by R Kralik
My breathing became rapid and my heart was pounding. I whispered to Ian that I needed to get medicine from my pack, and he flipped on a tiny little flashlight so I could find my way. I opened the bag and pulled out a Xanax. Elaine asked for one as well and I gave it to her.
I could barely see Velma “Battle-axe” Dodson scowling at us from several feet away. I saw her mouth open and heard her whisper “Ya got an extra one of those?” I sighed and gave Velma a blue Xanax of her own. She popped it in her mouth and swallowed it dry.
I almost forgot there were North Koreans walking around above us after Velma “popped” that pill and lay down on her pallet.
Forty-five minutes later she was snoring and the whole crew became so nervous that Ian had to wake her and ask her to sit up and stay awake.
It felt like we sat there for hours. The kids fell asleep and many adults followed their lead. We sat in the dark and listened to each other’s tummy growl an hour past lunch time. We didn't dare cook something that would smell strong enough to reach through the ventilation ducts and tickle the noses of the enemies above our heads.
Finally, Ian flipped on his tiny flashlight and told Nana to take it to the food shelves and bring back jars of peanut butter and jelly as well as boxes of crackers and plastic spoons. We passed around peanut butter, jam, and crackers until the jars were empty. Then, we sat there.
We could still hear muffled voices above our heads and I was almost lulled into sleep when I heard he first goat call for its evening meal. I panicked and told Ian to get in there as fast as possible and throw feed down their throats if he had to. He shined his light toward the teenage section and motioned for Deuce to follow him.
They made it to the second tunnel room just as the second goat let out a soft “baa.” I heard food being carefully poured into feed pans and I cringed at the sound even though I knew it was too quiet to be heard outside.
Ian and Deuce returned to their respective pallets and Ian flipped off the flashlight. I was fully awake and no longer lulled by the constant sounds and friendly bickering from the enemy above.
Amber and Michael began to cry, and Jason had the idea to take them to the second tunnel, which has supports up, and let them use a lantern to play. We hung a dark blanket over the entrance and left the door up so we could hear them if they called out. They were instructed to play a game of “no talking,” but they could use toys and their hands to motion to one another. It kept them entertained for almost two hours.
By this time, three potty buckets were full and I decided that, if we get out of this alive, we will need to figure out a way to put a sanitary bathroom facility inside the tunnel room. I have no idea how it can be done but I intend to demand it 'til someone figures out a way.
Pao crept back into the room to tell us dusk was almost here and, I swear, I could hear boots crunching on fallen leaves.
We heard the voices getting farther away as they talked. They were headed down the hill and away from the tunnel room. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief until Ian whispered “Not so fast. They may have left someone up there.”
Dane was grumpy. He picked up the propane grill and took it inside the second tunnel where Amber and Michael were playing.
The kids emerged several seconds later, and Amber said that Uncle Dane was being a “stupidhead” because he kicked them out of their play area.
Dane came out and loudly whispered Emma's name. She must have gotten up and felt her way to him because several seconds later I heard them whispering.
Emma flipped on Dane's little flashlight and made her way to the food shelves. She motioned to Luke and Larson to follow. They came back through the room carrying containers of oatmeal and a large bucket of water.
I guessed that Dane and Emma were cooking oatmeal for supper and I was right.
Dane whispered that five people at a time could go into the tunnel to eat. We stood around the oatmeal pot and dipped out spoonfuls with plastic spoons. We were allowed to eat for ten minutes before Dane shooed us out of the room, and five more people went in.
Everyone was fed and the oatmeal pot was washed and turned upside down on a towel to dry. We all kept our plastic spoons and slipped them into our backpacks to await another meal.
Dane shut off the grill and told Jason to make sure it was cool and back in the main room before allowing the kids back inside to play. He turned to Ian and told him to get the damn potty buckets outa there. Then, he laid down on his pallet and pretended to sleep.
