Speaker 1: Chapter four, Manny. Manny woke up needing to piss, and
Speaker 1: also to the sound of explosions. You couldn't quite tell
Speaker 1: which was more to blame for his sudden, unwelcome consciousness.
Speaker 1: His lizard brain woke up and shouted, get the funk
Speaker 1: out of their you asshole. A second later, Manny got
Speaker 1: to his feet, grabbed his gear bag, and looked around
Speaker 1: for the journalist. Reggie still seemed asleep, but he stirred
Speaker 1: just as Manny started towards him, and another thundering boom
Speaker 1: shook the world. Christ, who's that, Reggie asked, in a
Speaker 1: slurred voice heavy with sleep. Mortars. Manny explained, I think
Speaker 1: I heard rockets too. Shit, The brit Ex sailed sharply.
Speaker 1: Is this bad? Many shrugged. Those sound like small mortars,
Speaker 1: very short range, but we're miles behind the line. So
Speaker 1: a deafening explosion shook the world. It was loud enough
Speaker 1: that Manny didn't even properly hear it. He felt it
Speaker 1: hard and hot against his skin. The sheer, impo sucible
Speaker 1: noise of it pulled the air from his lungs and
Speaker 1: the thoughts from his head. The next instant, he was
Speaker 1: flat on the ground. His eyes darted left and right
Speaker 1: for cover. He spotted something, an artificial cave built into
Speaker 1: a corner of the main room, perhaps a hundred feet away.
Speaker 1: It looked like some sort of shrine or temple. Many
Speaker 1: could see the walls were thick with melted candles, colorful
Speaker 1: drawings in a variety of brass cymbals. He grabbed Reggie
Speaker 1: by the shoulder and shook hard. The other man jerked,
Speaker 1: locked eyes with Manny and mouthed what the fixture pointed
Speaker 1: towards the shrine, pulled himself up and sprinted towards it.
Speaker 1: The journalists followed, and soon both men were huddled in
Speaker 1: the little substructure, staring out at the devastation that had
Speaker 1: overtaken the Richardson Autonomous Project. They could see two holes
Speaker 1: in the roof. The huge circular kitchen bar looked like
Speaker 1: it had taken a direct hit. Beer spurted from shattered taps,
Speaker 1: and many could see what looked like blood staining the
Speaker 1: white oak of the bar. Counter Flames licked somewhere off
Speaker 1: in the distance on the other side of the vast structure.
Speaker 1: The air smelled of smoke and burning grass. More blasts
Speaker 1: sound it in the distance, including a few that were
Speaker 1: just too loud to be mortar fire. Now that he focused,
Speaker 1: Manny could also hear the chatter of machine guns. It
Speaker 1: was distant, but not nearly as distant as it should
Speaker 1: have been. Many dug into his pocket, found where the
Speaker 1: deck was clipped inside, and thumbed the power button. Static
Speaker 1: flashed at the edge of his vision as his implants
Speaker 1: started up. He nearly always ran in minimalist mode, which
Speaker 1: gave him access to his maps and his communications sweet
Speaker 1: and nothing else. He selected his address book and sub
Speaker 1: vocalized his cousin's name, Alejandro. It dialed and dialed and dialed. Amen.
Speaker 1: Reggie said, his voice oddly, calm, I think we might
Speaker 1: need to get the funk out of here. Reggie looked
Speaker 1: over at the bride and then towards the flames. They
Speaker 1: were bigger now and closer. He could see a dozen
Speaker 1: or so men and women fighting the fire with hoses
Speaker 1: and extinguishers. They didn't seem to be winning. Elsewhere, he
Speaker 1: saw small groups breaking cover to run for the exits.
Speaker 1: The sound of alarm bells echoed across the big structure.
Speaker 1: Alejandro hadn't responded, which meant he was fighting or dead
Speaker 1: either way, Manny and Reggie would need to find their
Speaker 1: own ride out of this mess. It had been a
Speaker 1: while since the last mortar had landed on the complex,
Speaker 1: and the small arms fire still sounded distant. This seemed
Speaker 1: as good a time to make a break for it
Speaker 1: as they were likely to get, so they ran until
Speaker 1: they hit the nearest exit doors, shoved them open, and
Speaker 1: staggered outside into the balmy Texas night. The asphalt parking
Speaker 1: lot outside was filled with newly minted refugees, perhaps two
Speaker 1: hundred of them, most carried at least to go bag.
Speaker 1: A few had managed to drag out more. They were
Speaker 1: ringed by a widening cordon of armed men and women,
Speaker 1: fifty at the most. The militia clutched antique weapons, mostly
Speaker 1: small arms, and stuck like glue to the Hescoe barriers
Speaker 1: that ringed the old parking lot. Here and there, Manny
Speaker 1: caught sight of a man with an RPG or a
Speaker 1: light machine gun. It was a forcement for scaring off bandits.
