North Korean Blowup

by Chet Cunningham

  There were two small cars ahead of them. When the second one was cleared, Ho pushed down on the horn and speeded up as they charged forward toward the road block. They would either be waved through or smash the soldier under the wheels of the big army truck.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “He’s not going to move,” Beth shouted.

  The soldier jumped out of the way at the last second and waved as the big truck barreled past the road blockade and rolled down the street. Ho slowed then to match the rest of the traffic. He kept watching the stores on both sides. Another mile or two along the highway there were fewer shops and stores and fewer people. Ho pulled up to one store and stopped the truck. Hunter handed him two hundred won, about ninety dollars worth.

  “Get us some good food,” Hunter said. He turned to his shoulder mike. “Short stop for some chop chop. How’s that for poetry? Ho should be back soon.”

  “When does it get dark around here?” Chief Chapman asked from the rear of the truck on the radio.

  Nobody spoke up. “Maybe nineteen hundred,” Hunter said. “We’ll find out in three or four hours.”

  Ten minutes later Ho came out of the store with a big cardboard box. A young Korean ran along side of him with two sacks full of food. They put it all in the back of the truck and Ho hustled the kid back to the store.

  “No chow call yet,” Chief Chapman said, and those in the front seat could hear the groans.

  Ho stared the engine and pushed the six by down the highway. Soon the town was behind them and the valley came to an end and they climbed again into rugged mountains.

  “No more surprises for us, Ho,” Hunter said. “We’ve had enough action for one day. Maybe tonight we can get in some real sleep for a change.

  An hour later they were well into the mountains and had encountered no more trouble. One army convoy came down the road toward them. The drivers waved as they passed and kept on going.

  Another hour and Hunter called for chow time. Ho parked the truck just off the highway and they all descended on the food box. Chief Chapman hovered over the supply as the SEALs picked out what they wanted. There were two dozen prepared sandwiches, more whole roasted chickens, loaves of rice bread and slabs of beef and pork besides four different kinds of fruit. Hunter let the men go at the food for half an hour, then closed up the kitchen and got back on the road.

  It was just getting dark as they moved north again. They had almost no traffic on the road. The lights on the army truck were good and quickly showed that the highway was deteriorating. The farther they went from the last town the worse the blacktop became. Soon they were dragging along at fifteen to twenty miles an hour as Ho tried to miss as many of the pot holes as he could.

  Twice they met cars going south, then nothing. They were deep into the mountains now, with no visible signs of any residents. Once they saw a house near the road, but it looked abandoned.

  Hunter used his pencil light to check his map. “The next town of any size should be Wiyyon. Looks like about forty miles as the crow flies, but on this road it must be at least fifty five or sixty.”

  “We’ve been averaging about fifteen miles an hour,” Beth said. “If the speedometer is right, it should take us about four hours to get to that W sounding town.”

  “That will put us two thirds of the way to the bomb,” Hunter said with a grin. “If we don’t run into any more angry army guys.”

  They rolled along in silence. In the faint light from the dash Hunter saw Beth’s chin quivering.

  “Hey, Darby. You did the right thing back there. We’d have one KIA right now if it wasn’t for you. I’m proud of you. Want to talk it out some more?”

  She nodded and he saw wetness tainting her cheeks.

  “I….I killed a man. I shot at some others. The world is one human being short because of me.”

  “Hey don’t worry one North Korean,” Ho said. “Twenty-three million take his place.”

  She looked at him. “You don’t understand. What right did I have to take his life? How can I justify that? Yes, he was about to shoot one of our men, but is that reason enough for me to shoot him?”

  “Plenty of reason, Darby,” Hunter said. “You did what you had to do. It was survival instinct, since he would kill that first man and then you would be next and it would all be over in two or three seconds.”

  “I don’t do this every day like you guys do. It’s going to take me some time to get used to the idea that I killed that soldier. I’m doing better with it than I did two hours ago. Give me some time.”

