Emily bounced and rolled across the floor into pitch blackness. “That was an SK round.” She thought to herself as she sat up uninjured. She held her breath because of the thick smoke and started to search around her people. She could see the fire above her on the roof but it gave off no light to the rest of the room. Everything was black. She could hear the ceiling grown and knew it was coming down soon. She rushed around searching for people with her hands but found no one under the rubble. Her search ended as another explosive hit the longhouse knocking her forwards again this time right through the back of the building.
She sat up outside the longhouse and looked around. She saw some of her people running into the woods heading away from the mountains. Looking around she spotted several people on the ground not moving. She hesitated before going to help them. They looked very still. Some were obviously dead. She raced out and ran to the first person that she came across.
He had a bullet wound in his chest. He didn’t look like he was breathing so she checked his pulse on his neck. She gave it to a count of five trying to feel for a pulse before she turned to the next person she could see. The next person was injured so bad she didn’t recognize him. There was a hole in his cheek the size of a half dollar and most of his face was gone on the other side where the exit wound was.
“What kind of caliber was that?” She wondered as she still checked his neck for a pulse. Finding nothing she moved on.
She was rushing up to the last person she found behind the longhouses when she started to get hit again. The body in front of her took a few rounds as well but didn’t move, making it obvious that he was dead. It was only then that she realized that she hadn’t take anyone dog tags. Cursing she looking around again and as she did she spotted an APC sitting unharmed in between two longhouses. It was the ammo truck. With a quick look at the very still bodies laying on the ground around her, Emily rushed towards the tuck. Leaving the dog tags where they were. Worse case, the Army would come back for their bodies at a later date she reasoned to herself.
The Ammo Truck was locked but she just punched through the bulletproof glass and opened it from the inside. Jumping onto the seat she pressed the starting button thanking whatever military gods that the truck didn’t need a key to start. She put it into gear and drove through the chain link fence. She spotted several members of the OD running she turned towards them.
She drove into the woods until it became too thick to drive any further. The people that she had been following were gone. They had disappeared into the woods. She got out of her seat and pushed her way past the gun turret to the small door that connected the cab of the truck to the back. She flipped the switch and turned on the light in the back. She smiled when she saw two M194 portable backpack Minigun. It was designed for mid-level Brutes to carry as it was just over roughly two and a half tons. The ammo was ten cases of belt fed 5.56. Each case carried 1000 rounds.
On the other side of the wall were several boxes of grenades. Emily smiled and went to the bix of grenades first. She put grenades into all her pockets before she realized there was a better way and pulled them all out again. This time she tightened her belt and made sure her shirt was tucked in. She started dropping the grenades into her shirt. She got two boxes full of grenades down her shirt before she decided that it was enough.
Looking around for more ammo she spotted the .50 Cal bullets. She was planning on taking both miniguns with all the ammo so she wouldn’t have much room to carry the .50 cases until she spotted one of the Engineer’s det case. She opened the box and dropped the metal detonator on to the ground and pulled up all the foam that took up the rest of the box before she started dumping cases of .50 cal bullets into it. She got almost four cases of bullets before it had started to overflow. She closed the case and looked around for anything else to carry but she knew she was wasting time.
Opening the back door she adjusted her rifle so that it would not get in the way. She then put one of the backpack minigun on. She grabbed the metal bar in the middle of the second backpack minigun with one hand and grabbed the heavy det case full of bullets with the other and leaped out of the truck. She dropped the case on the ground and grabbed the two grenades that she had put into her pockets and pulled the pins with her mouth. She lobbed the grenades into the back of the truck. She knew that it was not enough explosives to completely take out everything in the ammo truck. What it would do was mix the useful stuff with the broken stuff and it will take time to sift through the whole mess for anything useful. A few seconds later the truck exploded as she ran away.
She racked her brain for a few seconds to remember what was on the map as she ran away from the now burning truck. There was a town nearby but there was no way the teams would head that way. They would go to ground. Find someplace to hide and try to contact command. They would need water and some shelter where they could hide. There was a stream the came down from the mountains. It was small and not that deep but it was water. Shrugging she headed off towards the stream.
She knew she was on track when she heard the challenge word. “Tom.” Someone whispered loudly. She answered with “Goat.”
“Never, that you.” Asked a female voice.
“Yea who are you.” Never asked back.
“It’s G. Are you carrying a backpack Mini?” The voice asked.
“Yea. Got two of them from the ammo truck. “You want one?” She asked her friend.
“Nah sorry too heavy for me. I’ll take your M9 though and any ammo you got.” G replied.
“Yea ok. Emily said dropping the Mini and the det case to the ground so that she could unsnap her rifle strap. G came out of the brush to take the rifle and the magazines from Emily’s vest. She also grabbed Emily’s pistol and her four spare clips.
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“Wilson can use the M9 but he would break his wrists if he tried to use the pistol.” G in response to Emily’s look. “Come on let's get under cover.”
G led the way into the brush to where there five other people were standing around. Only two people were armed. A weapons specialist from the Second Company had a rifle and a communication guy from her Company but in the first platoon had a handgun. G handed Emily’s M9 to another Weapons Specialist who was from the Third Company. Emily recognized him and realized that he was not a super. G was right he would break his wrists if he tried to fire her handgun. He could use the M9 if he was careful though.
