After the Day- Red Tide

by Matthew Gilman

  In the street the Chinese tank exploded, the front of the buildings around it shattered and caved in from the force of the blast. The turret was blown off and rested against the side of the tank as the inside was engulfed in flames. Unused rounds inside continued to explode and cause havoc in the street. Soldiers ran in all directions trying to find cover from the chaos that was happening at the end.

  Towards the end of the block, Lady Kim spotted a trail of smoke leaving the roof of a building, an RPG. A small trunk exploded, the rocket propelled grenade puncturing the roof of the cab. Rifle fire and machine guns started firing in all directions. Lady Kim reloaded her BAR and continued to fire into areas that had large groups of Chinese soldiers. Some of the big guns on top of the Chinese trucks quickly joined the fight. The edges of rooftops exploded pieces of brick into the air as the big guns fought back. They became the first targets of the snipers. Molotov cocktails dropped from the buildings into the street and caused more chaos. The street was the worst nightmare that any of the Chinese had come across yet.

  In the distance a General sat in his fold out chair and watched the battle through his binoculars. He watched the destruction. His men waited his orders and he slowly but methodically put his plan together.

  “General Tzu, our men are being slaughtered.” one of his commanders said.

  “At the moment.” he put his binoculars down. “That old woman on the roof, shoot her. When she is dead, send in the reinforcements. Have the men storm those buildings. Working from that end on down. We will take this neighborhood today.”

  The commander saluted the general and gave the orders over the radio. Trucks rolled out to the frontline and men poured out of the back. Instead of engaging the enemy like the rest of the soldiers in the street, these men kicked in the doors of the nearest building and flooded inside.

  Clearing rooms, the reinforcements searched for the stairwells until they found them. Using flashlights to travel up the stairs they quickly made their way to the top. The point man did his best to search for booby traps. Stopping on the last landing the point man looked up at the last flight of stairs and saw a shining wire like a spider web in morning dew. He pointed to the wire and the rest of the men were careful to move over it. Reaching the door the point man checked his gun and pushed the door. Sunlight crept in through the crack of the doorway and the stairway dropped from under him. The wire was a decoy. He didn’t feel the explosion, only the sudden drop into darkness as the stairwell disappeared. Four stories didn’t sound like a far drop. In the emptiness of a dark abyss it is an endless space.

  The roof rocked and the two men at the edge of the building looked back at the doorway to the stairwell, smoke and dust came out of the cracks of the door frame.

  “Looks like we have to go to Plan B.” one of the men said.

  The second man reloaded the RPG and debated the next target. He decided the military truck with the large gun turret on the roof. The Chinese did well to keep it manned and he figured it was better to take it out of the picture. Leaning over the side he aimed and fired. The grenade shot down and missed the truck. The side of the truck blew in and damaged the vehicle but the gun was still functional. As the man worked at reloading the RPG, he looked over at his partner and watched as he was shot. It wasn’t from the street, but another roof. The man ran for cover with the RPG and took a shot to the leg. He fell and began crawling. He looked for the shooter and finally spotted him. A few buildings over, it was an impossible shot with the RPG. At that moment he only needed to get to cover. It was too late. The next bullet went through his chest. He didn’t live long enough to hear the shot.

  The fighting went on all day. When the sun set the night turned quiet. Shots rang out when people heard something move or saw a shadow. In the dark of night the battle slept when the men did not.

  Lady Kim ordered the men in the tank to load up supplies and carry as many civilians as they could. The gas tanks were still close to full. Several of the older supply trucks for the stores ran on diesel and were converted to run on cooking oil and anything else that the Koreans had worth burning. When the fighting started the next morning they would roll out to the mountains and set up a resistance there. The men argued it was not wise to have their best weapon leave the battlefield. Lady Kim remembered wishing she had something like a tank to protect her when she was fleeing from the Chinese in her homeland. The civilian’s that had already packed up their belongings stayed by the tank until morning, unwilling to lose out on their chance to leave to safer land.

  Their losses were not as bad as they thought they would be. The Chinese had the majority of the losses, bodies littered the street and the vehicles continued to burn until the fuel and ammo had nothing left to burn. The few men that didn’t come back were stationed on the far roofs. The assumption was that they were either captured or killed.

  That night when everyone was reloading their guns and magazines Lady Kim told them to double up on what they normally carried. She knew the Chinese would not let any resistance get the better of them for long. While it was still night she ordered her men to get ready for an assault.

  Crawling into the sewer system, they traveled behind the Chinese lines. It was risky. They didn’t know where exactly they would pop up. The stench of the dead Chinese they had been dumping floated through the air. The smell of death was nothing new after living through the flu. When they finally came out of the tunnels they found themselves several streets behind Chinese lines. It gave them the opportunity to examine their options. Her men were tired. Little sleep, carrying more weight than they were accustomed to, her men weren’t sure what they were doing but they knew whatever it was it would be worth it.

