Chapter 16
Things started happening at a pace that amazed me. All of the facilities staff were involved in upgrading the protections of the facility. The front of the facility, the one I entered through my first day, was quickly reinforced with concrete traffic barriers left over from the original construction. It was an obvious choice for rolling motorized troops in quickly, because of the roadway. The guard shack on the road was abandoned, though it was cinderblock construction and the walls were reinforced with additional concrete poured in the voids, it was too easy of a target. Instead, Packer had two, two-man bunkers built 50 to 75 yards into the woods to cover the shack entrance. Another three fighting positions were built outside of the entrance that could be fired from in just about any direction. The backhoe operators did most of the digging. They would dig the size hole needed and then move on to the next one while Militia and Rangers finished them. I looked at where many of the fighting positions were located and to tell the truth, it seemed to me they were a colossal waste of time because of where they were located, or oriented. I’m not a tactician though, so I kept my mouth shut and tried to soak in what I could.
The Major increased road patrols and one of things I began to notice was whenever a patrol was going out, they seemed to be carrying more supplies than they normally would. When they returned, they no longer had the supplies they left with and not as many personnel either; I wondered if Packer was stationing troops in places away from the facility. By the end of the tenth day, there were no Rangers to be found anywhere in the facility, including Danni or Dan. The Militia was performing the road patrols, contacting the outlying locals and warning them to keep their heads down. Many of them volunteered to help if needed, but Major Packer wanted to leave them out of it. He figured if they weren’t involved, maybe there would be no reprisals committed against them if things went sideways for us.
Surprisingly, to me anyway, was the amount of fortification that was done to the inside of the facility. On the loading docks, Packer had bunkers built that were made of traffic barriers and sand bags. They even had roofs built over them that were also sandbagged. Then from somewhere, they started positioning large, heavy-duty nylon bags that were filled with dirt. I found out these were called HESCO Bags and had been used by NATO and American troops in the Middle-East to build Forward Operating Bases. The massive doors that separated the Phases and Levels were partially closed and then pinned in place so only one or two men could pass through at a time. Each door, which was now a fatal funnel, was supported by multiple fighting positions that could cover the narrow entrances and support each other as well. I began to firmly believe we had a good chance to repel any attack by just wearing them down. A battle of attrition.
I would, occasionally, ask Packer if there was any word from the two squads he had sent out, okay, a little more often than occasionally, but he would always respond, no. Finally, he told me to stop asking and he would tell me when he heard something. I guess I was becoming a nuisance. Working for Facilities, I was intimate with some of the defensive plans. Packer was concerned about the use of chemicals to attack the facility, so I learned a little more about the HVAC system. The exhaust plenum building contained two sets of fans. There were the normal ones, but there was a second set that were turbines and could be easily reversed, so the flow of air could be switched if needed. This would result in both the air intake and exhaust systems pumping air into the facility which would push any noxious gases out through the Loading Dock and the main vehicle entrance. The use of smoke or tear gas against us had always worried me because we were underground, but it appeared the situation was well-in-hand.
On the twelfth day, the defense preparations reached a fevered pitch as everyone rushed to finish and be ready for the expected attack. All of the dependents were relocated deeper into the facility and every weapon we possessed was passed out to those who were willing to fight. The cafeteria staff was working around the clock preparing cold meals that could be placed where the combatants and noncombatants could access them, and then we waited.
I returned home and started gearing up. I decided to wear the FLC and the Sustainment belt with the bandoleer and the hydration pack. That would provide me with a total of sixteen magazines, five quarts of water, and enough food for 24 hours. Then I returned to the Ranger Bunker to see where I should be. Packer called me to him and said, “We’ve done what we can and now it’s wait and see if you were right.” He motioned me to follow him and I sat in the same golf cart as he did as we were driven down to Phase Four and then to the old Marlow’s residence. When we walked in, I was shocked to see at least a full platoon of the Militia scattered about the 1st and 2nd floors. Packer went straight to the elevator and disappeared, so I looked around until I saw Dak waiting patiently with the others.
“Dak, why are all of you here instead of manning positions farther out?”
He shrugged, “Beats me, but if you look around, I’m seeing a lot of people that look like the cream of the Militia.”
“Do you have any idea what, might, be the plan?”
“Yeah, but I’m not supposed to,” he quietly said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Packer told Fel that he wasn’t sure everyone in here was on our side, so he’s kept his plans on the down low. All I know for sure, is the people you see around us? We’re some sort of a Reaction Force. There’s a team Topside, covering the exit from the Panic Room and they will tell us if we can utilize it to try a surprise flank attack on any ground forces involved in the attack.”
“It’s going to be slow going getting, what, thirty people up a one-hundred-foot ladder?” I said, “Plus, we can only get maybe a fireteam in the elevator at any one time.”
He shrugged, “Hey, I’m just a grunt tonight, you know?” He paused, and then said, “What do you think, can we pull this off?”
“I don’t know, Dak, but I trust the Major implicitly. If anyone can, it will be him.”
He glanced around, and then whispered, “Have you seen any of the Rangers? I haven’t even seen Daniel or Danni in days.”
“I know, I noticed the same thing. They’re out there though, you can count on that.”
“Scary shit, this waiting, you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” I said as I thought about the times when Becker had me and I was waiting for him to come visit again. “Waiting is always hard. You’ll do fine when it’s time though, you’ll see.” I patted his upper arm and then walked to the elevator to wait. If I was going to go, the sooner the better.
At 02:30 hours, the elevator doors opened and Packer stepped out, “Okay, first Militia fire team, in the elevator now.”
Shayla Lincoln stood and waved her fire team forward, “Load up people, and make it quick.”
I started to squeeze in with them, but the Major held me back, “Where are you going, Smith?”
