Chapter 5 - The Notebook
Pain came in waves.
Sarah worked between them.
She secured her injured leg with two broken trekking-pole sections and webbing cut from her pack. The splint was crude but stable enough to keep movement from worsening the fracture.
Then she opened the notebook.
For nine days, Silas had called it superstition.
Now it contained the only accurate map of the enemy approach.
Sarah had logged times beside each burst of communications interference. The static did not occur randomly. It moved eastward in stages, matching the progression of a force traveling through the saddle after dark.
She had marked rock formations visible from the trail.
A split boulder resembling an open jaw.
A narrow snow shelf beneath a black cliff.
A dry drainage channel leading toward the platoon’s route.
Enemy teams would use the channel to move unseen, then fire downward from the saddle while a smaller group created noise in the west.
The approved report had reversed the attack.
Sarah keyed her radio.
“Miller, come in.”
Only static answered.
She adjusted the antenna and tried the backup frequency.
“Miller, this is Jensen.”
A broken voice came through.
“Jensen?”
“I’m still here.”
“Silas is pushing us toward the saddle.”
“Stop below the split boulder.”
“The captain says—”
“I know what he says. The eastern team is in the drainage channel. You have less than three minutes.”
Miller did not argue.
“Give me positions.”
Sarah looked at the notebook.
Then she lifted the Fence Post across her lap.
May you like
The rifle was not useless.
Neither was its owner.
