by Tim Yingling
“I’m fifteen,” he said. He was scared. I didn’t blame him. Curtis was obviously going to meet up with more military men which would take the three boys out of the equation. I was putting them right back into it.
I looked to the other two. “And you two?”
Kevin: “Sixteen.”
Drew: “Eighteen.”
“Babies,” I said. It wasn’t derogatory. It’s just what they were in this situation. “All of you are babies when it comes to shit like this. Whichever one of you joins me is only going to watch my back. That’s it.” I looked back to Curtis. “The ones who stay in the chopper will only have to shoot in the direction of the others.”
“Do you guys think you can handle that?” Curtis asked of the three boys.
They nodded, reluctantly.
“My sense of winning is overflowing,” I said. The boys laughed. Curtis only smiled.
“You wanted to do it this way,” Curtis said
“I know.”
No more was said. We loaded back into the Black Hawk. Curtis started it up, and we were heading back to the White House in a matter of minutes.
As we flew, I examined the M240s. They were set up and locked into where they needed to be. The only thing I needed to do was load them. That took less than a minute, and that was because I had to move across the cabin.
When we could see D.C. in the distance, I put the headphones back on to talk to Curtis.
“Put the chopper on the deck and fly in as if we took damage. And also let them know we are coming in for repairs. Make up some story about what happened.”
“I got it,” was all he said to me. He flipped a switch and said, “Building One, this is Chicago. We took some fire out there. We were hit bad. We’re coming in hot, with wounded. Please have personnel on the grounds waiting for our landing. We’re about to hit the AMB and come across the Reflective Pool to the grounds. About two minutes out.”
I could hear the response from the other end. “Roger. We are getting people ready now.”
Beyond the voice, I heard the frantic movement of people. It sounded just like a TOC did when something bad happened in Iraq or Afghanistan. They believed the story, and everybody’s head popped off. They didn’t know what they needed to do. Here soon, they won’t know what to do.
I turned to Glenn and Drew. “I want you two on the guns. Kevin and I will go in. Don’t aim at anybody, but I want you to move them away from the White House. Got it?”
The brothers acknowledge my order.
I turned to look out the front window at the ever-growing White House. The frenzy I heard on the radio looked even worse on the lawn. All the roamers they had around the house seemed to be running toward the landing zone. Most of the men exited the roof as we came closer. I didn’t know where they were going, but I had to assume they were moving toward the lawn as well. If I had to guess (and I did find out later my guess was accurate), someone must have ordered everyone to the lawn just in case. My secret benefactor was still looking out for me.
Curtis did as he was told. The Black Hawk never got more than a hundred feet off the ground. He even added the show of us being damaged by rocking the chopper back and forth. I knew how to take the rocks, but the kids behind me were a bit terrified.
I said to them, “Don’t worry about falling out. First off, the doors are closed. Second off, the force will keep you in. I have experienced it before. It’s quite a thing to experience once you get a chance.”
The look on their faces told me they had no clue what I was talking about. That’s okay. They didn’t need to know. I didn’t even want to know about those things. It was just something my dad did to me when I was younger. Younger than the boys behind me.
The people on the lawn had their eyes shielded from the sun with their left hands. Most of them seemed anxious about our approach. Others didn’t know what they were doing out there. And yet, there was one person I wanted to be on the lawn who wasn’t. I looked at the windows of the Oval Office (not her office) to see if she was standing there. All the curtains were closed. She would just have to get hers later I guess.
I tapped Curtis on the shoulder as we crossed over the outer fence. “Take us up to the building.”
He gave me the thumbs up and pulled the yoke back a little. Our ascent wasn’t too dramatic. We only had to climb another fifty feet to get to my desired height. I jumped onto the M240 behind the navigator’s seat as Curtis tilted the chopper to the left. He turned to his right, and I was open for business.
We started at the west end of the White House. The guys who were still up there didn’t know what hit them. I blasted three of them on that end of the building. As we traversed down the building, some more men came out of the roof access door. They were taken care of. I saw some more wanting to come out, but they decided it was in their best interest not to. We moved to the east end of the building not seeing anyone.
Curtis quickly maneuvered so we could see the north side of the roof, traversing back to the west. We only saw one other person. He threw down his weapon and ran to the nearest building access.
“All right, Curtis,” I yelled into the microphone. “Put us over the building.” I turned to Kevin. “Open that door and kick the rope out.”
He did as he was told. I did the same thing on my side. Before we took the rope down, Drew and Glenn took up positions on the weapons. Glenn had to fire once to the west end of the building. That was the way I was facing. I saw two men quickly jump behind cover.
I looked back at Kevin. Luckily the kid had enough sense to take his helmet off before he fast-roped down. I took mine off before holding up three fingers. He looked as one finger went away, then another, and finally the last.
I pushed off the floor of the chopper, wrapping my feet around the rope while having a loose grip with my hands. I didn’t spin as much as I had before, but it was enough for me to have my back to the West Wing. Kevin spun completely around causing me to look at his back. As we hit the ground, another barrage of gunfire ensued. I spun back to the west side, dropping to one knee while raising my rifle. Glenn did a good job of keeping the men back. He still didn’t hit anyone.