“Major, I’m in Lincoln’s squad, isn’t this what you brought me here for?”
“That’s a negative, I have other plans for you.”
I stepped away and I could feel my hands trembling. Damn it! Waiting sucks! I stood there while all thirty people eventually disappeared into the elevator. It had to be getting crowded in that panic room.
After we were alone, Packer said, “Okay, first, I talked to Thomas, his squad is joining up with Ranger A Company on our Eastern Flank and will be following them in. B Company is at the Western Flank just outside the wire and will secure the airstrip as they come in, but I want you to do something else. You are familiar with the Air Strip Control Tower, right?”
“Yes, Sir, I installed the fire sprinklers in it.”
“I know, Nadia Tooles is waiting for you in the panic room, the two of you are going there and making sure those lights for the Air Strip are not turned on until I give you the go ahead, understand?”
“Yes, Sir, no lights until you give the word.”
The elevator returned from the last load and Packer told me to follow him into the elevator. “Remember you told me there is a path over the top of the facility and you used to hike it once or twice a week to kill time, and when you had insomnia?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Can you find it in the dark?”
“Absolutely, I’ve hiked the trail numerous times in the dark.” I had, just as I had told Packer before, whenever I would suffer insomnia.
“Your job is to make sure Tooles gets there, she installed the electrical in the tower, so she knows everything about it.”
“Yes, Sir,” I said again as we walked into the rock corridor leading to the panic room. When we entered the room, I was surprised by the amount of communications gear it now contained. “Wow!”
“Welcome to the Radio Shack,” he chuckled.
Nadia Tooles was standing next to the door that led to the shaft up to the surface, “Hey, Nadia,” I said.
She tapped her wrist watch and said, “Times a wasting, we have some rough country to cover and not much time.”
Packer handed her a small walky-talky and then he gave one to me, “I’ll give you the go ahead in the clear, okay?”
I had no idea what he said, had meant, “In the clear?” I asked.
Nadia laughed, “The Major means, no fancy military code shit, he’ll tell us when to flip the switch.” She turned and started up the ladder to Topside.
I started to follow, but Packer held me back, “I don’t want to say too much in case you get captured, but just know, Debra will need those lights when I tell you.”
“Debra? Why would she…never mind, Sir, just tell me when.”
I started the climb to the top and you know what? All the gear I was carrying was heavy. By the time I reached the top and climbed out the hatch, my right leg was letting me know it wasn’t one hundred per cent yet. I glanced at my watch and by the luminescent face, I could see we had ten minutes until whatever was going to happen, actually was supposed to happen. I set out at a hard pace, but Nadia didn’t complain at all.
I kept glancing at my watch and at three AM exactly, we could see when the glow from the lights in the loading docks went out, we couldn’t see in the loading dock itself, but only the dark parking lot when the lights shut-off. I hoped that was part of Packer’s plan and not something the electricians had missed. We stopped for a moment, thinking a war was going to break out, but nothing. I was starting to worry I had screwed up when Nadia said, “Do you hear that?”
I listened, and finally made it out, the sound of a plane to the north of us. Judging from the sound, it was a big one. As we listened, we could hear it as it turned South pretty far away, and then it sounded as if the noise was getting louder as it traveled in an Easterly direction, “Come on,” I said. “Let’s get to that tower.”
We moved as fast as we could through the dark, but it was still slow going. Then we noticed the sound of the aircraft became more noticeable and then even louder. Eventually, we could start to make out its dark silhouette as it blocked out the stars. It was at least a half a mile away when there was a sudden flash from its side and a tracer streaked down to the loading dock. The resulting explosion flashed and rumbled as another tracer streaked into the dock again. Another round struck and then a steady, high speed stream of tracers began pouring into dock area. The explosions were not as powerful as the single shots, but there were scores of them.
“Holy Shit!” Nadia shouted.
“Oh, fuck,” I said. “They have a gunship? They’ve got one of those big gunships!” What the hell could we possibly do to stop it; we had no anti-aircraft capability at all! Nadia was standing still in stunned silence, so I slapped her arm and said, “Let’s go! Come on!”
“We can’t fight that! How can we fight that?”
The firing from the aircraft died out and we could hear it turning away. “I’ve seen those before, they can only fire from the one side at the loading dock as they fly by. Now they have to make a circle so they can line up their weapons again, come on! Let’s go!” I took off again and when I looked back, she was close behind me. I ran until I was gasping for breath, but the gunship made two more attacks on the loading dock before we reached the base of the Control Tower.
Tooles produced a key and unlocked the steel sheathed door so we could enter. Inside was a room about twenty by twenty feet, and there were still some tools and materials lying against a wall to the right. Along the wall straight in, were a bank of breaker boxes. To the left was a simple, but very steep wooden stairway going up to the actual control room. Tooles went straight to the breaker panels and started flipping switches.
“The tower was powered down before, and without the gennies running we need to turn on the batteries for backup power.” She stepped back and waited a moment and then we could both could hear a humming noise start. “Alright, we’re good to go; let’s get upstairs where we can see what’s going on and tell the Major we’re here and ready to light the landing strip.”
“There’s enough batteries to light up the air strip?” I asked.
“Of course not; I assume the Major is planning on restarting the gennies before we try and light up the strip.”
Assume, ass-u-and-me, I hoped that wasn’t the case.
She started up the stairs as she said, “Are you coming?”
“Right behind you.”
She took the stairs two at a time and before I reached the top, I could hear her speaking into the radio, “Smith and Tooles, ready when you are.”
Packer responded, “Standby, Tooles, wait one…five unidentified individuals are arriving at your position, be prepared to defend yourselves.”
“Roger that.” She looked at me and asked, “Did you relock the door?”
