Harry Parker - Anatomy of a Soldier

He could hear his men breathing and stretching uncomfortable legs, sucking on drinking tubes and suppressing yawns. They were wrapped in the shadows and BA5799 should have felt alone, gripped by danger and cut off by fear, but crouching in the ditch he’d never felt so connected to others and he loved being among them.

He thought of the people in the compound. They’d have no idea his platoon was so close and he imagined them sleeping on the floor beside the flickering embers of the fire. He wondered if they had posted sentries, or if this was the wrong ditch and in the morning he would be disorientated. Or maybe they knew we were here and he had led his men into a trap.

I cooled and BA5799 shivered in his damp combat shirt. One of the soldiers’ heads drooped under the weight of his helmet and the next man nudged him awake. Another scraped at the mud of the ditch with a twig. They waited and finally the greys of dawn evaporated from the ground, separating the solid mass of men into individuals, their faces ghostlike along the ditch.

BA5799 stretched in me, his muscles now stiff, then glanced at his glowing watch and held his hand up to the next man. He flashed it open twice. ‘Ten minutes,’ he mouthed.

The signal repeated along the line and the soldiers began to fidget. BA5799 raised himself up on his elbow and peered over the edge. He could see the compound’s wall hovering in the dawn. There was no scale to it and nothing moved. A cockerel sang in the distance.

He slid back down into the line of men. They were helping each other stow their night-vision goggles. BA5799’s were unclipped from his helmet by the man next to him and he reached over me to push them into his day-sack.

‘Thanks, Lewie,’ BA5799 whispered into his ear. He rested his rifle on the ground and handed the detector to him. ‘Clear a path straight to the door. I’ll be behind you and the two cut-offs will move up on each side, just as we did in rehearsals.’

The man nodded and grinned. They stared at each other and at the mud of the ditch, fiddling with the tops of their weapons and waiting as the light filled. And then BA5799 looked at his watch again and tapped the man’s leg. He nodded and pulled himself up and over the edge.

He was ahead of us, staring down at the ground and sweeping the detector over the dry grass. BA5799 knelt behind him and lifted his weapon, the sling tugging around me. He bent his head to the sight and looked past the man at the walls of the compound.

The other soldiers clambered out of the ditch and followed. To the right and left, two teams pushed on and the platoon was now in three columns, walking towards the compound, led by men sweeping detectors.

We crossed to the building and BA5799 crouched up against the wall, pressing me into its cracked surface. He gave a signal and the man continued to wave the detector along the wall towards a door. He inspected it and then stepped aside to wait.

BA5799’s neck swivelled in me and he looked at the men lined up behind him. The team commander nodded and BA5799 pointed with a flat hand. The soldiers moved past us and stacked up on both sides of the door. One leant a ladder against the wall and held it firm while another gingerly climbed until he was near the top. He swung his light machine gun up and ready.

BA5799 checked his other teams and saw one of them settle into position. The other was in place to cut off down the side of the compound. His heartbeat quickened and he looked at the men around the door, their weapons held in their shoulders. He knew each of them and excitement surged inside him. They waited as he crept over, pulling his weapon’s stock firmly into my panel and pausing behind the last man, ready to follow the team in.

BA5799 nodded at the commander, who reached out a gloved hand, twisted the handle and barged through the door. It banged open. The next two men stepped into the courtyard, lifting their weapons up, fingers poised on their triggers.

BA5799 followed them through the door and swung his rifle across the internal openings of the empty courtyard and then moved to one side. A soldier pulled out a detector and led the team across and towards a room. They whispered to one another as they approached and then surged in. There was a call of ‘Room clear,’ and they were out and heading into the next alcove.

*

But BA5799 knew the compound was empty; there was rubbish and debris everywhere and a water barrel lying on its side.

The team cleared the rooms and found nothing and BA5799 walked into the middle of the courtyard and placed his hand on the cold black remains of a fire.

One of the men walked over and stood by him. ‘Looks like it’s been used recently, boss. But not last night.’

‘Damn,’ BA5799 said, then unclipped his helmet and put it on the ground. He pulled the palm of his hand over his eyes, squashing his nose, and reached for the radio switch at his shoulder.

‘Hello, Zero, this is Three Zero Alpha. Over,’ he said, brushing the ash from his hand on me and listening to the earpiece. ‘Roger, Compound Kilo Five Four cleared, nothing found. I’ll collapse back to your location. Should be with you in about forty minutes. Over.’

He looked up at the soldier. ‘Good work back there, Corporal Carr. Very slick. Let’s fold back down the cleared route to the FUP.’

‘Roger, boss,’ the soldier said.

BA5799 hooked his thumbs under me, parting me from his body, and rotated his aching shoulders. He picked up his helmet and clipped it back on. The men were filing out of the compound and he walked after them.

Two shots suddenly cracked overhead, amplified sharply by the walls around. BA5799 ducked, hunched his shoulders in me and ran to the door.

‘Contact,’ one of his men shouted from outside the compound, ‘in that fucking tree line. Two hundred metres.’ And then the same voice screamed, ‘Rapid fire!’

The air ripped apart above BA5799’s platoon and their weapons clattered and banged in retaliation.

‘Zero, Three Zero Alpha,’ BA5799 said into his radio. ‘Contact, small arms, Kilo Five Four, wait. Out.’ He wanted to sound calm but excitement snatched at his voice.

He pushed past two soldiers crouching in cover by the door. ‘Out the way,’ he said and then he was in the open and running along the wall. His day-sack rocked against me and the wall above burst in a cloud of dust, adrenaline and years of training making me feel weightless as I bounced around him. He was heading to the loose line of soldiers kneeling and sprawled at the edge of a corn field, their weapons bucking and spitting. He saw pink walls and bushes in the distance, the flashes from the dark shadows and the sparks of tracer that leapt across the field. He heard the bullets splitting the air and tearing out into the country behind him.

Then he was sliding on a knee and my hem caught in the dust as he came to a stop next to the team commander.

You sat on the treatment table and looked at me leaning against the wall and knew I was yours. You recognised my socket that only your odd-shaped stump, with its deep scarring, could fit. A man walked over and unplugged me from the wall.

‘Hi Tom,’ he said. ‘Easy drive?’

‘Not too bad, thanks, Mike,’ you said and watched him bring me over and prop me against the bed.

‘Here it is,’ he said. ‘I just need to get the laptop so we can set it up.’ He walked out of the room.

Your hand caressed my grey surface and felt around the hydraulic piston under my knee joint. You studied my copper connections and wires that led to my microchip. You’d been waiting for me but were nervous about what I might do for you. Ever since they’d mentioned you were ready for me, I’d filled your dreams as a fetish of the possible, a high-tech solution to your problems. Together we would walk faster and farther and you’d be a step closer to yourself. And now I was in front of you and you wanted me to fix you.