Overrun: Project Hideaway

by Michael Rusch

  Additional sounds of small weapons fire soon chased the blast.

  Trying desperately to fight the shame and guilt that had seized hold of his chest, Haase turned around to see his men beginning to run from the rooftop. The explosive set for this building was now complete.

  “Status check, status check,” Captain Rosek yelled louder into his mouthpiece while pressing the comlink receiver closer to his ear.

  The thunder of additional weapons being fired and another smaller blast filled the heated night. “Detonations are not authorized,” Rosek shouted again. “The crux of their forces hasn’t reached the blast perimeter! All detonations are still ordered on hold. Squad Leaders report.”

  “Buck 2, acknowledge the hold, area clear.”

  “Buck 5, acknowledge the…” Some one after the other, others at the same time, and some so loud their voices came only across as distortion through the comlink, the Vulture Buck Squad leaders responded to the status call.

  In addition, energy released from the blasts sent bursts of static through the communication link making it further impossible to tell what exactly was going on.

  “This is Buck 15, this is Buck 15, we have more than scouts,” a harried voice interrupted by loud static bursts transmitted in. “Repeat. We have more than scouts. Vehicles entering from this side of the city. Permission to start lighting the flashes. Request again. Permission to start lighting the flashes.”

  “Buck leaders, Buck leaders,” Rosek answered quickly back. “That’s a negative permission to light the flashes. Zero permission to light. Detonate only upon my mark.”

  Another explosion burst through the night. Another soon followed. The blasts came from a few miles back within the city still far ahead of the J.G.U. advance.

  “Buck leaders, Buck leaders,” Rosek spoke faster into his comlink. He stood and followed Haase towards the rooftop doorway. “Squad Leaders, this is a direct order. Do not light those goddamn flashes!”

  With a loud crash as it smashed backwards into an outside wall, Haase threw open the door leading from the roof. Rosek charged after him into the dark stairwell while continuing to bark orders into his comlink.

  The clatter of boots against metal stairs, from both themselves and the demolition team that ran ahead of them, echoed loudly through the chamber causing Rosek to yell even louder as he continued his transmission.

  “Again that’s zero permission to light the flashes,” Rosek bellowed. “Small return fire if necessary. But check the flashes and tell your men to hold. They’re trying to spook you into going early. The main force is not here. Repeat that. The main force is not here!”

  “We have to wait for them to get further inside,” Rosek covered his comlink and yelled through the stairwell at Haase who was about half a floor ahead of him. “If we detonate too early, when the flames die down they’re just going to roll right on through.”

  Panicked transmission chatter filled their ears along with the echoes of pounding feet as they clambered down the length of the ten-story building.

  Haase felt his lungs begin to tighten from the effort. Rosek’s labored breathing chased him from behind as he struggled to bark orders while racing down the steps.

  Another explosion rocked the building from the outside. Its force threw both Rosek and Haase to the side of the stairwell causing Rosek to lose his balance and stumble to one knee.

  “Status check, status check, status check again,” Rosek ordered picking himself up and continuing their rushed descent. Haase stopped for a second and waited for him to catch up.

  “Stop the detonations! They are not to yet a go. Repeat. Explosives are not yet authorized to go.”

  Additional detonations jarred the building. The most recent, much closer and extremely more powerful, shook pieces of the ceiling loose sending them tumbling to the ground around them.

  They were almost to the ground floor when the transmission from the Buck Squad leaders finally cleared.

  “Buck 1, acknowledges the hold,” Haase heard the first squad commander scream through the chaos closing in from all around. “Engaging enemy from three points around building perimeter. Blasts from this sector still at a hold.”

  “They’re ambushing us, they’re ambushing us!” another panicked squad commander yelled through a distorted transmission coming in on top of the first. “They’re breaking in from all sides of town.”

  Additional blasts hammered the building causing its walls to shudder around them.

  The squad commanders no longer waited to report in order. The transmission link Rosek and Haase both monitored became a jumble of screaming voices and bursts of loud static.

  Haase noticed that some didn’t report in at all. He continued to run down the steps not allowing himself to ponder whether the demolition teams were dying or deserting. All he knew was that with each blast, less and less of the squad commanders reported through.

  Haase reached the ground floor stair level at a dead run. Ahead of him, he saw the last of his rooftop demolition team burst through the front doors of the building and escape.

  In three quick strides, Haase reached the front door. Rosek was right behind him still screaming into his comlink. The bellow and flash of the high-intensity explosives now came at them from every side of town. The sounds of revving vehicle engines also reached their ears.

  Another large explosion rattled the building they just stood atop.

  “For God’s sake, halt your detonations!” Rosek clamored while running from the building towards the streets where the J.G.U. now made their advance. “They have to get further inside. We have to wait for them to get further inside or none of us are going to get out alive!”

  By now the beginning of the ground force had reached the far side of the capitol building. Captain Rosek faced the coming vehicles in the center of the main street still yelling orders into the night.

  Less than two blocks away, J.G.U. infantry marched towards their location. They had finally breached the main portion of the city and were now making their way further in.

