Apache Dawn: Book I of the Wildfire Saga (25 page)

No longer could he see orderly buildings and streetlamps and parked cars.
 
All he saw was a wall of smoke.
 
Here and there in the grayness, a burning car or a fire in a building made a bright point, but otherwise, only things within about twenty feet were visible.
 
He swallowed.
 
He didn’t want to look at those things – the bodies of the civilians, the body parts, the faces, locked in horror-filled screams that would never be heard, the struggling forms of people still alive, still desperate to get up and get away…

He heard one of his men coughing over the squad’s comm-net.
 
Cooper blinked to clear his head and focus again on the mission.
 
He slapped the side of his rifle to clear the dust.

“
Jesus
…”

“
Guess it wasn’t a nuke
,” said Tank’s deep voice.

Someone else grunted a bitter laugh.
 

“
Swede, gimme a hand—I’m stuck over here…
” gasped Mike.

“
On it,”
was the reply.

Cooper looked up at the sky.
 
Only two more missiles were up there, falling like shooting stars to the north.
 
He put them out of his mind and turned back to the task at hand.
 
Before him, scattered among the dead civilians−and a growing number of dead Koreans−was the remaining mass of invaders, all struggling to force their way into the hospital.

“
Lot of NKors got inside
,” said Charlie, voice steady as steel.

“Changing mags,” Cooper called out.
 
He took a knee to quickly switch the empty magazine from his MP5 and slap in a fresh one.
 
Jax staggered by, still shooting and tapped Cooper on the shoulder to let him know it was safe to stand again.

“
I’m out,”
said Tank in a calm voice, taking a knee to switch magazines, exactly as Cooper had done it, ten feet to his left.
 
Cooper watched out of the corner of his eye as Mike’s small form stepped up to signal Tank it was safe to rise again.
 
He grinned.
 
Precision.
 
Deadly precision.
 
He stepped over another North Korean body and moved forward.

Over the constant staccato of his team’s gunfire, he could hear the roar of jets overhead.
 
Explosions scorched the air in the distance and seemed to be getting closer.
 
And on top of everything, the screams of civilians.
 
He saw people racing up and down the streets in a wild, mob-like stampede, leaving buildings to witness or flee the gunfight.
 
Some even had cell phones up, trying to record the movie-like violence.

A jet streaked by overhead, turbine engines whining.
 
Cooper looked up from the controlled carnage to see afterburners glowing in the night sky like twin stars.
 
A building exploded with a tremendous roar down the street as the jet banked hard left and screamed west.
 
In the distance, through the haze of smoke, he could see toy cars and tiny people tossed through the air from the shockwave as the building collapsed in a billowing plume of smoke and dust.
 

“
Damn civvies are
everywhere
,” said Sparky.
 
“
This is ridiculous−hey, get the hell out of here!
 
Move!
”

“
This is some serious shit, man,
” yelled Jax over the din.
 
“
They got fast-movers past NORAD, ICBMs…how the hell is this possible?
”

“Stow it−we’ll worry about that later!
 
Charlie,
go
,” ordered Cooper.
 
Whatever North Koreans had pulled on America, his Team would respond
after
they secured the President.

“Right flank that breach,” Cooper said as he raced forward over the bodies and dying enemies to secure the blasted-open north entrance.
 
Smoke was billowing out of the hole, rendering his night-vision nearly useless.
 
Charlie slammed against the wall on the other side of the gaping hole and nodded.
 
Cooper looked to his right to see his fireteam spreading out and covering the entrance.
 

Farther behind Charlie, the other fireteam was doing the same. He took a quick scan of the immediate area and counted at least twenty dead or dying North Koreans.
 
He grinned.
 
Poor bastards never had a chance.
 
Just the way he liked it.

Another jet screamed low overhead, splitting the night sky as it streaked away trailing smoke, fire, and destruction. The smile faded from Cooper’s face.
 
North Koreans doing ground strikes in downtown L.A…Where the hell was the Air Force?

Cooper watched as Charlie took a second to slap in a fresh magazine and stow the partially spent one in his tactical vest.
 
He checked his weapon and nodded at Cooper.
 
He looked back at his fireteam and flashed the hand signal to cover the lead elements.
 
Cooper did the same and watched as his team took knees and scanned all sectors, looking for someone to shoot.
 
Other than the occasional North Korean that rolled over half-dead, there was really no one that needed dispatching.
 
His SEALS had been efficient, brutal, and lethal.
 
They had used the element of surprise and had wiped out at least twenty enemy soldiers—marines by the look of their uniforms.

Cooper looked at Charlie and motioned to enter the building.
 
Charlie nodded and ducked under a piece of the wall and stepped in, weapon up.
 
Cooper followed a second later.
 
Behind him, he could barely hear the footsteps of his Team moving forward.

Once they cleared the immediate entry-point, the smoke dissipated and their night-vision was effective again.
 
Cooper looked around the small waiting room and notice two figures in dark outfits with small packs on their backs moving toward the far wall where an exit door was being held open by a third.
 
The figures turned and started firing.

Cooper dove for the deck and rolled left into a corridor.
 
Charlie and the rest of the Team went to the right and sought cover behind the low walls of the waiting area.
 
Plaster and masonry exploded in little puffs as the North Korean marines fired their AK-47s blind.
 
The noise was deafening.

