not in the water.

  He g
rabbed at the nearest leg in a panic and tried to pull himself up. He had to get out. He tried to yell over the sound of the motor, “I can’t be in here. Not here! Let me out!”

  His frenzied attempts to get out of the boat, to somehow get back on land, ended very quickly, however. One of the soldiers put his boot squarely down on Matt’s chest and said, “Yeah, you probably don’t want to jump out right now, buddy.” The boot pushed firmly down on Matt’s chest, forcing him back into the bottom of the boat. Matt clawed at the foot holding him down. He had to get out. And even then his vision started to unfocus and turn gray. And a moment later, Matt slipped into unconsciousness yet again. Somewhere in a tiny boat. Somewhere in the water.

  Chapter 8 – Haze Gray And Underway

  The next time Matt woke up, it was much more slowly. It was much more comfortable. There was a mattress under him, and a sheet over his body, and his head was resting on a pillow.

  He sat up a little and looked around. The room he was in had about ten beds in it, all lined up in a row along one wall. Looking at them, he could tell they were hospital beds. A couple of them had other people in them, but the rest were empty. For an infirmary, it seemed a little cramped to Matt.

  He looked down at his arm and noticed the IV needle stuck into his wrist. But aside from feeling a little groggy, he didn’t feel too bad. He wouldn’t mind having something to drink, but he didn’t feel the burning thirst any more.

  Matt noticed a young kid nearby. He was probably only 20 or 21 years old, skinny, and still with a little bit of acne on his face. He had a shaved head and was dressed in olive green pants and a khaki t-shirt and he came over when he realized Matt was awake. Matt thought the kid seemed oddly dressed for an infirmary.

  The kid said, “Hey, you’re waking up! Don’t try to get up yet. Lemme get the doc over here to talk to you some.”

  He turned and yelled at a curtain that had been pulled across the far end of the room, “Hey Lieut, the rider has come to!”

  Matt heard an impatient and half-shouted “Ok, hang on!” come from behind the curtain.

  The kid turned back to Matt and said, “You feeling ok?”

  Matt nodded and actually felt relieved to be able to honestly say, “Yeah. Actually, I do.”

  The kid leaned in a little closer and asked him quietly, looking around furtively to make sure no one was listening, “Is it true? Were you kidnapped? Were they going to kill you?”

  Matt’s voice caught in his throat and he suddenly felt lost and disoriented again. He knew that it was true. But to hear it spoken by another person somehow made it almost more real than having experienced it. His mind swarmed with the thoughts. He had been halfway around the world, kidnapped, and who knew how close to being murdered there. Naked and in an unlit room.

  Before Matt could pull himself together to answer, a more senior looking soldier made his way over and warned the kid off, “Koski! You know what you were told. Go get me a cuff and the oto.”

  Koski nodded and went to get the items the doctor asked for.

  “You Matt?” the doctor asked when he got to Matt’s bed.

  The doctor looked to be in his late thirties but had a good head start on a receding hair line. He was actually wearing a khaki shirt with a name tag sewn on that read “Ehlert”.

  Matt said, “Yes, sir.”

  Doctor Ehlert pulled a pen light out of his pocket and held Matt’s chin with a free hand, shining the light in Matt’s eyes to check his pupils.

  “Call me Ron. How are you feeling? Thirsty? Hungry? Are you feeling faint?”

  “Uh, I’m actually feeling pretty good, considering…” replied Matt. “I’m not thirsty. Not like I was. I am hungry, a little. I don’t feel faint or woozy, though.”

  “Good. When you got here, you were pretty dehydrated. We’ve kept you sedated and on just an IV drip of saline and glucose to get you back where you should be. If you’re not hungry right now, you will be soon enough. Just to check since you’ve got a couple of bumps on the head here… how many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Four?”

  “Ok. Do you know what year it is?”

  “Uh, 2010?”

  “Yeah. Who’s the president?”

  “Obama.”

  “Good. Now, who’s the Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness at the Department of Defense?”

  “Uh…”

  Dr. Ehlert smiled. “Bah. Three out of four is close enough.”

  Matt’s forehead creased and he asked, “How long have I been here?” He ran his free hand across his goatee and realized he must look like a scuzzball. He had no idea how long it had been since he had shaved, or even had a shower, for that matter.

  “You got here about a day ago. Like I said, we kept you sedated because you really needed the rest and you needed the fluids.”

  Matt noticed that as other people, he assumed soldiers, came in and out of the infirmary, they all glanced over at him curiously. He wondered if any of these people were the ones that rescued him.

  Koski walked back up with a blood pressure cuff and one of the small scopes doctors used to look into ears. He handed the otoscope to the doctor and grabbed Matt’s left arm to take his blood pressure.

