Lone Survivor: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Sarawa and his men carry Luttrell down the mountain. They don’t attempt to take his rifle. Meanwhile, Luttrell continues clutching his grenade, prepared to detonate it if things go bad. As the men carry Luttrell, they pass other Afghan men, many of whom stare at Luttrell with undisguised hatred.

Eventually, Sarawa, Luttrell, and the other men arrive at a house by the mountain. Inside, Luttrell drinks water, and Sarawa begins cleaning his leg wound. By this time, it’s around 6 pm. Suddenly, Luttrell realizes that the men have taken his rifle. The men explain that they’re pretending that Luttrell is a wounded doctor—nobody will believe them unless they hide the gun. They feed Luttrell bread and goat’s milk.

Night falls, and Luttrell falls into a deep sleep. Late at night, however, eight armed Taliban soldiers break into the house and shake Luttrell awake. They attack Luttrell with their fists, punching his leg and upper body. As the Taliban hit him, Luttrell doesn’t show any signs of weakness. He considers attacking them with a heavy iron bar lying in the corner of the room. The problem with this option is that it would leave Luttrell with no reliable way of leaving Sabray. Instead of fighting back, Luttrell decides to go along with the lie and say he’s a doctor in the army. The Taliban don’t believe him—they know that the American army doesn't allow beards, and that only special forces operatives are allowed to grow them. The Taliban also say—again, in broken English—that they’ve shot down an American helicopter.

An elderly man enters the room, and the Taliban fall silent. The old man offers Luttrell water and bread. Then, he turns to the Taliban and tells them something. Luttrell can’t understand a word of what he’s saying, but he senses that the man speaks with great authority, and that nobody dares contradict him. As the elder walks out of the rom, the Taliban soldiers follow him, leaving Luttrell alone, and very confused.

Later at night, Sarawa enters the room again, accompanied by some friends. They carry Luttrell out of the room—Luttrell later learns they acted on the elder’s orders, lest the Taliban break the code of lokhay. They carry Luttrell out of Sabray toward a cave by the mountain. They leave him there, with a foul-smelling bottle of water. For the rest of the night, Luttrell lies by the cave, terrified that he’s been left for dead. Remembering his favorite movie, he picks up a sharp stone and carves, “God will give me justice” onto the wall of the cave.

Around 8 am, Luttrell hears the faint sound of bells, signaling that the goatherds are passing by. Suddenly, he sees a gun sticking in his face. To his amazement, the gun belongs to one of the man who took care of him in Sabray—the man is grinning cheerfully. He’s brought Luttrell goat’s milk and water. Shortly afterwards, Sarawa shows up again. He posts a guard outside the cave, and for the next few hours the guard, whose name is Norzamund, protects Luttrell, feeds him bread, and offers him water.

Unbeknownst to Luttrell, back home in America, his entire family has come together to mourn his death. Contrary to the reports on TV, however, the American military has declared Luttrell MIA, missing in action—he hasn’t officially been declared dead.

On Friday, July 1, Norzamund and two other men lead Luttrell back to Sabray. There, Sarawa replaces the dressings on Luttrell’s wounds. Luttrell is then taken to stay in the home of a man named Mohammad Gulab, the police chief and the son of the village elder. Gulab and Luttrell genuinely like each other. Gulab teaches Luttrell a Muslim prayer, and when Luttrell recites it, Gulab cheerfully tells Luttrell that he’s officially a Muslim now.

Gulab tells Luttrell that there’s an American military base two miles away. However, he says, Luttrell is too weak to walk there alone. Luttrell interprets this to mean that he’ll be transported to the base as soon as possible. However, Luttrell gradually realizes that the Afghan men don’t want to carry him—if the Taliban spot them, they’ll be shot. Instead, the elderly man asks Luttrell to write a letter to the military, explaining that they should trust the elderly man. The elderly man plans to walk to Asadabad to contact the Americans.

During his time with Gulab, Luttrell learns about the al Qaeda networks in Pashtun villages. Jihadists (i.e., Muslim terrorists) are careful to preserve good relations with the Pashtuns, offering them gifts and bribes for their continued cooperation. Children are brought up to worship the “romantic cutthroats” who oppose the United States. However, in Sabray, led by Gulab’s father, there’s “a sense of law and order and discipline in an essentially lawless land.”

Luttrell notes that the American military is forbidden from fighting its enemies in the same way that al Qaeda fights America. But if the American military were allowed to do so, Luttrell argues, “we’d probably win in both Afghanistan and Iraq in about a week.” But because of the power of American liberals, American soldiers, including Luttrell, have to take extra risks and throw themselves into danger.

Gulab arranges for some men to move Luttrell to a different location, since it’s too dangerous for Luttrell to stay put. In this new location, Luttrell receives a pouch of tobacco opium for his pain. Luttrell places the opium under his lip, like tobacco—and within minutes, the opium eliminates his pain. It occurs to Luttrell that most of the suicide bombers in the Middle East use opium and other drugs—there’s nothing heroic about what they do.

Outside the house, Luttrell hears American helicopters flying low. He rushes outside and waves his shirt, trying to draw attention to himself. But the helicopters fly on. Luttrell assumes that the American military has given up looking for him. However, Gulab informs Luttrell that his father has left for Asadabad: Luttrell’s future “rested in the soft tread of this powerful yet tiny old man.”