Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

somehow come back for me.
Bang! Suddenly, there went that door again. I nearly jumped out of my new
Afghan nightshirt with fright. Were they back? With their execution gear? Could
I get up and fight again for my life?
But this time it was Sarawa. And I had to ask myself, Who was he really?
Had he tipped someone off? Was he in the clutches of the Taliban? Or had they
just come for me and broken in when no one was looking?
I still had not been informed of the concept of lokhay. Possibly because they
had no way to inform me, and anyway I had no choice but to trust them. It was
my only shot at survival.
Sarawa was carrying a small lantern, accompanied by a few of his friends. I
sensed them but could not really see in the pitch dark, not in my condition in this
flickering light.
Three of the villagers lifted me off the floor and carried me toward the door.
I remember seeing their silhouettes on the mud walls, sinister, shadowy figures
wearing turbans. Honestly, it was like something out of Arabian Nights. Big
Marcus being hauled away by Ali Baba and his forty thieves to meet the fucking
genie. I could not, of course, know they were acting on the direct orders of the
village elder, who had told them to get me out of there in case the Taliban
decided to ignore the ancient rules and take me by force.
Once outside, they doused the light and set up their formation. Two guys to
walk in front with AK-47s and one guy in the rear also carrying an AK. The
same three guys as before carried me, Sarawa included, and began to walk out of
the village, downward along a trail. We traveled for a long way, the guys
walking for more than an hour, maybe even two. And they walked tirelessly, like
Bushmen or Bedouins.
In the end we headed down a new trail all the way to a river — I guess the
same one where I’d met them — by the waterfall, on a higher reach. I must have
been a complete dead weight, and not for the first time I was amazed by their
strength.
When we reached the river, they stopped and adjusted their grip on me. Then
they walked straight into it and in near total silence carried me across, in the
darkness of this moonless night. I could hear the water rippling past but nothing
more as they waded softly through it. On the other side, they never broke stride
and now began to make their way up a steep gradient through the trees.
It was lush and beautiful in the daylight. I’d seen it, and even in this cold
night, I could feel its soft, dark green isolation, heavy with ferns and bushes.