Arctic Series (Book 1): Arctic Cold

by Jason Keizer

  When the other two finish packing up their bags, they close up the cabinets. “Well, let's get this show on the road. Make sure you put your headsets on,” James says as they get in their trucks and head out.

  As they close in on the site, they see a train and stop. Oliver taps his headset and to James, says, “This train looks pretty long. I don't remember it on the pictures in the meeting, but I’m pretty sure it is close, if not at the intersection. How do you want to proceed?”

  After a few seconds, he continues, “We have to go around it. We should check it out first just to be safe. We will fall back a little and walk up to it. Henry, man the turret. Oliver, you will come with me.” James gets out the truck and walks up to the first truck.

  Oliver hops out of his door as James walks up. “I’ll take the left side, you roll right,” James says to him.

  Oliver nods his head as Henry hands him his rifle through the window. As the two men walk towards the train, James tells Henry, “If we start running, you shoot. Just try not to hit us.”

  Henry chuckles, “No problem, just keep your heads down, and you should be fine.”

  James and Oliver walk towards the stationary train with their weapons at the low-ready. As they approach the train, James and Oliver both stop. Oliver takes a couple slow steps to the right and looks down the side of the train. “Right side looks clear. No doors on this side either.”

  James takes a couple steps left and looks down the train. “Ok, the doors here look open. So move to this side. Henry, keep eye on anything from the right. Anything comes out, shoot it.”

  “Roger that,” replies Henry.

  “Oh, these things better be empty,” James says.

  He pulls his weapon up and slowly starts to walk up to the train. Oliver follows close behind him. When they get just before the open door, they stop. James slowly moves to the left to get a peek in the car. Nothing is inside from what he can see. He makes two small kicks in the dirt with his left foot, signaling Oliver to move two steps to the left. James puts up three fingers and slowly lowers them, one by one.

  Both men quickly turn into the doorway when the last finger is down. Inside the scratched up train car is a small box, just like the one from the reefer car filled with Arctics. They lower their weapons, and Oliver jumps inside of the train car and grabs the box before hopping back off the train.

  They move up and check out the next two train cars. They are empty, with nothing but scratch marks and a small box in each of them. James turns around and says, “Well, looks like all of these are going to be the same. Might as well head back and get in the trucks.”

  Oliver nods his head as he turns around and the two men walk towards Henry.

  “What the fuck is up with those boxes?” Henry asks as the other two get near the truck.

  Oliver looks it over a little and says, “No idea, but this time I will be good enough not to lose my head.”

  James looks up to Henry and says, “Hey, toss me a pair of binoculars. I'm gonna jump on top of the train and check things out. I should be able to get a real good look at the site from there since we aren't far.”

  Henry slides down from his chair, opens the driver's window, and hands James a pair of binoculars. James takes them and goes back to the train car. He climbs the ladder on the back and goes up to the top.

  Looking through them, he says, “Well fuck me. You guys might want to get up here and check this out.”

  The others join him on top of the train-car. James gives Henry the binoculars. Henry looks through them and quietly asks, “How the fuck do we get through that,” as he hands them over to Oliver.

  As Oliver peers through them, he can see the Hanford site in the distance. Someone seems to be on top of the building, but he can't make out what they are doing so far away. To the left, a couple more buildings pop into view. He slowly tilts down, to the dark moat surrounding the building. As he moves his view from left to right, all he can see is an army of darkness. Hundreds of Arctics surround the building.

  Slowly, he takes the binoculars from his eyes and says, “This should get interesting. You think we are gonna need some bigger guns?”

  James grabs the binoculars from Oliver and says, “Hey, stop joking around. We gotta get through that shit. Anyone got any ideas?”

  Henry looks at the trucks and says, “Eh, maybe. It's a long shot, but it could work.”

  James looks through the binoculars again and says, “Well, I'm all ears.”

  Henry gets down from the train car and walks over to his truck. He pulls out a couple of energy drinks and an MRE to make a little display. With the MRE for building and the two cans for trucks, he explains, “Ok, we rig both trucks to explode, but hopefully only have to blow up one. We come in from the east, far enough away so they don't see us.”

  He moves the two cans closer to the MRE bag. “The two of you shoot them from the turrets. When they start to get close, Oliver slides into the back seat. James, you hop your ass from your truck to mine. You man the turret the rest of the time as we circle the building. A group of Arctics should run and attack your truck. When they get to it, we blow it up.”

  He moves the second can away and makes a few lines in the dirt with his finger. He then takes the first one, slowly moves it around the MRE bag, and continues, “The rest of them should chase us around as we shoot them from the turret. We can set off a few claymores on the outside that Oliver can blow if they get close to us or anything. We just circle the building for as long as it takes to clear them out. We should have just enough ammo to get through most of them with the two forty, as long as you keep a decent aim. Everything else will have to be done with rifles and pistols. It’s a long shot, but it could work.”

  James looks at Henry and says, “Yeah, sounds good in theory.”

  Oliver asks, “What if we are able to get in and there are still too many of them to safely get out. We need an exit plan. If this place really is a front for a small government lab, then there should be a secret loading point. But if the other team hasn’t found it, then it might not even exist.”