Ian went down the tunnel wearing his Ghillie suit, which looked scary with the small amount of light from the little flashlight.
I laid down on my pallet and tried to sleep. I couldn't remember what day it was. I knew the Unit was due to arrive soon, but I actually lost track of how long we'd been in that dark room and for the life of me, I couldn't figure it out. I wasn't about to ask someone in case they'd think I'd lost my mind. Finally, I drifted off.
I didn't wake when Ian came back with clean buckets. I didn't hear anyone snoring, or crying, or anything else. I fell asleep thinking about Mick and praying that the unit would be there the next day to remove the NK's from Kapper hill. I prayed that they knew how many NK's were here and had prepared for them.
I dreamed that I was a bat, hanging from the ceiling of a cave. I was watching explorers and tourists come in to tour my cave. It was a boring, simple dream but it wasn't bad. I'll take boring over bad any day.
I was pulled from slumber the next morning by the sounds of moaning. I tried to figure out who was doing the moaning. I knew it was one of the men and prayed it wasn't Kevin, but it was.
He spiked a fever during the night and was miserable. Velma was using a tiny flashlight to examine his wounds and try to figure out what was wrong. Then, he coughed and it sounded wet and scary.
Velma asked Kenny to help her sit him up so she could listen to his lungs.
Several minutes later, she whispered that he had pneumonia and she needed to start him on antibiotics immediately. She and Kenny searched the medication boxes until she found what she was looking for. She filled a syringe and stabbed Kevin in the upper hip. Then, she forced him to take two puffs from an inhaler.
Kenny helped her roll up linens and towels until they had enough to put behind Kevin's back to keep him in a sitting position. She turned to Dane and told him we needed to get Kevin out of the tunnel room. Rona sat beside him and held his hand. She covered his mouth when he coughed, trying to muffle the sound.
I felt incredible sadness. I knew we had to get out of there, or get some fresh air inside. The ventilation ducts must not be working as well as Chris' soldiers thought they would.
Nana and Emma mixed biscuits in the second tunnel and were cooking them in a cast iron pan on the propane grill. We ate buttered biscuits for breakfast.
Two hours later, Michael began coughing. Velma examined him and said his lungs sounded wet but he wasn't to the point of pneumonia yet. She started him on antibiotics and gave him one puff of the inhaler. She also dug out a children’s decongestant liquid from the “over the counter” medication box and dosed him with it. He was asleep an hour later.
We heard nothing that morning. We heard no voices, no gunfire, and no engine noise. We were ready to send someone out of the tunnel to take a look.
Jason offered to go but Ian refused to let him. He said that Jason had no experience blending in to the scenery, and he preferred to don his Ghillie suit and go out alone. He was almost ready when the tunnel door opened. We thought for sure we'd been discovered and I'm not ashamed to say that I wet my pants a little.
A voice called from the doorway and traveled down the tunnel. “Hi honey, I'm home” the voice said.
I jumped from my pallet and ran down the tunnel.
I threw my arms around Mick's neck and almost knocked him to the ground.
There were several soldiers standing nearby, and I was wet with pee and I stank from not bathing for three days, but Mick didn't care. He picked me up and carrie
d me straight to our room. I used cold water and a wet cloth to clean myself as he watched. I have no idea what everyone else did.
Mick and I are headed to the large bathtub to wash ourselves and get into clean clothes. I'll write about the damage on the compound tomorrow.
Bye for now.
Monday, May 12
Remember when I told you that Deuce was cutting a hole in the wall inside his closet? That's where I am now.
I pulled out everything he had blocking the hole, climbed inside, moved everything back, and replaced the sheet rock panel.
I have a full charge on the computer and I'll write 'til the battery goes dead. I'm in a tiny space and I barely fit.
I was afraid to use the cord for the generator in case the NK's get inside and follow the cord right to me. I'm also afraid to sit in my own closet because they'd find me if they simply opened the door.
