“Damn it.” Harry yelled. “Tyler. Stay put!”
“I’ll be back.”
“Son of a bitch.” Harry had to follow him. He had to. While he was confident that the military was right above and they would get him, he couldn’t take that chance. He tried to squeeze through the stairwell, but he wasn’t as small or nimble as Tyler. The best he could do was keep repeating ‘excuse me’ and force himself through the people and up the steps.
It had been the first time in a long time that Foster had been above in the sunlight and it burned his eyes. He took the sunglasses offered to him by Manny as they reached the top level of the parking garage that would lead them out to the street.
It sounded like every war movie he had watched and any newscast of war.
Gun shots, both rapid and single, rang out. Explosions blasted.
It was obvious the battle out there was a major one.
“If you want to change your mind, now is the time to do it,” Manny told Foster.
“No. No. I’m good. I’m good.” Foster nodded, taking a breath. “It’s three blocks down and across the main road. We can do this.”
“Stay close to the buildings and move quickly.”
“I know. I know.” Forster was nervous. He didn’t have a gun; he didn’t have any kind of weapon. If he was found by the enemy, being unarmed was thought to be best. He just need to move, stay focused and move.
Manny did have a gun. He kept it under his jacket.
They inched to the garage entrance and looked out.
Buildings burned and the smoke was thick, but they didn’t see any soldiers. They saw trucks, some parked and some that had exploded.
At the entrance, with nod to one another they took off.
The plan was to just run. Run in the direction of the clinic. Once there, Manny would wait outside and Foster would get the items asked for by Doctor Baker.
He was schooled rather quickly on what he needed to get. If he couldn’t find them, then he’d have to call for Manny. But the doctor had written down all the names the IV bag he needed could possibly have on it. He was looking for Oxytocin, a drug that would help the young woman stop bleeding.
They raced as fast as they could down the sidewalk. Foster never looked back to see where Manny was. He assumed he was there.
Only twice did they see enemy soldiers and both times the enemy didn’t see them.
Foster’s heart pounded when he ran into the clinic. He literally had to stop to not only catch his breath but also to get his wits about him. The continuous shooting had him trembling.
He was certain that after this adventure it wouldn’t be hard to keep his promise to Judith.
He heard Manny outside telling him to hurry. Manny had kept up and that made Foster happy. The abortion clinic was on the second floor. The building had not been seized by either United States forces or the enemy.
It took longer than Foster expected.
He found one of the operating rooms and searched. He must have been there for a while because Manny sought him out.
“What’s going on?” Manny asked.
“I… I can’t find everything.”
“Okay, no panicking. Okay?” Manny swung his rifle around his shoulder. “Let’s look together.”
And they did.
It took several minutes, but they were able to find all of the items that the doctor told them he needed. At least they hoped they had. They shoved them in Foster’s back pack and raced out of the operating area, down the stairs and to the front lobby.
It was quiet.
The gun fire was minimal and what they did hear was in the distance.
Foster felt safe. In the lobby he nodded to Manny.
Manny peeked out, opened the door and pulled out his weapon.
Foster followed.
The moment they took a single step to the sidewalk, two shots rang out.
Manny’s body jolted from the hit. One shot struck his chest, the other his head and Manny fell instantly to the sidewalk.
Foster screamed and ran to Manny. As he knelt to check his friend, he saw eight enemy soldiers all aiming their weapons at him.
Foster dropped the bag, raised his hands and slowly stood.
While the roof top wasn’t that tall, it still gave Lana the advantage of seeing a good distance. She watched the United States Forces roll into town. At first it was just a couple of Humvees and then two huge trucks.
In the distance she heard helicopters. Who they belonged to, she didn’t know.
The trucks stayed in the back of the town. She watched soldiers ushering people from the school into the trucks and down the road at The Tap another truck was loading people. But people at the school had begun mobbing the truck, making any sort of orderly evacuation impossible.
Then she spotted Rick. He was trying to reason with the people and calm them down.
Where was Ben?
Did Ben get hurt when they went out? Where was he? She was frantic as she scanned faces, trying to recall what he was wearing so she could look for that.
Her reason for being on the roof was to be a lookout and in a sniper position should the enemy arrive. Lana forgot that duty as she visually searched for her husband and the incoming forces took her by surprise.
Binoculars scanning, looking for faces, she turned and caught a single enemy soldier in her sight.
“Just one?” she thought. She moved her binoculars a little more and let out a huge breath as she tried to access the situation so she could convey it accurately.
Behind her she saw the incoming hostile soldiers making their way forward. In front of her, she saw the United States forces were too consumed with evacuating people to see what was about to arrive.
She lifted the radio. “This is Scout 3, anyone. Is anyone there?”
“Go on.”
“We have hostiles, an entire brigade, too many to count. Trucks, tanks, all armed in battle gear are heading south. They’re hitting the gas station now.”
She received a confirmation, and then looked again at the enemy. Suddenly, their steady slower pace increased and they charged forward.
They had spotted the United States forces and town’s people.
She hurriedly switched views back to the town’s people and it was evident word had reached them. The soldiers stopped putting people in the trucks and instead, those who had not been loaded in were being ushered back into the school.
The first shot was fired. Lana took her position to shoot.
The truck by The Tap full and as a final person jumped in, it pulled out. As it did, she saw Ben and sighed with relief. He had been helping get people on that truck and she just hadn’t seen him.
But there he was out in the open and then…. Ben was shot.
He took a hit to the chest and stumbled some before taking another hit.
Lana screamed.
Sniper position be damned, she thought. She hurriedly shouldered her weapon, raced to the edge of the roof to the ladder and climbed down.
“Get down. Get inside!” someone shouted.
Lana heard that and the shots that followed. Not a second into her feet hitting the sidewalk, she heard a shot sing by her head.
“Get down. Get down!”
Screw that, she thought, she wasn’t listening to them. She had a block to go to get to Ben.
Screaming inside, “Oh, God. Oh, God, don’t let him be dead,“ Lana ran as fast as she could to cover the short distance.
When she arrived a soldier was dragging Ben inside The Tap and Lana followed.
The soldier moved quickly, laying Ben on the floor and ripping open a field bandage and pressing it to his chest.
Lana didn’t even get to call out his name. The soldier told her as soon as she entered The Tap, “Hold this tight.”