  James replies, “Or maybe they just haven’t found it, or can’t open it, yet. So, let’s try to keep some extra C4 to take in there, just in case we need to make a door.”

  Henry grabs his drinks and MRE and takes them back to the truck. He says, “Either way, we have to get in there. We can’t just leave them because of a few what ifs. They need our help.”

  Oliver nods his head, “I agree with you. They do need an extraction, and so does the tech we came for. I just want to make sure we all know the possibility that we could be stuck in there as well.”

  James stands up and says, “I am okay with whatever happens to me. They are the priority right now. So, unless anyone objects, how about we rig these trucks up and get ready to do this.”

  Oliver goes to the back of the truck and pulls out a cargo net. He tosses it across the top of the compartment area of the first vehicle and latches it down. James and Henry load a new box of ammo into the turrets. They tape a block of C4 with a charge in it on top of the external fuel caps of both trucks. Claymores get taped to Henry's truck, one on each side and two in the rear.

  Before the men get into their trucks, they meet up in between them once again. James says, “Headsets stay on. So no music, no nothing.” Henry and Oliver nod their head.

  James puts his hand out, palm down, in the middle of everyone. Henry puts his hand on James’ forearm, and Oliver puts his on Henry’s. James lifts his hand up and grasps Oliver’s forearm, completing the bond.

  The three men look at each other for a second before James says, “Today, we once again are called in to fight. If not for ourselves, then for others. If we live through this day, we will fight again on another. If we die, then may we die with honor and fight until our last drop of blood falls to the dirt. And let that ground bear more blood of our enemies than of ourselves.”

  The three men raise their bonded arms up a few inches, they quickly dro
p them back down and let go of each other, as they say, “Kill ‘em all.”

  The men head back to their trucks, Henry and Oliver in the first, James in the second. They derail them, and Henry pulls forward as James sits for a second.

  James gives a smile as he gives his engine a rev and says, “Well, let’s go fuck this chicken.” He jumps off the rails behind them and follows as they head out.

  SIXTEEN

  They drive about five hundred meters away from the edge of the “Arctic Sea” and turn to the right, so the left side of the trucks are facing the building. The person on top of the building tries to yell at the group, but no one can hear him.

  James asks into the headset, “Why aren't any of them turning towards us?”

  Henry replies, “No idea, but that's good for now. Let's do this.”

  James and Oliver jump into their gunner seats and aim towards the crowd. James says, “Try not to shoot a hole in the building if possible. Move safety to the fire position.”

  He hears a click as he presses the button to turn the safety off. “Fire when ready.”

  BAMBAMBAMBAM!

  The machine gun fire rips into the crowd. Dropping the Arctics on the outside of the circle. The rest turn to the trucks and let out an ear-piercing screech. Even with the gunfire loudly blasting through the air, the screech overpowers it, shattering the windows of the trucks. As the glass flies through the cab, Henry crouches down and covers himself. Oliver lets go of his gun and tries to cover his ears as James continues to fire like nothing is happening.

  Henry yells as loud as he can, trying to drown out some of the sounds that are stabbing him in the head. As the screech comes to a stop, Oliver uncovers his ears, shakes his head for a second as he tries to recover from the dizziness he feels, and starts to shoot again.

  The Arctics start their amazingly fast sprint towards the team. More and more of them fall, only to be run over by the others like a crashing wave.

  After a few seconds, Henry yells into the headset, “James you need to jump. A group this big isn’t going to slow down.”

  James ignores him and continues to shoot as the wave gets closer. Henry puts his truck in drive and starts to rev the engine, waiting for James to hop on. “James, you need to fucking jump. Now!” Henry yells again.

  The Arctics are almost one hundred meters from the trucks now. James stops shooting and hops from his gunner seat to the roof the truck. He runs and jumps to the back of the other truck, grabbing onto the net as he lands.

  “Go,” he yells as he tightens his grip on the net. Henry slams on the gas and the truck peels off.

  Most of the Arctics break off to chase them, but a large group continues to run to the other truck. The group slams into the second truck, flipping it over to its side, and then flipping it upside down.

  Oliver slides down from the gunner seat and into the back of the cab. He pulls out his rifle and starts to shoot at the Arctics behind them. James pulls his way up the net to the turret. He slides down into the gunner seat and turns the turret to the rear. As he starts to shoot at the Arctics giving chase to them, he sees the truck he was just in being swallowed by the tsunami that hit it.

  Henry turns the truck left, before reaching the silos, and starts to circle the building. The turret stops firing as the last round flies through the barrel.

  “Ammo,” James yells into his headset.

  Oliver stops shooting and turns back into the cab. He reaches near his feet and grabs another can of ammo. As he hits James's leg with it, a hand comes down and grabs it.

  The truck turns left to the other side of the building from where they started by the time James gets the turret loaded again. Before he starts shooting again, he yells, “Blow it up.”

  Oliver grabs the left detonator that is taped to the back of Henry’s seat and presses the button. BOOM! A massive burst of light comes from the other side of the building as James' truck explodes. A ball of flame shoots into the sky, followed by shrapnel from the truck, chunks of Arctics, and a white fog.

