Chapter X: Licking Our Wounds
6 Oct 0600 KST
Seongnam, South Korea
Two army trucks rolled up beside a large warehouse that had been emptied out and turned into a makeshift infirmary and processing center for refugees now that the stadium had become overcrowded. The second truck was riddled with holes and covered in soot. Five trucks had left on the last rescue mission and these two were all that returned. Exhausted and dazed, Lt. Hui clumsily got out of the passenger seat of the lead truck and ran to the rear of the truck to assist the other soldiers in getting the survivors out of the truck. Hui's clothes were soaked in sweat and several people's blood and he was covered in dirt, ash and grease from head to toe. His hair was disheveled and caked with dust and grime. Several of the civilians and soldiers on staff at the warehouse came out and met the survivors as they were being directed to a roll up door entrance. Several stretchers were rolled outside to receive the wounded that were unable to walk. "What the hell happened to you guys? Where's the other trucks?" asked one of the soldiers that came out of the warehouse. "We were ambushed coming back through Songpa District. The others didn't make it." a soldier helping Hui lower a wounded man down onto a stretcher replied. "It was a robot, like one of those Imperial walkers from Star Wars, except it had arms." Another soldier added. "An AT-ST walker." Lt. Hui clarified. "You're such a nerd sir." remarked the soldier from the warehouse. Hui and the staff soldier rolled the injured man into the warehouse while the other two soldiers went to get another of the wounded ready for the next stretcher that was waiting for them. "Our guns didn't do anything against it. If it wasn't for the aliens' own dumb blunder of having one of the zoomies bomb our third truck we never would have lost it." Hui told the soldier that was wheeling the stretcher into the warehouse with him. They handed off the patient on the stretcher to a team of nurses who took him away to get treatment. "You look like shit, Lieutenant. Get some sleep." one of the nurses told him. "No time for that, there's still that group of survivors at the hospital out there." Lt. Hui grumbled and walked back out to the trucks to finish unloading them. "We're going to need more men this time, and some heavy weapons too." Hui told the other soldier while they moved the next patient in. "Right away sir." the soldier replied. After they handed off the stretcher for a stained empty stretcher the other soldier left to carry out Hui's order. Hui went back out and got one of his men to help him bring in the wounded. They continued until they had got all the survivors into the warehouse. When the trucks were empty some of the soldiers brought fuel cans to refuel the vehicles while other soldiers hosed out the blood from the inside of the truck beds. Amongst the blood and gunk that washed out from the trucks was a torn, soiled handwritten note on hotel stationery.
Within the hour the soldier Lt. Hui had sent out for men and weapons had returned. With him were 16 more soldiers with a .50 caliber rifle and a grenade launcher in their arsenal. "This is all we can spare sir. We were attacked last night and the Colonel's got the men spread out over the entire area." the soldier reported. "It'll do." Hui replied. "Load it up! Let's go!" a sergeant who acted as Lt. Hui's second in command of the rescue mission shouted to the soldiers. "Are you sure you don't want to sit this one out sir? We know where we are going and you're not much use to us in your condition." the sergeant asked Hui while the soldiers boarded the trucks. Hui was little more than an animated corpse at this point. He had been running survivors out of Gangdong and Songpa districts for over 24 hours straight without as much as a ten minute break. He hadn't eaten, slept, and barely drank enough to hold down his thirst but not enough to replace all the fluids he had lost. Still, Hui was determined. He couldn't think of anything but clearing the area before the inevitable ground invasion rolled in. "I won't be able to rest until this is finished. I have to go. You can drive but I have to go." Hui insisted. "Alright sir, please try to take it easy on the road. You'll need all your strength if we find ourselves in a fight." the sergeant responded as the two of them walked around to the cab and climbed in. "We'll surely have to expect a fight." Lt. Hui said. "This time they won't get the jump on us. We'll be ready." Hui assured the sergeant and himself as he buckled himself in. Soon after the soldier on the ground waved up to them that all the men were ready. The trucks then started up and drove around the warehouse and back onto the roads leading back into Seoul.