Speaker 1: The rockets still thudding in the distance told Manny these
Speaker 1: men and women faced considerably more than their match. A
Speaker 1: green blink of light caught his attention. Reggie head and
Speaker 1: aged his lapel camera. The brit fixed him with a
Speaker 1: look that said, dude, what did you expect me to do?
Speaker 1: Most of the survivors were probably recording to their decks, too,
Speaker 1: but Reggie's little camera could do considerably more. It scanned
Speaker 1: the world around him in a three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: degree arc. It also recorded the journalist's own physical data,
Speaker 1: his heart rate, his respiration, his adrenal levels. Everything he
Speaker 1: saw and felt was being recorded for later consumption. The
Speaker 1: brit was carving out a little slice of the war
Speaker 1: for safer parts of the world to Binge Watch. Vehicle
Speaker 1: started to arrive. The project's motor pool included three tracks
Speaker 1: built to carry large groups of people in semi armored
Speaker 1: semi safety. The commune's rapid reaction force set to work,
Speaker 1: loading children and wounded up first. There was no panic,
Speaker 1: no hysteria, just an exhausted efficiency that spoke of long practice.
Speaker 1: Manny saw glassy eyes and clenched jaws, but very little
Speaker 1: open rage. They're so very used to it, he realized.
Speaker 1: Scattered throughout the crowd, Manny saw people whose bodies rattled
Speaker 1: with the sort of palsied shock that artillery leaves in
Speaker 1: its wake. Reggie just stared out at them, mouth slack.
Speaker 1: His left knee twitched, the foot below it pumped against
Speaker 1: the ground. Many guessed he was caught between the urge
Speaker 1: to step out and talk to some of them and
Speaker 1: the voice of sanity in the back of his head
Speaker 1: that knew how tone deaf that would be. Manny put
Speaker 1: a hand on the journalist's shoulder. We need to get
Speaker 1: the funk out of here, and our ride is off calms,
Speaker 1: he said. I'm going to suggest we hitch with the
Speaker 1: R A P where their guests. They'll make room for us,
Speaker 1: but if you'd rather drag us, I know a safe
Speaker 1: neighborhood about six miles into the city. We could probably
Speaker 1: hire a ride there. It looks like they're a bit
Speaker 1: short of room, as is said the brit Those tracks
Speaker 1: can't hold more than people each. Many smiled a little
Speaker 1: twenty four, But that's just if you're attached to things
Speaker 1: like seats. Ten minutes later, Reggie and Manny clung to
Speaker 1: the hood of the track as it barreled down the
Speaker 1: broken streets of Ciadad de Muerta, bound for a staging
Speaker 1: area in deep Ellum. The fighting sounded much closer by
Speaker 1: the time they left, Manny guessed the small arms fire
Speaker 1: couldn't be more than a couple of blocks away. He
Speaker 1: and the journalist held on with white knuckles and tried
Speaker 1: not to linger long on what would happen if they
Speaker 1: lost their grip. The martyrs had passed the command post
Speaker 1: the bridge, shouted in sudden realization, his voice strained to
Speaker 1: be audible over the roar of the engines. Holy shit,
Speaker 1: they have to be right. Many thought about the geography
Speaker 1: for a moment. It was possible that the martyrs had
Speaker 1: only broken through in a few chunks of the line,
Speaker 1: but that would mean to Shaun and the others were
Speaker 1: alive and surrounded or fleeing. Those were the best case scenarios.
Speaker 1: I think we might be fucked, Manny said, stunned by
Speaker 1: the realization. For the last year, Major Clark had been
Speaker 1: his most reliable source in the SDF. That post had
Speaker 1: seemed immovable, impregnable for its significance in his little chunk
Speaker 1: of the world. The tracks slowed to a stop. Parked
Speaker 1: facing them were too smaller armored SDF tracks with swiveling
Speaker 1: cannons on their roofs. Soldiers scurried around them. They pulled
Speaker 1: sections of thin, frosted gray still glass barricades off the
Speaker 1: vehicles and started setting them up to form a new
Speaker 1: defensive line. Many watched two militia women wrestle with a
Speaker 1: large olive green case covered in boxy cyrillic script. They
Speaker 1: pried it open, and Manny saw a huge metal tube
Speaker 1: and what looked like a lot of antique optical equipment.
Speaker 1: It was probably an old wire guided missile launcher, something
Speaker 1: that had been antique before the revolution. He'd never seen
Speaker 1: the stf use anything that old. They had drones half
Speaker 1: this size that carried even more firepower, had them yesterday,
Speaker 1: at least, he thought. The track slowed to a cautious
Speaker 1: stop and honked. Manny glanced back at the driver. She
Speaker 1: had her hands in the air in a universal please
Speaker 1: don't shoot us gesture. Two of the soldiers peeled off
Speaker 1: from their efforts and approached, weapons in hand but not aimed.