  Four hours later, just before midnight, the truck crept into the town of Wiyyon. It was closed up tighter than a nun’s blouse. They saw only two lights, and Hunter figured one of them must be the local police. There was no place to buy any food.

  Hunter figured this place had less than four thousand people and they drove through it quickly. Five miles on the other side, Hunter told Ho to pull off to the side of the highway in what looked like a roadside rest area. There were no buildings or facilities.

  “Okay SEALs,” Hunter said. “We’ll save the food box for breakfast. We’ll now take a three hour sleep period. Sack out under the trees or in the truck, your choice. Bancroft, put out two men on guard duty. Everyone keep your weapons locked and loaded. Talk to you again about oh three hundred.”

  Hunter stepped out of the high cab of the six by and helped Beth down. He settled into the mulch of the forest cover near a tall pine tree. A moment later, Beth sat beside him.

  “”Want some company? I’m not the most secure camper right now.”

  “Share my pine tree,” Hunter said.

  She lay down near enough to touch him. Her hand came out once and patted his shoulder, then retreated. Hunter didn’t go to sleep at once. He listened to Beth. The way she moved he figured she wasn’t sleeping either.

  “Hey, Darby, knock off the soul searching and get some sleep. You just might need it tomorrow. We should find the bomb sometime in the afternoon. Then you’ll go to work.”

  “Aye aye, Lieutenant, I’ll try.” He waited. Five minutes later he heard the even breathing from the bomb expert, and decided that she was sleeping. He closed his eyes and the first thing he knew Bancroft shook his shoulder.

  “Oh three hundred, Cap,” Bancroft said.

  He came awake combat quick, ready in half a second with his Bull Pup up and ready. Hunter nodded. “Yeah, Bancroft, thanks. Any thing move out here?”

  “Not a damn thing. I’ll get the men in the truck.”

  “Not yet. Pull out the food box. Let’s see what’s left for breakfast.”

  There wasn’t a lot left, but enough so they didn’t have to crack another MRE from their drag bags.

  The big truck got underway about 0330 and roared up the mountains and down the other side, through small valleys and came dangerously close to the Chinese border at spots, according to the map that Hunter used.

  Hunter checked the map again.

  “Maybe twenty miles from that last town to the next one, Kaech if I’m reading it right. Doesn’t look big but we should be there in time to get an open store and some more grub.”

  Ho looked over with a question. “Grub?”

  “Food, chop chop, the good eating stuff.”

  Ho grinned. “Grub, yes, grub. I like word.”

  By the time it turned from darkness into daylight, they were about half way to the town of Kaech. They came around a corner and before Ho could stop the rig, it slammed into a horse drawn cart that was coming out of a side road. His brakes skidded tires on the blacktop, but the deadly smashing sound of metal against horseflesh cut through the rest of the noise as the cart itself shattered into hundreds of pieces and boxes of vegetables erupted across the highway. The Korean man driving the horse had vaulted off the rig and rolled into the ditch out of harm’s way.

  Everyone came out of the truck to look over the crash scene.

  Foster took one look at the horse and pronounced it dead.

  “Ne
ck snapped, no way he can still be alive,” Foster said.

  A scream echoed through the just lighted morning. The Korean farmer ran around the front of his shattered cart and its load of vegetables. He shrieked in anger and frustration. Ho hurried up to him and began talking fast. The farmer pushed him aside and rushed over to the horse. Tears seeped down his cheeks as he stroked the dead animal’s neck. When he looked up, fury masked his face. He pulled a six-inch knife from his clothes and charged the nearest man, Charley Chang, who almost didn’t see him coming.

  “Watch out,” somebody shouted. Chang turned in time to see the attack. He dodged one way then back, caught the Korean’s knife hand wrist and jolted the weapon to the ground.

  Ho hurried up and took the man’s arm and pulled him away talking fast and seriously. It took ten minutes to convince him what Ho was offering. At last they came back from their walk up the road.

  Ho looked at Hunter.

