As I wake, or at least my eyes and brain began to focus on the same things, I can see from the blurry image that I am inside. It is a small hut or shack, I can only see the room I'm in and from the floor at that. I can not move my body, shifting my eyes is all I can manage. Having no idea where I am, my mind starts to try to put together the events that I can still remember.
The last that I can bring up is the patrol, we were on the way back from a small intelligence sweep of the sectors northeast of the firebase, looking for enemy movement in and around these areas. I was bringing up the rear and watching my patrols back as we moved through the jungle. I remember stopping to survey the area we had just moved through, making sure there was no trouble slipping up from behind. As I turned back forward, I saw the small black figure step from the bush, step in front of me, then the feeling of a sharp stinging and the sudden rush of warmth that flooded down the front of me. The world around me went black . . .
That's it, then here, not sure where here is or how I got here but the heart is still beating, all I can really ask right now isn't it? I look around the area and it is very modest, very sparse actually. I can hear someone in the other room outside my vision, they seem to be scurrying around in that room. Other than that and the normal sounds of the jungle, there was nothing else to hear. I can see an AK-47 propped up in the corner. Seeing the weapon brings back the memory of the stinging feeling and I looked down. A large, wet, red patch of some material is across my stomach and the bedding under me seems very wet with the same.
Looking around the place as I lay there, I see nothing but blurry images. Even so, my hearing seems rather clear. I can hear the sounds of a few animals, mostly chickens I assume, also, now and then I hear the traces of someone at work. The slight efforts I make to look at my surroundings tires me more than I can even imagine. Most of my time is spent dropping in and out of whatever consciousness this is.
I hear someone enter through the back of the house, then the sound of something dropping on the floor on the other side of the wall next to me. A small body walks past the opening of the room. First in and then back out of my sight. I do not think they know I am awake, they don't seem to be paying much attention to me. As they move around just out of my sight I catch glimpses of the person and it appears to be a young female. She is cleaning a little and I can only assume she is making something to eat.
Judging from her size relative to items in the house, she is very tiny. I don't know if she is just very young or very petite. When she hits a lull in her activities I can see she has noticed I am awake, but she does seem relieved that I am not moving. She turns and picks up a pot and holds it toward me as if offering me some. All I am able to do is blink, so I blinked twice and glanced to a spot beside the make shift bed that I am on. She comes over and sits beside me, she looks very young, somewhere around 18.
Offering me water first and holding the cup to my lips, small sips quench my thirst and then she offers a small piece of bread crust and some gravy. It tastes just like it was expected to, but it is food, at least I hope. After only a few small bites and even smaller sips of water I can feel myself starting to drift off.
"Tiger Joe needs to get strong," she keeps repeating.
It took me a little while but I remembered that I was wearing tiger-striped camouflage and well, we were all Joes.
This is the routine for the next several times I regain consciousness. The only difference has been when she changed my bandages on my stomach. I am still not able to sit up or even raise my head to look down, I believe that is probably a good thing. She talks to me in a very broken, one word at a time type english, but we seem to be getting the gist of understanding each other. She will not talk about my injuries or if she knows what actually happened. She also doesn't seem to know anything about the other Joes in the area.