He’d had enough. There was too much on his mind, and she was winding him up.
“I don’t have all the goddamn answers, okay? I’m not perfect. I wasn’t ever meant for this. None of us were. I’m trying to do the best I can to keep as many of us alive as possible, for as long as I can!”
Several others nearby watched on in shock at his furious tirade. Kim was appalled, but also speechless.
“For fuck’s sake!”
Ross threw down what he was doing and walked away. He stormed off into the wilderness where he could get some peace. He was kicking branches furiously as adrenaline poured through his body. He was furious. He knew Kim had a point, but he’d heard more than enough. He didn’t want to do this anymore, but he knew he had to. Without his leadership, people like Travers would run them all into the ground. He finally slowed down out of sight of their camp. He stopped to take a breath, steadied his breathing, and began to calm down.
He slumped down on a fallen tree and dropped his head into his hands. The situation had become so complicated. Fighting the enemy was already overwhelming, but having to deal with the conflict amongst themselves was exhausting. Any other time he’d hand someone like Travers over to others to deal with, but now he was expected to arbitrate the entire process.
“How the hell are we gonna make it?”
They were up against impossible odds, and he was rapidly running out of ideas where to go next. It seemed any direction they took was a bad one. But he also thought back to the group they had.
With the survivors of Travers’ militia we’re stronger than ever. That has to be a good thing, and yet it’s a fragile alliance.
He heard something crack ahead of him, and his head shot up, looking and listening for any sign of movement. Then another. He crept forward as he drew his pistol. He’d left his rifle back at the cabin while they were working. He reached for the cover of a tree surrounded in foliage that would provide him cover to look out ahead. That’s when the smell of chlorine hit him, and he felt his heart almost stop. For it always signalled the enemy presence. He looked cautiously out from cover. A dozen enemy soldiers were advancing in loose order. They were being slow, quiet, and cautious. This was no patrol. They were not in column, but a wide line. They were closing against a target.
“They’ve found us, how the hell did they find us?” he whispered to himself.
He looked back towards the camp, but it was just out of view. He wanted to warn them somehow, but he had no means to communicate with them. He looked back to the enemy, and another line was advancing twenty metres behind them.
“Ah, shit!”
He knew what he had to do. He took aim at one of the nearest targets. It would bring all hell down upon him, but there was no other way to raise the alarm. At least he’d make the shot count. He steadied the weapon in both hands and squeezed the trigger. A single shot rang out and struck his target in the head, putting it down immediately. He quickly turned to the next, firing twice as it brought its weapon up to aim. It went down, but a burst of fire came his way as the others returned fire. He ducked back down; content in the knowledge he had at least raised the alarm. But now he had a whole world of trouble bearing down on him. He reached down for a grenade but found his webbing empty. He remembered using them all during the escape in the RV. Tree bark burst out over him as gunfire landed overhead. He got to his feet and ran as fast as he could towards the next piece of cover.
“Shit!”
He jumped into a small ditch. Shots were landing all around, two passing overhead where his body had been moments before. He took several deep breaths as he calmed himself. More gunfire rang out in the distance, back towards their camp. As he had suspected, this wasn’t a lucky find for the enemy. It was a targeted attack.
“How the hell? How the hell did they find us?” he asked himself again.
He kept running it through in his mind. Trying to work out what had changed, and that’s when he worked it out. The only change was the truck that had arrived that morning. He gritted his teeth in anger.
“Goddamn it, Travers, don’t you ever stop being a pain in my ass?”
He doubted the militia Sergeant knew anything about it. He wasn’t the smartest, but he wasn’t an evil man. He’d never have knowingly led the enemy to them. But none of that mattered now. If he could make it through, maybe he’d get to the bottom of it then. He leapt up and fired again, but as he hit one enemy, another dropped simultaneously, and then another. He could see Dunn covering him, and he breathed a sigh of relief, for he thought he was all alone.
“Ross, come on!” Donny was positioned on his other flank.
The two of them had come out to help him, and he felt proud of the ones he called friends. He ducked back for cover, watching them fire on the enemy as shots struck the tree he was sheltering behind. When the fire died down he reached around, fired three more shots, and made a break for it. He sprinted as fast as he could towards their camp as shots flashed past him.
“Run!” Donny yelled.
He didn’t need to be told, and soon passed the two of them, turning back to fire some more. He took a good look at the enemy strength as he dropped his magazine and reached for a fresh one.
“We can’t keep this up!”
He nodded in agreement to Donny as he released the slide to chamber another round, and was once again ready to fight.
“Pull back. Back to the cabin!”
They each fired a few more rounds and then ran.
“How’d they find us?” Donny asked.
“They must have tracked you back here!”
“Tracked us? They’ve never shown those kind of skills before.”
“I’m not talking about tracking your trail. They followed that truck back here somehow!”
“Shit.”
He couldn’t imagine how they’d done it, but it made a lot of sense.
“What are we gonna do?”
Ross shook his head. He’d to have to wing it; that much was certain. They got line of sight on the cabin and foxholes dug around it to find gunfire going back and forth. The door to the cabin was open, and Lee was firing from it. He fired several shots, but one glanced his arm, and he fell back into the building.
