Disclaimer: The Rat Patrol is not my property. They come out to play sometimes, then I send them home.

#4

By Suzie2b

The Rat Patrol once again pulled into Bagdad after another long day on patrol. German activity had been high in recent weeks, as they continually tried to take control of the allied supply routes. However, the two jeeps and four commandos had done their job and kept the Germans at bay. Hopefully, the expected battalion would arrive in a day or so and would soon push the enemy out of the sector all together.

Hitch and Tully maneuvered the jeeps through Bagdad's streets to the motor pool after dropping Troy and Moffitt in front of headquarters. As they got out and stretched, Hitch said, "Let's get the jeeps in for service, then we can go to supply."

Tully nodded. "Let's hope the quartermaster was right when he said they were expecting a convoy today."

"Yeah, supplies were getting pretty low when we were there yesterday."

After explaining what each jeep needed to have done before the next morning, the sergeant asked for requisitions. Hitch and Tully sighed, exasperated, as Hitch said, "Like we've told you before, the requisitions we gave you on day one are for on-going work until we leave for Ras Tanura. If you don't like it, you can take the matter up with Captain David." Before the sergeant could argue, Hitch and Tully headed for supply with lists in hand.

They walked into the supply depot and Hitch grinned at the sergeant behind the desk, "Hi, Sergeant Lee. Still open for business?"

The middle-aged, craggy-faced Australian looked at them over the top of his bifocals as he set aside another of the many requisitions that had been backlogged. "Thanks to you boys the supplies arrived just before noon. Should have everything you need this time. My crew is done for the day and I'm locking up in an hour. Go ahead and get what you need. Just be sure you give me a list of what you've taken before you leave."

"Thanks, sarge." As they walked around the counter to go into the back, Hitch handed Tully one of the lists and said, "Here, you get the ammo and grenades. I'll take care of the rest."

They each grabbed an empty utility cart from a corner of the room and headed for opposite sides of the supply warehouse.

Tully started to walk the aisles, loading up on 50 caliber shells, bullets for both machine guns as well as Troy and Moffitt's pistols, and anything else they were running low on—which was pretty much everything.

Tully had just put a box of grenades on the cart and was checking his list when he caught a whiff of some kind of chemical. He followed his nose, which took him out of the aisle he was in and past another one. He saw a mixing station against the wall just a few feet from shelves of chemicals that were inert until mixed into volatile explosives. He checked the boxes and containers on the shelves, but didn't find any leaking. Then Tully saw a puddle on the floor next to a drum at the mixing station. He had no idea what was in the unmarked drum and decided to grab Hitch and tell Sergeant Lee he may have a dangerous problem on his hands.

As he hurried across the supply room to where Hitch would be, Tully saw a private enter with a lit cigarette in his mouth. After another two steps, Tully looked at the big "NO SMOKING" sign on the wall. He turned to see the private disappear around the corner that would take him to the mixing station.

Sergeant Lee walked in saying, "Where did that kid go? He knows there's no smoking allowed in here!"

As Tully was about to say something, they heard the first explosion as a fireball blossomed against the wall. There was no time to get to cover. The last thing Tully remembered was being thrown back against the wall.

############################

When he opened his eyes, Tully was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. He tried to move, but couldn't and wondered what had happened. As he looked around at the debris and strewn supplies, he started to remember. He tried to move again and suddenly realized there was pain in his shoulder. When he looked he saw a metal rod sticking out of his left shoulder that had him pinned to the wall. Tully grabbed hold of the one-inch diameter rod and tried to free himself, but pain flared through his upper body and he nearly passed out. He put his head back and closed his eyes as he panted, waiting for the pain to ease. When he opened his eyes and looked around again he saw Sergeant Lee's legs sticking out from under fallen shelving units a few feet away. "Sarge?" No answer. "Sergeant Lee, can you hear me?" Nothing. Then Tully remembered that Hitch had been in the room too. He called, "Hitch! Where are you?"