  A few jeeps and smaller trucks streaked down the streets on either side of where Rosek and Haase stood. The chatter of voices sending commands in a language they didn’t understand settled eerily around them.

  Automatic rifle fire and grenade blasts seared the air. The smaller vehicles that headed the advance soon gave way to larger tanks and transports which bulldozed their way through the small streets. Those on the outer edges of the vehicle formations plowed straight through some of the smaller decayed buildings standing on either side of the roadways. Building debris was stomped to nothingness beneath their tank tracks and heavy metallic truck wheels.

  One after another larger and larger blasts pounded the air from behind. The detonations were now so close that the buildings in nearby streets were starting to crumble and topple down. Heavy dust thrown up from the destruction and thick smoke from growing fires choked the air making it almost impossible to see.

  For the first time, Rosek turned away from the J.G.U. advance to witness the chaos that was prematurely befalling the city behind him.

  “Not enough of them have reached the blast perimeter!” he screamed into the comlink trying one last time to manage the situation that was quickly spinning beyond any realm of control. “All detonations are still ordered on hold!”

  In almost direct defiance to his last order, three more deafening blasts ripped viciously through the night.

  Ahead of where Rosek and Haase stood in the roadway, J.G.U. soldiers leapt from some of the larger transports. A few fanned out and darted for cover along the street sides while others charged directly towards them down its center.

  Stepping from somewhere within the thick black smoke and churning flames, members of Haase’s demolition team appeared. With automatic rifles and hand weapons firing, they met the ground attack.

  More explosions battered the night. The thunder of falling brick and disintegrating metal made it almost impossible to hear.

&
nbsp; A hail of small arms fire strafed the ground near Rosek.

  Rosek did not flinch. He continued to scream into the comlink he pressed hard against the side of his head.

  Next to him, two Vulture soldiers clutched at holes ripped open in their bodies and then fell lifeless to the street.

  Haase dropped the set of extended range glasses he had up until now held tightly in his fist. The device was quickly consumed by the flames along the ground. Haase raised his own weapon and began to return fire.

  Rosek ran past him still shrieking orders into the communication link.

  With Rosek’s desperate yells still sounding from the comlink wedged in his ear, Haase threw up his left hand and with a balled fist made the sign for retreat.

  The soldiers still standing behind him immediately began to edge their way back into the cover offered by the roaring flames. Streaks of brilliant light thundered from their weapons. Even amidst the chaos and certain death chasing after them, they stepped carefully about the bodies of their fallen comrades as they went.

  Alongside the members of his own rooftop demolition team and with his weapon continuously firing, Haase slowly retreated with them back into the smoldering shadows of the black smoke.

  Rosek’s frantic shouts no longer sounded in his ear. The leader of the doomed Buck demolition squad was nowhere in sight.

  With the heat searing at his eyes and hungry flames rearing on every side, Haase lowered his weapon and turned his back on the coming J.G.U. advance. Also stepping carefully through the dead strewn throughout the street around him, Haase followed after his team as they ran for cover behind the building they had just recently set with explosives.

  He took only two steps forward before one final blast knocked him hard at his back and slammed him forward from his feet.

  * * *

  It was much later in the night when he finally opened his eyes again and raised his head enough to see what was ahead of him on the street.

  He laid sprawled on his chest across the ground. Bodies of the fallen and rubble from surrounding buildings covered his legs and back. The fires had all but died down, but the heat from the coming sun began to make the air uncomfortably hot.

  Haase tried to blink away some of the dried blood and grime that covered his eyes.

  There was no sign of the J.G.U. land force that had come upon them in the night. Dying flames and scorched terrain surrounded him.

  Smoldering wreckage marked the sites where buildings either destroyed by the Vulture squad’s high-intensity explosives or by J.G.U. rocket fire had once stood.

  Many of the surrounding buildings, though crumbled and decayed, remained upright. Structures untouched by the fight far outnumbered the ones that had been battered to brick and dust. Vulture operations in this particular city were nowhere near a success.

  None of the city would have been standing or even remotely recognizable had anything gone as designed.

  Haase wouldn’t have been lying in the center of the street buried by the remains of his demolition team. He would have been far away getting ready to rig the next town. And if by chance his squad had been neutralized before being able to properly detonate, another would have finished the job.

  Not even that had happened. If it had, he wouldn’t be having the opportunity to contemplate these thoughts.

  Faint episodes of sporadic weapons fire and the grumble of truck engines faded in the distance.

  The Vulture teams had failed here in their mission. The J.G.U. had been allowed to make their way deeper into the country. The last of the vehicle procession had already made its way through.

  Haase stared straight ahead into the stinging rays of the coming day trying to take it all in and fathom the extreme loss. The loss of his men, the blow to the cause, and the detrimental national failure they helped further perpetuate by not destroying the town.

  Under the harsh beginning glow of the arriving sun, Haase remained sprawled across his chest in the street. He stayed there for more than an hour trying to ponder it all. The receding rev of tank and jeep motors fell off behind him as the J.G.U. vehicles moved deeper into the city.

