Easy Day for the Dead

by Howard E. Wasdin

  Alex scanned for threats as he proceeded through the engine room looking for the general. He wasn’t anywhere in sight. He must have fled up the ladder on the port side. Alex climbed the ladder on the port side, aiming his AKMS up the passageway. The higher Alex climbed, the higher the rate of beeps sounded. Alex reached the storage deck and continued up the metal ladder to the crew’s deck. The metal hatch leading to the ship’s passageway was open—someone had left in a hurry. Alex entered the passageway where the dead Guard from earlier lay, hopped over him, and hurried outside. Alex ran across the gangway. Before he reached the end of it, he spotted a lone man running from the pier. Alex stopped, planted his feet, and aimed. “General Tehrani!” Alex yelled.

  The man turned and looked in the direction of Alex’s voice. It’s him. General Tehrani rushed away, just before Alex took the shot, missing him. Before Alex could take a second shot, the general ran past the heavily burned warehouse and disappeared.

  A shot zipped past Alex’s ear. He ducked and spun around, but couldn’t see the shooter.

  “Sniper!” Alex shouted into his mouthpiece. “On the deck.”

  Alex debated dealing with the shooter, but realized Tehrani had to be stopped. He spotted a length of coiled rope near the railing. He took a smoke grenade from his vest, pulled the pin, and threw it toward the shooter. As soon as the smoke billowed up ten feet Alex got up and ran to the gangway, charging down it onto the dock after Tehrani.

  Snow and concrete kicked up by his foot as the sniper got off another shot at him. Alex didn’t bother to return fire, but ran after Tehrani, following his tracks in the snow.

  38

  * * *

  The run winded General Tehrani, and he knew he couldn’t go much farther. He jogged between a line of railroad tank cars on his left and the long, shattered hulk of the burned warehouse on his right. After the building ended, there was a gap between it and a small two-room building. Frantically looking for a good place to hide, he spotted a huge mound of snow on a triangular patch of land surrounded by piles of twisted girders and smashed concrete cinder blocks. Off to the left it looked like children had hollowed out the snow in the rubble and created a small snow cave. Adjacent to the snow cave sat a giant snowball, possibly the base for a large snowman. In front of it lay a smaller-sized snowball cracked into three chunks. General Tehrani picked up one of the three chunks of snow and put it in the cave. Next, he pushed the giant snowball, but it wouldn’t budge. The base seemed frozen to the ground. He put his shoulder into it and pushed harder until the snowball broke loose from the ground and rolled forward. Then General Tehrani knelt between the snowball and the snow cave and pulled the snowball toward him until it closed off much of the cave. Freezing wind blew snow through the upper right portion of the cave, where it remained open. General Tehrani’s hunters might see him inside the cave, so he used the chunk of snow he’d deposited in the cave and plugged the biggest opening of the hole, protecting himself from most of the frigid wind and the hunters’ eyes.

  39

  * * *

  Alex chased after Tehrani, tracking his movement through the snow. He came up to the rail line and stopped. The tracks were lost in a mess of slush.

  Suddenly, something hit Alex from behind, like a hot baseball bat striking his left shoulder. It hit him with such force that his left hand lost its grip on his AKMS, and he almost fell onto the tracks. His vision blurred and his ears rang and he fell to his knees. The ringing in his ears took away his equilibrium. “Sniper,” Alex reported weakly. He didn’t recall the sound of a rifle, but he sensed he’d been shot by Major Khan.

  “Alex!” Cat yelled. “Get up and run, Alex! Run!”

  “I can’t see,” Alex cried.

  “You have to try!” Cat shouted.

  Alex scurried on his knees toward the railcars, knowing he’d buy himself a few more seconds. His vision remained blurry. Everything was a swirl of white and black. His hearing still ringing, Alex felt unbalanced, afraid to move because he might fall and he wasn’t sure he could pick himself back up again. The shot had pierced his shoulder, and he knew it wouldn’t be long before Major Khan took his second shot. In that moment, Alex regretted not being able to see Cat’s smile again, but he imagined it.

  He heard two more shots, but he could tell they weren’t aimed at him. His left hand went numb and he looked down. Cat was holding his hand, helping him to his feet.