I yelled over my shoulder, “We have to move.”
I could hear Kevin behind me. He wanted to get off the roof as fast as possible. The only problem was, we had to move to the end that Kevin was firing into. It was okay as long as I was in the lead.
There were two thumps from behind us. Kevin jumped a bit at the sound the ropes made falling to the roof. I knew what they were before the noise even reached me. Curtis had detached the ropes as soon as we were out from under the chopper. He moved forward a bit. It still took Glenn and Drew a second or two to open fire on the people below. If I could have communicated with them, I would have told them to conserve their ammo, but they seemed to be doing fine. The screams coming from the ground could reach us even over the sound of the chopper. But the screams were getting lighter. I could only assume the people were getting farther away from us.
I couldn’t worry about the people on the ground. Curtis had to worry about them.
My main focus was on the men pouring out of the access point I needed to get to. There was cover ten feet in front of me, I just had to get myself and Kevin there. It was easier than I thought it was going to be.
I hit the cover as one man stood up. I couldn’t see him as I ducked behind the A/C unit. But I did hear him.
“Don’t shoot!” he yelled over the sound of the chopper.
With my back to the A/C unit, I leaned to my right to get a look at the men standing with their weapons held above their heads. I leaned over to Kevin to whisper in his ear. “There are three on the left and one on the right. They all have their weapons in a non-threatening manner, but I don’t trust them.”
“Why not?” He looked like he was about to jump to his feet to join the four men.
“Because of the one man on the ground underneath another A/C unit. He has a rifle on our location. Either, from
his angle, he can’t see underneath this unit to shoot us, or he is waiting for one of us to pop up to fire.”
“What if it’s both?”
I considered the question. He had a point. The sniper was on a higher level than we were. Not by much, but just enough for him not to see the three feet of the length of the A/C unit.
I motioned for Kevin to scoot over. He did so as I laid on the roof. Another look at the men on the other side of the roof was not at all refreshing. They had us dead to rights any way we went. The realization came to light. I just killed Kevin and myself for a fruitless effort. The only way we could get out of this is if Curtis brought the chopper back. With no way of getting his attention, I couldn’t rely on that.
Then something happened I didn’t want to happen. A familiar voice came from over the A/C unit.
“Sarge,” Tom said, not sounding distressed at all. “They brought me up for a specific reason.” He stopped to consider his words. “Well, only one person brought me up for a specific reason.”
I didn’t stand up. I knew what would happen if I did. “And what would that reason be, Tom? I noticed that you do have a weapon on you. Were you brought up to be the one to kill me?”
There were snickers from the peanut gallery. Elizabeth’s men must have realized they have me. That was until Tom spoke again.
“No, Sarge, quite to the contrary. Do you remember when I told you I had a message for you?”
“Is this really the time, Tom? I was actually coming back here to save you and the others –”
“Don’t worry about that right now, Sarge. It is time for the message.”
Kevin could only shrug. He was indifferent to the actions going on. I had no other choice but to accept what was coming.
“Go ahead then.”
“The message is as follows.
“‘Staff Sargent Yames, you were correct in the fact that we are not in the military anymore. I just wish at the time that you didn’t do what you did. I had a plan and I needed all of the men we had to go ahead with the plan. There were too many people in the hanger at the time that wouldn’t agree with what I wanted to do. If we would have only stayed there another two or three days, we would have been able to take care of those few men and come here to take care of the real problem. Essentially, what I am saying is that I mean you no more harm than you have already accrued.’
“That is a direct quote from General Robert Stone.”
I heard no more from Tom. I wanted to hear from Stone. But all I heard was gunfire. Gunfire from pistols.
I shifted myself to the right, raising the rifle into the high ready on my left shoulder as I moved. Normally I don’t fire left handed, but I had no choice at that point. I still needed cover and only the A/C unit could provide at the time.
Looking down the sights of my rifle, I saw something I never thought I would see. Stone was fighting to protect me. The men who had us cornered were now dead, with holes in their backs. I don’t usually condone someone shooting another person in the back, but I would accept this. It saved my life.
I stood, shifting my rifle back to my dominant hand, as Stone and Tom put their pistols away. From the corner of my left eye, I saw movement. I turned, putting the rifle to my right shoulder this time, and fired once. They must not have known the sniper was still under the A/C unit as they were not prepared for him. The round took the sniper in the head, carrying him to the edge of the roof and over.
Stone nodded to me as I walked up to him and Tom. “What’s the point of what you’re doing?”
He put his index finger up to me while also raising a radio with his other hand. “Curtis, come back.”
“This is Chicago.”
“Sorry, Chicago. I need you to leave those people alone. Just cover the grounds for the time being.”
“Roger.”
Curtis did as he was told. He maneuvered the chopper back to the center of the grounds. From what I could see, Glenn and Drew stayed on the M240s, waiting to see what would happen. The people on the grounds didn’t move any further toward the White House. Either they were too afraid or there was no need.
