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“Don’t you make E-5 pay?” Cpl. Hemming asked as he rolled the window down.
Graffiti covered the back of the box stores surrounded by chain link fences that did nothing to stop the apparent break ins. Landon honked the horn to let Gunny know where to turn but he didn’t dare take his eyes off the road.
“Um, Sergeant,” Cpl. Hemming leaned forward, “no offense, but this is the ghetto.”
Sgt. Brittany turned to glare at him and Hemming sank back into the seat. “I’m saving for retirement, Corporal. Do you have a problem with that?”
Worn and dated houses lined the street, but only a few of the barred windows and heavy metal padlocks on the garage doors hadn’t been busted into. The asphalt was covered with household items. A suitcase, a broken television, a discarded bike crunched under the tracks of the AAV.
“It didn’t look like this when I left,” Sgt. Brittany whispered. His hand was already on the door handle. “My house is at the end of this next street.”
He flashed the lights and the AAV slowed as Sgt. Sierra took a 360-degree turn with the machine gun. Landon craned his neck as he did the same. But nothing moved in the open. If anyone was still here, the sight of government vehicles should have drawn them out. The skin on his arms pricked with goosebumps, the same as when he was on patrol in a decimated war zone crawling past the ruins of a once great city, the same as when he passed a graveyard.
“Here.” Sgt. Brittany threw open the door before Landon could come to a stop.
“Wait for back up.” Landon grabbed the Marine’s arm as he slammed on the brakes. But Sgt. Brittany slipped out of his grasp, his mind focused on his own mission. “Stay with him,” he screamed at Cpl. Hemming who’d already made it outside.
They were too loud. Between the rumble of the AAV and the cries of the Marines who chased after the sergeant, even the dead were bound to hear them. Landon swept the street with his M4 waiting for someone to burst out from one of the houses. And still, nothing moved.
He caught up to Sgt. Brittany and reached out to hold him back, the fear of what they were likely to find making him sick to his stomach.
But Sgt. Brittany jumped up the flight of steps and beat his fist against the caged metal screen door. “Babe, I’m here! Open up!” The frantic urgency of his voice drifted down the empty street.
“It’s going to be okay.” Landon put his hand on the sergeant’s shoulder. A gesture of comfort. Something to show his patient he was there.
“Get off of me, Doc.” Sgt. Brittany shoved him away as angry tears streamed down the man’s cheeks. He fumbled through his pockets with shaking hands looking for his keys.
“Should we stop him?” Cpl. Hemming choked out a whisper as they took a step back to give him more space.
Landon wanted to. He wanted to tackle the Marine and hold him back from witnessing what might be behind that door. The odds of his family still being here, of surviving the chaos that had descended upon this area… But if it was Tessa you’d break it down just to see her again. Sgt. Brittany fit the key into the screen door lock.
“Just be ready.” Landon tightened his grip on his rifle. Maybe they got away to safety. It was the best he could hope for now.
“Please, please God,” Sgt. Brittany begged as he opened the screen door and found the key for the next deadbolt.
“Stay right on him if he runs inside,” Landon whispered the order out of respect.
Sgt. Brittany unlocked the solid door and shoved his shoulder against it, using anger to override the pain as he turned the handle.
The door swung back open into the darkness of the house with no effort and Sgt. Brittany fell to his knees with the barrel of a shotgun aimed at his face. Landon and Cpl. Hemming raised their rifles in a solid motion, taking aim, but the woman holding the shotgun didn’t flinch. Or even seem to care.
“Kirby?” She stepped back in disbelief, lowering the shotgun to her side as a wide smile lit up her face. The sergeant cried painful sounds of joy as he crawled forward on his knees and buried his face against her hips. His whole body shook as he sobbed against her.
The woman laughed, her long brown hair covering them like a blanket as she ran her fingers over his head and tilted his chin up to look at him. “Sure took you long enough to get here.”
