pavement.
The airbags went off and Tigs cage rolled onto the floor board. Jim’s head flew back onto the headrest and Coyle’s arm flew back and hit the rear window with a loud crack.
A woman jumped out of her car and ran screaming past them into the chaos of the traffic behind them. A van slammed into her and blood sprayed a parked car’s windshield. Cars were honked in between the shouts of, “BOMB! BOMB! BOMB!”
Jim glanced over to the median which had a wall four feet high. Getting over that thing was their best chance. Jim unbuckled his seatbelt and did the same for Coyle who was still clutching his left arm.
“Grab what you can and follow me,” Jim said.
Jim grabbed Tigs’ cage, the duffle bag, and his pack. The shouts from soldiers trying to organize the chaos ended with gunfire being sprayed into the air.
The commanding officer rushed out of the security post and headed over to the barricade.
“Sergeant, what do we have?” he asked.
The young sergeant had a clean, tanned face and piercing blue eyes that were watered with fear, but his voice masked what he was feeling.
“Sir, we have a car bomb in the line. We’re evacuating the surrounding area, but it’s chaos out there.”
One of the soldiers was examining the contents of the trunk looking for the trigger. He was in his bomb gear and his hands finally stumbled upon a small black box with wires running into it. He flipped the box over and there read a timer with five seconds left, quickly ticking away.
In the time it took for him to realize what was going to happen, the bomb went off sending the soldier flying backwards. Jim and Coyle dashed over the top of the concrete barriers and ducked their heads under their arms in their laps. Shrapnel, fire, and smoke flew over the top of the barrier raining down on them.
Jim glanced up over the edge of the barrier after the blast and saw a crater the size of the sedan in the middle of the road. He looked over at his truck, which was flipped upside down on the pavement.
When they approached the front of the barricade there was fire, smoke, and debris littered on the interstate. Most of the people that had survived and abandoned their vehicles were corralled into the security station in the middle of the grass median. The survivors huddled in blankets and sipped coffee and water. Soot and fear smeared their faces.
A solider came up and handed the two of them water and Jim chugged half of it and used the rest to wipe the sweat and dirt off of his face and hands.
Coyle kept wincing at his arm. Jim pulled Coyle with him and asked a soldier where the first aid tent was. When they found it Jim flagged down one of the nurses.
“Excuse me can you take a look at my friend?”
The nurse had wavy red hair with a porcelain doll complexion. Coyle thought he’d take the opportunity to let her know about his heroics earlier in the day.
“Yeah, I was at the base when it happened. Sure it was frightening, but when you have nerves of steel it doesn’t really faze you that much. I saved like four people you know. I’m gonna get a medal for it.”
The nurse nodded politely, then rolled her eyes when she turned to help another patient. Coyle slapped Jim on the arm.
“I think she likes me.”
“No, she just thinks you have head trauma.”
“Ha. Ha.”
Coyle ended up just having a sprain and was getting wrapped up when a soldier with two MP escorts walked into the tent. The soldier motioned over to Jim and Coyle.
“Is this them?” the soldier asked.
The nurse nodded.
“Come with me.” the soldier said.
Coyle started up saying that he was only joking about saving those lives and the medal was a figure of speech, but the two of them were rushed out by the MP escorts towards the CO’s quarters.
There was a giant map of the Southwest region of squares and circles dotted along southern