*****
Second Squad had already made landfall in central Ohio and was approaching the target area. “OpCom, Team Leader, we are on approach. One click to target.” Apollo whispered into his lip mic.
He held his team on the outskirts of the small rural town. The triangulation indicated that the cell call had come from Tufo’s home or immediately nearby. Apollo scanned the area and found that the highest structure in the area was the water tower. He turned to Mueller and ordered, “Sierra-Two, take overwatch. Water tower, double-time.”
“Roger that.” He responded and took off, low and fast. He stayed to the covered areas but moved quickly and was soon at the base of the tower. Apollo observed him cover the distance and noted that the ladder ascending the tower was a solid twelve feet from the ground, but Robert took a running jump to grab the lower rungs and pulled himself up easily. Once he was set up at the walkway around the tower, he came back over the radio. “Eyes on the target area. We have one on the roof with a rifle and scope…not paying attention. No movement at the windows.” There was a slight pause before he came back. Switching to pulsed microwave. “We have four bodies upright with weapons inside and a fifth sitting in a chair. Appears to be our man. Hands appear to be tied behind his back.”
“Copy that. Go silent and take out the eyes on the roof.”
Apollo watched through the field glasses along the roofline. He couldn’t see the shooter on the roof, but he saw a pink mist appear near a dormer that had hidden the sniper. “Good shot. Maintain overwatch. Let us know if anything heads our way.”
“Copy that.” Robert responded.
The team made good time closing in on the house, always keeping an eye on the windows and anybody who might be inside. As they were coming in, Apollo radioed Laura, “OpCom, any chance we have a layout of the interior of Mark’s house?”
“Negative, Team Leader. You’re going in blind.”
“You heard the lady. Anything standing is fair game. But we want to keep at least one of them alive so we can figure out what the hell is going on here, got it?” he barked.
He got a round of affirmations before they approached the house. Using hand signals, Apollo sent Dom and Pedro to the south side of the property while he and Hammer took the front and north side. Taking quick peeks through the windows they could get an idea of where everybody was, and Hammer reported seeing Tufo tied up, his forehead bloody in the dining room. Apollo verified with Mueller that nobody was upstairs. On his mark, each man was to take a kill shot, Apollo was to wound his, charge in and subdue the man for questioning.
He began his countdown when a commotion inside broke out and he aborted the count. He could hear the voices rising and his man was yelling into a radio. He turned to the others, ‘If that son of a bitch fell asleep on the roof, I’ll kill him’ and then the man turned for the door. Apollo turned his back to the wall and prepared to nab him as he came out the door. “On my mark, take em down.” He whispered into his lip mic.”
The door flew open and the man stepped onto the porch. “Jennings, you son of a…”
“Go.” Apollo whispered and a trio of shots whispered out through suppressed weapons as Apollo pulled the man into him and held a very large knife to his throat, his other hand pulling the short barreled assault rifle from his hands. He slid his back along the wall and took the man back into the house. “Converge on me.” He stated simply into his lip mic and the team fell into the house.
The man who had stepped onto the porch knew instantly who had him, but they weren’t expected yet. He was shaking and sweat began to pop out on his forehead. He glanced out the window and an evil grin slid across his features. “What you grinnin’ at pendejo?” Gonzales asked him.
“Your imminent death.” He smiled back at them.
“Sierra-Four, untie Tufo.” Apollo ordered to Popo. “Make sure he’s okay.” He turned the abductor around and pushed him against the wall, the point of his blade against his throat. “Why are you here?”
“To bring you out to play, of course.” The man grinned at him like a fool.
“Well, lucky you, asshole.” Apollo said. “We’re here. How about we play, ‘Pin the Asshole to the Wall’?”
“Go ahead. Have your fun. Very soon it shall be you who are crucified.” The man said. Apollo pushed the blade a little harder against his throat, drawing just a drop of blood as Tufo stepped out of the dining room rubbing his wrists.
“Stop!” he yelled, quickly stepping up to Apollo and reaching for the blade. “They have my wife and daughter.” He explained his eyes desperate.
