Jon had been warned Erin’s mind might have erased the traumatic event because it was too much for her to come to grips with. He hoped it was the only thing she forgot.
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General Spivey kept his eyes glued to the six monitors that displayed the thermal images of the area around his convoy. He had set the computers to alert him of any image above the background temperature. He couldn’t set it for the normal human temperature because he knew anyone outside would be covered head to toe in some sort of thermal coverings and they wouldn’t have any exposed skin to radiate their temperature.
He had been sitting for four hours. His ass was becoming numb. His eyes played tricks on him and at least three times he thought he’d seen a flicker on the edge of the sensor’s range. He rubbed his eyes and moved the cursor to check the area, but when he did, nothing showed up.
The convoy stopped to refuel from their tanker truck. The General pulled on his gloves and face mask to go outside and look around. His new CoS, Captain Wick walked over to him, “Nice peaceful trip, I like it peaceful.”
“Me too. But if we don’t locate the stupid satanic assholes we’re going to be up here playing in the glaciers for who knows how long.” Spivey looked up at the dark gray sky, “Just once I’d like to see the sun again, I’d give anything to be able to walk around without this arctic suit on. I want to walk on the beach and feel the warm ocean wash over my feet.”
“Sir?”
“Captain, never mind. Just the ramblings of an old man who’s grown tired of the cold. Do we have the maps of every cave and mine in the area?”
“Yes, sir. They’re on your computer. Shall I show you?”
“Please.”
“I want a scout squad sent to search every one of them, they have to be hiding in at least one of them. Use the ground penetrating radar to search for them. Can the radar be tuned to locate bodies in the caves?”
“Yes.”
“Do it, that way we won’t waste time or people searching every cave. If we find bodies in a cave, tell the scouts to set thermobaric weapons to ensure no one inside the caves survives.”
“Sir, what about if they are civilians in those caves?”
Spivey shook his head while staring into the goggle covered eyes of his CoS. “Captain, there shouldn’t be any civilians left. We should assume anyone still here isn’t a civilian. If they are, well, may God forgive me.”
“Yes, sir.”
One tank and four Bradleys left the convoy to begin attacking the caves which had previously been mapped, or the military thought they had. Captain Wick ordered the scouts to issue one warning and then leave the bombs behind. The scouts used a megaphone to issue a warning at the first cave, when no one responded they set two of the mines and set up firing positions on the sides of the mouth of the cave. They made sure they weren’t in the blast of the mines. One of the soldiers laughed, “We’re about to treat these devil worshipers to what they want, hell fire.”
A moment later the bombs exploded sending fire through the caves and sucking the oxygen out of all of the chambers. At least sixty people died either from the blast, the thermal effects, or from suffocating from the oxygen being sucked out. The scouts waited fifteen minutes to see if anyone came out of the cave, when no one did they marked the cave as destroyed and moved to the next which was another opening to the same cave, doors had been installed to separate the two sections.
The scouts issued their warning only this time they received rifle bullets as a response, the lead scout, said, “Screw this, set the mines and let’s fry them.”
The scouts left the mines and ran into the snow as they exploded spreading the fires of hell through the cave. A moment later the oxygen was sucked out of the cave. Everyone inside was killed by the mines. The scouts marked the second cave on their map and moved to the third. The third was waiting for the soldiers. They had installed mines and had prepared firing positions to attack the soldiers before they could enter the mine complex.
The soldiers thought they were fighting untrained idiots. They quickly learned someone had trained them. The followers of Satan caught the soldiers by surprise. They killed six of them in their opening volley because the soldiers were walking in a group towards the mine entrance. Those in the second group of soldiers returned fire and fired 40mm grenades from their M203 rifle mounted grenade launchers. The grenades exploded over the defenders killing most of them. The soldiers followed up with well targeted shots, the defenders had known how the soldiers were going to respond, some hid in the bottom of their prepared positions that had tree trunks covering the openings, they popped up and shot at the soldiers. The battle raged back and forth until one of the tanks entered the battle and fired two canister rounds which killed the defenders.
The tank drove through the area crushing the prepared positions. The soldiers collected their wounded and dead while others placed the mines in the mine’s entrance and others rigged the mine to collapse sealing anyone inside forever. The initial explosions were the thermobaric which were followed by the C4 which collapsed the mine sealing any survivors and the bodies of the dead inside.
The Elder felt the explosions through the ground, he knew the soldiers were back. He sat at a small desk trying to figure out how to escape the attackers and escape with enough people to maintain the church. One of the