  “I’ve got your hand. Just run with me, baby. Run.”

  Alex stumbled with her across the railway tracks and into the warehouse. His feet tangled up in some wire and he stumbled and fell, dragging Cat down with him. A shot zipped past them. Cat returned fire, then helped him up, and they ran. He couldn’t hear if Major Khan took more shots. Maybe he was still working Alex into his crosshairs. Alex ran for Cat, and he ran for himself—he wanted to live. As he ran, the ringing continued in one ear.

  They weaved through the rubble, up and over crumpled metal siding and a pile of huge gears. Cat led him to a heap of rebar and then stopped when they got around to the far side.

  Alex’s vision began to clear. He noticed a black object in her hand. “What’s that?”

  “I think it’s General Tehrani’s cell phone. It probably fell out of his pocket. I found it on the gangway.”

  “That’s why my ear keeps ringing.” He took out the earpiece that monitored the divining rod. The ringing in his ear stopped.

  “Your shoulder is bleeding.”

  Alex looked around the debris and snow for any signs of General Tehrani. “I lost him. I know he’s close, but where?”

  Cat grabbed his shoulder and Alex winced. “We need to get you bandaged up.”

  “Khan will be coming, and we’re too out in the open to stay here,” Alex said, looking around them. “There, see that ducting. It must have fallen from the ceiling when the building burned down, but a lot of it is still intact.”

  Cat peered around the rebar and swept the area. “Okay, we’ll get in there and I’ll patch you up. Go.”

  40

  * * *

  General Tehrani’s body heat warmed the inside of his snow cave, and the temperature became almost comfortable. The general smiled. An officer fights to become a general, and when he succeeds, he spends the rest of his career protecting his rank. In 1979, Iran executed eighty-five senior generals and expelled the majority of its junior generals. Officers like Tehrani who were loyal to the regime were promoted to general. In 1980, Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, but during the Iran-Iraq War, General Tehrani repelled Saddam Hussein’s army from Iran and commanded human-wave attacks through barbed wire, machine-gun fire, and chemical weapons attacks—taking over land in Iraq. Finally, a truce was called between the two countries, and Iran told General Tehrani to give the Iraqis back their land. He beat the Iraqis, and now in his ice cave, General Tehrani was beating the Americans. I cannot be defeated.

  He heard two people outside his cave speaking English, a man and a woman. The woman said, “General Tehrani.” They’re looking for me. Although he wanted to put snow in the cracks of the entrance to his snow cave to better conceal himself, he dared not move for fear of alerting the Americans to his location. Also, his body heat quickly warmed the snow inside his cave to water, which froze into ice, so it was becoming more difficult to scrape together a handful of snow anyway. Fortunately the wind drove the heavy falling snow into the cracks of his cave, cloaking the general in darkness. Now they’ll never find me. If I stay here until morning, they’ll be gone. When I hear the Russians come to unload the crude oil, I can ask for help.

  General Tehrani’s knees weren’t as strong as they used to be and the soft snow beneath him had become ice. He shifted his body from a kneeling position to sitting. Because he couldn’t sit up straight in the cave, his neck ached from bending over. The aching slowly traveled from his neck down his spine, but he’d rather have an aching spine than be dead. I can recover from an aching spine. Soon his ass ached from sitting on the ice.

/>   The air inside his cave became stale, and he loosened the top button on his collar so he could breathe more easily. After a while, he lost track of time, and the air became more uncomfortable to breathe. It occurred to General Tehrani that he might not have enough oxygen, and if he didn’t let some oxygen in soon, he might suffocate. He used his finger to try to poke a hole where the snow had filled the cracks at the top of his cave’s entrance. If the hole was small enough, he could let air in without being seen from the outside. In spite of his effort, his finger couldn’t poke through. He tried other locations, but the snow had frozen solid.

  I could be trapped in here. General Tehrani pressed his hands on the cave’s entrance, searching for a soft spot to break through, but he found none. He searched the rest of the cave—ice. Now he feared suffocating in the ice cave more than he feared the Americans.

  General Tehrani hoped the Americans had left the area. He pounded on the cave’s entrance, hoping to beat a hole through to the outside, but the harder he pounded it, the harder he packed the ice. The pounding made his hands and fists sore, and he expended more of his precious oxygen, making it more difficult to breathe. He pressed his shoulder against the entrance, but the ice didn’t budge. He kicked at the entrance until his feet became too sore and weak to kick anymore.

