Prisoner of Terror

Tim had signed up for the U.S. army in hopes of going to war for a couple years and returning home to start his college classes paid for by the army. But while training in the army reserve, his shooting instructor noticed his amazing skill with the 50 caliber sniper rifle. A couple days later the shooting instructor called down a sergeant from the special ops training camp to observe Tim practice on beer bottles placed a half mile away, amazingly Tim hit all 10 on the bottles. That day Tim was transferred to the special ops training facility for snipers. He spent only 2 months there and was shipped off to Afghanistan, where he was stationed to stop firearms traffic from getting into Iran. While stationed on a hill top overlooking an abandoned road, spying on a suspicious caravan of trucks, he was spotted by a glare off of his scope by one of the truck drivers. In this situation he was instructed to stay in position and not move. But the caravan had stopped and one driver was calling someone on a satellite phone. Next thing he knew there was an enemy helicopter flying in on him. He called for reinforcements over the radio, and waited. Thankfully they didn’t know exactly where he was, and he was hidden very well by the camouflage. As two Hummers approached with assistance, the helicopter, which had just disappeared over the hill reappeared and flew right over Tim’s head. With an amazing shot he hit the pilot of the helicopter in the neck, sending the helicopter plummeting to the ground. Now that the helicopter was taken care of the men in the hummers easily took control of the situation on the ground, arresting the drivers and seizing the missile launchers and guns in the trucks. That day Tim saved 16 men from sure death.

For Tim’s success in this mission he was promoted to the head of his own squadron of special ops snipers. He led his squad in several successful missions over the next year, but then came that fateful day. While being transported by helicopter to a new strategic position their helicopter was shot by an enemy stinger missile. Barely hitting the back propeller, it sent them into a death spiral towards the ground only 100 feet away. On impact the pilot and 2 of the 8 men died and 1 was severely injured. Left there stranded in the middle of desert with nothing but what they could salvage from the smoldering helicopter. Tim knew that the black smoke rising from the helicopter would lead the enemy to their position, so they grabbed their back packs and left to a safer location. Unfortunately they had to leave their injured comrade behind. They were not 100 yards away when the sound of an enemy truck drew closer. They ran for a bunch of large rocks on the ground just ahead. Fearing for their lives, only having a side arm on them, they laid flat on the ground behind the rocks. The truck’s engine seemed to have stopped around the helicopter crash site. Then all of the sudden there were guns to the backs of the men’s heads. They were told to stand up and not to turn around. They all instantly followed the orders. Then they were ordered to turn around and walk straight ahead. At this point Tim had no idea who their capturers were. All he knew was that he should probably follow what they said. After walking for about a minute they saw a small cliff and an opening, no bigger than a house door leading into a dark abyss.

This opening led to a small steel door, bolted shut. Once opened, the door led into a narrow passage lit by hanging bulbs above. Shortly they came upon another steel door. It opened up to a pitch black room. One of the armed men ventured into the darkness and seemed to be patting the walls for something. They heard a click and the room was lit up with rows upon rows of florescent lights. This room seemed to on for almost a quarter-mile. Lining the walls and stacked to the ceiling were wooden crates, most likely filled with ammunition and firearms. Guns to their backs, the men walked past endless crates and then at the end of this room they came upon another steel door. Once again they opened the door and there was a big room, but this time it was lit. Sitting at a table at the end of the room was a big man, drinking with some other significantly smaller men. When we came in they were laughing and having a good time. But when they saw us they got up, put a stern face on and approached us. Immediately the larger man spoke up asking, “Are these the soldiers from the helicopter?” The soldiers that had been escorting us said in a loud, unified voice, “Yes Sir!” The smaller men that were with the large man then yelled in Afghani “GET THE CAMERA!”