Apollo pulled the blade back enough that the man against the wall exhaled, not realizing he had been holding his breath. “Where are they?” Apollo asked through gritted teeth.
The man smirked. “I bet you’d like to know, wouldn’t you?” he spat.
Mueller cut across the ear bud. “Fast movers, Apollo. Headed your way.”
“Which direction, Sierra-Two?” he asked.
“From the railway. You only have a few minutes at best.” He said. “I might can get one or two, but there’s at least a half dozen and they’re quick.”
“Stop what you can, Two. We’re tied up at the moment.” Apollo turned back to the man who was now smiling like the cat who swallowed the canary. “Think it’s funny, asshole? ‘Cuz I don’t fucking play!”
Apollo pulled his sidearm and blew a hole through the man’s knee cap. The man howled in pain and tried to drop to the floor, but Apollo held him pressed to the wall. “Hurts like a bitch, don’t it? You got any idea how many more joints I can fuck up ‘til your blood sucking buddies get here?” He stared the gasping man in the eyes. “A lot fucker, now where’s his family?” He placed the barrel against the man’s other knee and the man spit at him.
“I’m going to enjoy watching them rip your goddamn heads off!” he yelled.
“Oh, yeah? You fucking think so?” Apollo moved the barrel from his kneecap to his balls and pressed tightly. “Maybe I ought to squeeze the trigger now?” he asked.
“No!” the man begged. “No…they…they’re three houses down.” He gasped, pointing south of their location.
“Two, three houses south. Check for two females, a woman and a girl.”
“Copy that, wait one, Team Leader.” After a short pause. “Bingo, Team Leader. Nobody’s watching them. They appear to be alone and tied back to back at the rear of the building.”
“Roger that.” Apollo turned to Dom. “Take Mark and get his family the fuck out of here.” He turned to Tufo. “You got a car?”
“There’s a Jeep behind the house.” He said.
“Go get it and meet Sierra-Three at the house three doors down.” Mark turned to head out the back when Apollo called him back. He tossed him the assault rifle he took from the abductor. “You remember how to use this, Marine?” Tufo glanced down at the Sig 552.
He pulled the magazine, checked the chamber and replaced the magazine, setting the safety. “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” He smirked.
“Semper Fi, buddy.” Apollo said, throwing him a salute. “Get your family and head to Wright-Patterson. Laura will have shit set up for you there.”
“Roger that.” Tufo said and returned the salute before heading out the back for his Jeep.
“OpCom, we have fast runners inbound. We could sure use some air support. Any chance we could get the Predator out here sometime soon?” Apollo asked.
“Predator is inbound, Team Leader. My bad on that one, Apollo. As soon as Over watch reported inbound, I dispatched it from the C-130, but it should have already been in the sky. I’m sorry.”
“No worries, ma’am. We’ll hold 'em off as long as we have to until the birdie can chop ‘em up.” He answered back.
“If the birdie can chop them up.” Mueller came back. “I’ve never seen anything move this fast Team Leader. They’ll be there any second. Prepare for breach.” Apollo could hear the hiss report of Bob’s rifle through his mic.
�
��You heard the man, prepare for breach.” Apollo ordered as the first vampire burst through the door and was lit up in a rapid hail of silver shrapnel. “Blowing smoke!” Apollo barked, as he set off a smoke grenade and rolled it onto the porch.
The smoke grenade also emitted silver nitrate which was poisonous to the vampires.
“Grenade!” Popo yelled as he lobbed a UV phosphorus grenade out the window and a shriek was heard immediately after. Broken glass was heard upstairs and the team knew one had jumped to the roof and came through an upstairs window.
“Two, give me a count.” Apollo came over the coms.
“Too many too fast. Best guess is at least a dozen. Maybe more.” He reported. “I dropped four on their way in.”
“When these fuckers set a trap, they set a trap.” Hammer muttered as he cut a vampire in half with his P90. “Changing mag!”
“Covering!” Popo yelled as he turned to cover Hammer and dropped another vampire who tried to reach Hammer through a window he had been firing from. “Fuck, they’re everywhere!”
