Vietnam Vampire 2p5o5

VIETNAM VAMPIRE The vampire (vampyre) is a creature surrounded by myth and lore, a Gothic horror with romantic overtones. Neither is true, the truth is that the vampire is the perfect killing machine and it is created by a demon. The vampire is a human body caught in the shadow between life and death, and for that reason neither life nor death have any meaning to it. The rest of the myth was created by the demon to give itself cover and make it's hunting easier. The vampire can neither fly or shape-change, only the demon can do these things. It can't be killed because it is not alive, but it can be destroyed by either removal of the heart or head. The demon is very clever and knows that it's human prey would soon wise up to it and have it exorcised. Humans hunt down and destroy the vampire and rest easy while the demon continues it's foul work. The vampires can roam around during the day, sunlight does not destroy them. They prefer to rest after gorging themselves on human blood and that is usually during the day as it is much easier for them to hunt at night. They do not have fangs, that is the demon. Do not confuse the two. The vampire has to rip out the jugular vein with it's teeth and suck out as much blood as it can. The demon has endowed the vampire with a lust for human blood that will sustain it in it's state of limbo between life and death. Since it's not alive it has no conscience, it does not care whether it's prey is a man, woman, or child. It has the hearing and sense of smell of a predatory animal. The Bengal tiger can hear your breath whistling past your nose hairs from the distance of a hundred yards if there is no background noise. Your pet dog or cat can both hear and smell your blood pulsing through your veins. So can the vampire, the vampire can smell your breath when it enters a room. There is no hiding from these creatures. The crucifix has no power over the vampire, only the demon can be deterred by the cross, and garlic is useless unless you like spicy food. The demon has to be exorcised using ritual, holy water, crucifix, and blessed articles of priestly clothing. The vampire can only be destroyed by beheading or removal of the heart, a steak driven through the heart will not destroy it. A couple of months ago I knew none of these facts. I came to Vietnam in July of 1968 just out of basic training and A.I.T. and thought that my biggest worry was going to be to keep Charlie and the NVA off my tail. After a few months in Saigon and Long Binh I was transferred to the delta area. I reported to my new unit and processed into the company. It was a MACV outfit that did mostly recon and patrol assistance to the ARVN ( the army of South Vietnam) a poorly led and largely incompetent conscript army. The ARVN could not make a pimple on Charlie's ass. ARVN was poorly motivated and cowardly. There was a wooden sign in our company area that read " We are the unwilling, led by the incompetent, to do the impossible, for the cowardly and ungrateful." I believe that whoever made that sign had a good handle on the Vietnam war. Vietnam is at the same time beautiful and miserable. Without the war blowing everything up, the countryside would have been beautiful, it was lush and green. There

was grinding poverty, but the average Vietnamese seemed pretty much unaware of how poor they were. They just wanted to be left alone to get on with their lives as best they could. Almost every American GI would have been happy just to go back home and leave them to their fate, I know that was how I felt. I had been happy not to know where Vietnam was and I would be happy to go home and forget about them and their conflict. It wasn't going to happen, Lyndon Johnson and his cronies had decided to make South Vietnam the place where we would make our stand against world communism. We would prop up South Vietnam's corrupt government, and help them fight their war against North Vietnam's effort to unify Vietnam under a communist flag. We would ultimately fail and the Saigon regime and the ARVN would fall to the communists, but I believe that out of that failure came a victory of sorts. We made the war so expensive for North Vietnam's backers (China and the USSR) that the dreaded domino effect never took place. The USSR broke apart a few years later and China was forced to rethink it's approach to communism. Vietnam remains under communist control today, but I don't think anybody really cares. I was on my first patrol mission in my new unit. The heat was taking it's toll on me (I had become used to an air conditioned office) and all my water was already gone. The closest guy on my right had assured me that we would soon be picked up by a deuce and a half (an army truck) and transported back to base camp. His name was Billy Bob Baugh, everybody called him B B Balls. I learned that everybody got a nickname over here if you lived long enough. Army training can kiss my ass, nothing can prepare you for this. Slogging through rice paddies (stay off the dikes or berms, that's where the booby traps are) and streams then trudging through six foot high elephant grass on into thick jungle growth. The sun beating down all the time. We were in this thick growth when Charlie jumped us. Somebody tripped an antipersonnel mine and all hell broke loose. I got off a few rounds and I know that I got a VC that was only a few yards from me, I watched him go down. Then something hit me in the head like a sledgehammer and I went down thinking that this was it, this would be my last thought. I was just grazed by the AK round, but it put me down for the count. I used to be a boxer and I have been hit in the head more than I care to it, but nothing like this. When I became conscious again the shooting was over and I could hear the Lt on the radio trying to get choppers in to take out the wounded and dead. I tried to call out to them, but I was too weak. Dizziness would rush in and I would out again. I must have had a concussion. When I awoke again it was dark and I don't hear anybody. The thirst was overpowering. All I could think of was a drink of water. I was able to stand and walk a little. It was a clear night and the moon and stars gave me enough light to move around a bit. It became clear that my unit couldn't find me and they had pulled back to basecamp for the night. I was on my own. I ed the VC that I had shot just before I got hit, he must have had some water on him. He was crossing a path when I shot him and I saw him fall to the side of the trail. I found the trail and followed it a few yards and there was the dead Charlie

