This is it, she thought. This is payback. She put her sights on the closest one.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” Gunfire everywhere — a thunderous wall of gunfire came from behind her. She could feel the explosions in her chest. It was extremely loud. She had always trained while wearing hearing protection, so the loudness of the gunfire surprised her.
She saw some of them in her sights and felt the recoil and muzzle blast from her AK. She was firing at their shapes, not really aiming. She was pretty sure she hit one. Everything was happening in slow motion.
In a second, all the shapes were gone, but she kept her rifle pointed on target anyway.
It was silent except for the ringing in her ears. She started to shake, but it wasn’t fear. It was like there was a drug in her. There was. Adrenaline. She felt stronger than she’d ever felt, like a super human.
There was no movement where the gangbangers had been.
“Cease fire!” Sap yelled. More silence. Nothing was moving.
“Check ’em out,” Sap yelled as he walked toward the bodies. He had his rifle pointed at them and all of Squad 4 was covering him. He had a weapon light on his AR so he could see them.
Sherryton felt another surge of adrenaline. She jumped up and went toward where she’d been shooting. She kept her AK aimed at the bodies of the men strewn in the street. Her training kicked in. She remembered “search and assess.” She started scanning all around with her rifle for anyone who might be sneaking up on them. Slowly, the members of Squad 4 started getting up and doing the same. They were a few yards behind her.
Sherryton got up to the first body which was torn to pieces and looked like it had been blown up. He must have been shot several times. She came up on the other bodies. Same thing. The crimson red blood looked purple in the streetlights, and it was slowly flowing down the street. It was amazing how much blood six or seven men had in them.
“Still alive!” Sap yelled. “One of them is still alive!” Sap had his rifle aimed right at him.
Sherryton ran up to the wounded man Sap was yelling about. She could see him moving slowly on the concrete. She clicked the safety on her AK and slung it over her shoulder. She walked up to the wounded man and got down on her knees over his chest so his face was right under her. She didn’t even realize what she was doing, but she took out her knife, an old M7 bayonet.
That face. She hated that face down there. That gangbanger’s face that smirked while he was raping helpless women and girls. And shooting their fathers in front of them, like back in Chicago.
She knew what to do. She gripped the knife, which felt cold in her hand. In one quick movement, she plunged it in his face. He winced and tried to scream, but he had too much blood in his windpipe to make any sound.
It felt magnificent. She kept stabbing him, faster and faster. She couldn’t stop.
“That’s for Ashley!” she yelled. “Lydia! Mom! Especially Mom! And Dad, too!” She kept stabbing until she heard the tip of knife hitting the pavement. She realized she’d stabbed right through his whole head.
She looked at that ugly face. Or, at least, what was left of that ugly, ground up, bloody, former face. She stood up and looked down at him. She had her knife out and was standing there like she’d take on anyone else.
Sap just stood there and watched her. He had nothing to say. He couldn’t stop her and he didn’t want to. She would be better now that she got that out of her system. Or she’d have nightmares of that mangled face for the rest of her life.
Sherryton looked at her knife that was covered in blood. A tremendous amount of blood had splattered on her. It was all over her sleeves and her face. She wiped off her knife and tried to remove the blood from her hands. It was useless. She was just making a mess.
Sap came over and said to her, “Go back to the squad.” He wasn’t sure if she’d snap on him, too. She seemed to be slowly processing everything that had happened.
Sherryton stumbled in a daze down the street back toward the squad and walked right past them and to the brewery building. She wanted to wash all the blood off of her. The blood was from that man, and she didn’t want any of him on her. She also didn’t want the kids to see that. That’s all she could think about: the kids can’t see this.
Anne Sherryton collapsed. She could no longer stand. As soon as her knees hit the pavement, she started throwing up. Great, she thought. Puke and blood all over her clothes.
Sap was busy having Squad 4 move the bodies out of the street, which they threw into the bushes near the utility box. They needed to get those out of the way in case some Limas came by. Ted was getting all the other squads out along an even bigger and more reinforced defensive perimeter. Grant was up on the observation floor making sure no Limas were coming and listening to Jim Q.’s radio.
Nick stayed with Sherryton to make sure she was okay.
“Did the kids hear this?” she asked him.
“No,” Nick said, lying. He wanted to reassure her so she could focus on recovering. “We told them to cover their ears right before everything happened.”
Sherryton smiled and felt relieved. She didn’t want the kids to hear such violence. They’d already lost so much innocence.
After a minute lying on the ground, she wanted to get back up. She felt embarrassed for having this reaction and knew, as a woman, she had to be extra-tough to prove her worth. She didn’t want to get ripped off and only get the easy work just because she was a woman and couldn’t hack it. Although she knew that she had proven herself by volunteering to be the coyote bait. And what she did with the knife.
“Still no Limas,” Barlow said up on the fourth floor. “For now.” He questioned the wisdom of baiting the gangbangers. He would have let them go and focused on remaining undetected.
“What’s next?” Grant asked Ted.
“A counterattack,” Ted said matter-of-factly. “If they can possibly muster it. Which, I’m starting to think, they can’t. But we need to be ready for it anyway.” Ted told Grant about the various squads on the perimeter. They even came up with a quick evacuation plan, which included grabbing the kids in case a bunch of Limas or some armor came at them.
Grant hoped no Lima reinforcements came because he wanted to be right about his idea to attack them. He couldn’t contain his concern about his decision, so he looked for confirmation from Ted.
“Still think it was the right decision to attack them?”
“So far, yes,” Ted said. “If we get attacked, then no. But,” Ted pulled Grant close so no one else could hear and whispered to Grant, “never second guess past decisions. It’ll get you killed. Make a decision and go with it. Don’t look back. Don’t let the men know you’re having second thoughts. Got it?”
Grant whispered back, “Sure. Thanks.”
In his normal speaking voice, Ted answered Grant loud enough for the men to hear. “Yes, sir, that was the right decision. Those bastards had it coming. And now the 17th has shown the world that our training paid off. I’m proud of this unit.”
Killing those guys was a big morale boost. Not that people enjoyed killing. In fact, they hated it, but they had worked so hard for months. Many of them were raw civilians. They didn’t know if they could pull off such a feat. They’d been keyed up for about thirty-six hours now. Two of their friends had been killed and a third injured. And now they had worked together and killed some bad guys. They’d put all their training together and done some nice work. They knew that their training had turned them into fighters.
They spent the rest of the night on the perimeter, rotating people in for an MRE and a nap. Everything was quiet except for the sound of gunfire and occasional explosions in the distance.