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

Chapter II, Part II - Situational Awareness

Rodent

It’s too quiet. Too bloody quiet.

The SEALs and 105 Operatives were going up the stairs, the machinegunfire downstairs still loud in their ears. Rodent had been on this kind of assignment several times before, and he was weary on how ill-defended the HVTs were. The first floor only had several guards- two on the machinegun that banged from one side of the building, and one that died during the blast. When he reached the second floor, which started with another three-way intersection, they could hear three people talking. Only three. There’s supposed to be more. And they weren’t even alerted by the explosion that happened downstairs. Maybe they were expecting a lot of explosions in this upcoming engagement. Chief, being up front, crouched near a wall and halted the team’s advance. He paused for a while and tried to figure out what they were talking about.

And Chief was at a sudden, so surprised and terrified after hearing what they said. Rodent couldn’t hear what in blazes they were talking about- the machinegunfire and the cracks of AKs and M4s were so thick outside he could barely hear even Chief speaking. The three insurgents stopped talking and judging by the footsteps, they walked back to their posts.

“Rodent.” Chief whispered through the radio that caught Rodent’s attention. Rodent crawled silently towards the SEAL and pat the man’s back. “What?”

“You hear what they’re talking about?”

“Negative. Couldn’t hear anything through this shit.”

“They’re trying to release the Willie Pete on our boys. They’re planning to test it.”

“What?!” Rodent, was surprised, and he and his team were the only ones who could stop this. But it wasn’t time for panic, it was time to be cool and face the problem as best as he could; for this was a matter of life and a painful, burning, death to the rangers down there.

“What do you propose?” Asked Chief.

Rodent thought quickly. “Split up. Your guys go left, I go right. Inform me of what you got, link up back here along with the HVTs.” He paused. The HVTs, no matter how important they were, were a priority level below the lives of friendly soldiers. Rodent was determined to save these men first.

Because if he couldn’t, the 34 men under Captain Sanderson would be facing a bloody, painful, burning death from White Phosphorus- that would be roasted alive by that chemical.

“Split up.” The British captain said, solidly. “You take left, I take right. Find the WMDs and stop the launch.”

“What about the HVTs?”

“They wouldn’t be that far from here. Capture them if you can, but if you can’t,”  “Bloody kill them. Get to first floor after that. We need to get out of here fast.”

“Roger that.” Chief said. “SEALs,” he said via radio. “On me.”

The two other SEALs, in the gray ACUs of the army, half-crawled behind the Chief Petty Officer and, now standing up, turned left from the 3-way intersection. They disappeared to kill the enemy.

And stop their friends being killed.

“Velcro, Chuc.” Rodent said, after the SEALs had gone.

Rodent stood up, and stuck his right shoulder to the wall. The others followed. Rodent was on point, Velcro in the middle, and Chuc was rearguard. They were determined, and they had to go all out.

“Let’s move. Stay quiet, they know we’re here, they’re gonna light up the fuse.”

As they did their muffled walk, they encountered two guards, who were looking the other way towards the battlefield. One, had a longer gun with a scope attached to it and the other had binoculars; It was a sniper and its spotter. That reminded Rodent of Gaz and Ark, and he wondered how they were. “Sniper, 11 o’clock. By the window.” Rodent pointed his weapon towards them. “Velcro, take the one on the left.” He referred to the spotter.