by Steven Linde
“Captain Ward thank you for your offer, but I think that between our own security and the police we should be fine.” stated Carrie flatly.
“How many armed security officers to you have on duty at any time?” asked the Captain.
“Hospital security isn’t armed.” she said. “But the police are only a phone call away.”
At that time the communications supervisor Clark Wayland from the hospital communications center spoke, “I’m sorry Carrie but the phones don’t work nothing electronic works at all.”
“That’s unacceptable Clark you have to get it working.”
“We’ve been trying for days do you think we’ve been sitting around staring at the walls? All communications in and out of the hospital is down indefinitely.”
“Well we have the radio’s then now don’t we?” Carrie was looking at Clark sternly.
“Again nothing electronic is working that would include the radios.”
Carrie wasn’t happy, not happy at all. “Well we can send a runner in one of the cars them to retrieve the police.”
The hospital had a small motor pool there was a single mechanic on duty the event happened, Devend Norcol, “Ma’am.” said Devend. “None of the vehicles run, I’ve tried everything their electrical systems are shot.”
“There are other cars that we can use there’s plenty from the staff.” At that time everyone’s in the room started to speak at once stating that none of their cars ran either, Carrie was at a loss. “Captain Ward I guess you will have to leave one of your vehicles with us then.” said Carrie actually convinced that the Captain would do it.
Captain Ward looked at her and wondered what medication she could possibly be on that she could order the U.S. Army to give her one of their vehicles. “I don’t think you understand Ms. DeToya this isn’t a request. We’re under orders from the President of the United States to secure this hospital and everything inside of it indefinitely. You don’t get a vote.”
“You can’t do that I’ll notify the authorities!” Carrie yelled at the Captain.
“Knock yourself out ma’am, whatever gets you through the day but we’re here to stay. This meeting was only a formality.” The XO and Captain Ward got up and left the conference room, leaving Carrie livid but powerless to stop them.
When Captain Ward exited the hospital he was met by his First Sergeant Alexander Moore, “How’s things shaping up top?” asked the Captain.
“Good sir we have everyone deployed around the hospital and we’re in the process of setting up five GP Mediums around the back. One of them will be the mess; I have the cooks setting up everything they’ll need. “
“That’s great top, what about the generators?” asked the XO.
“We have two of the 100k’s in the back and we’re working with the hospitals maintenance folks to get them hooked up.” As top finished the sentence they heard one of the generators fire up it was loud to say the least, it was followed by the lights on the first floor of the hospital that were off came on, at that Carrie, the nursing administrator came running out of the hospital, “What have you done? What have you done?” she asked excited.
“What do you mean?” asked Captain Ward being the biggest smart ass he could be.
“The lights, the power we have some, is this you?” asked Carrie.
“It’s us we’re using one of our generators. Look it’s not powerful enough to power the entire hospital. From what I understand it’ll do four floors at best that’s all you got and all you’re getting.” replied Captain Ward.
“NO!” Carrie yelled. “I demand more!” again yelling at the Captain.
Captain Ward turned to her and looked her squarely in the eyes, “Listen to me! This is all you’re getting that’s it! No more, we have a generator for back-up. Now you can either adjust to the situation or not I don’t give a rat’s ass. You’re not in my chain-of-command and you’re not my wife.”
Carrie was not happy but she would take what she could get for now, once back in the facility she spread the word to move all the patients down to between the second and fifth floors. Unfortunately or fortunately the patients that had died over the past few days left enough room for the surviving patients to be moved to the lower floors. She also ordered all of the refrigeration on those lower floors to be checked and if they worked move everything down to them. She also asked that all of the computers and life support systems checked out, sadly none of them worked.
Again, she stormed out to Captain Ward to take out her frustrations, “Captain Ward can I talk to you for a moment?” Well at least she asked nicely this time. “None of our computers or life support systems are working can you help us?”
Captain Ward answered her, “Solid State Circuitry.”
“I’m sorry I don’t understand?”
Captain Ward sighed because he explained all of this during the meeting they had earlier, “Anything with solid state circuitry is fried, and dead as in will never work again. The EMP killed anything with it.”
“There’s nothing we can do about it?”
“I’m afraid not,” said the Captain. “At least not anytime soon, I’m sorry. Let me ask you this, what was done before any of this?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well you’ve been thrust back to Korea or World War Two medical practices; they were able to treat people right? That’s essentially where you are right now.”
Carrie stood there thinking “Right.” she said and then turned and walked quickly back into the hospital. Captain Ward wouldn’t hear from the strong willed nurse until tomorrow morning, he thought to himself, ’maybe it’s the type of temperament needed to run a place like this.’