“Cut the chatter, and hold these fuckers back until the drone gets here.” Apollo said.
“Drone is three minutes outbound Team Leader.” Laura stated calmly over the coms.
All of the team members knew that in a frenzied attack, three minutes was a lifetime. At the rate they were burning through ammunition and grenades, they may not last three minutes. The vampires were swarming the house like ants and what started out as a few turned into a dozen, then two dozen, and quickly turned into fifty, and then more. Their bullets were riddling the walls, destroying windows and doors and making the house unsafe to be in, but with no place left to go, they had to defend the only structure they had.
Mueller couldn’t fire into the building itself without fear of possibly hitting one of his team mates, but he could pick off those that had jumped to the roof to enter through windows. Those that arrived late and were milling around the front trying to decide which avenue of attack might be best were also targeted. He was taking his time, picking his targets and dropping them, knowing that it wasn’t doing a lot of good, but every dead vampire was one less his team would have to eventually deal with when a shadow fell across him. It wasn’t completely dark out yet, the sun had dropped below the horizon when the monsters rushed to attack and the few vestiges of light that was out gave a fading twilight to the night as the battle waged, but it was just enough light that he noticed the shadow. Robert rolled to his left, bringing the SCAR up with him and shooting the vampire under the chin. The gore that exploded from its head painting the side of the water tower and covering his black uniform with blood and bits of brain and debris.
He spit and scraped goo from his eyes. Glancing as far around the tower as he could, it appeared to be clear. Robert abandoned his post long enough to set a trip wire with a UV phosphorus grenade then went back to work sniping. “Team Leader, overwatch. I was discovered, but dispatched the intruder. Back on duty. Drone is approaching.” In the every darkening skies he could barely see the white of the predator as it made its approach. Robert went back to targeting those vampires that had made it to the roof to prevent them from gaining access to the interior of the house.
“Copy that overwatch.” Apollo responded. “Damn glad you’re okay. Even more glad that bird finally made it.” The relief evident in his voice.
The battle below at the residence continued on and from Robert’s vantage point he could now hear pops like firecrackers. The team must have run out of ammunition in their carbines and reverted to their sidearms. Vampire bodies were strewn about the exterior of the house and roof, the drone making a single pass spewing fire, tracers lighting the sky and cutting the remaining vampire to ribbons when the team emerged from the front and rear of the house.
Robert watched Apollo come from the front and Hammer and Popo come from the rear and work their way forward, finishing off any remaining stragglers that may have just been wounded. A high velocity silver bullet that passed through a non-vital area may allow a vampire to live. It’s best to shoot them in the head or heart to make sure. Robert observed the team through his scope when his UV phosphorus grenade went off and a shrieking scream was heard behind him. He doubled back to find a crispy vampire huddled near the top of the ladder where he had set his tripwire. For good measure he put a single silver round through its head, then broke down his overwatch site and slid down to the ground.
Mueller approached the team who sat around the remains of Tufo’s house, kicking over the bodies and checking for survivors. “Fuck. What a shit storm, eh?”
“All of this to drag us out here? What for?” Apollo asked. “I don’t get it. Was this another fucking test?”
“If it was, it was a lot better than the last one.” Hammer stated.
Popo was looking around the area, a confused expression painted on his features. “Hey, boss? Where’s S3?”
Apollo glanced around the carnage. He counted four team members. “I sent him with Tufo. He should have been back right after the shit hit the fan…” Apollo glanced down the street at the third house down. “Which house was it, Bob?”
“Green roof. Closed shutters.” He answered.
Apollo smacked Hammer across the chest. “You’re with me. You two, stay here, wait for me to call for backup. Cleanup crew should be on their way.” He said absently, his eyes glued to the house with the green roof.
Apollo and Hammer took off at a trot. When they reached the house, the front door had been left open. They went in with night vision and cleared the house. They found where Tufo’s wife and daughter had been tied up, their ropes sliced clean through. They went back out the front and saw what looked like marks in the gravel where someone had left very quickly, throwing gravel behind them, but no Dominic.
