Alrighty. That debalcle done with, here is the real new chapter to forced soldier. You lucky dogs get two chapters today because I royally screwed up, call it an apology for skipping two missions
Chapter 21 - Blowtorch's Breaking Point
I jerked my head back, my helmet making a hollow sound as it met the rock I was sitting against. Heavy rainfall pounding on my face, drenching my form further as I looked around. Next to me was Roebuck and Polonsky, discussing something about supplies. "Shit," I mumbled to myself as I rubbed the back of my head, checking myself over automatically to see what I had on me.
While the two soldiers talked, I found that I had a standard sidearm, the same one I usually had in the American force. A light machine gun, the type I helped that soldier with a few hours ago, and a... shovel. I was equipped to fight, hopefully not too much like in Berlin.
"Miller, up the hill!" I looked over at Roebuck as he passed me and slowly rose to my feet, mud caking my legs, not that it really mattered. I wasn't going to be going to any social event anytime soon. Hell, with the way things were working out, I wouldn't be sitting back down until I had ended over two hundred lives, at least.
My boots moved on their own as my mind wandered, crunching the soaked lavender flowers lining the field, as I jogged after my leader. Hands forming around the gun to get a grasp of it's shape, mentally preparing myself that I would be using it in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.
It didn't take more than a few longer strides to reach Roebuck just as planes screamed overhead, dropping their payload down on the unsuspecting enemies. "We got a heavily fortified MG in that bunker," Roebuck informed us as we walked.
I didn't see any bunker to be honest, but I still nodded to his words. All I saw was tall grass, like human height tall grass, hills all around, and some big square rocks. To my left was a field with more things in it, but those were towers of dirt flying from mortar fire, so I didn't think that counted.
As I approached one of these weird rocks, the ground in front of me shifted, not with the wind or by some earthquake, but because something was under it. I watched as a slender object slid out of the hole and it struck me, 'That's a rifle.'
"Contact!" I called out as I sent out a burst into the shifting ground, towards the rifle. Dirt picked up with the sound of splintering wood. A cry of pain was heard as the wooden cover they had fell into the hole that the person was hiding within.
"Spider Holes! Burn the ground, Polonsky!" On the word burn, fire lit up the grass from a flamethrower, the smell of burning skin, and the cries of melting agony filled the air around us. The downpour did nothing to stem the burn that the napalm had on these mens' skin.
If I hadn't smell burning flesh before and been desensitized to an incredible amount of violence in the past day, I would be retching on the side. Instead, I was unloading half a box of heavy caliber rounds into the surrounding grounds as Japanese soldiers were trying to flee from the flames. "Move up," Roebuck called out as he advanced through the burning ground.
I was on his heels, my weapon's belt over my left arm, something I quickly found out was needed if I didn't want the damn things to swing like a tape measure being wound up. We dashed forward to another set of rocks just as more of the enemy crested over a hill in front of us.
I wasted no time as I slid to my knees and with a quick motion of my hand, pushed the bipod on the underside of the gun down, setting it down on top of a chest high rock. The gun punched against my shoulder every time I fired, even though I leaned into the hits, I was still rocked with each bullet that the barrel spat out. The heavy fire torn the charging men down, my comrades not even bothering to waste any of their own bullets. Why would they, I just mowed down the... nine men without an issue.
No one was killed as we darted forward once more, finding some more favorable cover than rocks in the middle of a field that bordered another with mortars being fired at it. I slammed my shoulder into a chest high wall, a bit to the right of Roebuck so that I had all the room I needed to cover everyone. This was not going to be a weapon I charged with. I'd be sitting in the dirt the moment I fired this as I ran for more than a burst.
My bipod planted down as the rest of the men moved up a few more meters before the enemies showed themselves in a hard charge. My firearm started roaring with the rest of the soldiers around me. Bullets cracked by our bodies as the enemies returned fire. Yells going out from both of our sides as the bullets hit someone among our respective lines.
It was clear seconds in that we were going to win this little skirmish. We may not have had the numbers, but our positions were favorable and with how many bullets my weapon was firing down the range, the riflemen didn't have much of a chance.
