One Way Home

By Edward Cerda

One Way Home is an adventure of excitement and fast moving thriller.One Way Home involves a special squad of American soldiers sent into the jungles of Vietnam to terminate enemy soldiers that can´t be killed by contemporary means.
A highly trained combat sergeant leads his squad into an adventure of horror and a constant test of their individual survival skills against all odds.
This adventure involves the unexpected battle with zombie soldiers as well as a clan of vampires whose only desire is to make these American soldiers into MIA statistics. One Way Home is full of action from the start to the finish. There´s blood and guts spilled throughout the jungles of Vietnam by both sides. Only the experience of one combat sergeant can save his squad from doom and the failure of their assignment.
In the coming months look for the continuation sequel of this adventure which takes our combat sergeant and his men deeper into the jungles of Vietnam only to meet their next enemy face to face in "FULL MOON".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 30, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462804948

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

One Way Home

IT IS THE year 1965 in the jungles of Vietnam. My troops and I were sent to locate and destroy an enemy outpost. This was a secret and special assignment. The top brass forgot to mention how secret and special it really was. My name is sergeant Rock. This is my story of my one way home.

I am one of the eight Airborne soldiers that make up this special squad. Within the squad there is T-Bone, Doc, Billy Ray, Pax, Chico, Blood and Paco.

I was born in Montana. My experience in combat is ten active years in war zones all over the world. I am six foot two, about 220 pounds. My expertise is in special weapons and leading men in and out of hot spots in one piece.

One of my men is Doc. He stands about five foot ten inches and weights about 180 pounds soaken wet. He is medium built. His expertise lies in the medical field. His combat experience is six years in war zones. Doc is normally soft-spoken and somewhat shy. Doc was born in New York City.

Then there’s T-Bone. He stands about six-foot and weights about 210 pounds. T-Bone is a Texan. He was born in San Antonio Texas. His specialty is weapons and explosives. His combat experience is about seven years. He has that Texas drawl, and he loves a good steak. T-Bone is stocky and big boned. He’s as strong as an ox.

Billy Ray was born in Chicago. He’s about five foot eleven inches tall with a broad frame. He specializes in tactics and special weapons. He has eight years in combat experience. Billy Ray is a fast talker and likes to travel the fast lane.

Pax is California bred. He’s really a surfer at heart. He stands about five foot ten inches tall with a medium size frame. His specialty is in foreign languages and weapons. Pax has eight years in a combat zone.

Chico was born in Houston Texas. Chico prefers to be called a Mexican Texan. He stands about five foot ten inches tall. He’s medium size with a sturdy frame. His specialty is in weapons and booby traps. Chico considers himself a hot Latin lover. He has eight years of combat experience.

Then we have Blood. Blood was born in Chicago. Blood is an African American but he prefers to be called brother. Blood stands about five foot eleven inches and has a medium size frame. His specialty is in radio communications, tactics and weapons. He has eight years in combat experience. Blood is a talker and loves a good argument.

My last member is Paco. Paco was born in New Mexico. Paco is an American Indian. He stands about five foot ten inches tall with a medium size frame. His specialty is in tracking, weapons and explosives. Paco has eight years combat experience.

We all came together as a special squad when the upper echelon needed special jobs to be performed. We were sent on many missions that not only sharpened our individual skills but our team skills as well. Most of our assignments were of the caliber that normal soldier’s would not be able to survive. Our job was to clean up the mess that someone else screwed up. This was one of those messed up jobs that we have been ordered to clean up and make it go away. Now my men and I are located deep in the jungles of Vietnam. This is our story.

January, 20, 1965:

One month prior to our assignment into the jungles of Vietnam, I had been ordered to report to General Stone’s office at the Pentagon. At 0800 hours, I find myself sitting in the main hallway just outside of the general’s secretary’s office. The general’s secretary steps into the hallway and asks me to step inside. I enter the office and am escorted into the Generals private office. I salute the general and he returns my salute.

Sergeant Rock: Sir! Sergeant Rock reporting as ordered!

