Chapter 19
Brink was the one who broke the stunned silence yet again.
"Knight." The lieutenant said quietly, almost as if speaking too loud would disturb the peace and quiet that had befallen the city and its long-dead inhabitants.
"Sir." Knight said, automatically matching the volume of the lieutenant's voice.
"Where is the rescue beacon from our current position?" Brink asked. Knight pulled up the data display on the small terminal he wore on his left forearm and quickly flipped through the screens until he found the blinking rescue beacon marker. Artificial eyes scanned over the city ahead of them as AMD-powered data processors coordinated the information he was receiving with the data from his terminal. After a relatively-long three-point-seven seconds, he'd calculated the beacon's position.
"Sir." Knight said, pointing his right arm, fingers extended and joined. "The rescue beacon is there. The large structure with the parapet-like walls surrounding it." Brink's eyes followed where Knight was pointing. He saw the structure, which was an enormous building that opened up to an even larger walled-off courtyard.
"Distance?" Brink asked, trying to eyeball it. The sheer size of the city's inhabitants was throwing off his calculations, and he was struggling to do the mental math.
"One-point-three miles, sir." Knight relayed.
"Roger…" Brink said quietly. Captain Bartz had said they'd passed directly over the rescue beacon. That meant that they'd flown right over this city, but the storm had been too dense for them to see it. He couldn't help but wonder what call the Captain would have made on this mission had he seen the city, or the killing field.
At that very moment, Brink could have really used a cigarette.
"Sir." Someone said, snapping the lieutenant from his craving. It was Sergeant Bradford. She'd turned the laser of her rifle on and was lasso'ing the green designator towards the city's outer wall. "Looks like there's an opening we can use to gain entrance there, Lieutenant."
"Good eye, Sergeant." Brink said. He took a moment to close his eyes and do two sets of four-count box breaths. Having re-centered himself, he started forward. "Platoon wedge until we reach the entrance, same formation as before. Once we're in, Platoon file. Gunners on the flanks. One marksman with each gunner, and another at the rear. Check?" Nods all around. "Let's move it, people." With that, the Lieutenant started forward. A distant clap of thunder sounded, almost as if to punctuate Brink's order as he continued towards the city.
The rest of the platoon fell into formation. While eyes scanned over their weapon sights once again, every Marine had the same two questions on their mind:
What the hell was this place, and what had happened here?