She Shall Not Fall (417 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.71 on 7 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Robert (View user info) at 2004-05-23 20:56:19 EDT
Jerry crouched in the window and slowly peered out into the street. He turned his head up and down the wide avenue. In the distance cracks of gunfire echoed around the barren city. Jerry drew back into the building and shifted the weight of his rifle under his right arm. He was safe for now. He walked out of the room and down the hall, stepping over rubble and small piles of debris piled against the wall. Rounding a corner, Jerry trotted up a few flights of stairs, and put his hand on the shoulder of his son, Kyle, who was standing in front of a window, watching the street corner.
The two decided that now would be a good time as any to find some lunch. The two of them made their way to the ground floor. They pushed open a pair of steel doors and walked out into the dim courtyard. The sky overhead was gray and dirty piles of snow dotted the ground. Around the courtyard, men sat closely together. Above them, the steam of their breath rose into the icy mist. Jerry and Kyle briskly walked over to where a small line of men where being ladled small servings of stew. Jerry pulled a couple bowls from under a small drift of snow and handed one to his son. The two were both served a ladleful of stew, with a weak smile and a few words of encouragement. The father and son found a corner to sit in and said a small prayer before eating.
Three days they had been in that building. Their family had held out until the last minute. Jerry at last decided to send his family inland on one of the last buses. He told them he would stay behind and try to help defend the city. A few days later, Kyle, his only son in college, had arrived on a supply train, much to the surprise of his father. The two decided to try to hold the house. Some of the neighbors, whose houses had been destroyed in the bombings, helped them prepare the fortifications and eventually decided to try and fight. Soon, the house was fit to fend off a small attack. The windows where boarded and sandbags lined the front and back porches. A few dispirited militiamen provided them with an old .50 caliber machine gun, which they mounted from a second story window. For a week they held out in the house. On the seventh day a small enemy patrol came up the street. One of the neighbors let a shot off too soon. He missed and the machine gun only managed to pick off a few of the stragglers. An hour later, the street was pounded by artillery fire. The defenders took shelter in Jerry's basement, but soon, most of the house was destroyed and the survivors were forced to flee. This was lucky for them for they learned that an armored column had moved through the area shortly after and flattened anything that moved.
Jerry, Kyle, and the remaining house-defenders hooked up with a small patrol of the defense force, and they were lead across the bay to a multi-story apartment building, overlooking a bridge. The defenders had set up fortifications at all the bridge crossings. The men consisted mostly of remaining military defenders, and any paramilitary that could use a gun. They had a good arsenal of hunting rifles, assault rifles, a few machine guns, and even a couple mortar teams. The most crucial points of defense were covered by light artillery, though they had no armor. The day Jerry arrived at this outpost; the enemy was first sighted on the far banks of the bay. The bride would have to be held.
The empty tin bowls were tossed aside and Jerry slowly got up, massaging his tired thighs. He helped his son to his feet and handed Kyle his rifle. As they walked back into the building, a captain signaled Jerry over and introduced him to a defense force commander. The men on top had decided that the bridge needed to be destroyed to slow the enemy advancement. A light artillery piece had been trying all afternoon to destroy the main supports, but managed only to damage most of them. A patrol was needed to destroy the bridge. Throughout the building, the most fit and experienced defenders were being selected to complete this essential task. An old Army Special Forces officer gave instructions and had even managed to construct charges, he felt, that when applied correctly to the most damaged supports, a huge amount of damage could be inflicted upon the bridge. Jerry had worked as an engineer before the war and he quickly volunteered to join the patrol. Kyle was instructed to stay behind and grudgingly accepted, knowing he had nothing vital to contribute.
That night, the patrol suited up with some wetsuits they found at a ruined sporting goods store. One of the men, a triathlon competitor, was the first to swim out. He dragged with him a rope and silently, slowly, made his way under the bridge until he pulled himself onto a concrete platform under a support. He tied up the rope and whispered into his walkie-talkie that the task was complete. The rest of the patrol, pulled themselves along on various, inflatable pool toys until they were all gathered on the platform. The athlete was then handed another coil of rope and silently made his way to the next support. Again the patrol followed, until they were all huddled together on the next support. The process was repeated two more times until they were under a support Jerry felt was sufficiently damaged. They found the largest crack and shoved in an explosive, lit the fuse, and made their way back to the previous support. They added another explosive to every support on the way back. As they were making their way up the shore to the apartment, the charges went off. The bay was briefly illuminated and then silent once more. Dark illuminated the bay and success could not be determined.
The next morning, Kyle woke Jerry up. He ran to a window overlooking the bay, and to his dismay, the bridge was still intact. The center support was completely destroyed and the center of the bridge was slightly dipped, but the bridge was still intact. All that day, he received pats on the back, but he knew they had done nothing. He kept looking back over the bridge, trying to understand what he did wrong and where he should have had the explosives set. He knew he had chosen the best place, he knew he had done all he could, but he still blamed himself for the failure.
