Chapter 69: Battle Of White House (Part 1)

We were now gathering next to each other and near the sewer entrance, we were about to go up and have the fight to retake the White House from the hands of SRs.

It took us a bit of a minute to prepare our equipment but we were now done preparing, Commander Haris was now waiting for us, when we got up, we would fight to the death.

"Listen up, Marines! Today will be a new day, today will be the day we change the war completely, when we retake the White House from the SRs." 

"Then we will wipe out all of the SR forces tonight and later land our troops in California to reunite our homeland."

"After that, we will head to China and tear them apart, to the Whisky Hotel, to the White House, let's go!" - Haris ended his speech

"Marines, Alrotz Gas masks, now!" - Haris told us to wear Alrotz Gas masks

Then all of us immediately took the gas masks and wore them on our faces, maybe the B28 gas was still very dense up there so we would have to wear these masks for a long time.

"Hey, man! Let's stick with each other, okay?" - Pambo said to me while holding his M249

"We will fuck those SRs apart, load and loaded." - Cawess didn't wear his helmet at all but wore Alrotz gas mask, he had already loaded the M4 in his hands

"Let them know what's pain." - Sulivan had already worn his helmet, he was holding an M4

"..." - Shizu stayed silent, she was holding an M16A4 and wearing the sword that I had when I got here, it had now stuck on the left side of her belt

"Shizu, you brought a sword to fight?"

"John, Shizu will use the sword to fight in the secret attacks from behind but she rarely uses it. But when she uses the sword, one stroke of the blade she causes will be lethal." - Cawess said to me, this girl was very weird

"Cawess, the sword you gave is so long, cannot use it properly, takes me more time to draw and to swing." - Shizu said that and then went silence

"Let's go, Marines!" - Haris said to us and then ordered the soldiers to open the sewer's cover

After the sewer's cover was opened, each of us got out from the sewer, until all of us got out of the sewer, we started looking around the place.

It was now very dark and the B28 gas was still around but strangely that the road had no one but us, maybe the SRs didn't get here.

"Marines, we will move slowly, must know around our have SRs or not." - Haris said to us and then started forming lines to go

We had to stay away from each other by at least 5 meters (5,47 yards), had to form column lines on each other to go through the houses. I was now wondering why we didn't have any vehicles like tanks or APCs to fight but had to fight on our feet like this.

After walking through the destroyed buildings for a few minutes, I noticed that there was no assault from up of the buildings or on the streets. Maybe the SRs were using all of their forces to take over the White House so they didn't go around here.

"Dammit, you see any shit?" - Cawess asked me my thoughts, the dense of the B28 was not as bad as before so I could the road clearly but it was now dark so I cannot see much in the dark

"You?"

"No shit, don't see any shit." - Can this guy stop swearing?

"Commander, I saw there are about 10 to 12 men up the road forward, didn't see them precisely, they may be one of ours." - A scout boy talked back to us after leading the group

"See any acts from the other side?" - Haris asked the scout boy

"They only stood there, Sir! Maybe they are waiting for something."

"You guys don't have a night vision goggle?" - I asked the soldiers because I saw that was so...I didn't experience those when I fought in Afghanistan

"No, man! We also lack ammunition then how can we have an NVG?" - Haris said to me, NVG meant "night vision goggle" in short

"Do you scout them with binoculars?"

"Yeah, but it was so dark so I didn't anything."

"Hey, scout boy! Keep scouting." - Haris ordered the scout boy

"Yes, sir!" - The scout boy later returned to the corner of the wall to continue to peek

"Sigh! Let's me do that, fuck." - Cawess suddenly passed me and then peeked with the scout boy

"What the fuck are you doing, Pambo?" - I asked Pambo because he was also peeking with Cawess and was pointing his M249 out of the wall

"To shoot, man!" - What the fuck was this kind of unit? I held my head and then looked around

There were still dozens of marines behind me, they were waiting for the order, I saw Haris was standing with a radio man. He was trying to contact the other units by using the radio calls but seemed like didn't succeed.

"What's wrong, Commander?" - I asked Haris

"Ah, the radio is broken, man."

Then I looked back and noticed that Sulivan and Shizu had now gone away, I didn't know where they were so I asked the marines behind me.

"Eh, man! Where are the two soldiers behind me earlier?"

Then the marines pointed his hand to the right side of a destroyed building, Shizu and Sulivan were now scouting from above.

"Sir, I heard some noises like vehicles are approaching toward here, what should we do?" - The scout boy has reported back to Haris

"Bang!" - A tank cannon sound has been fired so we ran to find the cover

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" - There were some gunshots but they looked to be shooting not too dense, maybe the soldiers from both sides were trying to save ammunition

The distance we were fighting was very close so I could see the soldiers from the other side approached here but they kept their distance and shot at us. I shot back with my M4 which had been changed to semi-automatic mode so it helped me to save ammunition.

