Red Walker

by Scott Allen

  Dana yelled an order to his men to search the post for any more personnel, and ordered a corporal and some men to destroy all the comm equipment and take memory devices and weapons. He heard a couple of gunshots from the back of the post and rushed through a doorway, to find an enemy captain slumped against a wall, dead, holding a pistol. “She wouldn’t surrender, sir,” said one of his men.

  “So, there were three presumably dead enemy soldiers and one live corporal. Dana ordered Hudson, the medic, to check the three enemy that were down for vital signs. He ordered the live enemy corporal to be secured to a low metal conduit by her wrists. He looked at Hudson, who was coming out of the back room. “All three definitely dead, sir,” he said.

  Dana yelled to his men, “Pick up all weapons and memory and clear out!” As they exited the post, Blaine reported three small vehicles destroyed on the road. Dana led them back to their ‘cycles, and began the trek to the company meeting point. He asked Sergeant Blaine to count the men. Shortly, Blaine said, “One missing, sir. Hudson.”

  Dana ordered the platoon to stop. “You three corporals, come with me,” he said in an angry voice. They were quickly back at the command post. Dana burst through the doors and heard the shackled female corporal screaming, and saw that she was nearly naked. Hudson was bending over her with his stealthsuit thrown in a corner and his pants down. “Hudson!” yelled Dana.

  Hudson turned around with his carbine in his hand, but saw that he was covered by the four men. He dropped the carbine and sputtered, “Dammit, Dana, we deserve to do this! They enslaved us! It’s our right!”

  Dana shot him through the head.

  The three corporals were shocked and stared at Dana as if he was a monster. Dana said, “He violated strict orders. You and you – put his ‘suit back on him, drag his body and gun outside, and secure them to his ‘cycle. You – help me get this woman dressed.”

  The woman was still terrified, and Dana tried to speak to her in a soothing voice, saying they weren’t going to hurt her. He apologized for what Hudson had done. He and his corporal released her, let her dress, and gave her a drink of water. After cuffing her once again to the conduit, he told her that regular troops would be along shortly, and that she would be safe. She seemed to calm down. She seemed surprised at being treated with kindness.

  He told one of the corporals to slave Hudson’s ‘cycle to his own so that it would follow. When they all reached the platoon, they continued in the direction of the company meeting point. He told a comm corporal to send a mission accomplished message to the Captain. As they traveled, he explained what had happened to his platoon.

  “Private Hudson, one of our medics, tried to rape the remaining live soldier in the post. He put our mission in danger. First, we cannot give the enemy a propaganda victory by showing ourselves to be rapists. Second, we cannot have among us any soldiers that rape, loot, or hurt innocents. You may not have read the history of wars, but I have. History always remembers armies that behave that way, and they are condemned by history and by the rest of the world. We cannot afford to have the other nations of the world shifting their sympathies from us to the enemy, because we behave like animals. We will ruthlessly destroy our enemies, but we will also behave like honorable men when the situation calls for it. If any of you wish to behave like animals, speak up now, and you’ll get the same treatment as Hudson.” No one spoke.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  They reached the meeting point, a small forested area. Two platoons were already there among the trees, and their lieutenants said they had encountered only small resistance from the command posts they entered. Captain Evan and Sergeant Carroll arrived shortly with the other two platoons. Captain Evan said so that all could hear, “Good work, men. First Platoon encountered a fully staffed command post with two generals, and wiped them out. I’ll take reports from the other three platoons now.”

  Dana approached the Captain, saluting. “Third platoon reporting, sir.” Dana gave the brief details of the action, and then said, “I had to shoot Private Hudson, sir. He stayed behind and attempted to rape the remaining enemy corporal. We brought his body and ‘suit back on his ‘cycle. Three of my corporals were witnesses, sir.”

  “Very well, Lieutenant. Good work on the mission. There will be an inquiry when we R&R regarding Private Hudson,” said the Captain. He took reports from the other two lieutenants, then said to the entire company, “Dawn will rise in about forty minutes. A barrage of missiles will begin in about ten minutes, and then our regular troops will come pouring across the border. Without any direction from their headquarters, we expect the enemy Fifth Division to dissolve and surrender or run. Some of them may retreat in good order. We don’t know if any will come this way. If they do, we will kill or capture them and wait for the regular army to reach our position. Spread out and go to ground. Third Platoon, form a perimeter and stand picket duty at the edge of the trees. You will be relieved in two hours by Fourth Platoon. Sleep or eat as you wish, but I doubt you will sleep through the bombardment.”

  The Captain was right. A few minutes later, explosions began erupting about eight kilometers to the west, huge flashes of light followed by loud booms. For about a half-hour, nothing moved in the area visible to them. Then, they saw the headlights of three personal vehicles moving east along the road to their south, away from the fighting. Obviously, they were officers deserting their soldiers to save their skins. Dana called for his rocketmen to take out the vehicles, which they did, leaving small, flaming hulks on the road.

