The knife, part II
“Knife fighting is very, very rare in the real world and usually, it's not a proper fight.
Most of the time it ends up in a single strike, usually initiated by an executioner and received by a victim, and the fight is over. But if you find yourself involved in proper knife vs knife fighting, there are some facts you should know”
Garner paused for a while, to reflect.
Then he said:
“When two knife-armed men face each other at the same level, they usually both die”
The guys – who had seen so many knife-fights on the silver screen - looked at each other surprised.
None of them had ever heard before about a knife fight ending up with both the fighters dead on the ground. Until then, they had all always thought about knife-fighting as a noble-art (like boxing, just to mention an example) and yet Garner had just told them that the death of both fighters was the standard outcome of a knife-fighting duel.
“Without the advantage of surprise – Garner said - giving an immediately-deadly blow with a knife is almost impossible.
So, after the first strike, the real fight starts, and that’s when the situation gets complicated, because when both men are in the knife-fighting guard position, giving deadly strikes is practically impossible.
Then the two fighters start 'kissing' each other, meaning that they start giving each other superficial wounds.
And the longer the fight, the more of those lighter wounds the two will give each other, and so bleed. So, in the end, those superficial wounds will finally kill the winner too, because of blood loss.
It was terrible... But presumably real.
There was no reason to make things like that up.
No...Garner was talking about things the army knew for sure.
Things someone had seen happening, and that’s where the teaching was coming from
So the guys continued listening.
“This 'dead-men-fighting' situation can happen in the jungle easily, because in the jungle hours can pass before you receive proper first aid.
So, I will now teach you knife-fighting, but do remember that knife vs knife fighting in an even situation is already a half defeat, and so you are going to do anything you can to avoid such kinds of situations.
Always remember that your goal is to kill, not fight. There's no such thing as fair play at war and fighting puts you at risk of being defeated, but murder doesn't.
Remember that, always”
Garner took a couple of steps back, and so leaving the center of the open space.
“Danforth, Ortega” he said.
That morning, Danforth was a little out of sorts.
He was sick and tired of eating rats, snakes, spiders and berries.
He was tired of sleeping four hours each night for months, and so much daily work out that his muscles were in pain every single night.
So when he went to the centre of the open space just like Garner had just ordered him to do, his knees were squeaking at every movement, and his back was in pain when he was still too. His muscles were tight, stiff and weak.
He felt like an old man.
The selection had been terrible, but fuck... The course too was driving him crazy with tiredness.
And he was sick and tired of constantly hearing that he had to put on wieght if he wanted to survive the SOG, and so to stuff himself with food each and every night.
Of course he wasn't going to quit after all he had gone through during the selection-program, but for god's sake... He was sick and tired for sure.
And when Garner called him to fight with the training, fake knives, he was going to be beat up for the umpteenth time that week, and he really couldn't stand it any longer.
This time he had no intention of receiving a beating at all.
The toy was broken.
The rats, the weight-lifting, the push-ups, the runs... Enough.
It was enough.
This time it was going to be different.
And seeing Ortega right in front of him, with his wooden knife in the right and at the ready, it was the last straw.
Ortega placed himself right in front of him and on guard, but Danforth threw his knife to him just like that, without even thinking about it.
The piece of wood flew as straight as a missile against Ortega's head, opening a cut on his forehead.
A small squirt of blood flew away from his head and up, in the air.
Only then did Danforth wake himself up, as if he had just stopped dreaming.
Ortega put his hand over the wound and spun at the same time, thus giving his back to his adversary.
He shook his head several times, as if he trying to shake away the pain with no results.
A burning pain, that judging from the convulsive movements of Ortega's head, looked like it had no intention of going away at all.
A very bad wound.
“You did wrong, Danforth” said Garner.
But Danforth did not agree... He was thinking quite the contrary.
He thought he had just gone over the top, so he turned to his instructor with a puzzled glance on his face.
“That's wrong, Danforth: a knife can't go through a human skull. Had this knife been real, it would have done just the same damage this one did. Congratulations, soldier. You have just pissed off your enemy even more, and you are now unarmed too”
“What?”
“Continue”
Ortega looked at his bloody finger-tips, then he tuned to Danforth and only then could everyone see the real extent of his wound.
The cut on his forehead was three centimetres long and opened up by three millimetres, which was enough to see the white stripe of the underlying bone
Ortega then started advancing toward Danforth, his wooden knife firmly held in the right, in a perfect fighting stance.
And when finally got within reach, he slammed a first thrust that Danforth avoided by jumping backwards.
Ortega wasn't trying to hit him to win the fight, but just to hurt him.
Danforth then gave him a kick on his shin-bone and hit him right in the middle.
Then he grabbed Ortega's armed arm, but Ortega twisted himself out of his grasp, thus succeeding in getting out of the hold, then they both lost their balance and fell to the ground.
“Never use Greek-Roman fighting during a knife fight” Garner said.
A moment later, Danforth felt Ortega's knife in his side... With an unprecedented violence.
“AAARGH”
Jesus Christ – thought Danforth – what pain!
He could have broken my rib. And had a broken rib pierced some internal organ, he could have killed me..
Danforth managed to grab Ortega's armed wrist.
The two then lay embracing each other just like that, in that kind of Greek-Roman embrace, with Danforth blocking Ortega's armed hand.
“Okay, that's enough” Garner said, but the two of them looked like they hadn't heard a word.
“I said enough, dickheads!”
Garner kicked in the middle of them, making both fly away from each other.
The two fell on the ground again, in the dust.
“You went too far, both of you. There must be no accidents in here, am I clear? You can hate each other as much as you want, but the first of you putting someone else out of use is out of SOG. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yessir” said Danforth.
Half of Ortega's face was now covered in blood. His glance was turned away from Garner, because he wanted to avoid giving him the satisfaction of looking at him while he was talking.
“PRIVATE!” Said Garner.
“Yessir!”
“Look at Ortega carefully. Look at him, you recruits. Look at his cut on his forehead: this kind of cut can blind you with blood, and so they are very dangerous. If something like that happens to you, you have to bandage yourself before anything else. Do it before blood gets you into Ortega's situation. Any piece of cloth will do the job”
Garner took a little scarf from one pocket, turned it a couple of times on itself, then gave it to Ortega, who tied it over his head.
“Enough with knife-fighting for today. You, Ortega: do you need to go to the infirmary?
“No sir”
“Very well, soldier”