partially hidden in the weeds. I dragged him out into the trail and found his canteen. The dead VC stunk horribly, his bowels must have let loose when he got hit. I walked away to get rid of the smell so I could drink some of the water without throwing up. I had heard of Bengal tigers, wild hogs, and packs of wild dogs that had learned to associate the sound of gunfire with fresh kills, and would scavenge battlefields. All I had to do was survive the night and I would probably be rescued at dawn. I heard a distant sound, there it was again closer now, I blended back into the underbrush. I wished now that I had looked for Charlie's rifle. Someone was walking toward me on the trail. I eased back into the brush a little more. I could see that it was definitely a person walking toward me. The person walked by me and headed for the dead Charlie, it was a Special Forces dude. Special Forces were like super soldiers to the rest of us. They get the specialized training, and operated pretty much independently of the rest of the army. I started to step out and identify myself, but something stopped me. Special Forces dudes usually worked in teams. What was this guy doing out here all by himself. He stopped at the dead Charlie and knelt down, I thought that he was trying to give the VC mouth to mouth resuscitation. What would be the point, the Charlie had been dead for a while. I tried to get closer to get a better look at what was going on. I thought I was being quiet but he whirled around and I saw blood all over his mouth and his eyes were rolled back into his head, all I could see were the whites of his eyes. Those white eyes were staring at me, it was the most horrible sight that I had ever seen. He could move faster than a human, more like a wild animal. He rushed me and the Karate training took over, I side stepped and backhanded him with my fist to his temple as he ed me. That blow will take out the most determined attacker, it didn't even faze him. He turned and rushed at me again and rammed into me. I rolled backward and threw him over my body with my legs. I rolled to my right to get up but he was faster. He was almost on top of me again, I dropped down and then flipped him over me as I raised up. He fell behind me and immediately rose again, I had never fought anybody like this before. I put my hands on the ground to get up and I felt something, it was a machete that Charlie must have been carrying when I shot him. I grabbed it and swung with all of my remaining strength, it caught the Special forces dude on the neck and completely beheaded him. I fell down beside him, completely exhausted and ed out. I came to in 25th evac, a MASH type hospital. As soon as I was awake I was loaded onto a medevac chopper and flown to 3rd Field hospital in Saigon. I was given a complete physical and a few days bed-rest. I was told that they had found me and the dead Charlie the next day. I asked about the Special Forces dude and they said that no other body had been found, just me and the Charlie. They said it was probably a hallucination or bad dream brought on by stress, fatigue and the concussion. They said that no Special Forces teams were working that area at that time. I was released back to my company in a couple of days.

