The semi-tractor had hooked up and pulled one of the two loaded trailers out and I was running 155mm APERS FASCAM out of the bunker and onto the pad where Carol could give it a quick once over to make sure the pallets were in servicable condition to load onto the trailer. We'd cleared five trailers already and the sun had been up for almost three hours.
Carol had led me back into the bunker, walking in front of me, so she could ground guide me to pull more of the 155mm out and put it on the pad. We were pretty much out of space on the pad, but I could probably slam a few more rounds and finish out the lot number.
Ammunition was tracked by lot number, and you never mixed the lot numbers. You had to have at least two feet of space on all sides of a stack of a lot number so that you knew exactly which lot number was where. It could be that the lot had a manufacturer's defect, had gotten past it's "use by" date (chemical components of the explosive matrix or the bursting charge or any other part could chemically debond, making it either unstable or dropping it's explosive yield too low), or just that particular lot was to be pulled.
The Army was all about dress right dress.
Carol held up her fist, then motioned at me to ground the forks. I did so and she came over, grinning at me.
"Think we got a few minutes before the trans guys come back?" She asked me.
I nodded, frowning. "Yeah, why?"
"All this ammo makes me horny," she grinned. She grabbed my hand. "Let's go, Franky."
I threw the fork in neutral and jumped out, following her.
"You up for it, Franky?" She asked me, leading me further back into the bunker.
"Yeah," I grunted.
"You pissed off again?" She asked.
I nodded.
"Good," She said, pulling me between two of the lot numbers of 8-inch arty FASCAMs. There was a partial stack for the lot deeper in, with a row of single height pallets. "Saw that earlier, been waiting for a break," She leaned over the stack. "Hate fuck me, Franky."
It didn't take long, both of us getting what we wanted out of it. I used her LBE to pull her against me, she was wet, hot, and ready. I stood behind her for a long moment, my eyes closed, waiting for the last twitches to subside. She chuckled, tensed her muscles to squeeze me, then laughed as I involuntarily gave her an urgent, eager thrust and she felt one more squirt out of me. Afterwards we pulled out pants back up and walked out of the bunker. She paused while I killed the forklift, then walked next to me out to the pad.
"You always like this, Franky?" She asked me, staring at the 1K Zone, her cigarette in her mouth. She was leaning against the ammo, her helmet on the tops of the pallets behind her.
"Like what?" I asked. I'd been daydreaming about her chubby plentiful pale ass.
"Just ready to go," She said. "Seems like any time I want it that thing's ready to go."
"You're a good lover," I told her. "I like fucking you."
She paused, looking at me out of the corner of her eye.
"What?" I asked.
"You're telling the truth, aren't you?" She asked, her voice soft.
"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Damn. Don't worry about it, Franky," she smiled at me. "Never thought it would make me feel good to hear I'm a good fuck."
I just shrugged. "Better than a dead fuck."
She snorted at that, shaking her head.
"This is a hell of a place. It feels right, here, you know?" She said.
I nodded. "Yup."
"Hell, I haven't done my job in like six years. I'm hoping you'll let me load a few trailers, blow the rust off my old driving skills, so I can spare you on the forklift," she said, almost wistfully.
"We can do that on the next set of trailers," I offered.
"Really?" She asked.
"Just don't tell that asshole Corporal running this place, all right, Helga?" I grinned.
She laughed at that, punching my shoulder playfully. "Sure thing, Franky," She got a wicked look in her eyes and gave me a grin. "Tell you what, Franky, you let me load a few trailers, I'll let you blow a load in my mouth."
"I don't know," I said, drawing out the words. "How do I know you're not going to leave me high and dry?"
"I might. I'm married after all," she said. "Woman's prerogative to change her mine."
"Ain't no women in the Army, just swinging dicks and bouncing titties, all colored green and ugly as a shaved monkey," I told her, giving her my best Clint Eastwood impression.
That made her laugh.
"So you'll let me load the next couple trucks?" She asked again.
"Sure," I looked at her. "Just so we're clear, you ain't gotta actually blow me or nothing."
Carol shook her head. "I know, Franky. I'm not gonna run crying sexual harassment. It's just, you know, kinda fun to play around," she sighed. "Never really much had the chance before now."
I frowned at her. "You're IAR." (Inactive Army Reserve)
She nodded. "Yeah. My husband and I both work. It's been more a phone tree call in system than anything else since like '79, so this is more Army stuff than I've done in years. I never got to do all this flirting and shit," She blew out smoke and sighed. "From a small town, Franky."
"I get it," I told her. I kind of did.
We both went silent after that.
When we finished our cigarettes we headed back into the bunker where the forklift was waiting. I fired it up, idling forward and putting the forks under the first pallet, moving by feel and Carol's hand motions to slide my forks under only three pallets instead of four. There was only a little left of this stack, then another lot number. I figured I'd pull some more of it, slap it on the pad, and by the time the trucks should be...
From outside the bunker came a sharp explosion that made the ground shudder hard enough I could feel it through the forklift.
I half stood up on the brake, leaning out of the cab, grabbing Carol's LBE. She was completely relaxed, her limbic system not even reacting to the explosion that hadn't even started echoing back yet.
The stacks looked weird. Like grass waving in the breeze, moving back and forth serpentine, a suggestion of movement more than anything.
Only an inch, maybe two.
There was another detonation and the lizard screamed in terror at something I'd spotted first for a change.
The stacks leaned further out before inertia and tension pulled them back. They started moving side to side as well and I saw banding start to snap on the pallets, the rusted steel unable to handle the stress of the shifting and moving rounds.
I snatched Carol off her feet, lifting her up, yanking her into the cab, and slapping her down onto the engine cover next to me. Something in my back burned with cold fire as I grabbed the rain curtain and pulled it closed.
There were popping noises and low groans through the bunker.
A third detonation, this one louder, as I reached across Carol and pulled the curtain shut.
no fourth no fourth no fourth please no fourth
The stacks sang in almost animal pain as the stacks lost the war Newton. Banding was snapping, wooden pallets cracking and shattering and splintering. Single rounds were popping loose, falling between the stacks as one stack leaned further out than the other, the 200 pound rounds preventing the stack from coming back all the way, making it bow in the middle. More rounds popping free.
I saw one of the rusted 155mm rounds tear apart at the middle as the twisting and bending stress caused the rust compromised steel to fail, I could see the submunitions for a second.
"GET READY!" I bellowed, grabbing the back of Carols neck and jamming her face into my crotch. I leaned over her, opening my mouth, lacing my fingers over my neck and hunching my shoulders.
Carol screamed as the stacks collapsed around us in the roar of falling metal. The forklift shuddered as pallets of 155mm APERS FASCAM rounds rained down on us.
The forklift was battered as round shit the roof, the plexiglass cracking. It clanged as rounds bounced against it. It shook as rounds hit the back deck where the counterweight was and bounced free. The plexiglass went and something hit me in the helmet, my neck burning.
Everything went gray.
But I could still hear it.
thwip thwip thwip
Something hit me across the back and slammed me against Carol. Something else hit my thigh. Something else hit my helmet and my head was nothing but a rushing noise and gray static.
thwip thwip thwip
The thunder ended. Just a few clatters as isolated rounds or full pallets fell.
thwip thwip thwip
shit