by Eric Vall
Minji nodded and relayed the message. The soldier’s eyes flashed with fear again before he took a deep breath and replied.
“He says he has nothing else of importance,” Minji said. “But he asks for mercy.”
I thought about all the destruction we’d seen on the way down from Vermont, all the innocent lives these assholes had taken without regard for anything but their own agenda. To ask for mercy was not only cowardice, but it was pathetic. This sonofabitch had killed innocent civilians, children, anybody who wasn’t necessary to their plan, not to mention the millions of people who probably starved to death after their EMP attack. Who was he to ask for mercy?
How dare he insinuate that he’s done anything worthy of even the smallest amount of kindness.
I thought again about my baby and the world they would grow up in because these fuckers decided to come try and take away our country, our safety, our lives.
Maybe at one point, I would’ve been willing to grant mercy to this man, but that Tav was gone, and the new one didn’t have a shred of mercy left in him. Not for assholes like this, anyway.
I yanked my pistol from my hip and aimed it right at the soldier’s face. That same fear flashed over his face, and he started to speak quickly in Korean, no doubt begging for his life.
Minji didn’t even bother to translate, she just lowered her eyes and walked away.
My eyes narrowed in on the asshole in front of me, but all I could do was shake my head. His pleading was pitiful, and it only served to anger me.
I clenched my teeth and pulled the trigger.
Then I pulled it again, and again, and again, until every last soldier was on the ground with a bloody hole through their heads.
Chapter 15
Once I had finished with the soldiers, I stepped back and took a little breather while everyone else started to look through the rubble to see if there was anything valuable left.
I made my way back to the sandbags the girls and I had taken cover behind, and I placed one hand on them, bent my head forward, and took a deep, steadying breath.
It had been a long time since I’d been that angry, but the idea that these men took something away from my child was more than I could bear, and then I thought about how they’d taken so much away from so many children. I’d seen the little girl they’d left dead by the side of the road, and I knew she couldn’t have been the only one.
Regardless of if that man had taken that life personally, he’d been part of the group that had. He hadn’t stopped them, he hadn’t decided it was too much and left so he was no longer part of the heinous actions of his military. He’d remained a soldier for them, he’d fought their battle, killed civilians for them, and that was heinous enough for me.
I was a military man, but I was a human being first and foremost, and I had the free will and the conscience to say fuck you to anyone I pleased. If I had been called on to kill innocent civilians during my time overseas, I would have gone AWOL, or told my commanding officer exactly where he could stick his request.
Regardless of the matters of war, we still had to treat each other with the basic dignity that was our right as humans. These NK soldiers seemed to have completely abandoned that philosophy, though. They no longer saw us as human beings, we were only bodies standing in their way, and their orders were the most important things to them.
These soldiers had earned that bullet to the dome, and I regretted nothing.
“Tav?” Anna’s voice came from behind me, and I turned to see all my girls looking at me with concern.
“Are you okay?” Bailey asked, and my sweet hippie girl bit her lip and furrowed her brow.
“I”m fine,” I told her with a small smile, and I reached out and gently pulled her shoulder toward me so I could kiss the top of her head.
“Hey, why does she get head kisses?” Tara teased.
“Because she asked if I was alright,” I joked back.
“Weeeellll, are you alright?” Tara asked with a laugh.
“I’m fine,” I chuckled, and I leaned down and kissed the top of her head, too.
“You seemed pretty upset,” Paige noted. “Was it having to kill those guys? Because they deserved it.”
“I know they did.” I nodded. “It wasn’t killing them that upset me, it was thinking about our baby and the way these monsters have treated our country.”
“Yeah, I thought about that little girl on the side of the road,” Bailey said, and her voice shook slightly with emotion. “That’s why I didn’t say anything when Paige said it was against the rules to kill them. I didn’t care. You’re right, they’re monsters.”
“They are,” Paige agreed. “I shouldn’t have said anything in the first place. They deserve whatever comes to them.”
“What’s that sound?” Anna asked suddenly, and she looked over to Tara, who had her head down.
The platinum-blonde’s chest was heaving up and down, and her hands were up over her eyes.
“Tara?” I asked. “Are you crying?”
“I just…” she sobbed. “You said our baby, and it made me really happy.
“Soooo, these are happy tears?” I laughed.
“Yeeessss,” she cried. The poor thing had full on mascara black tear streaks down her cheeks, and her face was contorted in that terrible way it gets when someone cries so hard they can’t control themselves.
“Ummmm… I’m gonna go help everyone else,” Anna said, and she looked at me warily as she started to back up slowly.
“Shut up!” Tara yelled, and she grabbed Anna by the arm and pulled her to her. “Get over here and hug me, dammit!”
“Okay, okay, geez,” Anna laughed.
“Mmmm, let me get in on this, too,” Bailey said, and she wrapped her arms around Tara’s back.
“Me three,” Paige said as she joined the group hug.
“And me four,” I laughed and wrapped my arms around all the girls at once.
“You know, I’m not sure I’m liking pregnant Tara,” Anna snickered. “She’s kind of a bitch. And I mean that in the sense that she’s emotional as hell.”
