Free January Dawn by Cody Lennon Page A

base. We chalked this challenge off as another simple exercise, not knowing beforehand that it would take place in the dead of night or under below freezing temperatures.
    We wore full combat gear, minus the hardware and our helmet. Out here was about mastering the art of camouflage and infiltration. We couldn’t have anything that rattled or shined.
    Alex and I watched as our comrades were thrown piecemeal out of the back of the APC. It only served to build up the tension for when we too were finally dumped on the roadside under the cloudless night sky. We watched the taillights of the APC disappear around the bend.
    Alex and I first needed to find our bearings and figure out which direction to head. This part of the base was unfamiliar to us. Travelling along the open road was a surefire way to get caught by the roving patrols. We knew it was only an exercise, but we had to think about it as if it was the real thing. Into the woods we went.
    My entire relationship with Alex Redman changed after our talk in the shower room. I now shared an affinity for him similar to that of my other friends in the platoon. I understood him better than anybody, simply because I was willing to sit and talk with him.
    I accepted Alex for who he was and he respected me for that, and I him, for never asking questions about my past, even though I knew he was curious. If it wasn’t for Mr. Jeffries voice still echoing in my head, I would have told Alex who I was and where I came from. I will eventually, I thought.
    What was troubling me the most was that I was thinking about Mr. Jeffries less and less as the days went by. His voice of reason was fading. He told me not to trust anyone and here I was betraying his trust by trusting those he told me not to. Am I wrong? My friends are great. They respect me and appreciate me . Were you wrong?
    Hayes and the others were hesitant to accept Alex at first, but I convinced them that he wasn’t the same moody dirtbag that they originally knew him to be. After a while, they accepted him into our little group of misfits and quickly forgot their previous misgivings. Alex Redman was a part of us now, being the leader he came here to be.
    After an hour of traversing parallel to the road, we had a frightening run-in with another pair of First Platoon men, who we mistook for a patrol when we practically collided into each other in the dark forest. Shannon and Pike quickly allayed our fears when they announced their names. They brought us good news and bad news. The good news was that they knew which direction the base was. The bad news was that it was eight miles back in the direction we came from.
    The four of us walked in silence in fear of being overheard by a patrol. We traveled within eyesight of the road on our right, so that we didn’t get lost. Occasionally, we would have to lay flat on the ground when we saw headlights. Their spotlights would penetrate the blackness of night in search of us. The daggers of light vainly lit up only a fraction of the densely dark woods. But it was better to play things safe.
    Vehicles were easy to avoid, but foot patrols were a different story. Several passed within a hundred yards of our position throughout the night. The grisly barking of the war dogs and the blue-white beams of flashlights gave us ample warning and time enough to hide.
    Sporadic bursts of gunfire boomed in the distance, breaking the silence of our hike. We knew the recruits weren’t provided with firearms, so it must have been the patrols. Some unlucky fellow must have gotten shot. Hypothetically speaking, that is. This wasn’t a live-fire exercise.
    Every patrol had a referee attached within the unit. If you were engaged, the referee decided whether or not you were caught, killed or wounded during the altercation. These refs were usually drill instructors or officers from the locally stationed Eleventh Armored Division.
    At around three in the morning, Alex huddled us together in the concealment of