“Go to your brother, go!”
He didn’t need to be told twice. Ross also rushed forward towards the frame of the shelter where he had left his rifle. Kim was using part of the partially built structure as cover, returning fire against several of the enemy approaching across the open ground. He jumped and rolled, and as he reached her, gunfire flew past. He picked up his rifle, checked it, and slipped the safety off before looking out at her targets.
“How many are we talking?”
“Lots, they’re everywhere!” She fired back, but only a couple of her shots found their mark.
“What, they never put you on a range?”
“Hey, I fly for a living. Put me in the sky, and I’ll shoot down anything. I wasn’t made for this soldiering crap,” she snapped.
He smiled as he took aim and helped her out. He knocked down two but was forced to duck down for cover as another struck. That’s when he saw a body on the ground. It was one of the militia who’d arrived with Tammy, and she was hauling another of them wounded towards the shack.
“Damn,” he said.
“They hit us hard, came out of nowhere.”
“How did we not know about this? Who was on duty?”
“No idea, but if they aren’t dead already, they soon will be.”
Donny spotted one enemy out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t afford to stop or even slow down. He swivelled his rifle out and fired a burst with one hand. Four shots let loose, and one clipped the soldier. It wasn’t enough to put them down, but it stopped them firing for a moment. He was panting as he reached the door. He’d not been running for long, but he’d not been breathing well under the stress of it all. A shot struck his helmet as he got to the porch. It knocked it clean from his head; he’d not fixed the chinstrap. His hea
d snapped aside, and he began to lose balance. He went into a tumble and crashed rather unceremoniously through the front door. He was slightly winded, but he spotted his brother and remembered why he’d come.
“Not exactly my day, is it?”
Donny rushed to his side. The shot had glanced his arm and taken a chunk out of it.
“You lucky bastard, that could have been your head,” he said, trying to smile.
“Lucky, you know many times I’ve been shot, hit by shrapnel?”
“Yeah, and none of it killed you.”
“Yeah? Maybe they’re taking me piece by piece.”
“No chance, you were made for this fight. You make a better soldier than you ever did a ball player.”
“Thanks a lot,” he winced through the pain.
“Donny, Donny!”
At first he ignored the disgraced Sergeant, until on the third call of his name he looked over. Travers was lying hunkered down on the far side of the room. His hands were bound in front of him, and he was tied up against the wall.
“Untie me. I can help,” he insisted.
Donny shook his head.
“You’ve done enough damage already. Time to let the pros do the work.”
“Donny, look. I know I screwed up, but you need all the hands you can get. I may not be the best leader, but I’m a damn good soldier. Let me do what I was trained to do, what I was born to do. You know I can fight.”
Donny ignored him and went back to his brother. He checked the wound again. It wasn’t bleeding much, and it could wait, but Lee looked weak. He’d taken hit after hit, and still not gotten even half of the rest he needed.
“You gotta leave the fighting to us, you hear? You’ve done enough, saved my life for God’s sake. You know I never thought I’d be saying that.”
Lee smiled as Donny pulled him back against the far wall and handed his rifle to him.
“If anything that isn’t human comes through that door, you put two in the chest and one in the head, right?”
“Yeah, I got it,” he replied wearily.
Donny didn’t want to leave his brother, but he had to get back to the fight. He rushed back to the door to see how the fighting was unfolding but was stopped by Travers once more.
“Donny! Please, let me help. I don’t want to die like this!”
Donny didn’t even look at him. He looked out to see gunfire going back and forth. He saw Ross rush through the fire and slip into a foxhole ahead of them. That’s what he was going to aim for. He ran out and spotted the wounded soldier he had shot. It was limping towards him and lifted its weapon to fire, but he got there first with two shots.
“Stay down!” he yelled.
He rushed out across the open ground, firing as he went, and slid into the foxhole to find Ross and Ramos.
“Your brother okay?” Ross asked.
“He’ll be all right. It’s just a flesh wound. I’d be more concerned about the rest of us.”
An almighty racket rang out as the familiar sound of a Browning heavy machine gun opened fire. A hatch in the roof of the cabin had opened, and Payne was laying down fire with the weapon they’d mounted there. Donny smiled as he looked ahead. The heavy rounds blew five of the soldiers apart, and Payne was just getting started. One of their light vehicles was approaching in the distance, and it soon caught his eye. A volley of rounds punched holes through the vehicle. It veered off into a tree and burst into flames. Payne stopped firing for a moment, and yet another Browning could be heard firing from the other side of the cabin roof in the opposite direction.
“You saw this coming?” Donny sounded impressed with the defences Ross had set up.
“It was only a matter of time,” he said, lifting a wired control box.
“Watch this,” he said with a wide grin on his face.
He looked out at the advancing enemy and pressed the first switch. An explosion rocked the ground all around them. Dirt showered down on them, and the body of an enemy soldier flew past and crashed into a heap of scrap metal.
“Tell me there’s more where that came from?”
Ross smiled and looked out for his next victims, his finger reaching for the trigger.
“Hit the bastards,” said Ramos.
