Through a Glass Darkly

Personal testimony of Trooper Frank Savage on the incident of the night of January 7^th 2005 on Gallows Hill, North Yorkshire:

Me and Mike doubled up the hill. We'd been given an extra five minutes but that included driving round and we didn't know how bad the undergrowth might be. As it happens, we was glad we saved the time 'cos though the slope was easier, and the lower reach clear, as we got up near the top the goin' was bloody hard and we had to start pickin' our way; we didn't want the enemy to hear us.

The last fifty yards we took real quiet, stalkin' like in training. I'd last had to do this for real in Iraq and compared to sand or tarmac, a wooded hill is a bugger, believe you me. But we was on station and on time.

The plan was for Mike to be primary sniper and take down Abu-Sidhu if they cut up rough. My job was to be spotter and give general support. But when we saw the enemy, we knew there'd have to be a change.

We saw four men around the back end of the transit, which was end on to us with the doors wide open. Inside the transit was a fifth guy we'd not known about. This new bloke should have bin Frank's target as second sniper, but we both knew Frank would be coming in from the north, our left, which meant he'd have to move a long way toward us as the guy was right at the back of the van. Mike decided he'd take the target in the transit and leave Abu-Sidhu to Frank. We cover stuff like this in training all the time.

We were lyin' down using brambles as cover. We were able to stand off a bit 'cos the scene was lit up, which we wasn't expecting. At first we thought the enemy had brought some sort of lamp but when we looked through our sights we could see there was some flat thing on the floor of the transit which was glowin' wiv a blue light.

That was the first thing we saw that didn't look right, but I don't think we thought much of it at the time. It was just a bit odd, that's all. I remember feeling edgy, feeling my palms slick with sweat, but since Iraq that's been normal. I thought Mike seemed a little edgy, too. I heard him mutter 'Come on! Come on!' under his breath, and that's not like him. But we couldn't see no reason for it; it wasn't weird.

So when did it get weird? Well I suppose it started soon after we got settled. We could hear the enemy chanting in some Muslim ritual, like a mass or sumfin. Mike was keeping the cross-hairs on the bloke in the transit and I was scanning the others with occasional glances behind and to the sides – we didn't want anyone sneaking up on us, did we?

So I was looking off to the left somewhere 'cos I thought I might have heard sumfin when I heard Mike swear and say sumfin about losin' the target. When I checked back with my nightsight, everything looked just as it did but some sort of smoke was blocking our view of the bloke in the transit.

Lit from beneath by the blue light, the smoke looked really peculiar but I don't know if it was thick enough not to see through. For a second I got the weirdest feeling that it wasn't the smoke that hid the priest guy, but that he was behind some sort of hole. I dunno how to say it, like a hole in the air, in the space inside the transit, like.

Anyhow, Mike didn't have a clear line on the bloke in the transit and it was getting' to him more than it should have, not that I wasn't edgy already, like I said, so we both jumped when we heard the gunfire, MP5, coming from the other side of the hill, to the right.

We both looked at each other and I know we was both thinkin' of Harry and Colin, but the important thing was that meant our surprise was gone. We were supposed to wait for the Major but he'd already said that if things looked hairy we should let fly at the first shot. Well we'd heard the first shot and the enemy looked like they were using some sort of smoke screen, so off we went.

Mike led, off to my left a few yards as we didn't want to queer each other's line. We started running, planning to open fire once we had clear targets.

I think I was the first to see it. Suddenly, instead of a cloud of smoke, there was this tree in front of us. Only it weren't no tree, but sumfin made of rope and slime. It was horrible! I just stopped in my tracks. I think I screamed. Then I shot it. I meant to use a short burst but the next thing I knew me mag was empty.

Mike was firing too, and we were both backing off while changing mags as the thing came on. Then there was this thump between us and there was this body just lying there. From the clothes I think it had been one of the terrorists, a young one, but it looked all shrivelled, like someone had made a shop dummy of a mummy from a museum.

