North Korean Blowup (16 page)

town. They had rolled the third six by off the road and into the gorge below, but there was nothing they could do about the burned out one on the side of the road. They left the bodies where they lay.

Beth sat in the cab of the six by with Hunter beside her. He looked at her several times but she didn’t seem ready to talk about what happened on the side of the hill. At last he decided to start it.

“I hear you did good up on that hill. You gave the alarm to get our guys going.”

She nodded. “Yes. I….I saw them coming. I don’t know why I looked up there.” She stopped and took a deep breath. “I was so scared. I just lifted the weapon and fired at the running men.”

“Then that one came close to you.”

“Too close. I don’t see how he slipped through. Everyone firing at the others, I guess. He was about to kill Dengler.”

“You did good, Beth. You protected Dengler’s back. That’s what SEALs do.”

Her face worked and she blinked and fought hard to hold back the tears but they still came. Silent ones, sliding down her cheeks unchecked. She looked at him.

“I….I….I killed a man today. Maybe more than one. How could I do that?”    

“Instinct. Part of the eons old instinct to protect the family, the clan. You acted automatically, without thinking as any good soldier does in combat. You did well. I’m proud of you.”

She looked at him wide-eyed, tears still coming down her cheeks. “You’re proud of me?”
               “Tremendously proud. You had doubts, but you overcame them and protected your comrades in arms. You saved a SEAL’s life today and forged a lifelong bond with that young man. Has he spoken to you yet?”

“No, I don’t think so. I was in a kind of daze for a while there.”

“He will.”

“Cap, we’re coming out of the mountains. Looks like a big valley up ahead. It could be leading us into that next town. We know how big it is?”

“Not a clue. The map doesn’t tell me that.”

A car whizzed past them.

“Be damned, another vehicle,” Tanner said. “Hope they’re civilians.”

Hunter used his radio. “Ho, any talk about us on their radio?”

“No talk about us. Other talk. Some army in area.”

“Ho, put on one of those uniforms. You’ll be driving soon. Three of you guys back there put on the other three shirts and pants. You guys sit next to the tailgate in case anyone looks inside.”

“Roger that,” Chief Chapman said.

After five more kilometers clicked past on the odometer, Hunter had Tanner pull over at a wide spot and brought Ho up to drive.

“You decide how we get through this town,” Hunter told the Korean. “We might not see any other military. If we do we wave and charge on through if possible. No idea how big this place is. Should be find a store here to buy more food?”

“Food, yes. Hungry bunch. Ho watch.”

Soon the roadway improved as they neared the town. They passed fields that had been rice harvested. The land was all cut up into small paddies to make flooding them easier. A few buildings showed along the highway, then some houses, and before they knew it they were in the town itself.

“Maybe twenty thousand,” Hunter estimated. “This should be Pyokton. We’re about a third of the way to the bomb.”

“What in the world can people do up here to make a living?” Beth asked.

Both men shook their heads.

They came down a street and Ho saw the sign that the highway turned to the right. He made the turn and directly ahead of them less than half a block away sat another army six by blocking half of the street. Two soldiers stood in the street letting one car or truck pass through at a time.

There were two small cars ahead of them. When the second one was cleared, Ho pushed down on the horn and speeded up as they charged forward toward the road block. They would either be waved through or smash the soldier under the wheels of the big army truck.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“He’s not going to move,” Beth shouted.

The soldier jumped out of the way at the last second and waved as the big truck barreled past the road blockade and rolled down the street. Ho slowed then to match the rest of the traffic. He kept watching the stores on both sides. Another mile or two along the highway there were fewer shops and stores and fewer people. Ho pulled up to one store and stopped the truck. Hunter handed him two hundred won, about ninety dollars worth.

“Get us some good food,” Hunter said. He turned to his shoulder mike. “Short stop for some chop chop. How’s that for poetry? Ho should be back soon.”

“When does it get dark around here?” Chief Chapman asked from the rear of the truck on the radio.

Nobody spoke up. “Maybe nineteen hundred,” Hunter said. “We’ll find out in three or four hours.”