  He reached for his cell phone, but it was missing. He’d dropped it somewhere. “Help! Somebody help me! Can anyone hear me?! I’m suffocating!” General Tehrani remembered his metal belt buckle and took it off. Then he used it to scrape the ice, but he expended too much oxygen for a small amount of progress that would take days to complete. “Help! Please help me from this tomb!”

  After screaming for help for as long and as loud as he could, he ran out of energy and breath. “Help! Please, help!” He curled into a fetal position, and his voice became faint: “Help. Please, somebody . . .” General Tehrani could no longer speak. Dizziness gripped him and the edges of his vision began to gray and then darkness overcame him.

  41

  * * *

  “You’re lucky, it was a clean through-and-through,” Cat said, wrapping the bandage tight around his shoulder.

  “Don’t feel lucky,” Alex said, grimacing as Cat finished her work.

  “Poor you,” Cat said, picking up her rifle and peering out from the ducting.

  “Thanks,” he said, reaching out and patting her leg with his right hand.

  “Wait until you get my bill,” Cat said.

  Alex crawled a few feet away from Cat and looked out through a tear in the ducting. He knew that if Major Khan wanted to stop him before reaching downtown, Khan would have to pass between the narrow length of land stretching between the piers and the city. Alex and Cat couldn’t keep all of the piers under surveillance, but they could monitor that narrow stretch of land. Alex looked for a good sniper position. Rows of oil tanks stood ten stories tall—taller than anything in the area. A ladder led to the top of each tank, but since the ladder was the only entrance and exit to the top, it would be easy for a sniper perched on top to become trapped. Also, the tanks were too far away from the narrow stretch of land. A three-story building had a great view of the narrow stretch of land and was well within range of Alex’s rifle. The three-story building had the added bonus of a raised roof that sheltered it from view from the ten-story-tall oil tanks. It seemed like the best place for a sniper. Major Khan would think the same. Alex quickly looked for where Major Khan might set up a countersniper position. There was a smaller two-story building that didn’t have a commanding view of the narrow stretch of land, but it had a view of the three-story sniper position. Alex felt strongly that Major Khan would set up a countersniper position in the smaller two-story building, so Alex looked for a counter-countersniper position, and he found it in a pile of girders and rubble. If Major Khan set up in the sniper position, Alex wouldn’t be able to see him. Worse, if Major Khan set up a counter-counter-countersniper position, Alex was screwed.

  “Okay, let’s move,” Alex said, pointing outward.

  “You sure?” Cat asked.

  “One hundred percent,” Alex said.

  He crawled back out of the duct and slowly stood up while Cat covered him. He tested his legs and was relieved that his equilibrium was back. His shoulder was a screaming nightmare, but it could wait. He waited until Cat got out of the duct, then led her past a line of tanker cars on a train track. They crawled the last twenty feet to the pile of snow-covered debris. Alex pointed to a depression five feet away for Cat to use. He waited until she was in place, then wormed his way under a girder and to the left of a spool of steel cable. He carefully unwound several yards of the cable and heaped it up in front of him. He poked his rifle between the loops and made sure his scope had a clear view. Next, he grabbed some metal shards and placed them to his right, angling them so they were parallel with his rifle barrel. He found a section of tarp and slowly pulled it over his head to further break up his form. Satisfied, he watched the countersniper position and the surrounding area.

  The snow continued to fall, making spotting anything difficult. Alex began to shiver and started tensing and relaxing his muscles to combat the cold. A sniper who couldn’t shoot straight was useless. He began mentally cataloging shapes and distances. The mounds of rubble made it an almost impossible task, but Alex kept at it, focusing on likely areas and discarding those he knew he’d never use.

  After half an hour, Alex sensed movement near the countersniper building, but he couldn’t pinpoint where it was. Minutes later, he saw movement through a window on the second floor. Although Alex could see only the vague silhouette of a person sitting behind his rifle, positioned on a table, Alex knew it had to be Major Khan. The movement stopped.

