Page 53 of Almost There
The explosion of the vehicle brought a thick wave of heat, but his focus was steady even as his hands grew slick on the rifle.
“We got out!” Sgt. Sierra screamed, waiting for the report from the far side of the house.
“What’s your count?” GySgt. Fuimaono called back. His thunderous voice cracked through the smoke filled air.
“I hate math,” Sgt. Sierra grumbled. Landon sighed as he looked back to the yard.
“Ten. I counted ten,” LCpl. Launce stuttered and glanced to the carnage they’d left behind.
“You hear that, Gunny?” Landon paused to give the lance corporal a reassuring nod. “We’ve got ten.”
“Six back here,” GySgt. Fuimaono spoke the words as a sharp reprimand.
So we miscounted. Landon rolled his eyes as he motioned to the left door on the side of the house.
“Coming toward the west entrance,” Sgt. Sierra yelled since they’d already lost all element of surprise and had clearly announced their intent.
“East rear for us.” GySgt. Fuimaono almost laughed. “Come on boys, let’s flush them out.”
Landon tested the handle, feeling it give under his hand, and kicked open the door, rushing in as he swept the living room with the barrel of his rifle. Brown recliners and a couch without cushions were coated with drywall dust from the grenade’s entrance. A table full of beer bottles. Ash trays overflowing with cigarette butts, some of them still smoldering as if hastily stubbed out.
“Clear.” He advanced with LCpl. Launce and Sgt. Sierra pushing in behind him.
LCpl. Launce took lead as he stepped carefully under the broken framework through the hall that led to the kitchen and the roof sagged above them. The smell of rotten produce and burnt food stuck on pans drifted to them before they even stepped through the mess and the lance corporal called out, “Clear.”
The only sound in the house was the boots stomping and the remains of the structure settling into its new destroyed shape.
Past the kitchen was the single hall lined with bedrooms and bathrooms that ended with the glass doors facing the eastern rising sun and led to the back porch. GySgt. Fuimaono was already kicking in the second door on the left and the Marines followed him inside. Landon turned to the right and splintered the thin door as his boot met the wood.
Mattresses stacked on the floor were shoved against the walls. No dressers, no closets, just bags of belongings set on the floor next to each bed. The stench of sweat was worse in here.
“Clear,” Landon said as LCpl. Launce and Sgt. Sierra came rushing in to cover his back.
Down the hall, the Marines were advancing, splitting off into groups of two as each door was kicked in and the word “clear” continued to ring through the air. They met in the middle with two doors left.
GySgt. Fuimaono nodded at Landon with a determined fire in his eyes and they stood back-to-back at the last two doors. Gunny’s door was locked and he shoved against it, before firing his rifle at the handle and breaking the door in two with his boot.
The hairs on the back of Landon’s neck raised, but he didn’t dare turn around as he shoved his way into the last room.
“Screw you, you government pigs!”
GySgt. Fuimaono’s M4 fired off behind him ending the threat.
Landon kept his attention on the room in front of him. A backpack overflowing with clothes sat on the urine-stained bare mattress. The window was half open, foil torn off from the glass. His gaze swept the bedside table with the crudely blown glass pipes and ashtrays, the half empty vodka bottle. Disgust churned through him as the memories came back. Why do people live like this?
A soft whimper came from behind the closet door.
Landon jerked his head to the side as LCpl. Launce and Sgt. Sierra pushed in behind him. “Come out now with your hands up!”
“Please don’t hurt us!” A woman slithered out from the closet on her hands and knees and closed the door behind her. She crawled across the grimy floor and grabbed at Landon’s boots.
Landon pulled her back by her bony shoulder and shoved her toward LCpl. Launce with his M4 still trained on the closet door. “I said come out.”
“Leave her alone,” the woman shrieked as LCpl. Launce dragged her into the hallway to check for weapons.
Landon breathed through his flared nostrils, standing stoic and ready, preparing to fire as the closet door creaked open. His stomach churned with a deep fueled hate for the world as the pale and snot covered face stared up at him from under a mess of ratty hair clutching an animal to her chest. How can you have a kid in here?
“Come on, sweetheart.” Landon reached out his hand and tried to coax her forward. She gripped the beastly furry animal tighter like it was a teddy bear and refused to move.