Paul Kirk - Devastation Point

“Say again. Over.”

“Make it in ten. You mighta slowed ’em down, but you didn’t stop ’em. Over.”

“Be there in ten, captain. Blue and Green, out.”

“Luke?”

“Yeah.”

“Give me an update. You got those guys hidin’ out in that store yet?”

Luke stared at his remaining thirteen men with a burning fury. Clustered around him, they waited for orders, but he was still bursting with anger, mostly at himself. He’d lost six men to this rear guard, and just when he had them pinned down, advancing to kill, another enemy team showed up. A sniper to boot and a good one. He knew he’d missed that second teams’ approach. Tunnel vision had set in and he’d made the mistake of waiting too long to take the back cover team cowering in the convenience store.

“No, we don’t got ’em. Not yet. Got my ass handed to me… over.”

“Say again?”

“We do not got ’em. They high-tailed it outta here under cover fire on a full out run.”

“Okay, you on ’em?”

“They had another team come back to assist.”

“Really, how big? They comin’ our way?”

“Small team. A sniper and spotter, probably. Only heard two guns. We’re gonna move more slowly now.”

“ THE sniper?”

“Unless they got two of ’em kinda weapons, yeah.”

“What’s your plan?”

“We’re gonna hafta move real slow, in full tracking mode at this point.”

“We got men comin’ up the road to you, over.”

“So I heard… minus a few.”

“Send ’em on past you to catch up to those assholes in full burst. That rear guard can’t stop all our men. Over.”

“Ahh, our men and leads are moving more slowly now. Not as eager to run into a bullet in the night based on what they saw happen.”

“So I heard. Reports from Seventeenth and Eighth say that they took a few casualties.”

“I imagine that sniper didn’t miss.”

“What do you recommend, Luke? Keep the men after him like ordered?”

“It’s your army, sir… over.”

“Meaning, over?”

“A waste of resources in the dark. We got none, or practically no NVG on those guys running up front. They’ll be picked apart. That fact was just demonstrated. There’s two teams, or at least a rear guard and a sniper backup team running clean in the dark ahead of us. Over.”

“Suggestions?”

“Let me and my men do our job, sir. We’ll get them. Over.”

Staring into the crater near the library building on Brownsville Road, Phoenix snatched the radio from Larry’s hand. Bristling with anger, he launched.

“Luke, give half your team’s night equipment to the next batch of men that arrive. Send them all down the road. Tell them to stop only when they reach Route 51. Am I clear? Do you copy?”

“Yes, sir. I copy.”

“In the meantime, I want you and your men to wait there. You’ve done enough damage for one night. Over.”

Luke studied the men around him. Each stared furious at the radio, but waited for Luke’s response. Looking around, he sensed the men, good trackers all, needed to regroup after the events of the past hour. Fatigue and their supreme efforts at tracking such an elusive prey at night had wore them down to the point that they were, in fact, not up to the caliber of the tangos slipping away ahead of them. Swallowing hard, Luke admitted he was not up to his A-game. Painful to acknowledge, he’d lost this round with an enemy who’d easily decimated his team and slipped away unharmed, despite his best efforts.

“Understood. We’ll wait and regroup, Over.”

“You do that, Luke. Try to at least stay alive so I might kill you myself.”

Luke tossed the radio to the man nearest him and walked toward a dark house with a ripped open front door. On his way, he motioned for all men to follow.

“We’ll rest here. Put some food into you and rest. I’ll hang out here waiting to deal with that asshole when he gets here.”

Without a word, each man eased past and sought a spot within the house, settling in for as long as would be accorded them. They were both surprised and emboldened by the audacity of Luke Killington. Many knew he would make a fine new leader if he was able to survive Phoenix Justice.

The Green and Blue Teams arrived at the McDonald’s expending most of their energy in their long sprint. They had moved as fast as possible, covering nearly two miles in under eleven minutes, a monumental task considering the weight of their gear, the uneven terrain, and the fact that their footwear was built for durability and not speed. They were panting hard and unable to speak, but they wiggled out of their packs and found a place to lie down inside the McDonald’s, noisily trying to catch their breath.

“I hate to tell you guys this,” said Captain Daubney, “but we gotta bug outta here in a few minutes.”

None of the men were surprised by this update—on the contrary, they expected it. They had slowed down Phoenix’s advancing army, but they hadn’t come close to stopping it. The inconvenience of a few dead men would only add to Phoenix’s determination to overtake Connor’s unit and wipe it from existence. Every man there knew that Phoenix would stop at nothing to exact his revenge. This was doubly true for the men that spent time in Cleveland. Each man knew that the primary goal was to safely outrun Phoenix and make the secondary rendezvous at the Uniontown Hospital. Preferably, with enough of a safe cushion to avoid directly engaging the massive force that was in pursuit.

Connor had some of his own ideas on the matter he was also considering. “Okay, guys, what you just did was impressive,” said Connor. “Captain Daubney, go outside and make sure everything’s set to go. We’ll leave in three minutes.”

“Mac, give me five,” said Marty between breaths.

“Pussy,” said BB, belching the word between heavy breaths.

“Fuck you, BB,” said Marty.

“You’ll go in three, Surf Boy, if I give you the order to go. Don’t waste your breath arguing. The horses will carry your packs for the time being—I know you won’t give up your weapons, but we’re gonna set a pace that will put us twenty-five miles away from here in five hours or less.”

“Yes, sir,” said Mickey. He forced himself to stand on wobbly legs. “I’m ready to go, colonel.”

“That’s great, Top. Let’s get outside and start loading the horses with your packs.”

When they went outside, Jason and Jude took their packs and loaded them on the horses. The men noted the exact location of their packs. The packs contained additional ammunition for their weapons and they didn’t intend to be very far from the horses.

“Listen up!” yelled Connor. “That pissed off maniac on our asses is probably gonna be a bit more cautious about his pursuit from now on. But that doesn’t mean he’s giving up his pursuit. We have to put some miles between him and us.” Connor made eye contact with each member of his unit to make sure that they all understood the import of his words. “Captain Daubney, I want two men as front guard and four men as rear guard—each two-man team should have a radio. Switch these teams out every hour.”

“Yes, sir. Colonel?”

“Yes, captain?”

“What about using the horses for the rear guard and front guard?”

“No. We’ll walk the horses to keep them as quiet as possible. We don’t want to come up on any surprises or alert any unknowns if we can help it. Okay, let’s move out.”

They were all tired, some more than others, but the action of walking at a quick pace re-energized them. The cadence of the horses’ hooves on the pavement was soothing to the group and there was little talk during their trek.