31
The Enemy Within—Nov. 1942
Johnny Strange
Johnny Strange crouched down, his heart racing, and his insides stretched tight like the highest string on a piano. The dead Jap’s leg still protruded into his foxhole, and Johnny took deep breaths to still the pounding in his chest as he wiped the man’s blood from his Bowie onto his pants leg. The Jap had crawled up on him while he was answering a Nambu 92 that had somehow gotten into position to catch Achilles in a nasty crossfire. Johnny had just stopped firing to reload when he heard the padded rush of the Jap’s feet coming. They said some guys developed a sixth sense in the jungle—the ability to step over the hidden trip wire, sense an incoming mortar shell, or step behind a tree just before that Jap sniper pulled the trigger, and in tha
