When he was young, Valkner was a one-man sniping army. There is a rumor, mostly perpetuated by him, that he once kept an entire Vietcong division pinned down for six hours until the reinforcing army got into position.
“How did he do that?”
He said he shot anyone who got within five meters of the river they were trying to cross.
“So the river stopped them.”
According to him, he did. The river just helped a little.
The sound of fighting was deafening. Gunfire, explosions, and screams filled the air. She glanced over at the barricade and saw the Prophus desperately trying to keep the Genjix from climbing over it. It was like the trench warfare of the Great War condensed into a room the size of a tennis court. The fighting ebbed and flowed and eventually bogged down into a stalemate. The Genjix were unable to utilize their superior numbers in cramped quarters, and the remaining Prophus didn’t have the numbers to push the Genjix out. What was particularly eerie was the number of Quasing that suddenly appeared in the air, having been expunged from their hosts during the chaos of battle. Jill had little doubt that the majority were Prophus. Slowly, the tide moved in the Genjix’s favor. The Prophus began to give way step by step as the casualties mounted.
Over the din of the chaos, someone screamed “RPG!” and then the entire room shook. There was a deafening screech and explosion as the barricade vanished. A column of pressurized fire blew Jill backward like a rag doll. She blacked out.
When she came to, the world felt strange. For one thing, everything was fuzzy, and she was having a hard time breathing. People were running and shouting, but there were no sounds. It was like watching a silent film. Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t hear anything at all except for a slightly unpleasant humming near the back of her head. Suddenly, she heard a pop like a balloon bursting, and then a sound like water draining in the bathtub. Then an avalanche of sound punched her in the gut.
Strange hands dragged her to one of the back rooms. She looked up, eyes glazed, as Paula sized her up, reared her hand back, and brought it down toward her cheeks.
Jill’s blocked the slap at the very last second. “That’s not necessary,” she shouted. “Really not necessary.”
“I thought you were in battle shock,” Paula yelled over the din of battle.
“I’m going through a rocket-blew-up-near-my-face shock, not battle shock,” Jill screamed back.
Paula shrugged. “I did it for Roen once. I thought it was like husband, like wife.” She offered her hand.
Jill took Paula’s hand and stood up. “Roen froze in battle?”
“Just once when he was green,” Paula said. “You’re taking it much better than he did. Now, if you’ll excuse me?” Paula was gone again, running toward the remnants of the barricade.
Jill got back to work as well. She sent more noncombatants out in groups of twos and threes, making sure the injured or old were accompanied by at least one able-bodied person. She knew that many of them would not make it to a Prophus evacuation site, but at least they had a chance now. The ones fighting wouldn’t make it. They knew this silo was going to be their graveyard.
It is not over yet. We are still alive.
“For how long?”
You are starting to sound like your husband.
“If only I had listened to him then.”
You would have probably ended up here as well.
Jill paused and considered the possibilities. “That is true. Now I’m depressed.”
By 4am, Jill could barely stay on her feet. The Prophus had lost the main silo and all the rooms adjacent to it. All they had left was the last two silos on the far end. The Genjix had tried to blitzkrieg through the tunnels and had nearly succeeded in taking the ammo dump. If that had happened, the fight would have been over. Luckily, Marco had led a charge that pushed them back. The casualties were heavy on both sides.
Could they hold out? Jill’s left arm was bandaged pretty tightly with a wrap of her own making, and she limped from a ricocheting bullet that had grazed her leg. Still, she was better off than most of the others. Standing next to her in the tunnel leading to the ammo locker, Marco kept watch over her. Blood dripped down the left side of his face as they continued to hold their position. If they lost access to ammunition, the fight would be over very quickly.
Paula suddenly scampered to their hiding spot. Throughout the entire night, she had somehow kept the defenders from panicking, seeming to appear everywhere at once.
When Marco had overextended his counterattack, it was Paula who had covered his retreat, most likely saving his life. When there was a lull in the fight, it was Paula who had led them into the fray. When one of her men lost his leg to a close-quarter shotgun blast, it was she who had dived into the melee and pulled him back.
If we had a few more of her fighting alongside us, the war could be a different story.
“It’s too bad we’re stuck with me, huh?”
I have no idea what you are talking about. The work you do is just as important. Sonya would have been proud.
“Yeah?”
Yes. I am proud of you.
“I’m sorry. What did you just say?”
Well, Sonya would have cleaned house and probably had breakfast cooked by now.
“What’s our situation?” Marco said to Paula.
Paula leaned heavily against the filing cabinet they were hiding behind, a look of exhaustion briefly clouding her otherwise stoic face. “Twenty-two left, none at full fighting strength. Seventy percent of my team is dead. Six injured and still alive in silo four. Estimated enemy strength is at sixty percent with approximately a hundred casualties.”
“We got thirty-three out,” Jill added. “Including all the hosts except for us and Valkner. He won’t leave.”
“At least we bloodied their nose,” Marco grumbled.
Jill did a quick calculation in her head and then checked her watch again, and then she sat there stunned, her brain telling her something she just couldn’t accept. She looked up. “We’re not going to be able to hold out until dawn. It’s time to get the rest of our people out.”
Marco had the audacity to smirk. “Jill, ever the optimist. But then I forget that this is your first time in one of these stickies.”
“No, I’m serious-” she began.
He exchanged a smile with Paula who put a hand on Jill’s shoulder. “Not all of us are leaving. We knew that, love, when they first breached the door. Someone has to stay and keep the dance going. The only one left to leave is you.”
“You’re staying?” Jill gasped. “You’ll die!”
Paula shrugged in the way only a professional soldier facing death could. “We bloodied their nose. Now let’s break it.”
Jill, I have an idea. Ask Paula how many she needs to hold this position for fifteen minutes. I want you to take a few men through the back tunnel.
“Baji, I won’t leave all these people just to save myself.”
I am not asking you to.
Baji quickly told Jill the plan, and in turn she relayed the instructions to Paula. Paula ordered her two healthiest men to accompany Jill.
“You should be the one going,” Jill said.
Paula shook her head. “Miss, I can barely stand. Besides, I’m the captain of this ship. I’m not abandoning her. We can hold out for twenty, maybe thirty minutes tops. If we hear your signal, we’ll blow ours. Understood?”