“Must have been a motion sensor, Mal,” She said as Mal walked up to the building, “no heat signature inside the house but downstairs there is a shielded bunker, I can’t see inside. I have to go help the others, you are on your own.”
Mal stepped forward up to the door and saw a small wire on the bottom of the glass door. Mal saw Rebecca’s hand shoot for the door until Mal grabbed her hand.
“It’s rigged,” Mal said pointing to the wire, “Let’s make our own door.”
Mal walked around to the side of the building and saw an Axe stuck into a tree stump where wood was once cut to the left was a large glass window for the families former living room. Mal picking up the axe and tossed it through the window as the glass fell to to ground opening to the inside of the house.
“I will go in first, everyone comes in after me,” Mal said.
Mal climbed over the glass even though he could feel the tiny shards into the back of his pants. He stepped on top of the couch and took a look around with his rifle, scanning the room.
“That’s not like any Commander I have ever seen,” said one of the BANS soldiers with them.
“There’s only one Wolf,” Rebecca said as she slid into the house meeting Mal in the middle of the living room.
“Like THE Wolf ?” The other BANS soldier said as he stepped in and walked towards the stairs.
Mal walked to him as he entered and stopped him from opening the door.
“All the entrance ways are rigged, you really think they wouldn’t do the same to the stairs?”
Mal placed the plasma cutting drone on the floor and laid out it’s track end to end until it reattached on the other side. Mal planned on cutting through to the basement without using a door.
“So we stand in the middle right?” Said the other Soldier before Mal dragged him over to the other side of the cutter.
“I am sorry, do you see a little bar with your health on the side of this? This isn’t a game. Do you know what is downstairs? You don’t? We don’t step anywhere we can’t see, if we can help it.”
Mal pressed the button as the drone ran around in a circle, cutting through the floor so hot that there wasn’t a fire left. The floor fell out into the bunker below. Mal stuck his rifle down into the hole and took a look to find…an empty basement.
“You said there was a shielded area down here?” Mal said to Wallis.
“Yeah, the entrance should be in the basement,” Wallis said, “I am kind of busy: do you mind?”
Mal hopped into the basement before rigging the Ladder for the others to climb down. Turning on his light he walked around the basement, to find it was barren like it had just been made. Couple of scraps of paint and plaster on the ground. Mal turned into the service closet that has the air conditioner and water heaters for the house, two units were set in there for air conditioning and the water seemed like nothing.
“This place is empty, are we sure this is the correct place?” Rebecca asked.
“Yeah I am sure they placed motion sensor Machine gun nests at all of the local houses,” Mal joked.
Staring at the two Air Conditioners Mal saw that there are two separate pipes, one that attaches to the ventilation system of the house and one that runs into the wall on the south side of the house.
“No we are in the right place,” Mal said as he walked over to the south wall as Rebecca was already feeling the wall out.
“Somebody recently plastered something over here,” She said as she picked up a chair and slammed it into the wall, shearing off sections of the walls plaster showing off a door that didn’t seem to belong in this house.
This looks like something that would have been used by the military, when there was a military. I am starting to wonder if this whole thing didn’t start long before the civil war.
Mal helped Rebecca pry off the rest of the plaster.
“How are we going to look past there?” The other soldier asked.
“We can’t numb nuts, that’s why I said if we can help it,” Mal said before pulling on the door, finding it couldn’t be opened.
“I don’t think so,” said a voice coming out of the screen below, “move along.”
“Chief Rebecca Armas, BANS regional, come out or we will come in,” she said.
“Good luck coming in,” The voice said.
Mal chuckled.
“Actually, you are going to come out to us,” Mal said smiling at what he had decided was a camera inside the extended speaker.
Turning to Rebecca he pulled off a grenade from her vest.
“Sir, they said we aren’t allowed to use those anymore unless it’s a life or death situation.”
“It’s a life or death situation because this is a dangerous fugitive, who wants to commit genocide.”
Mal walked back into the service closet and opened the second air conditioners panel, and found the pipe that lead to the bunker.
“Everybody get out of here,” Mal said, “Tear gas doesn’t effect me but for you guys, this will probably suck really bad.”
The other two men left but Rebecca didn’t, she grabbed her mask and pulled it over her face, making a seal by breathing in.
“This could get messy, Rebecca,” Mal said, “I don’t know how many of them are down there.”
“I know,” She said checking her M-4’s ammunition situation and putting one in the chamber, “good thing you will have a second gun down here with you.”
Mal nodded to her and let the tear gas grenade fall into the bunker. Mal took position next to the wall on the right, so that he would be the one firing from his left shoulder. It takes time and it takes lots of good amounts of experience to not care which arm you are going to actually shoot from. Mal had that experience but Rebecca wasn’t there quite yet. She lined up next to the opposite wall with her gun lined up also on her left shoulder.
Obviously Tim didn’t take much time teaching some of these people.
Mal walked over because he knew it would take a second for that door to open and helped Rebecca. Grabbing her M-4 off of her shoulder and placing it on her right shoulder.
