Chapter 9

This warehouse was heavily loaded with explosives. Billy said that it was enough to level most of Palm Garden if it were used correctly. It sure as hell was going to look like the worst fireworks explosion in the history of the world. There were AK-47s, RPGs, ammunition, and fuses stored here, but the majority was explosives. Billy was sure that this was to be used in more than one place if the bad guys had a chance to do it. He was looking forward to spoiling their plans.

We wondered what was causing the delay, because it was nearly half an hour before anyone showed up to check on the warehouse. Well, "check up" might have been too mild a word because two trucks loaded with ISIL shooters pulled into the parking lot and unloaded about 20 men with assault rifles and attired in the typical ISIL battle dress.

This was just too good an opportunity to miss, so I started lobbing grenades at them as they jumped from the trucks. That was enough to catch them completely by surprise because we were well hidden in the shadows inside the building. It was obvious that somebody was in here because we had deliberately left the loading dock door open, but the interior lights were off.

I tossed grenades as fast as I could, and four of them went off before the enemy could react other than try to run away. It didn't take them long to get out of range of my thrown hand grenades, but I must have killed at least half a dozen by that time. There were a couple of officers with the troops, and they managed to get them under control before panic had scattered the troops too far.

They spread out and started firing their rifles at us in a kind of "spray and pray" mode since they could not see us. Billy had started shooting as soon as I had started pitching the grenades, and I am sure that he did hit some of the enemy, but we couldn't really tell how many. However, there were soon at least 10 shooters on their side from a count of muzzle flashes. They were firing on full automatic with no tracers, so they really didn't know where their bullets were going.

We were not using tracers either, but we could see what was happening by the light of their muzzle flashes. That was not the best lighting, but it was adequate to tell us where to shoot and how effective our aim was. We were lying on the floor of the warehouse at the open door, and the ISILs were shooting over our heads. It really didn't make much difference because our bodies would have registered a hit by a bullet as nothing more than a nuisance distraction. Even a hit in the head would not have penetrated.

Of course, the ISILs did not know that, and they were shooting at us as if the bullets would do them some good. They were using only standard bullets because they did not want to set off the explosives in the warehouse, and we were counting on that. What they really needed was gas to drive us out because we still had to breath. Obviously, none of them had considered that, so we felt reasonably safe. We would be in trouble if they ever did think of using gas against us.

This type of combat was carried on for about 10 minutes until one of the leaders of the ISILs realized that they were not accomplishing anything and decided to try a different tack. We didn't know what was going on at the time, but we did see four men jump out of the firing line and run well into the darkness behind the shooters. We lost sight of them at that point.

Surely, they were planning something, but we were not sure what it was. I did keep a couple of hand grenades handy just in case they were planning to charge us with one or two trucks serving as improvised tanks. I didn't know that this would accomplish much, but I was ready just in case.

The shooting back and forth continued for another 10 or so minutes until we got one hell of a surprise! The interior lights suddenly came on, and moments later I was stitched across the back by a blast of AK-47 bullets. The bastards had out-flanked us! Dammit, our inexperience had hoisted its ugly head! We would have been dead at that point if we had not been so thoroughly protected.

I yelled to Billy, "I'LL TAKE CARE OF THESE BASTARDS! YOU KEEP SHOOTING AT THE ONES OUTSIDE!"

I rolled over and dropped my assault rifle in favor of my Glock. These guys were so close that the pistol was totally adequate for accuracy and much easier to bring onto the target. Furthermore, the .45 caliber bullet would stop any man it hit long enough for me to get off another shot if it were needed, but I didn't expect to need that second shot.

I was still getting hit by AK-47 bullets, this time in the chest, but they were doing no harm except to play hell with my shirt. I snapped off my first shot and probably was more lucky than anything else, but I managed to drop the closest man who was trying to empty his rifle magazine into me at the rate of hundreds of rounds per minute. His rifle got so hot that the forestock began to smoke.

The other three were also now shooting at me on full automatic, and just holding the trigger back. That was a hell of a lot of bullets coming my way, but none were penetrating my flesh, thank God! I returned their fire with my .45 Glock, and all three went staggering back.

Unfortunately, the forestock of one of the AK-47s actually caught fire, and it was flung into an open crate of explosives' fuses. That marked the end of the line as far as this firefight was concerned. It seemed like every one of the fuses in the crate went off at once, and that was enough of an explosion to trigger Billy's primer cord. Less than a second later, the whole building exploded!

Billy and I were thrown through the open door into the parking lot and sent skidding along the pavement. The combination of the explosive blast and the abrasion from the pavement tore all of our clothes off, except for our socks and boots. Luckily, Billy had the RV keys on a chain around his neck, and they stayed with him.

None of our skin was abraded and there was no blood showing, but we did look absolutely ridiculous when we stood up. The remaining ISILs jumped into a truck and skedaddled. Billy and I ran to our RV and did the same thing. I didn't know if it was a miracle or just a function of the changes to our bodies, but we had survived the explosion with no physical damage whatsoever. The only harm to us was some difficulty in hearing for a few minutes. We were just the victims of a temporary sound overload.

We didn't even pause to get dressed. The warehouse was still going off in a wild display of major and minor explosions. Yes, it would certainly have been the world's greatest fireworks display if there had been people around to see it. We didn't care, we just wanted to get away before the Fire Department or the Police arrived.

We were on the highway headed home before we even thought of getting dressed. However, that did seem like a good idea just in case we were stopped for a traffic check. Hell, we looked like a couple of naked drunks, and we would have been hard pressed to explain our clothing, or lack thereof. The amazing thing was that neither of us felt any repercussions from the explosion. Dammit, we must be getting close to Superman. All we needed were X-ray vision and the ability to fly.

We spent most of the trip home analyzing our adventure. Especially, we went over our mistakes. The major one was in not guarding our rear and flanks. I should have had Billy booby-trap the other doors so that we would not have been surprised.

Billy commented that he had also goofed by leaving the case of fuses uncovered. He vowed never to make that mistake again. All in all, this had turned out to be a successful raid as far as we were concerned. On the way home, we stopped off at a different branch library to call Ralph to tell him that we were headed home and should be there within the hour. He congratulated us and said that I would be getting a message in the usual way as to where to meet him for a full report. He also told me to keep the RV.

At home, we had to go into excruciating detail reporting to the women. They were fascinated by the fact that we had survived the explosion, and we all hoped that their bodies would react the same way. Liz was the only one I was worried about because she'd only had about five years to develop her abilities. Just in case, we would have to work on keeping her out of explosions.