“You love it,” Tara sniffled.
Anna caught my eye, smiled, and shook her head.
I didn’t know about Anna, but I definitely liked pregnant Tara. There was something absolutely adorable about how she could no longer hold her emotions in. My usually stubborn, smart mouthed beauty had now become a sweet, crying girl who needed hugs and forehead kisses.
“Alright, alright,” Anna chuckled, and she squeezed out of the hug. “We should go help everyone else.”
“Okay,” Tara squeaked, and she held back tears as she nodded.
“Good grief, woman, get it together!” Anna laughed and shook her head.
“You try growing a human being,” Tara snapped. “It’s a lot of work! Sorry if my body is too busy making an eyeball to control the crying center of my brain.”
“Thank you,” Anna teased. “That apology is all I wanted.”
“Oh, shut up,” Tara giggled, and she playfully hit her friend on the shoulder.
I shook my head at the girls’ antics as we walked back toward the road where everyone else had gathered.
“Do you think we’ll actually find anything?” Bailey asked. “I figured everything was pretty smashed in the explosion.”
“It probably was.” I nodded. “But it doesn’t hurt to check.”
“Right,” the blonde agreed.
I found Hammer among the rubble and asked him how the search was going.
“We’ve found a few usable plasma guns so far,” the SEAL chuckled, then he looked at me seriously. “That was intense with those soldiers. I’m glad you did what you did, and I want you to know I’m happy to serve under your command.”
“I appreciate that,” I told him with a clap on the shoulder. “And I appreciate the hell out of you and your team. You all did good today.”
“I called my men back from their posts by the roads,” he informed me.
&
nbsp; “Good,” I said. “We could use all the help we can get going through this shit.”
I kicked some of the rubble next to my foot only to reveal the smashed in face of one of the soldiers.
“Gross,” Hammer said, and his nose wrinkled slightly.
“Yeah, we should try and finish searching here while we have some daylight left,” I said. “We don’t want to deal with these bodies when they start to smell.”
“I’m with you,” Hammer said, and he looked up at the horizon behind us. “But I’m afraid we don’t have much time left for that tonight.”
“You’re right,” I sighed as I looked up at the sky. “It’s pretty dark out, we should probably call it for the night.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Hammer nodded.
It had been getting dark when the battle had started, and while it had only lasted maybe twenty minutes or so, it was long enough for the sun to sink down behind the horizon. The world was now cast in a deep blue and orange glow to signal the end of the day, and we only had a few minutes at most until everything was pitch black.
“Alright, everyone,” I called out. “Let’s pack it in, we can make our way back here tomorrow.”
“Wait, Tav, over here!” Anna called.
Hammer and I looked at each other, then we took off toward the redhead.
“What is it?” I asked as we approached, but even as the words left my mouth, I realized what she was talking about.
The NK troops had been hauling two MiGs, one of which some soldiers had chosen to hide behind, so it was in complete disrepair. The one Anna was standing by, though, looked a little beat up, but it also looked like it could still be functional.
I didn’t see any major damage on the aircraft, aside from some black spots where it had taken some fire from the blasts, and a few scratches here and there from a stray bullet or a vehicle ramming into it. Overall, it looked hopeful.
“It looks pretty good, right?” Anna asked with a grin as she gestured to the jet. “You think it still flies?”
“What’d you find?” Tara asked as she and the rest of the girls came running over, too.
“Whoa,” Paige said at the same time. “You think it still works?”
“That would be awesome.” Bailey looked at me and smiled. “It’s worth a try at least, right?”
“Definitely worth a try,” I told her.
“It doesn’t look too bad,” Hammer said with a shake of his head. “I’m surprised it’s not totally blown to bits, but it looks like the vehicles in front of it took most of the impact from the blast.”
“That’s what I was thinking as well.” Paige nodded. “And since this one was toward the back of the line, it wasn’t as good of a hiding spot, especially since the semi behind it is halfway in the water.”
“How sick was that shot when Bailey took out the semi driver trying to climb out?” Tara gushed.
“Oh, yeah, that was badass,” Anna agreed with a grin.
“What?” Paige asked with a frown. “How did I miss that?”
“I don’t know.” Tara shrugged. “That was, like, the first shot of the fight.”
“It was a good shot,” I told Bailey with a smile.
“It was,” Hammer agreed. “You’re a hell of a sniper.”
“Thanks, guys.” Bailey blushed with embarrassment and looked down at the ground.
“You saw it, too?” Paige asked Hammer. “Damn, I missed out. I was probably focused on something else.”
“It’s alright,” I chuckled. “We still have a war to win. I’m sure you’ll get to see her in action, then.”
“Okay, yeah, but what about this jet thing here?” Tara asked, and she walked over and patted the nose of the machine. “Are we going to try it, or what?”
“It’s called a MiG,” Paige laughed.
“Whatever, Tom Cruise.” Tara rolled her eyes. “Are we going to see if it starts up or not?”
“We are,” I told her, and I grabbed my walkie and pushed the button to speak. “Ben, Jeff, come in.”
“We’re here,” Ben said after a few seconds. “We weren’t sure what you wanted us to do as far as the howitzer.”
