Fallen World: The Complete Trilogy

by Tom Jones

  The fox quickly stepped down the stairs, and he ran towards the open vault. He was now on borrowed time. When he reached the vault, he heard more gunfire, and he figured that whoever else was in the building was also seeking what he was looking for. After all, the contract had only been open for twelve hours. Arcades entered the vault, and he heard the alarm finally sound. ‘I don’t have much time. I better hurry up and get the cane out,’ Arcades thought to himself as he moved his attention to the vault. Inside, he noticed a single case sitting on a table. The vault’s lights reflected on the stainless steel case, and the fox approached the case to open it. He flipped the latches down, and he opened the case. Inside was a gold cane with a large jade crystal on the end of it. Since his weapon was holstered, he had both hands free to inspect the cane. He picked up the cane, and he looked at the gold handle. The handle was inscribed with black symbols all over. Arcades’ eyes widened when he recognized some of the symbols. Though he recognized the symbols, he could not tell what the message was. He now was absolutely convinced that he could not let anybody else get the cane. He was now wondering if it was best to not give the cane to the man who opened the contract. Since he didn’t know if the case had a tracking device, Arcades did not want to take any chances. The fox removed a black, folded up drawstring sack from his dump pouch, and he sat the case inside of the bag. He then tossed the bag over his shoulders, and he exited the vault.

  “Move. Clear right,” Omega 1 was calling out as his fireteam moved around the next area. They had dispatched multiple guards, but they still did not know where the jade cane was. As they began traveling down a stairwell, a few guards started firing at them. Omega 1 notified his fireteam, “Contact! Down the stairs!” Omega 1 could hear the guard speak in Chinese as he stepped back from the stairwell to check the rounds in his magazine. He was using a Magpul PMAG in his SCAR-L that allowed him to view the remaining rounds via a plastic window on the side of the magazine. He estimated that he had approximately ten rounds left in the current magazine. He decided to perform a tactical reload. Omega 1 removed the magazine and placed it in his dump pouch. He then removed another PMAG from his magazine pouch, and he inserted it into his rifle. Since his rifle already had a round chambered, he did not need to pull the charging handle again. As soon as he finished his reload, he heard gunfire coming from right behind him. Omega 2 and 3 had just killed a small group of guards that attempted to flank them from an alternate route. Blood was now all over the walls and floor, and the floor was also littered with spent shell casings. “Moving,” Omega 1 announced as he began traveling down the staircase. Omega 2 followed him closely, and the guards that were below the stairwell started shooting up at them. The rounds penetrated the floor, but missed the two operatives. Omega 1 heard one of the guards announce something, and he assumed this was a reload callout. He peered over the railing, and he fired at two guards. Rounds ripped right through the guards, and they collapsed to the ground. A pool of blood soon began to form underneath them. Omega motioned for the rest of his fireteam to join him, “Keep going, we cannot lose that cane!”

  Alpha 1 and his fireteam stepped over bodies of deceased guards as they traveled deeper into the facility. Alpha 1 moved in, and he noticed a large room with a control room in the middle. Three vault doors were in the room, but one of them was already open. Alpha 1 figured that the jade cane could be in one of the vault doors. He pushed the PTT on his radio, “Fireteam Omega, this is Alpha 1. We have located three vault doors. Vault Three has been opened already. The cane could possibly be in Vault One or Vault Two. Please advise, over.” Alpha 1 only heard static coming from the radio. He then pressed the PTT button again, “Omega come in! Omega, do you copy? Over.” Nothing happened. Alpha 1 turned to the rest of his fireteam, “Dammit! Comms are out. Two of you get inside that control booth and open those other vault doors. Alpha 2, you’re on me. We’re going to look inside Vault Three. Cover me, in case any more guards decide to show up.”