General: Sergeant Rock, do you know why you have been ordered here?

Sergeant: No sir.

General: Well sergeant, we have a special assignment that needs to be carried out by you and your men.

Sarge: Yes sir!

General: It seems that there is a special outpost located deep in the jungles of Vietnam and it has soldiers that can’t be killed or even if they are shot they don’t die. They just keep moving forward and attacking.

(There’s no response by the sergeant, he listens).

General: It seems sarge, that somehow with all that Agent Orange that we’ve dropped on the enemy, it has turned them into indestructible killing machines. We’ve had many reports from our troops that indicate that these enemy troops can’t be killed with bullets or bombs.

Sarge: That’s incredible sir! Mission details sir?

General: You and your men will be flown into Vietnam and dropped by parachutes. You will make your way from the drop zone to your target and destroy it and every living soldier or civilian in that outpost. We want no survivors!

Sarge: What if there are captured POW’s in that outpost?

General: I repeat, no survivors! Do I make myself clear sergeant?

Sarge: Yes sir, very clear!

General: Here are your orders and the necessary information that we have on this outpost.

Sarge: There are no maps to show the location of this outpost? How are we supposed to find it?

General: We don’t have much to lead you with sergeant. We only know that these troops have been either seen or fought with along the Cambodian border. This is why we are dropping you in that location. You and your men will have to make do with what we have to give you.

Sarge: Is that all sir?

General: One more thing sergeant. Your men are waiting for you at the air base. All of the necessary gear is on the transport aircraft. From the air base you and your team will be flown directly to Vietnam. Good-luck sergeant!

I met my men at the air base, boarded the transport aircraft and settled in for the long air trip. The men questioned me about our assignment. I showed them the paperwork that was given to me.

Sarge: Well men, it seems that we are getting the short end of the stick again! I can’t tell you much about what type of assignment we have, because I’m in the dark just like you. All I know is that we have to blow the shit out of some special outpost with enemy soldiers that can’t be killed with bullets or bombs! The affected area lies somewhere near the Cambodian border. That’s all I know. So settle in, because we have a long flight ahead of us.

The flight lasted about eighteen hours. The Jump-master advises the sergeant that they were over their objective and for the squad to hook up and prepare for the jump. The indicator light is burning red; suddenly it glows bright green. The door props open and one by one the men leap into dark space. The parachutes open and the team descends to the jungle floor of Vietnam. Each member lands without injury. The team gathers together and the sarge calls T-Bone forward.

Sarge: T-Bone, make a recon of the area and report anything out of the ordinary back to me.

T-Bone: Right sarge!

It was a hot and humid typical jungle day. I have just sent T-Bone on a recon of the surrounding area. Shots rang out in the distant jungle. We all reacted and prepared ourselves for any possible attacks. Within minutes, T-Bone arrived gasping for air and began to tell us the most awesome report that I have ever heard.

T-Bone: Yo sarge, I just saw the most gruesome sight that any man has ever seen.

Sarge: Who fired those shots?

T-Bone: I did sarge. There were some corpses that were still alive and moving.

Doc: What, you killed wounded soldiers?

T-Bone: No Doc, I shot several corpses that were eating the flesh off dead villagers.

Blood: You shot dead corpses that were eating other dead corpses? That don’t make no sense!

T-Bone: No, you don’t understand! The bodies I shot were still alive and they were eating the flesh off the dead villager’s bodies!

Sarge: All right T-Bone, settle down, regroup and give me a thorough report slowly.

T-Bone: Right sarge, as I arrived at the site, I noticed that there had been some type of struggle or battle. I saw bodies that had been mutilated and half-eaten. As I searched the area for any survivors, that’s when one of the fallen enemy soldiers tried to grab my right foot. I looked down and saw this bluish skin colored creature that was trying to take a bite off my foot. That’s when I shot it in the head and it released its grip. I noticed that there were several other creatures moving, so I shot them in the head too. Most of these creatures had their legs cut off, yet they were still very much alive. They looked human but yet they weren’t.