Dammit! My cover's area had been shot so I had to crouch down lower to avoid getting shot, I pointed my M4 out and shot blindly, some soldiers from our had now thrown some flares out to see brighter the side we were fighting against with.

I saw a soldier that looked to be very young from our get out of the cover and started shouting.

"Don't shoot! Friendly fire! Friend fire!" - That soldier shouted as loud as he could, the firefights were now very dense and loud, I could not hear him

I looked at the soldier and made a sign to call him to get back to his cover but that soldier kept shouting at the soldiers.

A few seconds later, that soldier was shot but the shot only shot a bit through his Alrotz gas mask but his gas mask broke a bit. 

That soldier fell to the ground and started coughing, he tried to crawl to my cover while coughing.

The soldier later coughed blood and he held his cheeks which had blood veins spurted out, seemed like he had inhaled the remained B28 gas.

That soldier later died, I peeked my cover and saw no soldiers were shooting at me so I pointed my rifles out to shoot, I saw a bit that I managed to shoot down 2 soldiers from the opposite. 

And then I started thinking about the dead soldier earlier, why did he get out of his cover? Did we just friendly fire to other units?

I started raising my M4 to the sky and then shot the Morse code to the soldiers from other units to hear.

Dammit! The firefights kept continuing, I checked my M4's magazine and saw that I just wasted a magazine. I checked the ammo pouches and saw that I still had three magazines so I reloaded my carbine.

"Eh, man! Want some help?" - Suddenly Pambo and Cawess ran into my position

"Bang! Bang! Bang!Bang!" - Pambo pointed his M249 out and shot very dense

"Save your ammo, save your ammo, dammit!"

"That's why we called him Rambo, John, just let him be." - Cawess took the M72 on his back and pointed out of the wall we were hiding

"Where the fuck did you point at? Only soldiers there! Want to make all of us get killed?"

"There is an Abrams out there, I just want to shoot it." - Cawess said that and pulled the trigger, shot the tank that I didn't see

"Wait, where are Shizu and Sulivan?" - I asked Cawess at the time he returned after shooting the tank

"Still up there, they got many scorestreaks, maybe they are running away from the Abrams from down here."

"Bang!" - A tank cannon sound hit the building above, that was the place Cawess pointed to me to see where Shizu and Sulivan were covering

"Don't worry, they have already got out there alive." - Cawess said to me

And then we kept shooting, I counted every bullet that I shot, maybe I have shot 10 rounds, I could not waste my ammunition like that.

"Grenades!" - Pambo shouted to us and I saw there were 3 M67 grenades were now rolling toward us

So I managed to throw one, Pambo threw two back the road so we managed not to die from the grenades.

The soldiers that were hiding around ours were still shooting at the opposite, some soldiers seemed to run out of ammo or something so they pulled out their pistols to shoot instead of using their rifles.

I immediately mounted the M9 bayonet on my M4 in case I have to get in a melee fight, Haris...still contacting with the damn broken radio with his radio man, maybe I should do something.

"Hey, you two want to go with me around the building?"

"No homie, I will stay here with Cawess." - Pambo told me

"Me too."

So I had to go alone around the building in case the opposite side changed their plan to attack us from behind, I walked while pointing my rifle forward. 

I noticed that the gunshots had slowly reduced, maybe both sides were lack ammunition. 

When I got to the entrance of a destroyed building, I peeked inside but didn't see any people so I kept moving forward.

Ah! I felt my mouth was held by someone and my throat had been put a knife toward it, I was being pulled inside of the building.

'Shh..." - That was Shizu and Sulivan, their uniforms had been a bit dirty, maybe they had struggled a bit during escaping from above

"Stay silent..." - Sulivan said to me and then joined to eavesdropping over the wall with Shizu

I also joined those two people, I heard there were footsteps of soldiers approaching here over the wall, maybe they were from the opposite side.

"Two soldiers... the opposite...I will kill them..." - Shizu said to us and made a sign to tell us to wait

Then after a few seconds, two soldiers appeared and I saw them also looked to be our US marines, they peeked inside the building a bit and then left. 

Maybe we have made a lot of friendly fire for the opposite side so I wanted to stop Shizu, but I was too late. 

Shizu had drawn out the sword that she took from me when we met each other and sliced those soldiers' throats from behind. Shizu was about to die when the second soldier had managed to turn around and caught her but he didn't have time to shoot.

