Joxx began to say something but stopped. He was uncharacteristically stumped for a reply.
Then came a particularly loud cough of engine noise. The first armored car was less than fifty feet away. The anxiety in the trench became as thick as the fog that had slowly gathered around them.
"This is not a way to spend Easter morning," someone farther down the trench moaned.
But then Joxx piped up again. "How dare you bring me here?" he whispered angrily to Hunter. "We are officers of the Empire, for God's sake. We should be above such low-class things as mind ring trips—"
One of the three men named Paddy farther down the trench turned his AK-47 on Joxx and Hunter. "Last time: Shut yer mouth or I'll shut it for you."
"You better do what he says, Joxx," Hunter whispered to him. "Call it a defect in the mind ring or just plain old age, but everything that will happen to us in here physically will be as real as real can get. And I mean that about the weapons in particular. You can get hurt in here. You can even get killed. Take it from me. I know…"
Hunter took one last look around and then pushed Joxx farther into the ditch. A moment later, there was a huge explosion not thirty feet down the road from them.
"And so it begins," Hunter said. "Again…"
The first armored car had hit a land mine square on. The powerful blast lifted the tanklike vehicle three feet off the ground, then slammed it back down to the muddy road again, where it burst into flames. The rear doors opened up, and three soldiers staggered out; each one was on fire.
Then came a shout from the ditch, and the men to the left of Hunter and Joxx opened up with their automatic weapons. They cut down the three burning men in a quick, merciless fusillade. More screams echoed from within the flaming vehicle, and three more soldiers fell out, their uniforms smoldering, too. They were cut down as well.
The second armored car had roared up behind the first. Realizing the small patrol had run right into an ambush, its driver attempted to push the burning vehicle off the muddy road. But then another explosion went off. Another mine had detonated. It knocked the front wheels right off the second Saracen but somehow failed to ignite anything inside, or at least not right away. The back door to this armored car flew open, and this time eight heavily armed paratroopers stormed out, guns blazing in the direction of the ditch.
These troops took up a position on the opposite side of the road. A sharp gun battle erupted with the men in the ditch near Hunter firing at the eight well-armed soldiers no more than twenty feet away. The soldiers were all carrying heavy-duty combat weapons; bigger and better than the elderly Kalishnikovs and M-16s. They were also much louder and packed more punch than a shotgun or hunting rifle. The men in the ditch were instantly overmatched by the superior firepower. But this did not deter them from firing away.
At this moment, the third armored car rolled onto the scene. Its driver had slowed some twenty-five feet behind the two burning Saracens, allowing his men to climb out the back and join their colleagues in the trench on the opposite side of the road. This time, the driver and gunner stayed inside their vehicle. Quickly wheeling the huge car around, the driver repositioned himself so the Saracen's machine gun could now fire on the ditch where Hunter, Joxx, and the other nine men lay. Everyone went down for cover.
Another mine went off, but this was placed too far away to do anything more than send a massive tremor through the ground. The bullets were flying like crazy now. Two of the men near Hunter hurled hand grenades against the soldiers in the opposite trench. There were two loud pops, and suddenly the air was filled with the cries of two soldiers, mortally wounded.
In the next instant, two more soldiers jumped up from their position and charged across the road headlong into the withering fire coming from the men in the ditch. They were cut down immediately. No sooner had they hit the ground when four more soldiers charged the ditch, this time under the support of machine gun fire coming from the remaining Saracen. Between this and the soldiers firing as they ran, four of the men in the ditch were killed instantly and four more mortally wounded.
At that point, the third armored car tried to move closer to the ditch. But in doing so, it ran over not one, but two land mines. The resulting explosions were enormous; it felt like the ground itself was going to crack open, the shaking was that violent. The armored car went straight up in the air and slammed back down again, blowing up on impact.
Just a faint scream could be heard from the wreckage before the roaring fire took its two victims.
The gun battle raged in the close quarters of the ditch now. Two more soldiers ran across the road. One had the misfortune of stepping on the fifth and remaining land mine. He was blown to bits. His comrade was thrown through the air and landed in a bloody heap right in front of Hunter and Joxx. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Joxx couldn't help but read the information on this man's shoulder patch: 5th Parachute Regiment. BA.
"Dear God, those words indicate we are somewhere in the very early twenty-first century!" he exclaimed. "Practically prehistoric times! Is this the era you've brought me to?"
"Good guess," Hunter mumbled.
The battle raged on. Two more soldiers rushed across the road. One of the men in the ditch calmly stood up and shot them both to death with his M-16. He was then killed by six bullets to the throat by two of the soldiers closest to him in the ditch. Someone threw a pair of hand grenades across the road. Two more loud pops. Two more dead soldiers.
Two more hand grenades were thrown. Both went off, but at such close range, they killed one soldier and the man who threw them. His partner stood up and fired point-blank at the soldiers advancing on him. He killed two more but then took a spray of bullets right across his face. His skull exploded in a bloody mist. He dropped his Kalishnikov as he fell backward, knocking the ammo clip from its feeder. The man who'd been crouching next to him picked up the rifle and jammed the clip back in, but the soldiers were just inches away from him now. The man fired the assault rifle haphazardly, wounding one of the soldiers, but the three others fell upon him and began stabbing him with their long, razor-sharp trench knives. He died with a gurgle and then a scream.
Only two men remained at that end of the ditch now. Both were holding shotguns, but both were out of ammo. The soldiers fired on them without mercy. One man threw his last weapon — a hand grenade. It went off and instantly killed two of the soldiers. The four remaining soldiers sim-ply took their place. They fired on the two helpless gunmen. One man, the older of the two, finally fell, his chest ripped open by a barrage of twenty-two bullets. The last man had at least a half-dozen grenades on him. He was mortally wounded but managed to uncork two and throw them, killing yet another two soldiers.
But before this man could throw another grenade, the last two soldiers were on him with their knives and began stabbing him, even as he was begging for mercy and crying out for his wife and children.
Then somehow, some way, two hand grenades lashed to his body went off, finally killing him and the remaining pair of soldiers.
And suddenly, just like that, it was over.
Silence returned. Only the sound of the Saracens burning and the raindrops splattering on the muddy, now bloody road could be heard. The air was filled with smoke and the thick odor of iodine. Joxx looked like he was about to go into shock; he dropped his weapon to the muddy ground. The battle had been so sharp, so vicious, so quick, he never fired a shot.