Blind Eyes, Black Hearts - A GWOT Story (On Hold)

Chapter II - Part I - Situational Awareness

CHAPTER II

Rodent

The wall exploded. Rodent closed his eyes as the rubble stirred around him and vaporized. He held his weapon tight and when the explosion ended, he stepped into the large breach in the wall, with his weapon leading him and scanned his surroundings. Velcro and Chuc were right behind him.

Rodent scanned the green-shaded room from left to right and top to bottom. He had his Night Ordnance Device or Night Vision Goggles on and because of that everything was green for him. The room was empty now; it seemed that nobody was there during the explosion, but suddenly he felt something in the rubble. He looked under him, and he saw a bloodied arm.

Just an arm, from the elbow down, with blood still springing red out of the dirty and dusted limb.

The man who had that arm must have been sitting near the wall before the explosion, and when the wall suddenly ignited, he was caught in that explosion. His body was brutally crushed and buried within that rubble, which was now not only rubble, but a mixture of rubble, guts, and blood.

“Holy shit.” Velcro said. He looked at the blood-stainted and gut-spilt rubble, which was green with a splatter of darker green from Rodent’s NODs. The bloodied hand was still clear under him. Rodent kicked the hand away, and the hand jerked along the room’s floor, hitting a table on the way. “Let’s get moving.” He said.

The square room at his place had lots of desks. Typewriters, old pens, papers written in Arabic and an array of suit-wearing skeletons were in that room, which ended with a wooden door at the far side. Jarvis then appeared at his side, NVGs pushed up. “Devil and Grizzly will cover our escape. The rest will come up with us.” He said. He touched his beard and pat Rodent. “Let’s get moving, Rod.”

“Roger that.” Rodent hired his weapon and walked to the door. Machinegun fire could be heard on the other side of it, and to make it clear, he put his ears on the door. Rodent could hear the sound of an RPK machinegun, rapidly firing onto advancing Rangers that must be heavily pinned down. If there were no HVTs and friendlies inside the building they would have called in an airstrike; but the situation orders them to do otherwise. Rodent put his back on the wall next to the door.

Velcro asked. “Must be pinning down our boys. Should we take it out, Skip?” He was behind the captain.

“Low profile is better. Chief,” He nodded to the SEAL. “Razak and Omar Ataf are on the second floor. Lead the way.”

“Roger.” Jarvis went over to the front of the door, pulled back a step, and kicked it down. Dust spread and wood cracked, with Rodent the first to step into the doorway. The other members of the team, excluding the two SEALs by the entrance, Devil and Grizzly, followed Rodent into the hollow corridor. The corridor had been ridden of its paint due to years of abandonment, and the entrances to the rooms that were offices had been ridden of their doors.

“Looks like Alcatraz.” said Chuc.

“You’ve  been to Alcatraz, Chuc?” Velcro replied as they scanned the corridor with their weapons.

“Hell yeah I’ve been.” Chuc, sarcastically. The two were right behind Rodent, and therefore they were second and third in leading the assault.

Rodent browsed left and right quickly with his silenced carbine. On his left were the dim, blurred, and dirty windws. He could see the flashes from the AK muzzles of the Taliban and returning fire from the rangers, glowing and dying quickly, somehow lightening his path. He could hear shouts in Pashto and Arabic from the dim windows, followed by gunfire and explosions. They continued walking in that dark corridor until Rodent halted the team when he saw a path on their right. Probably a staircase Rodent thought.