The night passed quietly, the men were getting used to the guard rotations and roving guards, it was a long night with everyone getting used to the new reality. At 0600 the hospital staff rolled out container after container filled with coffee, pastries, fruit and other food. Carrie came out to speak with Captain Ward and the XO, “Captain I’d like to offer my apologies for how I acted yesterday. “ Captain Ward and the XO were stunned but happy to hear her apology, “Really ma’am all of this is unnecessary.”
“It’s the least we can do for you and your men Captain, it looks like we’re going to be working together for the foreseeable future and I’m going to need your help. By-the-way your suggestion yesterday for me to take a look back how they did things in Korea, World War Two and Vietnam for that matter has helped a lot. I was a very young nurse in Vietnam and I remember the lessons we learned from that.”
“Ma’am sometime this morning there will be a Senior Army Medical Officer coming out here to speak with you and to see if and how he can help.” The XO said.
“What do you mean how the Army can help?” she asked.
“I don’t know ma’am we’re infantry officers, if you want to know how to attack and hold ground we’re your guys. If you want to know how the Medical Corps can help you, well …. You’re going to have to ask them.”
“Thank you Lieutenant of course I understand I’ll do that. In the meantime, please help yourselves to the food. “Carrie said. Carrie left the Soldiers to their own vices, Captain Ward told the XO to go ahead and start to work the men through the chow line, and God only knew when the next hot chow was coming. With that the XO grabbed some coffee and headed off, Captain Ward filled up a cup with coffee and found a seat where he could think about the past few days. He didn’t want to think about the future right now he wanted to take it one day at a time.
Over the next week there was a lot of coming and going between Army medical personnel and trucks bringing the hospital supplies. The hospital was being used as a triage center for civilians the Army was doing its best to help it had even provided another generator. The current reality was explained to Carrie was that fuel was finite and eventually, unless they figured out another source everyone would run out within the year.
As the second week began two Soldiers were found dead at the
LPOP with their throats slit. It was a brutal murder, the two bodies of the Soldiers had been tied to a tree, their throats slit and their tongues cut out. Their tongues had been inserted into the slit openings of their throats, reminiscent of a Columbian neck tie. Captain Ward believed that someone was trying to send them a message, it wasn’t a random killing. Good or bad most of these men were combat veterans except for the two men out at the LPOP they were fresh recruits that had hit the unit right before the event happened. They had never been in combat they were FNG’s and the only reason they were out at the LPOP was that the older guys didn’t want to do it. That changed for now on anyone new to the unit would be sent out with at least one combat veteran.
Word had spread through the company regarding what had happened to the two Privates, as far as the men in the unit were concerned the rules had changed. It hadn’t really hit them that this was a real combat operation after all it was home. The Captain wasn’t taking this lightly and chewed out his First Sergeant and the Platoon Sergeants for being too lax on the men, they had all extensive combat experience and knew better. The shit was about to hit the fan, someone out there wanted to play games, if that’s what they wanted they would play and god help them.
The LPOP was moved and better camouflaged; fields of fire were cleared two hundred yards around the hospital. Trip wire flares were set up all over the perimeter as well as several claymores; they were going to make it painful. Night patrols were increased and would be conducted around the clock, not only that they were going to be led by the men with the most combat experience, the gloves were off. There were two rapid deployment teams created and were on stand-by twenty-four seven, their only purpose was to hustle over to any spot on the perimeter to reinforce the men in an area that was under fire.
On the third night one of the trip flares went up a hundred yards out in front of the new LPOP two men with what looked like AK-47’s were approaching the fortification slowly and cautiously. As soon as the flare went up the two men in the LPOP were alert, one called it in via the landline and the reaction force was deployed, the other man, SSG Harry Scottsdale, took quick aim at the two intruders and dropped them where they stood. Another call was made back to the TOC that the two unidentified men were down in the field. Captain Ward told the two men in the LPOP to remain in position and stay alert the reaction force would be there any moment.
The reaction force arrived within seconds of the last call to the TOC they were being led by the XO. He asked where the intruders were and SSG Scottsdale gave him directions to the bodies which was basically point in the direction and stating about a hundred yards there. The XO directed the M-249 team to set up to the left of the LPOP, once that was done another three man team was directed to retrieve the two bodies while they were bring covered. As they were recovering the two bodies another flare went off on the other side of the perimeter where an OP was set up, the two men there, a Specialist Goth and Sergeant Cokran called in and reported armed personnel in the perimeter and received permission to fire on them. Sergeant Cokran was an expert marksman and took each man down with a single shot as the flare was dying.
Captain Ward deployed the second reaction force which was being led by SFC Littleton, once at the OP he had the M-249 set up and sent out a three man team to recover the bodies. The bodies from both sites were brought back to the TOC, the weapons that were recovered were AK-47’s and each man was also carrying a pistol and combat knife. They had no identification on them they looked like they were either Hispanic or Middle Eastern. Captain Ward sent word back to the post with the report with what had happened. Late that morning the Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Craft arrived at the site and examined the bodies. He pulled Captain Ward aside to talk to him, “There Middle Eastern, we think Syrian. There have been attacks all over DC from these guys. We’ve captured a few of them and they copped to being from Syria that they came in with the refugees a few months before the event.”