“Crap!” I started running down the stairs as fast as I could. At the bottom, I rushed forward and as I placed my hand on the deadbolt, the door began to slowly open. I took a step back and then lunged forward reclosing the door with a slam and twisting the lock. I stepped to the hinge-side of the door and blew out my pent-up breath as I leaned against the cinder block wall, damn, that was clo…a long burst of machine-gun fire ripped loose and a dozen holes appeared in the door. “Holy Fuck!”
“Smith?!”
“I’m okay, but someone means business!” I reached in beneath my Flick and pulled out my foam earplug case hanging around my neck, rolled them and then inserted them into my ears. If I was going to have to shoot in that little cinder block room, by god this time I would have at least a little protection. The Control Tower had windows that sloped outward, so I asked, “Nadia, can you see anything outside by the door?”
After a moment she said, “No, it’s in the shadow from the moon, wait! All five are jogging away from us; it looks like they’re leaving!” I looked around and saw three bundles of ¾ inch plastic conduit lying against the wall. I rushed over to them and used my knife to cut the nylon bands holding them together. Once loose, I grabbed double handfuls of the pipe and scattered them haphazardly, throwing the ten-foot lengths between the stairs and the door. As I returned to my spot by the door, she said, “No, they stopped and I think one of them is aiming his weapon at the door, you better…”
I almost lost consciousness from the explosion, I don’t know for sure, but maybe I was out for a moment or two. I was crumpled against the wall with the door, which was hanging by just the bottom hinge, leaning precariously over me. My left side, which had been completely exposed, felt like it was on fire.
“Smith!” Her shout almost sounded like a screech from far away, “They’re coming back! Get ready! Smith? Daniel!”
The first, and then the second man through the door stumbled and fell trying to run over the conduit as it rolled and slipped beneath their feet. The third, fourth and fifth, crowded in and between trying to help the others up and their rush for the stairs, they grouped up at the foot of the steps. Tooles must have fired at them from above because all of them started firing upwards.
I leaned out past the edge of the door and shakily brought the bullpup to my shoulder, with all the firing going on, they wouldn’t hear mine. I put the laser dot on the rearmost and shot him through the Kevlar helmet he was wearing, then the next, and the next. The fourth one looked back and saw me as the third man was falling, but he was in the process of changing mags, the fourth shot penetrated just below the rim of his helmet. The fifth must of noticed the lack of fire from his friends and turned as he pointed his weapon in my direction, Tooles put three rounds into him and he fell.
I pulled myself from behind the door and stretched my legs out as I leaned against the wall behind me. My left side no longer burned, but it was stinging like a bitch. My ears, even with the plugs, were a constant loud ringing that was causing me to get nauseated. I allowed my head to droop forward as I tried to crack my neck and saw blood dripping onto the front of my militia smock and fighting load carrier. Great, Debra was guaranteed to, as Danni described it, pitch a fucking fit. Raising my head back up, I saw Nadia looking at me from the top of the stairs as her mouth was moving; I pointed at my ears and shook my head, if she didn’t understand I couldn’t hear her, tough shit. I closed my eyes instead; it seemed to settle my stomach.
I must have dozed off; I hadn’t slept the night before and then again waiting for the three o’clock jump off. When I opened my eyes, Nadia was crouched over my legs and opening a roll of gauze. Using a tube of antibiotic ointment, she squeezed a generous amount onto it and applied it to the left side of my face. It stung, but I let her continue.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Can you hear me?” She asked.
“Barely, you’re going to have to talk louder.”
She leaned over and said directly into my right ear, “Packer ordered me to flash the airstrip lights four times and then shut them off. All this for four flashes of light.” She wiped at my neck and then examined it, satisfied, she said, “You missed some of the action.”
“What? What did I miss?”
“That big plane, the one you called a gunship? Somebody shot it down, and I mean as in blowing it right out of the sky. I just happened to be looking at the right time and the right place to see it happen. You know how you could see like a solid line of fire from that one gun as it flew by?”
“Yeah, it’s called a gatling gun.”
“Whatever, I was watching and suddenly a line like it was shooting at us, appeared from the sky and lit it up. One of the wings came off and the other wing tipped up and it plowed straight into a mountainside. It had to be from another plane.”
I frowned, “Really? A plane on our side?”
“Yeah, but I never saw it.” She pulled my multi-tool from its pouch and used its blade to slice open the sleeve of my shirt. “Damn, that looks a lot like hamburger, we need someone better trained to treat the rest of this shit.”
“Thanks, for trying, Nadia, I appreciate it.”
“Hey, I owe you more than this, a lot more; I’ll never forget you coming through that door to save me and Stacy.”
“You got that last guy, he had me dead to rights, you know?” I leaned my head back and sagged, “I’m going to close my eyes for a while, do you mind?”
“Of course not, I’m going to try and prop the door closed and then I’m going back upstairs where I can see what’s happening.”
I woke up to Nadia shaking my shoulder, “Hey, hey! Can you get up the stairs? You’ve got to see what’s going on!”
I actually did feel a little better, I didn’t feel so fuzzy and the nausea was gone, “Maybe, what’s going on?”
“You’ve got to see it, Daniel!”
“Okay,” I started to get up, but my left leg seemed to be stuck to the floor. She helped me get up and held my elbow all the way up the stairs. At the top in the control room, she rolled a pivoting chair over and I sat down, “Okay, what am I…” The line of the forest erupted as explosions ripped through the trees. The windows vibrated and I started to wonder if they were going to shatter. From an elevation of maybe 500 feet, an A-10 jet climbed and banked away, my stomach began to churn as I exclaimed, “They’ve got A-10s too!”
“What? No, they’re strafing the bad guys, Daniel, they’re on our side!”
“Really? Outstanding!”