There's a battle raging outside. I can hear loud guns and occasionally the ground rumbles and the house shakes.
I can't run to the tunnel because the NK's on the hillside might see me, and that would put everyone in more danger.
Anyway, here's what happened.
Chris, Mick and the rest of the unit arrived on the compound and found no one. The houses and motorhomes were ransacked and the gasoline tanker is completely empty of fuel. Every vehicle on the compound was empty of fuel.
They checked all the buildings before checking the tunnel.
Mick said he was relieved to find no dead bodies or people hurt in any building or motorhome, and he figured we were either in the tunnel room, or at the cave. He counted vehicles and decided we must be in the tunnel room because all the vehicles were on the compound.
He walked to the tunnel room, opened the door, and found us.
While Mick and I were getting reacquainted, the rest of the folks were busy going through their own private quarters to assess the damage and begin cleanup. They were happy to be out of the tunnel room and wanted to put everything back in place to try to get back to normal.
Most of the furniture has been cut and slashed with the stuffing lying on the floors.
The walls have holes in them and the wooden furniture, including tables and chairs, have been thrown and broken into worthless, splintered pieces of wood against the walls.
North Korean words of warning have been painted on the walls with little, single serve packages of ketchup and mustard from a basket we had on the kitchen table. I have no idea what the words mean, but I'm sure someone from the unit can decipher them.
There's lots more to tell, like the fact that poop is in the bathtubs and corners of each room. Urine and other stains have run down the walls and pooled on the floors.
Anyway, I need to move on. I have no idea how long a full battery will last because I've never timed it but I'll hit “save” every three or four sentences.
We were all on the porch after having supper in the mess tent.
We heard sporadic gunfire in the distance and never guessed anything unusual was going on. We simply thought that the rear guards were taking out the “groupie” HDI's who usually appear behind the unit when they travel.
Chris and Josie were sitting on the porch with the rest of us. They were wrapped in each other’s arms. Several minutes went by without hearing any gunfire in the distance and I noticed Chris looking at his watch every three or four minutes. He stood and went inside the house with his hand-held radio.
He was inside only one or two minutes before we heard something whistle through the air. There was a large explosion, and we saw an area inside the camp on the onion field explode into flames
Then, people were running and screaming. Everyone from the compound began running back to the tunnel room.
Mick told me to get myself and the kids to the tunnel as fast as I could. I screamed at Jason and Marisa to go immediately and find Carisa and Deuce to take with them. I don't know if they made it to the tunnel without being seen and I can't take the chance of leaving the house and leading NK troops straight to them. I feel in my heart that they're all safe. I just feel it. I can't explain.
I knew Pop was in the right guard tower, talking to one of the soldiers who was standing watch.
I knew Rona and Kevin were in the clinic several yards inside the trailer fence.
I grabbed a can of gasoline and ran to the golf cart which Jason had moved from the meadow to the area in front of the basement door. I poured half the gas in the tank and drove the golf cart down the hill to get Rona, Kevin, and Pop.
I met Rona and Velma trying to carry Kevin up the hillside. They jumped on the golf cart and I drove them to the back of the house so they could head to the tunnel on foot.
I heard, and saw, several more explosions before I saw foreign troops coming down the mountainside behind the onion field. There were too many to count. I prayed that the entire NK unit of 2,000 soldiers was not coming down that mountainside. I don't know how many were actually approaching the compound and shooting their way through the camp.
I didn't hear the rapid fire from the badazz guns and figured the folks manning the guns couldn't shoot into the mixed mass of foreign troops and camp members fighting hand to hand in the onion field.
Tents were on fire, and several small explosions shook me to the core but I had to get back down there and find Pop.
I drove the cart behind the line of wooden buildings and down the hillside near the tree-line on the right. I was halfway down before I noticed smoke coming from the tower where Pop was supposed to be.
