by John Chapman
David said, “Sounds good to me. Everyone here has trained in CQB under NODs with teams. It will suck but we should get it done.” Everyone nodded and Bones said, “We’re all we got.” The other three replied, “We’re all we need.” No one else had anything to add, and Mark started giving the orders over the radio to send the Black Knight Squadron into the assault.
Chapter 14
Walmart
Alliance, OH
It took about 10 minutes for everyone to get organized and move to their jump-off points. During that time, they heard nothing from inside the store. Mark appointed Manny to be the assault team leader for the second element, which would be breaching and entering the back of the store. Manny was currently standing just outside the assault line to the left of the door he had chosen for their breach point. Based on Trent’s knowledge of the backend of the store, this eastern-most pedestrian door opened up into the far end of the main stockroom area on the edge of one of the two loading docks.
Manny watched as Delta team readied then set the firehose charge on the hinge side of the heavy steel pull door, carefully peeling the carpet tape covering off the back of the charge and sticking it into place. Next, Delta team placed a small ‘C’ shaped charge made of C2 explosive and a booster, just under where they could see the bolts holding the door’s auto-return system in place. Once both charges were set, Trent capped in and unrolled the shock-tube to its full 25 feet of extension while moving to the right of the door, and took a knee. This breach is going to suck, Manny thought. That’s a lot of net explosive weight, and there is no cover for us to shield behind.
Manny watched through his Sentinel NVGs as Trent connected the shock-tube to the Royal Arms firing device then pointed at Manny. Manny took a deep breath and keyed his radio. Speaking softly, he said, “Rear element set.” For several seconds, no response came. Just as he was about to re-transmit, Mark came on the air, “Execute.”
Manny lifted his barrel up and quickly dropped it back down, signaling Trent with the barrel release to blow the door, then averted his eyes. The sound was incredible, and combined with the pressure wave in the assaulters’ chests, it rocked Manny’s team. As a cloud filled with the scent of detonated high explosive billowed over the team, Manny looked to confirm the door was now open and hit his PTT, saying, “Positive breach.” His four lead assaulters launched through the hole where the heavy door had once stood.
*
Holy crap that was a big charge, Mark thought when he heard the breaching charge detonate. He looked to Zach Shepard, an Alpha team assaulter and SWAT guy, and gave him a barrel release. Zach’s position gave him the most advantage once they moved through the door, so Mark was giving him the initiative to lead the assault. Shepard activated the short-range mode on his MAWL laser and pushed through the busted-up glass doors. As he crossed the threshold he turned right as soon as he could to clear the hard corner, finding nothing but vending machines in the small alcove between the two sets of doors leading into the store. He took a couple of steps and collapsed his sector of fire while Dan, the second assaulter, had already cleared the left corner and was collapsing towards him.
The third and fourth Alpha team assaulters, Anson Cross and Jim Keel, entered on Dan’s heels and set up to cover the center of the room; a space dominated by the second set of glass entry doors, which were open. Through their night vision, Keel and Anson had a clear view through the doors and all the way to the far back wall of the store, a little more than 100 yards distant. They activated their MAWL laser / illuminators and scanned for threats. Finding none, Keel began moving his laser vertically up and down on the doors in front of him, signaling to the others the next breach point. Communicating this way allowed the team to move and work without speaking, maximizing the stealth advantage the night vision technology gave them.
Keel moved forward and quickly ducked through the open doors, moving to the left once he cleared the threshold, with Anson on his ass, moving to the right. When Keel dug his corner, he found himself facing a complex set of problems, with angles of exposure all across his front and right flank. Directly ahead, only about 10 feet away, was the store’s bank franchise, with its myriad of tables, counter, and other places a threat could be hiding. To the right of that was the long open pathway behind the registers where shoppers transited to get out of the store. Next were the register stations themselves, with hundreds of places someone could be hiding and still see, and therefore shoot, him and his team mates.