  Lady Kim had an idea where the Chinese leadership would be watching from. A hotel overlooked the neighborhood. They were a few blocks away and traveled slowly in the early morning hours. They stopped and hurried into an alley with the rumble of tank treads and diesel motors approaching. A convoy traveled towards Koreatown. There were more tanks than last time and twice as many trucks. Even with superior positions the Koreans would have been overrun.

  Lady Kim checked her pocket watch, the tank and civilians should be well on their way to the mountains by now if they followed their orders. The Chinese should look at it as retreating. That was her hope.

  When the convoy was gone they continued on foot to the hotel. From the outside they could see guards stationed and barriers set up to prevent suicide bombers and other attacks. The mistake the Chinese made was having most of their force out in the field. With the rise of the sun Lady Kim ordered her men around the main entrance. On her order they opened fire and killed most of the guards at the front gate. Her men rushed the entrance and entered the lobby. They found little resistance there. A few men came from the security office and were shot on sight. Lady Kim entered the lobby and noticed the lights were on for the elevator.

  “Stairs are over here.” one of her men called out.

  “Generals don’t take stairs.” Lady Kim said.

  The men hadn’t noticed that the elevators were operating. Somewhere a generator was working to feed power to the elevators and whatever else the general wanted.

  Lady Kim pressed the button on the elevator and the doors opened with the familiar ding. She stepped inside and hit the penthouse button.

  “You’re more than welcome to take the stairs.” she said.

  Men crowded into the two elevators. Two men stayed behind to keep an eye on the lobby. As the elevator rose the men became nervous. It was the longest and quickest ride they had ever experienced. The doors opened and they poured out into the hall. Two guards jumped to attention and grabbed their guns. Lady Kim’s men shot them down before they could fire. Rushing to the door the men stopped and let Lady Kim take care of the lock. Standing back Lady Kim raised her BAR and emptied the magazine into the door and the frame. The door creaked open when she was done.

  She let the spent magazine fall to the floor and placed a new one into the
receiver. She pulled the bolt back and fed a fresh round into the chamber. Kicking the door in, everyone in the raiding party forgot that they were being led by an old woman.

  Lady Kim was the first through the door. Inside the penthouse was a general and two white women, both blonde and barely dressed. The general in his uniform stood back by the windows. It was his view of the battlefield. The women stood silent, working very hard at not being noticed.

  “You betray your people?” the general said.

  Lady Kim pulled a pack of cigarettes from a pocket and popped one in her mouth. One of the men quickly pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the cigarette for her.

  “My people?” Lady Kim asked in English.

  The general looked surprised, and then he read some of the kanji written on her clothes. It wasn’t Chinese of any dialect or Japanese, it could only be Korean.

  “I’ll tell you about my people.” Lady Kim started. “My people fought against the Japanese, then the Chinese came and acted like our country was theirs, that was when you killed my husband. I didn’t stick around to see how badly your people would ruin what was a good home. I came here to get away. Your mistake was coming here before I was dead.”

  “The Chinese people will never stop trying to take what is theirs.” the general said.

  “Then you can all die.” Lady Kim raised her machine gun and emptied it into the general. The glass window shattered behind him, the bullets rocked his body back. Where he should have fallen against the glass he fell through and watched himself fall to the concrete walkway that waited for him.

  The girls cringed in the corners of the room, their half-naked bodies doing their best to disappear, begging to be forgotten.

  “What about the women?” one of the men asked.

  “What about them?” Lady Kim said. She thought for a minute. “On second thought kill them. Let it be a message for people willing to fuck the sick men of Asia.”

  To save on bullets the men grabbed the two women and threw them from the broken window to meet their lover at the bottom. Lady Kim spat out the window as a sign of her disgust for their lack of loyalty to their own land.

  “Now we leave, meet the others in the mountains, and continue our fight there.” Lady Kim led the way to the elevator and rode it down to the lobby where her other men still waited.

  Using a Chinese personal carrier that was parked outside of the base, they traveled through the city and made their way to the mountains that waited in the distance. The death of a general would be a big step back for the invading army; however he could easily be replaced. The disgrace of losing a general to a small rebel force would be something they would never forget and never forgive. Lady Kim was at peace with that, she never forgave either.

  Chapter 8: West Coast United States

  The Rocky Mountains of northern California were full of life and a change from the world they were accustomed to in the south. Having driven around San Francisco and into the area known as Big Sur, the Koreans hoped to set up a new base of operations where they could continue to fight.

  The tank rolled down the highway, now covered in a layer of sand and dust, the road disappearing in large sections only to reappear suddenly and briefly. The gas gauge read close to empty and the people riding wondered if at any time they would be left to march on foot into a unknown land after spending a lifetime in a city accustomed to all life giving elements available at all times.

  Eventually, the tank stopped. The people riding on it found space in the trucks to continue the ride. One of the men took the .50 caliber machine gun off the turret and placed it in the back of a truck. The other ammo was unloaded from the tank hoping to be able to use it later for traps. The tank was abandoned and the convoy moved on.

  Dehydration became a problem quickly. A handful of older men went around hunting snakes with sticks. The younger people in the group gagged as the men chopped the heads off and squeezed the blood out of the snakes into their mouths. The precious nutrients and water helped sustain them. The higher they went into the mountains the colder the air became. Water was harder to find and they became less confident of their own survival.

