The terrorist territory was unregulated in Afghanistan. It was completely chaotic and lawless. The U.S. military tried not to enter territories beyond their control for no particular reason. The Americans on the borders noticed the road blockade, but did not do anything about it. They merely relayed the information to the main headquarters.
This was not the first time terrorists had engaged in road blockades, usually to seize customs duties from trade caravans. The Americans were aware of the terrorists' trade with European arms suppliers, but could do nothing about it. It was forbidden to attack European traders or to restrict their movements in any way, otherwise a political conflict could arise because of it. After which all superior officers of the border troops would be removed from their posts. American officers did not want to risk their ranks, so they did not pay attention to trade caravans co-operating with terrorists.
August was aware of this policy of the military and guessed that the terrorists would not lift the blockade until they caught Stark. Taking a detour was the only true solution to the situation. A couple of weeks across the vast latitudes of Afghanistan and crossing the high mountains, so they can safely be in the territories controlled by the U.S. military.
The only problem is August hasn't prepared enough resources. There was only enough food, water and fuel for a week. He didn't think rescuing Stark would be such a problem. In canon, she was rescued by an incoming American helicopter that was attracted by the noise of the terrorist camp exploding. Here, however, as usual, everything went through the roof. The military would not help them and they had to get out of the terrorists' territories themselves.
Food and water could be bought in settlements along the way. Not all villages and settlements in terrorist territory in Afghanistan were under the control of the terrorists themselves. It would be possible to negotiate with some of the inhabitants, but the price of food would be very high. Fuel will be the hardest resource to find, no one will sell it for nothing. August will have to find a way to get petrol for his transport.
The first village was encountered three days later. It was destroyed and burned. The pickup pulled carefully into the centre of the village and August stepped outside, asking Stark to be quiet. Little could happen, the future heroine must not be harmed.
The village the man had driven into was marked on local maps. According to rough estimates, its population must have reached a thousand or two thousand people. As he walked down the street, the mercenary looked around. Every now and then his gaze strayed to the huge pits of bomb blasts and the mountains of spent shell casings. Here and there bodies or parts of human bodies were lying near the deep craters. They gave off a suffocating odour of decomposition and putrefaction.
"The village had been destroyed recently, and the bodies had not yet had time to rot," August concluded, looking at the corpses beneath his feet.
The mercenary was not interested in who was responsible for killing the civilians. The destruction of this village had nothing to do with him. All he wanted now was to get the resources, food and petrol he needed. The attackers couldn't have looted such a huge village, something had to be left.
Turning back to Stark, who was sitting in the passenger seat, the man reported to her on the state of the village. The woman, immobilised due to her disability, regarded the ruined houses and the corpses rotting on the ground with a complicated expression. Previously such a sight would not have aroused any feelings in her, but now for some reason her heart clenched painfully. Perhaps her time in captivity had taken its toll on her.
August got behind the wheel and drove to the village's only petrol station. By some miracle, the village petrol station was intact. Not a single shell had hit it during the shelling of the settlement.
Leaving his car near the entrance to the building, the man went inside and looked for petrol cans. Or anything that might have petrol in it. The inside of the petrol station was a complete shambles, with signs of battle visible here and there. Apparently the owners of the petrol station had their own private armed guards and they had resisted the raiders.
There was no petrol anywhere on the ground floor, and the first floor served as office and sleeping quarters. The corpses, presumably the owners of the petrol station, ended up on the first floor in a bedroom. While they were alive they had been abused for a long time and then killed by slitting their necks. The mercenary did not go into the details of the deaths of the owners of the petrol station and simply closed the bedroom door.
"There must be a warehouse somewhere on the ground floor," August murmured thoughtfully as he walked back down to the ground floor. The only petrol station in the village couldn't do without a warehouse; somewhere to put the parts for fixing cars, right? In addition to their direct duties, Afghan village petrol stations were also car repair shops.
A basement, well covered from prying eyes, served as a fuel depot. The way down to the cellar was a stone staircase, poorly lit. As the man descended, he accidentally caught his foot on something in the darkness. Shining his torch under his feet, he found a dead body. Carefully stepping over it, the mercenary nonchalantly walked on.
The petrol station warehouse had been cleaned out, everything that could be taken from here had been taken away. Only rotting corpses remained.
"During the firefight, it looks like the petrol station guards retreated to the warehouse and were killed here. We should look outside the car, see if there's any petrol in the tank.
When August drove up to the petrol station, he found a jeep parked outside. It was a little battered from mortar fire, but it still looked powerful and dignified. It might have petrol in its fuel tank, which could be drained into an empty canister. To check if there was petrol in the parked car, the mercenary decided to rock it and determine the level of the fuel tank by ear.
August was eight times stronger than a normal man. The jeep weighed a ton and a half. With the mercenary's physical characteristics, rocking a one and a half ton jeep was a simple matter. If necessary, the man could lift the vehicle.
Anita Stark sat in the passenger seat of the pickup truck and watched from the sidelines as the man who had rescued her rocked the SUV parked near the petrol station with unusual ease. She had heard that in America there were mutants, people who had been born with superpowers. Was the mercenary who had saved her one of them? Anita had never heard of mutant men before. Either they didn't exist, or there were very few of them.
The rocking of the SUV brought results. August heard a splashing sound in the tank, which meant there was petrol in the SUV. Quickly running inside the petrol station, he took an empty petrol can and a hose through which he was going to pour the fuel. He had the knowledge of how to properly drain fuel from somewhere, so he got right to work.
"Are you a mutant? - Stark decided not to hesitate and asked her saviour in a direct manner about his extraordinary powers. - How did you swing that jeep so easily? Do you have a mutation related to physical strength or is it telekinesis or something more interesting?
August had just drained the petrol and returned to the car when he was immediately interrogated. Stark leaned on the armrest with interest looking through the slits of the black handkerchief, trying to see the man's eyes.
"You could say I'm a mutant, but that wouldn't be quite right," the mercenary started the pickup's engine. - Just think of me as a trained human.
Stark wasn't satisfied with that answer, but she decided to keep her curiosity at bay for now. Right now, the woman was in no position at all to be interrogating her mercenary. Until they reached America, Anita was completely dependent on the man beside her. She literally couldn't even go to the toilet without his help, let alone more complicated things.
Stark's disability didn't scare her, if she could get to her villa, she could solve the problem of her broken spine. All these days while they were travelling in the car, Anita had been going through different options in her head to solve the problem. The suit created for escaping from the terrorists' captivity gave the girl one thought, and this thought was to her liking.
"With petrol the question was solved, it would be easy to find food in such a large village. There is only one small problem left to solve, - August drew the girl's attention, continuing to drive the car and looking ahead. - You need a bath and clean clothes.
Stark did not react to the mercenary's words, she agreed with him. She could use some new clothes, and she had wanted to bathe for a long time. The fact that she would not be bathing alone, but would be bathed by an outsider, did not cause her any embarrassment. During the three days they had spent together, Anita had already had enough of the torture of going to the toilet together, when all her actions were controlled by the silent mercenary. It even seemed to the girl sometimes that he was not just silent, but thoughtful.
***
All chapters are already available at:
patreon.com/posts/124888009