  “Okay. Talk him deal. We pay three hundred won horse and cart. Fifty more vegetables. He happy.”

  Hunter nodded. “Tanner, check out the truck. Can we drive it?”

  Tanner looked over the front of the truck, started the engine and backed it away from the horse’s body and tested the steering.

  “Dijobe with me, Cap. All systems go.”

  Hunter nodded and looked for the Senior Chief. “Chapman, pay the man three hundred and seventy five won.”

  Chapman hurried up to the Korean and counted out the money. The Korean shook his head and tried to give back twenty five won.

  Ho said a few words and the Korean man’s face broke into a huge grin. He waved and ran back down the side road he had so recently driven on.

  Hunter had the men drag the dead horse and what remained of the cart and vegetables off the road and into the ditch. They found two baskets of fruit that Ho told them to save.

  “Moving,” Hunter said, and the SEALs piled back into the six by. “Ho, you’re driving again. No more horse killings.”

  Two hours later, after a ridiculously crooked road with hundreds of washboard sections and pot holes, the highway smoothed out and they sailed into Kaech.

  “Maybe two thousand people,” Hunter said. “The towns keep getting smaller. Ho, find us some food. These caged animals are going to tear us apart if you don’t find some really good grub for them.”

  “Grub, yes,” Ho said and laughed softly.

  The town had only one street with businesses on it. Ho picked out a food store not too big, but not small either. He took Tran with him and they worked the store for another ninety dollars worth of food, much like the last time, but more cooked pork this time and rice bread, and many sacks of rolls and cakes. No roasted chicken.

  Hunter had checked the map again. “This is where we take a new road heading south east,” Hunter said. “Beth, we’re about twenty miles from our target town of Kangge. You ready?”

  “I’ve been ready since the minute we left the doc in Seoul. Let’s get on with it.”

  Ho found the new road with a sign pointing to Kangge

  Three miles down the new road they stopped and had lunch.

  “Beats MRE’s Mohammad said.

  “Not by much,” Tran snapped. “Who wants to trade me some of those sweet rolls for a nice slab of cured ham.” He had two takers.

  They rolled again.

  “Doesn’t this country ever run out of mountains?” Hunter asked Ho.

  The big Korean shook his head. “Plenty mountains. All over place.”

  Hunter agreed with him. Coming into and leaving the various towns they found more and more of the land taken up with paddies for raising rice and vegetables. Every square inch was utilized along the lower edges of the hills, with terraces of paddies that worked up the hills in succeeding higher levels. Tillable land was at a premium in this mountainous land.

  Hunter looked over at Beth who sat in the middle. “You have your tool kit with you?”

  “In one of the drag bags.”

  “What does it look like?”

  “A black plastic box about a foot long and eight inches square.”

  “Senior Chief,” Hunter said on his radio. “Check the drag bags until you find Beth’s tool kit. Black plastic, a foot long and eight inches square.”

  “Wilco, Cap. We’re on it.”

  Five miles later they met another army six by coming north. The lights blinked three times and the rig slowed. Ho slowed as well. The other army rig stopped and Ho rolled up beside it and stopped for driver to driver talk. He waved at the other driver and asked him a question about the road.

  The other driver answered and asked about the highway conditions the other way. They talked a minute more, then waved and both trucks continued on their way.

  “Road conditions?” Hunter asked when Ho told him what they talked about. “Good, then nobody is hunting this particular army truck yet. We might luck out and get all the way to Kanggye.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The Korean Army six by was ten miles into the twenty mile trip to Kangge when Ho pointed ahead.

  “Trouble?” he asked.

  Hunter stared down the road. What he saw could only be a construction crew working on the highway. Two cars had lined up waiting to go forward.

  “Pull up in back of the car and go up and see what the problem is,” Hunter told Ho.

  The big Korean in his ill fitting army uniform parked and walked up to a flagman.