My gun clicked empty as the last person fell from their bullet wounds. Pulling my charging handle back, I ducked under cover. Rummaging in my bag, I found two ammo boxes, so I took one as I opened the top of the gun,
Replacing the belt took a moment and by the time I was done, I had to sprint to catch up to my comrades who had moved up in the minute it took me to replace the ammunition. 'Thanks for waiting,' I snarked in my mind, but I didn't let it show on my face.
As I caught up, something slammed into the side of my pack, throwing me to the ground as it hit my ammo box. The sound of a rifle followed it before a symphony of gunfire joined it, causing the rest of my allies to dive down behind cover before they got shot.
As the bullets impacted around me, I didn't even bother to get up, just rolled on my belly and scrambled along the dirt like a lizard to get to some semblance of safety. The moment my helmet met the rock, I picked my head up to see the damage the enemy dished out on us. Only three were dead, but we really only had... I counted the heads I could see and found that, including myself, we had nine soldiers.
'Who sends... sixteen, I think seven men were dead now, sixteen soldiers to capture bunkers?!' As my heart slowed, I rolled out of my little amount of cover and let loose a stream of concentrated fire at where I saw the muzzle-flashes through the rain.
A battle cry ripped itself out of my throat as the machine gun steamed in the rain, fire flying from the barrel as it heated it and cooled down all at the same time, my bullets peppering the bunker with the rest of the mens'. I saw through my sight, my bullets tearing heads from bodies and splashes of blood painted the cliff side they were near.
I knew for a fact that when I had time to calm down from the non-stop killing, I was going to hate myself for the devastation I have and would have unleashed on all these people. That was for later however, now I had to make sure I lived long enough to feel bad about what I did.
As the last one died, my gun clicked empty, the hiss of steam filling the now quiet air. "Reload and advance into the caves! There are more bunkers on the other side!" I heard Roebuck shout out as series of clicks echoed the field, men reloading before the order. I pulled my pack off and found that the bullet that hit my box didn't pierce, so I plucked it out as I opened the box, finding the top of the belt.
This time, I reloaded on the go. Roebuck was leading, so the few Japanese that were coming at us fell before they could manage to fire their weapons. "Three active bunkers ahead! Miller!" I looked at the man as I pushed the charging handle forward. "Flank around the side and clear 'em out!" I had to blink at the order.
I licked my dry lips and asked him, "All of them, sir? Alone?"
"I need you on that hill over behind that waterfall. We will be heading from the front. You will soften them so we can take them down," the man clarified immediately. Happy with the information that I wasn't going to solo what we had trouble doing with nine people.
Checking to the waterfall, I found that it wasn't that high, so my help would be limited. There was a ledge that was twenty feet over everything, but it was on top of the valley we had entered from the caves.
There was no way up to it though. Unless... I looked closer at the cave around the waterfall to see a slight dirt slope to the side. It was nearly vertical, but nearly wasn't all the way. Slinging the heavy weapon to my chest, I spun my shovel out of its place on my belt and ran at the dirt as everyone was charging at the bunkers.
My boots found little traction in the mud, so I went down quickly, about half way up. Landing on my knees so that my gun didn't touch mud, my shovel dug in deep. Boots dug in deep for some footholds before I lunged up with my shovel, jumping a bit before the pointed end dug further into the dirt.
In five more lunges, I was above everyone and headed to the tall ledge. To avoid giving myself away, I crawled there once I had my gun back in my arms. Setting up only took moments and I found I had a great view over the covers of the bunkers. Well great for the two furthest. I had a near birds eye view of the first, able to lean down and spit on their heads kind of, the mostly broken roof and rain might have made it difficult.
Lining up the first bunker with my iron sight, I shot bursts into the confines from above. In only a few short moments, the men inside were dead and Polonsky had moved up, tossing in a pouch while shouting, "Cover!" I ducked back to my ledge and it was a good thing as the pouch blew up in a large display of pyrotechnics and kinetic force.
My aim shifted a hundred meters down the valley where I laid down suppression fire on the enemy as everyone moved up. Our nine had turned into seven by the time they reached the last two bunkers. A salvo of grenades took them down and made one of the remaining soldiers lose what seemed to be a few fingers.
