by Doug Burbey
"What up, old man? Ready to move to a retirement home and let me have all your stuff?"
The normalcy of the comment hurt, and he pushed past it, unable to release a drop of control. "I need a spotter. Something bad is about to go down and I'm going to be the one bringing the noise. You in?"
His voice felt flat even to his own ears, but it didn't matter. Keeping the rage, both personal and demon born, controlled took priority.
A pause on the other end, then Andrew replied slowly, "Yes. What do I need to bring?"
"The Bear, something comfortable to go prone on, and patience. Bring your Suburban. We are rescuing people and will need something to put them in."
"I'll be there in thirty." Andrew hung up and DK heard the same lack of emotion that rode him right now.
He shifted his gaze to Kayter. So fucking young but she knew how to fight. Most of the time she had a good head on her shoulders, but he could trust her to kill him if he lost it. And that might be the most important part.
"Come with me. I need to get some supplies before we go do this." He didn't give her time to demure or even speak, turning and striding out of the room. A second later he heard her quick footsteps as she followed him down to his armory.
The biometrics locks into his armory were accessed without conscious thought, as his mind went through what he would need. He'd grab some ammo for Andrew too, just in case, and a pistol.
"Fuuuuck me… You expecting the end of the world?" Kayter blurted as she stopped inside.
"Yup. Every single day." His voice cold and hard as he headed for one of the cabinets. Digging in it he came up with what he'd been pretty sure he had, wireless radio headsets. "Here." DK tossed one to Kayter, who he noted with a bit of annoyance, caught it one handed not even looking at him.
"This place is pretty intense. You could probably withstand a Horde from here."
"Kinda the point. How much ammo you got on you?" He kept pulling out more kit, this would be close in fighting most likely, and he might need to get out in a hurry.
"Not much. The magazine in my .45 and two extra clips."
"Got a speed loader?"
"Not on me." She kept eyeing everything, and DK made sure nothing disappeared off his shelves. Not that he thought she would steal, but he understood the lure of things that caused pain to others.
"Make?"
"Springfield .45 XD MOD," she rattled it off and he frowned. He didn't have one for that specific model.
Heading over to his ammo bench he pulled out something. "Here try this. Universal loader. E-bay crap but it should work."
That pulled her away from her perusal of his stuff as she caught that and flipped a few bullets out, then tested out the universal. "It'll do. Not perfect but faster than by hand."
"Good," he grunted and tossed her two boxes of .45 ammo. "Figure out how to carry that on you."
She glanced down at the hundred rounds then back up at him. "If I have to use this many bullets we are probably dead because they filled the place with reinforcements, instead of just the skeleton crew I saw."
DK shrugged. "Better have it and bitch about it later, than to need it and be without." He didn't look at her but instead he focused on his end game. In a small green engineer bag, he dropped in round balls of C-4, primer cord, and detonators.
"Do I want to know why you are packing explosives?" Her voice sounded behind him, and he flinched.
"To blow up the damn building. Why the fuck do you think?" His voice a bit sharper than it would be normally.
He could feel her standing behind him, looking at him.
I swear, if she is judging me, I will fucking shoot her in the thigh and leave her to deal with the flesh wound.
He stood ready to rip into her, but her face had only a pensive look.
"What if we can't get the prisoners out before we need to blow it."
DK's gut twisted. "We will. That is not an option. They are getting out no matter what." He looked at her. "Can you fight in a bulletproof vest?"
"This is. Miriam made it for me. Will protect me from anything we should find there. Anything else, well we will have to hope. The vest makes me too awkward. But you do realize we might not have to kill anyone."
"Do you really think anyone working there doesn't know exactly what they are doing and are fully complicit in it?" His voice harsh, guilt making it even darker.
Kayter closed her eyes. "No. I'm good. Sword is on the bike, so are the extra magazines. I've got some pockets I can get more loose ammo in, but not this much."
"Then here, take this; make sure you can move." He tossed her the smallest tactical vest he had that would give her places to put the ammo, the loader, and the three grenades he handed her.
Her eyes darkened as she took the grenades and her strange eyes grabbed him for a moment. Not sexual, more like knowledge he had no desire to understand threatened to pull him down. He jerked his eyes away and headed for the door even as she pulled the vest on and started adjusting it to fit.
DK made the conscious decision to leave the door to his gun room open. If he got killed while doing this he might as well let Andrew have a way to get in. He wouldn't be needing it anymore. Maybe regardless of how this went down. His life expectancy without Reset could be counted in months if not weeks.
Don't think about it. Not now. Now you have other things to concentrate on.
He heard Kayter coming up the stairs about the time his alerts went off. He pulled up the cameras on his phone and nodded at the sight of a dark Suburban coming up his driveway.
"You riding with us or taking your bike?"
"With all this stuff strapped one me? Riding with you. If one of us gets hurt I don't want to have to worry about leaving Midnight there."
DK stopped and turned to look at her. "You named your bike?"
"Yes. You have a problem with that?"
She looked like a kitten as she bristled at him, and a flash of amusement untainted by rage or guilt made him almost smile.