Cooper raised his MP5 and sighted in one smooth-as-butter motion and fired two shots to the head of the first soldier.
 
Before that man knew he was dead, two more bullets were flying downrange to his partner’s face.
 
The third soldier screamed as he saw his two comrades die and slammed the door.

“Clear!” called Cooper.
 
The SEALs ran through the waiting area, stepping over bodies and checking for survivors.
 
Two or three of them were scanning for enemies and covering the rest that knelt down to check for signs of life among the fallen bodies strewn through the room.

“
Got a lot of dead civvies
,” Jax said sadly, kneeling next to a small boy.
 
“
No pulse.
 
Most of ‘em still warm. Lot of blood, man…
”

“
Got a bunch of ‘em over here, no wounds…
” said Swede.
 
“
Oh shit…
”

“
What is it?
” asked Charlie’s hushed voice.

“
Bio-hazard sign taped to one of the bodies.
 
Looks like flu victims
.”

Cooper looked around, night-vision goggles casting an eerie green light on the macabre scene.
 
Whole place is full of bodies.

“
More over here
,” said Mike, kneeling a few feet away from Cooper.

Well that’s comforting,
Cooper thought.
 
The NKors sure picked a convenient time to attack
—he paused, mid stride to examine the bio-hazard sticker hastily slapped on the black body bag at his feet.
 

That’s why there’s so many of them here.
 
They knew in advance the flu would be deadly and take out a lot of their own people.
 
Son of a bitch.
 
There’s no way they could have timed this…bastards turned the flu into a weapon and hit us at just the right time…

Cooper stepped away from the pile of flu victims and instinctively covered his mouth.
 
“Everyone break out your masks…no body touch
any
thing!”

“Found a stash of level-three respirators over here!” called out Jax.
 
He tossed one to Cooper.
 
“Looks like they were in the process of handing them out when the NKors breached.”

“Good find,” Cooper said.
 
“Everyone put ‘em on.”

He put his mask on and hoped it didn’t distort his voice too much as looked up in the air and spoke again, keying his mic: “Slipknot Support, do you read?”
 

“Secret Service,
any unit
, respond,” Cooper said, his radio blasting on all emergency channels.
 
“I say again, Secret Service
, respond!”

A few static-filled word faintly came back over the bone phone in his ear.
   
“Say again!” he called out.

“
This is Slipknot Support…nnnnhh
…”
 
Cooper heard gunfire and shouting in the background.
 

“Slipknot Support, this is Striker 1, Actual, what’s your sit-rep?”

“Goddamn, I’m glad to hear your voice.
 
Lacey, over there!
” more gunfire erupted. “
They’re pouring down the corridors.
 
We’re pinned down at the entrance to the Critical Care wing.
 
I got wounded and KIA.
 
Seven effectives left.
 
We’re holed up opposite the nurse’s station.
 
Whoever the hell you are, you better hurry.
”

“Is Slipknot secured?
 
I say again,
is Slipknot secured?
”
 
Cooper pointed at his arm-guard map and then at Charlie.
 
His XO flipped through wrist-mounted maps of his own, looking for the Critical Ward.

“
Affirmative, Slipknot is secured, but I can’t tell you for how long.
 
I’ve got at least a company of enemy combatants in front of us. Who the hell
are
these guys?
 
Where did they come from?
”
 
More gunfire and screaming.

“Hold your position,” Cooper said.
 
“The cavalry’s on its way.
 
Striker, out.”

“That way!” Charlie said, pointing toward a large double door to their right.
 
“VIP Critical Care rooms are on the second floor.
 
Stairwell access over there.”

The SEALs, moving like shadows, quickly left the waiting area to the dead.
 

“Run and gun!” called out Cooper.
 
He kicked the double doors open with a crash and charged through.
 
Two North Korean soldiers were setting up firing positions behind an overturned gurney.
 
Without hesitation, Cooper swung the M-79 grenade launcher from his back and fired.
 
A split second after the
phoomp
of his pirate gun, the corridor exploded in light and smoke with a tremendous crash.
 

Cooper charged into the smoke and stepped over the remains of the two North Korean rear-guards.
 
He jogged down the shattered corridor toward the stairs, his Team hot on his heels.
 
Sounds of a fierce firefight reverberated down the stairwell toward them.

As they passed each door along the corridor, the forward SEALs paused to cover their teammates as they leap-frogged the rest.
 
Every one of them was focused on the rooms they passed—some had patients laying in beds, wide-eyed in fear.
 
Many more had bodies on the floor and bullet holes in walls and doors.
 
It appeared the North Koreans were either randomly searching rooms or simply killing for sport.
 
Either way, Cooper felt his anger rise.
 

It was one thing for the cowardly bastards to have shot down his Team—they would pay
dearly
for that.
 
But killing
civilians
—people in hospital beds?
 
That was crossing a line.
 
More than one room had a North Korean soldier in it trying to ambush the SEALs.
 
Cooper’s wraiths dispatched each one with brutal efficiency.
 

Cooper reached the stairs first and took the steps two at a time.
 
He could hear some shouted words from the top landing and slowed down, carbine at his shoulder, eyes downrange.
 
The sound of fighting grew louder with each step, bouncing off ceiling tiles and walls.
 
Cooper poked his head above the landing.
 
He held up his hand to halt the platoon.
 
Charlie moved up next to him, silent as a ghost.