Shades of War: A Collection of Four Short Stories by Josh Ashton Page B

help."
                  "Then you're still a soldier. You're still a captain until I say you're not. Is that understood?" The General's voice had that air of command and finality.
                  Amy felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her, and surprise set in. She had expected to be judged, but she hadn't. "Yes, sir."
                  "Well, Captain. I only have one request."
                  "What's that, sir?"
                  The general's voice was hard as the frozen earth and as cold as the Korean winter.
                  "Get back out there. Give into your lust. Kill them all. Kill as many as you want. Kill our enemies."
                  Captain Amy Reynolds's face turned a smile that was feral and vicious.
                  "Oh, I can definitely do that."
                  The general stood and the captain immediately stood with him.
                  "Good, just come back and report to me every now and then as I might have a special project or two for you. If you have any other questions, Sergeant Bencher can answer them. He's one of the ones I trust, and now so are you."
                  The general saluted and Amy returned it. For some reason feeling as a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. The General dropped his salute and walked towards the bunker entrance. Just before he left, he turned and gave her one final farewell.
                  "Happy hunting, captain."
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    The Building
     
     
     
    Chapter I
     
    Play dead; keeping playing dead. That's all that matters. They're all around you. Play dead until the night. And then you can maybe escape to the south. Just play dead. Only as the dead will you survive.
                  All of it had gone to shit and unlike the rest of the troops on this god forsaken peninsula he had some idea of what had gone wrong. He knew when the power went off like God flicking a light switch, it was deliberate. The only thing it could have been was an EMP. This knowledge hadn't helped him a damn bit. Like every other American soldier in this place, he was stuck just trying to survive.
                  The North Koreans had been brilliant. They had first launched a massive attack across the DMZ. The captain was like everyone else; he had been sucked north reacting to the attack. It was during that massive push northwards that what he suspected was an EMP blanked out everything. He was ashamed to admit that discipline had fallen apart pretty quickly. Rank and military bearing are important but loyalties are imbedded deeper into units. The convoy had been a collection of soldiers from different commands. As soon as the vehicles went down every one scattered into groups heading in different directions trying to find their friends. Every single group had headed north.
                  The captain had been the highest ranking person in the convoy, but he was just a passenger. And given that he was just an Intelligence weenie to the combat arms guys that meant he was next to nothing. They hadn't understood. He tried to explain the effects of an EMP and what that meant to the technological juggernaut that was the U.S. Military. With the tech gone, the North Koreans had effectively leveled the playing field. Now the Americans would be outnumbered. The winter was coming and with skies empty of friendly aircraft, the North Koreans would roll south.
                  He had tried to keep them together, but they all had been from other units and had felt that they should get back to them. He couldn't blame them for that. A soldier's unit was his home, and in the harsh life of a soldier, your unit was the only home and family you had. The captain, a student of history, knew what was coming. The waves were coming. Left on his own, the