“Now, look over there!” She said as she pointed at the air strip. “The six small ones flew in at 4:30 this morning while you were asleep. Each one had least ten infantry guys in them and those guys started sweeping towards the facility, the other two big ones with two propellers? They dropped off more troops and then started setting up what I think are hospital tents.” She stopped as the A-10 made another pass over an area out of our view, “That is so awesome when they come in like that and fricking lay waste!”
The smaller helicopters were UH-60 Blackhawks with Air Force markings. I couldn’t remember the name of the two big ones, but both of them said MARINES on the sides. “Damn,” I said. “I slept through an awful lot.”
“I don’t know how you did it, those helicopters and jets are fricking noisy!”
“Is it just one A-10?”
“No, I’ve seen at least two at the beginning when they made their first runs.”
At that moment I looked to the West and saw a formation approaching at low altitude. It was four A-10s in a ‘V’ formation and as they passed over the facility the lead aircraft waggled its wings before all four climbed and flew away to the East. “There were four,” I said. “I guess they’re done.” I listened, but couldn’t hear anything, “Is there any shooting going on?”
“Yeah, I can still hear it coming from the woods, but I can’t call unless there’s an emergency, Packer made an announcement over the radio when he warned us not to fire on any aircraft.”
“Do they still need us up here?” I asked.
“I don’t know, there were some Air Force guys that came by and said they might need the Control Tower for air traffic control, but nothing since then.” She stopped talking and cocked her head as she listened, “It’s quiet now, there’s no shooting, but that’s happened before.” She glanced down beside the chair and added, “You’re bleeding again.”
I looked down and saw two small puddles below where my thigh rested in the chair, “Yeah, my pant leg was stuck to my leg and the floor, it probably pulled something loose when you helped me up. “I’m really thirsty, but if I start drinking it will probably cause the bleeding to start back up.”
“Blood loss or dehydration, you’re screwed either way.” I think she was trying to be humorous.
“Are you always this way in the mornings, I mean, you’re a real ray of sunshine, there.”
“Sorry, I guess I’m not much good at this mothering stuff. My vote is for drinking some water.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said as I pulled the hose from my hydration bladder up and began to suck on it. The water tasted stale, but it was cool and wet. I pointed out the windows, “Someone’s coming.”
Nadia pulled a monocular from one of her pouches and looked through it, “Oh, good, that’s Richie, one less thing to worry about. Maybe we can get you a ride down to the clinic.”
“Richie, huh?” I said.
She turned red and stuttered, “Yeah, I guess you noticed we have been kind of hanging out together.”
“Yeah, we talk ever so often, but he never mentioned he was seeing someone.”
“I asked him not too.” She seemed embarrassed.
“Why? He seems like a really good guy. It’s not like his marriage means anything.”
“Daniel, look at me, I’m short, thick waisted, my boobs are too big, and I’m not attractive. Look at his wife, she’s attractive, has a body I would die for, and…well, I mean, what chance would I have if she decided she wanted him back?”
“He told me once that she was everything he ever wanted until they got married. Then, not so much. From what he told me, he’s not looking for a model, he’s looking for a life mate.”
The cart rolled to a stop and I heard Rich shout into the broken door, “Nadia! Nadia! Are you still in there?”
“Oh shit! I have the door blocked!” She ran down the stairs and I forced myself up and started down also. My whole left side was hurting and as I looked down, I could see a surplus of small shredded tears in my smock, and the legs of my cargo pants. What the hell did those guys use to blast the door open? I could hear the door as the bottom scraped on the concrete floor and then Rich talking.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but Dan Smith got a shitload of shrapnel or something all over his left side. We need to get him to the clinic.”
She pulled out of Rich’s embrace and started to come back for me, but I was down the stairs already. “I’m good, but a ride sounds really excellent, I think some of whatever is stuck in me is getting pulled on by my clothing; it’s a bit painful.”
Rich hurried to me and asked, “Do you need some support? Damn, your clothing is completely soaked on that side.”
“No, I can walk okay, just everything keeps jabbing me; it’s going to be a lot of fun getting my clothes off.” I kept drinking my water until we got to the front of the Ranger Bunker and realized I wasn’t going to be treated there. The exterior walls had been blown, in both the infirmary and the ready room. All the glass windows were blown out and it looked like a real mess. There were several people in the infirmary collecting undamaged supplies. Rich turned down the main causeway and the interior of the complex was trashed. The walls were pock marked and some of the cinder block rooms we passed were no longer rooms; they looked like caves with the walls blown out. I hoped mine and Debra’s apartment was okay. Then as we pulled to a stop in front of the clinic, I asked the question I had been avoiding, “Rich, have you seen Debra?”
“Just once, she and some of those Air Force guys were pinned down by heavy machinegun fire, but we couldn’t get to them to provide help.”
“Was she okay?”
“At the time I saw her, yeah, but things were pretty chaotic then.” He seemed unsure of himself.
I managed to get out of the cart, “Thanks for the ride, Rich, if you see Debra, let her know where I am, okay?”
“Of course,” he answered and then they drove away.
I walked into the clinic and there was basically laying room only. Only a few people were standing. I stood there for a while and realized I was starting to bleed heavier, probably from the water I was drinking; my left foot was in a small puddle of thinnish looking blood collecting on the floor.
Mary Cho was hurrying past and then saw me, “Daniel? You’re standing in a puddle of blood.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Good Grief, between you and Debra, martyr much?” She asked.
“Debra’s here! She’s hurt? Where is she? How bad?”
“Whoa! Whoa! Slow down there, Speedy! Yeah, she’s here, come on I’ll put you next to her, okay?”
“No, take care of these people here before me, but yeah, take me to Debra.”
“These are all minor wounds; the bad ones are going to the Field Hospital the Marines set up outside. They have the expertise on combat trauma. You will have to be satisfied with my skills though as far as…Daniel is this all dried blood from your injury?”
