Chapter 16: No Good Deed
Richard, Roy and a third SEAL dove behind a low wall as the buildings around them came down, a massive cloud of dust rose from the debris as particles of brick rained down on them. Coughing, Richard yelled out "GO! Get out of the kill zone!" He did his best to direct his men away from where they were and into cover, they stumbled as they moved behind a building to the south. Collecting themselves, the trio assessed their situation, there was now cover between them and the tanks but it wasn't solid enough to take more than a couple of hits should their operators decide to attack. "Go, further back!" Richard said, pointing south.
"Where the hell are we going?" Roy asked as he started to move, "exfil is the other way!"
"We're cut off, we need to get out of here!" Richard said as he ran, putting distance and structures between them and the enemy. Once they reached what appeared to be a quiet spot they crouched down, surveying their surroundings. "Command we're cut off from Team Eight, advise!" Richard said into the radio.
"Command I got wounded we need backup now!" Victor's voice said.
"Master Chief you need to move northwest, that's the closest friendly forces!" The male voice that was command said.
"Vic we're heading back, going to make our way around!" Richard said.
"Negative Chief Grayson... Keep moving south, you have Marines a click and a half away!" The voice on the radio said.
"Negative command, we're going back... Vic just hang on!" Richard responded.
"Rich we can't wait for you, we have men down, link up with the Marines and get the hell out of there!" Victor ordered.
Richard growled, he wanted to go back and help his friends but while it was plausible, it wasn't practical, he spat on the ground in frustration. "Copy Master Chief..." He let go of the radio, "move out, south, weapons cold!"
The trio made their way south, staying low to the ground and sticking to structures for cover. Sticking as much as possible to back alleys they made it only a few hundred yards before they came to a wide main road. Roy looked around the corner down the road in both directions, "fuck!" he spat before ducking back into the alley.
"What?" Richard asked.
"Armor convoy inbound, get back!"
The SEALs backtracked into the alley, about twenty feet from the exit to the road and waited. It was only seconds before the enemy convoy started past from west, headed east. The men stayed as still and as quiet as possible as it passed, they counted five vehicles, an APC followed by a tank, then a MRAP, then another tank, and lastly one more MRAP. Seconds after the last vehicle passed they heard an explosion, a close one, come from the east. The men looked at each other with confused expressions, Richard walked over to the alley exit and looked down the street where the convoy went "are you serious?" He asked rhetorically.
"What happened?" Roy asked.
"I think that last MRAP just got disabled by one of their own IEDs" Richard replied.
"No way" Roy said as he peeked around the corner, crouching below Richard. He saw what Richard saw, the MRAP at the back of the convoy leaning slightly to its right side about two hundred yards down the road, not moving, with the rest of the convoy driving away. "Wow... And they just left them behind..."
The third SEAL had by now taken a look for himself. "Honor killing?" He laughed.
"If they didn't have that machine gun on top, yeah" Richard said, "can't even get a clear shot at the guy manning it."
"We can go back and move west, cross the street further away from them" the other SEAL suggested.
"Will take too long" Richard said, looking on the other side of the road. "Command, are the Marines getting any closer to us?"
"Negative Chief, they actually could use your help, they're getting hammered pretty bad."
"Dammit" Richard muttered to himself. As he surveyed the other side of the road he saw an opening to another alley, problem was it was only about fifty yards behind where the enemy MRAP was sitting. Richard noticed a burned out car on the other side of the road about two-thirds of the way between them and the entrance to the other alley. "Alright, this is what we're going to do... You two are going to make your way to that car... Quietly... I'm going to fire off a couple shots, when they return fire you pop smoke and head for the alley."
"And what about you?" Roy queried.
"Use more than one grenade... Go!"
The two men moved out onto the road, staying as low as possible and moving slowly, doing their best not to attract attention. Richard was holding his rifle on the enemy, his optic zoomed in to four times magnification, observing the enemy soldiers as they tended to the damaged vehicle, they seemed to be sufficiently distracted. It seemed to take an eternity, but Roy and the other SEAL eventually made it to the car without incident. "Ready?" Roy asked over the radio.
"Standby" Richard said as stepped out of the alley and picked a soldier, firing three shots. He saw the man fall but wasn't sure if it was a fatal hit. The remaining enemies turned to face him. "Smoke now!" The other SEALs seemed to be a step ahead as the smoke rose right after Richard got the words out of his mouth. "Go! Get in there!" He saw the men jump to their feet and sprint to the alley, Richard ran that way as well behind the smokescreen. He heard the gunfire from the enemy soldiers, but it appeared his plan was working as the shots seemed to be going where Richard was when he shot the first man. They regrouped at the entrance to the alley across the street. "Keep moving."