  After the fireteam split up again, they could hear more gunfire coming from elsewhere. Alpha 1 said, “That must be Omega. Sounds like they’re making their way to us. We need to figure out why our comms are out.” Alpha 1 ran inside Vault Three, and he looked at an empty case that was on the table. Alpha 2 then asked, “Sir, do you think the cane was here?” Alpha 1 shook his head, “I don’t know if it was here or not.” He then looked up at the security camera that was in the vault. “If we can roll back on that security footage, we might be able to figure it out. But, since we can’t contact Omega, we’re gonna have to wait for them to meet us here.” Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 exited the vault, and they saw a few regular doors open. More guards ran inside the main chamber, and they began to open fire with their rifles. Alpha 1 was caught outside cover, “Contact front! Get to cover!” He raised his P90 and laid down cover fire to buy himself time to run in front of the control room’s walls for cover. Alpha 2 also returned fire with his M4A1, but he did not run. Rather, he dropped a knee, and he fired at the guards. One guard tried to shoot back at Alpha 1, but he was instead shot by Alpha 2. The guard fell backwards, and he dropped his QBZ-95. The second guard ran out of ammunition, and he tried to make a break to the nearest doorway to get to cover; However, he was shot by Alpha 1 peeking out from cover with his P90. The guard fell forwards, and his head rammed right into the doorway. Another pool of blood soon amassed on the floor.

  Omega 1 made his way to another doorway, and he opened it. As the crew entered, Omega 1 heard a familiar voice, “Friendlies! Check your fire!” Omega 1 turned his attention to the source of the voice, and he saw that Alpha 2 was aiming his rifle right at him. Omega 1 confirmed with the rest of his fireteam, “We’re clear! Friendlies! Check your fire.” Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 lowered their weapons, and Fireteam Omega did the same. Alpha 1 approached Omega 1 and said, “Our comms are down. Did you hear what we said?” Omega 1 shook his head, “No, I didn’t hear you guys. Let’s test it.” Alpha 1 held his PTT button, “Radio check. How copy? Over.” Omega 1 nodded, “Copy Alpha 1, radio checks out.” Omega 1 shrugged, “I don’t know what happened to you there. Are you sure you held the button down?” Alpha 1 nodded, “Yeah. I heard only static.” Alpha 1 then noticed that the vault doors were still closed. He held down the PTT, “Alpha 3, what is taking so long? Why aren’t the vault doors open? Over.” Alpha 3 promptly responded, “Sir, we’ve been trying. We also already told you that the buttons don’t work. Over.” Alpha 1 raised an eyebrow, but this was hidden behind his large ESS goggles. “What are you talking about? You two shits never said anything to us!” Alpha 1 then said to the rest of the men with frustration, “Fuck it. We’re going up there.”

  The six operators reached the control booth. Alpha 1 was still frustrated, “Alright, you two shits better have a damn good excuse as to why the vault doors aren’t open yet.” Alpha 3 raised his voice, “Dammit! I told you the doors didn’t work worth of shit!” Omega 1 decided to step in, “Shut the fuck up all of you! Try it again for fuck’s sake.” Alpha 3 flipped the two switches on the control panel, and the two vault doors began to slide open. Alpha 3’s face was full of surprise. Omega 1 was still frustrated, “Well ain’t that all fine and dandy! Let’s go to the vaults now.” The squad of eight moved out of the control booth, and they split into two fireteams once again. One to go into each vault. Fireteam Alpha moved into Vault One, and Fireteam Omega moved into Vault Two. Omega 1 approached a boxed item on the table. He opened the box and found a large diamond. Omega 1 expressed his surprise, “Oh shit! Look at this baby!” He held the diamond up and showed it to the rest of his fireteam. It was an expensive diamond, but this was not the cane they flew all the way over to find.

  Alpha 1 approached a case that was sitting in the middle of the table in Vault One, and he flipped the latches down. “I think this is it,” Alpha 1 said as he was anticipating finding the mission objective. When the case opened, Alpha 1 was both surprised and disappointed. Inside the case was a firearm that he had never seen before. Alpha 1 picked u
p the weapon, and he examined it. The weapon halfway resembled a conventional automatic rifle, but it also resembled a bullpup rifle at the same time. The lower reciever of the weapon seemed to have a place where a STANAG style magazine would fit inside of. The stock of the weapon had another magwell, but it was well above the size to accommodate a standard 5.56x45mm magazine. Alpha 1 wanted to try out the weapon, but he did not have a compatible magazine since he was using a P90. He requested a magazine from Alpha 2, “Hey, Alpha 2. Gimme one of your M4 mags.” Alpha 1 heard the velcro of the magazine pouch open, and Alpha 2 handed him a Magpul PMAG.

