Mud Season

(Source)

Ye Meihui knew she was lost. After escaping Albany in a stolen car, having acquired a much better firearm, she had headed west. She had tried at more than one place to get fuel for her vehicle. The first two had been deserted and looted.

At the third, a man inside the small store next to the fuel pumps had fired a shot at her, she had taken cover and yelled at the man to cease fire. All he had done was yell an obscenity and fired another shot.

She waited, she wasn't here to kill Americans, she was supposed to be helping them, but that mission had fallen apart nearly as soon as it had started.

"Don't shoot! I'm a friend!" she had yelled from behind her stolen car.

"Goddamn Chinese bitch!" had been the man's reply.

She waited, then she realized that the guy was approaching, she also felt that he'd been drinking from the way he had slurred his words.

She moved carefully to the rear of the vehicle, she leaned forward from below the car's bumper. There he was, weapon extended, it was apparent that the man had had some training, but not nearly enough. He had come into the open, exposing himself. He was focused on the front of the car, assuming she'd be taking cover behind the engine compartment.

She watched as the man stopped, she brought her pistol up and cocked it. The man seemed to sense her presence and slowly began to turn in her direction. She fired a single round at his torso. The man seemed to stumble as the round hit him in the chest.

The man coughed and dropped to one knee, she could see blood coming from his mouth. The man tried to bring his own pistol to bear, reluctantly she fired again. The man's head snapped back, she had hurried her aim, which caused the round to go high. Instead of hitting him in the chest, the round had hit him in the forehead.

"Damn it!" Ye hissed, she had wanted to ask the man questions, but he would not be answering again in this lifetime.

She moved towards him, her pistol aimed at him, she knew he had to be dead, but her trainers had beaten it into her, literally, assume nothing. She circled around the body, the man's eyes were glassy, staring at nothing, most of the top of his head was gone, still, she kicked his pistol away from the body.

Looking around, she could see a single house, up the muddy road a short way. She had no idea if anyone was home, she had to be quick. She went into the store and found some road maps of the area. The scale was too large but it was better than nothing. She grabbed a few items from a shelf, out here the looters hadn't been as thorough.

Returning to her car she was fixated on the dead man's body, she had never shot anyone before. Stabbing that policeman back in Albany had felt different, he had wanted to rape her. Shooting someone seemed impersonal somehow. It was then that she smelled gasoline. Looking under the car she saw a widening puddle.

"Damn it!" she hissed once more. The man's wild shots had holed her fuel tank.

Billy Kasparian was driving the MRAP, as he rounded a corner on the very muddy road he saw a gas station ahead. Sprawled next to the pumps was a dead man. There was a car next to the pumps as well. He brought the vehicle to a stop and woke everyone up. Something was wrong here.

Sgt. Jefferson suggested that the civilians stay in the vehicle, she would take her fire team out to investigate. Jack Bishop readily agreed.

Ye Meihui watched the military vehicle roll to a stop from her vantage point up the road. She was in the house she had seen from the gas station, a house which had turned out to be deserted.

She watched as the American soldiers dismounted and quickly checked out the scene around the fuel pumps. She wondered what they would do next. She had her answer soon enough as one of the soldiers went back to the vehicle and talked briefly with the driver.

The vehicle moved up the road, the soldiers using it for cover as the big military vehicle headed directly for her position. She had to make a decision, she needed to get out of the field and somehow report back to her superiors. But there was a very good chance that the soldiers would simply execute her.

It was obvious from the family photos around the living room that she didn't live there, they might tie her to the abandoned car at the fuel pumps and thus to the dead body.

She was at the edge of her ability to keep functioning. It was time to surrender, or maybe die. At this point, she didn't care which, she was tired.

SFC Levine rapped on the door to Colonel Tanaka's suite of offices, MACS Sorge opened the door and let him in.

"Anything yet?" Levine asked her.

"We just had a document messengered over from the Capitol. Seems that somebody in the State Department has a pet judge over at Superior Court. The warrant was sworn out by the White House Chief of Staff, some goon over at State vouched for him. Those bastards need to be rooted out." Sorge was rather vehement on that point.

Colonel Tanaka came out of the office along with interim President Rutherford and Admiral Fairchild, who had been reinstated as the Chief of Naval Operations. Tanaka had grown to trust the man, the Navy and most of the Marine Corps seemed to have actually paid attention when they had taken their oaths. However, the Commandant of the Marine Corps was one exception which had nearly broken Tanaka's heart.

The Commandant was being held in an empty office in one of the basement levels, he was being guarded by sailors. Gunnery Sergeant MacAllister had cautioned against using Marines, the consensus among them was that the Commandant was a traitor and should be shot.

"Thank you, Mr. President, we'll take care of this." Admiral Fairchild looked at Tanaka and said, "You better update your uniform Jeff, er, I mean Commandant."

Tanaka gave the admiral a sick grin, "Not how I wanted to get here, Harry. Senior Chief Sorge, call down to the barracks, we're going to need a platoon and a couple of vehicles, armored if we have any."

"Roger that Sir." Sorge got busy.

Tanaka turned to look at SFC Levine, "Are you going to stand around looking stupid, or are you going to go update your uniform?"

Levine looked puzzled, "Sir?"

"Let's go Sergeant Major, you and I are heading over to the State Department. It's time to kick some ass. Diplomatically, of course."