Polonsky did his job and more as he ran through gunfire and explosives to get the pouches into the bunkers, narrowly avoiding death with every step. By the time the last bunker had gone up in flames, it was just Roebuck, one other soldier, and Polonsky remaining on the field. My gun had clicked empty as I shot at the backs of the retreating soldiers, so it was now a heavy, useless, hunk of metal, so I left it on the ledge with the pack as I hopped down.
I had to roll out of the fall, but without anything but a pistol and shovel weighing me down, it didn't matter. As Roebuck shouted his usual praises, I grabbed a Thompson and some clips for it off a fallen comrade. I needed something more than a simple pistol if we were going to do any more of this fighting.
The three men waited for me to join back up, Polonsky wordlessly patting me on the back for covering him, then we were off through another narrow cave to come out by a fortress where more of our soldiers were attacking combined with friendly mortar fire. All of that was across from us. As it was, we came out right next to the enemy, so we were dragged into combat without a moment's pause.
The only good thing was that we surprised the squad of soldiers enough that with our three machine guns and one flamethrower, they didn't get a shot off at us. Now, the ones down the field a ways, closer to the allies, they got a good many bursts at our position, but as we dove for cover, those people were shredded by our comrades, having made the mistake of turning their backs on their enemies. "Regroup!" Roebuck shouted out, taking command of everyone as he walked through the dead field, reloading his Thompson. "Let's move people!"
As one, we moved through a ruined bunker and came right out next to an ally convoy with tanks and soldiers charging a bunker that was lighting them up. We joined the charge without a word, firing at the windows of the bunker. None of my shots hit as I was jostling the barrel too much, but the tanks were accurate enough for the entire infantry force. "To the right, there looks like a path!" I called out as we found ourselves next to the fortress.
"You heard him, to the right people!" Roebuck repeated, making it an order from our leader so that everyone listened. With the charge came a refilling of our forces, so that now we had ten men with us to try and take the bunker.
Other than a few close calls with surprising charges from solo troops, and an MG that we destroyed with concentrated fire, all ten of us made it down the path in mostly one piece. I believed one of the men got a glancing hit if the blood on his arm was anything to go off of, but he was ready for combat, so it didn't matter.
At the end of the path, we arrived at an outpost that these men did not want to give up. They threw dozens of men into our sights, not even staying around in cover. They just charged with reckless abandonment, almost desperate in nature. I was sure we were close to taking the bunker, but that didn't mean that they had to charge like lunatics at the mere thought of us taking a small outpost.
So as the last of the soldiers fell to our fire and we advanced, it became clear that it wasn't just a little forward outpost as I thought it was. As we hopped over the dug out MG window, it became clear that this was the back way into the bunker as well as the motor pool. "Tunnel ahead!" I called out as I approached the lip of the entrance.
To make sure I saw everything as quickly as possible, I spun around and hopped down backwards. It was a bit disorienting, but having done extreme maneuvers on my broom, I didn't flinch from the blind drop.
My feet splashed down and weapon came up to see that the entrance was clear of an enemies except for the dead on the ground. "Clear in front!" I reported to the approaching soldiers. They nodded as they jogged past and further into the entrance.
To the right, there was a path downward, towards the main rooms of the underground structure. I was following behind them, so I didn't have to bother with being attacked by the deranged officer with a blade in hand. I watched this man come barreling around the corner, no less than ten meters away, sword held high like he was going to cut us in half.
It made no sense to me because he took us by surprise. If he had waited, he would have gotten one, if not two of us, but he didn't. He jumped the gun apparently, so he slid to a stop three meters from us, five bullets in his chest, and soldiers stepping over his dead body.
The main room was ready for us, probably had their guns trained on the doorway, so Roebuck held out his hand. "Miller, Polonsky. Grenades," he mumbled under his breath, grabbing one of the orbs off his chest. "Two grenades. On three, pull the pin. On six, throw. One."
We all pulled out two grenades, one in each hand. On three, I pulled the pins, holding the orbs carefully and at six, I flung the grenades through the door which were followed by the teen to my right and the older man to my left. At thirteen, all six grenades went off as one. At fifteen, we sprinted into the room, all three of us.