She grabbed my left arm and I flinched as whatever was in me, got pushed deeper. “Yeah, but it was mostly stopped until I woke up and started drinking water.”
She guided me past several drawn curtains and then said, “Wait here a moment.” She walked into a room and then pushed out a folding cot with a thin mattress on it. She pushed that into the next curtained area and waved for me to follow her. I walked in and there was Debra in a bed that was raised to a semi sitting position.
“What the hell!” I said.
She had her patient robe pulled out of the way and was poking at the bandage taped to her side, “Honey!” She said excitedly, “You finally found me!”
“Finally found you?! I just found out you were wounded! What happened?”
“Aw, the piece of shit that shot me was playing dead. I walked by him and heard the click of his safety, As I turned, he put a round in my side and I shot him 3,4,5 times; I was so pissed I can’t remember how many shots for sure. That anger thing? It really helps as long as you’re pissed. It wasn’t until like fifteen minutes later when I saw blood on the sleeve of my jacket that I realized I was hit and it started to hurt. Then I really got pissed and…” She trailed off and said a little more softly, “I tried to be careful, just like you said, really, I did. Uh, you’re not mad at me, are you?”
I shook my head, “If I didn’t love you so much, I’d put you over my knee and paddle your ass.”
“But you love me sooo much though, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so, but that paddling just might happen anyway.”
She chuckled and said, “By the time you catch me, you’ll have other things on your mind, I promise. Now give me a kiss, god I missed you!”
I stiffly leaned down and kissed her with more fervor than I thought I could muster. She reached up and curled her left hand around the back of my neck and pulled my mouth down harder on hers as she reached around me with her right arm to pull me tightly against herself.
“Alright you two, just because I’m putting the both of you in the same treatment area doesn’t mean any hanky-panky is allowed, Dan, sit on the cot here and let’s get those clothes off.”
I straightened, walked towards the cot and sat down as Debra saw her arm was stained with blood, “What the…really?! You did it again?! God damn it, Daniel…”
Cho turned from me and pointed a rigid finger at Debra, “Get your ass back on that bed right now! You pull those needles out of your arm and I swear, you are the one that’s going to put them back in!”
“But…”
“No! Get back on the bed or I’ll take him to the tents outside, what’s it going to be?”
Debra backed up and then scooted backwards onto the bed, “Okay, okay, geez. What happened, Daniel?”
“Some of those guys were trying to break into the Control Tower by the air strip, first they tried shooting it with a machinegun, then they backed away and hit it with a round from a grenade launcher, I think. Unfortunately, I was standing next to the door and I guess I caught some shrapnel from the blast.”
Mary had my shirt off and was starting on my tee-shirt, but every time she pulled it over another of, whatever they were, I’d hiss with pain. Eventually, she gave up and used a pair of scissors to cut it off. That worked a lot better.
“What the hell is this?” She said as she examined what appeared to be copper wire.
“What?” Debra asked as she craned her neck to see.
“It looks like a piece of copper wire, or something similar.”
“Mary,” Debra whined, “I might be able to help if you let me get closer.”
“Stay there, Tarn, I’m not going to tell you again.” She pulled over a tray of surgical tools and removed what I swear looked like stainless steel, needle nose pliers. “Sorry, Daniel, but this is probably going to hurt.”
Before I could respond, she tugged on the wire and when it didn’t come free, she jerked on it. Holy shit! It burned like a son-of-a-bitch! “Damn it, Mary,” I said. Then I apologized, “Sorry, you caught me off-guard.”
“I’m fairly thick skinned, Daniel, if it makes you feel better, curse all you want.” She turned and gave Debra the one she pulled out.
I could see Debra holding the wire to the light as she examined it and then she rolled it on the top of the table next to her bed, then raised it back up and examined it again, “Mary?” She said. “This thing is hollow.”
“I know,” was Mary’s answer. “Almost every one of them is seeping blood. That’s why he’s lost so much and they seem to be resisting coagulation. The bad thing is, a lot of these hit fleshy areas where there was no bone close to the surface and they are going to need to be surgically removed.”
“Okay,” Debra said. “Get my clothes and…”
“Bull shit!” I said. “You’ve been shot and by god you’ll stay in that bed! Mary, do you have something I can cover myself with? I’ll just walk over there and…”
“The hell you will!” Debra started slipping off the bed and onto her feet.
Mary slammed the pliers down on the tray and shouted, “I’ll be the one to say who does what! Both of you are so damned hardheaded, you don’t know if you’re coming or going! I am in charge! You will do…what I say!” Mary was always easy going and careful about how she treated her patients. I think it was at that moment we both decided to become more compliant.
“Oh,” Debra mumbled. “Uh, okay, I’ll just sort of lay here and maybe get some sleep.”
Mary stared at me and finally I figured I better say something, “What she said.” As I pointed at Debra.
Mary nodded her head and said, “Alright, now that is settled, I need to make a phone call.” She walked out with her back stiff and her head held high.
Debra watched her leave and smiled at me as she slipped out of bed and walked quickly to me while pulling the IV stand behind her. She sat on my right side and leaned her head on my shoulder, “Is this okay, no discomfort?”
“Always.” I glanced down and then asked, “How bad is the gunshot?” I was thinking of my own, previous wound.
“Mary is describing it as a deep graze, it’s going to leave a scar, Hon.”
“There is no scar that could detract from how beautiful you are.”
She looked up at me and then pressed her lips to mine before saying, “Remember you said the next time we needed to be separate, you wanted something I had worn so you could smell it?”
“Yes.”
“The next time one of us is gone, we both keep something the other has worn, so we can sleep with it, okay?”
“Deal, now give me another kiss and then get back in bed.”
