hunnyfresh - Letters from War

The northern crew had direct access to the main entrance into the town, and with that, they were the most exposed. With a combined total of sixty years in service, they were most experienced and equipped to deal with a full frontal assault should one occur. On paper they were supposed to infiltrate the hideout, bring in their leader, Hussein Al-Jamil who had a history of violent behaviour and a criminal record, and any aiding rebels for the local police to deal with while confiscating the arms. But with the order coming from Spencer, he would want to make sure they were out for good.

Just apprehend and confiscate, Emma told herself over and over as the five of them climbed up onto the roofs of several nearby houses overlooking the central spot. Apprehend and confiscate was all she had to do and then they could go home. No one had to get hurt.

A reflective light shown from the western and eastern teams as Khali responded with a similar sign signalling they were all in position.

They waited one last time. A slight draft picked up. The wind blew gently in Emma's ear as she looked through her eyepiece of her M16 and trained her gun at the back windows. Figures danced as shadows on the wall in the light of the room, and though they were nothing more than just reflections, Emma could already tell by both the graceful and haphazard movements that a woman and a child were inside.

Ramirez, the team leader of the northern crew, kicked down the wooden door as if it were nothing more than paper crumpling beneath his boot. The shadows on the wall twitched hurriedly and Emma watched as a small body came to the window before the woman pulled the child away. Arabic curses rang through the village and soon the surrounding houses, fortified inside their own stone homes, had husbands and fathers shutting their windows and locking them tight. Before the team leader could fully enter the house, a boom roared and a hiss sounded as gas and dust surrounded the northern team in the thick white smoke.

The yelling in Arabic became more clear as a man in a thawb and gutral and ogal came out with a rifle, shooting blindly into the air to assert his dominance as two more men twice the size as he came out with matching weapons.

"You are ordered to drop your weapons and release any others in your possession!" Ramirez yelled. Despite the smoke his gun with trained on Hussein's chest.

"هذا هو بيتي! هذا هو بلدي!" He yelled back, pointing his gun back at Ramirez and taking courageous steps forward. "أنت واحد الذي يهددنا!"

Blind to Iraqi men, an ally sneaked away from the unforgiving smoke to clearer air. Emma covered for him as he ducked around the back of the house to a boarded up window and used the butt of his rifle to bring it in. What he was met with was a rifle to his face as the metal collided with his nose and brought him to the ground.

"We need to move," Khali grunted beside Emma as the bulking mass rolled off the roof and landed on his feet as gracefully as a cat.

She followed as an eastern light flashed, and the five men from the east left their position and moved closer, strategically keeping to the shelters. But then something happened that Emma hadn't expected.

Doors began opening up, and where Emma had thought citizens were boarding up for the evening, several houses lit up to reveal men in similar attire with machetes or machine guns in their grasps. A feminine voice cried out as she pleaded to her husband to come back inside but with a careless swat she was silenced as the men ran swiftly to the center house.

As quick as they had appeared, some men had dropped one by one as the western team remained hidden, shooting down the threat as they approached. Hussein yelled out, and without warning or hesitation, he put a bullet in Ramirez's shoulder.

Emma wished the next moments had been a blur within the utter chaos, but as she followed Khali, with Kennedy, Fred, and Neal behind her, through the streets of the village, she could hear the faintest sounds of female voices in their various homes joined together in prayer and children crying out in confusion.

As soon as Ramirez fell, Hussein and his two accomplices retreated into the home as the other attackers who hadn't fallen prey to the overhead gunfire continued on their way. For a moment, it was as if Emma was back in her dream where she was the lone soldier destined to fight off a swarm of enemy, but this time when she opened her eyes, it didn't go away. She blinked and blinked, but every single time she opened her eyes, the screams got louder and the yelling grew angrier. Gunshots continued ringing in her ears as dust and rock erupted around them from bullets landing too close, either from their side or the other it was hard to tell.

Bullets were unforgiving that way.

As they reared to the side, they saw the door to house open once more and a bottle with fluid and a burning rag was tossed out the door.

"Take cover!" Khali yelled. The team ducked behind the buildings, grateful for the stone of the structure as a boom resounded throughout the town. The shock was so strong Emma thought the ground might split in two and she'd drop down into the center of the earth.

Rubble, sand, dirt, and Emma didn't want to think what else rained down on her as the distinct smell of gasoline and smoke filled her lungs. She coughed harshly but still managed to get her bearings as she shook off the soot from her helmet. In her peripherals she could see the north recovering from the blast. Fred and Neal emerged from behind a wagon. Khali, he was lying face down in the dirt. Suddenly the monster man didn't look so fearsome.

The once darkened night sky brightened with the heat of the fire as the surrounding houses burned. The thatched wooden roofs lit up like beacons signalling a ship to shore, but the only witness to this spectacular devastation was whatever entity anyone here believed in. God. Allah. Nothing could stop the inevitable of the night. They were drowning in a sea of fire and metal during high tide, and the shore line was further and further away.

But the screaming . The locals could only remain ignorant for so long before it was complete and utter chaos at the sound of the more deadly explosion. Nearly all doors were ripped open as they retreated from the attack. Mothers were clutching their babies to their breasts. Fathers had their children slung on their back. Elderly limped through the crowds. Deciphering between innocent and threat would have been a shot in the dark, and even Emma wasn't confident enough in her deductive reasoning to make that call.

Hussein exited the house once more, his men leaving his side to shoot up to where the western team was still hidden, but this time, the shadows that Emma had seen in the windows, a woman and a little boy not much older than six, were pressed against Hussein's front as he shouted out orders.

Despite the ringing, the gunfire, the screams, that little boy's whimpering was the only sound Emma could hear. His face was tucked into his mother's neck as he gripped the front of her abayah tightly. The woman was crying, her face pulled away from her husband's grasp as he pressed the gun to her waist. The boy's whimpers were like a grounding force for Emma. He was shaken and scared, and all his mother could do was hold him tight to her, using her body as a shield though she herself was in danger.

Emma snapped.

She broke from her team, avoiding the confused and terrified crowd. Every bump into an innocent erupted into a horrified scream, but she pushed past them, weaving behind buildings until she was to the east of the house, crouched low behind a barrel of water. The eastern team replaced the north where two of the men were shielding Ramirez, bloody and burned, while the other two were laying fire.