ABC Studios and their creators. Saigon and all new characters are © Matt Quinn, 1998. Contains violence and profanity. This is an independent story, not part of the Prey episode arc.
The first were three men in black pajamas armed with AK-47s recently delivered by the Soviets. Tom Daniels took out his M-16, and began firing, cutting down the three. That was odd, he thought. They would never attack a post that was normally heavily defended like this one. Then, it hit him. There was a larger operation going. The Viet Cong were up to something big. He called in. "What, Corporal Daniels? Three Viet Cong attacked your post? So what? Those losers always try to do something" Commander Ben Gavet said. "The other outposts report probe attacks by Viet Cong" Tom said, listening to another radio while taking into another. "Probe attacks? Don't be an alarmist, Daniels, they're probably just making trouble." Suddenly the roar of MiGs filled the sky. Two MiG-23s flew low, strafing the post. A sound of crashing was heard the in trees, and a North Vietnamese APC thundered forth, hosing the area with machine gun fire as men rushed to the post back from the festivities in the nearby towns. Tom began firing his machine gun indiscriminately, punching holes in the flimsy armor of the APC. Gunfire crackled through the jungle. A mortar round collapsed the roof and killed two soldiers. A NV (North Vietnamese) tank began firing, destroying two small buildings. A man destroyed it with a LAW rocket. Tom vaulted over the railing as the building exploded. He landed softly 10 feet below and ran into the jungle, hosing the NVs with no pity. Three died. He radioed in. "Daniels, what the hell is going on over there?" Commander Gavet roared. "North Vietnamese tanks, APCs, planes, and troops have attacked my outpost. Reinforcements from the nearby towns are rushing in, but we're being overrun! Send helicopters fast..." His radio went out. A Viet Cong rose out of the jungle in front of him. He fired through his stomach. The man fell dead. Daniels scrambled off into the jungle, sounds of death behind him. Two days later, he sat in a growth of vines in the jungle. After the fighting had subsided, he came back and found the outpost leveled bodies all over the place. They had all been shot, and a few had been bayoneted cruelly. Daniels checked his ammunition. He had 100 rounds for an M-16, three grenades, a stolen AK-47 with 500 rounds, and an unlit Molotov cocktail. He was on his own behind North Vietnamese lines. A sound. Two sounds. Since his youth, he had unusually keen hearing, as the odd ability to sense the presence of others, and their emotions. He loaded his M-16, and fired a warning shot. Two Hmong tribesmen stood in the jungle, rifles over their heads. "Do you speak English?" he asked. "I do" one of them said in a heavily-accented voice. "Good. Now what are you doing stalking me through the jungle?" "We heard of the destruction of an outpost near here. We've been following a Viet Cong convoy for a week now, picking people off here and there. Ever since they attacked out village." "They did?" "They did. Their soldiers were stronger, faster, and smarter then our village militia. They ran roughshod over us, killed most of our soldiers, and raped then murdered the women. They looted our shrines and houses, then burned the village down. Only three of us escaped. One of us was killed during a raid against a supply convoy carrying food and ammunition." "Hot damn. Do you know of any communication between the US Headquarters and here?" "Some. They call it the Tet Offensive." "What are we going to do now?" "Hunt down the Viet Cong dogs" one of them said. "Then kill them." They marched through the jungle for a few more days, drinking from streams and eating forest animals. No North Vietnamese were sighted. The Hmong told him they were going to organize an army to hunt down the Viet Cong force. Sometimes they heard the roar of planes and the thuds of chopper blades. They came to a small village in the jungle, seemingly deserted. When one of the Hmong gave a code phrase in their language, 35 Hmong warriors armed to the teeth appeared. Some appeared different, in an odd way. He asked the Hmong who spoke English why. "They're the children of members of the Viet Cong Fox Division. They were always stronger, faster, and smarter then the children of Hmong. We'll need them to battle the Fox Division." "What exactly is the Fox Division?" "They're a large group of the Viet Cong who do their 'dirty work'. They take sadistic pleasure in doing that work." "Where is their headquarters?" "A fortress in the secret caves of Yangsun Gorge. No Hmong or South Vietnamese who ever went their came back." "All the better reason to gather a good-sized army to go down there and kill those bastards." "Yes." Two Hmong runners