Speaker 1: The driver opened her door and shouted something down at them.
Speaker 1: One of the men responded and gestured vaguely downtown. Manny
Speaker 1: couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but the
Speaker 1: driver's face contorted in a fury that was impossible to miss.
Speaker 1: Something's fucked Manny said to the journalist, I think we're
Speaker 1: about to lose our ride. Look. He pointed to the
Speaker 1: makeshift barricade and the dozen or so soldiers who filtered
Speaker 1: past it and towards the track. The driver yelled and
Speaker 1: one of the other passengers near the front started to shout.
Speaker 1: The soldier's face remained impassive, but he put a hand
Speaker 1: on his side arm and repeated a command Manny didn't
Speaker 1: even need to hear. A few seconds later, a soldier
Speaker 1: with a megaphone arrived and addressed Manny, Reggie and the
Speaker 1: new refugees citizens. Your vehicle has been requisition for medical
Speaker 1: use by the SDF. Please dismount on a wordly fashion.
Speaker 1: Injured in pregnant individuals may stay aboard. The man repeated
Speaker 1: the order, this time in Spanish. Reggie's jaw clinched man
Speaker 1: he could see fear in his eyes, but the other
Speaker 1: man just nodded and started to climb down off the track.
Speaker 1: Manny did the same. Not all of the tracks passengers
Speaker 1: were as compliant. There was a lot of shouting and
Speaker 1: even a few shoving matches between the militiamen and the passengers,
Speaker 1: but in the end, the SDF got their way. Manny
Speaker 1: gathered fairly quickly that they planned to send the civilians
Speaker 1: a mile or so back to a holding area behind
Speaker 1: in the new line. That was the last fucking place
Speaker 1: in the world he wanted to be, so he approached
Speaker 1: the officer who had been arguing with their driver. The
Speaker 1: man had no rank in signiya on his uniform, but
Speaker 1: that wasn't unusual for militia. His fatigues were old U
Speaker 1: S Army issue. His arm band identified him as part
Speaker 1: of the Citizens Front. Manny found that odd Most of
Speaker 1: the militia at this barricade were with Raza Front or
Speaker 1: the p p A. This much intermixing wasn't normal. It
Speaker 1: pointed to a lot of casualties among the stf DI
Speaker 1: scope Signor. Manny started, Chico, no ur remismo. I don't
Speaker 1: have time to debate, no Signor. My cousin Alejandro was
Speaker 1: with Citizens Front ninth Battalion. He was our ride. We
Speaker 1: were taking this journalist. Manny jerked his head towards Reggie,
Speaker 1: who stood a few feetback, and we got caught up
Speaker 1: in the attack. The officer nodded, then grunted. Manny studied
Speaker 1: his face for a moment. The man was middle aged,
Speaker 1: with a weak chin and enough extra meat on his
Speaker 1: bones to suggest this was his first front line duty
Speaker 1: in a while. His eyes were bloodshot, his hands clenched,
Speaker 1: his attitude softened a bit at Alejandro's name, Alejandro Hernandez. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a good man, or was, the officer said darkly.
Speaker 1: All our front line units were wiped out or near enough.
Speaker 1: The whole STF has been pushed all the way back
Speaker 1: to Sida de Muerta. If he's alive, he's a prisoner.
Speaker 1: The man shook his head. Sorry, Chico, there's not much
Speaker 1: I can do for you or your friend. We need
Speaker 1: to get to Waco. I know there's a hospital there
Speaker 1: that must be where you're sending the serious injuries. Right,
Speaker 1: Dallas doesn't have anything left with a fully are the
Speaker 1: officer nodded. These tracks are headed to the Field Hospital
Speaker 1: in Oak Lawn, But we've got a couple of deuce
Speaker 1: and a half sloading up at fire based. Jamenez, if
Speaker 1: you can get there on your own, all radio ahead
Speaker 1: and ask Major Peron if he's got space. I know Peron.
Speaker 1: Manny almost shouted, I went to school with his nephew, Hector.
Speaker 1: He couldn't stop himself from wincing as he said, if
Speaker 1: you'd give him my name, that might help. The other
Speaker 1: man's eye cocked up in a really motherfucker look. But
Speaker 1: then the soldier asked, and your name is Many Sanchez.
