by Eric Vall
Tara pulled her long platinum-blonde hair up into a ponytail, then she cracked her knuckles and leaned her head back against our cover while she looked up to the sun and pursed her lips.
Bailey sat with her legs straight out and one hand placed against the sandbags she’d stacked to make the table for her Barrett. The blonde chewed on the inside of her cheek as she stared straight ahead and squinted against the bright evening light.
At that moment, I couldn’t help but feel like time was standing still. Everyone was quiet, and the air practically hummed with the anticipation the group was experiencing.
A squeaking sound drew my attention to the left, and I watched Tara’s hand shoot up to cover her mouth just before she stood up and ran a few steps toward the group of trees nearby. The platinum-blonde bent over and threw up everything she’d eaten that day while the rest of the group grimaced and tried not to listen.
“Oh, fuck,” Paige breathed, and she covered her ears. “I can’t listen to this.”
“Me, either,” Bailey said, and she blanched and covered her ears and pinched her eyes closed.
“Sorry, everyone,” Tara said once she was done, and she spit a couple times, walked back over to our cover, and sat down.
“Um, are you sure you don’t want to sit this one out?” Paige asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Tara countered. “I’m not missing this action.”
“Really,” Bailey said. “There’s no shame in taking a rest. I bet Tav would even let you take one of the jeeps back to camp.”
“Yeah, I think the Captain is still there.” Paige nodded encouragingly.
“Fuck you guys,” Tara scoffed. “You’re trying to send me back to camp so I can hang out with the retired Navy Captain who didn’t even want to be here in the first place? I’ve fought and worked hard to be part of this team, and I’m not going to throw away my position just because I’m pregnant. This little human is going to be a fighter.”
Tara pointed to her stomach then, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“You’re right,” I told her. “Our child will be a fighter. But they can’t be anything if you overexert yourself.”
“I’m fine,” Tara promised. “It was just a little bit of morning sickness, I can deal.”
“It’s almost dark,” Anna pointed out.
“Morning sickness is just what they call it.” Tara rolled her eyes. “It happens all the time.”
“Alright.” The redhead shrugged. “Suit yourself, but if you throw up while we’re in the middle of this battle, I’m going to have to throw up on you.”
“Gross!” Tara exclaimed, and she playfully hit Anna on the shoulder. “You can’t throw up on me you gross-o.”
“I can, and I will,” the redhead said. “Especially if you throw up first. I don’t know if I’ll be able to control it.”
“Me, either.” Paige nodded. “I’m with Anna. If you’re going to insist on fighting, then we’re all going to throw up on you if you start throwing up.”
“Oh, my god, you guys are nasty,” Tara laughed.
“Hey, you chose this,” Anna told her. “Remember that.”
“I in no way chose to get thrown up on,” the platinum-blonde said.
“You’re choosing to fight,” the redhead explained. “And in doing so you acknowledge that it’s possible you’ll throw up mid-battle, and if that happens, we’re all going to throw up, too. And if you make me throw up with your nasty throw up, then I’m going to throw up right on your face.”
“I swear to god, if someone says throw up one more time, I’m going to,” Bailey said, and she blanched and leaned forward and closed her eyes.
“Oh shit,” Anna laughed, and she reached over and touched Bailey’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Bails. Are you alright?”
“You see what you’ve done?” Tara asked Anna. “You’ve upset Bailey.”
“Both of you have upset me,” the blonde corrected. “Or my stomach at least. Now, can we get back to waiting quietly?”
“I second that request,” Paige said.
“You’re right,” Anna agreed. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” Tara said, and she let out a breath and leaned back again.
I had fully expected Tara to deny the offer for her to sit out the battle, but part of me had hoped she’d prove me wrong and take it anyways. She was right, though, she’d worked incredibly hard, and I understood why she wouldn’t want to stop fighting just because she was pregnant.
Tara was more than capable still, and while I didn’t necessarily like it, I’d do what I could, and that was keep her safe. No matter what the cost, I wouldn’t allow anything to happen to my woman or my child inside of her.
I glanced over and saw Tara’s hand placed gently on her stomach, and my stomach fluttered with happiness.
I hoped our child would have her feistiness, but no matter if they were a boy or girl, I knew they’d be beautiful like their mother. They’d have my brown hair, and her beautiful pale skin and light brown eyes.
“Tav,” Ben’s voice came through the walkie on my hip and interrupted my thoughts.
“What is it?” I asked.
“We see them,” the pilot said seriously. “The NK troops are coming down Colonial Parkway.”
The battle had officially begun.
Chapter 13
“Roger that,” I said into the walkie. “Hold your position.”
“Yes, sir,” Ben replied, and I hung the walkie back on my hip.
“We have visual confirmation,” I called out. “Everyone hold steady and get prepared. The troops will be here in a few minutes.”
Small sounds filled the air as everyone adjusted themselves at once.
The girls and I all flipped around and crouched behind the bags so we could see out to the road, too, and Bailey adjusted herself so she had her Barrett already lined up and her finger just an inch away from the trigger.