  After about two hours, when the sun was fully up, the Captain received a burst transmission from Battalion indicating that the enemy Fifth Division had been routed, and nearly all killed or captured. He relayed this to the men, and said they were to stand by for resupply and a new assignment.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  The Rebellion Army had created pockets at two points on the new Mexican border, one east and one west, and was rapidly advancing into the United States and broadening the pockets, moving very fast, preceded by missile barrages where enemy concentrations could be found. The US military was in disarray. Their troops were demoralized and surrendered easily. The commando battalions were ordered to move ahead of the main army, scouting for enemy troop movements, destroying command posts, missile batteries, and capturing elite bureaucrats. This often required that they move at the maximum speed of their stealthcycles, sometimes during the day with their solar panels spread out on their panniers. They received continuous satellite intelligence on enemy units, so they were seldom surprised by a concealed enemy unit. They usually surprised the enemy. Dana’s platoon was down to 21 men, having lost some to enemy action.

  Dana still had the hearing aid in his ear, and occasionally would come close enough to a civilian home to hear the news. It was the same kind of false reporting he had heard from the earlier war with the Mexicans. The rebellion was being pushed back by the brave actions of the Army and Air Force, but somehow, the next day, the enemy had advanced further.

  In five days, they were given a specific target, which was the Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln. They were to race well forward of the main army and capture or kill the governor and state legislators.

  The company was running out of food, and the Captain gave permission to appropriate food from local abandoned supermarkets, of which there seemed to be many, but usually with nearly-bare shelves. The men were getting along on the least appetizing packaged foods that were left.

  They approached Lincoln from the west, seeing no enemy nearby on their satellite and camera drone feeds. It appeared that the U.S. military had abandoned the state capital to its fate. They sped through the downtown streets, covered with unplowed snow, flinging a tremendous amount of it into the air, straight towards the Capitol, a sprawling three-story dirty grey stone building. It had once had a striking tower rising above it for about 50 meters, but the tower had been demolished as being too “phallic,” according to information on their faceplates.

/>   Dana’s platoon was designated to enter the building from the south door, which had to be blown open. They had pictures of state legislators they could pull up on their faceplates, but found no one in the building at all. The Fifth Platoon was to take the governor’s mansion on the south side of the Capitol, but it was empty as well. At least, there was some decent food in the cupboards and refrigerators, including lots of gin, wine, and a little beer, which was distributed to the company.

  They spent the day in the Capitol, and the Captain received orders to rest and refit behind the Rebellion lines, which would advance to meet them the day after next. So, the company spread out inside the Capitol, each two or three men taking an office with couches for their quarters. Dana told his men to take any offices on any floor on the south side, and they all grinned. After a week of sleeping on the ground, the food and the soft sleeping were a great luxury. They did envy the fifth platoon, which was staying in the governor’s mansion. There was no heat in the building, so they remained in their stealthsuits. It was humorous to see a man sleeping on a couch with patterned upholstery, with his ‘suit showing the same pattern to the room. There was a canteen on the west side of the building, where the men cooked their food.

  When the regular army arrived, the company was told to remain in place while their supplies arrived. Colonel Okoro visited the company, assembled in the legislature meeting room. He congratulated them on their progress, and told them to load up for another long mission. Afterwards, in one of the legislature meeting rooms, he held a board of inquiry concerning Hudson’s death. The three corporals corroborated Dana’s version of events, and Dana’s shooting of Hudson was approved.

  They were to have a week’s R&R in place as the RA advanced. Each platoon got new men to replace those lost. They had heard that their next mission was going to be ambitious, and very dangerous. Dana slept on the couch in a state senator’s office. Most nights, he found himself waking from a nightmare. Sometimes, he was leading men around a corner when a beast, all claws and teeth, leapt at him. Another time, he saw a huge missile approaching his platoon, and he was frozen, unable to give a warning. He would wake up with his heart racing and gasping for air, and sometimes with the sound of his own shout ringing in his ears. He was glad he was alone in the office, and would try to go back to sleep.

  Like most of the other men, Dana had been growing a beard. They had been forbidden by Male Control for some reason, so the men were trying them out. Dana had his first chance since the war started to see himself in a mirror in the senator’s office. He looked shaggy. He found a pair of scissors in a desk and did some trimming, liking the result better.

  When not on guard duty, the men found ways to amuse themselves. They played cards, watched viewscreens, and hooted at the obvious falsity of the news. Some of them watched soap operas, which they found hilarious, and would gather in one office to blow raspberries at the ridiculous dialogue. About half the company assembled in the legislative chamber, elected officers, and passed absurd laws, like all corn production must be used for making bourbon. Given that none of them knew anything about any other forms of entertainment, they made it up as they went along. Someone found a rule book for poker games, and the Captain had to forbid betting except on worthless tokens. So, Dana would walk in on a poker game and see one man betting a senator’s award plaque, and another one seeing his bet, and raising him a thick volume of Nebraska state laws.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  Captain Evan explained their next assignment. “The enemy has drawn what they are calling publicly a ‘line of death’ east of Iowa City, and has positioned their best troops there. It parallels a small river that runs roughly north-south,” he said, drawing his finger across a map on a viewscreen.