Ten minutes later Ho came out of the store with a big cardboard box. A young Korean ran along side of him with two sacks full of food. They put it all in the back of the truck and Ho hustled the kid back to the store.

“No chow call yet,” Chief Chapman said, and those in the front seat could hear the groans.

Ho stared the engine and pushed the six by down the highway. Soon the town was behind them and the valley came to an end and they climbed again into rugged mountains.

“No more surprises for us, Ho,” Hunter said. “We’ve had enough action for one day. Maybe tonight we can get in some real sleep for a change.

An hour later they were well into the mountains and had encountered no more trouble. One army convoy came down the road toward them. The drivers waved as they passed and kept on going.

Another hour and Hunter called for chow time. Ho parked the truck just off the highway and they all descended on the food box.  Chief Chapman hovered over the supply as the SEALs picked out what they wanted. There were two dozen prepared sandwiches, more whole roasted chickens, loaves of rice bread and slabs of beef and pork besides four different kinds of fruit. Hunter let the men go at the food for half an hour, then closed up the kitchen and got back on the road.

It was just getting dark as they moved north again. They had almost no traffic on the road. The lights on the army truck were good and quickly showed that the highway was deteriorating. The farther they went from the last town the worse the blacktop became. Soon they were dragging along at fifteen to twenty miles an hour as Ho tried to miss as many of the pot holes as he could.

Twice they met cars going south, then nothing. They were deep into the mountains now, with no visible signs of any residents. Once they saw a house near the road, but it looked abandoned.

Hunter used his pencil light to check his map. “The next town of any size should be Wiyyon. Looks like about forty miles as the crow flies, but on this road it must be at least fifty five or sixty.”

“We’ve been averaging about fifteen miles an hour,” Beth said. “If the speedometer is right, it should take us about four hours to get to that W sounding town.”

“That will put us two thirds of the way to the bomb,” Hunter said with a grin. “If we don’t run into any more angry army guys.”

They rolled along in silence. In the faint light from the dash Hunter saw Beth’s chin quivering.

“Hey, Darby. You did the right thing back there. We’d have one KIA right now if it wasn’t for you. I’m proud of you. Want to talk it out some more?”

She nodded and he saw wetness tainting her cheeks.

“I….I killed a man. I shot at some others. The world is one human being short because of me.”

“Hey don’t worry one North Korean,” Ho said. “Twenty-three million take his place.”

She looked at him. “You don’t understand. What right did I have to take his life? How can I justify that? Yes, he was about to shoot one of our men, but is that reason enough for me to shoot him?”

“Plenty of reason, Darby,” Hunter said. “You did what you had to do. It was survival instinct, since he would kill that first man and then you would be next and it would all be over in two or three seconds.”

“I don’t do this every day like you guys do. It’s going to take me some time to get used to the idea that I killed that soldier. I’m doing better with it than I did two hours ago. Give me some time.”

Four hours later, just before midnight, the truck crept into the town of Wiyyon. It was closed up tighter than a nun’s blouse. They saw only two lights, and Hunter figured one of them must be the local police. There was no place to buy any food.

Hunter figured this place had less than four thousand people and they drove through it quickly. Five miles on the other side, Hunter told Ho to pull off to the side of the highway in what looked like a roadside rest area. There were no buildings or facilities.

“Okay SEALs,” Hunter said. “We’ll save the food box for breakfast. We’ll now take a three hour sleep period. Sack out under the trees or in the truck, your choice. Bancroft, put out two men on guard duty. Everyone keep your weapons locked and loaded. Talk to you again about oh three hundred.”

Hunter stepped out of the high cab of the six by and helped Beth down. He settled into the mulch of the forest cover near a tall pine tree. A moment later, Beth sat beside him.

“”Want some company? I’m not the most secure camper right now.”

“Share my pine tree,” Hunter said.

She lay down near enough to touch him. Her hand came out once and patted his shoulder, then retreated. Hunter didn’t go to sleep at once. He listened to Beth. The way she moved he figured she wasn’t sleeping either.

“Hey, Darby, knock off the soul searching and get some sleep. You just might need it tomorrow. We should find the bomb sometime in the afternoon. Then you’ll go to work.”