  Alpha 1 inserted the PMAG into the weapon, and it did fit. He even heard a click confirming the magazine was fully seated into the weapon. He then flipped the weapon over, so he could find a way to chamber a round. The weapon even featured a bulky scope on the top of the upper receiver. Alpha 1 found a power button for the scope, and he looked through it. Holding up the rifle was kind of tough as it was fairly heavy. Alpha 1 was surprised by the weight of the prototype especially since there were not any munitions loaded into the bullpup part of the weapon. However, since the weapon was a bullpup, it was not hard for him to keep the muzzle up once he firmly pressed the stock up against his shoulder. Alpha 1 finally found a charging handle, and he pulled it back. As he pulled back the handle, he noticed that the chamber on the stock did not open. He then directed his attention to the breech that was above the STANAG lower receiver. Alpha 1 finally understood what he was holding, “Oh, I get it now. This is one of those hybrid assault rifle prototypes. It’s supposed to be two guns in one. You have the standard rifle here, and you have the 20mm launcher in the back. I guess that’s interesting. We should take it back with us. I didn’t even know the Chinese were developing one of these.”

  Omega 1 and his fireteam entered the vault that Alpha 1 was in. “Any luck here?” Omega 1 asked. Alpha 1 presented the weapon that he found. Omega 1 shook his head, “That ain’t it.” Alpha 1 then asked, “Sir, you didn’t find the cane in the other vault?” Omega 1 showed Fireteam Alpha the diamond, “I found this decent diamond, but no jade cane.” Alpha 1 then made a suggestion, “How much do you want to bet that it was in Vault Three?” Omega 1 nodded, “Probably was. I found a CCTV room when we were clearing this place out. We should check out the cameras there. All of these vaults look like they have cameras inside, so we should be able to find out who took whatever was in Vault Three.” Alpha 1 had a question, “Uh sir, what if the jade cane was never here in the first place?” Omega 1 shook his head, “There’s no way in hell that our intel was that off. Come on, let’s go and check the cameras.” The squad exited the vault, and they began to backtrack to the CCTV room.

  Arcades was almost finished reaching the summit of an alternate route he took to get back to the entrance zone. He found a hidden unguarded maintenance tunnel that had a staircase that could lead him back to the entrance zone. The gunfire that he heard before was now gone, and he assumed that the hostile forces that came in after him had already eliminated all of the guards in the facility. Arcades did not want to assume that they had left already, as he knew that they would likely be looking for the jade cane. The fox finally reached the door that would take him back to the entrance zone, and he was not prepared to see what happened to it.

  When the fox opened the door, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped from the sight he took in. Bodies laid sprawled out all over the floor, there were many spent shell casings, and there was so much blood splattered all over the floor. Arcades moved slowly through the aftermath, and he was being careful as to not step in any blood with his bare feet. Arcades did not want to look at the gruesome sight, and he now wanted to exit more than he did before. As the fox was moving back to where the elevator was, he heard a faint voice. Arcades paused, and he turned his head in the direction of the voice. He saw one of the guards had not been killed. The guard’s right leg had blood all over it, and he was reaching his hand out to the fox from afar as if asking for help. The guard seemed to not care that an anthro was his only means to survive. Though he was not expecting the anthro to render aid to him, Arcades quickly made his way to the fallen guard. Arcades found a spot on the floor that had not been contaminated with blood, and he got down on his knees. The guard grabbed Arcades’ arm, and Arcades said, “Don’t worry buddy, I’ll get you out of here.” Arcades knew that if the human had not been wounded, he likely would not hesitate pulling the trigger on an anthro. The fox did not care, as he did not want another life to be lost to the unknown hostile force. Arcades gripped the guard’s hand to reassure him, and he began to take off the guard’s plate carrier.

  When the fox finished removing the plate carrier, he noticed that it had five rounds that landed on it. Arcades sat the vest aside, “Man, you got lucky. You would have been a goner if these hit you.” The guard then grunted, “A-American… Help.” Arcades was surprised, “You speak English?” The guard groaned while he slowly nodded, “Yes, American. I… Shot in leg. Help.” After hearing the human speak, the fox realized that the guard only had a poor grasp of the English language. However, this did not prevent the fox from rendering aid. “You’re not dying today. I’ll get you out of here.” Arcades realized that he did not have his medkit with him, as it was in his vehicle. He was not expecting anybody to fire any shots. Arcades informed the guard of the situation and hoped he understood, “Hey buddy, I have to get you out of here before I can get you help. What you can do now is put pressure on that wound.” The fox grabbed the guard’s hands, and he pressed them on the wound. The guard grunted, but he held his wounded upper thigh with his hands. The fox then used his meager strength to lift the man off the ground and carried him into the elevator. He then entered the elevator, and he made sure that he was still carrying the jade cane before he started the elevator. The elevator rose, and once it reached its destination, Arcades carried the guard out of the building.

