Half Past Midnight

but I figured I could at least keep their heads down while some of our people got clear. Glancing down at the unfamiliar weapon, I found a lever over my right thumb. Select fire.

Taking aim at the window, I quickly discovered that a fully automatic M-16 was much harder to hold on target than the movies portrayed. Still, the sudden shower of bullets proved enough to cause them to duck for cover, giving two of Sarah’s armed partners time to rush the building and get to either side of the window. Working together, they whirled and fired several rounds inside. One of them fell, but the other waved the crowd on. Sarah and the escapees began scattering through the streets.

I stepped out from behind the car and waved to get Sarah’s attention. “Sarah!” I winced again at the pain in my throat and hoped she would recognize my voice. With my impaired hearing, I couldn’t even tell if my voice carried over the background noises, but I saw her turn toward me and give a thumbs up as I wove my way toward her through the racing crowd.

“Good timing, Sensei. That was getting hairy.”

I looked at the bodies on the ground. Friends and neighbors. Ken had warned us that we would lose people, but I had never imagined it being this bad. There must have been thirty bodies and even more wounded.

I shook my head. “Not good enough. Too many of us are dead.”

Sarah grabbed my shoulder. “It would’ve been worse if you hadn’t come along when you did. We’d have lost a lot more.”

“But you were supposed to have more support! Where’s Ken? We had over forty people waiting to help you! Where are they?”

She looked at me incredulously. “Are you kidding? Can’t you hear the fighting?”

“What?”

“The tanks. Jeez, Sensei! There were two more tanks. Ken’s people went to draw the other tanks off! They sound like they’re about a mile away now.”

“What?” I shook my head, dumbfounded. “My ears are a little messed up, Sarah. I can’t hear too well.”

“What happened?” She looked at me with sudden concern.

“That first tank happened,” I said bitterly. “There’s no way they can last long against two of them!” I reached for the radio at my belt and turned it on. “Ken! It’s Leeland! Ken! Can you hear me? Everyone is out of the stadium, pull back! Pull back, Ken!”

No response. I handed the radio to Sarah. “My ears must not be working well enough. Can you hear anything?”

Sarah lifted it and tried the same thing for a few seconds before shaking her head. “Either it’s not working, or they just can’t hear us.”

“Okay, then can you take me to where they’re fighting?”

She watched the flood of people scurrying past us into the darkness. “Yeah, I can take you. Everyone here knows where to meet up. Come on.”

She led me through the darkened streets to the east side of town. The closer we got, the more I could hear. And the more I could hear, the worse things sounded. By the time we reached the fighting, I could easily hear the chatter of rifles and machine guns firing, the chaos of the battle. With both of us wearing goggles, we were able to avoid scattered groups of Larry’s men, and we soon found our way to a group of our own people.

Rene busily shouted orders to a squad of several men as Sarah and I first approached them in the narrow lane between two buildings. Further up the street, I saw a white flash that nearly blinded me, and I ripped the goggles from my face. The flash was followed a second later by the sound and vibration of an explosion. The tanks were up there somewhere.

I turned to see Sarah watching me through the insectoid goggles. “Try infrared,” was her only comment.

I nodded. Knowing Rene as I did, I wasn’t about to get closer until I knew she was expecting me. “Rene!”

Her rifle whipped around at the sound of my voice. “?Quien esta?”

Spanish? She must be scared to death. “Leeland and Sarah, coming in from the rear!”

Squinting toward me, she finally decided not to shoot. “Vaya con sus manos. Chinga! Come een weeth your hands where we can see them!”

Raising our rifles above our heads, Sarah and I joined Rene’s group. As we walked up, I saw four men trying to staunch the flow of blood from two others. Neither of the wounded looked to be in very good shape. Still more men and women leaned panting against the wall.

Incongruously, for the first time ever, I actually saw Rene Herrera smile. It was a frightening thing. Completely feral. “Glad to see you made it, Jefe. Where the others?”

“Dead.”

She turned away. “Sorry.”

“Not your fault.” It’s me they trusted. My fault. “Where’s Ken?”

She pointed several blocks up the road to an old Sears store. “In there.”

There had dozens of Larry’s men hidden behind a barricade of abandoned cars that had been pushed completely across the street to form a solid wall of metal from which they could indiscriminately fill the walls of the department store with holes. With my goggles, I could see about a dozen people firing back from inside the building.

I pulled out the radio. “Ken? Leeland here.” After a short pause, I tried again. “Ken?” Still no response. I sighed. “I guess the radio’s dead after all. Rene, do you know how many other groups of our people are around here? We’re going to hit those guys from behind and break Ken and the others out of there.”

“Three more.”

“Are they as big as your group?”

She shook her head. “Not three groups. Three more people. Ken send us out to try to stop the tank. We get out the back just before they surround the building.”

I counted the rest of her group. Ten people, two of them wounded, plus Sarah and me, and the three others that she mentioned.

I started to rise. “It might be enough if we hit them from behind. I gotta-”

Rene grabbed my arm and yanked me back down. “You gotta get you self killed? ’Dat what you gonna say? ’Cause if you planning to move into dis street, dat’s what gonna happen!” She indicated several bodies in the middle of the road. “They think they can walk out there, too.” She pointed up the street. “Machine gun somewhere ahead. We don’ know for sure where it is.”

She pointed to two other storefronts. “Banditos there, an’ there. Don’ know how many.” Then she pointed to the top of a four-story office building. “Tha’s where the other three from our group are.” Finally, she pointed to the deep patch of darkness next to the office building. “But look close, en de side street.”

I flipped the goggles back down over my eyes, and my heart skipped a beat. The muzzle of a tank cannon pointed down the street. The rest of the thing remained hidden behind the building, but there was no mistaking the cannon protruding into the street. For the moment, the tank sat motionless, but I had little doubt that eyes watched from within, alert for any sign of movement. Ken had warned us that the tanks were equipped with a full sensor array. There was little chance that anyone would be able to approach an Abrams unseen.

“They just got here a couple seconds before you,” she added. “We think they’re trying to figure out what happened to the other tank.”

I took the goggles back off. “Other tank? There’s another one?”

“Sort of.” Once more, she treated me to that frightening grin. “The other tank, she don’ work so good no more.”

“What?”

“Look all de way aroun’ de corner. Up on de sidewalk on dis side.” I started forward.

“?Cuidado!” she hissed. “Don’ move fast, or they see you!”

Following her directions, I slipped on my goggles, hugged the wall, and eased forward to the corner; I peered cautiously up the street to find the second tank sitting as motionless as the first. The only difference was that the cannon on this one was completely destroyed, looking much like the remains of Elmer Fudd’s shotgun after Bugs had plugged the end with his finger.

“What the hell happened?”