“No, the tank is to large, please just follow me.”
The tank commander didn’t trust his feelings. He also didn’t want to leave the child whom he knew was a young girl. His heart was breaking but his orders were very clear, “…be careful, don’t trust anyone who tries to separate you from your vehicle. There are still raiders out there who will do anything to take our supplies and vehicles.”
“I can’t leave my tank. Please just climb onboard, believe me, this tank can make its own road.”
“No, you have to come with me, there are lots of big trees, the tank is too big to fit.”
While the tank commander was talking with the young girl, he missed the group of men who were sneaking up on the other side of the tank. They too were wearing the Army’s new arctic outerwear camo and were armed with the FOBs weapons. Including shoulder fired anti-tank missiles. The raiders didn’t know how to use the missiles, they aimed and fired one at the tank. The tank’s antimissile alarm screamed. The tank’s Trophy antimissile system automatically fired; it launched a spread of heavy steel balls which struck the incoming missile which destroyed it before it reached the tank.
The commander shook his head. He pulled his 9mm sidearm, “I don’t know who you are, but…”
The girl pulled a sawed-off shotgun that had been taped to her back, she fired it at the commander. A few of the small 71/2 sized pellets hit him, most didn’t penetrate his new armor, while a few lodged themselves in his hands and two in his right cheek. He yelled into his helmet which connected him to everyone else in the tank, “They are not friendlies, scan for thermal images and shoot them.”
The tank’s machine guns opened fire as the commander pulled the charging handle of the 50-caliber heavy machine gun on top of the turret. He fired in a circle around the tank. The large bullets cut the little girl in half. Even above the blowing wind and firing machine guns, he heard the screams from those his machine guns were hitting. His gunner yelled, “Incoming vehicle, it’s one of ours, must be returning from the FOB, but it’s only one.”
“Cease firing.” Yelled the tank commander. “We don’t want to kill our own.” The commander ducked down inside the turret to look at the thermal sensor, he wanted to check for the other vehicles which should be returning with information about the FOB. Before he could think about only one returning vehicle, he saw the thermal bloom of a missile launch, he screamed, but knew the returning vehicle couldn’t hear him. The missile slammed into the returning MRAP and blew it apart in a thunderous explosion which whited out his thermal screen. “Shit.”
“Arm the main gun with antipersonnel rounds, I’ll find you a target.”
“Main gun is loaded and up.”
“Found a group of blooms, I have the fire control.” A moment later he pulled the trigger and a giant shotgun shell exploded out of the tank’s 120mm canon. The canister opened and sprayed the snowbanks with hundreds of steel balls which ripped the fifteen bodies hiding behind the snow apart. A red mist was blown into the wind. The tank commander ordered, “Reload.”
The gunner responded, “UP.”
The commander scanned the area, “I don’t see anyone else. I don’t think there’s anything left of our MRAP returning from the base. I wish I knew where the rest of the scouts were. Blow the horn to alert the Colonel. Something is seriously screwed around here, and I wish I knew what it was.”
Colonel Spivey drove his LAV to the lead tank, he picked up the telephone connected to the tank which was part of their urban combat upgrade. “What’s going on? Why did you fire?”
After listening to the report, the Colonel ordered the tank commander to reach the FOB at their best speed. “Plow the road and get your asses to the base. We’ll follow you as closely as we can. If the Scouts are in trouble, every moment counts.”
“Sir, how could they be in trouble at our base?”
“I know something is wrong. Cut the governor and make all haste.”
“Yes, sir.”
The 70-ton Abrams quickly accelerated pushing the snow off the freeway. The massive plow struck abandoned cars which due to the mass of the tank easily pushed the cars off the road. When the tank closed to within a mile of the FOB they began taking fire from rifles. The bullets couldn’t breach the armor of the tank. The commander smiled, “fire the machine guns at the thermal targets unless they’re wearing our uniforms which will show up on our sensors.”
“Sarge, all of the targets are showing up in our camo and there’s more of them then were in our scout squad.”
“Shit, fire a red flare, if the response flare isn’t fired, kill all of the targets.”
“Sarge?”
“You heard me.”
Chapter 23
Many of the people who decided to remain behind when the northern areas were relocated thought they could ride the storm as they called it out. One aspect that surprised the President and his staff was the rise of new religions which taught the rock was God’s avenging hand. They taught that God was upset with the creatures he made and had decided to strike many of them down in order to see who was the strongest, hence they would be the ones who inherited the Earth. Another religion was also born. this one preached that the rock was the opening move of Armageddon and was sent by the devil to kill God’s righteous. Their preachers said they should cut out their enemy’s hearts so they couldn’t be resurrected after they died. Once the heart was cut out, their souls would be sent back
