I took a deep breath and did what Chris told me to do. I had never been squeamish about blood before, but I hadn’t seen it from the inside out either, not like this. With Chris’s help I started to get Oliver stabilized while whoever had launched the RPG was approaching. I could hear the whine of a vehicle engine and shouting. I turned to look at Chris.
“What do we do now?” Just give me direction, I thought.
“Grab Oliver’s gun!” He didn’t leave me any room to argue. “Point and squeeze.” He showed me as best he could with his functioning hand.
I was near panic. This was all too much, the blood, the mangled bodies, the smoke and that awful smell .
“Devon!” Chris shouted. “Grab your weapon Marine!”
I wasn’t sure what injuries Devon had but I knew he hadn’t moved since the blast. He moved now. Micah began to move too. I thought it must be auto-reflexes because they all were pretty seriously injured as far as I had been able to determine. The ones that could move did so to take what cover was available. I got behind an overturned table. I wasn’t a pacifist, but I never learned to fire a gun my mother had thought it undignified.
“Stay calm, Kay. Wait until they are close.” Chris whispered.
I had hoped they assumed we were dead and would just leave. Apparently, that wasn’t going to happened.
The door opened. Four men with rifles entered through the hole where the door had been. Their faces were covered with ski masks. Definitely not here to rescue us. My heart sank and I felt sick. There was no time to think about any of that as I concentrated on the four men. They walked around kicking debris out of the way. I knew if they found us alive, they would kill us. I couldn’t let that happen.
I heard Chris whisper. “Now.”
I braced the butt of the rifle on my shoulder the way I had seen them do before. I aimed and squeezed. My arm jumped. I wasn’t expecting the gun to be so powerful. I refocused and tried again. I could see the intruders aiming at us and firing but I couldn’t hear anything. I looked to my right and saw Chris and then to my left and saw Devon and Micah firing their weapons. Oliver was still unmoving on the ground. I aimed and fired. I don’t know how many times.
Finally, all the intruders were on the ground. Chris laid back down and closed his eyes. I had been imbedded with these guys for months. I had watched them work. I knew what to do. I got up and carefully checked to see if the intruders were dead. They were. Then I collected their guns and I looked outside. I didn’t see anyone else around. I crawled back over to Chris.
“Can you hear me? We got them all.”
Chris opened his eyes. I could see he was in pain.
“Tell me what to do.” He shook his head and closed his eyes. “Dammit!” I crawled over to the others and checked on them. They were in the same condition as Chris or worse.
I needed to be able to stand. I looked down at my leg. I wasn’t in any better shape than they were. I was bleeding and my leg below the knee wasn’t anything recognizable. I was pretty sure there was debris in there from the explosion. I knew we had to get out of here. I went back to the first aid kit and found what I thought I needed to wrap up my leg. Then I found two table legs and made a splint. I limped outside there was a beat-up pick-up truck, I assumed it belong to the four dead guys. The keys were in it. I limped back inside.
“Chris, we have a truck and we need to get out of here. Get up!” I commanded as he groaned. “Get up, Marine!” I tried lifting him by the shoulders which was useless as he was too big and heavy. “Come on, get up, we have to go!” I begged to each one of them.
I could see they weren’t going to be much help. I rolled Oliver onto a blanket. I then took the tabletop and made a ramp for the truck. I was able to drag him outside and up the ramp. My leg screamed in protest the entire time and when I was done, I was sweating, and it wasn’t from the heat. I had three more marines to go. It took me some time to recover from Oliver and I found half a bottle of water. I wet my lips and then I took it to the others. I talked them through what I was doing even if they didn’t respond. I had to load them in the back because I couldn’t get them to cooperate enough to put them up front in the cab. I was the only one with any chance of driving and that was going to be iffy at best.
Chris revived a little after the water and was able to help me get him into the truck. He chose to ride in the back and look after Oliver.
I got my cell phone out and kept redialing phone numbers to the base. I just wanted to make sure they didn’t shoot us when we approached. I had all the guns I had collected plus our own in the front with me. I had given Chris the first aid kit. I was finally able to reach the camp. “This is Kennedy Dandridge; I am in a stolen truck with four injured marines and I’m driving to the camp. Don’t shoot!!!”
“Ma’am, can you repeat?”
“This is Kay, don’t shoot, I’m in a white pick-up truck!” I could see the camp coming into view as I got closer and I could see the MP’s standing at the ready. “It’s me, I see the MP’s. Please don’t shoot, I