I tug one earphone clear so I can hear in real life. Was that a breaching charge? Did our guys use explosives to blow the front gate? My headset fills with multiple garbled exchanges, all in jargon that I’m only vaguely familiar with.

All three teams are in.

They’re advancing room-to-room.

What’s going on?

I wish I had a video feed.

I wish I had a drone feed.

Then: an explosion.

WTF?

Rain is dumping from the heavens in ungodly volumes, yet suddenly the two farthest buildings of the preschool erupt as if a bomb has hit them. I’m a hundred feet away, with two structures between me and ground zero. Still the heat and concussion strike like a physical blow.

Gunshots.

Shouting voices.

My headset explodes into chaos.

MANNING’S VOICE

(through headset)

Dewey, you okay?

ME

What’s happening?

MANNING’S VOICE

Sit tight.

ME

Where are you?

MANNING’S VOICE

Sit tight.

The initial fireball and blast have blown skyward and passed, succeeded now by shooting jets of flame twenty, thirty feet high. My alley lights up like Broadway. I can see Building #3 catch fire. My building, #4, remains for the moment untouched.

I hear more gunshots.

Close.

Not in my headset.

TEAM LEADER’S VOICE

(through headset)

He’s running!

Despite myself, I edge closer to my door.

ME

(into headset)

Manning! What’s going on?

MANNING’S VOICE

(through headset)

Hold your position.

My Mossberg 500 Zombie Killer holds eight rounds of double-aught buckshot. It’s a howitzer. I’m about three feet from the door, deafened by the gale and the downpour, when, without the door handle turning, the full solid mass of the portal explodes in my face and a 220-pound man charges at me at full speed.

I pull the trigger.

Nothing happens.

My finger is outside the trigger guard.

The fleeing man hits me like a linebacker.

I am bowled rearward, ass over teakettle. Now the shotgun goes off. Its kick hammers me straight into the ground. Both my feet are over my head. The weapon goes flying. I feel a heavy boot step on the center of my chest and push off.

The man sprints away down the alley.

ME

(into headset)

Manning!

Two seconds later another male comes hurtling out the door, and half a second after that, a third. All three run right over me and highball away. I’m sprawled on my back in the flaming, gale-drenched alley with my helmet twisted sideways around my skull and both hands achingly, impotently empty.

At this moment temporary Building #4 blows apart. You know in movies how you see the fireball in the background while in the foreground bodies go flying? That’s exactly what happens in real life except you also go instantly deaf, blind, and stupid.