Stone finally turned to me. “Walk with me and I will explain everything.”
We walked and he talked.
“You see, you were right about there not being a government anymore. I knew that the second Elizabeth tried to say she was in charge of everything now. She had faithful’s on the plane. She made it that way. Every plane coming from outside the country was to land somewhere she designated in the United States. They were to then move toward here to rebuild America under her supervision. She wanted it her way. If someone was to oppose her, like you are doing, then she would simply have said person tortured and killed.”
I looked to Tom. He nodded at me. The nod told the whole story.
“So. Her faithful’s got their hands on Tom because I was still in the hanger without people they can trust?”
“Essentially, yes. They knew you were going to Horrel Hill. So they waited just outside the town on the north side, expecting you to go that way. They took Tom the second they saw him. They waited for you all day. Eventually, after all the torture, I had enough of what they were doing to Tom. My show was over. I had to step in. I got Tom outta there as fast as I could. I also came to realize that some of the people who said they were faithful to Elizabeth weren’t that faithful.”
He stopped. We were already on the second-floor landing leading to the first floor. I had a general idea of where we were going, but wasn’t too sure just yet. I wanted to head to the basement to get Kate, but I also wanted to stay with Stone to find out what the hell he was up to.
“I want you to look out that window right there.” He pointed to the doors. I followed his gaze. In the distance, I could see the people still standing there. Stone put the walkie back to his mouth. “CSM Perez, bring in the reinforcements.”
Without a hint of it going to happen an explosion occurred a hundred yards behind the gathered people. I couldn’t make out who the others were coming into the White House grounds, but when they instantly surrounded Elizabeth’s faithful’s I figured I could trust them.
Only fifteen stayed back to guard the faithfuls. The other seventy or so came running to the White House. As they grew closer, I did see Damien was one of the men in the lead. That, to me, was a good thing.
Stone moved further down the stairs to the first floor. We reached the first floor as the reinforcements entered the building. Damien and Stone shook hands. Damien then offered me his hand.
I took it and asked, “How long did you know he was planning on doing this?”
Damien looked to Stone before answering me. “I knew the entire time. I couldn’t bring you in on it because I wanted you to be out of the way and heading toward your family. We weren’t planning on hitting the White House until next week.”
I scratched my head, then turned to Stone. “What is your plan now?”
He started to walk again. “Now, we go take care of Elizabeth, release the prisoners below, and start fresh.”
I walked in between Stone and Damien just so I could talk to them both. This time I was directing myself to Damien.
“Tom knows where to get the prisoners. Give him a few of your guys to help out.”
Damien didn’t argue. He turned around, nodding to some men. Tom led the way to the basement.
Stone didn’t bother waiting for me to turn back to him. “When it comes to Elizabeth, rest assured she is going to have some men protecting her.”
I produced a cylinder object from my FLC. “Don’t you worry about that.”
Nobody said anything. They watched as I walked into the reception area for the Oval Office. The door stood wide open, so I knew there was nobody in there. The door to the Oval Office, on the other hand, was closed. I pushed it a little bit. It wasn’t secured for anything. But the hail of gunfire told me there were people in there.
The little distance the door did move allowed me to pull the pin on the f
lashbang and toss it into the office. Two seconds later there was a bang. With the wall and door in my way, I wasn’t affected by the flashbang.
The room wasn’t crowded. There were only four men, no women. I took out two of them as I entered, and Stone’s men took out one of them from the other door. The last man was wounded to the point of not being able to fight back. That is the man Stone wanted to talk to.
“Where is she?” he asked.
The soldier knew he was at a loss. He wouldn’t be able to do anything to get out of the situation. “She went to the bunker.”
“How many men went with her?”
“Only two.”
I put a bullet in the guy’s head. Stone turned to me, but it wasn’t in anger. Or even in surprise. He just wanted to know why I did that so soon.
“He gave us all the information we needed,” I said. “Not to mention, we have the master control panel in the basement where the prisoners are. So we don’t need him anymore.”
Stone stood as he talked. “Good point. She can’t fire on us. We have the House.”
Cheers came from the men. I didn’t cheer, though. I moved to walk out of the office. I wasn’t going to stick around. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. It was still early in the day. Even though I was a little tired, I felt I could still get ten hours of walking in before I turned in for the night.
I didn’t even make it out the door before a hand fell on my shoulder. Damien turned me around.
“I know you’re leaving now,” he said. The disappointment was foremost in his voice. “I think we can accommodate you with at least a chopper ride. We can do without it for a few days.”
Tom and Kate finally joined us. I didn’t know if she heard what Damien said or not, but I reiterated the statement with a slight variation.
“You’re going to give me the chopper for a few days to get home.” Damien nodded. “Only if you allow Kate to leave as well.”
Before Kate could argue Damien said, “Done deal.”
“Wait, don’t I get a say in this?” Kate was pissed we were discussing her outcome without her input. As I could see why she was mad, I couldn’t change my mind on the matter.