She did and just moments before Mary walked back in. “Okay, things are slowing down over at the Field Hospital, so Doctor Horne is coming back over here. He’ll check you out when he gets here and determine if those wires need to come out now, or later. In the meantime, you are getting x-rays so we’ll know where to look for the ones that aren’t sticking out.”
She helped me finish undressing, the pants were ruined also, and then she took a shitload of x-rays with me on my side, my stomach and my back. By the time we were done, Horne had arrived and checked me out. Apparently, they had several wounded that were injured by the same type of weapon as I, and they were having trouble stopping the bleeding in them the same as me. Horne said, the military doctors believed the hollow wire in the explosive warheads contained a drug cocktail that inhibited the coagulation of blood and there was a drug that could possibly counteract what they thought was used. There was also a good chance the material used could be flushed from the wounds, that was what he wanted to try with me, if I was willing. I agreed.
I awoke the next day feeling like Becker had beaten me again and the left side of my body was covered by a patchwork of bandages. After lifting my hospital gown, I said, “Geez, how many were there?”
“Forty-two,” Debra said. I glanced over and she was lying on her right side watching me.
“Crap, Doctor Horne must have been up all night.”
“Nope, he taught Mary how to do what he was doing and they worked together on it. I think he’s going to start teaching Mary to do a lot of minor surgeries. We need more doctors and I think she would be a good choice.”
I nodded and then sat up as I swung my legs over the side of the cot. “We need to stop meeting like this.”
“You’re being silly.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be, you’re usually so somber and unsmiling, I love it when you kid around with me.”
“How about a morning kiss?”
“No tongue, my mouth tastes awful.”
I smiled and grabbing the IV stand, I pushed it over to her bed stiffly and bent over to kiss her, “Whoa!” I heard from the curtained entrance, “Quick somebody bleach my eyes and get that man some underwear!”
Danni was standing there with a grin on her face while Dan just shook his head.
I pulled the back of the gown together and kissed Debra anyway. “So,” I said as I straightened up, “What’s got you two up so early?”
“It isn’t early, my friend,” Danni said. “And we wanted to see how the two of you are doing and then escort you home.”
I must have looked surprised, “Escort us home? Debra got shot, she needs…”
“To get home,” she said as she started getting out of bed. “I’ll get better sooner there, than here.”
“But…”
“May as well give up, Daniel,” Danni said. “You’ve already spoiled her.”
“Yep,” Debra said. “But I made sure he enjoyed every minute of the spoiling.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “They cut my clothes off, I don’t have anything to wear.”
“We already have both of sets of your gear and weapons outside in the cart. Mary says you can wear the gowns home and bring them back later.” Daniel said.
“Uh,” I stammered, “You want us to go out there with our asses in the wind?”
“No, you idiot,” Danni said. “Mary gave us two more you can put on to cover the vital parts. Come on, we already picked up lunch for the six of us.”
“Six?” Debra asked.
“Yeah, Rich Morrison and Nadia Tooles are going to meet us at your place.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
When we arrived at the apartment, Rich and Nadia were waiting for us, so we unlocked the door and went inside. Dan carried my gear and carbine while I carried in Debra’s. When I asked her where her ruck was, she said she wasn’t sure because she left it on the helicopter she rode in on. “You got to ride in a helicopter?” I asked.
“Yeah, all the way from Holloman.”
“Damn,” I said. “I always wanted to ride in one of those, what’s it like?”
“In a Blackhawk?” She asked, then her, Danni, Dan, and Rich all said “Noisy,” at the same time. Debra laughed and said, “Yeah, they’re noisy alright.”
“Speaking of which,” Nadia asked. “How’s your hearing?”
“Better,” I replied. “I was a little worried there for a while.”
“Yeah, I could tell you were pretty much deaf there at first.”
Debra perked up and asked, “Deaf? What do you mean? What happened?”
Oh shit, here we go.
“Daniel didn’t tell you?” Nadia asked.
Debra stared at me and said, “I guess not, but getting him to talk about stuff is like pulling hen’s teeth sometimes.”
I glanced around and asked, “Who wants a beer?”
Danni and Dan looked at each other and then both them pointed at me and shouted, “Deflection!”
“What the hell are you two doing?” I asked.
Danni laughed and said, “We were talking to Dak and he said that was your favorite ruse to avoid topics that made you uncomfortable. You would deflect the conversation somewhere else. Have you ever noticed when he does it, Debbie?”
“Of course, I have, he does it a lot, but normally I can get him to come around if I feel it’s important.”
“Okay,” I said. “Group analysis of Daniel is over, who wants a beer, really, cause I’m going to have one.”
Danni stood up, “I’ll get the glasses,” she said as she entered the kitchen. I went to the fridge and brought out three quarts. Danni poured and I passed the glasses out. In the background I could hear Nadia, “…so I asked, did you lock the door? Daniel says, oh crap, and runs back down just in time to slam the door closed in their faces. Then I hear a machinegun firing and Daniel and I shout back and forth. He tells me to check the windows and see where they are, but they ran off a little way before stopping and one of them aims a rifle with a bigger barrel underneath the regular one. I shouted to warn Daniel, but then the explosion rattles the whole building. I run to the stairs going down and see five guys running in, but they start sliding around on a bunch of plastic conduit. How that got there I have no idea because it wasn’t there before.”
“I scattered it around,” I said. “I’ve slipped on that shit before and it’s deadly.”
“Oh, okay. I start shooting at the guys at the bottom of the stairs and they start shooting at me, so I duck away. Then they keep shooting, but it keeps getting less and less and finally I look down as the last guy standing aims at Daniel and I fire three rounds that hit him and down he goes.”
Debra looked at me and asked, “How did they miss you as they were coming in?”