I felt fear coming on strong. I thought my Father had been killed inside that tower. Then, I noticed a soot covered person walking toward me and waving a stick in the air. I recognized his gait. It was Pop, and he was waving his cane in the air.
I drove down and helped him onto the golf cart. He was coughing like crazy and covered in soot.
He told me that someone shot several flaming arrows through the top floor window where the badazz guns used to sit. He was grateful that we hadn't moved the .50 caliber ammo back inside.
The wooden floor caught fire quickly and Pop turned to find the soldier who'd been standing watch in the tower with him in flames from an arrow that pierced her side underneath her left arm.
He knew he couldn't help the woman, but he tried anyway. He sliced open several sandbags, allowing them to spill out onto the floor. He pushed the soldier down in the loose sand and tried rolling her body around and throwing handfuls of sand on top of her.
He stood and sliced more sandbags on the wall beside her. Sand poured from the bags and covered part of her body. Smoke was quickly filling the small room and the wooden floor was burning.
When he saw that he couldn't save her, he said a short prayer over her body and headed for the stairs.
He made it down to the second floor and took a moment to look around and see if there was anything he needed to carry out with him. Soot and ash begin falling through the cracks of the floor above his head.
He continued down the stairs and heard the bulk of the first floor fall onto the second floor. He was covered in a shower of ash, soot, and dust. He ran out the door and started up the hill. That's when he saw me on the golf cart.
I drove him up the hill and let him off at the back porch. He assured me that he could make it to the tunnel on his own, so I headed back down the hill to look for Mick or anyone else who might still be there.
I guess I was going too fast down the hillside because I hit a large dip in the ground and the cart turned over on its side. I was scrambling out of the cart when the front gate was hit and the chain broke.
I crawled behind the nearest wooden building and watched NK's slide the gate open and walk into the compound. They were met by soldiers on the hillside, and the hand to hand combat began.
I decided to use my Glock and shoot 'til I was out of bullets. I knew I'd have seventeen or eighteen chances to thin the NK group a wee bit.
I took careful aim while laying on my stomach and shot from be
hind the corner of the building. There was so much gunfire, I knew I wouldn't be discovered. I shot seventeen times and I think I killed nine or ten NK's.
I was out of ammo, so I took the Ka-Bar from my belt and held it in my mouth as I crawled into the tree-line and up the hillside. I arrived at the top and ran out of the trees as fast as I could. I hid behind the outhouse and peeked around the corner to see the battle advancing further up the hill. I belly-crawled to the back of the house and inside the kitchen door. I grabbed the computer and almost headed for the closet when I remembered Deuce's little hidey-hole.
Here I am.
I'm sitting in a tiny space, and each elbow is touching sheet rock. I can hear the battle raging. I have no idea where Mick is and I have no idea how many of us made it to the tunnel. I can only pray that no mortars land on the hilltop above the tunnel room.
I don't know what else to do except sit here until the fighting stops. I wonder how I'll know when it really stops. Will it be over when the gunfire and explosions stop? Will there be men fighting with knives and their bare hands on the front lawn? Will Mick come inside and call for me? I have no idea, but I plan to sit here until I hear voices speaking English inside the house. I pray that'll be soon. I can't imagine sitting in here for hours and hours.
What if the house is set on fire or bombed? If that happens, I'll be toast. I suppose I can't worry about it because I have no choice in the matter. I'll simply pray and pray, asking God for the survival of my husband and children.
Another explosion just shook the house and I hear automatic gunfire.
Lord, where am I? Where did America go? How could any human being with a heart have allowed this to begin? I can't understand, and I don't want to be the type of person who would understand.
How many times must we go through this before we're allowed to simply survive? Surely there's someone out there with the answer. I just checked, and the battery on this stupid computer is 87% charged.
Forget it. Just forget it. I'm gonna write about the news Mick brought home and try to concentrate on that while the house shakes and dust falls on my head. Here I go, ignoring the gunfire...