I had my new H&K MP5 ready to go, and I double checked it before I positioned myself so I was lined up to shoot.
After a few minutes, we still hadn’t seen anything, but it was too tense of a situation to do anything but hold our breaths and wait.
If Ben and Jeff had seen them, then the troops would be here soon. The Navy Supply Center was only a couple miles up the road, but I also had to take into account how slow moving the troops would be. They had some large trucks with them, plus some smaller vehicles, not to mention they were towing the MiGs. A troop like that can only go as fast as their slowest vehicle, so I just had to be patient, no matter how long every second seemed.
For a moment, all I could hear was Anna’s shallow breathing next to me, but then a familiar sound filled the air, and it got closer and closer.
“Shit,” I muttered, and I looked up to the sky.
Through the tree branches above us, I could see the MiG as it flew overhead and out to the water. We were right, the NK troops were using the plane as a scout, which meant the pilot had to have seen the ship in the water.
“Tav, come in,” Minji’s panicked voice came through the walkie on my hip.
“What’s wrong?” I asked quietly as I quickly pulled the device up to my lips.
“We got a radio call,” she explained. “The NK troops want to know why we’re in the water here and not further south at Yorktown.”
“Tell them what we practiced earlier,” I instructed. “Say you followed the resistance up here, but you lost them, and you’re no longer sure where they’re at.”
“Okay,” the Korean woman replied, and a moment later the speaker crackled with her voice once more. “I said what you told me to. They said they’re nearby, and they’ll be here soon.”
“Good,” I told her. “Now, hold your position. This is going to work.”
“Right,” Minji agreed, and I turned the volume on the walkie down as low as possible and hung it from my hip again.
The NK troops had bought it again, and they were playing right into our trap. Once they got to the bri
dge, it’d all be over for them. It didn’t matter if the NK troops knew the ship was here as long as they believed it was filled with NK soldiers. Part of me couldn’t believe they didn’t have any suspicion that something was wrong, but the other part knew they wouldn’t expect an American to be able to speak fluent Korean and trick them the way we were currently.
The sound of the MiG filled the air once more, and I watched as it circled around the ship, then it headed north again.
“Where is it going?” Paige whispered.
“It’s just trying to stay moving,” I explained. “It will be back.”
“It better be back soon,” Tara muttered.
I knew the MiG would continue to fly around the area, the only issue was when it returned. As long as it was within firing range after the ground troops made their way across the bridge, then we were in the clear. If it wasn’t, though, then we could be in deep shit.
The pilot was obviously able to communicate with the troops below, and if the ground troops realized the bridge was blown, they’d alert the MiG and start moving out.
Honestly, I was surprised the MiG pilot hadn’t alerted the ground troops that their path was blocked. The MiG flying ahead of the rest of them wasn’t exactly in the plan, and the pilot had to have seen that the bridge was blown.
Then again, even if he had told them, the ship was here, and that was where they were headed, so maybe they didn’t care if the bridge was blown, they just wanted to get as close to the ship as possible to offer their assistance.
My mind raced as I waited for the NK troops to come into sight. I could still hear the faint sounds of the MiG, so I knew it was circling around the area.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my adrenaline kicked into high gear when I finally saw the first of the ground troops. There were two smaller vehicles side by side coming down the road toward us.
Behind them were another two, and another two. I couldn’t see how many exactly, but I could see that the larger vehicles, including the ones towing the other two MiGs, were at the end of the line.
The smaller vehicles were like the ones we’d dealt with before in Boston, and they were all equipped with a couple of small tankers full of plasma liquid attached to the large plasma guns hooked to the top of their vehicles.
Hammer was right, this group had some serious firepower, which was why we’d be shooting at them with bullets instead of plasma. I figured the NK troops didn’t expect their enemies to have plasma guns, too, which meant they didn’t care about having an excess of the liquid on them at all times. Either that, or they figured that it didn’t matter if their enemy had plasma guns, if they didn’t want to level the entire area, they wouldn’t attack with them.
In my opinion, that gave their enemy too much credit. My team was smart enough to figure out that the plasma was incredibly volatile, but I wouldn't trust anybody else to do that, especially not my enemy. Any idiot could steal a plasma gun off a corpse, and all it took was one shot to accidentally kill everyone in the area, including themselves.
Luckily, we weren’t those idiots, but I still felt like it was ridiculous of them to drive around with such a large amount of an incredibly volatile substance on full display.
Once I could figure out a way for us to use the small plane we’d got from the Military aviation museum to drop plasma bombs without being sucked into the blast zone, I’d be able to take out entire groups like this in one go.
I pushed those thoughts out of my head, took a deep breath, and focused on the task at hand. My finger was ready on the trigger as I watched the vehicles slowly make their way down the road.
The sound of the MiG filled my ears again, but it didn’t come into sight. The plane had to be nearby, but the vehicles were continuing on toward the collapsed bridge, so the pilot either hadn’t noticed, or he hadn’t thought it important information to pass along.
