Edge of War

“Maybe we could stop and I could…” He couldn’t find a delicate way to say it.

“Take a whiz?” asked Mara.

“Yeah.”

“Once we’re across the Perfume River, we’ll stop,” said Mara. “We’ll get some breakfast.”

“Is it far?”

“It’s just ahead.”

“How’s M??”

“She’s with the SEALs. They have a little more room. Don’t worry; they seem to be taking good care of her.”

“I know. They bought her a doll. We lost it…”

Josh’s voice trailed off. All he could think about was the blood in the train car.

There was a train bridge. The road turned sharply to the east, following the river. Finally the bridge loomed from the fog. Mara crossed over, checking her rearview mirror to make sure that Kerfer and the car were still behind her.

“You really know your way around,” said Josh.

“Not really,” said Mara.

“You’ve been here before?” he asked.

“Couple of times. To get an idea of what was where. I like to travel,” she added. “It’s interesting.”

“Yeah.”

“We don’t have time for sightseeing, or we could have gone into the Citadel,” said Mara. “The Forbidden City has some restored ruins. It’s very pretty.”

“Forbidden City?”

“It’s like the city within the city.”

“Why is it forbidden?”

“It was the emperor’s home. It’s like in Beijing. It’s actually not that old — 1805 or something like that. Hue was a provincial capital, and the French helped the emperor or encouraged him to build the Citadel as a fort. The Forbidden City is within the Citadel, which itself is a city within a city. A lot of it was destroyed during the war,” she added. “There was a huge battle here during the Tet Offensive. The Communists took over the city. When the Marines finally drove them out, they discovered mass graves. The Communists had massacred, like, six thousand people. Some they just buried alive.”

“And now we’re trying to save them from the Chinese,” said Josh.

“Something like that,” said Mara.

* * *

They ate at a noodle shop. Josh didn’t have anything, his bowels and bladder still on fire. While he suffered from a variety of allergies, he’d been lucky with his health otherwise, and this was one of the worst sicknesses he’d ever had, or at least that he could remember. He joked with the SEALs that it was like having a hangover without the good part, but it wasn’t much like that at all.

“There’s no gas in the city,” Mara told the others after talking to the shop owner and some of the other locals. “Everyone claims there are stations with gas on the roads farther south. The south hasn’t been attacked.”

“That won’t last for long,” said Kerfer. “Assuming it’s true.”

Squeaky claimed he was rested from his nap and told Mara that he would drive for a while. She agreed. When Josh got up to leave, M? clung to him, so he carried her with him, even though his arms felt like lead weights. She slipped in between Josh and Mara, draping her arms across Josh. She was asleep before they started.

“Just stay on Route One to Da Nang,” Mara told Squeaky. “We’ll take that as far south as we can.”

“No more roadblocks?” asked Squeaky.

“I wouldn’t count on there being no more roadblocks,” she said. “But things should be easier. We only have to get to Saigon. We should be there by dark.”

A half hour later, they were at Da Nang, climbing past the crowded city. There were no troops on the roads, no fortified strongpoints, not even a stray tank at the turnoffs. It seemed like another country.

The airport came into view as they climbed and turned toward the coast. It was a long, wide expanse of black just to the west of the city’s most populated areas.

“Why don’t we just take a plane from here?” asked Squeaky.

“Good question,” said Mara. “They don’t think it’s safe.”

“And driving all the way down the country is?” said Squeaky.

“The Chinese control the air,” said Mara. “Supposedly they cratered the runway the other day.”

“Send a helo.”

“I ain’t arguing,” said Mara, though she suspected that the limited range of helicopters would have made that difficult.

They had gone no more than a quarter mile when the ground on their left exploded, a volcano appearing before their eyes. The ground shuddered and the car lurched to the right.

“Stay on the road,” said Mara, reaching across Josh for the wheel.

“I got it, I got it,” said Squeaky. “Relax.”

Another bomb landed ahead, a few hundred yards to the left — not quite close enough to do any damage, but it certainly got their attention.

“Keep going,” Mara ordered.

“I ain’t stoppin’,” said Squeaky.

Josh saw something fly across the sky in front of them. At first he thought it was a large bird, a vulture swooping toward the road to pounce on a carcass before the cars mangled it further. Then he saw a splatter of white and black and red, splinters flying — a second shell struck a row of houses.

“Bombs,” he said.

“They’re shells,” said Squeaky. “There must be ships offshore. All right, so now I see why we can’t take a helo.”

“We have to cross the bridge before they hit it,” said Mara.

“How do you know they’re aiming at the bridge?” asked Squeaky.

“Go faster!” Mara shouted.

M? jerked up in Josh’s lap. He put his hand over her eyes as a shell flew down to the right, east of the bridge as they started across. Water exploded in a geyser. The right half of the bridge, which was used by trains, was covered in steam.

A train had just started across from the other side. As it pushed forward, a spray of water came up and splashed the lead engine. As it emerged from the geyser, the train seemed to duck, as if afraid of another shell. One of the shells had twisted away the support for the track, which collapsed under the weight of the engines.

It was too late for the train to stop. Josh watched the cars tumble forward, driving mostly straight ahead, doomed by their connection to each other. They kept coming, and falling, one after another.

Then a geyser exploded ahead to the left.

M? screamed.

“It’s okay,” said Josh, holding her tighter. “It’s all right.”

“Faster!” yelled Mara. “Go! Go! Go!”

The riverbank in front of them turned black. Their pickup truck jerked upward. Josh’s head flew backward, then whipped forward, his chin clunking onto M?’s head. The truck veered right, moved sideways, then straightened.

They were in a cloud of smoke, dust, and water. Mara yelled at Squeaky, urging him to go faster. Squeaky said nothing, struggling to keep the truck headed straight as the bridge began vibrating crazily.

“Just stay on the road!” said Mara as they reached the other side.

“Skipper,” said Squeaky, his voice cracking.

“Just keep going. They’re behind us,” said Mara. “Keep going.”

The smoke cleared suddenly. There were trees near them, and a row of buildings. It was as if the attack had never happened.

It hadn’t — here. Behind them, the bridge had just collapsed. The buildings along the river were now being