Sarge: Is there anything else?

T-Bone: Yes sir! There was a stench that smelled like rotting flesh. The air was filled with the smell of death. The soldiers that I shot were already dead and their flesh was rotten to the core but they were still alive.

Blood: Hey T-Bone, maybe you were hallucinating? You know in the heat of battle and the shock of seeing rotting flesh could have played games on your mind.

T-Bone: No Blood, I know what I saw. There was death all around me and that stench, it was so thick that it made me choke and those soldiers were dead, yet not dead.

Sarge: Is that your report T-Bone?

T-Bone: Yes sir! Just a lot of dead mutilated bodies of villagers and those things that just kept crawling on the ground looking for fresh flesh. That’s it sarge, nothing else.

Sergeant Rock: Okay, we have a job to do and it seems that we may have stumbled into something that we just don’t want any part of. But that’s the breaks. We are here and we have to find out what caused this village to die out, and how is it that these soldiers were dead, yet still very much alive. There’s got to be a reason for this. Chico, you take point! And take it slow! All right, gather your gear and let’s move out. Billy Ray, Pax and Paco, you follow Chico’s lead. Blood, you bring up the rear. Any questions? (No response from the men) Move out!

As we traveled deeper into the jungle, we all noticed that the sounds of the jungle animals had disappeared. It’s as if all of the animals had taken a day off. The heat was unbearable. And the stench of death that was now becoming more apparent was overwhelming. It was as thick as molasses. Chico makes a hand signal (closed fist) and raises it above his head advising the men to come to a halt. Sergeant Rock makes his way towards Chico’s position and in a whisper, the sergeant asks:

Sarge: What’s wrong Chico?

Chico: (In an excited whisper)Yo sarge, I think that we are getting closer to that village.

Sarge: What makes you say that Chico?

Chico: Maybe this dead body that’s half eaten might be a small clue.

Sarge: My God, what sort of animal could have done this?

Chico: Damn, this dude is still alive! What’s he saying?

Old man: (Speaking in broken English). The living dead have come. They have arrived, the living dead.

Chico: What the hell is he saying, the living dead? Hey homeboy, you’re pretty close to that stage.

Sarge: Shut up Chico! Old man, what caused this? What attacked you? Was it a large animal? What happened to you?

Old Man: The soldiers came, destroyed our village and then they started to eat all of my people. They were the living dead. (The old man dies).

Chico: Man, that old man must have been on some trip!

Sarge: I don’t think that old man was on any kind of trip, except for one way home.

As we made our way deeper into the jungle, we encountered a Vietcong enemy patrol. They spotted us. A firefight began. Bullets were flying everywhere. We used tracers to pin point the enemy positions. Then we heard that whistling sound, the distinct sound of incoming (mortars). The ground shook and grumbled beneath us. The jungle became like daytime, with all the explosions around us. In the distant darkness, we could see the silhouettes of the moving soldiers. They were trying to surround us from all sides. We were right in the middle of it. Then, we smelled that odor of death. One enemy soldier, who may have been no more than 10 yards from me, was preparing to throw a hand grenade when something came from his rear and took him down. He gave out a terrible scream and I could hear him drowning on his own blood. One second, he was there and then he was gone. One by one, the soldiers disappeared. The firing stopped. Then there was silence.

Sarge: Chico, did we have any casualties?

Chico: No sarge, nobody got hit.

Sarge: All right, everybody sit tight. Keep your eyes and ears open. Any movement, other than our movement shoot and identify later. Got it! (Yeah, we got it sarge). All right, everybody stay low.

Minutes passed, yet those minutes felt like hours. That stench of death left as quickly as it had arrived. The morning sun shined through the treetops. And the jungle life once again came to life.

We searched the area for dead bodies and only found parts and pieces of the soldiers bodies. Every one of those soldiers had been torn apart, piece by piece. There was blood and guts everywhere. We moved on.