He pressed the next button, and another charge rocked the ground, as the enemy were blown apart.
“Ross! Ross!”
Kim was pointing off to their far side. A wave of enemy was advancing, and the same on the far side. He pointed for Payne to follow his signals, and he turned the heavy machine gun on one of the flanks, but he got a few rounds off when the gun jammed. Donny and Ramos took aim at those on the other flank, opening fire as Ross tried to cover for Payne.
“There’s too damn many of them!” Donny yelled.
“Incoming!” Miles shouted.
A larger armoured vehicle approached with a gun turret on top.
“Oh…”
Before Donny could finish his sentence the gun fired, and the shell hit the ground next to their foxhole. He was thrown out of it from the shock of the impact. He lost consciousness for a moment, and when he came around, he could barely hear anything but muffled voices and the muffled sound of gunfire. He rolled over to see enemy soldiers approaching the doorway where his brother was sheltering. Payne had not noticed as he was fighting to clear a jam. He turned back to get Ross’ attention to see him waiting on the trigger. He pressed it as the armoured vehicle fired, and the shell landed nearby, obliterating a foxhole where two of Travers’ soldiers were positioned. The charge ignited with such force the vehicle was lifted off the ground.
As it crashed back down, another explosion rang out from inside, and the turret was blown off its ring, crashing down to the ground beside it. Flames raged from the wreckage. Donny fought to get back to his feet, grabbed his rifle, and staggered towards the house. He took aim as two of the enemy stepped inside. His vision was blurred, and he was disorientated, but he had to take the chance and do his best. He fired and struck the third one as it got to the doorway. It collapsed back against another. He fired two more shots but soon found his magazine empty. Anxious and desperate, he threw his weapon away, reached for his side arm, and kept going forward. Three more soldiers rushed into the cabin. He fired at another as they got inside, and he could just about hear gunshots as his brother fought back. He got to the door and found himself looking down the barrel of a gun. It was held by Travers.
Donny rushed to his brothers’ side. He was weak, yet still trying to load another magazine into his rifle, but fumbling and missing the receiver.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.”
He took the weapon from him. He looked delirious, and yet snapped back to reality as he recognised his brother’s face. Ross rushed in through the doorway. He looked shocked to see Travers on his feet and armed. He raised his weapon a little in case he needed to use it.
“He saved him. He saved my brother!”
Travers lowered his weapon, and they could see his sore and bloody wrists where he’d fought to get free of the ropes. He didn’t attempt to put up any kind of fight, and Ross didn’t either. He nodded in appreciation, as if finally accepting him among them.
“Jack Ross!”
A chill ran down his spine as he recognised the loud voice outside. The cloaked figure who had approached him before. He looked at the devastation on the ground, and amongst the rubble and bodies stood the cloaked figure, in plain sight and clearly showing no fear. He imagined it was a hologram once again, but he wanted to make sure. He lifted his rifle and fired two shots. As he had expected, they passed right through without finding their mark. He lowered his weapon and paced out to converse with the creature in the open.
“Ross, don’t!” Kim spotted him going forward.
“It’s okay. If this asshole wants to talk, I’ll talk.”
He pranced confidently towards the creature and stopped three metres short. The huge creature was an intimidating sight, but he was never going to show it fear.
&
nbsp; “It seems you know an awful lot about me, and I don’t even know your name. I’d like to know it, before I shuffle you off this mortal coil.”
“My name is Seena Shinu, and it will be a pleasure for me to end you.”
“But you won’t, will you? Because you don’t fight your own battles, you let others do all the work for you, and then show up to gloat. Where is your honour?”
“I do not fight those who are not worthy.”
“But we are, aren’t we? The only reason you’re here is because we’re a pain in your ass. A thorn you just can’t remove. You wouldn’t even show your face if it wasn’t important.”
He smiled, sensing he was getting somewhere.
“You are doomed to fail. You cannot stand against the might of our armies. Your country has fallen, and it’s only a matter of time before you are killed or captured, too. Why keep fighting? Lay down your weapons.”
“Why the fuck would we do that?”
“Lay them down, or die.”
“You can take it from my cold dead hands. But you’re too pussy to do it, aren’t you? Scared to come and fight us. Scared what might happen if you face a real battle.”
“Scared? I am not scared of anything on your world. Humans, you are weak and soft.”
“Yeah, well prove it. The next time you come for us, have the balls to come yourself. Until then, we’ll keep sending your soldiers back to you in pieces,” he said, kicking the decapitated head of one of them across the ground.
“You are nothing,” snarled the creature.
It was getting angry, and he could see he was getting under the creature’s skin.
“You and me, we’re gonna do this dance, one way or another. Why wait? Prove you are all you say you are. Because all I see is a coward hiding behind his army of robots. You want a fight, a real fight? You come calling.”
“Why would you want to die so soon?”
“Die? You can’t beat me. You’ve not been able to stop us yet. You might have hit this country hard, but the war isn’t over. We’ve got stronger and stronger since this began. We’re fighting back, and you know it. We aren’t gonna stop. So, come and face me. Be a man.”
The creature smiled and vanished without another word.
Lethal Strike Page 21