No Fool

In truth, this was hardly a test of marksmanship. Right now, winning simply came down to having the guts to spray into a crowd. Even so, Gao Fei's marksmanship still played a decisive role. The reason was dead simple: the enemies crammed in the trench couldn't fire all at once. Under normal circumstances, this stretch of trench would hold no more than ten men. Once Andrey charged in first, he might bring down an enemy, only to be gunned down immediately by the soldiers behind them, ending in a one-for-one trade. Even if they caught the enemy completely off guard, the enemy could still fight back. At best, Gao Fei's five-man team might wipe them all out, but only at the cost of two or three casualties of their own. Yet with Gao Fei, everything was different. Gao Fei could always fire faster than the enemy, but that was merely a key factor, not the decisive one. The decisive factor was that, along with firing first, Gao Fei consistently landed precise hits on vital areas. At any given moment, Gao Fei faced no more than two enemies with a clear angle, and his ability to engage both and strike down anyone with a chance to fire was the real reason the squad was still standing. Speed was an advantage; accuracy was the game-changer. Gao Fei wasted about half his bullets. By the time he hit the last standing enemy, more than twenty bodies were sprawled across the trench floor. Gao Fei hadn't intentionally aimed for the head; it was just more natural for him to snap to heads. Only when the last enemy was truly down did Gao Fei's hands begin to tremble uncontrollably. The aftermath of the adrenaline surge was finally kicking in. Numbness crept through Gao Fei's entire body. Only after putting down at least twenty men did his brain register what he had just gone through. It was over. Holy shit, that was a lot of people! Gao Fei's brain had gotten the order reversed: he hadn't panicked when charging in, but now that it was over, panic set in. At that moment, Parker was probably the only clear-headed one. He picked up the rifle Gao Fei had casually dropped, slapped in a fresh magazine, and as Gao Fei ceased fire before finishing the second rifle's magazine, Parker held up the freshly loaded weapon and offered it back to him. "Brother, only I truly understand you!" The belatedly terrified Gao Fei was greeted by Parker's nauseatingly affectionate declaration. Gao Fei looked at Parker, then swapped rifles with him. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." Samir was gasping for air, trembling violently. In a voice filled with disbelief, he stammered, "Why were there so many? Why the hell were there so many? How were there so many..." Samir turned into a broken record. Sokholov, on the other hand, didn't say a word. He merely took a step back, dropped his magazine with his left hand, and pulled a fresh one from his chest rig. But when he tried to insert it, the magazine slipped from his fingers and hit the ground. Sokholov bent down to pick it up. His hands shook so violently that when he tried inserting it a second time, the magazine dropped to the dirt again. Still without a word, Sokholov picked up the magazine a third time. Finally clicking it into place, he raised his rifle again and muttered hollowly, "Why the hell were there so many of them?!" "Because..." Parker thought for a moment, then said in all seriousness, "Because our friendly forces were pushing behind them." They hadn't received any notification about friendlies pushing their way, but just as Parker finished speaking, someone shouted from down the trench: "Sea!" "White!" Almost by instinct, Sokholov shouted back the countersign. Then he slammed his left hand against his helmet before roaring, "Who goes there?" "D Company, Second Platoon! What unit are you?" "E Company, Assault Platoon. Sokholov." "We're coming out." "Come out." Two men cautiously stepped around the corner of the trench. The moment the lead soldier saw the floor carpeted with corpses, he threw himself into a violent evasive dodge. Caught completely off guard, he had panicked. Even a trench full of dead men could still give someone a fright. "Suka..." Instinct made him duck back. Only after retreating did he realize the figures were lifeless corpses. Jerking back into view after the false alarm, the friendly soldier slowly leaned out again, utterly stunned. "All dead?" Sokholov appeared to have stopped shaking, though his voice still wavered slightly. He masked his lingering shock with an icy, proud demeanor. "All dead. Come on over." "I know you, Sokholov. I'm Anthony, Second Platoon leader, D Company." Sokholov nodded and said in a heavy voice, "Our position is critical. You arrived just in time. Help us hold this ground—this is their essential retreat route." "No more enemies will be coming this way. We flushed them over from the other side. Uh, you guys..." The platoon leader looked Gao Fei and the others up and down, asking suspiciously, "What happened? Did they commit mass suicide?" Sokholov had no idea how to respond to such nonsense. Andrey struggled up from the ground, bucking Parker off his back. Planting both hands on the dirt, he blurted out before even