There was nothing left to fight, I pointedly ignored what remained of the soldiers that were in the room, so we just made sure the enemies were dead and climbed out of the bunker via a ladder across the room. The room we came up in proved this place was much bigger than I thought. I believed it was three rooms at most, but there was three giant cannons next to me that told me otherwise.
The window into the next room proved this thought as we saw many men scurrying around, loading mortars or whatever they were firing. They spotted us and opened fire, so we returned it. The cracks of gunfire filled the room in an instant as more Japanese soldiers streamed in from further inside the base until we had at least twenty men fighting our slowly decreasing number.
As I fired, something hit my face from the side. My hand snatched it out of the air before it hit the ground, seeker reflexes showing themselves once more. I gave it a short look before I cried out in panic and threw it towards the enemy that threw it at me. Seconds later, limbs and blood misted out of the cover as the grenade went off.
This made the enemies remember they still had grenades, so they started hurling them at us. Some not quite reach, most did though. Most of our men chickened out and jumped back down the ladder, but Polonsky and I followed Roebuck's example as he threw them back.
My arms never stopped as I used both hands to scoop up the explosives and threw them back. It was like a demented game of keep away or hot potato, but the consequences for fucking up was death or dismemberment. The volley of grenades quickly stopped and all was silent for a moment before I got enough courage to peek out above the cover, our sad, pocketed, cover. I tried not too, but I had to gape at the destruction in front of me.
Everything was broken in some form. Boxes were splinters, sandbags were deflated, walls were craters, and most of the enemies were dead. The ones that were not would be in at most a minute. "Um," Roebuck hummed as he looked at the room. "Move up," he commanded, the usual gusto in his voice absent in the face of the turnaround.
I was a bit too stunned to move and Polonsky seemed the same way. "MOVE UP!" He shouted once more after a moment when nothing happened. We were the only ones still up here, so the rest didn't hear him from below. The cowards.
As we moved through the room, the wall in front of us collapsed in a small fireball, the tank fire it had taken finally showing the toll it had on things, which also gave a convenient exit for us that wasn't a killing funnel.
We moved to the top, but other than a quick sweep of the area for the few remaining soldiers, we were done. "Outstanding! Now... let's get to our wounded," Roebuck shouted out as he took off his helmet, letting the rain wash the sweat off his face. Polonsky was already radioing in that we had taken the bunker. The convoy moving up was all that I heard from that conversation before I tuned it out.
I did the same thing thing as Roebuck with a sigh and we slowly walked back out, but the sound of cursing English got our attention. "Miller!" I heard Roebuck call out and I followed him to see a downed teen with a bullet in his side.
Roebuck took his arms and I picked up his legs. In a heave, he was up between us. Shuffling, we managed to get him out the back. I made eye contact with the teen and gave him a nod, "You'll be right as rain soon, mate. Get back home, receive a few medals." He gave a shaky smile at my words as he tightly clenched his wounded side.
In the back, near the motor pool, the tanks and soldiers were all sitting around, nursing their wounds from the frontal charge, their vehicles already parked. "On the trucks," the sergeant told me, so together, we hauled the teen up and slid him in the back where a soldier dragged him further in.
While we were helping the teen, Polonsky was apparently asking the major or something about supplies and didn't like the answer. "Push towards the castle, today?! We don't even have supplies! We're running on empty as is!"
"You'll have an airdrop tomorrow morning, you'll be fine!" The older, clean shaven and just generally clean man told him while moving away. He was not part of this battle, that was obvious.
Polonsky threw up his hands as we came to his side. "Tomorrow?! How the hell are we supposed to hold out till tomorrow?!" The major just turned and stuck a finger in the teen's face, giving him a warning look before marching off. "This is bullshit," he mumbled as he kicked the mud.
"We'll be fine, Polonsky. We've made due with less," I told him as I rubbed my tired eyes. I had only been here for thirty minutes and I was already done with this shithole.
"Intel says Shuri Castle is mostly deserted. Look on the bright side... After this, you boys will probably get relieved and be on the boat home..." Roebuck said as he took a seat on some crates. I just flopped down on some of the wet grass.
