I watched as the rocket shot through the air, leaving a smoke trail behind it. When I realized its trajectory, I cried out. “No!”
My shout did nothing to stop the rocket from hitting the HEMTT. The vehicle went up in an explosion. Fire engulfed the large vehicle. Debris flew twenty feet in every direction.
Every single person that was here from Camp Fox was on that HEMTT. Everyone we’d fought to protect over the past several months, everyone we’d saved from the fire, everyone we cared for, was gone in a single blast of heat. I don’t know how long I stood there, numbly watching the HEMTT burn. All my senses seemed to shut down until the sounds of battle grew in volume.
The New Eden soldiers fired .30 cal rounds back at the bandits, but the sounds of gunfire were growing less and less frequent. Either they were running out of ammo or they were running out of people. Artillery and grenade blasts rang in my ears.
I looked at Clutch to find him staring at the burning wreckage. Slowly, his jaw clamped shut and his eyes and lips narrowed. He maneuvered the .30 cal and began firing relentlessly at the bandits. The sudden sense of loss was blanketed by adrenaline-infused anger. “Kill them all,” I ordered, though my words were drowned out by machine gun fire.
Clutch turned to me. “I’m out.”
I looked around. The store behind us had become a massive fire. The soldiers who had been around back came running around the store, and were gunned down as soon as they appeared. I twisted to find the source and then saw the bandit who’d given Clutch a black eye standing behind one of New Eden’s .30 cals. The Humvee took off, and I saw Hodge in the driver’s seat.
I jumped up onto the roof of the Humvee and took aim. I didn’t account for their speed properly, and my first shot missed. My second clipped the bandit’s neck, and he fell off the back. It’d been awhile since I’d killed a man, but the fact didn’t faze me. In fact, I found pleasure watching the blood spray from his neck.
I aimed at Hodge, but he turned sharply, and I couldn’t get a clear shot. He pulled out of the parking lot and sped onto the road. I fired off three shots, but I doubted any found their target. Even if we took off after him in our Humvee, we’d likely never catch up in time. So, Clutch and I watched helplessly as the bastard drove off.
When he disappeared behind the trees, I noticed that there were no more sounds of gunfire. Fires crackled everywhere, and I heard someone calling for help.
Unlike massive climatic scenes in movies where the bad guy got his due, this battle had simply…ended.
My ears were ringing, and my adrenaline numbed my nerves. I stared off at the burning HEMTT. Across the parking lot, no one was walking. There were bodies everywhere, but no one was standing. There was no one left except us.
“We’re all that’s left,” I said emotionlessly, though I knew my emotions were still in there, too beaten down by hopelessness to dare rise. “There’s no one left.”
Clutch wrapped an arm around me and I found myself holding onto him like he was my lifeline. “We have each other.”
Chapter XXXIII
Our first pass through the aftermath was search and rescue. Out of all the Camp Fox survivors, New Eden soldiers, and bandits, we found only one person who wasn’t dead or near-death. Marco, a soldier from New Eden, had taken a shot to his helmet and had been knocked out cold. When he woke, it took him some time to come to grips with the loss of his entire squadron. For the first few minutes, he moved restlessly around, counting vehicles and searching for his squadron. When he finally realized they were all there and he was the only one left standing, he collapsed.