Chapter 12

“Wake up, wake up!” I heard Anne jerk me awake, and not in a good way, either.

“What’s up?” I asked groggily as I tried to shake myself out of that state.

“We gotta bustle, man! Time to relocate! Nicer place this time. Whole bloody, motherfucking street requisitioned for hospitals and quarters!” Anne told me, “evidently, that barrage was the last of their heavy munitions and they used it up trying for a breakout from the growing, alarming encirclement of their forces.”

“So, where are they?” I naturally wondered.

“Pinned down to a smaller bit of real estate, I believe. Our counterattack broke them, since they had no more heavy artillery and their ranks were thinned out a bit. They’re down to their last grenades, mortars, RPGs, that sort of thing. Machine gun nests. Sandbags. They can still fight back, but they’ve been driven inward on all fronts. Plus, of course, you can always see them coming. They’re fucking predictable,” Aaron remarked as he showed his face now.

“The consequence of not retreating when they could is that they now must retreat, no longer an option, right? They’ve been bled white, no pun intended. It’s like that old saying. The ship that does not obey the helm must obey the rocks. Still, expect them to fight like cornered animals, because that’s what they are now. Which will make our work as hectic as ever,” I groused like any good field nurse, any good soldier, for that matter.