  The doctor took a look in Matt’s right ear, the one that his kidnapper had hit pretty hard with the butt of his gun.

  “You got something of a knock here on your ear, Matt. It’s looking pretty good, though. You’re probably lucky… there doesn’t look like there’s any permanent damage.”

  Doctor Ehlert handed the otoscope back to Koski as he finished taking Matt’s blood pressure reading.

  “I think you’re good to go, Matt. We’ve got you a rack set up and Wickland’s going to probably want to talk to you pretty soon. Before all that, I guess I should ask if you want a shower first, or something to eat?”

  Matt was hungry, but not terribly so. He felt gross, though, and knew he had to smell like crazy. He was still feeling a little lost about what was happening to him, but he just replied, “A shower, I guess.”

  Dr. Ehlert nodded, “Koski, go ahead and take Matt to his rack and get him settled a little.” Koski smiled at the idea of the duty he was asked to do, hoping to be able to ask Matt about his ordeal again.

  Dr. Ehlert took the IV needle out of Matt’s wrist and put a little gauze and tape where it had been. He reminded Koski, “And you know what we were told. No questions.” Koski’s smile deflated.

  Koski brought over clothes for Matt to wear, things that would make him look like Koski… a khaki t-shirt, some desert camo cargo pants, tan boots, socks and a pair of white boxer shorts.

  Matt started to get dressed and Dr. Ehlert looked around to make sure no one other than Koski was within hearing distance. He put his hand on Matt’s shoulder sympathetically and said, “It’s good to see you made it through ok.”

  Dr. Ehlert started to turn around, but Matt called out to him, “Hey, Ron, where am I?”

  Dr. Ehlert grabbed a chart off another bed and called out to Matt as he walked back down to the end of the room, “Iwo Jima.”

  Matt almost did a double take as he finished putting his boots on. They were a little tight for him, but better than nothing.

  He started to follow Koski to the other end of the room and asked, incredulously, “Iwo Jima?! As in the island? Like in the south Pacific?”

  Koski looked back at him and laughed, “Hell, no! Not the island! The USS Iwo Jima! Haze gray and underway, my man!”

  ~~~~~

  It turned out that the “rack” thing Dr. Ehlert had mentioned to Matt was, in fact, a bunk. Barely. It was narrower than a single bed and had about twenty-four inches of clearance above it. As soon as Matt saw it, and realized he was expected to sleep there, he decided he had been stupid to not ask the most obvious question of all so far - how soon can I get out of this… whatever?

  Koski had grabbed a few towels and toiletries for him on the way to his rack while following a confounding maze of narrow halls, turns,
hatches, and stairs that were practically ladders between decks (he was pretty sure that was supposed to be the right word). On the way there, Matt had gotten a few curious glances, which he wondered about since he was dressed the same now as just about everybody else he passed. When they arrived at the cabin where Matt’s bed was located, Koski pointed out to him where the “head” and shower were, just a little further down the “passageway” from where his “rack” was.

  There was so much that was totally foreign to Matt in this place that he immediately got hopelessly turned around. And the whole time they had walked, Koski was talking a mile a minute in a language that was all slang, numbers and abbreviations that meant nothing to Matt.

  As soon as Koski left him alone, Matt realized he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, how he could get home, where he could get some lunch. (Or breakfast or dinner… he had no idea what time it actually was.)

  He decided to take his shower since first he at least knew where that was. Koski had warned him to go ahead and get out of his clothes in the cabin and just wear the towel down to the shower as there was not much space for changing in or out of clothes there.

  He felt very self-conscious walking down the passage to where Koski had said the shower was wearing nothing but a towel and carrying a few toiletries. He passed one very built guy with a stern look on his face, but this guy didn’t give Matt a second glance, so Matt felt like maybe somehow he was actually less conspicuous in just the towel.

  Matt pulled at the towel to stop it from riding up his butt any more than it already had when he ran across two more men coming along the passageway. Unlike the first, these two didn’t ignore him.

  The first guy was tall and had extremely fair skin to go with his flaming red hair. It had to be the brightest, reddest hair Matt had ever seen. The guy’s t-shirt was tight and Matt could tell he had a really lean, muscular body. Absolutely chiseled. The one right behind him was about Matt’s height, but with very thick black hair cut short and coming down to a point in the center of his forehead. He had dark, penetrating eyes and an olive complexion that made Matt nervous. Matt decided that what made him nervous was that the guy looked vaguely Middle Eastern. But he was in the same fatigue-type pants and white t-shirt that the red-headed guy was in, so he had to belong there.