I didn't mention this to anyone at first, I was new in this unit. I didn't want to get a reputation as a nutcase. I just wanted it all behind me. The dreams started. I could not get that Special Forces dude out of my head. I could see him sucking the blood from the dead Charlie. It was so real that I didn't want to sleep anymore, I stayed awake as much as possible. I only slept when fatigue would knock me out or if I drank enough alcohol to out. A couple of weeks later we lost the Lt in about the same circumstances. The radioman was killed and the Lt became separated from the rest of us. We found him dead the next day. His throat had been torn out. I was due in 3rd field hospital in a couple of days for a checkup so I was detailed to accompany the Lt's body to graves registration at Tan San Nhut AFB in Saigon. When the mortician saw the body, he mentioned that the throat wound didn't look like a normal battlefield wound. This looked more like a bite wound. There were no gunshot wounds on his body, so whatever killed the Lt had ripped out his throat. Probably some kind of wild beast was the mortician's conclusion. He mentioned that he had seen several similar deaths coming from our area of operation in the last several months. He also said that something else was strange, a dead body left out in the jungle overnight should show signs of scavengers. There was nothing, like the other creatures would leave the body strictly alone. Even ants and other insects wouldn't touch the body. I asked him what he knew about vampires and he looked at me like I was crazy. When I returned to the company area, I had some beer with me. B B Balls and I went out behind the arms room to drink it. After a few beers I asked him if he knew about any of this. He explained that a few of the dudes that had been in-country for a while knew that something wasn't right about some of the K.I.As. Some of them had been in other units and had been transferred here. They said that something weird was going on here. I told B B Balls that I would like to talk to some of these guys. B B told me that would not be a good idea right now, because they were unsure of me. Because I was new in the unit and the fact that I had survived out in the bush overnight without getting my throat ripped out. That and my strange sleeping habits had them eyeing me suspiciously. Paranoia has a way of dividing people up just when they need to stick together. Out in the bush we basically had three types of booby traps to worry about. Nail box, trip wire, and foot poppers. A nail box was a simple wooden box a little bigger than a man's foot with nails driven down at an angle. It would be buried and covered up with leaves or something. When a GI stepped in this box, the nails would hold his foot and he would be a perfect target for a sniper. A tripwire type was usually rigged to a hand grenade pin and did not need to be constantly watched. Just set it and forget it. The foot popper was set and forget also. It was cheap to make and it was very effective. It consisted of a bamboo tube, cut just a little shorter than a rifle bullet. It had a flat bottom (usually a piece of wood) and a short, big headed nail (like a roofing nail). The piece of wood would be buried, with the nail centered on it. The bamboo tube would be centered on the nail and the whole contraption would be covered with dirt. Charlie would

drop a rifle bullet (usually one of our's) down the tube. The tip of the bullet would stick out of the ground a little bit. When a GI stepped on this trap his body weight would cause the nail to act like a firing pin and fire the rifle bullet. Charlie could take one M16 magazine full of rounds and a handful of nails, and make an entire area imable. A few days after I got back to my unit, we were on night ambush. I spotted a nail box and a tripwire booby trap on a trail. I told the sergeant that I wanted to disable the tripwire and move the nail-box. Charlie knew that we were working this area, when the tripwire didn't go off he would probably come to check it. We spotted the sniper that was watching the nail-box and shot him. I moved the nail-box a few yards and we waited. About midnight three Charlies approached cautiously. One stepped in the nail-box and we opened up on the other two. The VC that had stepped in the nail-box got hit in the leg and hollered all night. At dawn we recovered the bodies of two dead VC and the wounded Charlie. We went back to the company area by truck and dumped the bodies and the wounded VC by the company headquarters Quonset hut (orderly room). Top came out of the Quonset and told us that we would have to wait for an interpreter so that we could question the wounded VC, then he could have some medical attention. The VC was old and I wasn't sure that he would make it, he had lost a lot of blood and was probably going to go into shock. I told top that I would stay with the VC until the interpreter got here, everybody else could go get some breakfast and rack out. The other guys from my squad were more than happy to go about their business and leave me to guard the VC. When I was alone with the VC it was my chance to question him. I speak and understand Vietnamese, but I didn't want anyone in the company knowing this. I have found that I can learn a lot by keeping my language skill a secret. Vietnamese tend to speak freely in front of you, if they are sure that you don't speak their language. I noticed the VC looking at one of the dead Charlies, his throat was torn out. I asked the VC if he knew what kind of animal could make a wound like that. After he got over his shock that I could speak his language, he must have decided that he had best keep me for a friend. He looked at me for a minute, then said that it was a GI that was doing this. He told me that it had been going on for a few months. He called it a devil-man, he said that there was an old witch woman (ba phu thuy) in a neighboring village that knew what kind of devil that we were dealing with. He told me that the devil-man was drawn to the sound of battle to find wounded or fresh dead. He assured me that was all he really knew about the devil-man. I couldn't have him telling anyone that I had questioned him. I popped him in the throat with the edge of my hand. I went on in the orderly room and told top that the VC had died of his wounds. MACV's logistical for our unit sucked, we had to buy most of our food on the local economy. It was probably better this way anyway as you don't want to be running around the bush smelling like Americans. We bought a lot of our food from the village that the old VC had mentioned that the old Vietnamese witch lived in. I told B B Balls

