By now, the Taliban were annoyed with the American sniper. Several broke off to pursue Alexander. This gave the rest of the squad enough of a break to lay down suppressing fire. While the automatic riflemen streamed lead downrange, the other soldiers moved to a more secure location and in turn provided covering fire while the AR fell back.
Stotl took a pause from firing and saw several figures headed towards the area Alexander was set up. This would not be good for the sniper. At close ranges, the untrained militants wouldn't even have to aim. They would just point and shoot, sending out a massive volume of firepower to a target.
The Sergeant pressed down on his chin strap to activate the COM.
Stotl: Alex, multiple targets headed your way. We'll try to pick them off before they reach you, but there's not much else we can do. Hang tight.
Alexander looked around, he spotted four soldiers heading towards him.
Alexander: Roger that, thanks Sarge.
Alexander dropped into cover, he pointed his sniper out and fired three shots. He saw one Taliban drop, while the other three wildly fired their rifles.
Alexander rolled out against the log, trying to keep himself away from the bullets.
As one of the enemy fighters dropped, the rest continued up to kill their prey. Although untrained, they were not stupid. They proceeded to fire from the hip and moved towards cover. At these short ranges, the enemy combatants were surprisingly accurate.
The log Alexander took cover behind was of little use. The powerful AK rounds tore right through the wood and cause large splinters to fly around with each impact.
Stotl turned his fire towards the Taliban that were after Alexander and ordered the rest of his squad to do likewise. If his team could keep the enemy fighters pinned down long enough, then the sniper might have a chance to make his escape.
As the word was hit and splintered a round flew over Alexander's arm, it tore his ghillie suit and cut his arm. At the same moment, another round tore his pants and caused a gash on his left leg.
Alexander gripped the gash and as the firing went down, he made a run for it.
Alexander sprinted to the edge of the cliff he was on and slid down, just a few rounds flew over his head.
On the way down, he tumbled and damaged his radio.
He was lying on his stomach, his arm and leg bleeding.
He crawled over to a rock and began to treat his wounds. However, a few Taliban from a top the cliffs fired rounds down at him, keeping him surpressed.