“Wall, Body, Weapon.” Mal regurgitated. “Repeat it to yourself, over time you will naturally just slip into it.”
It was beaten into his brain while training as a SEAL that you do this because it makes you the smallest target possible. She nodded back to him as Mal heard the clacking of the door trying to open to the bunker. Sliding back to the right wall, Mal stared down the Close Quarters sight on his XM-24 rifle as the door swung open.
“SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!” Mal ordered as two men stumbled out.
One man raised a pistol while blindingly grabbing at his face.
“DROP IT!” Rebecca screamed.
He pointed the pistol at Rebecca, Mal took aim and watched as Rebecca placed four center mass bullets into his chests. Mal turned and nodded to her, they both stood and walked slowly towards the entrance. The man on the floor who was unarmed was cursing loudly on his belly, Mal put his boot across his chest and rolled the man over.
“Hermann,” Mal said as he pulled his zip ties off of his carrier, “You have some information I want.”
Mal zip tied his hands together as the man kept cursing. Mal stood to walk into the bunker.
“Shouldn’t we take him to fresh air?” Rebecca asked.
“Call one of the other assholes to take him up,” Mal said, “guy tried to kill you and me. I am not super interested in making him as comfortable as possible.”
Rebecca stomped her foot down. Chief Armas wasn’t like Mal. She was an idealist, not only did she join BANS to make sure that what happened to her Mom didn’t happen again but that they didn’t become just like her torturers.
“You’re acting like one of them.” She said, lifting Hermann to his feet and walking him out of here. “I really though more of you than that, Mal.”
Starring back at Rebecca as she walked him over to the stairwell, Mal cut them off and leaned down to the wires in front of the stairwell
. She passed off Hermann to the others, as she spun around to Mal, his eyes were lightly red but the gas didn’t effect him.
“What?” She asked with venom on her breath.
“You’re right. I have been over the edge lately.” Mal said turning around to head towards the bunker door.
Mal walked down into the bunker, he took a look into Bunker and thought he was stepping back into the past.
This is definitely military-grade, this is most definitely something that was stolen and installed before the US got split in half.
He walked down the hallway before hearing.
“What the hell is this shit?” Rebecca asked from behind him.
“It’s an old Command and Control unit that we used to install in foreign countries underground,” Mal said.
Mal walked down the hallway into the central hub. He had been in well over fifty of these units in his life, they were all setup the same way. They were made this way so that everything an operation may need would be available within this one hub. Mal entered the hub and looked around, seeing various food and cups until he saw drones were flying over Mount Vernon, being operated from here.
“Wallis?” Static screeches came over the system.
“Rebecca, make sure that door stays open,” Mal put in a USB drive and started taking all of the information off of the computers. The bank of hubs were humming to life, showing flashing at three other locations in the area.Mal glanced over the locations and saw the the camera from an old Kraken automated drone, the manual control joystick next to it.
“Running an old Kraken system through a Laptop? Color me impressed.”
The Kraken crashed through a wall, then zoomed in on a target. The target was Tye’s team. Mal searched the keyboard for a stand down command and found none, the Kraken requested permission to fire. Mal looked at the options in the drone menu it reads as:
Stand down
Fire
Turn off
Team Two
Ten Minutes earlier
“Breach,” Givens yelled as they entered the outside of the compound and found immediate gunfire.
She put a hand out to her men and threw a rock in the opposite direction before turning, searching for a target. Only to see a motion sensor targeted MG nest.
“EMP grenade over the fence to the house,” She said to the men as they tossed one over the fence.
As the Grenade went off, she could almost hear the MG nest die.
“Follow me,” She said as she turned the corner.
Givens wasn’t traditionally a combatant but she was learning, ever since Daniels had picked her out of the rage filled fight at the Ford Center, she has been trying to live up to this crazy expectation that was accidentally placed on her by him and Tim. This expectation almost crushed her in the first few days, almost killed her. Going from being a junior officer to being in charge of everyone is a huge step.
“There are booby traps at all three other houses,” Wallis said into her radio.
Givens hopped into the house from the window that the MG nest was in but then didn’t see any improvised devices. She put her hand up before the second man could come in, she leaned down towards the floor and saw a pressure plate four feet in front of her as the man in front of her stepped on it.
“Move it!!!” Givens pushed the man behind out of the house and as they both shot out of window.
“BOOM!”
The house exploded straight up, collapsing the house inside, out.
“House two is a bust, the bunker is underneath a ton of rubble now,” Givens said.
Team Three
Tye Jordan
Tye’s bald head was drenched in sweat as they hopped over the front gate into the front yard of the house, he looked up and saw a man smoking on the porch. The look on his face could only be described as he just saw a ghost, Tye’s other men hopped the fence, as the man fell trying to climb the stairs.
“Stop,” Tye yelled, “slowly, put your hands on your head.”
The man stopped as he put his hand on the doorknob and raised his hands.
“Good work,” Tye said, “Now, slowly turn around to me,slowly.”
Tye walked up to the gaunt looking man, his face filled with fear.
“Now go ahead and disarm any of your traps for us.” Tye said.