  “Stay away from the mist. I don't feel like freezing to death,” James yells.

  Henry quickly responds, “I know what the fuck I'm doing. I made this plan, remember.”

  James fires the turret again. Henry makes a wide turn as he starts to circle back to the front of the building. The smoke and flames have died down completely from the cold arctic mist surrounding the blown up vehicle. A few Arctics that survived the blast slowly start to get up from the ground. As the truck passes them, the tsunami of Arctics giving chase trample over them, smashing them into the ground before they can get up.

  Suddenly, James yells out, “Runaway,” as he takes his finger off of the trigger of his weapon.

  He lets the rounds continue to cycle through as he holds it steady on the thinning group behind them. The barrel of the machine gun glows red by the time the belt gets to its end.

  James yells, “Changing Barrels. More ammo,” while he rips off the glowing barrel and throws it at the chasing crowd. Oliver stops shooting again and hands the last ammo can to James.

  James and Oliver continue to shoot as the herd follows. As Henry makes another turn, a group of Arctics bank hard and catches up to the side of the vehicle. Oliver quickly drops his rifle and lets it dangle from his neck as he grabs the second of four wires that are taped to his door. An Arctic reaches out, almost grabbing his arm. He slides back into the cab a little bit and pulls on the wire.

  BOOM! The claymore on the left side goes off. A large cloud of smoke emerges as ball bearings fly through the air and tear into the small group of Arctics. The truck starts to drift from the blast but is quickly put back on track.

  James stops shooting and says, “Ammo out, switching to rifle. About a hundred kilos left.”

  He slides his hand into the truck and grabs a rifle. When they get to the opposite side of the building again, the rear driver's side tire blows out. The truck swerves to the left as Henry slows down to gain control, allowing Arctics start to gain on them. Oliver pulls another wire.

  BOOM! One of the Claymores in the back goes off.

  Once again the blast causes Henry to momentarily lose control of the truck. Oliver pulls his dangling rifle up and starts to shoot again. After a couple of rounds, his magazine empties. He drops back into the truck and quickly changes it out for a full one.

  As Henry slows down to make another turn, the group closes in once more. Still keeping his weapon up, Oliver grabs the top wire from the side and pulls it.

  BOOM! The second rear claymore goes off, sending the truck to drift to the right. Henry turns the steering wheel to the right to regain control. Arctics emerge from the smoke, still giving chase.

  As James stops to reload again, Oliver starts to shoot. While he takes a couple out from the front of the herd, he says, “Hey, they are slowing down.”

  Before anyone can say anything back to him, a rear tire blows out and shreds off the rim. The truck drifts to the right again as Henry yells, “Shit. Time to go.”

  The truck keeps drifting to the right as Henry slams on the brakes, spinning the truck around. Henry and Oliver quickly jump out of the truck, grabbing their bags on the way out. James slips into the back of the cab and does the same. They toss their pack on their shoulders and start to run to the doors a hundred meters in front of them.

  The Arctics start to slow down a little, turning their sprint into a jog. The team members each start to shoot. BAM BAM!

  “Open the fucking door!” James yells as they get to a short, open stairwell leading to the main set of doors.

  The Arctics split as some go to the truck and some head to the team. When the team makes it up the stairs, they slam into the locked doors. Henry starts to bang on them. James drops his rifle and brings his pistol out. He starts to take aim at the Arctics that are almost at the short stairwell. As he shoots, Oliver pulls out a detonator.

  “Brace yourselves!” Oliver yells as he presses the button.

  BOOM! The ot
her truck blows up. James and Oliver get swept back into Henry, who slams into the pair of doors. The Arctics near the truck rip apart as a giant fireball engulfs them. The few that are closer to the team get thrown to the ground.

  As Oliver tries to get up from on top of an unconscious Henry, he makes it to one knee and falls back to the ground. James tries to sit up but can’t. He lifts his head up just enough to see the Arctics close to them start to get up. He puts his head back down and as he looks to the sky. His eyes slowly close as a smile sweeps over his face and a tear slides down his cheek.

  The doors swing open, and a pair of hands grab Henry. Another pair of hands come out of the doorway, one grabs Oliver and the other grabs James. The men get dragged into the building as the Arctics start to run towards them again.

  As the doors close, an Arctic slams into one, pushing its way inside. As it stumbles and trips over Henry, the doors behind it slam shut. It tries to scramble back to its feet. BAM! A bullet hits it in the head and it drops back to the ground and stops moving. A small puddle of blood forms on the ground and quickly freezes.

  Oliver quickly joins Henry in an unconscious slumber. James tries once again to move but only gets one hand up before it falls onto his chest. He hears a voice, but can't make it out over the ringing in his ears. He tries to open his eyes, but they quickly shut. As he keeps trying to open his eyes and focus on something, a figure comes into his blurred sight.

  Slowly an inaudible voice comes in enough for James to hear a male. James tries even harder to focus his vision. After a couple of seconds, he can make out a large, male face. He looks up at the figure and exhaustively says, “Make it quick,” as his eyes close, and he passes out.

  SEVENTEEN