Speaker 1: He nodded. Good, then, Manny, all radio ahead. You and
Speaker 1: your friend get to the firebase Rapido Cambrende. Many nodded
Speaker 1: and turned to Reggie. We've got a ride, but it's
Speaker 1: going to be a bit of a hike. It was
Speaker 1: less a hike and more of a panicked jog. The
Speaker 1: streets around them were filled with dozens of people carrying
Speaker 1: their possessions and bags and rusted old shopping carts. Manny
Speaker 1: had never seen Dallas this crowded. Less than a million
Speaker 1: people still lived in the old Metroplex, but most of
Speaker 1: them seemed to be out in the streets to watch
Speaker 1: the world end. Sirens sounded, courtesy of the city's old
Speaker 1: civil defense system, mixed every few seconds with the distorted
Speaker 1: voice of a woman reminding them that all motor vehicle
Speaker 1: use was prohibited. Any civilian vehicles on the road will
Speaker 1: be assumed hostile and targeted. The road traffic was all military.
Speaker 1: There was less of it than Manny would have hoped
Speaker 1: to see. In the space of a few seconds, he
Speaker 1: watched three pairs of cougar assault vehicles race up towards
Speaker 1: the front, carrying squads of armored troopers in their open beds.
Speaker 1: He also saw one convoy of five anti tank drones.
Speaker 1: Each was the size of a four door sedan, with
Speaker 1: two linked chain guns on a turret that scanned the
Speaker 1: sky in fast, jerky arcs. There was a troubling amount
Speaker 1: of dead space on the road between the two units.
Speaker 1: By the sound of it, the fighting had only grown
Speaker 1: more intense throughout the morning. The crack of small arms
Speaker 1: fire had been nearly drowned out by the all consuming
Speaker 1: roar of close support drones in the sky above them.
Speaker 1: The only noises to rise above that din were the
Speaker 1: stippling bangs of mortar fire and the pop pop popping
Speaker 1: of cluster bombs fire. Bassiamenez was about two miles back
Speaker 1: from the new front. It was mainly a staging area
Speaker 1: for the st f's Autonomous Artillery Division. The a a
Speaker 1: D was made up of men and mostly drones from
Speaker 1: all the secular militia groups active in the Dallas area.
Speaker 1: The fire base itself wasn't well fortified. The only physical
Speaker 1: defense was a fence topped with razor wire to keep
Speaker 1: civilians out. That wouldn't be much of a barrier for
Speaker 1: a determined assault. Untilicup of hours ago, Yumenez had been
Speaker 1: far enough from the front that an assault wasn't considered possible.
Speaker 1: After an hour of mixed jogging and running, Manny and
Speaker 1: Reggie took a left onto park Lane and the fire
Speaker 1: base came into view. It had been built in the
Speaker 1: bones of an old apartment complex. Several buildings had been
Speaker 1: converted into offices and the rest left as barracks space.
Speaker 1: The apartments were situated across the road from a tall,
Speaker 1: very thin, parentheses shaped building that looked out over a
Speaker 1: large field dotted with landing pads. The name Top Golf
Speaker 1: Driving Range was still visible on the side of the building.
Speaker 1: Several hundred militiamen were hard at work throwing up defenses. Still,
Speaker 1: glass sheets had been set up to screen a dozen
Speaker 1: machine gun nests. Further back, soldiers piled sandbags in front
Speaker 1: of two howitzers. Manny and Reggie weren't the only civilians
Speaker 1: trying to gain entrance. Fifty or so people clustered by
Speaker 1: a checkpoint in the middle of the road, a hundred
Speaker 1: yards ahead of the construction efforts. The checkpoint was new,
Speaker 1: just a sandbag machine gun emplacement manned by six fighters
Speaker 1: in powered body armor. They were over watched by a
Speaker 1: pair of ancient Abrams tanks because issian on either side
Speaker 1: of the road. The soldiers in the middle checked the
Speaker 1: documents and let the occasional civilian through. They turned most
Speaker 1: people back. There were a lot of shouts and violent
Speaker 1: gestures on the part of the civilians. While Manny watched.
Speaker 1: One of the guards raised their rifle up and fired
Speaker 1: it just to the left of a screaming man's face.
Speaker 1: He recoiled in pain and fear, clutched his ears, and
Speaker 1: staggered away from the checkpoint. The weight was only about
Speaker 1: ten minutes, but with the flooding artillery at their back,
Speaker 1: each of those minutes felt like an hour. But soon
Speaker 1: they stood face to face with one of the armored
Speaker 1: militia folks. Reggie went stiff at once, his pupils the
Speaker 1: size of dinner plates. He had never seen powered armor
Speaker 1: up close before. Many couldn't blame the man for being unnerved.
Speaker 1: The reflective, bug eyed, blistic glass of the helmets and
Speaker 1: humanly broad shoulder armor made the wearers look like Cronenbergie
Speaker 1: and guerrilla mantis hybrids. The shortest armored soldier was well
Speaker 1: over seven feet tall and almost as broad as two men.
Speaker 1: Their gender was impossible to discern, but a feminine voice
Speaker 1: leapt from the speakers. State your busin this, she said,
Speaker 1: If you're looking for shelter, you'll have to head to
Speaker 1: North Park Center. We don't have room for you. I'm
Speaker 1: Emmanuel Sanchez, Major Perrone. Should have my friend and I
Speaker 1: on your list. The woman was silent for a little while.