I know we both fired again and I had to change mags again, though I don't know about Mike. The thing kept coming on at a slow walk and we backed off, but I think we got separated as I lost Mike for a bit. There was other firing, of course, and the thing kept turning to face the bullets.

I saw it hold one of the lads up, (I dunno who but I saw the uniform). Christ, but it put him to its mouth and I saw him shrivel just like the terrorist. I think that's when I lost it.

After that, all I can remember is like snapshots: Mike real close to it and shooting his assault rifle on cyclic, then backing off. The thing must have turned away then 'cos the next thing I know is I can't see it and Mike's coming back, just a silhouette against the blue glow. Then he jumps sideways like he's seen sumfin off'n left. He shoots but his gun's empty so he dumps it and pulls his pistol.

Then I see 'em; nasty vicious little faces crawling low on the ground, but like it comes natural to 'em. Mike was shooting his pistol at 'em, but frantic like, not aiming proper. I saw one go down but there were more and Mike was backing away from me, toward the hilltop.

Then I remembered my gun and sprayed 'em, but it ran out and that was my last mag. I dunno, I must have really lost it, 'cos I think I must have just kept pullin' the trigger, but I knew I had to do sumfin 'cos Mike was backing off, pace-by-pace. He'd stopped firin' now, and seemed to be lookin' at his gun, then around him, back at his gun, and so on, desperate like.

That was when the Major grabbed me. I swear I'd no idea he was about till then; I thought we were alone. All I could think was to help Mike, but my legs seemed paralysed. Then I was shooting my pistol, but that was when I saw Mike turn right around so he was looking away like he'd seen summin'.

It was horrible! The thing had come back! We'd both seen what it could do to a man, I mean close-up, and it was right on top of him.

Then I saw him turn to run and but stop, sudden, and I saw things between us rise up from the ground. Mike stood there for a second and then, very calmly, put his pistol in his mouth and blew his brains out. I dunno, I know I couldn't see his face, I could barely see him at all, but somehow I just know he was grinnin'; 'cos he thought he'd outwitted 'em, see? They said his gun was empty when they found him; he'd kept his last round for that. I've had dreams since, you know, and flashbacks, and that's what always hits me the most - I'll never forget that dead calm way he put it in his mouth, grinnin'.

I saw Mike fall and the small things jumped on him, biting and tearing, I know it. The big tree thing seemed to back off then and I didn't see it again, though I heard it. I remember being dragged a long way, brambles tearing me hands. I lost my pistol somewhere. I think I was crying a lot but I can't remember; I'd lost it completely by then.

Then suddenly it was dead quiet. It was like sumfin waking you at night; you wake up and know you've heard sumfin but you don't know what. It was like that, only the Major and me was in these brambles. He still had his MP5 and he had it ready, but the two of us just lay on our backs, tense like. He shushed me with his finger, like he needed to, right?

Then I heard it. Sumfin real big, like a bull – I mean a really big animal or…or sumfin, crashing around in the undergrowth, not far away and a bit below us. I mean just a few yards. It sounded like it was right on top of us. All I could think was that if I breathed, it'd hear me.

I don't know how long it was there but eventually it must have got fed up and just gone off. We let out such a breath then, I can tell you.

We pulled ourselves together and went for the road. It was easy 'cos all the bushes and stuff had been broken down and crushed by sumfin big, and I mean tree-sized. There was this slime over everything too and it smelt disgusting, like nuffin on Earth.

The Major and me got across the road and hid in a ditch till the police came. They took us back and we found Frank. They said Harry had run off and later they caught one of the terrorists. (We'd have executed him if we'd got him.) Everyone else was dead, including one of the civilians caught by Frank and Ben.

They keep telling me everything we saw was hallucinations from some poison nerve gas, but I don't know who they think they're foolin'. I know what I saw and so does Harry, poor sod. He thinks they came from the stars and he might be right, I dunno! But there was sumfin on that hill that night, sumfin I wish I could forget, and I'll never sleep easy again now I know it's there.

They should be doin' sumfin about it, the arseholes!