"Nope, just wondering if you were calling yourself Midnight Rider, or something."
Her spluttering, offended noises kept his mood buoyed until he got outside and saw Andrew leaning against his gas guzzler, no smile on his face.
"Grabbed my aid kit too."
"Good. Here's extra ammo." He tossed another two boxes of fifty caliber rounds to Andrew, who caught them much less gracefully than Kayter had.
"Where we headed?" He asked as they piled into the car, after waiting for Kayter to grab stuff out of her saddlebags.
DK opened his mouth and paused looking back at Kayter who was still fussing with organizing and fitting things on the tac vest.
"I don't know. What's the address, Reynolds?"
She pulled out her phone made a few quick swipes and handed it to Andrew. "There."
Andrew looked at it, grunted and put the vehicle in gear. They were silent on the way over. DK wanted to break the tension with jokes or just bullshit, the normal stuff, but all he could focus on were the consequences of life without Reset. A short bloody life.
"I'd park a block or two away," Kayter spoke up. "I'm not positive they don't have cameras. I didn't see any but that doesn't mean anything."
Andrew grunted, and DK glanced at him.
I shouldn't have brought him in. He didn't sign up for this, not like I did. Hell, not like Kayter did. I know he said he’d help, but he already paid his price. Greg knows the score, I should have called him for backup, but he’s way too far out to get here in time.
This guilt of getting more friends killed layered on his psyche and he snarled, pushing it back.
I don't have time for this, he's was a fucking pick-up warrior and can make his own damn choices.
"Yeah, take the radio, get your earpiece and find a perch that makes you happy. See if you can see both doors. We won't go in until you let us know you are set.
"Got it." Andrew slowed down and they both slipped out of the vehicle, and then he sped back up headed down the
street. A moment of panic wrapped DK, what if he left and kept driving?
Then I do it myself. But either way, this place will not be standing when done.
He followed Kayter as she slipped through the alley, leading to a door. She stood in the shadows, looking at the door. He took his time to survey the place but she was right there didn't seem to be any cameras.
Crouched in the shadow of a dumpster, he kept his voice down as he asked the questions he needed to.
"Was it unlocked?"
"No, easy jimmy, though. Should have relocked and they'd never know, but the stairs didn't have much traffic from what I could see." Her voice was just as low.
"And nothing on the second floor?"
"No. All on the first and it lets you directly into the labs."
She jerked her head towards a parking lot with one old van, two cars, and he noted she took care not to move her limbs out of the shadows. "That’s where they were parking their cars, so I don't think there is much of anyone here."
Is that a good or a bad thing? I want to kill them all but at the same time I just need that place destroyed.
In response, he just nodded and they waited.
Time slipped by and he started to believe Andrew had left them.
"I'm in position.” Andrews' voice came over the coms. “Have a clear view of the door to the parking lot, and an angle on the back door. While I can't get a clear shot, I'll let you know if anyone is headed that way. I assume you don't care about people leaving, only people coming in?"
Do I care about people leaving?
Part of him wanted them all dead. Part of him didn't want any more blood on his soul than what he already had.
"Only if they are coming towards us and armed. Otherwise, just warn us."
"Will do," Andrew replied and DK thought there might be a hint of relief in his voice.
"It's time, Reynolds. Move out." They got up and moved and headed towards the door. He let Kayter take the lead. If she'd already jimmied it once, she could do it again faster than he could.
The door pulled open and let them into a gray stairwell. He waved her to the door after quickly scanning the interior. He signaled her to hold while he placed C-4 at the support point against the far wall.
A quick flick of two of his fingers at her and she pulled open the door. Again, he waved her to a halt and she did as he placed more charges on the support beams. Looking down the hall he moved low, under the window to the far side, anticipating where he would put cameras if he worked here. They moved through the lab and he only paused to place two charges. One he placed under a large compressed gas cylinder with standard flammable label warning and another on a fire suppression main line valve. The lab echoed with emptiness, the only noise the hum of machines, and he sighed with relief.
Kayter waited by the door, her face betraying her thoughts and he ignored what he could see on her face. He rejoined her when the charges were placed, well aware he might be going in for overkill.
Don't care, this place needs to be destroyed. May as well make the boom-boom big and sexy.
He peered out the window into the room Kayter had described and felt his stomach twist in horror. While up this close, he could see the victims. Pale, more than any illness of avoidance of sun could ever explain. They lay on the beds, unmoving and emaciated.
Cold clawed at his body and the rage that only Reset could control crept up, and he let it. Everything sharpened and became clear, and he knew the best path. With a quick glance at the girl next to him, he shouldered his way through the first set of doors sweeping the space thoroughly for threats. He waited for Kayter to join him, then he slipped through the second set. The smells of slow death, blood, power, and harsh cleaners assaulted his nose.
He moved through, Vulture upon his shoulder, clearing the room, and ignoring the poor souls in the bed. Movement to his right caught his attention and he turned. A man in a white lab coat was pushing a cart laden with Reset. The vials called to him.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" His voice filled with a mix of anger and worry as he headed towards them.