  “These women are their version of commandos. They are as big and tough as their army gets, pumped full of testosterone and energy drugs, and better equipped. They are good at camouflage and night fighting, and they know how to rig booby traps and mines. They know how to ambush. They even like hand-to-hand fighting. And, more than most of their army, they hate men. We are going to approach them in the dark down roads and fields, headed east. The rest of the Second Commando Division will be in rough line abreast, to our right and left.

  “When we get within a kilometer we will dismount and move slowly through the forest west of the river. Each platoon will be assigned a squad of live dogs and handlers to detect mines, traps, and tunnel entrances. I expect you to stay behind these men and their dogs and not interfere with them. Each of them is a precious resource to the RA.”

  “Sir,” said one of the lieutenants, “why not just missile the hell out of that line? Why send us in?”

  The Captain replied, “They’re dug in deep. Tunnels too deep to be destroyed by our missiles. If we sent in missiles, we would just knock down all the trees and create a line we can’t move through. Plus, we don’t want to kill civilians in the towns along the river.”

  “I don’t want any tunnel-ratting. It’s too easy to get killed that way. In addition to the live dog squad, there will be another squad with mechanical killer dogs to send down into the tunnels. They will clean them out.

  “Once we have broken through the enemy line and cleaned out the tunnels, we will destroy all enemy in our path, cross the river, and establish ourselves there. You each have a bayonet. You’ve had practice. You may now experience the real thing. Move out.”

  There was no point in laying up by day. The enemy knew roughly where they were, and would be forewarned when they would attack. They would not have the element of surprise. In the afternoon, they were about 20 kilometers from the enemy line. They had a brief opportunity to talk, drink coffee, and try to relax. Nobody could.

  The night was moonless, and the men had their night vision activated on their visors. There was snow on most parts of the ground, and the men knew enough to walk on that instead of dry leaves. Anyone observing them through night vision would see their footprints and tiny heat signatures, though. The live dog squad was 50 meters ahead of them, marking bobby traps, deactivating mines, and putting markers by tunnel entrances. Even the dogs had stealthsuits, but their faces could not be obscured. They needed their noses out, and that made them vulnerable to infrared detectors. Dana admired the courage of their handlers. Everyone was walking slowly, bayonets fixed, stopping every few steps to look carefully for concealed tunnel entrances under the leaves and snow.

  Dana was frightened, but knew he shouldn’t show it to his men. He looked nervously right and left as he moved forward. He was jumpy. Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw things that might be tunnel covers in the leafless bushes, but when he looked again, they looked like branches. His anxiety increased with every step.

  Suddenly, behind him and to his left, less than 5 meters away, Dana heard movement in some bushes, turned to look. Enemy soldiers began boiling out of concealed tunnel entrances that flipped open, firing randomly at waist level. Too late, he yelled “Drop!” into his comm, as several of his men fell. But, now, the enemy commandos were wielding bayonets wildly in front of them, slashing right, left, up, and down, hoping to hit a man in a stealthsuit. Dana yelled, “Bayonet charge!” and his men rose up as the enemy came at them.

  Dana had no time to think as a tall burly woman, probably twice his weight, screaming incoherent curses, lunged at him, or at least at the spot above his foot prints. Her bayonet tore his ‘suit and gashed his side as he evaded her. She could see him now. He moved backward a step, hit a rock, and fell backwards. The enemy commando moved toward him. Time slowed down. Dana realized she would kill him, and he would not get his carbine up in time. She raised her rifle like a lance, bayonet pointed downward. Dana was trying desperately to roll out of the way, but she was too close. She jerked twice, and collapsed. Dana managed to evade her falling rifle, looked around, and saw through his faceplate the ghostly image of one of his men kneeling with his carbine pointed at where she had been standing. He yelled, “Thanks, Brandon!” and stood up shaki
ly.

  Dana looked around. A few of his platoon were obviously down, either visible because of ripped ‘suits, or because of pooling blood, but the rest were killing enemy commandos. He saw a large woman about to stab one of his visible men on the ground with her bayonet, and shot her. It was all over in less than a minute.

  The live dog squad ahead was under fire and retreating, having left phosphorescent white markers at the tunnel entrances they had found. Their lieutenant said that they thought they had sprung or defused all the traps and mines, although they had obviously missed some tunnel entrances. They had lost several dogs – the men had heard them howl loudly in pain as they were hit. Dana ordered his men forward as a handler passed by him holding the body of his dog.

  “Mechanical killer dogs forward,” yelled Dana. As the terrifying mechanical beasts leapt down into the tunnels, firing multiple guns from their backs and a fiery chemical solution from their mouths, more enemy soldiers came out of other entrances and were shot immediately by Dana’s men. Dana and his platoon rushed forward in their little section of forest, firing into the bushes and trees, spotting the enemy by heat signature. In short order, the remaining enemy ran for their rear. Dana yelled. “Follow up! Don’t let them get away!” Within a few minutes, there were no enemy left in front of them. “Don’t go near enemy bodies!” yelled Dana. “They may be faking, or they may be booby trapped with explosives. Everyone to the platoon meeting point ahead and to our right.”