“Aye aye, Lieutenant, I’ll try.” He waited. Five minutes later he heard the even breathing from the bomb expert, and decided that she was sleeping. He closed his eyes and the first thing he knew Bancroft shook his shoulder.

“Oh three hundred, Cap,” Bancroft said.

He came awake combat quick, ready in half a second with his Bull Pup up and ready. Hunter nodded. “Yeah, Bancroft, thanks. Any thing move out here?”

“Not a damn thing. I’ll get the men in the truck.”

“Not yet. Pull out the food box. Let’s see what’s left for breakfast.”

There wasn’t a lot left, but enough so they didn’t have to crack another MRE from their drag bags.

The big truck got underway about 0330 and roared up the mountains and down the other side, through small valleys and came dangerously close to the Chinese border at spots, according to the map that Hunter used.

Hunter checked the map again.

“Maybe twenty miles from that last town to the next one, Kaech if I’m reading it right. Doesn’t look big but we should be there in time to get an open store and some more grub.”

Ho looked over with a question. “Grub?”

“Food, chop chop, the good eating stuff.”

Ho grinned. “Grub, yes, grub. I like word.”

By the time it turned from darkness into daylight, they were about half way to the town of Kaech. They came around a corner and before Ho could stop the rig, it slammed into a horse drawn cart that was coming out of a side road. His brakes skidded tires on the blacktop, but the deadly smashing sound of metal against horseflesh cut through the rest of the noise as the cart itself shattered into hundreds of pieces and boxes of vegetables erupted across the highway. The Korean man driving the horse had vaulted off the rig and rolled into the ditch out of harm’s way.

Everyone came out of the truck to look over the crash scene.

Foster took one look at the horse and pronounced it dead.

“Neck snapped, no way he can still be alive,” Foster said.

A scream echoed through the just lighted morning. The Korean farmer ran around the front of his shattered cart and its load of vegetables. He shrieked in anger and frustration. Ho hurried up to him and began talking fast. The farmer pushed him aside and rushed over to the horse. Tears seeped down his cheeks as he stroked the dead animal’s neck. When he looked up, fury masked his face. He pulled a six-inch knife from his clothes and charged the nearest man, Charley Chang, who almost didn’t see him coming.

“Watch out,” somebody shouted. Chang turned in time to see the attack. He dodged one way then back, caught the Korean’s knife hand wrist and jolted the weapon to the ground.

Ho hurried up and took the man’s arm and pulled him away talking fast and seriously. It took ten minutes to convince him what Ho was offering. At last they came back from their walk up the road.

Ho looked at Hunter.

“Okay. Talk him deal. We pay three hundred won horse and cart. Fifty more vegetables. He happy.”

Hunter nodded. “Tanner, check out the truck. Can we drive it?”

Tanner looked over the front of the truck, started the engine and backed it away from the horse’s body and tested the steering.

“Dijobe with me, Cap.  All systems go.”

Hunter nodded and looked for the Senior Chief. “Chapman, pay the man three hundred and seventy five won.”

Chapman hurried up to the Korean and counted out the money. The Korean shook his head and tried to give back twenty five won.

Ho said a few words and the Korean man’s face broke into a huge grin. He waved and ran back down the side road he had so recently driven on.

Hunter had the men drag the dead horse and what remained of the cart and vegetables off the road and into the ditch. They found two baskets of fruit that Ho told them to save.

“Moving,” Hunter said, and the SEALs piled back into the six by. “Ho, you’re driving again. No more horse killings.”

Two hours later, after a ridiculously crooked road with hundreds of washboard sections and pot holes, the highway smoothed out and they sailed into Kaech.

“Maybe two thousand people,” Hunter said. “The towns keep getting smaller. Ho, find us some food. These caged animals are going to tear us apart if you don’t find some really good grub for them.”

“Grub, yes,” Ho said and laughed softly.

The town had only one street with businesses on it. Ho picked out a food store not too big, but not small either. He took Tran with him and they worked the store for another ninety dollars worth of food, much like the last time, but more cooked pork this time and rice bread, and many sacks of rolls and cakes. No roasted chicken.