THE ENCAMPMENT

Before the jeep could reach the threshold of the gate, the other vehicle arrived there first and stopped for a brief checkup. One of the armed soldiers on duty, quickly walked to meet the driver at the front of the vehicle while the other man remained where he was whistling to the wind as he chewed on a toothpick. Murphy quietly parked the jeep behind the truck and waited patiently for the soldier to carry out his routine checkup of every vehicle that wanted to enter. At their seats, the general and those with him including Murphy could hear the soldier chitchatting with the driver of the truck and wasn't too amused with the look on the faces of the men sitting inside at the back of the truck. They too were soldiers and pretty much didn't say anything when they saw the general staring at them as they sat facing each other inside the truck waiting for the their ride to be permitted to go inside.

"What a bunch of riff-raffs"

The colonel muttered to himself and spat on the dry sand beside him.

"I know those dudes"

"Yeah, we all do"

"Aren't they the other party that failed to catch the escapade?"

Sam said in a faint voice not to let his voice heard by the onlookers who weren't too far from peering at Murphy's blunt face.

"Got that right, Sam"

The colonel replied and returned his look back to the soldier who was still having a conversation with the driver.

"What the hell are they talking about?"

"No clue, sir"

"That guy looks like Scott, right?"

The sniper asked.

"Maybe"

"I'm sure that's him"

"He was on sentry duty two days ago"

"I don't get it. So what if it's Scott?"

Sam said looking perplexed at the sniper.

"He likes talking a lot and easily gets distracted at times"

"You're saying he's gonna waste our time here"

Sam deduced.

"Exactly, that's my point"

"Not while I'm here with you. Let's give the boys some two minutes to get acquainted. Then I'll knock some sense into that fella"

The colonel said and they all went quiet watching the soldier from afar. A minute later, the man was already done talking with his friend and waved at the other guard whom he had left standing close to the gate.

"Open the gate!" he yelled.

His other comrade quickly obeyed his orders and pulled on an electronic switch which served as a control panel to open the gate. The barbed gate buzzed twice followed with a clinging sound of the gates rolling kinetically to the left and it slowly slide open like the way the soldiers guarding the gate wanted it to while the returnees had to wait for it open fully. The guard went back to where he had stood at his sentry post beside and watched the gate as it slowly paved way for the first vehicle to drive inside along with his partner. It took less than five minutes for the gate to be wide open and the truck drove into the camp as soon as the road was clear to go in.

Then Murphy wasted no time in turning the engines of the jeep and drove behind the truck but he stopped abruptly after noticing the same guard waving at him to stop at the moment. They instantly knew he was going to perform another routine check up just like he did to the first one and felt irritated when they saw him walking towards where they parked the truck, a short distance from the gate.

He trudged towards them as the colonel fixed his gaze squarely at the soldier heading to their vehicle with his AK47 rifle dangling loosely from his left shoulder and from afar, he saw a man with a red beret and as he came closer, he quickly took notice of the colonel sitting at the front beside Murphy whilst the sniper and Sam sat at the back, watching him as he approached them. He wasn't wearing any helmet and the others especially the sniper quickly recognized him to be the man he had speculated to be the one talking to the driver earlier in spite of the harsh sun radiating into his eyelids.

"Salute, Sir",

He said came near Murphy and placed his hand on the his forehead as gesture of respect.

"At ease. What's your name, Soldier?"

The colonel replied.

"William Scott"

"You're a lieutenant, right?"

"Yeah, How did—"

"Your name tag on your uniform, dimwit"

"Oh, Pardon me, sir"

"You look quite tired standing out here in the sunshine"

"Not at all, sir"

"Really? But you're sweating"

"Can't help it, sir. The heat is really unbearable"

"That's true. I see you do your job pretty well, huh"

"Just doing my duty, sir"

"Then allow us through. As you can see, we are clean"

For a brief moment after hearing the colonel's orders, Scott scoured the faces of the men staring at him especially Murphy's rigid face including the sniper's grassy cloak that almost made him look like a five feet gorilla sitting beside another young soldier whom he knew to be Sam. He avoided their eye gaze and returned his look back to the colonel.

"Right away, Sir"

He wanted to leave but something held him back which he suddenly remembered. They saw him hesitate and wondered what was wrong.

"Any thing you wanna tell me, Lieutenant?"

They all looked expectantly at Scott who returned their gaze with a shy look but he mustered enough courage and drew closer to the truck once again.

"Yes….there is, sir"

He stuttered feeling a bit more nervous as he felt the hard stare of the men bearing down on him.

"Fire away, Soldier"

"An important guest came and…."

"And what does it have to do with me"

"It was the Admiral and an indirect message from the General was sent to me this afternoon after you left for the chase"

"Go on. Tell me what the message's about"

"Well...That he wants to see you at his office the moment you get back"

"Hmm, I see. Anything else?"

"Nope"

"Then get the damn gate open"

"Alright, Sir. I'll get going"

Scott responded and walked a few metres away from the side of the road, heading back the way he had come. Then he waved at his idle partner standing at the opposite side before him.

"Allow them in"

He muttered out barely having the energy to shout like he did earlier and he was already feeling thirsty by the time he arrived at his deserted post. His comrade pulled on the lever of the electronic switch and the gate was running wide open again for the jeep to pass through.

Murphy drove the jeep inside the camp when it was clear enough for them to go inside while the two guards saluted the colonel as they drove in and skillfully parked the jeep in between two truck with each having a missile launcher at the left wing of the camp, not too far from where several other combating military artilleries used for warfare were strategically kept inside three Dome tents close to the fenced perimeter surrounding the military base. The colonel quickly jumped down from the jeep and left the trios with a personal instructions before heading to the pyramid tent in the middle of the base where the General's office was located. The trios went back to their respective dome and the colonel went his way without an escort.