Speaker 1: As she called up the list, she clucked her tongue
Speaker 1: between her teeth, and the high fidelity mike in her
Speaker 1: suit made it sound like she'd done it next to
Speaker 1: his ear. Well, hell, there you are. Her helmeted head
Speaker 1: bobbed at them. All right, you're in, come through quick.
Speaker 1: You stop being my fucking problem. As soon as you're inside.
Speaker 1: They made their way towards the actual front gate of
Speaker 1: the fire base, passing squads of militias struggling with hescoes
Speaker 1: and setting up firing positions behind the still glass palisade.
Speaker 1: Manny and Reggie walked past it all and to the
Speaker 1: firebases front gate. They were let in without any fuss,
Speaker 1: which surprised Manny a bit, but he wasn't about to
Speaker 1: question it. On the other side of the gate, they
Speaker 1: found themselves adrift, unescorted, and surrounded by pure chaos. There
Speaker 1: were other civilians inside the walls, huddled in small groups
Speaker 1: around piles of backpacks. They sat wide eyed and shaking,
Speaker 1: and waited for whatever deliverance the STF could provide. Soldiers
Speaker 1: rushed through the clots of humanity in groups of two
Speaker 1: or three. Often their arms were filled with machinery or paper,
Speaker 1: or even crates of munitions. Everyone's eyes were wide and
Speaker 1: full of fear. For a while, Reggie and Manny milled
Speaker 1: around with no real aim, unable to enter any of
Speaker 1: the buildings. Mannie found them an unclaimed place to sit
Speaker 1: that looked like it would be easy for mister perun
Speaker 1: to find, and then they just sat there. At one point,
Speaker 1: Reggie offered him a protein bar. Mannie tried to eat it,
Speaker 1: but three bites in he accepted that his appetite just
Speaker 1: wasn't there. What do I do if Dallas falls? He
Speaker 1: ran through his finances over and over again, mulling over
Speaker 1: which European vises he could afford, and how long he'd
Speaker 1: be able to survive in each country. I could make
Speaker 1: it a year, maybe eighteen months. In Croatia, he'd been
Speaker 1: studying German for the last year, though I can learn
Speaker 1: Croatian any here, he tried to convince himself. He also
Speaker 1: tried to ignore what he'd been leaving behind if he
Speaker 1: hopped the next flight from Austin to the e U.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to think about Oscar's wife and child,
Speaker 1: how they'd get by without their dad's income. He didn't
Speaker 1: want to think about his own father or the rest
Speaker 1: of his family and how they'd fair if Austin fell.
Speaker 1: You can only afford to take care of you here, Manny.
Speaker 1: It was two hours before Major Perne found them. The
Speaker 1: older man's skin was a deep sunsharred brown that seemed
Speaker 1: at odds with his narrow face and thin wire glasses.
Speaker 1: He had the look of a high school history teacher
Speaker 1: who had been transplanted into a war zone. There was
Speaker 1: something drawn and strained in his expression that spoke of
Speaker 1: deep exhaustion. His eyes were bloodshot, and his nose was
Speaker 1: swollen slightly red. Manny could remember seeing that same face
Speaker 1: a bit younger and wearing a T shirt rather than
Speaker 1: digiKam at a hundred different slumber parties. Mister Perrone was
Speaker 1: Hector's dad. Mister Perrone made them kettle corn and let
Speaker 1: them watch violent movies on the family projector Major Perone.
Speaker 1: Manny had to remind himself he's Major Perone. The Major
Speaker 1: favored Manny with a sad smile. Madre di dio, s Emmanuel,
Speaker 1: It's fucking good to see you. Have you seen your
Speaker 1: cousin Alejandro? He was with us last night, Manny said,
Speaker 1: before the attack. Back a pained look cross the Major's face. Okay,
Speaker 1: he nodded and forced to smile back across his lips.
Speaker 1: I hear you boys need a ride, yes, Manny said,
Speaker 1: if you could get us back to Waco. I have
Speaker 1: enough connections in the area to get him. Manny nodded
Speaker 1: back to the journalist. Into Austin and what is your name, sir,
Speaker 1: Major Perrone asked the journalist as he extended his hand.
Speaker 1: Reggie the brit responded, thank you so much for helping us.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid there's not much I can do right now.
Speaker 1: The situation is still very fluid. We've set a new
Speaker 1: defensive line running from the Lakewood Crater to love Field.
Speaker 1: With any luck, the martyrs have spent the bulk of
Speaker 1: their strength and will hold them there. And if not,
Speaker 1: Reggie asked, Mr Perrone laughed and scratched his head. Well,
Speaker 1: if the line breaks, then I'd guess our collective booch
Speaker 1: is screwed. We'll begin the evacuation if it gets much worse,
Speaker 1: But right now we're still waiting for convoys of wounded
Speaker 1: to get back through the lines. He gestured out at
Speaker 1: the considerable amount of fenced off open space in the firebase.