"Tully!" Hitch was climbing over a ceiling beam. "I'm here!" He hurried over to his friend. "Are you all right? What the heck happened?"

"Explosion."

Hitch smiled slightly as he knelt next to Tully. "No kidding?" Then he winced as he got a look at the rod in his shoulder. "Did it go through?"

Tully nodded. "I'm pinned to the wall." Hitch started to push debris off of Tully's legs, but he stopped him, pointed, and said, "No … check on the sergeant. He's over there."

Hitch carefully stepped over Tully to the sergeant. He reached under the shelves and tried to find any sign to life. He could feel the heavy supplies that had crushed him, but nothing else. When he brought his hand out it was covered with blood. Hitch wiped his hand on Sergeant Lee's pant leg and said, "He didn't make it, Tully." Hitch moved back to his friend. "Now let's get you taken care of."

Tully sighed and said quietly, "Number four."

Hitch looked at him questioningly. "Huh?"

"Number four. This is the fourth building that's come down on me."

Hitch smiled. "And you're keeping count?"

Tully shrugged and immediately regretted the move. He grimaced and said, "Sure … why not?"

Hitch chuckled as he examined the piece of metal that was most likely from one of the shelving units. "You're a piece of work, Pettigrew."

############################

Troy and Moffitt had just stepped out of headquarters when they heard muffled explosions and saw a plume of smoke rise. Moments later there were people running in all directions. Troy grabbed a private as he ran by and asked, "What's going on? Are we under attack?"

The private panted, "Not under attack! The supply depot blew up! I'm going to get the fire department rolling!"

Troy turned him loose and looked at Moffitt, who said, "Tully and Hitch were going to resupply the jeeps before dinner."

Troy said quickly, "You check the motor pool. Maybe they weren't at supply yet when it happened. I'll go see if I can give 'em a hand."

Countless minutes later Moffitt caught up with Troy. "They aren't there and the supply lists you signed are missing from the jeep."

They both stared at the smoldering remains of the supply building and wondered silently if Hitch and Tully could possibly be alive.

############################

"Okay, hang on." Hitch carefully tore open Tully's shirt and looked at the length of metal that had been driven through his shoulder. There was a good six inches sticking out. Blood was seeping out around the edges of the rod. "No way of knowing how much went into the wall. Probably best not to try pulling it out."

Tully sighed. "Already tried that. Didn't budge."

Hitch turned and surveyed the mess of supplies and shelving. "I'll see if I can get to the medical supplies."

Tully nodded. "Be careful. This whole place is unstable now."

"Yeah. I had picked up the medical supplies first, so I know right where they should be. Hopefully I'll be able to get to them."

Hitch had to crawl over and under all kinds of debris to get to what he needed. In a way it was lucky that the explosions made holes through the ceiling—at least they had some light. Standing upright was impossible with the shelving units tipped and leaning against each other.

A few minutes later Tully called out, "Talk to me, Hitch. Let me know you're still okay."

Hitch's voice came back, "I'm gathering supplies now, Tully. Should be starting back in a minute or two." After several seconds, he decided to keep talking. Anything was better than the eerie silence. "Any ideas as to how this all happened?"

"That explosion came from the explosives mixing station. I saw a spill after I got a whiff of some chemicals. No smoking signs everywhere and some idiot walked in with a lit cigarette. If I hadn't been headed over to grab you before telling the sergeant about the leak, I'd been at ground zero."

Hitch shuddered at the thought as he started back to where Tully waited. "I guess it's a good thing that it didn't happen when they were busy stocking supplies from that convoy."

Tully sighed. "Yeah. Could've been a lot worse. How're you doing?"

"Almost back to you. It's a real mess in here. Do you think there could be anymore explosions?"

"Depends on what's left over there. Shelves were full of ammo, grenades, TNT … you name it. There was only one aisle between me and the mixing station. From the looks of things there had to have been more than one explosion. We can only guess what blew up and what's left."

Hitch appeared with a canvas bag full of assorted medical supplies and a couple of blankets. "Okay, let's see what we can do."