  As Alex inhaled, he aimed carefully, trying to empty his mind. If he emptied his mind then his target wouldn’t sense Alex was thinking about him. Adjusting for distance and wind direction, Alex’s sights lined up perfectly on Major Khan’s upper body. During Alex’s exhale, he didn’t wait until he expelled all his air. Instead, he held his breath so the movement of his lungs wouldn’t throw his shot. If he held it too long, his body would crave oxygen and tremble. Alex squeezed the trigger, building the tension in his finger until his AKMS fired. The recoil thumped his shoulder with a satisfying wallop. It was a perfectly placed shot. The figure of Major Khan remained sitting in his chair as if stunned. Alex shot him again in the chest. Major Khan slumped face-first onto the table in front of him.

  Before Alex moved from his position to make sure Khan was dead, Alex sensed something eerie. Somebody is watching us. He froze.

  “Cat,” he whispered. “Stay perfectly still. Khan’s still out there.”

  The countersniper wasn’t Major Khan. That was one of his Guards—bait. Alex’s eerie feeling changed to fear. Where’s Major Khan?

  If Major Khan knew our exact location, he’d already have taken his shot. He may know our general location, but he’s waiting for us to move so he can pinpoint us. Alex remained still, waiting for Major Khan to make the first move. Behind Alex and Cat there wasn’t much land between them and Neva Bay. Normally, Alex would consider the water as one of his primary retreats, but with the freezing air temperature, near-freezing water conditions, and no wet suit, the water wasn’t his first choice of retreat. Whether he was winning or losing, Alex always tucked emergency exits into the back of his mind.

  Between Alex and the city, a little over a hundred yards away, shots were fired at full automatic from another pile of rubble. Thirty shots sprayed Alex’s rubble pile. Some of the shots were so close that snow fell down on him. The enemy knew Alex and Cat were in the debris, but he didn’t know exactly where. He was trying to flush them out.

  Alex spotted the muzzle flash and traced the rifle barrel to the shooter lying on the ground. He wasn’t Major Khan. Where is Major Khan? Probably waiting for me to whack this Guard and give away my exact position. The shooter was doing something—probably changing magazines. The shooter stood up and walked toward Ale
x’s position, aiming his AK at him and Cat. As he arrived within less than a hundred yards, Alex realized their discovery was inevitable. Snipers who froze in place too long were dead snipers. Now Alex had to get the jump on the shooter before the shooter jumped him. When the shooter reached fifty yards away, Alex pounded him twice in the chest. The shooter fell back as if he’d been struck by a sledgehammer.

  “Follow me,” Alex whispered. He ran across the tracks and into another of the damaged buildings. There would be more options for cover in there. Alex glanced back. Cat was right behind him. When he reached the middle of the narrow stretch of land, he headed southwest toward the city, where the land would expand and give him even more options for maneuvering. Especially after getting shot in the left shoulder, Alex wasn’t going to stick around and wait for Major Khan, who had obviously upped his game since their days in Iraq.

  As Alex ran southwest, he passed the fallen countersniper’s building on his left and a snowy mound on his right. Fortunately, the building and mound covered Alex’s left and right from anyone shooting at him. Unfortunately, he was in a kill zone where he could escape only backward or forward—with little wiggle room in between. Shit! After fifty yards, there was a break in the mound to the right and Alex took it. Bang! A shot sounded from behind. Alex glanced back to see if Cat was still with him. She was.

  Alex’s new location was no better than the previous one. Although he had more space to maneuver, he had no cover to protect him from Major Khan’s bullets, and he had no idea how many Guards the major had brought with him. Alex nearly panicked trying to find a better place for maneuvering, but he remembered to breathe—deep and slow. His legs pumped hard and fast. He zigged and zagged southwest through the open space. Bang-bang, bang-bang! Alex felt one hot round pass the left side of his neck and heard another pop the sound barrier above his right ear. Alex slanted left before continuing southwest. He sprinted through a narrow stretch that opened to several buildings and a large oil tank. The terrain gave him more places to take cover, but it was still limited. Alex ran to the right, behind the tank, looking for a better place to make a stand. Finally, to the southwest, he found a maze of buildings, metal pillars and pipes, and train cars to provide him multiple sources of cover while he maneuvered—perfect.