6 Oct 0827 KST
Seongnam, South Korea
Sobieski walked through the crowded streets of Seongnam carrying a coiled up bunch of copper wire. "Sergeant Sobieski!" called a voice behind her. The officer she had been working with last night was running to catch up with her from behind. Lyndsey looked around to see him with the most goofy look on his face. It was kind of half smile, open mouthed with an indecisive blank stare in his eyes. "Captain Han. What are you doing here?" she asked. She stopped looked down and away from him and smiled then back towards him waiting for him to catch up. "Sorry, I look like a fool when I'm running and thinking at the same time. There's a lot on my mind these days. I was wondering if you had a chance to check out any of those solar panels last night." Capt. Han answered after he caught up to her and slowed down to a walk. "Completely fried. They're no use to us." Sobieski told him. "Should've known. Any kind of sensitive electronics are all shot to hell." said Han. "Need help with that? Let me carry it." offered Capt. Han. "No, I've got it." Sobieski politely declined. "We could probably rig up some wind turbines or something to give us some power for critical functions in between running the diesels but that's not the hard part. The transmission lines are cut in several places and we've got blown transformers everywhere. Getting the power where we need it to go would take weeks with the manpower we have." Sobieski informed him. The two of them walked into a former municipal building where Sobieski laid down the copper wire. Another Korean soldier came into the building to find Capt. Han. "Monopoly man, the civvies are wondering when they'll be able to take a shower. You have an ETA I can give them sir?" asked the soldier. "We're working on it. I'll try to have something working by the end of the day but I make no promises." Han told him. "Very well sir, I'll tell them." said the soldier. "Tell them to keep their pants on too. Anything we get to work is only going to be a temporary solution at best. It'll take a long time before we can restore power to the area, and that's hoping the aliens give us the time to do so." Capt Han told the soldier as he left. Han and Sobieski left the municipal building and went back out onto the street. "You couldn't have had much sleep last night. Mind joining me for a cup of coffee?" Han asked. "Sure, as long as it isn't watered down instant coffee I'm game." Sobieski accepted the invitation. "We've procured some high end grounds at a cafe over by the officers' mess and they're getting better at brewing it old school. It's not Starbucks but given the situation it's pretty good." Han told her as they changed direction towards. "Sounds good." Sobieski commented. "So why do they call you Monopoly Man?" asked Sobieski. "Monopoly man is just one of many names they call me. Monopoly Man, Uncle Scrooge, Richie Rich, Squilliam Fancyson and so on. They usually call me that behind my back mostly. It's a tense time right now, so I'll let that last one slide." Han told her, finishing with a smirk. "But why do they call you that in the first place? You don't seem too fancy or hoity toity. You got it all stuffed away in the bank somewhere?" Sobieski continued to inquire. "Anything in the bank probably got a big 'delete' when our electronics went down, but if you really must know I was born into a wealthy family. Our net worth was in the tens of millions of US dollars. My father was a big player in the telecom sector and made a lot of really smart investments both before and after the global recession hit. The guys just see it as like I'm some spoiled brat that was handed everything and never had to work a day in my life. The truth is far from it, my father definitely tried to instill a good work ethic in me from the get go. Even though I was sent to the best schools and given every opportunity I still had to earn the things I wanted. In a way you could say I stayed in the army longer than I had to as a way of getting out from under my father's shadow." Han explained. "Here we are, after you." Han said as they arrived at the cafe adjacent to where the officers mess area had been established. Han held the door for Sobieski and entered in behind her. A proper gentleman, she thought. It was an odd feeling, she wasn't used to be treated that way by men unless they wanted something from her. "You see, my father wanted me to do a minimum stint in the civil service and then he would start grooming me to take my place in the family business." Han explained. "But you wanted to prove yourself on your own right?" asked Sobieski as if she already knew the answer. "That and I never really cared much for making bank by moving paper around. I know that's an overly simplified way to say it but you know what I mean." replied Han. "Two packets of cream and hazelnut syrup." Han told the woman who was pouring coffee for the soldiers and workers in the cafe. "and for you miss?" the woman asked. "I'll take mine black." Sobieski said. "Trying to emasculate me are you?" asked Han sarcastically. "Nah, just don't care for all the fluff in my drinks." Sobieski replied. "I take it you don't do cosmos with the girls then?" remarked Han. "Right on, I take my liquor straight. It's usually beer with the boys anyhow, not a lot of 'girl time' going on in the army you know?" Sobieski said flashing a smile at Han as they got their drinks and sat down. "So I was thinking about ways to protect the motors we'll be using to pressurize the water mains. In case the