Keel stopped scanning when he noticed a faint glow in his NVGs, on the other side of the registers, about halfway down the store. As he focused on the area, he heard a male voice in the same area say, “Damn that hurts!” followed by some scuffling and the sound of someone moaning. Must be one of the victims, Keel thought. A different voice said, “What the hell was that explosion?” The first voice replied, “I told you, it was probably a transformer blowing up. Now help me with this bandage.”
Dan, who came in as the number three assaulter, falling in on Keel’s side of the door, heard the same thing and immediately stepped up to cover Keel’s right side. The problem was that while Dan was a normal sized guy, at 5’10” tall with his helmet on, Keel was one of the largest SWAT mammals on the planet. Standing a little over 6’9” tall in his helmet, and weighing over 300 pounds, Keel was a regular competitor in the World’s Strongest Man series, and simply dwarfed everyone else in the Black Knight Squadron. Dan did his best to shield him, and kind of succeeded in covering part of Keel’s chest.
While Keel and Dan were working on deciphering the muttered talking and noises coming from beyond the registers, Anson and Shepard were clearing the shopping cart holding area to the right. Mark entered the second doorway and looked around. He also heard the voice, and quickly called the remaining three assaulters from Alpha team to him with a hand signal. He pushed Anson and Shepard to Dan, then stepped out and marked where the light and noise was coming from with his laser. Concerned about crossfire, given where he knew Manny was leading the other team into the building, Mark pulled Keel and his team to the right, directing them to move down the wide isle on the store side of the registers. If they encountered threats, Mark wanted to be shooting directly east, not into the southeast corner or the south wall.
As soon as Keel and Dan quietly turned the L corner around the self-checkout area, into the store side register waiting area, they saw several people kneeling around a few other people who were lying on the ground about halfway down the wide isle. The entire group was lit up in the team’s NVGs, cast in the glow of several small LED lights they could see were attached to rifles. What the hell are these dongs doing? Keel thought. Given their lack of reaction to the team’s presence, the group of dongs obviously hadn’t seen them.
The pitch-black store interior enveloped the Black Knights, allowing Dan, Keel, Anson, and Shepard to move up on line, with two other Alpha team members moving with them covering their flanks and clearing the dead spaces in the checkout lines as they glided past them. The team moved past the stand-alone displays designed to sell extra crap to people waiting in line at the cash registers, to within 30 feet of the cluster of people who they could see now were clearly dirtbags. The strong smell of burnt marijuana wafted into Keel’s nostrils, confirming his visual assessment that these dudes sporting neck tattoos, ball caps and cheap-looking tactical vests, scrambling around and cursing, were indeed the dongs they were looking for. IR lasers from the four assaulters advancing on the group danced slightly as the team moved, confirming none of them were doubled up on targets.
As Keel noticed several of them had AK’s in their hands, one of them stood up and looked directly at him, then turned his long gun towards Keel. He was trying to use the light on his rifle to see the vague specter he sensed in front of him. As the rifle lifted, Keel steadied his laser on the dong’s nose and fired a controlled pair, sending two 62-grain Gold Dot 5.56mm rounds through the guy’s brain and showering his buddies with the evacuated contents of his crani
al cavity. The unsuppressed shot, with all the panic-inducing surprise that comes from a very loud gunshot at close range from a dark unseen foe, combined with the warm liquid splashing on them, caused all hell to break loose.
The next ten seconds were a bloody, chaotic, loud and confusing mess. The four Black Knight assaulters quickly delivered suppressed and unsuppressed hammered pairs to their selected targets, then searched for another target holding a weapon. The team worked hard to make sure everyone they shot had a weapon, but all of them were worried there might be hostages in the swirling mass of guns, moving bodies, and prone people they could see in the pile through their night vision. Several un-aimed panic shots came back at the team from the huddled group of dongs. Dan saw one of the shooters, a longhaired guy sitting on his ass, firing a pistol at the team, and drilled him with five rapid shots to the chest as soon as his laser stopped on the dude’s armpit.
