6
A tractor and an old Lada sat abandoned at the side of the track, but nothing that looked as though it might get our soaked arses out of here at any sort of speed, even if we could have dodged the militants to our right, and half the Georgian army down below us to our left.
The whole place fell eerily quiet.
‘What about the Taliwagons?’
A burst of automatic echoed round the village before I could answer.
‘F*ck it, let’s go.’ Charlie slid downhill and broke free of the treeline. I followed. He was making for a cluster of small wooden houses that hugged the main drag.
We edged into an unfenced yard and flattened ourselves against the back wall. All the shutters were closed. I heard a frightened child whimper behind them.
Squaddies at the bottom of the road loosed off with their AKs. From higher up, to our right, Akaki’s men gave it back in spades. The barrels of their light machine guns must have been red hot.
A round ricocheted off the wall beside us and screamed up into the air.
I tugged Charlie’s sleeve. ‘Wait here, old one.’
Keeping low, I moved to the corner of the house. A dog started barking inside.
My hair was flat against my head. My trousers were caked in mud. My clothes stuck to me like clingfilm. I was just beginning to realize how hungry and thirsty I was.
I checked Baby-G. We had an hour and a bit until last light, maybe less, given the cloud cover.
I lay down on my stomach, and inched my way along the wall until I could see up and down the road. It was deserted. The villagers were keeping well out of this. I didn’t blame them a bit.
The road stumbled uphill for about a hundred metres before disappearing. The militants’ fire position must have been just beyond the bend. They’d chosen well. They had a clear line of fire all the way down into the valley where the helis had landed.
An American voice barked instructions about 200 to my left and BDUs darted around in response. Nana and Paata would probably be in among them as they pushed uphill, but we weren’t going to stick around and find out.
I made my way back to Charlie. He had his leg elevated against the back wall, rain falling onto his face. ‘The squaddies are getting close.’ I held out a hand. He grabbed it and I pulled him up. ‘I didn’t see Akaki’s crew, but they must be past the bend, a hundred up. We need to get up there and beyond their line. We’ll stay behind the houses.’
‘Well done, lad. So what are we hanging about for?’
I hooked his arm over my shoulder and we started to pick our way through a succession of unfenced back yards.
We’d gone another eighty or ninety metres when the houses veered left with the road. Another twenty or thirty and we’d be well beyond the line of fire.
We hit a fenced compound filled with pigs. It wasn’t worth the effort of getting Charlie over the top. We doubled back up the slope and boxed around it. It all took time, and I didn’t know how much of that we had to spare. The road might not be the squaddies’ only axis of attack. The last thing we needed was to be caught in crossfire.
As we worked our way down again, the militants opened up with their light machine guns.
‘Poor little buggers,’ Charlie muttered. ‘Talk about baptism of fire.’
‘Shut up and get moving.’
I stopped, head up.
‘Listen.’
The firing had come from behind us. We were beyond the contact.
All we had to do now was drop down into the village and see about hot-wiring ourselves some freedom.