appeared, followed by 200 more Hmong. They had been mobilizing for battle with the Fox Division for a long time, and were now ready. "Well then let's get our asses moving" Daniels said. "It's party time!" For two more days they marched through the jungle, down the menacing sides of Yangsun gorge. For two days they moved by dark and slept by day to avoid the Viet Cong Fox Division. On the third day, Tom sensed something. Someone, in the jungle. Moving. "Stop!" Tom yelled. "They're here." Three Viet Cong came out the jungle, wielding machine guns. The Hmong began firing. The Viet Cong fired back. When the smoke cleared, all three Viet Cong were dead, and so were five Hmong. "Automatic fire" the English-speaking Hmong explained to his cohorts. They moved farther along into the chasm, until they came to the bottom. When they arrived, the Daniels's translator pointed. Up along the north side of the canyon were caves. Tom could see some people inside them. One of the Hmong produced a mortar, and they began firing, smashing the canyon sides, destroying caves and killing people. Machine gun fire chattered through the jungle. It was an ambush. Corporal Daniels wondered how he couldn't have sensed it. The Hmong began falling. Their axis of fire turned from the caves to the squads of Viet Cong issuing from the jungle. Gunfire roared in the smoky hell of the bottom of the canyon. Daniels could hear the screams, but couldn't see what he was firing at. As the guns fell silent, the smoke cleared. All of the Hmong and around 100 Viet Cong were dead. Twelve Viet Cong pointed rifles at his head. "It's time you meet the leader of the Clan." For hours, he was force-marched through the caves, down into the bowels of the mountains. The stench of death was everywhere. Tom was hauled before what looked like a NV general, but seemed to be more. "Ah, Corporal Daniels. The stand you made with those Hmong buffaloes was admirable. We are more alike then you think." "How so, you son of a bitch?" "We are the same kind, the same species, different from the greater scum of man." "Same species? Are you joking?" "Many years ago, people began to appear, different from the others. Smarter, stronger, faster. In short, better. The next stage of human evolution. You, the entire Fox Division and I are members of a new species. We serve the Communists in Hanoi to sow discord and violence, and when the time is right, exterminate mankind and rule." Could this be true? Tom knew since his youth that he was different from everyone else. He was better at the kiddy games they played, better in school, better in fighting. His mother resented that, and was quite ruthless with him. He had joined the Army right out of college, just as the antiwar movement began heating up. That was irrelevant. "You're insane." "Now, I assure you. Do you wish to join us? Rule as the next stage of mankind?" "Go to hell." "Kill him then." The soldiers began to raise their guns, but he moved like lightning. He snatched an M-16 by the bayonet, cutting himself, then he shot them both. He ran for the entrance to the caves after grabbing the radio from the dead body. He called into Commander Gavet. "Commander, this is Corporal Tom Daniels. I'm in Yangsun Gorge, the headquarters of the Viet Cong Fox Division and I need evac NOW!" "Daniels? We thought you were dead!" "Bring in a chopper fast! I'll explain later!" He ran out the caverns onto the canyon floor. He turned and began machine gunning the Viet Cong who came chasing him. The roar of a chopper was overhead, and a rope fell next to him. He grabbed on, and held on; all while slaughtering the NVs below. He was hauled up into an AH-1 Cobra chopper. "We were just flying by, and were needed to pick up an MIA" the pilot said. "How'd you get here?" "It's a long story," Daniels said. The flashback ended. Tom's head jerked up, and he found himself with Dr. Sloan Parker looking at him quizzically. "What are you talking about? As soon as this song 'Still in Saigon' came on the radio, you went into a trance and began ranting about the new species in Vietnam." "What? All I remember is a rope coming out of an AH-1 Cobra." "Well, you talking about how the Tet Offensive began at your outpost, and how you led the Hmong against the Fox Division, and their leader talking about the new species." "It might be true," Tom said. "Perhaps that should be added to the Whitney University database." "Who knows" Sloan said. Tom still wondered about how memories of the Vietnam War had appeared like that. He never remembered serving in any wars, even in any military service. It was either a false memory implanted by Lewis during his training, jamais vu, or a long suppressed memory about the war. It left him asking questions about himself, his past, and his future.
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