“Team Leader to Sierra-three, come in.” Apollo stated over the coms. He waited impatiently. After a moment he repeated, “Team Leader to SIERRA THREE, come in.”
“Maybe his coms are down?” Hammer offered.
Apollo gave him a sideways look. “Even if they were, he’d find a way to let us know his location.” He keyed his lip mic again, “Team Leader to SIERRA THREE, what’s your 20?” Again, there was no reply.
Apollo stepped out on to the gravel road. He tried to put himself in Dom’s shoes. I’m in the house, I get Tufo’s wife and daughter free, load them in the Jeep, send them on their way. I hear the attack begin…look for a good place to fire from! Apollo glanced around. Across from the house was a small outbuilding. He jogged to it and switched on his Maglight. In the ankle high grass he found spent shell casings. He picked one up and held it out to Hammer. “He came here to fight from.”
Hammer glanced around. There weren’t many casings. “Not for long though, boss. Not many casings.” He observed.
Apollo had to agree. He looked at the grass and could see where it had been trampled somewhat and followed a bit of a path to the other side where they found more casings. Then it seemed as though he just fell off the planet.
“What the fuck?” Apollo yelled, throwing the spent casings he picked up back on the ground. “It’s not like he just sprouted wings and flew off?!”
Hammer looked up at the roof of the shed. He couldn’t imagine Dom climbing up there, and even if he had, where would he have gone? There was nothing else around. “Could he have doubled back?”
Static burst across the ear bud and Apollo touched his mic. “SIERRA THREE? Dom, come in!” he yelled.
“Mr. DeGiacomo will not be joining you for the rest of his life.” The voice said slowly and deliberately. Apollo looked at Hammer, whose eyes widened.
“Who is this?” Apollo ordered over the coms.
“That is of no importance, suffice to say, I got what I came for. You may leave now. Thank you very much.” And the coms went dead.
Apollo’s jaw ticked and his vision went red with rage. Hammer’s breath caught in his throat as he realized it had been a trap the entire time, not a test. The blood suckers want
ed one of the Monster Squad, not to see their capability. “Fucker sounded Nordic, boss.”
“Fucker sounded dead if I ever get my hands on him.” Apollo said through gritted teeth. Slowly, Apollo reached up and keyed his lip mic. “OpCom, we have a problem.”
19
Finally it was dark enough that Damien felt safe to leave the nasty, dusty, smelly warehouses and break out on his own. He just needed to slip past whatever guards that Foster had put in place, find a vehicle that was worthy of him, eat the driver, steal the car and head back to his father’s estate.
He worked his way toward the front entrances and saw two of Foster’s main enforcers guarding the rollup doors. They had opened them to allow trucks to enter in and go back out, bringing loads of drug addicts, homeless people, prostitutes and illegal aliens promised work into the warehouse to feed the masses then back onto the streets in search of more. It was no easy task to feed an army these days.
Damien didn’t want to seem too obvious so he raised his chin and squared his shoulders as he approached the guards. He lived here, he should be able to come and go as he pleased. As he approached the doors, one of the enforcers stepped in front of him. “Where are you headed?” he asked.
“To hunt. Where do you think?” Damien stated, as if it should be obvious.
“The docks are empty and Foster had meals catered in.” the enforcers informed him.
“Seriously? You call that a meal? Have you smelled what they’ve brought in?” Damien gestured toward the homeless and the prostitutes. “Do you even want to guess what’s swimming in her blood?” he said in a lowered voice. “Skank on a stick?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He tried to move past the enforcer who blocked him again.
“There are plenty of immigrants you can feed from.” He said pointing to the Mexicans huddled at the far end of the warehouse still trembling in fear.
“Oh, come on.” Damien whined. “I don’t want Mexican tonight. It gives me gas.” The enforcer just raised his eyebrows. “Seriously, you can taste the cumin in their blood!” he gestured wildly. “They wreak of it…it seeps out of their pores!” he whined.
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