It was starting to feel like they had gone too far and somehow slipped past the Marines as they made their way through the winding allies, or it could have just been that the walk was so uneventful. After a bit more walking they began hearing more gunfire. "You're right on top of the Marines, check your fire" said command through the radio.
The three SEALs turned a corner and found a half dozen Marines. "Hey! Friendlies!" Richard yelled as he put his hands up.
The Marines turned, weapons at the ready. "Whoa friendly!" Roy yelled, throwing his hands in the air along with the third man.
"Chief Richard Grayson! SEAL Team Eight, lower your weapons!" Richard yelled as he took a good look at each soldier.
The Marines lowered their rifles and one of them approached, Richard was shocked when he realized it was Toni Monetti. "What are you doing here? Where's the rest of your team?" She asked.
"We don't know, we got separated from them" Roy informed.
Toni looked at the two men quizzically, "what was your mission?"
"You know we can't tell you that" Richard said, lowering his hands, "we were advised to link up with you to extract."
Toni took a step back, "extract? We're not going anywhere until this city falls."
Richard turned his head up in surprise, unsure how to react. Roy decided to chime in, "need some help?"
Toni looked at Roy, her eyes narrow, "no... But you're welcome to come along if you want."
"What do you say Chief?" Roy asked.
"There isn't much left to take, why not?" The other SEAL added.
Richard nodded in agreement, then keyed his mic, "command, we're going to join the Marines, we'll call for extraction."
"Copy that Chief, keep your head on a swivel out there."
Toni allowed a smug smile to appear on her face, "If you're coming with you got it but understand something: I give the orders here and they go for you too if you're coming along, got it?"
"Got it" the three men said.
"Good... Happy to have you with us."
Less than fifteen minutes passed between when the SEALs and Marines joined up to when they began their fourth noteworthy firefight. Richard was impressed with Toni's performance, she handled herself and her weapon at a skill level noticeably higher than the other Marines she was with, he was happy to have her by his side. Once the latest group of enemies was down they continued down the street. Richard noticed what appeared to be a deli type shop specializing in American food, "really?" He muttered.
A young Marine, probably not even old enough to legally drink yet was on point. He rounded a corner followed by his colleagues, then fell to the ground, a bullet hole to his neck right below his adam's apple. The soldiers took cover as Richard pulled the man back around the corner. Assessing the wound it was clear that while it was definitely a small caliber he was hit with, the bullet had severed man's spine on its way out, while he was still alive there was no way to help him.
As the Marines and SEALs engaged with this new group of hostiles another young Marine went down, this time with a hit to the abdomen. "Smoke!" Roy yelled as he dragged the man out of the line of fire, the third SEAL throwing a smoke grenade.
"Dammit!" Toni yelled in frustration, "fall back, command we need exfil!" She paused, Richard assumed she was listening to orders from her higher ups. "Copy, convoy inbound, five minutes..." She turned to the soldiers still standing, "fall back, defensive positions!"
"The deli!" Richard yelled, believing it provided a reasonable defensive position. He lead the group back, carrying the now dead Marine on his shoulders while Roy carrier the wounded man. They broke into the deli, Richard placing the dead man on the floor while Roy placed the other on a table. Richard lowered the blinds and sat on the floor as the others tended to the wounded Marine. He looked through the small gap in the blinds and saw a second group of enemy soldiers pour out from across the street, they stopped in the middle of the road and faced the deli, raising their weapons. Richard's eyes went wide as saucers, "GET DOWN!" He screamed as he turned to the right and dropped to the floor on his side, no sooner did he actually get down than a hail of gunfire erupted through the front window and wall. Richard felt a bullet graze his left shoulder and less than a second later a hard pounding feeling in his left thigh. He cried out in pain and clutched his thigh with his left hand.
The gunfire continued, but stopped coming into the deli, the extraction convoy Toni had called for had just arrived. Toni crawled over to Richard, whose left leg was now drenched in blood. "Rich! Oh shit that's bad!" She said as she pulled a tourniquet out of a pouch, tying it right below Richard's hip. She helped him to his feet, Richard was already feeling lightheaded as Toni put his arm around her neck, she was able to lead him outside as soldiers from the convoy entered the deli.
"Roy..." He uttered, his voice labored as his breath got heavy.
"Come Rich we need to get you to a doctor."
Richard's eyes rolled back into his head as he began to lose consciousness, he collapsed, taking Toni down with him. Toni cursed, but then pulled the badly injured SEAL up and put him over her shoulders.
Richard blacked out.