Tully noticed a bloody wound on his friend's pale face, above his right eye, was leaving thin trail of blood down the side of his face to his chin. He hadn't noticed it before and frowned. "Damn, I guess I was too wrapped up in myself to notice you're hurt too. Let me clean that up."

Hitch shook his head. "We need to stabilize…"

"It's not like I'm going anywhere." Tully smiled slightly. "Humor me."

Hitch sighed and sat down facing Tully and put the supplies between them.

Tully started rummaging through the bag with his right hand, pulled out a box of gauze squares and alcohol, and said, "Soak one of those for me." Then went back into the bag for tape.

As Hitch did what he was asked, he looked around and said, "Do you smell smoke?"

############################

Outside the fire department had arrived and was putting water on flames that had erupted on one corner of the roof. The last thing they needed was the fire to spread to the adjacent buildings.

Troy and Moffitt were inside the depot office with Captain David surveying the mess the explosions had caused. The office area had been fairly undisturbed, but the doorway to the warehouse was totally blocked. Captain David said, "We could work to unblock it, but there's no way to know if the walls are stable."

Troy looked at Captain David worriedly. "I have two men in there … hopefully still alive."

"How can you be sure they were in there when the explosions happened?"

"Number one—I told them to resupply the jeeps. Number two—if they weren't in there, they'd be out here doing everything possible to help."

The captain nodded. "I understand. Sergeant Lee may have been in there as well. No one has been able to locate him." There was a creaking sound all around them. "Well, we don't need an engineer to tell us how stable things are. We'd better get out of here."

############################

Tully glanced up toward the ceiling at the other end of the room. Puffs of black smoke were coming in through a hole. He said calmly, "Looks like the roof's on fire."

Hitch handed the alcohol soaked gauze to Tully and looked up at the hole and smoke. Water began to flow down the wall. "They must be working to put it out."

Tully said, "Yeah. Okay, look at me." When Hitch turned back to face him, he started to clean the wound and said, "Take another square and put a couple pieces of tape on it." After Tully was satisfied that the wound was clean, he took the other piece of gauze and managed to hold it in place and press the tape down with one hand. "There, that should do it."

"Thanks. Now let me take care of you."

"Don't think there's much you can do."

Hitch thought for a minute, then said, "I'll be right back. I saw something I can use to get you free when I was getting the medical stuff."

Tully again watched Hitch crawl into the debris field and disappear. After a few minutes, he could hear his friend grunting as he moved things around, then there were several thuds. "Hitch!"

"I'm fine. Aha … there it is."

A few minutes later Hitch crawled back into view. He turned back and reached into the opening, brought back several cans marked "EMERGENCY WATER" along with a hacksaw. He smiled. "Found some water. These rolled off a shelf. There's probably more back there if we need it." He unsheathed Tully's knife and used it to make a slit in the top of one can. After he took a swallow, Hitch handed it to Tully.

Before he took a drink, Tully said, "We need to discuss that hacksaw."

Hitch rummaged through the medical supplies as he replied, "I'm going to get you free of that wall." He found the morphine he was looking for. "I'll give you one now and one when I'm finished."

"What are you going to do … cut my arm off at the shoulder?"

Hitch smiled as he administered the morphine. "Can you imagine what Charley would do to me if I did that?"

Tully chuckled, then grimaced and said, "Don't guess she'd be too happy with either one of us."

Hitch looked at his friend seriously. "Okay, I'm going to have to pull you forward a bit … just enough to get the saw back there." Tully nodded and Hitch got ready to pull. "1 … 2 … 3!" He pulled until Tully yelped and slid forward several inches. Hitch stuffed the blankets between Tully and the wall to help support him. He looked Tully in the eye. "Just relax for a minute."

Tully squeezed his eyes closed and managed a nod as he waited for the morphine to kick in.

