David looked at his watch. It was almost time. He mentally went over everything again and decided they were ready. They had lain quietly and patiently in their positions since midnight and it was almost noon of the next day. With any luck they would achieve total surprise.

Captain Green and his company were several miles to the north preparing to make a similar attack on the main WTR force south of Fulton. David and his platoon had the task of assaulting and securing the WTR Army rear camp, which hopefully would be largely deserted at this time of day with almost everyone at the main force positions up north.

David’s soldiers would take out all the support troops and those tending the camp. They would also set up a blocking position to the north of the camp to intercept anyone fleeing from Captain Green’s forces.

Joshua’s recon platoon was given the task of screening for the entire JP force to the south. If anyone approached from that direction their job was to stop them, and if they were too large to stop, then at least slow them long enough to give everyone time to prepare. It was a solid plan.

Their coordination with the JP forces to the north was limited at best. Everyone had a specific time when the show was supposed to kick off, but the individual forces were not able to rehearse together, or even to meet beforehand. Captain Green was seriously concerned about the possibility of friendly fire incidents which is why everyone tied a white ribbon or band around their left arms beforehand. Captain Green also sent a runner north to try to pass this information to General Anderson, but no one knew if the message had gotten through. This was a legitimate concern since both sides of the conflict were wearing the same U.S. Army uniforms.

David looked at his watch again and saw he only had a few minutes. At his far left he saw the support teams in place. He would lead the smaller assault team. They had difficulty deciding how to signal the initiation of the attack without radios or other devices. David wanted to be able to give the signal himself, but he needed the support teams and their superior firepower to start the firing, in order to kill as many WTR troops as quickly as possible. He also wanted to protect the secrecy of the assault team’s position until the last minute. One of his privates came up with a practical solution.

They ran a length of twine from the rear of the support team leader position over to the rear of the assault team and then to David. It was a long length of twine in low tree limbs. David hoped it didn’t break.

He looked at his watch again and saw it was time. He was about to pull the twine when he heard several large muffled explosions to the north of them. Captain Green’s main assault had evidently begun. David saw members of the WTR camp come out of their tents and look to the north and others ran to get their weapons. It was now or never. David began tugging on the twine.

Nothing happened. David began tugging harder and harder, cursing under his breath till he heard both the M240 machine guns to his left open up at the same time. A moment later the rest of the support team began firing with their rifles and squad automatic weapons. The bigger M240 machine guns settled into a good rhythm where one would fire for several seconds and stop, then the next one would fire for several seconds, alternating back and forth. This was necessary to prevent the barrels from overheating. Training taught him that when done properly, it sounded as if they were talking to each other and right now they had a very good dialogue going on.

David looked back at his watch. They had thirty seconds to go and he saw that the camp was in pandemonium with dead and wounded lying among the tents. Several men in the camp were attempting to fight back, but not many. Most hiding or fleeing.

“Get ready,” David said to the men on his left and right who passed the word down the line. He waited until the designated time, stood up and began running toward the camp. He didn’t check to see if anyone was following him but felt confident that he had a line of troops on both his left and right.

About twenty yards from the edge of the camp he blew a whistle as he ran. This was the signal for the support team to lift and shift its fire to the far edge of the camp so they did not shoot anyone in the assault team. It also meant that a nearly solid wall of bullets awaited anyone from the camp fleeing away from David’s team. He looked for signs that the fire had shifted. David no longer saw bullet impacts in the camp. They were clear to assault through the objective.

Speed and ferocity were paramount. They were likely still outnumbered, and temporarily had the advantage of surprise. That would pass quickly. David hoped his men didn’t flinch from the plan which was to shoot anything that moved, and to keep going. He also told them to stay in a line and take out everything in their path. Enemy surrender was not possible. Everyone depended on everyone else to do his job, otherwise they would assault through only to have enemy soldiers at their exposed rear.

David stopped thinking as he saw a soldier come out of a tent right in front of him. The soldier’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight of David and his men so close. He attempted to pull his rifle up to shoot, but he didn’t have a chance. David put two rounds into the man and kept moving. He was aware of other similar shots on either side of him which was reassuring.

Coming to the middle of the camp he saw two men trying to get a heavy machine gun loaded. David ran towards them just in time to see them look up in panic and fear. He could tell they knew they were out of time and were going to die. David felt bad for the men but shot them both anyway and kept moving.

Before he knew it, he was at the other end of the camp. He knelt on a knee and turned back to see the rest of the assault team come to the same location. David pulled out his whistle and began blowing on it again. The firing from the support teams sputtered and stopped. His soldiers moved to establish a perimeter around the camp facing out preparing for any sort of counter attack. At the same time members of the assault team paired up and began going back through the camp looking for survivors to finish off. They also searched bodies for information or useful equipment.

David received a report from both the assault and support teams. He was relieved that not a single one of his soldiers was even wounded. He continued to hear isolated shots and pops as his men killed the worst of the wounded and tried not to think about right or wrong. They were in enemy territory and heavily outnumbered. They couldn’t take prisoners or risk survivors revealing their existence, David told himself. It's a cruel war in a cruel world.

He began studying the north side of the camp and its approaches. David was torn between setting up a linear blocking position or a classic ambush along the main approach from the north. He decided that since survivors would be coming individually and in small groups, and considering they might not even use the normal paths, he would focus on spreading his men out in a line along the north edge. But he placed his machine guns along the main path since the majority of the survivors would likely come by that way. As he finished this thought, he saw a man out of breath frantically stumble down the path and nearly bump into David before going around him and through the camp.

No white armband.

David turned quickly and shot him twice in the back.

He yelled for his men to hustle to their new positions, leaving only a few to provide security to their rear. As his men began moving, David could already see enemy survivors coming down the path through the woods. His men were shooting them as they raced to their positions, but there were just too many. Several got through and David decided to drop back at the edge of the camp and shoot anyone who got past the line of his men.

The flood of survivors eventually slowed to a trickle and then stopped as the woods became silent. David ordered his men to remain in position and stay quiet for now. A few minutes later they heard a larger group coming down the path. David moved up along the path. His men were getting ready to let loose on the machine guns. David recognized the glint of white through the trees.

“Hold your fire, hold you fire, friendly coming in!” David shouted.

The men came running around the curve and stopped in surprise at all the dead bodies on the path, then saw the soldiers in the woods with their smoking weapons. David started to introduce himself, but he heard one of his machine gunners say, “What kept you boys.”

They all smiled in relief in that place of death...relief that it wasn’t death for them.