“The door was hanging down; I was behind it and they must have thought I was back upstairs. When they started slipping and falling on the conduit, I leaned out and started shooting them from behind; with all the firing they were directing at the top of the stairs, they couldn’t hear my single shots. By the way, do you guys know if any of our people collected their NVDs?”
Every one shrugged, and then Daniel asked, “Were they good ones?”
“I have no idea, but they had them on as they came through the door.”
“That may be the reason they missed you behind the door, NVDs can seriously limit your peripheral vision,” Dan commented.
Rich nodded in agreement. “I always preferred the ones made for a single eye, especially if they were Thermals.”
“Yeah,” Danni said. “So did I.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said. “I’ve never seen through one of them.”
“Really?” Debra asked. “I have a set back in the Squad Bay, I’ll get them when I finish duty…damn, I guess I won’t, I’m on medical leave until Horne releases me.”
Danni said, “No worries, I’ll bring them by tomorrow when I get off, okay?”
“Do you still remember my combination?” Debra asked.
“Month, day, year of your birth.”
“Good,” Debra responded. “It’s inside of a fat fifty ammo can; just bring the whole thing because I may need to charge the batteries.”
“Alright,” Danni replied.
We visited together for quite a while and then Rich and Nadia left. We talked about them as a couple and both of the girls thought it was good that Rich and Nadia were together. The last thing we discussed was how Thomas and Debra convinced the Air Force to become involved in our problem.
“They weren’t very interested at first, and we never were able to speak with the Base CO. His XO considered us nothing more than mercenaries fighting for food and shelter. When we told him where we had come from, I thought he was going to have all of us arrested for being foreign military agents because of our association with Global, but once we were able to explain what had happened here, and the fact Global was no longer in control, he seemed to calm down a bit. Then, as we were being escorted by Air Police to a holding cell, I saw someone I had served with in Afghanistan, Master Sargent Lundstrum. I called out to him and waved; he recognized me immediately and came to see what was going on. They wouldn’t allow him to speak to me until we were all processed and in cells. He was my Platoon leader and was there the day I earned my Bronze Star. As soon as I explained to him what was going on and what I was a part of, he went directly to the XO and vouched for me. They pulled my records and came back to talk to Thomas and me again.
They basically released us, but we had to stay in the rooms we were assigned for almost a week. Sargent Thomas, finally requested we be allowed to leave because the Rangers were going to need every man we had in the upcoming fight. That was when we were told the CO had sent a Reconnaissance Team to check us out and they agreed to assist us. They said we were the first organized group, they knew of, that had pledged their loyalty to the Constitution and had held free elections. Holloman sent in UAVs to recon and discovered the opposing forces were gathering down below us in Lordsburg at the High School, so they organized at Deming and used part of the highway between Deming and Silver City as a runway for their A-10s. They were waiting for the action to begin when they were finally able to contact the Facility and talked with the Major.”
“Wait,” I said. “So Major Packer knew all of this and didn’t tell anyone?”
“Yes, but late in the game and nothing was set in stone. I found out a Combat Air Control team was supposed to be sent in to take our Control Tower, but their transportation quit on them and they had to ride in on the helos that I rode in on. Thomas and the rest of our squad had already left and wanted to join up with the of the Rangers, but because I’m ex-Air Force, Air Security, I stayed to provide liaison. In the helicopters, four of them each contained ten Air Security guys and two more of them had Marine Raiders. The two Marine CH-53s had another twenty Raiders and the field hospitals with Doctors, nurses, the whole nine yards. When word came through from here that the enemy had a gunship, the A-10s were sent to shoot it down and then provide ground support when they realized the enemy had committed all of its resources to the attack. It was estimated they had almost a full battalion of troops. Once we knew the gunship was down, we loaded up and flew in to the landing strip, offloaded, and started a sweep to the East and hit their attacking force in the flank. Packer was able to shift forces he was holding back to attack the Eastern flank and all of the Rangers that had been prepositioned South of the Highway swept forward, captured their vehicles, and then advanced into the woods to attack their rear and hold them in place, at least long enough for the A-10s to shoot the shit out of the attacking force.”
“It sounds to me,” Danni said, “That we were lucky you were sent with the team to Holloman. Has anyone heard anything about Bellows’ team in Tucson?”
“I haven’t,” Debra said. “Anyone else?” Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads. “I imagine Major Packer will send someone to check on them when the chance comes up. I’ve been out of the loop today, does anyone know if we took prisoners? How many we killed? How many we may have lost?”
Daniel said, “I heard we lost twenty-two Militia and Rangers killed; another twenty, or so, wounded. The attackers were taking it in the ass when they entered the facility, the way Packer had it set up, they were walking from one fatal funnel to the next. They only made it to the doors of Level Three when they were stopped and then the Militia started pushing them back. I saw Shayla Lincoln and she said her platoon accounted for almost half of our dead Topside. They pushed too far forward and got hit by friendly fire from the A-10s.”
“Dak was with them,” I said. “Has anyone heard…”
“Wounded,” Daniel said. “But not too badly. Marvin was with Dak and got hit at the same time, he didn’t make it.”
“Damn it,” I said, “He was a good guy, I really liked him.” Marvin was the kind of worker that didn’t sit down when he ran into a problem, he would just keep going once he did what was needed doing. He was always friendly and easy going, smart, but not pushy. Yeah, he was going to be missed.
Debra lowered her head and said, “I really feel bad now, I once referred to him as a Mall Ninja because he bought really expensive gear and his AR was very expensive also.”
“He was dedicated,” I said. “He just figured if it cost more it must be better. That rifle of his? He paid almost two grand for it. It has a special nitride receiver and barrel and he bought a top-of-the-line holographic site for it. He read a lot of information on line and that’s how he decided what he needed.”
“Somebody is going to inherit some nice gear,” Rich said.