  “Where is Lady Kim?” a young man said not to anyone in particular.

  “She abandoned us to fight the Chinese on her own.” a woman added.

  An older man turned around. He had known Lady Kim for decades and even now trusted her judgment.

  “Do you know who you talk about?” he asked. The group stopped. “She came here after her husband was killed by the Chinese. She has waited years to get her revenge and if she says this is the safest place for us then it is. Our people have survived in the mountains for hundreds of years. These may not be the mountains of our ancestors, but they can be our mountains. If the Chinese want to come find us they can die doing so. I will not make it easy for them to kill us.” His speech was over. He didn’t anticipate making a dramatic dialogue but was glad he did hoping it would motivate everyone to continue on.

  “To hell with those duck fuckers,” a young man said.

  The others joined in cursing the Chinese and suddenly the group was traveling faster.

  After that the older man named Kong was the driving force of the group. There were few of them, easier to hide but harder to fight back when the time came.

  At the peak of the day they hid under rocks and shelters in the shade. In the morning and evening they traveled and moved.

  Kong watched the highway wondering what day the Chinese would show up.

  Instead, Lady Kim appeared. Her men were still with her and they brought some food with them hauled in the back of the truck.

  The group cheered and welcomed their leader. Kong saluted her as she climbed up the side of the hill.

  “Stop that, are you trying to get me shot by a sniper?” she said. The scowl on her face was now permanent.

  Kong and Lady Kim debriefed each other and caught up on the current situation. The next day the group hiked the highway and found the spot for their next attack.

  “You seriously killed the Chinese general?” Kong asked Lady Kim.

  “He never should have stepped off that ship.” she replied. The conversation ended there.

  The fact they were able to accomplish that meant the Chinese would be on their way to retaliate.

  Scouts were sent out for food and information during the cooler hours and the rest waited at their ambush positions. Then, finally, the Chinese appeared. The Koreans sat on top of a cliff that was cut out for the building of the highway. The bottom lined with a metal screen to hold the cut rock in, keeping it from falling out onto the road. On the opposite side of the highway a steep drop of several hundred feet.

  Lady Kim waited patiently. She hollered out orders to the group reminding them of their jobs. She still had her BAR and her finger twitched as she watched the convoy approach from miles away. It was an hour before the Chinese were climbing the highway of the mountain. Nobody was walking. Everyone loaded into transport carriers and sat on top of armored vehicles. Lady Kim tried to count the number of vehicles but it was impossible from the dust being kicked up. In the lead was a Chinese tank exactly like the one they had captured weeks before. She missed that tank. It would have come in handy about now.

  Everyone stayed still and hidden. The rumble of the tank grew louder as it climbed up the highway. Soon Lady Kim was able to look down and see the tank below them. She raised her hand and then dropped it. The men next to her began pushing. They strained against a rock that they intended to start a landslide. The rock moved but wouldn’t fall.

  “Push!” she gritted between her teeth. The tank was almost past the spot below them. “Dogs!”

  She raised her BAR and fired down at the tank. The Chinese hollered and the gunner on the turret turned and began firing up the cliff. The tank stopped.

  “Push harder,” she yelled at the men. The rest of the group began firing down at the Chinese and full firefight erupted.

  The rock budged and one
of the men almost went over the edge as it descended down the cliff. The rock was the size of a refrigerator and they had no idea how heavy it was but it took four men to budge it.

  Lady Kim watched the rock tumble and drop. The rock hit the front of the tank, the loud impact almost sounded like a bomb going off. The tank rocked and the barrel of the gun turret was crushed and taken out of commission. More rocks fell and blocked the convoy from traveling any further up the mountain. The Koreans had the advantage and fired down at the Chinese who couldn’t retreat or assault the enemy. Some of the men ran to the edge of the highway to either get shot or turn back realizing there was no retreat down the edge of the cliff. The larger gunners were easy targets for the Koreans and they made sure that anyone trying to man them was quickly taken out.

  In the middle of the fire fight Kong looked over to Lady Kim and watched her take a hit to the chest. He kept his mouth shut. The shock of Lady Kim being hit would be a devastating hit to morale. He ran to her and she stood back up firing her BAR.

  “Get off me, I’m not done yet.” she said firing at more Chinese who thought the cliff was a great option.

  Blood escaped from her mouth. Her breathing became wheezy. Kong could tell she didn’t have long.

  Lady Kim took a few more hits and fell back. Kong stood over her.

  “Kill those bastards,” she said to him. He knew those were her dying words.

  He grabbed her BAR and reloaded the rifle. He aimed down and shot at any movement he saw. The Chinese were being decimated. When the highway became quiet, Kong gave the order to retreat over the top of the mountain to their fallback position.

  Lady Kim was carried out, one of three fatalities that day. The group went back and scavenged the leftover ammo and guns the dead Chinese left behind. They also found mortars and large guns that they stockpiled for future ambushes. Lady Kim was able to teach them what to do before she died. She had saved the lives of dozens of Koreans through her hatred for the Chinese.