Early the following morning, a shell shook the building; Jerry woke up and found the defenders in a state of panic. Over the bridge, a line of light and heavy armor made its way across the bay. The mortars began to do their best but most must made large splashes in the frigid water along each side of the bridge. Squads of infantry supported each tank. As the column reached the middle of the bridge, the machine guns began to pepper the infantry escort with fire. The escort took up positions behind each tank and returned fire. The defenders and the enemy exchanged fire. The lead tank stopped. Its turret rotated slowly and rose to the point where it was level with a machine gun nest. Seeing this, the machine gun crew acted quickly picked up their weapon and ammo and barely made it out of the room when the shell struck, destroying the nest and a few boxes of ammunition.
All morning the defenders fought hard to defend the building. Around noon, to their delight, a lucky mortar shell missed and smashed into the center of the bridge. Their was a loud whining sound and a large chunk of the center of the bridge gave way, carrying several tanks and squads of men to their deaths in the icy, bay waters. A loud cheer rose up among the defenders. They began to bang the metal sidings of the building and across the bay; a loud, intimidating, booming sound was heard. This broke way to the national anthem, but still their fight was not done. The remaining tanks and infantry company advanced off the bridge and began to make their way up the bank. The machine guns cut up the infantry and soon the tanks were left with little escort. A group of brave men made their way down the beach and came up behind the tank. The tank machine gun crew was taken care of before they saw the assault. In one of the tanks, a shell was fired. As a crewman opened the breach to place a new shell, a grenade rolled out. The other tanks were taken care of in this manner. As soon as the shell was fired, a grenade was rolled down the barrel. Any survivors were taken care of with pistols.
That night, the defenders were ecstatic. The assault had been repelled. News of their actions spread across the remaining side of the bay and a new vigor was worked into the cold, tired defenders. The top commander of the defense force came out to the building and personally congratulated Jerry and the lucky mortar crew. The defenders enjoyed themselves all night. There was singing and dancing, joy none of them had seen in months.
A couple weeks passed with very little activity. There was some sniper activity from the other shore, but no serious assault. Jerry had gone up and down the bay, advising other defenders how they should destroy remaining bridges and soon all were destroyed. Word came from further inland that up and down the coast, the country was holding. A few enemy brigades had penetrated inland, but word was that they were bravely being fought back and the men's hearts sung with pride.
One night, bombs rocked the building. The defenders on the upper floors were forced downstairs and only the bravest of sentries held their position. The night past and when the defenders made their way upstairs, they found the top three stories were completely destroyed. That day, across the bay, swarms of enemy activity could be soon though there was no clear indication of what was to come.
While the morning was still dark, the roar of chopper rotors split the air outside. The machine guns began to roar and the defenders rushed to the windows and began to exchange fire with the enemy assault party. Grenade explosions rocked the night air and the two sides continued to exchange fire. The enemy managed to dig themselves in and the defenders found them difficult to successfully engage. As the sun rose, the hearts of the defenders sunk to their knees. Swarms of landing craft were crossing the bay. The initial assault party retreated to the water's edge where they took shelter underneath the remains of the bridge. Artillery pounded the shore. The building was hit with wave after wave of screaming shells. All day and all night the defenders held the building. The fortress was surrounded. The men fought beyond the point of exhaustion. They ran out of ammunition, and picked anything they could off the bodies of their comrades. They were pushed down to the basement. Jerry and Kyle were among the last remaining defenders. For hours they held up in the basement. The men finally took everything they had and rushed up the stairway. Kyle was right behind his dad as they rushed the first floor. As the men rushed down the corridor and into the sun, they were met with hell. Kyle saw his dad stop suddenly and go limp. He ran up to him and wrapped his arm around his chest and the two went down together.
Later that month, a company of soldiers marched down the street towards the bay. The city was quiet. A soldier stood over the stiff corpses of the defenders. He removed their weapons and pulled the two apart. The father and son were placed in bags and shipped to a massive morgue set up in the outskirts of the city. The war was finished. Once again the shores were quiet and slowly the nation rebuilt itself. They story of the defenders was not forgotten. Two medals sit in the living room of Jerry's house and everyday, a proud family weeps for what they lost, but stands proud, victorious.
User Reviews
Submitted by WRECKER (user info) at 2004-05-24 16:02:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I thought it was pretty damn good.
Submitted by Rungler (user info) at 2004-05-24 15:46:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Fixer (user info) at 2004-05-24 15:39:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
"The two decided to try to hold the house."
Say their if that is what you mean. It confused me with the timeshift from "the building" and after Jerry stayed behind to defend just "the city."
Submitted by Fleadh (user info) at 2004-05-24 06:42:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fantastic work deserving of an awfull lot more +2's
C
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2004-05-24 01:42:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice work!
Submitted by creep_firebombing (user info) at 2004-05-23 21:31:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by KoolMang (user info) at 2004-05-23 21:28:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
A story about bush rape, I like it.