Hitch began to tear the back of Tully's shirt open. "Ya know … you were saying that this is the fourth building that's fallen on you. I only remember two other times." There wasn't much room for his hands as he started to tape gauze around the rod and wound to keep it as clean as possible. "There was the one in Samawah when a dust devil knocked that shed on you and a little girl." Tully nodded. "Then the one where a grenade went off inside a house." Hitch placed the blade of the saw on the rod as close to the wall as he could. "So tell me what I'm missing."

Tully watched Hitch pick up the saw and took a deep breath, knowing what was about to happen. "It happened that time…" Hitch began to saw. The vibrations through the rod caused pain to shoot through him and he put his fist around it in a desperate but futile move to make it stop. Tully bit back a groan and continued, "…we had seventy-two hours off … and I took Charley on a mission." Tully gripped the rod and squeezed his eyes shut as tears slipped down his cheeks. His breaths were coming in gasps.

Hitch moved the saw back and forth as quickly as he dared. "Oh yeah, now I remember. There was a sandstorm and a barn blew down on top of you two." The saw finally made its way through the metal rod and Hitch had to move quickly to grab Tully as he fell forward, unconscious.

############################

One of Captain David's men came out of an alley and reported, "Sir, we can bust through the wall."

David said, "Are you sure, Private Smith?"

He looked at the captain, then at Troy and Moffitt. With a nod he said, "Yes, sir. Before I joined the army I worked in demolition. I know how to knock down walls."

Troy said, "Isn't that kind of dangerous? What if breaking a wall brings down the rest of it?"

Smith said, "I was just checkin' the south wall. The explosions were on the north side." The private pointed at the alley. "That wall is sound and one of Sergeant Lee's crew agrees that it would be the best place to bust through."

A corporal walked up and saluted the captain. "Fire's out on the roof, sir, but we're going to stick around to keep an eye on things and help out."

Moffitt asked, "Does that hole in the roof go all the way through?"

"Yes, but not straight through. You'd need a mirror or something to see inside. And if you're thinking of trying to take a look, it's not safe up there."

"I only need enough time to see if there's any sign of our two men and Sergeant Lee."

Captain David saw the hesitation on the corporal's face. "Well, is it possible?"

The corporal frowned. "You find a way to take a look and we'll work on stabilizing things up there."

############################

Hitch had gotten Tully down on the floor on his right side. Both wounds were still bleeding slightly. He removed the gauze from the back wound, which was covered with metal sawdust, and did his best to clean up both wounds before wrapping gauze around both sides. Hitch then used one of the blankets to keep Tully's left shoulder elevated so there would be no pressure on the rod as he laid on his back.

Tully opened his eyes as Hitch gave him another shot of morphine. "All done?"

Hitch smiled. "All done. I just gave you another shot. How's it feel?"

"Not too bad. So long as … I don't move."

Hitch covered Tully with the second blanket. "Just rest." He looked up at the ceiling and realized it was getting dark. "I'm sure we'll be getting out of here soon."

############################

The corporal returned to report that they had managed to stabilize a section of the roof. "Captain David, the roof is ready." He looked at Moffitt, who held up a periscope from a tank. "May I make a suggestion?"

Moffitt nodded. "Of course."

"I have a man up top who's about half your size. He's willing to do the job. The less weight that's put on that roof the better."

Troy nodded. "He's right, Moffitt. Let them do it."

Moffitt hesitated, then handed the periscope to the corporal. "All right. Just please get back here with whatever news you find."

Nearly twenty minutes later the corporal returned. "There are two inside. One appears to be injured. They're a good twenty to thirty feet from that south wall. No sign of Sergeant Lee. The place is a mess down there. Once we get through it's going to be hard to get them out, especially if one of them is wounded." He looked up at the sky and said, "It's getting dark. We're going to start setting up lights."

They heard the sound of an engine and through the crowd came an M8. Private Smith jumped down and saluted the captain, who said, "I thought you were bringing a backhoe, not an armored car."

Smith said, "I checked out the backhoe, sir, but that alley is to small too maneuver it in. I'm going to weaken the wall using the big gun and then push it in."