Speaker 1: This whole place is about to be a big, open
Speaker 1: air hospital. He gave Reggie a severe look. I won't
Speaker 1: tell you not to record them, because quite frankly, everyone
Speaker 1: here is too busy to police that. But I will
Speaker 1: ask that you showed tact in respect in your documentation,
Speaker 1: of course, said Reggie, with enough sincerity that Manny believed him.
Speaker 1: All right. He clapped Manny on the shoulder, and, after
Speaker 1: a second's pause, embraced him. Hold on out here for
Speaker 1: a while. I'll try to send some food in a
Speaker 1: little bit. Manny and Reggie both thanked Major Braun and
Speaker 1: he trundled off into the old top golf building to
Speaker 1: do his part in coordinating the defense. So what now,
Speaker 1: Reggie asked, We wait, said Manny. Three hours passed. More
Speaker 1: and more wounded men streamed into the base, carried on
Speaker 1: stretchers and an ambulances, and in several cases stacked like
Speaker 1: firewood on flatbed trucks. The wounded were set up on
Speaker 1: cots and piles of blankets in the grass and wherever possible,
Speaker 1: in paved sections of the driving ranger's old parking lot. Medics,
Speaker 1: far too few medics hustled from soldier to soldier at
Speaker 1: a frantic, manic, unsustainable pace. For a while, there was
Speaker 1: nothing to do but follow Reggie around while he interviewed
Speaker 1: the wounded men and women who were stable enough to talk.
Speaker 1: They all reported shock at the speed and ferocity of
Speaker 1: the attack. Their testimonies drove home the fact that this
Speaker 1: was something new. Tendrils of fear crept up Manny's spine.
Speaker 1: It was all he could do to keep moving with
Speaker 1: his journalist Amen. Reggie said, look at that fellow. He
Speaker 1: pointed to a soldier with the top half of his
Speaker 1: head wrapped in blood soaked bandages. Something about the man's
Speaker 1: broad and square chin looked familiar. Isn't that one of
Speaker 1: the men we met yesterday, Reggie asked the Major. Holy shit,
Speaker 1: Reggie was right. That had to be to Shaun Clark.
Speaker 1: Manny ran over to him. As he drew closer, it
Speaker 1: became clear that Deshaun was an even worse shape than
Speaker 1: he looked at a distance. His shirt had been ripped open,
Speaker 1: exposing a muscular chest drenched in blood. Three white plugs
Speaker 1: of hardened Seloch's wound spray visible across his abdomen. He'd
Speaker 1: been shot repeatedly and had what looked like a shrapnel
Speaker 1: wound on the side of his head. At least he's breathing,
Speaker 1: Manny thought, Major Clark, he said, and to manny surprise,
Speaker 1: the warrior poet stirred. Manny, sweet Jesus, is that you
Speaker 1: d Shaun asked in a slared voice. Yes, sir, Manny said,
Speaker 1: You know, I was damn sure you had been killed.
Speaker 1: Haven't had all that much time to think about you
Speaker 1: in the last few hours, of course, what with everyone
Speaker 1: dying and all. I'm glad you're alive, Manny said, and
Speaker 1: he was. Major Clark had always been good to him.
Speaker 1: Do you know what happened to Himid and Colonel Milgram.
Speaker 1: Manny asked, before the thought had fully crystallized in his mind.
Speaker 1: Major Clark tried to lift his head and almost cried
Speaker 1: out from the sheer agony of the movement. He didn't
Speaker 1: speak for a few seconds. He just took deep, slow breaths,
Speaker 1: but he started to whisper. The last sunbeam lightly falls
Speaker 1: from the finished Sabbath on the pavement here and there
Speaker 1: beyond it is looking down a new maid, double grave.
Speaker 1: What man he asked, confused, Walt Actually, Major Clark laughed, winced,
Speaker 1: and then explained, Walt, Whitman. That is sorry. Imminent death
Speaker 1: makes me go for the deep cuts. So they're dead.
Speaker 1: Then Manny asked. Major Clark coughed, and again his lips
Speaker 1: curled up in an agonized cringe. I think, so, he
Speaker 1: managed to say. I think everyone from the command post
Speaker 1: is dead. I was out grabbing a smoke when they
Speaker 1: hit us. Came out of nowhere, drone artillery, heavy stuff.
Speaker 1: Whole place slit up like Christmas. Two booms sounded in
Speaker 1: the distance. Major Clark tensed up. Reggie cringed to Manny.
