Part 35 (2/2)

”Done,” Corrie told him after a moment.

Linda looked up. ”Sounds like a covey of quails overheard.”

”Mortars,” Ben told her, just as the first rounds began exploding, knocking chunks of earth and mud from the walls of the bunkers. ”Tell the artillery to return the fire, Corrie. Let's get this dance going.”

For a few moments, it was a battle of cannon and mortar, a deafening, nerve-wracking cacophony of ground-trembling thunder.

During a few seconds' lull, Ben said, ”Corrie, advise the troops the creepies will be moving into place while this is going on. Ready flares.”

”Flares ready, sir.”

Creepie mortar fire stopped. ”Flares up.”

Flares were fired and the harsh brilliance caught the creepies as they were advancing across the buffer zone.

”Fire!”

The Rebels opened up with every weapon that could make the range. Creepies went down like pins in a bowling alley. The Believers called their people back. The first attack had been beaten back without a single Rebel dead or wounded.

Ben waited in silence for a couple of minutes. Then he smiled. ”They're short of mortar rounds,” he said. ”I believe they gave us all they had during the last barrage.”

”That won't disappoint me,” Jersey said.

”Get Cecil, Corrie.”

She handed him the mike. ”Cec. Are you still coming under mortar attack?”

”That's ten-fifty, Ben. Small-arms fire only.”

”That's ten-four, Cec. They've shot their wad, then. I'd guess they're out of rounds.”

”They've still got us pinned down tight.”

”Same here. But if small arms is all they have, we've got the fight won. It'll just take a little time. We'll wear them down with artillery and then bust out as soon as Seven and Eight show up. As soon as West shows up with enough people north of you, he'll push to your location.”

”I d.a.m.n sure won't complain about that.”

”See you in a couple of days, Cec.”

After twenty-four hours of exchanging fire, the Rebels could tell the creepies were losing steam.

By noon of the second day, spotters reported the creepies falling back into the ruins.

”Keep up the artillery fire,” Ben ordered.

”Don't give them a chance to catch their breath.””Seven and Eight are a few miles out, sir,”

Corrie said. ”They want orders.”

”Tell them to come on in and share supplies with us.

Eight will occupy this airport and Seven will accompany us into the city.”

The next day's dawning brought an end to the rain.

”Saddle up,” Ben ordered. ”We're moving.

Scouts out along the Interstate to the junction with 55.”.

Eight Battalion moved into the airport, and Ben took his people and Seven Battalion in pursuit of the creepies holed up inside the ruins of the city.

They advanced twelve miles the first day, moving over to within a few miles of what was left of Anaheim. Ike was barreling in with Georgi paralleling him. The rest of West's troops were coming in with the rolling equipment. Cecil had cleared LAX and planes were landing every hour, bringing in explosives from Base Camp One.

Dan's Scouts had found maps of the sewer system and the tunnels under the city. ”Blow them,” Ben ordered. ”Blow every entrance and exit you can find.

Seal it off-block it. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds like the tunnels and the darkness. Let's give it to them. Let it become their tombs.”

The Rebels advanced, working block by block, blowing and burning everything that stood in their way. This time the devastation was total. They left nothing standing behind them. Early fall melted into late fall, and more rains came. The Rebels worked on, destroying the city and flus.h.i.+ng out creepies.

It was the most ma.s.sive undertaking the Rebels had ever tackled. House-to-house and building-to-building searching and destroying and fighting.

Cecil was working from LAX east, West and Ike working from the north down, and Georgi and Ben from the west toward the ocean. Seven and Eight were working from the south northward. They left nothing behind them except devastation.

On a bl.u.s.tery cool day in mid-November, a man came staggering out of the smoking, battle-ravaged ashes of what remained of Los Angeles, carrying a white flag.

”You hold it right there, a.s.shole!” a Rebel yelled.

The creepie stopped.

”What do you want?”

”To speak with General Raines.”

”About what?”

”Surrender,” the Believer said bitterly.

”When h.e.l.l freezes over!” Ben said.

”Anybody else, I'd say give them a chance,”

Ike said. ”But not these people. No way.”

”I will not accept the surrender of those creatures,”

Dan said emphatically.

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