that I wanted to ride into the village on our next grocery run. He set it up and two days later I was in the back of a deuce and a half with three other dudes heading for the village. We pulled in and one dude got out and bargained for the food that we came for. When he was finished it was time to bargain for something else. First the driver and one other guy went in a house and were gone for about forty five minutes. They came out and it was mine and B Bs turn. We went in and B B new which girl he wanted. He took her into a room. Mamasan came over to me and asked which girl I wanted. I told her that I wanted to go see the old witch, this caused quite an uproar amoung the girls. Partly because I could speak their language and mostly because of my strange request. I told her that I would pay someone to take me to her. Finally one of the girls agreed. We cut through a couple of alleyways and arrived at the old woman's house. The old woman was sitting outside of her house stirring a pot of rice. She acted at first like she didn't want to talk to me, a few piasters changed her mind. We talked for about a half hour, she explained about the demon and the vampire and their different powers. She also explained what the demon and vampire could not do. I got back to the truck just as B B was coming out of the cathouse. We hopped back into the back of the truck and headed back to the base. Nobody knew about my little side trip. If they thought that I was strange before, what would they have thought about me bying a cathouse to go and see a hundred year old witch. That night I lay awake thinking about what the old woman had told me. Was it some bullcrap from an elderly woman that was off her rocker or did she really know the score, that old VC had believed she knew what she was talking about. I had the same Hollywood knowledge of vampire lore, almost all of it untrue, that everybody gets from watching horror movies. I don't know if the demons are responsible for this lore or if it was invented by man, but I have seen vampire victims with their necks ripped open by vampires while wearing a cross on their dog-tag chain, the cross didn't even slow the vampire down. The old woman was Buddhist and she said that the vampire had no fear of the cross, but the demon both feared and hated it. The demon also could not cross running water, therefore he was confined to a certain geographical area. Also the demon hated sunlight. I told her about beheading the special forces dude who I believed to be a vampire. She told me that when I beheaded the vampire I had relieved it of all evil and scavengers might have dragged it off. The scavengers wouldn't avoid the body once it had been beheaded. The next few recons that I went on were uneventful. I was probably the only GI in Vietnam that was looking forward to being ambushed, to tell you the truth I was beginning to doubt my own sanity. We lost a couple of GIs on other patrols, we recovered one while it was still daylight and never saw the other one again. I had beheaded the special forces vampire, but the old Charlie had said that the devil-man was a GI. There must be at least one still operating in our area. We had a chopper shot down recently and no bodies were ever recovered, but it was days before we ever found the

