Savage Sniper

There were only a handful of men waiting to make it through the gap when the inevitable happened. One of the weakened prisoners lost his balance and fell, landing in the tangled thorns and barbed wire with an audible crash. The man couldn’t help but cry out in pain as the rusty barbs tore his flesh.

From the guard tower, a soldier shouted something unintelligible in Japanese.

“Hurry!” Deke whispered. He was still inside the fence line, waiting with Faraday for the last man to make it through. Frustrated, Deke grabbed the last man by the back of his trousers and practically hurled him through the fence.

That was when the machine gun finally opened up. The tracers from the Nambu lit up the night. The machine gunner did not have a clear line of fire because of the barracks, which blocked his view of the hole in the fence, but that didn’t stop him from stitching the forest all around with bursts from the machine gun.

They could have used a few more minutes for the POWs and liberators to make their getaway into the forest. But they had run out of time. The jig was up. All hell had broken loose.

From their position a hundred feet from the gap in the fence, concealed in the forest beyond the perimeter, Philly and Yoshio opened fire. They would be able to get off only a shot or two before they were targeted by the Nambu.

Either they had gotten lucky, or one or the other of the men had finally displayed some real skill as a sniper, because the machine gun momentarily fell silent. The lull in the fire gave the Americans and Filipinos precious seconds to hide themselves deeper in the forest. With the last POW finally through the gap, Deke and Faraday slipped through themselves and ran like hell after the others.

“Go, go!” Steele shouted, the time for quiet having passed. All that mattered now was getting some distance between themselves and the Japanese before the garrison could organize a pursuit.

The soldiers fled up the jungle trail. It was hard going in the dark, with each of the soldiers trying to follow the dim blur of the man in front of him. There were no lights because that would have truly given their position away. Branches and vines bordering the trail slapped at them, blinding them even more. Deke shoved at the undergrowth that seemed to be clawing at them and trying to hold them back.

The machine gun opened back up, filling the night with the dreaded woodpecker-like tap, tap, tap of the deadly rhythmic gun. Now that they were clear of the prison compound, the POWs were no longer blocked from sight by the barracks. Tracers and bullets tore at the forest cover, shredding the leaves and branches so that they rained debris on the fleeing soldiers. Fortunately for them, the machine gunner was still shooting over their heads or into the surrounding jungle.

Now came the time for Father Francisco and his guerrillas to play their role. It was part of the strategy that the priest and the lieutenant had agreed upon. As the rest of the column fled, the priest led his men into the forest on both sides of the trail.

When the Japanese came after them, the guerrillas would have a surprise waiting.

“Everybody keep moving,” Steele urged the weary POWs. “Move, move!”

His voice from the head of the column helped to provide a beacon for the POWs. Exhausted and weak though they were, they managed to trot down the trail, getting farther from the prison compound with every step.

However, the firing of the machine gun had alerted the rest of the Japanese garrison, who came spilling out of the guard barracks. Some were only half-dressed, but they all carried weapons. Some ran to fire up the generator so that the compound was soon bathed in electric light. A quick search revealed the hole in the fence and the route that the POWs and raiders had taken.

Through the midst of the pandemonium, Colonel Yamagata strode with his bow over one shoulder, making him an instantly recognizable figure.

As he came running from the prison barracks, Lieutenant Osako found the commandant and said excitedly, “Sir, the prisoners are all gone!”

Yamagata was shocked, but he did a good job of hiding his reaction from his men. To those watching, it almost seemed as if he had planned or somehow allowed this escape to take place. “They will not get far,” he said. “They have no food, no weapons, and they are very weak.”

“Yes, sir.”

However, the commandant was curious about one thing. “What about the American soldier who was being held in the hot box? Is he still there?”

“I am sorry to report that he has escaped,” Osako replied, fearing that he had forever stained himself in Yamagata’s eyes as the bearer of bad news.

Sergeant Matsueda came running up. He ignored Osako and turned his attention on Colonel Yamagata. “Sir, we found the hole in the fence that they escaped through. With your permission, I will pursue them.”

Yamagata nodded. The sergeant gathered a handful of trusted men and started down the trail after the fleeing enemy.