"How much do you trust that intel when these guys can hide like ghosts in the night? I mean, they could sleep in those... spider holes or tunnel systems for all we know, throw us off..." I threw in my thoughts on the matter of an easy fight. "Probably a few hundred of them in that place by the time we get there."
Roebuck just shook his head and relaxed in the rain. I did the same, waiting for the blackout.
It never came, instead, I spent an uncomfortable night in the back of a truck, in the rain, as I rode off to go get shot at in the morning. The sounds of bombing runs kept me up for a little bit, until it became white noise to me. I managed at most, three hours of shut eye before the sun rose and we were off to fight once more. Roebuck didn't seem to have a problem with sleeping the full eight, neither did Polonsky.
Taking my damp self, we dismounted and started marching towards this castle that we were suppose to capture. I was already keyed to fight as I was still around from the last fight, so it wasn't over. Our first stop was in front of the entrance to the castle grounds where our supplies had been parachuted in earlier.
I still had five clips for my thompson and my pistol, so I just grabbed a few more clips while everyone else rummaged around the large pack. I took a man's covering position so that he could grab some ammo, but before he made a step towards the drop, his chest exploded from sniper fire.
My sights immediately went to the trees for the sniper as Polonsky let out the call, but my eyes quickly went down as charging troopers streamed out of the brush in waves. They were not difficult to deal with, but there were many and having to contest with a sniper that had a bead on our position, it might not have been difficult to get rid of them, but it was incredible dangerous.
As the last of the numbers fell and our aim went to the snipers, a screech went up before the ground under one of the soldiers away from us erupted from a mortar hitting on his cover, killing him and his buddy.
I ignored the rain of dirt and body parts as I continued to shoot at the tree-bound people. The moment the last one was dangling by his leg from the tree, I shouted, "Move up! We're sitting ducks here!" The men found this a good enough suggestion to listen to and we ran along the trench into a small bunker with a tunnel entrance in the ground.
"And... They have tunnels," I mumbled as I lifted the opening for the men behind me to jump down.
Roebuck shook his head with a growl. "They zeroed us pretty quick. The spotters must be in the tunnels, let's get down there and show them what we are made of!" The man then pulled out his shotgun and dropped into the tunnel, ignoring the ladder.
I hopped down as the last marine cleared the way and immediately went down the tunnel no one else went down. They all just followed the guy in front of them, but for all we know, the spotters could be in the right tunnel instead of the left. Sure, it was a pain to basically crawl on my knees through the tunnel, but I had done worse.
I chose right too as I found an command hub looking place in the next room, so I primed a grenade and threw it down the tunnel. It rolled right under their table too, unnoticed by the busy men. A perfect throw. 'Man, I should really be a chaser when I get back.'
The moment the grenade went off, I was charging down the hall and ended anyone that wasn't taken out by the explosive. It was only a short jog until I found a ladder with marines waiting on the other side with a pouch of what must be bombs. The moment I got out of the tunnels, he threw it behind me and shouted, "Satchel, going in! Cover!" I ran out of the bunker to find Roebuck waiting for me with everyone else. The bunker then blew up behind me in a small fireball.
Joining the pair I ran with in this end of the war, we entered the grounds, only to be assaulted by men in their spider holes once more. This time, they got the drop on us as they were perfectly done up, it didn't even look like the grass had been moved. We were halfway into the field, ahead of everyone else when they sprung the trap, hitting us from the front and sides.
In the panic, I was only able to stumble away from the ambush of rifles and heavy machine guns before I felt a solid force slam into my dominant arm. The limb went dead and my Thompson fell to the dirt as my hand ceased to work. Looking down in a daze, I saw the damage. I took a bullet directly to the right arm from the enemy's rifle, tearing a good bit of it off.
By a good bit, I meant the entire bone and left half, making the only thing holding the limb on from the heavy slug shot was a disturbing string of muscle with some flesh. I didn't take to this damage like I did my eye either, panic, but getting back into the fight moments later. Falling behind some cover in the form of statues, I held my now lifeless arm as I cried out in agony.
I couldn't even think as I tried to block the pain out of my mind. It burned, felt numb, and like I was being stabbed all at the same time. All the feeling below the shot was absent, having taken out the nerves, so it felt like my missing finger, but so much worse.
