Chapter 4: Second Family

The police officers facing us stopped. Their advance stopped but their weapons were still at the ready. It helped Erin tuck her Beretta into her pants and I had pointed the rifle in another direction. We are not here to engage anyone the officer yelled. We are just wanting to help people if we can? Everyone is dead I said. I haven’t found a single person alive yet. They were over matched the officer yelled. Who did it, I really wanted to know. I couldn’t even imagine all these marines, all these agents, and all these guns and it was over in 10 minutes. The lead officer lowered his goggles, and dropped his rifle to his side.

You American, he asked? I am was my reply. A military force came from the Russian embassy. The trucks came from another embassy I think Venezuela but don’t know for sure. There were more vehicles from the Chinese. The same military contingent is now in control of the Dublin Airport. We came here to learn what we could about them. They are negotiating with my fellow officers as we speak. I’m very sorry for the day, the officer seemed genuine. Both of us were talking but still on edge. I couldn’t help watch his fellow officers too. They were not fielding their weapons in our direction. They were on edge for sure. I mean none of you harm I stated. Just a citizen of America coming to my embassy. This battle ended just before I arrived.

The team of police officers did continue to advance towards us. They were slow and methodical but not alarming. They didn’t show any intent of engagement. I then motioned Erin to move around the corner. If there was going to be a problem I didn’t want them dropping us both at once. At least give her a chance to fight. Erin never questioned such decisions and just acted as I asked.

In a moment the officers were within just 10-12 feet of me. The one I spoke with had now raised his helmet as well. He slung his rifle and held his helmet to his side. It was a show of trust I appreciated. The report from the Airport was they were securing Americans there. This is just what came over the radio a minute ago the officer said. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know who’s securing them but I’m told the military force that hit this place is now at the airport. He kept listening to an ear piece I could tell. Report is the forces from here have been joined by others at the airport and some were airlifted in.

This is still American sovereign soil I pointed out to the officer. I know, he said, we mean you no harm sir. We just wanted to learn what they did here. He looked around. All but one of the other officers, total six, had lowered their weapons, rifles slung, and one was filming the area. They used drones, he said. What I asked? Drones hit here first. A large one hit the front with some kind of missile. Then smaller ones were flew inside. According to outside witnesses the troops entered about sixty seconds after all that. I don’t know what more to tell you. Would there be video anywhere? Power was still on we both noticed? I’m not that familiar with the embassy I had to admit. I didn’t want to say I didn’t know it completely.

O’Brien is my name. Here is a card with an email address. If there is any chance you could send me a video file or post it to a web address for me to see - it would be appreciated? I don't’ know how long that might take me. That was real I had no idea. Understood he said. You have a lot of people down, he stated the obvious. We can offer the cities morgue and arrange teams to come take the dead if you want? I think that would be helpful. It may take an hour or two he said. I agreed and he made a radio call for it. We’re going to the airport he said. You want to go there with us you can? No I said, we’re gonna stay here for now. Understood. O’Brien and his men backed out and he turned around in a signal of trust that I wouldn't’ shoot him in the back.

Erin, I said, on the top floor in the residences I noticed a material cart. She nodded. Off the elevator it's just to your right. Use the elevator and please bring it here. On your way check the other floors, go one by one, and if you see any more of those bring them please. We need them. Ok she said, and she pushed off to the elevator about 50’ away. As the officers were not quite out the door yet I moved away from the entrance to a small group of soldiers down. There were numerous rifles around them. These marines didn’t have pistols on. I gathered 3 - M16 rifles and went through their pouches for magazines. They had about 5 between them left untouched. 3 rifles, 5 magazines, and I moved on. The officers were gone now so I revisited the main hallway that was where most the soldiers died in the attack. I first moved rifles. Each rifle I’d pick up and make sure there was no round left in the chamber and then move to a pile. Five more M-16’s were found. About 7 more magazines were located all full. I wasn’t picking up empty magazines at this point, but there were some of them around too.

