Overrun Read Free

drowned out by a new batch of
firing.
    Kirken dropped to the ground as
the phone booth shattered into a mist of exploding glass. He covered his head
with shaking hands until the firing again suddenly stopped.
    "Just do it!" Kirken
screamed again. "Tell them now!"
    Kirken didn't wait for Wagner to
question him again. He bolted to his feet and dashed down the deserted
sidewalks in front of the storefronts. Behind him, the transport roared from
its idle and with a cloud of dust lumbered towards the end of the street.
Kirken ran closely next to it using its large side panels for cover until he
reached the wounded man.
    The truck pulled away, and
Kirken dove face first into the sandy terrain. Flying dirt kicked up behind it
temporarily hid his position. It lingered in the air and settled slowly back to
the ground.
    He could hear Wagner barking
orders through the soldier’s headset. His voice shrieked to be heard over the noise.
    Kirken crawled closer to the
injured man across the scorched earth. The heat burned through his uniform and
across his chest. It pounded against the unprotected portions of his face
making it nearly impossible to breathe. He lowered his head and scurried closer
to the soldier lying helplessly on his back beneath the harsh rays of the sun.
    The firing from the rooftop
stopped again allowing Kirken to look up to see the figures leaping from the
top of one building to the next. Their small thin bodies were chased by weapons
fire from the soldiers scrambling to board the truck.
    "Cover fire! Cover
fire!" Kirken reached the soldier and screamed into the transmitter across
his face. He grabbed him by the shredded material covering his shoulders and
pulled him from the dirt.
    The young soldier screamed.
    A new flurry of weapons fire
thundered from the rooftops. Exploding slugs ripped a trail next to Kirken’s
side. Kirken hoisted the soldier’s limp body over his shoulder and turned to
run towards the transport.
    More weapons bursts tore up the
dirt around him.
    With the rest of the team
already onboard, the transport moved slowly towards the outside of town. Two
soldiers balanced on a brown metal ramp that dropped from its rear and dragged
along the ground. Ferocious blasts from their weapon barrels tore madly into
the sky.
    Kirken sprinted for the ramp.
His lungs wheezed from the burden of his human load.
    Hands stretched out to help him
while others fired cover over his shoulder. He reached the ramp, shifted his
weight and stumbled up. Two soldiers grabbed him and the man he held and hauled
them inside.
    When they had taken the wounded
soldier from him, Kirken turned his head at the heavy firing still coming from
the street.
    Wagner was pinned to the ground
by fire coming from the nearest roof across from him. He had wedged his large
frame behind a thin piece of shattered metal from the destroyed telephone booth
waiting for it to subside.
    "Back it up! Back it
up!" Kirken screamed to the driver.
    Bodies fell to the floor as the
vehicle suddenly reversed. Kirken stepped further back inside the transport to
get out of the way of the five soldiers that crouched at the opening and
blasted the rooftops with fresh weapons bursts.
    Kirken kneeled on the floor to
catch his breath. From over their shoulders, he watched Wagner lift his sidearm
and release a fury of shots at more young faces appearing above.
    The transport stopped before
they could reach him. Building wreckage ripped loose by the firefight blocked
the center of the street. Wagner was about a hundred feet further away. When
the transport stopped, he fired two more quick shots and turned to run.
    The soldiers continued their
assault from the rear of the transport keeping their attackers pinned down on
the rooftop. Wagner bolted from his hiding place and sprinted towards the
truck.
    He covered about half the
distance back to the transport when a body dropped from the air and landed in a
cloud of blood and dust at his feet. They were all close enough to