Gunfire whizzed by my position, but I couldn't bring myself to fight as all my attention was on my arm as I tried not to pass out from the pain or suffocate from the agony. "AHH!" My screams were drowned out by the gunfight going on around me, my good hand clenched around the bullet wound, trying to stem the blood flow.
A cry of "Banzai!" snapped me out for a moment as I saw a bayonet coming for my chest. In a desperate bid for life, I swung my arm across my chest, knocking the blade into the statue and lashed out with my foot. It was a push, had no right to be called a kick, but it got the man away from me long enough that I tore my pistol out of my holster, every movement sending waves, no, fucking oceans of pain through my body. It was only through the want to live that I managed to get the weapon from my hip and aimed at the recharging soldier.
Each buck of the gun in my hand distracted me from the lifeless lump of flesh hanging from my shoulder, each shot that quickly killed the man in front of me washed away the pain until it was an agonizing throb. An agonizing throb that I needed to forget about for now if I wanted to get home alive. I was going to be far from one piece, but I just wanted to get back to Hogwarts!
The pistol's slide slid back, so I ejected the clip and dropped the gun in my lap, fishing out a clip with my one hand and slamming it into the gun. I picked it up and let the slide unlock. Stumbling to my feet, using the wall as a support against my good arm, I stagger to the side of the cover and aimed out.
Most of the enemies were dead by the time I had pulled myself together from my second crippling battle wound. Some would say I was lucky to still be alive in the face of all the battling and basically suicide missions I had gone through without a lick of training, but I would easily say, 'Fuck you' to those people.
Unable to reload, I made sure to pick my targets, my attention solely on shooting, so the pain was absent from my mind. When one's head entered my sight, I pulled the trigger. Some missed yes, mostly because I wasn't left-handed, but two didn't and they fell under my fire.
As I stumbled through reloading again, I glanced down at my right arm, my dominant arm, and saw that what wasn't covered in a nauseating amount of blood, was turning corpse grey from the blood that was suppose to be inside, being a coating on my arm.
"I didn't even reach the castle," I dully commented to myself as my attention slowly drifted back to the task at hand when a bullet slammed into my cover. "And I already lost a limb." The clip went into the pistol and it was once more awkwardly held in my hand, ready to shoot. It wasn't needed as the last man finally died under the combined might of the military around me.
I heard feet coming over to me and a gasp of a young voice. I turned my head and saw Polonsky staring at me, specifically my dead arm. "Is it as bad as it feels and looks?" I hesitantly asked him.
"It's going to need to be cut off," a voice told me as it approached. I looked over to see Roebuck looking at the arm with a defeated expression. I sighed at his words as I fiddled with the pistol in my hand. "we need to get you back to saf-"
"No," I barked at the man, my pain making me irritable enough to snap at my leader. "No, I lost a fucking arm here, I ain't leaving until this place is ours! I don't have much back home and you need every gun you can get!"
"No, you will go back and get some medical attention!" The man shouted at me. "Look at you, you look like you're about to pass out!" I checked my other hand to see that it was pale against the metal of my pistol, but I ignored it as a spike of pain hit me, causing me to growl.
"I couldn't get away anyways! They are bombing the fields outside this castle and unless we take it, there will be no retreat without a mortar down my throat! So, please, just tie off my arm, it's dead anyways so it doesn't matter, and let's move! I got a pistol and ammo, I'm good to go for now!"
The man eyeball me before giving his own growl and moving out. We didn't have men to escort a wounded soldier. "Stay in the back. Polonsky, tie off his arm." The man stalked forward with the rest of the men and Polonsky moved forward. He did a good, tight job with tying my arm off.
I reached up and stopped the teen as he moved to get back to following Roebuck. "Cut it off, it's dead weight and it will not get better, only worse once it's tied off." The man was about to protest, but I reached towards his hip and pulled out his knife.
It had to be done because the weight will throw off my aim, just make it more difficult to move around bullets that would kill me. Offering him the hilt, I told him, "Do it." He looked me in the eye and I kept all the panic from my face or the pain that losing an arm will cause me. "Do it fast."