“Tye, I have an unmanned vehicle inbound, it isn’t ours,” Wallis said from his ear-piece, “It seems to be a Kraken.”
The Kraken shot through whole neighborhoods and destroyed houses or vehicles.
“Everyone get inside now!” Tye yelled while still pointing his firearm at the other man, “You too.”
Tye walked into the house as the Man flipped a switch.
“This disarms all the traps,” he said before sitting down on the couch, “I am guessing the Kraken is on it’s way?”
“Yeah, how did you know that?”
“I am not one of them, I am the prisoner here,” He said, “he said if I ran he would send that thing after me. That’s why you are here correct?”
Tye had no idea who this man was but they knew they had to find his captors.
“Where’s your guard?” Tye asked.
“No guards here,” The man said, “he’s the commander for one of the local BANS units in Evansville. Hermann? Was his name I think.”
Tye touched his radio as his other team members entered the house.
“Wolf-3 to overwatch,” Tye said.
“Overwatch, Send traffic Wolf-3.”
“Do we have Hermman?” Tye asked.
A long silence fell as the Kraken crashed through the brick wall, it’s metallic arms and central red eye looked like something out of a sci-fi novel. The fact that you couldn’t operate one manually, it could only attack on Artificial Intelligence? Much more frightening.
“Focus fire on the the central eye of the Kraken,” Tye said.
They began firing on the Kraken as the bullets bounced off the sides of it, it’s metallic shine was clearly armor as bullets literally collapsed on as he stopped in front of the house and began charging it’s rail gun. It hummed as it prepared to shoot through the house.
“Grab some cover!” Tye said as he winced.
THUNK!
Tye looked up as the Kraken curled back up into the ball that they usually became when they were ready for transport.
“Shit!” Tye screamed before looking at the man who was held prisoner here, “Do you have a bunker here too?”
“Yes, that’s where they have me run their drone fleet from, I only come up here to repair their drones and as of today to make those Missiles.”
“What kind of missiles?”
Team Four
Harrison was in pain, just being shot in the shoulder.
“Fuck!” The Twenty-Three year old said as he turned up next to the wall he was taking cover behind.
“There are movement activated MG nests in the houses Harrison!” Wallis stated over the radio.
Harrison wasn’t being hunted by that though.
“I was shot by someone from outside the House, girl.” Harrison got back up to to both of his feet and turned the corner with his team behind him, there was no one in the yard currently but they weren’t alone.
“Everyone converge on our house,” Harrison said, “something isn’t right here…”
Harrison and his team walked to the opposite side of the house, seeing a large shadow disappear into the forest behind the house.
“Someone running into forest North of the house, in pursuit.”
“Don’t!” Mal screamed but Harrison ignored him. Catching someone of consequence would be huge for Harrison and his career.
What does that old man know anyways? Harrison thought.
Harrison walked about twenty feet into the forest until he heard two screams as his soldiers had fallen into a hole.
“Nash! Cousins! You are alrig…” Harrison said as he looked down into the hole, where Nash and Cousins were impaled on sharp spikes.
“Too bad you faggot lovers couldn’t just get out of the way, now I have to kill a good ole Christian boy like you,” Karl said as he appeared from behind the tree and broke the strap on Harrison’s M-4 rifle, tossing it into the forest and throwing Harrison back towards the wall where he would hit hard. Harrison crawled back up to his feet, spitting out the blood from his gunshot wound in his right shoulder. “Learned that little trick from your boss.”
“I will kill you for that!” Harrison screamed in rage.
“No, you really won’t,” David said from behind him.
David kicked the side of Harrison’s left knee, ripping it apart from the inside, making it unable for him to stand. Harrison fell to his knees as Carl’s boot hit him in the chest and slammed him to the ground. David put his hand up to stop Carl from putting Harrison out of his misery.
“You have something I want, where is President Carter?” David asked.
“Who?”
“Carter, the President of the United States?”
“I have no idea who that is,” Harrison retorted.
Harrison’s chest began being crushed from the boot of Karl’s gigantic frame.
“Are you sure about that? My friend here doesn’t have to do this,” David said, “if you tell me what I want to know I will free you.”
“I have nothing to give you: information or otherwise,” Harrison stated.
David grabbed his helmet and pulled it off of his head, noticing there was a camera attached to it.
“Can I have your helmet here?”
“Sure, take it.”
David stood up and nodded at Karl. Grabbing Harrison by throat and crushing the helpless Soldier’s windpipe as Karl raised him off the ground, Karl waited to drop him into their spike pit, observing his work.
“Karl, end it…”David said.
“I don’t know, am I done picking the wings off this butterfly?” Karl said watching Harrison’s face turn blue from hypoxia.
“Yes, yes you are.” David said pulling his pistol out of his holster on his right side and shot Harrison in the head.
An annoyed Karl lifted and slammed Harrison’s dead body into the hole into a sharpened stick that shot through his throat. It would take several minutes before Harrison’s brain activity would stop totally, so many that he would hear the message that David would leave.
Monsters Page 26