“Pull it back over here,” I said. “We’ll take it home with us tonight. But I need you for something else, too.”
“Me?” Ben asked, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “Don’t tell me one of those MiGs is operational.”
“That’s what we need you to figure out,” I laughed. “Now, get your ass over here.”
“Aye, aye, Captain Ranger,” Ben chuckled, and I shook my head and hung up the walkie.
“I like this whole Captain Ranger thing,” Tara teased. “It has a nice ring to it.”
“Oh, yeah?” I laughed.
“Yeah.” She smiled. “It fits you. Way more official than everyone just calling you Tav.”
“Who says I want to be official?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Nobody, I guess.” Tara shrugged. “But I like it when you’re official. It’s pretty sexy.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I chuckled and turned to Hammer. “Do you have a trained fighter pilot?”
“I wish,” he scoffed.
“Yeah, I figured as much,” I chuckled.
“You think Ben will be able to fly this thing?” Hammer asked as he walked over to the plane and looked it over.
“He says he can fly anything,” I said with a shrug.
“He flew that super old WWⅡ plane,” Paige said. “I’m inclined to believe he really can fly anything.”
“Yeah, but isn’t that, like, the opposite way?” Tara asked. “Like, the old plane must have been super easy to fly, right? Since it didn’t have all the modern day equipment and stuff? But this plane is gonna be super advanced, so I bet it’ll be harder.”
“I doubt it.” Paige shook her head. “Those old planes are probably just as difficult to fly, if not more so. I mean, he’s probably used to having some sort of technology, and the WWⅡ planes are really rudimentary.”
“I guess we’ll see soon enough,” I said, and I pointed to the headlights coming down the road toward us.
It had to be Ben and Jeff with the howitzer. Part of me wouldn’t allow myself to be too hopeful about the MiG starting since I knew it had taken at least some damage in the howitzer blast, but the other part of me was damn hopeful it would work. If we showed up in Atlanta with plasma guns, tanks, vehicles, and a MiG, we’d be set. I didn’t care if there were thirty-thousand troops like the soldier had said, we’d be ready for them.
His talk about their new weapons worried me some since they’d already proven they could create something extremely deadly, but I also figured whatever weapon they were building would need to be powered off of the plasma liquid, too. The liquid itself probably took years to perfect and produce, so I doubted they’d focused their energy on making a new substance when it made more sense to use what was already available.
Whatever they had to use against us, we’d figure out a way to counter it, just like we always did. I was concerned, but not deterred in any way. We’d already won several battles, now we just needed to win the war and this shitshow would be over.
Ben and Jeff pulled up, parked the truck, and turned off the ignition.
“Hey,” Ben said as he hopped out of the passenger’s side and gestured to the jet. “I’m guessing this is what you need my help with.”
“You’d be guessing right,” I told him with a smile.
“Whew, ain’t she a beaut,” Ben commented as he walked around the plane and looked it over. “It doesn’t look like she took any mechanical damage. Maybe some cosmetic bumps and bruises, but that’s nothing to worry about.”
“What do you think?” I asked.
“Yeah, will it start?” Paige pushed.
“We’ll have to see.” Ben grinned.
“If it does start, can you fly it?” Tara asked. “It’s probably all in Korean, right?”
“I can fly anything,” Ben
told her seriously. “Give me five minutes and a clear runway, and I’ll have her up in the air.”
“I can help with any instructions or buttons that need to be translated,” Minji offered.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” The pilot nodded.
“Don’t you need the keys?” Anna asked as Ben opened the pilot door to hop in.
“Nah,” he laughed. “I doubt it, at least. Most newer planes don’t require keys.”
“Can’t anybody just steal it, then?” Tara asked, and her platinum-blonde eyebrows pinched together.
“Can you pilot a plane?” Anna asked, and she cocked her head to the side and put her hand on her hip.
“No,” Tara said quietly.
“I guess that’s your answer,” the redhead chuckled.
“Fair point.” The platinum-blonde nodded.
Ben was inside the MiG then, and I watched as he looked over the controls in the dying light. I wasn’t sure he’d be able to see anything since it had gotten so dark, but he seemed to be doing okay.
Suddenly, he flipped a switch, and the entire cockpit lit up from the backlights of the control buttons. I could just make out his shadowy smile through the windshield.
“Wait, does that mean it works?” Anna asked.
“At least partly.” Paige nodded, but then the engine of the MiG roared to life, and Ben gave off a holler from inside the jet.
“It’s working!” Bailey squealed, and she clapped her hands together and bounced on the balls of her feet with excitement.
“Well, butter my ass and call me Susan,” Hammer muttered. “The fuckin’ thing works.”
“I’m sorry, what the fuck did you just say?” Tara asked, and she doubled over laughing.
“You’ve never heard that expression before?” Hammer chuckled.
“Me, either,” Anna giggled. “It’s pretty good, though.”
“My dad used to say that.” Bailey smiled.
“What?” Tara scoffed. “And you’ve been withholding this treasure of a phrase this whole time?”
“I didn’t think about it until just now,” the blonde chuckled. “And my dad said butt instead of ass anyway, so it’s not as cool.”