  Hunter could see what looked like a reworking of a short section of the roadway maybe forty yards long. It evidently had sunken away from water seepage. They had dug out the base and had dumped in new rock and sand, to create a new base for the black top to go on. The new section looked to be maybe six inches below where the old roadway must have been.

  There was no detour around the section. No place level enough on either side to accept a passenger car. As Hunter watched a big steam roller moved slowly up to the end of the fill, reversed and headed back the other way packing down the gravel and sand firmly.

  Ho came back shaking his head. “Told them we had to go now. They say two hours, then firm enough. Looked hard to me.”

  “Think we can get across without sinking in to the axles?” Hunter asked.

  Ho held up his hands showing he didn’t know. Tanner came up on Hunter’s window.

  “Yeah, they’re in the last stages of the base,” he said. “Seen it dozens of times. When it’s that close to being done, those cars can get across and so can our six by.”

  “You sure?”

  “Hell, no. But it beats sitting here for two or three hours until they think it’s solid enough. No macadam plant around here, so they’ll have to haul it in. Might be days before it gets here. Let’s give it a try.”

  Ho grinned. “We try.” He got out of the cab and went to the drivers ahead and told them to move their cars to the side. They did.

  He came back and the flag man ran toward him. They shouted at each other and a moment later, Ho punched the man in the jaw. He sagged to his knees and a moment later collapsed on the ground.

  Ho ran back to the cab, got in and started the engine. The big rig moved forward, edged with the front tires on the hard packed base of the new road. It held, he then gunned the motor and surged ahead powering into the run. The wheels sank in six inches and made deep tracks through the base but it held.

  Ho pushed down on the throttle more and the six by moved over half way, then rolled toward the far end. The big roller packer driver saw the truck coming and pulled his rig off the base and Ho drove the six by up a gentle slope on the far end and back on the blacktop. There was a cheer from the men in back, and then they were rolling on down the highway past some construction rigs and men. A few shouted at them and some waved their fists.

  “They do nothing,” Ho said. “We army. Here we rule.”

  “Thanks Ho. You’re earning your pay,” Hunter said.

  “Pay? I get pay?”

  “I’ll see to it,” Hunter said. “When we
get back I’ll put in a special request.”

  Beth sat between them in the cab looking in her tool kit. There weren’t many items. Some carefully cushioned in poly foam. One Hunter saw was a battery operated handle to take any number of screw driver heads or small drills. She closed the box and nodded.

  “All there. I’m ready to get to work.”

  “Five, maybe seven miles more,” Hunter said. “Ho, will there be an army guard at the site?”

  “Yes. Much army.”

  Hunter looked at his small pocket notebook. “Your brother said the mine was north of town three miles on a dirt road. When we get to this town we find the dirt road and go out two miles and find some concealment for the truck. Hide it. Yes?”

  “Hide. Yes.”

  “Then we’ll do a recon and see what we’re up against. Maybe they’ve sent all the troops home.”

  “Much army. Protect bomb.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that. We’ve got a couple of surprises that might help us spread out their troops a little.”

  “What surprise?” Beth asked.

  “You’ll have to wait to be surprised along with the NK army.”

  Ho slowed and pulled to a stop just off the two lane highway. Hunter looked up surprised.

  “Why the stop?”

  “Gas. Two five gallon cans. Better use now.”

  “Get out the gas cans,” Hunter said to his shoulder mike. Ho stepped down from the cab, found the fuel cap and poured the gas into the two inch opening, spilling only a little. The second five gallons vanished into the tank. They kept the cans in the back of the six by and were on the road again.

  Another small valley opened up and in the distance they saw the town that had to be Kangge. Maybe five thousand people, Hunter decided. From their height he could see a road snaking out of the town to the north. Ho saw it too.

  The valley was heavily farmed and soon they saw houses and some larger buildings. The town itself came up suddenly and Ho turned to the left searching for the dirt road that led into the hills to the north. He found it after three false starts. They had seen two army trucks in the town and expected to see more on the road. They worked out two miles and came to a small ravine to the left that had a lot of trees and brush and a lane leading into it.