getting to his feet, "Bullshit! They were all—" Parker slammed his rifle butt hard against Andrey's backside. Andrey yelped in pain, sprang up with sudden fury, and lunged right at Parker. But Parker jabbed the muzzle straight into Andrey's face, shoving him back hard. Parker snarled, "You idiot! You almost got us all killed! Don't you know how to clear the firing lane? What were you running around for?" Andrey was furious, but hot-headed as he was, he knew better than to cross the man holding a gun to his nose. Parker was obviously creating a distraction, and Sokholov licked his dry lips before saying, "Of course we killed them. The five of us took them out." The platoon leader asked in bewilderment, "I know you took them down, but how? They look like... they didn't even put up a fight?" Holding his rifle in his right hand with the barrel pointed toward the sky, Sokholov made a vague gesture in the air with his left. "The five of us just shot them dead." It wasn't that Sokholov couldn't lie; today's turn of events was simply so absurd that his mind hadn't caught up, leaving him looking rather awkward, thickheaded, and foolish. Looking at Sokholov's awkward expression, the Second Platoon leader was equally mystified. He exhaled and said, "Fine. Even though we drove them this way, since you handled them, these kills are yours. We'll take the trench bend as the boundary line. Any problem?" "Of course. No problem." The platoon leader nodded. Glancing across the trench packed with bodies again, he let out a low whistle. "Twenty-seven men. Impressive. Hm, most of them took headshots." Sokholov said with a straight face, "We all prefer headshots. Puts them down faster, you know." The platoon leader frowned, studying the squad. "No one... Uh, we heard gunshots from over here earlier. You didn't sound like... Well, it's hard to say, but were you all shouting 'Rex'?" What his eyes were seeing defied common sense so thoroughly that the platoon leader could hardly find words. "Rex? Nobody was shouting Rex. You heard wrong." "I didn't hear wrong. What does Rex mean?" Sokholov and the platoon leader were speaking Russian. Gao Fei couldn't understand, but he recognized his own callsign. Gao Fei looked at Sokholov in confusion. Sokholov said calmly to Anthony, "It's our callout code. You know how it is." "I don't know." The platoon leader truly had no clue, and he found Sokholov downright bizarre. Sokholov replied flatly, "Just a signal to open fire." The platoon leader was neither convinced nor enlightened, but this clearly wasn't the time to press the issue. He shook his head. "Fine, we'll talk later. Business first. So, with the bend as the boundary, the bodies and spoils on this side belong to you, and everything on the other side is ours. Neither side crosses over. Fair?" "Sure, no problem. Deal." The platoon leader withdrew looking completely bewildered. Once he was gone, Gao Fei immediately asked, "What was that about?" Before Sokholov could answer, Andrey—who was still being held at gunpoint by Parker—suddenly dodged back, glaring with suspicion. "Well, well! You bastards are trying to steal the credit!" Turning to Gao Fei, Andrey snarled, "They're trying to steal your credit!" "Idiot!" Parker muttered in exasperation. Then he hissed under his breath at Andrey, "Do you want Rex to get transferred away? Sent straight to the regimental special forces? Then you'll never fight alongside him again, you moron!" Andrey froze for a second. Sokholov murmured, "He isn't from our company. He's penal battalion." Understanding dawned on Parker's face, replaced by relief. "Oh, penal battalion..." Before Parker could finish, while no one was quite sure what to do next, Samir suddenly lunged forward with a whoosh and wrapped both arms around Gao Fei's thigh. Tears flowed before he could speak. Samir looked up at Gao Fei, weeping silently before finding his voice. Startled, Gao Fei gasped, "What are you doing?!" "I thought I was dead! I joined the assault detachment on an impulse, but when I saw that huge mob of enemies, I thought I was done for! I don't want to die..." Samir was literally clutching his golden thigh now, sobbing, "Brother, meeting you is the luckiest damn thing that's ever happened to me!" Parker wiped his mouth. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Andrey look resolute. Andrey abruptly spoke up: "Can I join your squad?" Stepping forward, Andrey pleaded in dead earnest, "If possible, keep me with you! I can do anything! I'm tough! Your squad took heavy losses too, and my unit was shattered—everyone else is dead. Won't you please keep me?" Parker said in a low voice, "Gentlemen, gentlemen. The fight isn't over yet. The enemy reinforcements might be dragging their feet, terrified to advance, but the battle isn't over. Could you maybe save this for later?" Ignoring Parker completely, Andrey looked at Gao Fei with an intensely solemn, almost reverent expression. "You're incredible. I want to roll with you. I'll split my pay and bounties fifty-fifty with you—I only need half, and you can take the rest! Just let me stay and follow you, please!" Andrey was no fool. In fact, Andrey was pretty damn smart.