Deeper and deeper into the jungle we traveled. Chico was still the lead man, when suddenly; Chico using hand signals brings the team to a halt. Chico motions for the sergeant to come forward and in a whisper Chico states: sarge, come take a look at this.

It was a large cave; the mouth of the cave was shaped like a demons head. At the entrance of the cave, we found human remains hundreds of them. The strange thing about these dead bodies was that they were not eaten. They had not been torn apart like those of the village or the enemy patrol. The looks on their faces showed the expression of terror and pain combined. They had died a terrible death. And it looked like they had died slowly and painfully. There were villagers as well as soldier’s bodies among the dead. It’s as if they had been brought here for the purpose of sacrificial reasons but these poor devils never made it further than the main entrance and whatever took these poor devils decided to feast on them right there on the spot.

Blood: Yo sarge, what the hell caused this? Man, like this is weird? What could have done this?

Sarge: I don’t know but we are going to find out the reason. Pax you and Paco check out the cave and see where it leads. Maintain radio communications with us. If you need us for any reason, give us the code name Deadman. Got it?

Paco: Right sarge!

Sarge: Okay, then move out. Doc, check out the corpses. Maybe you’ll be able to tell me what killed them.

Doc comes forward and examines the dead corpses for wounds and any possible clues that will tell him how they were killed. He reports his findings back to the sergeant.

Doc: Sarge from what I can see off some of these freshly killed bodies, I found puncture marks on the neck and arm areas. There’s no sign of blood either on the ground or in the body of the deceased. It appears that these people were literally drained of all of their blood.

Sarge: Are you sure Doc?

Doc: Yes sir, I’m pretty sure.

Blood: But what sucked their blood out?

Sarge: I think that the answer we seek might be inside this cave.

Pax and Paco enter the cave, traveling approximately 50 feet, and noticed that the cave entrance comes to a dead stop at the edge of a large opening, which drops into the darkness.

Pax: Hey Paco, get the ropes ready.

Paco: Right!

Both Pax and Paco make their way down into the hole of darkness. They have repelled at least 200 feet into this hellhole. Suddenly, they hear this hissing sound coming from the darkness. At first they thought that it might be some large snakes. Using their helmet-attached flashlights, they continue to make their way downward. Their M-16’s are prepped for action, just in case. After several minutes, they have arrived at the bottom of the hole. Making their way farther into the cave, they encounter hundreds of bodies that have been feasted upon and their skeletal remains were scattered throughout the tunnel.

Paco: Yo sarge!

Sarge: Go ahead Paco.

Paco: Sarge, there’s dead bodies all over the place. Some of these freshly killed bodies have small holes on their neck area.

Sarge: Anything else?

Paco: No, wait! I just saw some movement in the darkness. Pax, did you see that?

Pax: Yeh, what was it?

Paco: I don’t know, it moved too fast for me to get a good look at it. But it was human, whatever it was.

Sarge: Pax, Paco what’s going on?

Paco: We saw some movement sarge, we’re going to check it out.

Sarge: Okay but maintain radio contact.

Paco: Right sarge. Pax, I’ll take lead, you cover our rear.

Pax: Okay amigo, you got it.

Traveling down the tunnel, they come to a flat spot, which overlooked a large cavern containing several other tunnels leading into different directions. What they saw next, was unbelievable to them? Both men were looking at what appeared to be humans, except that these humans were hanging upside down from within the cave walls like bats. The men saw some movement. It looked like some large bird, except that this bird was an extremely large bat. It flew around the cave ceiling several times and came to rest on a large boulder. Suddenly, this bat started to change its shape. It changed from a bat into a human form. Standing atop of the boulder, this human form looked upwards in their direction. It stood about six feet in height, dark hair and weighed about 200 pounds. Its eyes were the color of red blood and it had large canines. His hands were large with long fingers that had razor sharp looking nails.

Both Pax and Paco crouched down as much as possible so that they would not give away their position. This creature continued to stare in their direction when, another human form came from within one of the tunnels dragging a villager whom was screaming in horror.