Dan’s shots slammed the dong to the ground, but not before one of the guy’s pistol rounds found the right-front quarter of Anson’s helmet. Anson went down and Mark immediately moved to take his place on the line. By the time Mark got on-line, the shooting was over. He was able to clearly see the writhing mess of bodies in the white-phosphorous tubes of his Sentinel goggles, but didn’t see anyone who posed a threat to the team. He quickly grabbed Anson by the shoulder strap of his Velocity Systems plate carrier, and drug him into the checkout line of the nearest register.
Unsure of the tactical situation and not wanting to project visible light, Mark turned on the Surefire IR light on his helmet and flipped the Phokus Research lens caps closed over the end of his NVGs, shifting the focus of his goggles from ‘infinity’ to close range. This allowed him to start a blood sweep on Anson, despite Anson’s groggy bitching about how he was fine. Mark hissed at him to sit still.
While checking the back of his neck, Mark saw the butt end of a .45 ACP round sticking out of Anson’s helmet. The Team Wendy ballistic helmet had stopped the round, but the blunt force must have rung Anson’s bell. Not wanting to assume this was Anson’s only injury, Mark checked him thoroughly; loosening his vest to sweep his torso, and doing a complete front and back sweep of his hips and legs. Finding no other injuries, Mark grabbed Shepard and told him to do another check on Anson and then keep an eye on him, then called Charlie team up. Mark told Ben to have his medic set up a CCP in the vending machine area inside the west doors, then use his team to clear the shops and restrooms on the north wall of the store.
Mark rejoined Keel, Dan, and the other Alpha assaulters, and oversaw the team as they secured the subjects they had just fought. Two Alpha guys watched the main store retail floor while Dan covered the subjects as Keel grabbed all of the weapons he could see and threw them up on register 15’s conveyor belt. Keel then grabbed the dongs one at a time and dragged them off of one another, secured their hands with Cobra cuffs, searched and disarmed them, then laid them out in a line. All of them were wearing cheap tactical vests and were armed. Thank God none of these guys were hostages, Keel thought.
Of the eight subjects Keel found, only one was still alive. This dong was shot in the left buttcheek, and wouldn’t stop running his mouth. Ronnie kept saying, “Please don’t hurt me,” over and over. Keel finally hissed at him, “Shut your suck, dumbass,” in his mean voice. Ronnie promptly shut up. As his brain caught up with his eyes, seeing the giant of a man wearing night vision goggles, standing over him, Ronnie voided his bladder into his best pair of sagging track pants.
After quietly speaking with Keel, Mark got on the radio. He pushed the PTT and said, “Knight Six, Knight Five. Splash seven, one dong in custody. Anson is injured but mobile. I need you to push to me; we need you guys to help us continue clearing.”
Within a minute David, Kyle, and Bones were at his side, surveying the carnage. Mark said, “We will take Dan and assault through. Watch your step, there’s a ton of blood on the deck.” Kyle looked up at the number above the cash register and grinned. Mark said, “Don’t even say it dude.” Kyle just kept grinning. As they started moving Kyle spoke softly to Bones, “Cleanup on isle 15.”
*
Manny had Bravo team in front of him, clearing the stock-room and ‘back of the house’ areas from east to west, with Delta team trailing about 20 feet behind him, ready to pass through and continue the assault should Bravo encounter a problem. Echo team was staging at the exit from the stock-room into the main store, covering that door and the assault team’s back.
After clearing the east side of the stock-room, Bravo team stacked on the double doors marked ‘Employee Break Area’. After listening for a second, Jerry, who was set up as the lead assaulter on the door, looked back at Manny and touched his ear pro with his right index finger, indicating he heard people on the other side of the door. Manny gave him an exaggerated nod and waited. Jerry listened for what seemed like forever, but was probably only 20 seconds or so, then quietly verbalized, “I hear women and children talking.” Manny nodded and swept his IR laser up and down on the door.