DK seriously considered just knocking him out, but he reached behind him, under the lab coat, and came back out with a gun. Before the gun even came above his waist DK pulled the Vulture’s trigger. The man's head snapped back under the force of the single bullet that shattered his forehead, collapsing it inward in a fragmented mass of blood and bone before he crumpled to the ground.
The carbine's 160-decibel report bounced through the room, and a few of the people on the bed stirred but he kept moving through and clearing the room. No one else seemed to be there.
Too easy. Where are the guards, the alerts? This place can't be that unguarded. This has to be a trap.
"Get them up and moving, there should be wheelchairs around here somewhere. I'm going to finish setting charges." He could feel the mental clock ticking down and it lent speed to his movement, even as he kept looking, waiting for the trap to be sprung.
"I've got them ready to go. But I'll need help getting them out." Kayter's voice rang through the room as he finished setting the last charge. DK turned and headed back to her. He could see her lifting one of the frail bodies into a chair. He paused as he reached the dead body, and the cart standing there. The cart was laden with vials of Reset - vials that would keep him alive.
Thought didn't guide him. He didn't know if he could think but he quickly filled his empty carrier bag with Reset until Andrew's voice in his ear pulled him out of his haze.
"You got incoming and they are fully loaded for an assault."
Chapter 45 – All can die
DK's head jerked up at Andrew’s voice on the com. He slung the bag over his shoulder and headed for Kayter and the three victims.
"What door?"
"Five coming in the front, two in the back. Full tac gear, high powered weapons, looks like a full assault team. They're expecting someone a hell of a lot tougher than you." Andrew paused. "Do you want me to take them out?"
Declan grabbed a sheet off one of the bed and picked up the other woman, so frail, so tiny, he knew his touch would leave bruises on her. Placing her gently in the lap of the male Kayter had lifted into the wheelchair, he used the sheet to strap her in. The man put an arm around her, holding her to him.
Grey eyes, cloudy from drugs, looked at him. A slow blink, then he closed his eyes again.
Damn them, no one should have to live like this, for what, to try and control me?
Rage blossomed and this time he let it out, letting the world snap back into the crystal clarity of rage induced combat sensing, and his options unrolled before him.
"Kayter. Take them through the lab to the back door. Andrew, have they breached the door yet?"
He looked around, everything clear as if etched out in high definition. The front door lay in front of them, the rolling garage door locked and still in place. The single door leading to the outside had a frosted window inset in it. He could see the vague image of figures moving in front of it.
"Not yet. Looks like they are getting ready to stack up for a door breach."
"We're headed to the back, as soon as the team actually breaches the front, send the bastards in the back to meet Jesus. The front of the breaching stack won’t notice for a few seconds and I'll deal with what is left here in the confusion. Then get your car over here. We have evacuees."
"Roger." Andrew's flat voice pulled back more memories of going through buildings, calling out targets, and a sniper's calm flat voice acknowledging each target he took out. A part of him, a small dark part waited for the guilt, but nothing could get through the rage the drove him.
"Kayter, get clear and push them into the labs. Head for the back door. Kill anyone that survives."
"Kill?" She swallowed hard even as she started to move. "They aren't mages or demons."
"No, but they are here to kill us and that's a good enough reason to waste them. They knew you were here and waited for us. It's an ambush."
"Fuck." He could barely hear her as she went through the double doors, pushing the wheelchair with two victims strapped down on it.
That left him a wheelchair with a male strapped into it, his high cheekbones sharp in his too thin face. DK whirled to give him a good push towards the double doors towards the lab area.
"I'll help," the voice so thin and reedy DK sensed it more than heard it. Either way, he didn't shift his attention as he moved backward, facing the door and braced for the breach.
"Now." Andrews' voice coincided with the door snapping inward. Three men pushed in, moving as a with professional group, guns moving as they scanned. The leader paused for a second as he saw DK.
DK didn't. His Vulture barked out its message and the head of the man exploded. The other two shifted their weapons towards him, but DK had already made it to the doors as he engaged both of them with his carbine. DK noted the chest of the rearmost soldier essentially exploded as Andrew’s fifty caliber Bear started working its ranged death from the rear to the front of their formation.
You're in my world now rookies. Fucked no matter which way you go.
He didn’t manage a nice clean headshot like what took out their leader but they went down, one gut shot and the other in the chest just above his ballistic chest plate. Behind him, he heard the distinctive crack of the fifty-caliber sniper rifle and saw another shadowy figure beyond the door collapse and start yelling.
“Clean that up Andrew, nothing gets left behind us.”
“Yes, Sir.” Came Andrew’s robotic reply. Followed by another bark from the Bear.
He pushed open the next set of doors and grabbed the wheelchair, pushing it hard towards the far door where Kayter was pushing hers through.
"Got one of the two. But they have another van pulling up now. Stay or come get you?" Andrew's voice came over his earpiece.
"Come extract us. Kayter, you've got at least one coming for you. You'll need to hold that door until Andrew gets here with the car."
"Got it." Her voice tight but controlled, showing the professionalism he'd seen in demon fights.