Either way, our plan was working perfectly, now we just had to wait for them to get past the first bridge.
The peninsula was large enough that their entire convoy should fit, and they were driving close enough together that once the first group saw the bridge, everybody would have to wait for the last vehicle to turn around before they could do anything.
It felt like an eternity that the soldiers were headed toward us, but finally, they made it to the first bridge, and the vehicles started to go over it two by two.
The sun had dipped just below the horizon, and I looked around the sky to see if I could spot the MiG, but it was nowhere in sight.
Fuck.
We needed to take out the MiG before the howitzer could blow the first bridge, but if the front soldiers got to the crumbled bridge first, that could be a problem.
I watched as each vehicle slowly passed over the first bridge and continued forward. The evening sun probably made it difficult for them to see what was in front of them, so I could only hope it would block out the view of the bridge for a little while longer.
I could still hear the MiG nearby, but when I looked for it, I only saw a darkening sky above me.
I glanced over to the girls to see how they were doing.
Anna’s body was tense, and she held her M9 at her side while she stared out at the ground troops.
Paige was crouched down low so she could barely see above the sandbags, but she had her pistol at the ready, too, and Tara was in a nearly identical position next to her.
Bailey had one eye closed as she looked through the site on her Barrett, and her chest rose and fell with even, deep breaths.
When I looked over to where Donna, Joe, James, and Johnny had the M51 set up, I caught Donna’s eye. The dark-haired woman nodded at me, and I nodded back to acknowledge that I’d seen her.
I knew my group wouldn’t let me down, but it was still difficult to sit and do nothing. I wanted to make the call to blow the bridge, but we had to get that MiG taken care of first. That was our number one priority at the moment, and the entire plan hinged on it.
The whirr of the MiG hit my ears again, but this time it was closer, and it continued to get closer and closer as I listened.
The jet would be over us in a matter of seconds.
I glanced back to the road to see there were only three more large vehicles that needed to come across the first bridge. The damn semi trucks seemed to move slower than I could have imagined as the sound of the MiG got louder and louder.
“Come on,” I willed the semis to get across.
“Tav,” Anna breathed, and I looked up to see the MiG fly just overhead.
“Fuck,” I glanced back to the road.
The last semi was halfway across. The ass end of it wasn’t quite over the bridge, but the front of it was, and that was good enough.
I gripped my walkie so hard my knuckles went white.
“Now!” I yelled into the small device, but the civilians were already on top of it.
The M51 fired at the same time that I hollered into the walkie, and I couldn’t help the large grin that came over my face as I watched the machine fire and eject the shell.
“Fuck, yes!” Tara exclaimed as everything went according to plan.
As soon as Jeff and Ben saw the MiG get hit, they’d fire the howitzer to blow the bridge, then we could start picking off the soldiers.
Our plan was working.
Time seemed to slow down as the blast from the Skysweeper headed straight for the North Korean fighter jet. The pilot clearly didn’t see it, either, since it was coming from behind him.
The MiG was just above the road now, and if the blast hit the jet as it flew over the other vehicles, that was even better for us. The distraction of pieces of their plane barreling at them would make a great opening for us to start picking off soldiers and vehicles.
I adjusted my H&K MP5 so it was aimed at the first vehicle on the road. I was ready to fire when I looked back up at the MiG and watched as it nearly instantly flipped onto its side to avoid the blast from the Skysweeper.
“Oh,
shit,” Anna cursed next to me.
The MiG had evaded our first attack. I expected the pilots of these things to be good, but I also expected they wouldn’t see the blast since it came from behind them. My civilians had done everything right, and they’d still been fucked over by this pilot’s skills.
The cat was out of the bag now, though, and we couldn’t let the soldiers get away.
Suddenly, a blast from the ship went off, and the anti-aircraft missile shot into the sky toward the tilted jet. The pilot tried to maneuver away again, but the missile managed to hit one of the wings, and the jet started to roll and spin in the sky as the pilot lost control.
I glanced over the road to see the semi truck on the bridge start to reverse. I was about to grab my walkie and yell for Ben and Jeff to fire the howitzer, but once again, my team was on point.
The sound of the howitzer firing hit my ears, then a second later the impact of the huge round hitting the first bridge made me cringe. The bridge exploded with an incredibly loud sound, and the rear end of the semi truck went with it.
The fire and dust cloud that ensued made me turn around and crouch behind the sand bags so I could avoid the dust getting in my eyes. Bits of concrete and dirt and debris rained down from the explosion, and I could hear the panicked screams of the North Korean soldiers as they tried to figure out what was going on.
Their MiG had just been shot by what they thought was their own ship, and now their only way out of the situation was gone. They couldn’t turn back around, and they were stuck on a small road with guard rails on either side. They had no way out and they knew it.
I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it was obvious they were trying to figure out how to combat what was happening.
I pulled myself up and looked over the sandbag, but the MiG in the air caught my eye. I was surprised to see it was still in the air, but it was coming down fast.
Just then, the civilians with the M51 took another shot, and this time they hit the plane right in the center.