wreckage of the chopper. The survivors (if any) had probably gotten back to friendly lines by now. Well I got my wish, we were about four hours into the bush when Charlie opened up on us with a machine gun. We were pinned pretty good and the radio was shot up. We already had three dead and a couple more wounded, I guess I should be more careful what I wish for. The Charlies had us in a classic L shaped ambush. The two wounded GIs were hollering their lungs out and it's only a matter of time before their buddies try to get to them. Charlie is counting on that. Every once in a while Charlie will pump a few more rounds into those poor guys just to hear them scream. B B is on my right and has the good sense to stay down. Somebody is going to have to do something, we have a new Lt and he is scared shitless. The Charlies are going for position, we only have a little time to turn the tide or it will be over for us all. When the VC machine gunner opened up on those wounded guys again I was up and running. B B gave me as much cover fire as he could. I rolled down into a gully and caught two Charlies by surprise, I cut them down with a burst of rock n roll. I worked close to the machine gun and heaved a grenade. That gave our guys time to drag the two wounded to cover. Without the machine gun the VC weren't so brave. They crawled back a little ways and we had a standoff. The Lt finally had the presence of mind to pop smoke to let the company know that we were in trouble. A couple of hours later Charlie must have gotten some reinforcements. A new machine gun opened up on us and heavier rifle fire came pouring in. The Lt told everybody to fall back, B B told him that I was in the gully and was cut off from the rest of the unit. The Lt said that they would retake that ground when our backup team arrived. I was stranded in the gully. Charlie advanced down the gully and I concealed myself as best I could in some heavy brush. I was low on ammo about all I could do was keep my head down. The sun was going down when our backup arrived. About all they could do was recover the dead and wounded and move out. I was screwed. Charlie may or may not pull back to his camp. Charlie owns the night. You can bet if he thought that I was out here he would stop at nothing to find me. With all this shooting going on today, Charlie won't be the only one hunting tonight. I don't know if there are any VC dead or wounded laying around out here. From what I know about Vampires they are faster, have better sense of smell, hearing and eyesight than me and hitting them is about as effective as beating on a corpse. I don't have a machete now, just an M16 bayonet. I'm not really worried about Charlie as much as I am the unknown. As quiet as I could I started for a stream that I had spotted earlier. I crept slowly and crawled when cover was scarce. I was almost to the stream when I spotted him moving along the stream bank. He was too tall to be a VC. He got closer and I could see that he was an air force dude. He was a black man a little taller than me. The vampire hadn't spotted me yet, but it wont be long before he does.

I leaped him from behind and ripped at his throat with my bayonet. I cut his throat pretty good, but didn't behead him. He slung me away and rushed me. I dodged behind a tree and when he rounded the tree I got another swipe at his throat. My bayonet is razor sharp, but it's hard to get a good enough cut at him. He grabbed at me and only got my jungle jacket, the light material tore out of his grasp and I got another swing at him. He was almost beheaded now. I grabbed him from behind and we tumbled to the ground. I hung on for dear life and jerked his head back and forth like a shark attack, his head finally came off his neck and he stopped moving. I couldn't move, I don't ever being so tired. I heard slow mocking clapping coming from behind me. I rolled over and was face to face with the demon. All I could do was just lay there, I was so tired. I had no idea how to defeat the demon. Destroying a vampire was one thing, a demon cannot be killed or destroyed. He has all the predatory skills and senses plus I can feel him reading my mind. Whatever defence I could come up with, he would already be aware of. You are correct he told me. Whatever you would try I would know in advance and stop you. He was tall and muscular with a cruel look about him, I suspected his appearance was for my benefit. He can probably appear any way he wants. He gave me a cruel smile when I had that thought. He clapped his hands again and said that I was very perceptive. He was playing with me the way a cat would play with a helpless mouse. He told me that I had caused him quite a bit of trouble, he was running out of vampires. He said that he would fix that. I was going to replace the vampire that I had just destroyed. He glided closer and I had a sudden thought, I stepped backwards into the stream. He stopped his approach. He can't cross running water, I'm safe for the moment. He is used to being in complete control and is caught off guard not being used to having to think things out. I backed further out into the stream while he raged. He shape-changed several times to no avail, I'm safe for the moment. Safe or not I still have to figure some way out of this impossible situation. Suddenly he screamed and my blood turned cold. The bloodcurdling screams continued and he appeared to be in agony. He must have shape-changed fifty times in a few seconds then disappeared into the ground. All was quiet, completely silent, as if the whole jungle was holding it's breath. That is when I saw her, it was the old witch from the village. She appeared weak, like she was going to out. I left the stream, hoping it wasn't some trick of the demon, and caught her before she fell. I helped her back to her village. The VC left me strictly alone, they weren't sure what had happened but they wanted no part of it. When I got her into her house and comfortable, she told me that she was much weaker than the demon. She was only able to use her witchcraft on the demon after I had distracted him by going into the stream. I asked her why she had set out to destroy the demon and she said the demon had been preying on her village. She told me that she recognised a hidden power in me when I had visited her and she had known that between us we could defeat him. I asked her if she could use her magic to get me and a friend out of this war and out of the army.

B B Balls and I are on a TWA headed for the land of the big PX, due to a mix-up in our original enlistment paperwork.

FINI

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are all fictional. Any resemblance to any actual events, locales, or persons (either living or dead) is coincidental.

Also by this aurthor; The Vietnam Triangle, Death House, Evil People, and

Big Sharon has closed her bar.