Vampire: Look Master, I have brought you a gift. She is young and healthy, and will give you much satisfaction and blood.

Dracco, the head vampire looked at the young woman with red eyes shining through the darkness. He grasped the woman by the neck, lifted her towards him, and drank her blood. You could hear her muffled screams of agony as he used his razor sharp nails to rip her throat wide open. As her blood started flowing like running water he started drinking. You could hear her gasping for air as this creature sucked her life given fluid out of her body. Her body went limp and the creature released his death-biting grip allowing the lifeless body to fall onto the cavern dirt floor. As the body fell through empty space it finally struck the dirt floor with a thug.

Pax: (In a low whisper) Holy shit, did you see that!

Paco: Shut-up man! He might hear you. Come on; let’s report back to the sarge.

Paco and Pax make their way back to ground level and give this report to the Rock.

Paco: Sarge, you’ll never believe what we saw down there in that cave!

Sarge: Settle down Paco, what did you see?

Paco: Sarge we saw this thing that looked like a man but yet wasn’t.

Sarge: What do you mean, looked like but wasn’t? Paco, you’re not making sense. Settle down! Now, slowly, tell me what you and Pax saw.

Paco: There was this guy, who looked human but yet could turn himself into a large bat. He had fangs and long fingernails that looked like long razors. He had this young woman that was brought to him by some other guy, who came out of one of those tunnels and called the big guy master. Then the big guy gripped the woman by the throat and ripped it open and drank her blood.

Sarge: What, Pax did you see this too?

Pax: Yeh sarge, it’s just like Paco said. It was horrible.

Sarge: Okay, it doesn’t make any sense but we’ll have to go back inside there and find out what really is in that cave.

Paco & Pax: Man, there’s no way that we are going back in there. That place is taboo. It’s evil and you can feel death in the air. No way man, you can count us out.

Sarge: Well men, what do say? Do we go in or just disregard it. Whatta you say Blood?

Blood: Man, I don’t know what you white mothers want to do but it’s a proven theory that when shit comes down, the only one that either gets eaten or drained is the brother. I think, I’ll sit this one out and watch what you white boys decide to do.

Sarge: T-Bone, Doc, Billy Ray, how about you men?

Sarge, you know that we’d follow you into hell itself but maybe it’s best to leave it alone.

Sarge: All right men, if that’s how you feel about it, let’s just forget it and move on. Maybe on the way back, we’ll have a different view on it. Blood! Take point!

Blood: Yo man! What is it with you and sending this home-boy at point? It’s not like I ever told you that I enjoyed being in the front. Man even in the states, I have to be either in the back or the last to enter. But here in the jungle, white boy loves for the homeboy to be in front.

Sarge: Blood, shut-up and start moving!

Blood: Yes sir!

We gathered our gear and moved onward, further into the jungle. Our objective was about a three-day march from us. In three days we would reach our objective, destroy it and make our way back to friendly forces. The sun was starting to set in the horizon. We have about one hour of daylight left. Soon, we’ll have to make camp and rest for the night. At least, that’s what we had in mind. But it wasn’t to be. There was an unexpected visit that we hadn’t counted on.

It’s about one o’clock in the morning and we have settled in for the night. Blood was on guard duty. The rest of the crew was trying to get some shuteye. It was difficult, everybody was still thinking of what had happened and what we had encountered.

Paco: Hey Pax, are you asleep?

Pax: No man, what’s on your mind?

Paco: Hey man, I keep thinking about that cave and that big dude.

Pax: Yeh, I know what you mean. I can’t get that guy out of my mind.

Paco: Hey man, you don’t think that maybe that dude was a, a.

Pax: Was a what?

Paco: You know, a vampire.

Pax: A what, are you crazy man?

Paco: No man, I’m serious! That guy reminded me of Dracula.

Pax: Paco, Dracula was a character made up by Hollywood. There’s no such thing.

Paco: Then can you explain how that guy became a bat and then turned into the form of a person. And what about his drinking that woman’s blood?