Dale, who was set up as the breacher on the door, tried the knob but found it locked. Not seeing any hinges on the outside of the door, he quickly looked up at Phil, who was stacked next to Jerry, and made the hand signal for ‘breacher up’. Phil turned around and let Dale grab the collapsible JMSG Metalworks breaching hammer out of the carrier on his back, then got back in position. Dale quietly extended the tool and made ready to breach. When Jerry saw he was ready, he took a deep breath and gave the barrel release.
Dale swung the hammer as hard as he could, and scored a perfect hit on the door handle, sending it shooting into the room. As the momentum of the hit pushed the door ajar, Jerry pushed off, shouldering the door open and breaking left into the room. The room seemed abnormally bright, and it took Jerry a second to realize several Coleman LED lanterns were lighting up the room. Phil was right on his heels and went right. The rest of Bravo team flooded into the room behind them. The room erupted into chaos. The Bravo assaulters were yelling, “Get down. Get down on the ground,” and all of the room’s occupants, most of them wearing Walmart employee vests, were crying or yelling incoherent words.
On the right, Phil was confronted by a fat guy with a big white beard in a Walmart vest, wielding a baseball bat. He came charging at Phil yelling, “Get out of here!” Phil ducked inside the man’s charge and avoided the bat’s swing. Already having his 11.5” BCM carbine with a Surefire Mini suppressor at the high ready, Phil simply pushed off the guy, arrested his own rearward momentum, and struck the dude in the chin from below with the muzzle of his suppressor as hard as he could. The fat guy’s head snapped back and he went down like he had been pole-axed. Phil jumped on the guy and quickly had him handcuffed.
Manny stepped into the room and flipped his NVGs up on his helmet. Taking in the situation within a couple of seconds, he did his best Sergeant Major voice and bellowed, “Police Department. Everyone calm down. Please get down on the ground people.” He pushed the guys on the left to the far corner on their side, and started sorting people out. These folks all looked like normal, if terrified, people; and all but three of them were wearing Walmart employee vests. The three non-employees were an elderly couple and a girl who looked to Manny to be about four years old.
The team got the group calmed down and seated at the tables in the break-room as Phil, the team medic, began treating the man he’d muzzle thumped. Manny told the guys to pull security on the door, then looked at Phil and said, “Keep me updated on his condition,” then added with a smirk, “I can’t believe you cold-cocked Santa Claus bro. Probably won’t be the last time you hear about that.” The rest of the team laughed. Phil didn’t think it was nearly as funny as the rest of them did, and he knew it would be a long time living that one down.
As Manny flipped down his NVGs and moved towards the door, they all heard the crashing of gunfire from the front of the store. Manny paused for a second, as the group of citizens in the room ducked down under their tables. Jerry said, �
�Sounds like the guys up front are doing work.” Manny nodded and spoke to the room, “It’s alright folks. We have another team in the building. That was probably them.” Manny wanted to report his situation over the radio, but knew the other teams would be talking shortly.
Manny had to wait for about a minute before he heard Mark come on the radio and report on the gunfight. When that traffic was done he keyed his PTT and said, “Knight Six, Bravo One. Recovered 17 Hotel’s (code for hostages) in the employee break room. One Hotel is slightly injured, medic is handling. Charlie Mike (Continuing Mission).” When Kyle responded it sounded like he was out of breath, “Roger Bravo One.”
An older lady in the room, who Manny surmised from her Walmart nametag was named Rosa, asked him, “Can you see if you can find Harold, our manager? We haven’t seen him in over two hours and I’m worried about him.” Manny replied, “Absolutely ma’am,” and asked her for Harold’s physical and clothing description. Once he got that Manny got back on the radio, “Knight Six, Bravo One. A Hotel reports the store manager, Harold,” Manny gave his description, “was foot-mobile in the store as of two hours ago.” He heard David’s voice respond, “Copy Bravo One. Thank you.”
