Carbine

(Excluded from Center)

We walked for quarter of an hour, when something seemed moved ahead of us. Trooper stopped and motioned me to stand behind a tree. He himself also went behind a tree, peering through the foliage to where there was movement.

Soon two people came out into the clearing. One of small stature, with a gun on his back. The other is a hefty fellow without a gun. Both with backpacks. They had almost passed us when Trooper came out of the hiding and called out:

“Hello!”

The big guy looked around in confusion, and the small one tried to pull the gun off his shoulder, but Trooper in one jump approached him and held the gun by the barrel.

“Oh, the carbine!” he said. “I did hunt a serious animal, didn’t you?”

“Let it go,” said the small guy and pulled the carbine, but Trooper kept it tight.

“Hold on!” Trooper ordered confidently and, almost without looking, hooked the leg of the big guy, who tried to move towards him. At the same time, Trooper slightly pulled him and leaned away, letting him pass by. The big guy completely lost all support and crashed into the ground, sliding a bit on his stomach by inertia.

“Cool down first,” the Marine said calmly to the small one. “A hot head with a firearm is a very dangerous combination.”

“Let me go, I say,” the small guy pulled the carbine again.

In response, Trooper, with a dexterous movement, turned the weapon out of his hands and took two steps away, nodding towards the big guy, who started getting up:

“You better help your friend to get up.”

The small man did not move.

“Okay. Who are they? Where are you heading?” Trooper asked.

“Not your business!”

“Well, with such a weapon on hands…” Trooper shook his head, “I am afraid it is exactly my business now. And we do not have time to wait for the answer. Talk to me, please.”

“We were hunting, and now run from the fire.”

“Where are you from?”

“From Irkutsk.”

“And now where are you going?”

“The hell we know. Fire is everywhere. There has to be a back road there,” the small guy pointed in the direction from where we had come.

“So, no more hunting this time?” Trooper asked.

“No, just getting home.”

“Then I’ll help you,” said Trooper.

“What do you mean?”

“Here,” Trooper pulled out from his pocket a pen and a piece of paper. “Write down your Irkutsk address or at least phone number here.”

“Why?”

“You would like me to return you the carbine, don’t you?”

“What the…,” the small guy swore.

“You can swear, but it’s useless,” Trooper said confidently. “Write it down. Or do you prefer me to keep the carbine as the souvenir of our friendly meeting?”

The small guy looked at the big man. The latter shrugged, confused. Then the little one swore again, took the piece of paper and pen, wrote something and returned to Trooper.

“Besides, it will be easier for you to walk without this heavy thing,” Trooper reassured him.

Then he threw the carbine on his shoulder, nodded to me to follow, turned around, and started walking towards the crater, without looking back.

I caught up with him and asked why he did it.

“They are as much hunters as you and me,” he replied. “They have no hunting gears, no guns. This carbine is not made for hunting animals. Do you know what this thing is?”

“No.”

“This is a rare combat model. No hunting club would register it.”

He looked back and continued walking.

“It seems to me that they are buddies of those whom we are looking for. We could make them sing, especially the big one, but time is short. Let’s pick up the pace.”

He pushed forward so much that I sometimes had to trot after him.

At the crater, we joined Owl and Firebug.

“And what’s that?” Owl asked and pointed to the carbine.

Trooper handed him the weapon.

“Interesting,” Owl said, examining the carbine. “Are back with special forces?”

“No, I took it from a guy nearby. Did not want him to shoot me in the back.”

“Could you describe them?”

We described those two.

“Makes sense,” Owl concluded. These two are from the same company. Which means, there are now only four of them on the crater. Easier for us.”

“Why do you think they climbed the crater?” Trooper asked.

Owl related his thoughts.

“By the way,” he added, “what are we going to do with the carbine? Take it with us or leave it here?”

“Why?” Trooper asked.

“Several people died on the crater, shot by their own weapon,” Owl explained. “Local folks, if come to this place, do not take any weapon with them. We told our soldiers not to go up with the weapon either.”

Trooper thought a bit.

“Let’s leave it here,” he said. “Less chances for an accident.”

“Agreed. We leave it here,” Owl concluded. “Ready to go?”

We checked our watches, adjusted time, and started moving up the crater slope.

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