The soldier grabbed the blade from me and I held up my arm horizontally so he could do it in one cut. In a flash and a cry from Polonsky, my arm fell to the ground with a thud. I bit my lip until it bled trying to hold back my scream, spots dancing in my eyes.
Rapidly blinking the tears out of my eyes, I focused on the brightened colors in front of me, wiping the pain from my mind in favor of jogging forward, legs buckling from the pain racking my body. There was time to cry later, right now, there was a battle to fight and a war to bring to a close! I also absently recognized that I was going into shock too. 'Maybe I could go home after this too!' I tried to convince myself that this was true and it helped a bit. 'Probably some magical construct that replicates an arm back home too, it would be like I never lost it. They have things that regrow bones and blood after all. Just add that and something like a muscle re-grower and a new arm would be there!' I pointedly ignored how Moody didn't have a leg. He was a weirdo, so he could probably think it was useful to have only one fleshy leg.
The man gave me disturbed looks when they saw that I no longer had my dead arm at my side, but I ignored them in favor of keeping watch around, blinking the spots out of my eyes that appeared with every step I took.
We ran up some stairs and the sound of mortars grew louder and louder. "First mortar pit ahead! Move up!" On Roebuck's command, we all charged. Turning the corner, we came to the pit, so I took aim near the wall since I didn't want to disobey orders too much and moving frankly felt like I had lived through four Harry Hunting days in a row. My shots went wide for the most part, missing most of my targets, That was to be expected however. I was not left handed. It was a miracle that I could shoot as well as I did for the past few days.
Once there was an opening, I ran to the side next to Roebuck, sliding along the stone. I already was missing an arm, what was a scraped knee. A thing I noticed was that I had to counter-balance for my left arm now as I ran, my right arm no longer there to keep the weight of it in check. As I stopped, I noticed mortar shells on a crate next to the man. "Hey, can these be primed and thrown?" was the first thing that left my mouth.
Roebuck looked back at me as he reloaded and then looked at the mortars. "Hit the bottom on the wall and throw it as hard as you can," the leader instructed me after a moment. "Be careful of friendly fire."
I did as instructed and, while awkward, I was able to hurl the explosive to the other end of the field where it exploded into a fireball, taking at least half a squad of troops out. Be it I was aiming to a group on the opposite end of the field, I counted that as a hit anyways. I also found my job for the fight ahead and I slowly got use to throwing the bombs until I could get them within thirty feet of where I was intending it to land.
We moved up slowly, so I took the bombs with me in a pouch I nicked from one of the dead soldiers along with a sword, a katana my mind added onto it, probably from some old book that I read to escape reality when I was younger. Strapped that to my belt so I could fight in close quarters. Sure, I knew nothing about a blade, most likely would cut myself, but if I could kill a basilisk with something I had no idea how to use, pick up a gun and figure out how to kill hundreds, I can use a damn Japanese blade to defend myself.
Along with the mortar support, we didn't lose too many of our men in the advance. It was inevitable that one or two would fall, hell, I was almost one of the fallen, but we made it across the courtyard that the mortars were into a burning long house.
I drew my pistol as Roebuck switched out for his shotgun. My place was in the back of our seven man squad, so my gun would most likely not be discharged, but if anything I'd learned over this nightmare, that never not have something to kill a man in hand at anytime.
The first room was empty and so was the next. Taking a left, the building's bombed out was exposed to us. "C'mon! Let's kill these bastards!" Roebuck shouted out as he leaped over a ruined table and out the fallen wall. "Clear every corner of this courtyard!"
The rest of the men followed his lead, sans the table jumping, and picked a side to clear. I took to throwing the rest of my mortars to the front of us before my allies got too deep into this courtyard. It was full of stone walls, hills, trees, and god knows what else. There were probably enemies crawling around in the bushes and trees, just waiting to pop out like a demented pop up book character. Easier to blow them up than to let the guys head in there to expose themselves to more ambushes.
The advance was actually much quicker now with more cover to use coupled with the mortar support that was causing quite the panic in the soldiers. We made it through the courtyard to a large red building without anyone dying even! Sure, one soldier lost a chunk of his hand, but he could still shoot, so it was fine.