  Arcades reached his vehicle, and he sat the guard down behind the trunk of his car. He propped the man’s back up against the rear bumper, and he used the key fob to open the trunk. However, the trunk did not open. The car did not respond to the key fob. Arcades then realized that his ECM jammer was still on. He switched it off and was then successful at opening the trunk. Arcades placed the jade cane in the back of the vehicle, and he dropped his JPC off in the trunk with it. He then retrieved the medkit that he had in the trunk. When the fox removed his JPC, he remembered that his headset was still attached to the PTT module. Arcades dropped the headset in the trunk and left it open as he knelt down again in front of the wounded guard. The fox could not see how the man was wounded in the darkness, so he used the only light that he had.

  He removed his G17 from his holster, and turned on the flashlight. When the guard saw the fox take out the handgun, he began to breathe heavily. When Arcades noticed, he placed his left hand on the guard’s shoulder to comfort him. “Hey, hey. Don’t worry. I’m not going to shoot you. This is the only light I have with me right now.” The guard responded with broken English, “Please American. No kill me.” Arcades sat the handgun on the ground, and he tried to reassure the guard again. “Aww, don’t worry buddy. I’m not here to take life. I’m here to try and help save life. Now, let’s save your life.” The fox now could see the human’s wounds a bit better. He then needed to see how it actually looked. Arcades removed his Oakley gloves and tossed them in the trunk. He reached in the med kit, and he put on a pair of disposable gloves. He removed his multi-tool, and he flipped the knife out. He then began to cut the guard’s pant leg off. Once it was removed, he pulled it down to the guard’s boot, and he looked at the gunshot wound.

  “Oof, that looks like it hurt,” Arcades said to the human. He looked up, and he saw that the man’s gaze was starting to face upwards. Arcades touched the man’s face to get his attention, “Stay with me buddy. Come on, focus on me!” The guard looked down at the fox, and he said in broken English, “Feel sleepy.” Arcades did not want the man to go unconscious, “No, don�
��t go to sleep. Tell me about yourself. Where are you from?” Arcades didn’t think too much about the questions he was asking, he was mainly focusing on keeping the man alive. The guard replied, “I am Chinaman.” What other response was Arcades expecting to get? As he cleaned the wound, he noticed that there was an exit wound. He concluded that the man was probably shot with a regular rifle round as an AP round would have pierced the vest the guard was wearing.

  Arcades finished cleaning the wound, and he removed a shot of morphine from the med-kit. He injected the guard with the morphine, “Hey buddy, this will take some of the pain away. I need you to stay with me now. Keep talking to me. You got a family?” The guard nodded slowly, “Yes, American. I have family.” The fox then decided that he should bandage the wound, for it was too late to use a tourniquet. Arcades did not know if the guard would make it, but that did not stop him from trying. While Arcades was bandaging the guard’s leg, he prayed to God that He would keep the man alive. Once the man was finally bandaged, the fox said, “I’m praying that you’ll make it until we get to the airport. I’m gonna take you with us. We’ll get people to treat you.” The man barely understood what the fox was saying to him, “Thank you, American.” Arcades smiled, and a tear slowly dropped out of the fox’s eye.

  The fox placed the rubber gloves into a disposable bag, and he then picked up the handgun off of the ground before disabling the light. Once the light was disabled, the fox sat up on his knees, and he placed the handgun back into the holster before removing his battle belt. He tossed the battle belt in the car trunk and gathered up what was left from the med-kit to place it in the trunk. He closed the trunk and helped the guard take a seat inside of his vehicle. The fox then entered the vehicle himself, and he started the vehicle. Once the vehicle started, Kimosabe by BT resumed playing. Arcades chuckled to himself before shifting his vehicle into drive, “Heh, this song takes me way back. You know what I’m saying?” Arcades started driving his car towards the airport, and he pulled out his cell phone to call Johnny.