Speaker 1: The whole situation seemed almost too unreal. To justify a
Speaker 1: reaction like that, Major Clark said, after I grabbed who
Speaker 1: I could and tried to save as many men as
Speaker 1: possible fighting retreat. You know, we linked up with as
Speaker 1: many fighters as we could, but every time we'd set
Speaker 1: a line, they'd break through. They had so many damn drones.
Speaker 1: I've never seen Martyr's use drones like that. What do
Speaker 1: you mean, Reggie asked, Well, they've always had drones, but
Speaker 1: usually just his defensive aids for when we'd make a push.
Speaker 1: We've got enough jammers that their hardware was no use
Speaker 1: in our territory since none of their ship goes autonomous.
Speaker 1: So what the journalist asked, as he drew in a
Speaker 1: bit closer. Do you think they've changed their minds on
Speaker 1: autonomous drones? Or is this something else? Major Clark rolled
Speaker 1: his head just a little. It seemed to be the
Speaker 1: only gesture he could make without hurting himself. I don't know, kid,
Speaker 1: he said, Whatever is happening, it's totally new, and it's
Speaker 1: totally fucked us. Major Clark was taken by another coughing fit.
Speaker 1: This one lasted a long time. Blood bubbled up and
Speaker 1: out from the corners of his mouth. Manny wanted to
Speaker 1: call for a medic, but he couldn't see any of
Speaker 1: them who weren't dealing with patients who were even worse off. Eventually,
Speaker 1: the coughing subsided and Major Clark drifted off into unconsciousness.
Speaker 1: They sat with him until the night fell and Mr
Speaker 1: Perrone finally came to get them. He looked exhausted and
Speaker 1: somehow broken. His skin was sallow and so pale it
Speaker 1: was almost yellow. His uniform was soaked with old sweat stains,
Speaker 1: and he had two lit cigarettes in his mouth. When
Speaker 1: he found Manny and Reggie, Manny wasn't sure he'd ever
Speaker 1: seen the older man's smoke. Mr Perrone noted his surprise.
Speaker 1: I've taken up smoking again, he said, with a hollow
Speaker 1: laugh since her tone, expect to survive to the end
Speaker 1: of the week that bad, Manny asked worse. He shook
Speaker 1: his head and then seemed to notice the Major Is
Speaker 1: that d Shawn Clark? Yes, Sir, Manny said, is he?
Speaker 1: He's alive and he seems to be stable for now.
Speaker 1: Major Perrone looked relieved. That's one spot a mercy. Then
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll get him out in time. On that note,
Speaker 1: I've confirmed that We've got a convoy of wounded heading
Speaker 1: out tomorrow a m As soon as our scouts clear
Speaker 1: the root. You'll both have a seat in that convoy.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, sir, Reggie started, Mr Perrone cut
Speaker 1: him off. It's no problem, son, do your job and
Speaker 1: tell people what's happened here. What are you going to do,
Speaker 1: Sir Manny asked? Mr Perrone looked into his eyes. He'd
Speaker 1: always had an intense stare. His edge had been evident,
Speaker 1: even when he'd been driving the boys to soccer practice
Speaker 1: or taking them out for pizza. Now his eyes bored
Speaker 1: into Manny's heart so deeply that the fixer finally understood
Speaker 1: what that phrase meant. I'm going to die here, Emmanuel,
Speaker 1: he said, I'm going to die here like your cousin
Speaker 1: Alajandro died here, because it's the only thing I can
Speaker 1: do that might protect our home. Manny felt an intense
Speaker 1: urge to look away, to cast his eyes down, but
Speaker 1: he didn't. He held mister Perrone's gaze and braced himself
Speaker 1: for what came next. What about you, mister Perrone asked,
Speaker 1: What will you do if they reach Austin? Wait? Is
Speaker 1: that on the bloody table? Reggie interrupted. Mr Perrone paused
Speaker 1: for a moment and considered his words. I don't know,
Speaker 1: he said, No one does. But the martyrs just broke
Speaker 1: through it Lakewood. We won't hold Dallas for another day.
Speaker 1: He pulled Manny into a hug and kissed him on
Speaker 1: the cheek. When he pulled back, he kept his hands
Speaker 1: on Manny's shoulders. I've always been proud of you, Immanuel.
Speaker 1: I think that what you do here, he nodded to Reggie,
Speaker 1: has value. But there are times when our homelands require
Speaker 1: more of us. What are you prepared to give for Austin?
Speaker 1: Manny clinched his jaw. I planned to be on a
Speaker 1: plane out of here in the next twelve hours, if possible.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, sir, is all he said. It
Speaker 1: was hard to meet mister Perrone's eyes. When he did,
Speaker 1: he was sure the older man saw the guilt in them.
Speaker 1: Mr Perrone didn't say anything, though, He just led Manny
Speaker 1: and Reggie over to where the convoy was assembling and
Speaker 1: slipped them a pair of m R. E's and some
Speaker 1: bottled water. The best I can do, he said, apologetically.