After killing those two, I looked at the corpses and noticed that Shizu had sliced their throats very accurately and swiftly, I saw that these soldiers had the emblem of the US flag on their uniform, so we have finally friendly fired.

"You just have killed our men, Shizu, how could you!" - I shouted toward Shizu

"There are no friendly fires in wars, only the lives and the deaths."

"John, just let her be, you cannot do anything to stop her." - Sulivan told me to stop messing with Shizu

Then suddenly the firefights stopped, we slowly got back in a few minutes and saw that both sides that were fighting before had now stopped.

"Hey, guys! Friendly fire, sorry." - Some soldiers said to us and then walked to the corpses of the other marines, they were searching for ammo

I saw that some soldiers were mourning for the dead marines, some were gathering their weapons and ammo, there was an M1 Abrams tank that was placed on the road but seemed like it had been damaged a bit.

"How many casualties?" - Haris was talking to a man that looked to be the commander of the other unit

"As the report from my scout boy, 32 men from my unit and 16 men from your unit died, no wounded, Sir." - Seemed like this was the worst friendly fire incident I have ever experienced in my life

"Hey, Commander Haris! Who is this guy?" - I asked Haris

"Oh, John! This man is Lieutenant Harald Halt, we just have shot each other a few minutes ago." 

"His unit was waiting for the other units but then he encountered us, we cannot contact him by radio call so this incident happened."

"You look stout, soldier! Did you get here the first time? You have been to Australia or something? That place is very safe in the war." - Harald asked me

"Yeah, you could say that, Sir." - I tried to lie and then walked away

"Marines, the sky is clear, put down your Alrotz masks!" - A marine that removed the gas mask called us to do like him

Then we had all removed the Alrotz gas masks, wearing them caused me a bit to suffocate but I felt a bit better after removing them. For some reason, SRs were not gathering here, we didn't encounter any of them.

"Commander, why we didn't combat any SRs yet?" - I asked Haris

"John, Sir Harald said to me that the SRs are now overrunning the White House, they are finding our President to kill him." 

"We may not encounter any SR on the road, maybe we will see those SRs when all of us get to the White House."

"How long is the White House away from here?"

"Less than 2 miles, I think, don't worry, we are waiting for APCs, Tanks and Humvees, when the units Sir Harald said to get here, we will head to the White House."

"We didn't use any chopper, Sir?"

"No, those are limited, we cannot waste our vehicles too much, we have wasted them at the beginning of the war so we are now limiting them."

"Choppers and planes are only used for emergency, maybe there are some units that are now using them to retake the White House."

"Sounds of choppers." - We heard sounds of choppers flying around

"Everyone throw green smokes." - A soldier said to us and then threw green smokes

Then a smoke green appeared dense on the ground, the choppers that were flying up there had now used their lights to see down the ground to watch us.

"That's our friendly units, we will head to th White House first, meet you guys later." - A radio called us and then the choppers flew away

"John, follow me a bit." - Shizu tapped me and then pulled me to follow her

Then I and Shizu walked to a corner of a building and sat next to each other, I saw that Cawess's group was now walking around to check the corpses, they saw us and waved but then walked away.

"What did you call me here for, Shizu?" - Why did Shizu call me here

"John, where have you been in that 6 years?" - What did she mean

"I don't understand, 6 years what? I just came here, Cawess said you are also like me, also come from the same world right? Then who are you."

"After that explosion, where have you been in that 6 years, John?"

"I don't understand, please explain further."

"Before you got here......can you recognize my face as someone you met before?" - Shizu changed her expression to emotionless

"I knew that I have seen you somewhere but I didn't remember your name, but can you please tell me who you are?"

"How heartless you are, John."

"What did you mean?"

"The last moment you remember before you got here." - Shizu asked me, I remembered two of my previous subordinates but I didn't remember their names

"I was patrolling with two of my subordinates under the sword mountain because we got stuck down there and we...being sucked into a white light...I think."

"Remember further...you have gone through many things after that incident for a month." - What did she mean?

"I don't remember, I'm sorry, every time I think of those incidents, my head will have a long blank."

"Can you remember my full name, did the name Shizu remind you of someone?" - Shizu asked me but I didn't know

"No, please tell me, I didn't know! I remembered your face as someone I have met before but I cannot know who are you."

"It's alright if you don't remember me, I don't have any problems with you...but about the girl that had brown ponytail hair, do you...remember her...?" - Shizu changed her face to emotionless

I tried to figure out what Shizu said but I didn't remember either, a girl that had brown ponytail hair...No I cannot remember!

"No."

Suddenly Shizu hit my face with a strong blow and made me fall to the ground, she immediately drew the sword and held it tight, she showed a very scornful face toward me.

"What? I didn't do anything wrong!"