Captain David wasn't sure about the private's idea. "Isn't that risky? You might hit the men inside."

"No, sir. The wall is too thick for the bullets to go completely through. I just need to weaken it some so I can knock it down."

Troy nodded. "When my men hear the gun, they'll duck for cover."

Captain David gave the go ahead and Smith maneuvered the armored car into position. He waited until a generator and lights were set up and shining on the wall, then the private manned the 30 caliber machine gun and began to fire off carefully aimed bursts into the wall.

Inside the dark warehouse Hitch and Tully heard the heavy bullets and had no idea what was happening. Hitch used his body to shield Tully even though none of the bullets penetrated the thick wall.

When things fell quiet again, Hitch sat back. "What the heck are they doing out there?"

The pain in Tully's shoulder and chest had intensified when he had jerked at the sound of the weapon. He gritted his teeth and panted, "Doesn't sound like … the bullets made it through."

"You're thinking they're trying to come through the wall to get in."

Tully managed a nod, though Hitch couldn't see it in the dark. "Maybe we should head in that direction."

Hitch said, "Not sure that's a good idea. It's dark and probably best for you not to move around too much."

Ignoring the comment, Tully reached up and grabbed Hitch's shoulder. "Help me up."

Hitch tried to reason with his friend. "Tully, wait…"

They could just hear the armored car outside revving its engine. Then there was a loud cracking noise as the wall gave way. A cloud of dust rose inside, forcing the two men to cover their noses and mouths as they coughed, which caused a good deal of pain to course through Tully's body.

Then there was a familiar voice calling, "Hitch! Tully! Where are you?"

Hitch looked down at Tully. "It's Troy!" He started to make his way in the direction of the voice. "Over here, sarge!"

When the dust settled and light flooded in, Troy could see Hitch. "Stay put! We're on our way!"

A few minutes later Troy and Moffitt made it through the debris to the private. Troy looked Hitch up and down with a flashlight, noticed his bandaged head, and said, "You all right? Where's Tully?"

"I'm good. Tully's in bad shape though."

"Where is he?"

Hitch led them to where Tully was trying to sit up. Moffitt went straight to him as soon as the flashlight revealed the rod sticking out of his shoulder. He knelt down and supported Tully as he leaned into the sergeant. "Easy now, Tully. Let's see what we're dealing with before you move around too much."

Troy and Hitch knelt down. Moffitt handed his flashlight to Hitch so he and Troy could shine light on the injured private. Tully grabbed a fistful of Moffitt's shirt and whispered, "Pull it out."

"I think we should leave that for the doctors to do, Tully." Moffitt looked at the job Hitch had done with the bandages. "I see you found some medical supplies. Any morphine?"

Hitch grabbed the bag and dug out a dose of the drug and administered it to Tully. "This is the last one." He looked from Tully to Troy. "How are we gonna get him out of here?"

Tully's fist loosened as he relaxed and fell unconscious. They could hear more help coming as lights were set up inside and Troy said, "We've got plenty of help. We'll get him out."

############################

When Tully opened his eyes, he couldn't remember what had happened. He shifted and the pain in his left shoulder forced the memories back with a gasp.

Moffitt put his hand on Tully's right shoulder. "Lay still."

Tully relaxed under the sergeant's hand and the pain started to ease. "How long?"

"It's been twenty-four hours since we got you and Hitch out."

"Is Hitch okay? He took a knock on the head."

Moffitt smiled. "Mild concussion. He's resting." He watched the private's face for a moment, then said, "Hitch told us what you said happened."

Tully nodded. "Did they find the bodies?"

"They found Sergeant Lee … but I'm afraid the only thing found of the other man was his dog tags."

"I looked right at him. The cigarette just didn't register…"

Moffitt patted Tully on the arm. "What happened can't be changed, I'm afraid. No point in dwelling on it." Tully nodded and the sergeant smiled as he said, "Are you keeping count?"

Tully let out a sigh. "Yeah. This is number four."