Speaker 1: He left them at the disembarkation point Manny's last clear
Speaker 1: sight of the man who had helped raise him was
Speaker 1: of his slumped, sweat stained shoulders trudging back to the
Speaker 1: firebase's command center. They sat there for hours, neither of
Speaker 1: them talked much. One by one, the wounded men were
Speaker 1: loaded carefully into the assortment of old half tracks, busses,
Speaker 1: and trailers that made up the convoy. Once they were seated,
Speaker 1: there was another two hours of white time before the
Speaker 1: convoy got moving. Both Reggie and Manny found time to nap,
Speaker 1: but neither of them were really arrested when the dawn
Speaker 1: broke and the convoy set forward it. By the time
Speaker 1: the ramshackle assortment of trucks and broken soldiers started on
Speaker 1: its way to Waco, the sound of mortar fire was
Speaker 1: so constant it had almost become white noise. The small
Speaker 1: arms fire wasn't as loud, but it was also clearly
Speaker 1: much closer than it had been when they'd arrived at
Speaker 1: fire bas umenz. As the convoy rolled out onto the
Speaker 1: old access road that led eventually to Waco, a flight
Speaker 1: of drones roared past them and towards the new front line.
Speaker 1: Those aren't SDF drones, are they, Reggie asked, without actually
Speaker 1: looking at Manny. His gaze was focused on the two
Speaker 1: medics in the back of the truck as they moved
Speaker 1: from soldier to soldier. No, Manny confirmed those are Austin
Speaker 1: Civil Defense Forces. The brit whistled through his teeth. So
Speaker 1: you think this means the sdf ran through their drones
Speaker 1: could be as all, Manny said. The track and its
Speaker 1: escort lumbered through the cracked remnants of the old highway system.
Speaker 1: The accumulated hangers on civilian vehicles piled high with refugees.
Speaker 1: As they rolled along. The civilians stayed back, leary the
Speaker 1: convoy's guns, but trusting in its presence for protection. By
Speaker 1: the time the convoy finally left the Dallas Sprawl, their
Speaker 1: tails stretched back to the horizon line. Manny had seen
Speaker 1: similar sights before when his parents had fled the DFW
Speaker 1: area for Austin's relative safety. Here and there on and
Speaker 1: in the cars behind them, he saw small figures that
Speaker 1: had to be children, kids like he'd been fleeing the
Speaker 1: same city he'd had to flee for the same basic reason.
Speaker 1: Manny's stand out memory from that time wasn't the terror
Speaker 1: of seeing a mortar land for the first time. Or
Speaker 1: anything about their flight out of the city at all.
Speaker 1: It was from the next day at their first refugee camp,
Speaker 1: when he saw his father in line for their daily
Speaker 1: ration of food. A journalist had passed by, taking the
Speaker 1: sort of pictures Reggie's lapel camera now snapped mindlessly. Manny's
Speaker 1: dad had been crying, ashamed that he'd needed charity, and
Speaker 1: even more ashamed to have fled the family home. More
Speaker 1: than anything about that time, Manny remembered how his father
Speaker 1: had hidden his face from the fataeographer. The gesture had
Speaker 1: told Manny more about their new status in the world
Speaker 1: than anything an adult had actually said. Behind him now
Speaker 1: were cars full of mothers and fathers and children who
Speaker 1: were about to have their own searing experiences. Manny hated
Speaker 1: how familiar this felt to him. He hated that for
Speaker 1: Reggie it counted as the adventure of a lifetime. Many
Speaker 1: looked at the journalist at the awe and innocent excitement
Speaker 1: in his eyes, and tried to imagine Reggie's life back home.
Speaker 1: None of the individual pieces of that life would be
Speaker 1: new to Manny. His world also had bars and parties
Speaker 1: and apartment leases and term papers. The thing he couldn't
Speaker 1: imagine was the sense of security, living life without the
Speaker 1: constant threat of war. He'd been so close to securing
Speaker 1: that life for himself if they only waited six months.
Speaker 1: But they hadn't, and now Manny had a choice to
Speaker 1: make stand and fight or run with what he had
Speaker 1: and hoped for the best. Manny leaned back as much
Speaker 1: as his precarious seat allowed and stared out the burning
Speaker 1: city that had once been Dallas. Goddamn, he muttered to himself.
Speaker 1: I gotta get the funk out of Texas. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: Robert Evans here. I hope you just enjoyed the chapter
Speaker 1: you listen to. I hope you enjoyed the chapters to come.
Speaker 1: If you would like to read the text version of
Speaker 1: this book either on the web or on your e
Speaker 1: reader as an e pub you can find those on
Speaker 1: the website a t r book dot com. So again,
Speaker 1: the free ad free e pub and the text of
Speaker 1: every chapter will be on a t R book dot com.
Speaker 1: Thanks