The following night
Rambo was running alone in Fort Bragg's woods.
The sentries walked along regular paths, which he and the Baker team had already studied for a couple of hours.
Rambo swiftly and silently sneaked from one tree to another.
He had no need to watch his steps to be silent: to prevent himself from stumbling in the dark he just needed to lift his feet a little more than usual.
Rambo was gaining weight, on his arms mostly, but on his legs too.
His muscles were now much more visible and defined, and he was starting to look muscular.
Rambo turned at his right and a few feet away, he saw Barry's eyes looking at him. They looked like two white marbles floating in the dark. Rambo gestured a thumb going across his own throat, in an unmistakable hand-sign
Barry nodded and Rambo vanished behind another tree.
A few seconds later, a flashlight's beam started getting closer.
Then the sentry arrived.
Rambo suddenly came out from the tree he was hiding behind and grabbed him from behind.
With one hand he plugged his mouth and with the other he blocked his chest, immobilizing him.
Then he lifted him from the ground despite his weight (which is something just a few month before he could never have done) – and he carried him right behind the tree he had just appeared from some seconds earlier.
All of this lasted just a few seconds.
The Baker team had instructions not to exaggerate with the other recruits. For Rambo, lessening the violence of his moves wasn't an easy task, but he did the best he could and did it right.
Rambo tied and gagged the guy, who was looking at him with his eyes wide open with terror.
Rambo then swiftly glanced over the bush he was hiding in, and saw that Barry had just disposed of the other sentry.
Rambo and Barry now only had to 'clean' the hutl-objective.
The briefing was clear: they had to use a soft hand, because all of the outside sentries were younger rookies, but not on the inside. Inside the barracks instructors were waiting for them and all of them were hand to hand combat experts against whom – in theory – none of the Baker team members should have any chance.
Rambo and Barry were both 'shadow-men', but Jorgenson and Krakauer were the hand to hand fighters.
Had the mission required the capture of an enemy alive, they would have taken care of it, and they were looking forward to putting themselves to the test inside that hut.
There were two doors, one at the front and the other at the side.
Jorgenson and Krakauer exchanged an understanding nod, then they both entered the doors.
Jorgenson kicked the main door down and immediately received a blow with a club on his head.
He fell on the ground knocked down.
Krakauer looked at the two men in front of him.
One was white and the other black, and they were both taller than he was.
Their arms were as big as dockers’ and as they realized that Jorgenson was lost even before starting the fight, they both smiled in Krakauer's direction, because they were two against one.
“Do you want to surrender, kid? There are two of us and you have no replacements to accomplish this task. You can let it go and no one will say a -
Krakauer darted away like a lightning bolt and spun a chair towards the African American guy.
But the man avoided his attack using a simple move of his forearm, and with no harm at all.
But with the time lapse Krakauer had just gained with this move, he attacked the white one.
Krakauer threw himself against him like football players do.
Inside the narrow space of the hut the man couldn't avoid Krakuer's jump, and ended up being thrown against the wall.
Krakauer turned.
The black man was almost on him already, yet he struck first.
He rained him with blows, but almost none hit the target: the black man parried all of them, and he even avoided some.
Krakauer received a punch on his kidney and the pain was so sharp that it made him see stars.
Krakauer then turned to where the blow had just come from.
The white instructor was paralysed by surprise.
A fist like that should have sent anyone to the ground.
The fact that Kakauer was still standing was impossible.
That little moment of surprise gave Krakauer the time to react and he did.
He punched him right in the jaw and with a big surprise for both, this time the punch reached its target..
The stunned man took a few steps back and Krakauer jumped over the table in the middle of the room.
“You are out of your mind” said the other instructor.
Then Krakauer tried to kick him in the face.
In the meantime, the other instructor had recovered from the punch, and when they were two again it didn't long for them to overcome Krakauer.
The black coloured instructor grabbed Krakauer by one foot while he was trying to kick him, then made him fly on his back.
Krakauer hit the nape of his neck violently on the table, then fell on the floor, but in doing so he got loose from the instructor's hold.
Krakauer, who was now bleeding, lifted the table from the floor and threw it against both the instructors.
The two grabbed it the best they could, but Krakauer charged again.
He took a run and then literally flew with both his feet against the table, hoping to squeeze the instructors between the table and the wall behind them, but he didn't work very well.
Krakaurer's leap had just given the instructors the time necessary to understand what was going to happen and when Krakauer threw himself against the table, the two turned it upside-down over him.
Krakauer then fell to the ground under the table, and the two jumped over it, keeping Krakauer stuck under the table.
Only then did the guy seem to calm down a little bit.
“Hey man... When I told you you looked out of your mind, I meant it. You are completely gone. You are dangerous”
Only then did Krakauer realize that he had just cut his eyebrow. The blood was now flowing over his eyes and making one of them blind. He didn't have any idea when it had happened.
“We are now going to pull the table away, ok? And you are not going to play any tricks. Copy that?”
On the contrary, Krakauer started tossing again.
“I said that the task is over, you ass hole”
“Hello? Can you hear me? I said that it's over. Are you calm now? Yooo? Is there anybody out there?”
The instructor smiled.
“No way with this one... Fuck. He really doesn't calm down. What do we do now, Mac? Should we beat him to death?”
“Are you crazy? Don't you see it? This one is absolutely awesome. We are going to turn this guy into a bloodthirsty beast”