Chapter 549: Small Mountain Village
As they hurried towards the American coastal base, Xiao Luo observed that the SEAL team’s combat skills were excellent. They were quickly able to spot minefields, and on top of that, they had a mine detector that could accurately identify the mines’ location, allowing their vehicles to carefully navigate around the danger zones.
Dusk was falling, and soon they arrived at a small mountain village.
Smoke could be spotted around the small mountain village. When they looked over, they saw only about a dozen huts made of loess soil. There were barely any trees in the surroundings, a clear sign of desertification, likely caused the low air quality rather than other factors. The area was a dust bowl, and villagers in ragged clothes were scuttering around the village. When they saw a band of armed combatants breaking in, the villagers stared at the strangers in trepidation with their eyes wide opened and cowered in fear.
“I’m thirsty as h.e.l.l! It’s actually pitiful how little water they can provide. This entire country is turning into a desert. It’s a miracle they can actually live here!” Rice said gruffly. His throat was dry, and he wiped the sweat off his forehead in desperation.
He was extremely thirsty, and his entire body was aching after a whole day of traveling. Everyone else was in pretty much teh same condition.
He turned his head and looked at Powell. “Captain, I think we should rest here for the night, but we’ve got to solve the water issue first,” he said.
“We can just ask the Libyan villagers here where we can go to get water,” Powell replied. He used his eyes to indicate that he was referring to the villagers standing at the village entrance.
Rice didn’t notice it at first, but he got a shock when he had a look. “Oh, my G.o.d, these people are severely malnourished. Look at those kids. They all look so hungry that all you can see are skin and bones. That’s just pitiful!”
“As long as there’s a war, the citizens are the ones who are going to suffer the most.”
Powell lamented and then turned to face his female team member. “Mina, since they’re the host, let’s share a bit of our food with them. After all, we’ll be able to return to the base by tomorrow, and the quant.i.ty of food we have in the car should be sufficient,” he said, “What we need the most now is water. Take some food and make friends with them. I think they’ll be happy to let us know where we can get some water and would be more than willing to let us rest here tonight.”
“Understood.”
Mina nodded her head and asked two more members for help. They took out some nutritious canned food and compressed high-energy rations.
Xiao Luo didn’t say a thing, but he did raise his eyebrows a little. Call it intuition, but this small mountain village and all of its villagers gave him a strange feeling. It was hard to describe what he was feeling, but the atmosphere here was oppressive in general. The villagers were walking about staring blankly and resembled the walking dead who had already lost their souls. Their eyes look dull and dead, and they looked like puppets that were being controlled by someone.
Sarah looked at Xiao Luo curiously, blinking her eyes. “Mr. Mie, what’s wrong?” she asked.
Xiao Luo shook his head and said, “Nothing’s wrong.”
“Mr. Mie, this is just a small mountain village. The black Libyan army isn’t here, so you don’t have to be too nervous. Besides, you don’t have to worry about a single thing, and if an accident happens, we won’t abandon you no matter what,” Rice sneered.
Xiao Luo laughed and didn’t say anything. It was better to just ignore people like this, he thought.
…
When the villagers received the food rations, the way their dull-looking eyes looked upon Xiao Luo, and the rest of the team transformed significantly.
Sarah Mich.e.l.le automatically acted as the translator, and through some communication, she realized that there was a creek just roughly one kilometer east of the village. The water there could be consumed, and the villagers agreed to provide a hut for Xiao Luo and the SEAL team to stay for a night.
The hut had been damaged during a previous artillery bombardment, and there was a ma.s.sive hole in the ceiling. Everyone here would undoubtedly be soaked wet by the rainwater if it rained. It was very much a courtyard surrounded by four walls but compared to all the other huts in this village, this was probably the one in the best condition.
Rice was gobbling down his canned food and looking at his surroundings. “These Libyan villagers are rather friendly, and they actually let us have the best hut in this village. When I return home, I must record the entire mission here in Libya in my log for posterity,” he said.
There was a bonfire right at the center, and the light from the fire was flickering gently and casting shadows on everyone’s faces.
“Lieutenant Rice, your writing is so bad. How will we be able to read and understand the articles that you write?” One of the members said jokingly.
Rice snorted and replied, “Why would I need you to understand anything, as long as I can understand it myself, and if…” took a glimpse of Mina, and said playfully, “Mina can understand, then that’s more than enough because I’m planning to give it to Mina as a gift, hehe!”
Mina rolled her eyes at Rice and retorted, “Get lost. I don’t want anything from you!”
“Haha, haha…”
Everyone started laughing all of a sudden.
Xiao Luo sat right at the corner without saying a single thing. He could tell that these American soldiers were trying to relieve their stress. This was a unique method to reduce stress, and he didn’t rule out that Rice may have a liking for Mina. After all, to each his own. One man’s meat was another man’s poison. Rice could possibly like someone different, such as Mina.
After a round of fun, the skies had turned completely dark.
Didn’t Hebrew and Adolf go to fetch some water? What is taking them so long? Why were they not back yet?
Powell, the muscular black man, furrowed his eyebrows and looked out into the night sky. He had a bad feeling about this and immediately turned around to Rice and said, “Rice, bring someone along with you and go look for Hebrew and Adolf!”
“Captain, there are only a bunch of unarmed villagers here. What could happen to them? Let’s wait a bit more; I’m sure they’ll come back,” Rice responded.
Powell had a stern look on his face. “This is a war zone. Anything is possible here. We’ve already lost two of our comrades on our way here, so we can’t afford to lose any more people. Don’t forget that besides the black Libyan army, Khun Sa’s Mercenary Corps are our enemies as well,” he growled.
“Yes, sir!”
Rice got rid of his lax att.i.tude, called one more member, put on their night-vision goggles, and headed out immediately.
“Captain Powell, Mr. Mie told me that he has already got rid of the entire Khun Sa Mercenary Corps. There’s actually no need for us to worry about them anymore,” Sarah pitched in.
As soon as they heard that, everyone in the room was stunned, but began laughing the next second.
Sarah couldn’t understand what’s going on. “You guys… what are you laughing at?” she said.
Mina gave her a cold glare and replied, “Ms. Sarah, how can you trust everything that this guy from Hua Nation says? Only this morning, I scared him so badly with one kick that he couldn’t even move at all. If I wanted to kill him back then, there’s no way he could have done anything to fight back. Just him alone, and he thinks he could get rid of the entire Khun Sa Mercenary Corps? What a joke!”
“They say that Hua Nation has rich and traditional values, don’t tell me that the traditional value they have includes bragging? Haha, haha…” another person said.
“Haha, haha…”
Everyone started laughing along with him.
“Why are all of you being like this? Mr. Mie is powerful, and he even…”
“Ms. Sarah, do you know why he wanted to come along with us? Let me tell you why.”
Mina interrupted Sarah mid-speech, glaring unkindly at Xiao Luo. “Because he knows that it’d be hard for him to survive in this place all by himself. That’s why Mr. Mie over here needs our protection. As long as he’s with us, the chances of him leaving Libya alive is going to be higher. Am I right, Mr. Mie?”
Xiao Luo laughed wryly and couldn’t be bothered to pay any attention to such an annoying woman. He decided to refresh his spirits by closing his eyes, and except for Sarah Mich.e.l.le, everyone else there was like thin air to him.
Mina gritted her teeth. For, by keeping quiet, Xiao Luo was putting up the best counter against her tirade and just made her look like an unreasonable old shrew.