aliens hit us with an EMP again. Maybe using something like a Faraday cage to insulate them from the excess current would work. " Sobieski suggested. "Possibly. That is assuming that what they are using to take out our systems is a standard EMP as we understand it. The effects we saw when the world first went dark seem to indicate we're dealing with something a little different. Granted the extant studies that I'm aware of on the effects of a high altitude EMP are outdated and inconclusive at best." Han replied. "We can get to working on it right away though. Better we both tackle this problem together than try and do it ourselves right?" Han said. "Right." Sobieski agreed. She spotted his wedding band as he took a sip of his drink. "Are you married?" she asked bluntly. She had the sense that their friendship could easily take a detour down another road and wasn't going to be yet another guy's side squeeze, even if he was a decent fellow, not to mention handsome and filthy rich. She was the type of girl that guys would bang on deployment but when they got stateside they wouldn't have anything to do with her or at best friend zone her as just one of the boys. Needless to say she had developed a reputation, somewhat undeserved, in here early days with the army. She was trying to correct that image now. "Yes, well my family and I lived in Gangnam District and well Gangnam District was..." Han started to say, fidgeting with his hands and droning off as he spoke. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to." Sobieski apologized. He didn't need to say any more, she knew half of Gangnam district was a smoldering crater and the rest was probably sterilized by short term levels of radiation from the bombings. "It's alright, let's talk about something else though." Han said. The two of them continued making small talk and planning out their day's work as they finished up their coffee then went back out to continue on with their work about the city.
As Sobieski and Capt. Han went about repairing what equipment they could and modifying or hardening other pieces of hardware they encountered Vargas and Bremer who were on their way to the stadium for an early lunch. The two pairs passed each other right after Han and Sobieski had stopped to direct a group of workers to where they needed to go. "Hey, Lyndsey. We're going to need you to change out the ignition on a couple more vehicles. 3 of the last 5 trucks we sent out didn't make it back." Bremer told her as they passed by. Sobieski stopped while Han continued on to oversee three other soldiers who were installing a crank operated air raid siren on a light post outside the stadium grounds. People were constantly coming and going through the area so he didn't even notice Sobieski had stayed behind. "I'll get on it sir. The next run we send out we are going to need more parts. We've stripped a lot of the local warehouses for their salvagable goods and still have considerable need if we want to restore any semblance of society here for these people." Sobieski replied. "I'll see what we can do once the last of the survivors from Gangdong and Songpa districts arrive." Bremer replied. "I'll make a list of what we need." Sobieski said. As they finished talking a young, rather attractive Korean woman passed by the group. Bremer, acting on his instincts made an obnoxious howling noise like an injured coyote and slapped her on the backside. Surprisingly enough the woman turned back and gave Bremer a wink and raised eyebrow then motioned for him to come with her. "Now if you would excuse me gentlemen, I believe that is my cue to leave." Bremer told Vargas and Sobieski before strolling up to the young lady who was waiting for him. Sobieski looked over at Vargas and then back at Bremer. She expected the woman to slap him or give him a swift kick to the crotch, but no such luck. She didn't even tell him off, instead she seemed totally absorbed with the bullshit lines he was feeding her. "It's women like that who make guys like him. What the hell does she even see in him?" Sobieski griped. "It's amazing what some rock hard abs, a dash of charm and an alpha personality will do." Vargas said shrugging her statements off. "How is it that you and him are such good friends anyhow?" Sobieski asked as Bremer and his latest conquest strolled away to an undisclosed location in the city. "We've saved each other's asses more times than we can count. We had some good times together in our days too, hit the club with the same intensity as we hit the foxhole. I used to be more of a party guy in my younger days too, that is, until I had my come to Jesus moment." Vargas told her. "Well you'd think that now with all your bible thumping you wouldn't be keeping that type of company." Sobieski said in jest. Vargas laughed. "You can't always preach to the choir sister. Sometimes you have to go out among the heathens." Vargas said. "Point taken. I don't see you converting him anytime soon, and don't you start preaching to me either, choir boy." Sobieski said elbowing Vargas in the ribs in jest. "Sergeant, come here." Capt. Han called out to Sobieski, waving for her to come help her with something he was doing. "I won't keep you from your duties sergeant. I might as well bring Taylor back something from the mess hall." Vargas said. "Take care of yourself Vargas." Sobieski said as she left to join Han. "You too, and try to give men a chance for once, we're not all horn dogs." Vargas joked. Vargas then went off to pick up food for himself and Taylor back at camp.