By the time Erin came down the elevator with two carts I’d accumulated a dozen rifles, two HK MP5’s and 2 more handguns. For the rifles I only had about 15 magazines and I had no full magazines for the MP5’s and only a few for the Beretta handguns. I filled one of the bins with these weapons and magazines. Erin helped. When I had all that I’d gathered in one I asked her to take it back to the top floor residences, pick one out near the end of the hall, and put them all in there. Don’t waste time, just put them in the room, and come back please. She nodded and was off. I gathered the second cart and went down stairs where I’d seen more soldiers and agents then any other spot.

When I finished filling the cart with rifles, handgun and any magazine I could find with rounds left in it I brought the elevator down and took it to the top floor. Erin was about to go down. She showed me to the room at the end of the hall. It was a pretty elaborate bedroom with a nice office. We concluded it was probably the ambassador’s residence, but didn’t know. Erin had piled up the weapons and magazines on the bed. We took the cart I brought up in the opposite direction. I didn’t want them all in one room. We found, what I perceived to be, a common bedroom a few doors from the end of the opposite hallway. We put the second cart full of weapons under the bed there and beside the bed. We covered them with bedding.

As the elevator door opened I realized that people might wander in. The police could return. The coroner's office. Erin, I asked, are you ok just doing look out duty? She agreed. We had no means of communicating. I’ll check back here on each pass up to the top floor I said. Ok, she agreed. I took the cart and we went back down stairs. Why I was not sure but I figured I’d start at the bottom and work my way up. Earlier we’d stopped at the bottom floor gates guarded by soldiers and DSS agents. Past them appeared to be lockers, then a bunch of bunk beds, and a mess room. It's where the Marin’s gathered I assumed. It was military style. Which lead me to believe an armory had to be close by. Still I couldn’t waste time. An officers office and personal room was found but no armory. I did fill the cart with empty magazines, a few more weapons, and that was it. I moved up and checked on Erin, and no one had come close to the entrance. I stepped out and looked and the police are still blocking the streets. It will probably keep people from coming in we concluded. Next I went upstairs and started collecting the few weapons left there. In looking over the bodies I found 2 DSS agents, MP5s empty, handguns empty, and a woman shot execution style to the head behind them. The picture on the wall made that pretty clear. The ambassador was dead. They fired every round to defend her. Then whoever came in here executed her. I didn’t have time for emotion. I was on a mission to secure the weapons. That had to happen. Then I heard a faint noise. Was someone alive?

The noise came from the stairwell. It wasn’t a survivor it was Erin. I rushed down the stairs with a rifle in hand. Erin was in a safe position where she could observe the entrance and be secure. She pointed to the entrance. I looked down to see a man, a woman and a child walking through the corpses. He looked, I thought, a lot like I did when I first walked through that hallway. I was betting he was an American too. I blurted out, “you an American.” The man froze. He instinctively pushed his wife behind him and she pushed the child behind her. Yes he called out. I stepped out to where he could see me; he could see I was toting the rifle. I gave Erin a hand signal she recognized as staying put; at this point I didn’t want this stranger knowing I wasn’t alone.

My name is Brian from Columbia Missouri he said. This man didn’t show any fear. My wife Claire and daughter Erika he made sure I could see them but remained in front of them. What is going on he asked? My name is Jim, I explained. I’m a tourist. We came to the embassy after it was attacked. Brian was looking around him. He was standing in a fairly long and wide hallway. There were people down all around him. He looked how I felt, quite overwhelmed and uneasy. Is anyone here alive Brian asked? I haven’t found any survivors is all I could report. In this conversation Brian and his family made no movement towards me. We remained about 50’ apart. I made no movement towards him. The rifle was at my side not at my ready.

Do you know what happened in the states, Brian asked? Only what the 60 second blurb said on the local news I replied. Yeah that is all I have heard too. At this moment, this instant, Brian gave me no reason not to trust him. I was uneasy. I don’t know why. It probably wasn't warranted. There was no way to move ahead with the tasks at hand by ourselves. I needed this man’s help, his wife’s help, God maybe even their daughters help. Time was running short. We’d been collecting the weapons and ammo for some time. The Irish Government would surely return soon for the bodies.

