We couldn't be sure; we only knew that the din was growing closer and closer by the second. Maureen and I jumped up. I grabbed my M-2 carbine, assured myself that its full half-moon clip was locked in place, checked my .38 Colt, pushed Maureen down between the bed and the wall, and crouched on the floor beside her with my carbine at the ready, across the bed. All this took only a few seconds.
We both grew tense — the yelling was so close and so loud that it seemed to be in our room, while incredible bursts of gunfire, rocket explosions and grenade explosions filled the air around the villa. We couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. I ran the short distance to the bathroom doorway, trying to use all my senses to understand what was happening. Suddenly, in the dark of the bathroom, looking at the frosted window, I could make out the silhouettes of men running quietly between the nurses' villa and villa #5, next door.
I quickly realized that Maureen and I were at risk of being cut off from our four colleagues upstairs, as the bedroom door into the front room would expose us to anyone looking through the windows, or to invaders coming in through the kitchen, in the back of the villa. There was another door leading from the bathroom, which led straight to the stairwell leading to the second floor. I motioned to Maureen to leave her place of safety and join me. She was scared, and so was I, and getting her to move under those conditions was not easy, but she jumped up and ran to me, trembling and unsure which way to turn.
The explosions around us were only a few feet away, just outside the house, and the constant percussion was highly disorienting. I took her by the hand and ran crouching with her the length of the large bathroom, past the frosted windows through which bursting flashes of light were obvious. Bullets tore through the glass, smashing against the opposite wall, just over our heads. We reached the door, and opened it quietly, hoping that we wouldn't come face to face with an enemy soldier in the front room. I led Maureen out of the bathroom to the stairs leading to the second floor, where I pushed her ahead of me, up the stairs.
With my carbine trained on the swinging door from the front room to the kitchen, I slowly backed up the stairs. At the same time, I called in sotto voce to Tony, to alert him that we were coming up. Tony came running to the head of the stairs, grabbed Maureen's hand and pulled her up the rest of the stairs. I remained halfway down, acting as a rear guard, keeping watch on the kitchen door. I stayed in position for about ten minutes.
The sounds of the battle didn't lessen, but I could tell that they were becoming more focused in one location, off to the area of villa #5. Nevertheless, bullet holes were appearing uncomfortably close to me, forcing me up the stairway onto the second floor. The two men and three women were huddled in the corners of the room, along the baseboards. Bullets flew all about the room. I crawled over to Maureen and grasped her trembling body. She was trying to control herself with considerable difficulty. I lay close to her with my left arm around her, leaving my right arm free with my finger on the trigger housing of the carbine, aimed directly at the head of the stairs.