We were all silent for a while and then I said, “Anyone else we know that didn’t come through alright?”
Dan shrugged, “The Major has Captain Williams working up a casualty list as we speak. We’ll know more tomorrow.”
I looked around and said, “We should go see Dak, I know it lifted my spirits when you guys came to visit me when I was laid up.”
Debra nodded and stood up, “Yeah, what do you guys think? Should we go now? Felicia may be so busy she can’t get away to sit with him.”
We all agreed, but Debra and I needed to clean up a bit and change clothes. Mary had warned us not to get our bandages wet, so basically, we took spit baths while we helped each other out. Finally, we all left in the golf cart Dan and Danni had driven us home in. Dak and Felicia live in one of the apartments next to the Marlow’s ex-residence; she uses the actual residence as an administration center now. I think the reason is to avoid controversy over who gets to live there.
We knocked on the door to their apartment and Felicia answered; her eyes were bloodshot and you could tell she had been crying. “Good!” She said as she swung the door wide open and we could see Dak trying to struggle into a pair of pants. “Somebody tell this idiot he doesn’t have to go check on anyone now! They’re all here! See?” She said to Dak, as we started walking in, “Now stop trying to be so damned macho and relax before you start ripping stitches out!”
Dak was still trying to pull pants on over a heavily bandaged right leg, but he began getting red in the face as he stood there half naked. “Uh, hi guys.”
“I told you they would come to see you as soon as things settled down, but nooo, you had to be the tough guy and screw yourself up,” she stared daggers at me, “Just like Mister Oh Yeah I Got Shot does every time he gets hurt! We don’t need two of him, right, Debra!”
Debra started laughing and said, “We don’t even need one of him.”
“See?” Felicia said to Dak, “Everyone is fine, everyone is okay, they even came to see how you are! Now sit down and stop being an idiot!”
“Ah, geez, Fel, cut me some slack, okay?” He sat down and tried to pull his pants back off. “A little help here, please?”
I gingerly knelt down and then started helping him pull the pants leg off of the thick bandages on his leg. “What the hell?” I asked, “Were they going to put a cast on, but changed their minds?”
“Naw,” he said. “They had to put a shitload of stitches and staples in and wanted to limit my ability to flex my knee until the cuts healed up some.”
Debra scratched her own bandage under her shirt and asked, “What happened?”
“I guess it was shrapnel from some of those big machine guns on the A-10s. I saw it coming and dove into a low spot in the ground, but it wasn’t low enough, or big enough. I got hit in three places with shrapnel and it opened up the length of my leg. Doctors think they got it all and I’m not feeling very much pain.”
“Like I already told you! That’s because you’re full of painkillers, you idiot!” I had never seen Felicia so upset and she was not backing off.
With his pants finally off and folded, I tried to stand, but unfortunately, I had kneeled on my right knee and my left was too sore to use in order to stand back up. I dropped the left leg, then brought the right up and stood with a little help from Debra who grimaced also. “Don’t do that, Babe,” I said. “You’re going to pull the stitches in your side.”
Felicia looked back and forth between us and said, “Are you two fucking with me?” I have never heard Felicia use a curse word; she even says carp instead of crap.
Debra started laughing again and said, “Welcome to my world, Felicia!”
Felicia stared at her and then walked into the kitchen, sat at the table and laid her forehead on her forearms. Danni got to her first as she started to cry and then Debra was right there also. Both had their arms around her and started talking softly, but Felicia said, “How can I get him to stop doing stupid shit, if everyone around him is doing stupid shit?”
“Maybe we should give the girls some space,” I said. “Let’s go outside and let them talk for a while.”
Dan gave Dak a helping hand up from the couch and then pulled his right arm over his shoulder while Dak hopped out the door I opened. Outside was a bench for Dak to sit on and Dan lowered him down on it. “She’s really upset,” he said.
“Wouldn’t you be?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
Dan shrugged and said, “There you go.”
Dak looked at me and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
I lifted my shirt and showed the bandages, “Same as you, but a different kind of shrapnel from a grenade.”
“And Debra?”
“Yeah, a bullet wound from a guy playing dead, he waited until she walked by and then tried to shoot her in the back. She filled him with holes.”
“Good for her. Those guys tried to push through us after we got hit by the A-10, but we held them until some of the Rangers swept around and reinforced us. I got my share of those fuckers. The fighting was so close in, I saw them shooting our wounded, but we stopped them hard.” He looked away and I thought I saw tears, “They were shooting our wounded.” He shook his head, “Those fuckers came to kill us, all of us, but we stopped them, when they started trying to surrender…”
I asked, “What?”
He had a haunted expression, “When they threw down their weapons and put their hands on their heads, I…”
“You what?” Dan softly asked.
“I kept firing, I shot maybe four or five more, and I’m not sorry; I’d do it again.” He glanced at the door of the apartment and said, “Don’t tell Fel, okay?”
I nodded, “The guys I shot? I shot from behind, in the head. I didn’t want any of them to come back again.”
Dan nodded in agreement, “They set the rules of engagement, so we played their game, they lost.”
Danni leaned out the door and said, “Why don’t you guys come back inside, Felicia is squared away now.”
We did and then we sat and talked for quite a while. Eventually, Dak needed a pain pill and then he was out for the night. Danni and Dan drove us home and we promised Felicia we’d be back to visit again; she kept thanking us for coming, she said it would make Dak proud because we did. When we got home, we went to bed; I normally sleep on my left side, but that was a no go. Debra couldn’t sleep on her left side either, so it worked out I guess; she had the first nightmare she had since we started sleeping together. I comforted her and she finally fell asleep again. It took me forever to fall asleep; I kept seeing Dak’s expression when he told us he shot those men trying to surrender. He hated what he had done, but he would do it again. Yeah, me too.