“You still have your tomahawk from the Cat Lady?” G asked Emily in a whisper.
Emily smiled and nodded. “I have the Putin with me too.” She told G, grinning wider. She always carried Righteous and her little back knife since Afghanistan. They had saved her life more times than she could count.
“Ok try not to use the Mini. We are going to need ammo. Never, take point. We are following the river down for a couple of miles then we head east a bit. There are some cave systems there that everyone should be meeting up at.” G told her.
Emily opened her mouth to ask why she thought that but the other woman had already turned away and to whisper to the people behind her. With a sigh, Emily turned around and using the backpack minigun that she was carrying in her hand to push away the brush she started following the river.
Right around forty-five minutes later G called for her to head east towards a mountain. They had been running at a slow jog for the entire way. G had told Emily to stop using the backpack mini to push the brush aside as it was leaving a trail. Emily wanted to argue that she was already leaving a trail because of her weight but mostly because of the five or so tons of ammo she was carrying. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and did what she was told. So for most of the trip, Emily had to weave her way through the brush slowing the ground down.
It made Emily think of who had attacked them. This was a safe country. Who would dare to attack the United States? Was it the Chinese? Everything she had learned told her that it was unlikely. Not because the Chinese were weak, they weren't. It was because the United States was their number one consumer. Attacking the United States would hurt the Chinese economy too much.
“If not them, then who?” Emily asked herself.
G had them slow to a walk when she thought they were close enough to one of the entrances to the cave system. Sure enough a little time later she heard the challenge word. “Tom.” Someone whispered in front of her.
“Goat.” G whispered back. “We got seven-plus some presents. Left a trail so we're going to need someone to clean up.”
“Ok, keep going down for another half mile and someone should show you the way in.” The voice whispered back.
Right around a half mile later they were challenged again. This time someone popped out of the brush and led them to a small opening that led to a large cave. The cave was lit by some battery powered lanterns. Emily idly wondered where they got the lanterns. They were met by the Major. He was talking to some people when they walked in but stopped and turned towards them immediately.
His eyes scanned the group and widened when he spotted the two backpack miniguns that Emily was carrying. “Any guns?” He asked her.
“Just the Miniguns, sir. Plus I grabbed two boxes of grenades and a couple of cases of .50 cal in the det case sir.” Emily told him.
He nodded and turned sideways. “Get with Brody. He’s in charge of what's left of our armory. G, follow me.” He said then turned to G and walked away.
Emily looked around. There was a lot of people in the cave but they were missing a bunch of people. “How many didn’t make it out of the longhouse when it went up? How many died afterward in the fighting? And how the hell did everyone know where to go when things went to hell?” Emily wondered to herself frowning.
She found Bordy by the front entrance. He talking to someone who was getting stitches on their leg when Emily walked up to him. He smiled when he noticed her. “Where did you get the backpack minis’.” He asked with a smile.
“Grabbed the ammo truck on the way out. Took some stuff and blew the rest up.” Emily said with a shrug.
“So it really wasn’t an EMP. Oh well, what did you grab.” He asked her leading her back into the cave. She dropped the two backpack miniguns on to the ground then untucked her shirt and pulled out all the grenades while Brody went through the det box with the .50 cal bullets.
“That takes care of the ammo but we are missing guns. Half our people had their weapons on the trucks. I bet they never do that again. Where're your weapons Never?” He asked her.
“Wilson has my M9 and G has my pistol. I still have Righteous and my little black knife.” She told him pulling them out.
Laughing Brody said “Nice. Ok, let me pass the word up on our little windfall with the ammo. Why don’t you find Warrant and ask him where he wants you. He should be by the door.” Brody said turning away from her and heading deeper into the cave.
She found Warrant Officer Coleman by the front of the cave off to the right-hand side. He was crouched by the floor surrounded by a few people from First Company. As Emily got closer she noticed that he was drawing on the floor with a stick. “Never, good to see you.” He said to her with a smile. Then he frowned. “Where're your weapons?”
“Wilson has my M9 and G has my pistol, Warrant. I still have Righteous and the Putin though.” Emily told him.
“I don’t suppose you grabbed your rucksack on the way out?” He asked her.
“No, I was on duty at the gate when things went to hell. Do we know anything yet?” She asked him.
“We don’t know anything. Whatever happened took out our communications but left the electronics alone. At a guess, it was a Super Science attack. The plan is to stay here for a few days and hope whatever this is goes away. We are going to send out patrols to the surrounding area to get intel but the main goal is to hole up. If this is still going on in a few days we will adjust our strategy. We are sending out a patrol in a few minutes to Beomwag.” He said to her before turning back to the group he had been talking to.
“Should take you guys a couple of hours to get there. We got this place pretty well buttoned up but we need intel badly. Keep a low profile but talk to the natives. Find out everything you can. Take Never with you. Never, worst-case scenario you leave the other behind and get back here with whatever intel you have. You’re fast enough to outrun most things. I want you guys to be safe but we need that intel.” The Warrant officer said nodding to the group before he got up and left.