“Sir,” said Captain Ward. “Can we expect more of these attacks? If so, why not go on the offensive and take care of them?”
“Yes Captain I believe there will be more attacks, maybe not here for the time being, but other places within our areas of responsibility. I agree we should go on the offensive against them however, we don’t have the manpower right now. Senior leadership seems to be in chaos and the hard decisions aren’t being made. Captain for the time being do your job and let us worry about going after the bad guys, alright?”
“Yes sir, no problem. I’ve got my hands full here now anyway, no point in worrying about something I can’t control.”
“That’s right Captain you do, I might recommend you start to send out some patrols around the hospital though to maybe gather some Intel and if you happen to run into any bad guys I wouldn’t see it as a problem if you took care of them.”
Captain Ward took this as permission to start some of his own offensive operations in his sector although not specifically stated by the Colonel, “Yes sir I can do that.”
“Good to know Captain,” said the Colonel. “I’ll be back in a few days to check in with you to see how everything is going, keep up the good work.” The two men exchanged salutes and the Colonel headed back to his Humvee and back to post.
Chapter Sixteen
Per the President’s orders Alpha Company from the 3rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Battalion was dispatched along with the President’s Chief of Staff and several of his aides to find out what was going on with the FBI and CIA. As the FBI headquarters was closer it was going to be their first stop, the Soldiers were trucked in about two blocks away from the FBI Headquarters building located on 935 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC where Jake and his aides met them.
The plan was to march down to the entrance in formation, once there Jake and one of his aides would enter the building through the main entrance while being escorted by a squad of Soldiers. There were all sorts of civilians in and around the FBI building standing and staring at the Soldiers as they marched down the street. It wasn’t an everyday sight for most of them seeing the Soldiers in formation marching down the road. As they reached the front entrance to the building the formation was called to a halt. The CO and First Sergeant moved to the side of the formation, the First Sergeant came to attention now facing the formation with the CO standing behind him at attention. The First Sergeant yelled, “Right FACE!” and the entire formation of Soldiers moved in one motion now facing the First Sergeant.
Then the First Sergeant barked, “First platoon, first squad move out!”
The first group of men in the first line in the first platoon stepped off out of formation heading towards Jake and his aides. When the men arrived in front of Jake he was satisfied, he turned and walked to the building pulling the front door open, and it opened with no problems. Jake entered the building first, followed by his aide and then the Soldiers. It was very quiet and there was no one around, earlier reports was that there were agents and senior personnel in the building but where? Jake continued to lead the way making his way past the lobby and into the cube area then going into various offices on the first floor, again no one around.
Jake asked the squad of Soldiers that numbered about ten to break up into three groups and explore the other areas of the building to include the upper floors; he gave those thirty minutes and asked for them to report back to him. He told him he would be down on either the first or second floor and he should be easy to find. Staff Sergeant Rodeo split the squad up into two man teams, he and Specialist Flores would move to the top floor and work their way down, Sergeant Carol would take the third floor, Corporal Teachout would take the sixth floor, two men PFC Torres and Specialist Irby would stay with the Chief of Staff and his aide. Once they were divided up they all headed for the stairwells and began their accent up the stairs.
Jake and the Soldiers with him entered carefully into the second floor, Jake yelled, “Hello?” Hello?” as loud as he could. The Soldiers cringed at this they felt by Jakes actions it
made them potential targets. Specialist Irby asked, “Sir we’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t announce us just now. We don’t know if there are good or bad guys up here and you just gave away our location.”
“Good point Specialist, I’m sorry won’t happen again.” Jake replied feeling a bit put down.
“Sir let us take the lead please.” said Specialist Irby.
Jake stepped back behind the two Soldiers, both Soldiers had their weapons up and ready to fire. The moved from room-to-room, once done in the room the Soldiers yelled out, “Clear!” and moved onto the next one. They did this from room-to-room being as methodical as they could; this is something they had practiced for years and was second nature to them. With half the floor clear they had yet to find any sign of life. They moved towards what was supposed to be the executive conference room per the Chief of Staff, the door was closed and there were no windows to see if there was anyone in it.
The two Soldiers moved up to it, a Soldier on either side of the doors, Specialist Irby reached over and slowly turned the knob, the door was unlocked. He then used hand signals to tell PFC Torres that they would breach the doors on the count of three, he counted down to three using his fingers, three-two-one, Specialist Irby as quick as he could turned the door knob pushing it open. The two Soldiers moved as quickly as they could into the conference room, weapons up, the two Soldiers were swiveling back and forth looking for any threats. What they found were a half dozen civilians asleep on the floor at the back of the room, to say they were surprised would be an understatement.