A few seconds went by. There was certainly uneasiness coming from Brian and Claire. Their small child, a daughter probably six or seven years old was a little antsy. If you need restrooms they are up here around the corner. Erin too was up here around the corner. Thank you Claire answered we do. I had to unveil Erin at this point. My wife is coming to us from that way right now I announced. I didn’t want to startle you. Thank you, Brian said. A hand signal to Erin and she moved around the corner exposing herself to the family. Hi, she said, the restrooms are back here. Claire and Erika made their way to Erin. Brian remained a distance back. His letting his wife and child come to us illustrated the trust I wanted to see from them. He was really letting us know he trusted us and so I took the leap of faith and did the same. Listen, we gathered the weapons. We put a lot of them upstairs. We have them spread out in a few locations. They expended a lot of ammo here but I don’t see any enemy bodies. There are some blood trails they did hit some. There is little ammo left. Do you know guns I asked Brian? Yes, he was listening but looking over the dead at the same time, I was in the Army ten years ago. Nothing major, I just pushed paper, but we had out required rifle training. I am comfortable with the M16. We have them I said.

Claire and Erin shared pleasantries as Claire and the child passed. Erin pointed them to the restroom. I had a Beretta on me, loaded, and in my hip and so I handed Brian the M16 he said he was familiar with. That was about as much trust as I could show him. He checked it too see that it was loaded, it's magazine was full, and he thanked me. Where are you from he asked? California I replied.

The Irish, I said, will be back shortly to begin collecting bodies. I think we need to prepare for more people and gather what we can for resources. Brian agreed. Why did they wipe this place out, he asked inquisitively? That was a good question. I don’t know. The officer here a few minutes before you said they were attacked by drones, Russians, Venezuelan and Chinese. Keep that in mind I said, but I haven’t figured it out. He said the forces here were seriously over matched and I’d have to agree because these Marines’ are all dead. The officer said they moved onto the airport?

Claire and Erika returned. The 30 something woman asked, what can we do? I suggested that Claire, Erin and Erika begin accumulating food and water on the 4th floor. That floor, I said, looked like residences not offices. It would be a place where people would accumulate if they arrived. The girls agreed. Brian, I said, I think we should find the video footage and see what happened. He agreed.

We found a director with a security office located on the bottom floor in the basement. I hadn't seen it. It bugged me I missed it. Then I realized it was opposite of the fighting. It was behind us even though I never noticed an entrance. Brian and I walked down the stairs and we found a flat wall with no obvious doorways. Brian found a release at the desk which had served as a gate for the fight. It opened the security door in the blank wall. I was hoping someone would be alive, but I drew my weapon and we entered slowly and with loud voices letting them know we were coming in. No one was inside. No one had been inside or killed inside. They’d all abandoned this point, but we immediately found an open armory door and a working dispatch area with plenty of video. Brian cued up the video, rewinding, and I realized he’d see what we did after the cops came in. I didn’t care as I was already putting all my trust in him. The armory still had some ammo, some rifles and even two LAWS rockets in it. I didn’t see anything else, but we did find some two way radios. We had a batch of them, and got four working. One for each adult I was happy.

Brian got the video backed up to the beginning:

13:51 HRS The explosion at the front of the building was a rocket blast. The rockets launch I couldn’t see. Moments and I mean seconds after it a dozen or more fairly size able drones entered flew through the front doors. These things were 3 feet long and 2 feet wide and looked like flying tanks. I thought I kept up on scifi but had never seen these.

13:52 The drones on the inside were filmed. They had knife like edges on them and simply few into people and cut them terribly. They’d fly right on. Some got knocked down by soldiers and security agents but they’d just launch right back into the air. They started spewing gas which was obviously an eye irritant as they came into contact with more groups. Soldiers and DSS agents were already in defensive positions it's like they knew this was coming. No one came rushing in they were all in position to defend. One drone even went up stairs and another down stairs.

13:53 Trucks semi circles the round in front. It appeared that any soldier outside was hit by sniper fire simultaneously at this moment. Goggle and mask bearing soldiers then stormed the entrance with rifles. They engaged in a brutal stage of constant fire forward. They obliterated the DSS and Marines who were trying to shoot at the drones and by the time they turned their attention on the soldiers they were killed.

The attack continued until just 14:02 a total of 11 minutes. It ended when an attacking soldier put a handgun to the ambassadors temple and pulled the trigger.  

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