"How could you forget my sister! You fucking forgot her! Not even remember her name or her face! I will kill you! I will kill you!" - Shizu seemed to lose her control, she wanted to kill me for real

"Hey, stop!" - Some soldiers saw I was about to be killed so they pointed their rifles toward Shizu

But Shizu didn't hear, she raised the sword above with one of her hands and was about to swing it down toward to kill me.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" - The gunshots had been fired up above the sky but Shizu kept raising her sword very calm, she suddenly raised her other hand toward the soldiers as if to challenge them to attack her

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" - Three gunshots had been fired but before they had been fired, there was a very strong wind toward the soldiers making some of them fall, the bullets even diverted and didn't hit Shizu

Then I was so lucky, Cawess and his men had finally held Shizu and pressed her to the ground, Shizu kept swinging the sword around in madness.

"Let me kill him! I must kill him! Must fucking kill him!" - Shizu seemed very mad

"Stop, Shizu! Stop! I'm very sorry for what happened to your sister but stop!" - Sulivan begged Shizu while pressing her to the ground

"Shizu, stop! I will beat John's ass for you so please stop!" - Pambo seemed cannot hold Shizu, he was trying so hard

"Your sister is dead, Shizu! She is fucking truly dead! She is dead so don't point your anger at John!" 

"If you know John before getting here and John knew about your sister but he forgot her, just forget him, killing just makes more things worse!" - Cawess shouted toward Shizu, he even snatched her sword

I heard the soldiers around us were very fussing, they seemed curious about Shizu, I was also curious like them too.

"Ah, sorry Sir Harald, this girl has some issues when she remembers her little sister..." - Haris suddenly whispered to Harald

"Oh, poor her! But to make sure that she won't harm us, I think we should keep her weapons...until we get into combat then we will return the weapons for her." - Harald suggested Haris

"As you want, Sir Harald! John, you keep Shizu's weapons, remember don't trigger her anger too much." - Haris ordered me

Then I had to take over Shizu's weapons, after taking all of her weapons, I kept them in my military bag, which was so heavy because I didn't wear any Alrotz bag here.

After Shizu had been released when her weapons got taken, Shizu stood up and then very depressed, cried a lot and then sat in a corner that was very dark inside a destroyed building. 

Looked like her sister had gone away in this war or something so that was why she was depressed like that, maybe I should comfort her.

I slowly stepped toward Shizu and then called her to let her respond, hope she won't hate me.

"Get the fuck out of me! Leave me alone! You fucking American! Get out!" - Shizu threw a brick at me but I managed to dodge it and ran away from the building

"John, are you nuts?" - Cawess and his guys saw me and pulled me away from the building very far

"Hey, Cawess! Did something happen to Shizu? Why did she so trigger and so mad when I didn't remember her sister?"

"Don't ask me, I don't even want to tell." - Cawess went away

"Me too, homie! It was so heartbreaking." - Pambo also went away

"John, I don't know if you know Shizu and her little sister before or not but...please don't ever ask Shizu about her sister again...."

"Don't talk about her little sister...hear me?" - After tapping my shoulder, Sulivan also went away

Then we waited for more than 10 minutes, there were many tanks, APCs and Humvees from the other units that had now fully gathered in our area, we were about to have a long march to the White House.

After that, we got inside of a Humvee and sat on the behind seats, Cawess and his guys had now sat in the other car. 

I was now sitting with Shizu, I kept her weapons so she had to follow me all the time, Shizu had now stopped crying, her mind looked so blank with her emotionless face.

"John...I'm sorry..." - Shizu tilted her head to my shoulder as if she wanted to have someone to comfort her

And then I noticed that Shizu was holding my hand, her hand looked to be very soft this time, not so tight as the other times when she touched me, her voice was not so nice but also a bit more polite than before.

"Hey, Shizu..." - I called her because she was holding my hand

"You have any...problems...with it, Commander?" - Shizu seemed a bit cute now, she called me Commander for some reason

"No, I don't! But why did you call me Commander, Shizu?"

"That was what Sarah wanted me to do..."

"Who is Sarah?"

"She is here...with us." - Shizu talked to me that the woman named Sarah was here, I looked around but didn't see anyone

"I didn't see anyone, where is she, Shizu?"

"She is here..."

"She...is...me..." - Shizu said to me with a low voice but I didn't hear precisely

"Holding your hand...was what Sarah wanted...me to do...with you...John." - Shizu held my hand a bit tighter with full of sweet

I was wondering what was wrong with Shizu but when I didn't have time to think, the Humvee had already rolled. 

We were now having a march toward the White House, we will retake the White House from the SRs and also save our President, this battle has just begun.