"Gustav Hasvord. The Short-Timers " - читать интересную книгу автора

We march. We look at the rubble we have made. We get tired of looking
at it; there's so much of it.


Twilight.
What's left of Delta Company, 1st Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment,
First Marine Division, is sprawled all over the beach down by the River of
Perfumes. The bearded grunts are sleeping, cooking chow, bragging, comparing
souvenirs, and reenacting every moment of the battle, real and imagined,
every man a hero beyond belief.
The Lusthog Squad is wasted. We have nailed our names into the pages of
history enough for today. Canteens come out. It's too hot to cook so we eat
cold C's.
Some of the guys are getting to their feet.
Donlon stands up, shouts, "LOOK!"
Five hundred yards north there is an island in the River of Perfumes.
On the island a semicircle of miniature tanks is converging upon a frantic
colony of ants. The ants drop their gear and sling their AK-47 assault
rifles over their backs and they jump into the river. The ants swim for it.
All of the tanks open fire with ninety-millimeter shells and with
fifty-caliber machine guns.
Some of the ants sink.
Cobra gunships buzz out of a horizon that is the color of lead and
swoop in for the kill.
The ants swim faster.
The hovering gunships chop up the brown water with their machine guns.
The ants swim, dive, or, in their panic, drown.
Delta Company gets onto its feet.
Three Cobra gunships zoom down to within a few yards of the river and
the helmeted door gunners machine-gun the ants as they flop in the water,
trapped in a syncopated hurricane of hot air beating down from the swirling
rotor blades, trapped in the water while their red life runs out through
bullet holes.
Only one ant reaches the river bank. The ant opens fire at the gunships
as they hover over the water like monsters feeding.
Someone says, "See that shit? He's hard-core."
One gunship detaches itself from the blood feast and skims across the
River of Perfumes. The chopper drops bullets all over the beach, all around
the ant.
The ant runs off the beach.
The gunship zooms back to feed on the ants in the water.
The ant runs onto the beach and opens fire.
The gunship banks sharply and comes in low, rockets swooshing from
under its belly and machine guns chattering.
Again, the ant runs off the beach.
The gunship is halfway back to the ants in the water when the ant on
the beach reappears and opens fire.
This time the gunship pilot brings his ship in low enough to decapitate
the ant with the chopper's skids. The gunship fires.
The ant fires.