Roebuck didn't even slow down as we reached this long read building that looked like one of the barracks of this castle. I could really think of this as a castle though, having lived in Hogwarts for so long. "Home stretch!" Roebuck called out as he shouldered a door off its hinges, splintering the frame. "This way!"
As we ran through the hall of the building towards the back, I noticed movement. On the white screens that replaced windows, shadows moved behind them. I couldn't tell type by uniform, but I could tell which side by the shape of their guns. The weapons in hand were those machine guns, the top fed kind that took away my arm! "Miller, on the MG ahead!" Roebuck mumbled out, so not to draw more attention to us. "Mow them down on my signal."
We got into the next room, filled with boxes and rubble, but sure enough, there was a loaded MG in one of the windows. I stalked over to it and grabbed the mounted weapon as the men moved by into the next room. In front of me was a courtyard of soldiers that were jogging towards another building to the right. "NOW! SHOOT!" Roebuck screamed out, his machine gun fire could be heard through the walls.
The MG came to life under my grip and I swept the area slow enough to hit everything, but fast enough that I didn't give them time to shoot me in return. By the time everyone in the courtyard was dead, everyone in the other room was finished with their grime work as well. "Clear, Miller! Regroup."
My white knuckles tingled as I released the mounted weapon and ran to catch up with the squad. I found them right as they were going down into some tunnels. Joy. My semi-automatic pistol found its way into my palm as I descended the stairs.
The tunnels, while kind of creepy due to everything shaking and lights flickering, were mostly clear of enemy presence. The ceilings were collapsing though, so it would make sense that the men pulled back before a truck load of concrete fell on their heads. Probably one of the more logical things I'd seen this army do in my time fighting them.
We came out of the dirt confines into a basement, and from there, into a courtyard with the castle just to the side. Roebuck wasted no time in charging out only to find three surrendering Japanese soldiers. The squad, which was now just two men, Roebuck, Polonsky, and I ran over to secure them before they could grab a gun.
I was just about to ask for some rope to tie their hands when two lunged for Roebuck and one for Polonsky. In a snap decision, I shot the ones going for Roebuck first. It was a matter of distance and angle since Polonsky had his back to me. The slide locked back right as the second man fell, but before I could even think about reloading, a force threw me back.
My head hit stone and all I saw was stars until my vision faded to black. A creeping cold entered my blood as pain slowly vanished. "Miller!" I heard Roebuck shout from so far away. "Miller! I need you to get up!" The man screamed, a little closer now, but with some strange background noise going on.
There was a voice joining it from the side, counting down from a minute in five second intervals. At one, a large sound erupted around me that snapped me out of my haze.
Eyes open, the image of death was all that filled my vision. In front of me was a radio operator calling in airstrikes loudly, soldiers all over trying to hold off charging enemy troops that were sprinting out of smoke that had somehow filled the courtyard.
My hand felt numb as I dropped the pistol from my grip and pulled out a magazine from my chest pocket, going slow all the while. By the time my gun was loaded, an airstrike had laid the land low, the building to my right that looked like it was important was now smoldering ruins.
My pistol barked a few times at some enemies, one bullet actually making a man stumble enough to be taken down by a burst from another soldier. I couldn't muster up the energy to do more than let the hand fall into my lap as I leaned against the wall that knocked me out.
I could almost feel my eyes slowly glazing over as I blankly watched everyone scramble around to attend the wounded. Everything in a blurry haze, like it would have been if I didn't have my glasses. 'Where are my glasses anyways?' I asked myself, mind wandering. After what seemed like an eternity, I saw Roebuck standing over a bloody body, he reached into the mess and drew out something from within.
The man staggered over to me and sat next to my crippled form. I gave the man a grime smirk as I relaxed further against the wall. "Well... We won... Yeah..." I looked down at my hands... hand in my lap, dirty pistol resting, empty, in my loose grip. Blood covering most of my uniform. "You won..." I mumbled out as I ran my thumb along the slide of the pistol. 'I still have to go fight in Berlin. Now with only one arm. I will fall there.'
Roebuck sighed as his rifle hit the ground, his machine gun long gone. "We're going home. All of us." I looked over at him and followed his gaze to what remained of Polonsky, then to a set of tags held loosely in his hand.
Yeah...