  Haase rolled over on his side and pushed weakly at the men that had lost their lives and fallen on top of him. More than twenty bodies cluttered the streets amidst the dying fires. Wriggling and crawling to free himself, Haase raised his head and peered over the fallen. Squinting his eyes through the coming sun, he searched for signs of J.G.U. troops that might have straggled back from the advance.

  Only seeing crackling flames and thick black billowing smoke, Haase raised himself to his knees.

  Before he could fully stand and run towards one of the shredded buildings next to him for cover, a small movement caught his eye not too far ahead.

  Haase sucked in his breath and again lowered his head.

  Just ahead of him, a light grinding sound of moving metal came through the waning night. Haase strained his eyes through the warm sandy wind and dark smoke trying to see its source. Amid several patches of dying flames, a manhole cover shuddered slightly and slowly rose up from the dirt.

  Haase crouched back down towards the dead lying at his feet. Without taking his eye from the manhole cover loosening itself in front of him, he groped around for one of the many weapons dropped by the wounded or killed strewn about the street.

  Finally wrapping his hands around what he hoped was a working rifle, he watched the manhole cover push upward and finally fall to its side. It made a soft clank against the dusty ground. The sound could barely be heard over the crackle of flames and the vehicle engines in the distance.

  Without moving, Haase stared ahead. His thoughts rested briefly on the fate of his captain and the rest of his men.

  Partially hidden by thin clouds of passing smoke, tiny hands appeared briefly from the opened hole. The hands were soon followed by arms, long blonde hair drenched with soot , and a quick tiny body that rolled itself out onto the street.

  Frantic whispers chased after the young girl that appeared from the hole. More hands and arms stabbed out through the opening trying to grab her. The young girl glanced at them briefly and then quickly rolled further away.

  She turned and looked up the street towards where Haase crouched in the flame and smoke. Blood dripped from a fresh cut along her forehead and streaked down the side of her face.

  Shoulders, hands, and arms grasped at her frantically from the opening. The arms then lowered and were replaced by the back of someone’s head. But the body expected to follow did not come all the way through.

  Gazing cautiously up and down the flaming terrain, the girl moved further away from the hole. When she did, the head fell back and shouted whispers at her from within the dark perceived safety of the shaft.

  The girl looked briefly back and then moved further away. The whispers, some becoming quiet frantic yells, chased her through the flames. She was halfway across the street before showing some signs of giving in to their pleas.

  She hesitated briefly looking towards the escape offered by the darkness.

  Without moving, Haase followed her with his eyes.

  The arms reaching from the manhole had vanished, and the whispered yells chasing her had stopped.

  The girl looked back towards the manhole. Another explosion sounded loudly from somewhere in the distance causing her to jump. With her arms pumping hard at her side, she sprinted back towards the opening.

  Going in headfirst, she quickly disappeared.

  Through the flames, Haase stood slowly and walked towards the opening. Its cover had not yet been pulled back into place and was still lying in the street.

  He held the assault rifle he had pulled from the arms of a dead soldier at his side. The soreness and damage the blast had caused his body made it difficult to keep his grip.

  More frantic whispers and now some timid cries could be heard again from the exposed manhole shaft.

  When he was almost upon it, the voices suddenly stopped.

  Haase rai
sed the weapon to his shoulder. He then leaned over the edge of the hole and pointed it inside.

  He let out a quiet breath when by the faint light of the coming sun he was able to make out what was hidden below in the gloom.

  Five pairs of eyes stared up at him. Four girls and one young boy. It was almost as if they were already dead in the shaft. None of them uttered a breath or even dared to move.

  The crack of gunfire from somewhere outside the flames made Haase turn his weapon and attention away from the hole.

  When he looked back again, the children had started to slowly lower themselves away from him back into the dark passage below.

  “No,” Haase whispered after them. The sound of additional weapons fire echoed in the distance. “Please. You don’t have to go.”

  He slung his weapon across his shoulder and dropped to one knee. He leaned into the opening until his fingers nearly touched the closest child.

  “Please,” he spoke softly again. “Please don’t go.”

  The young girl near his hand did not pull away. She locked her eyes steadily against his own.

  Haase reached further into the manhole and wrapped his hand gently around her arm. When she didn’t resist, he pulled lightly at her wrist. Not looking up at him or at the other children close around, the girl released her grip from the side of the manhole shaft and allowed him to pull her slowly out.

  When her legs cleared the opening, Haase raised her up and slid her around across his back. She quickly clasped her arms tightly around his neck.

  Haase reached in for the second child.

  When he had finished pulling the remaining children from the manhole, two hung from his neck across his back while two others clutched to him at the front of his chest. The fifth, the young girl he had watched trying to make the initial escape from the manhole, stood at his side.

  Maneuvering cumbersomely around in the coming light, Haase reached down to pick his rifle up from the ground. With the children hanging across him like oversized pieces of equipment and gear, he turned and did his best to run towards the side of the street.