“We became friends.
“He was never a particularly good student, but far more importantly, he was a remarkable human being. In fighting fire with fire I found his flame burned very similar to my own – two young boys who shared the hopes and dreams of youth, and the prospective possibilities of impending adulthood. His path was tougher, given the challenges of his family, but he seemed content to deal with that as best he could while remaining a trusted and reliable friend to me.
“By the time we graduated high school the United States was already quickly descending into its merging with what became the New United Nations and the world we knew as kids was fading into oblivion. I attended college while he enlisted in the military. Within a few years of that enlistment I imagine he, like all members of the U.S. Military at that time, was required to pledge his oath to the New United Nations and the Great Consulate. And as I lost touch with my former friend, so too did an entire people lose touch with their former country – the United States of America.
“My friend’s name was Merrick. If you are out there and you hear this message, ask yourself if you are a friend or once again simply a bully. Do you and other officers of the New United Nations question the authority that moves your hand to decimate so many lives? Are you providing security to the innocent, or ensuring the continuation of tyranny?
“You were once, like America, my friend.
“Will I ever see my friend, and my country… again?”
I let out a long sigh, this time not bothering to mask the sound from the microphone.
“The drones will continue to bomb us. For how long…none here know. I imagine until they finally destroy this structure and kill all of us inside it, and then like so many others who have faced a similar fate at the hands of this government, we will be buried and forgotten. None will be allowed to speak of Dominatus for fear of facing the same punishment. And so the New United Nations will continue extracting every bit of freedom from your lives until none remains.
“But it doesn’t have to be that way. Anyone with the desire to be free again, and the will to fight for that freedom, whether you are a citizen or a soldier, can now stand up and do so. Rise up and be counted with us. And when Dominatus falls, as it likely will, continue that fight yourselves. Let this smoldering fire of resistance grow and spread to Anchorage, Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, St. Louis, Houston, Chicago, Miami, New York, Washington D.C, and across oceans to the rest of the world. In every city, every town, and every home, I pray that this time, you not forget those who were silenced for nothing more than living lives of respectful liberty. Lives that followed the once valued traditions of America – that great Shining City on a Hill. Let our memories, and the memories of those slain before us, be the foundation for the rebuilding of that city – for the return of America.
“Don’t allow Dominatus to die in vain.”
XXIV.
As the sound of yet more drone bombs filtered into the communications room I powered down the transceiver and leaned back in the chair, my eyes closing for a moment as my chin rested on my chest. Another bomb blast. And another. And another.
The door opened and Mac entered quietly, closing it behind him.
“Reese, you did good. That was…you spoke for all of us here. In your own way, you managed to speak for every single one of us, and a whole lot more listening out there too I’m sure.”
I looked up at Mac, noting one of the lenses of his glasses had a slight crack in the upper right corner.
“For all the good it will do Mac…for all the good it will do.”
The drone bombings continued, rattling the door frame and again extinguishing the power momentarily.
“How much longer do we have before they tear down this place?”
Mac shook his head.
“Ah, they still haven’t got through the second blast door.”
“What happened to the first door?”
“Oh hell, that gave way a while ago. That was expected. Whatever.”
“And the M2…you have to be running out of ammo soon.”
Mac rubbed his right hand across the top of his head and then to the back of his neck.
“Yeah, we’re getting down to our last couple hundred rounds. We’ve shot down another five of those things…but they keep sending more. Has to be costing them a fortune to mess with us. I’ll admit, didn’t think they’d come at us this hard.”
We both stopped talking, noting it had grown silent. The drone bombing, for now, had ceased.
Mac nodded in the direction of the door.
“I’m gonna touch base with Keith again. You wanna come with me? Then go check in on the Old Man? Dublin’s with him in the medical room.”
I did want to see Dublin again – a great deal.
“Yeah…thanks. Right behind you, Mac.”
I followed Mac back into the defense room where Keith remained seated in front of the monitor with a cup of coffee in his right hand and a half-eaten plate of food on the counter to his left. The monitor showed no sign of drones in the area.
When Keith saw me walking into the room behind Mac, he put his coffee down and rose from his seat with his hand extended to shake my own.
“Awesome, Reese. That was just awesome. I hope people were listening. I know they were. I hope they were REALLY listening and ready to do something about all this government bullshit.”
“Thank you, Keith. I hope so too.”
Mac was reviewing the data scrolling across the screen, his brow furrowing a bit as he did so.
“We are down to a hundred and seventy-three rounds, Keith. Christ, we gotta save something for the way in here, in case they send officers up to the second blast door and try and blow it apart. We can’t…we can’t afford to fire at those drones anymore. Take the sight sensor offline, point the gun at the entrance and go manual only. No automatic firing. We gotta conserve what ammo we have left for the M2. Any more of those drones get shot down while I was gone?”
Keith nodded.
“Hell yeah…that last batch. All three of them. The system is working flawlessly. You sure you want to take the sight offline, Mac?”
“Got no choice, Keith. We have to be able to defend the entrance. They want to keep bombing this hillside, so be it. Might get a little dirty in here but we’ll hold up. We still have a hell of a lot of rock and steel between us and them.”
Again Keith nodded.
“Ok – you got it.”
I followed Mac out of the defense room and walked with him the short distance to the medical room. Inside I saw Dublin seated next to her grandfather who remained in the hospital bed. Those two were the only ones in the room. The Old Man’s eyes were closed and I could hear the soft wheezing of his labored breathing even though his mouth was behind the oxygen mask. He was now hooked up to an IV.
Dublin rose from her seat to hug me, her eyes still wet from recently cried tears.
“Oh, Reese…Grandfather heard every word. He was smiling and nodding his head and squeezing my hand the whole time. It was…wonderful. Just…wonderful.
“Both of you please, have a seat. There’s a bench over there. Dr. Miller is taking a break, getting something to eat. He’s been in here all day.”
Mac and I sat down next to each other on a small bench that ran along a wall of the medical room. We both watched the Old Man’s chest rising slowly up and down as he continued to labor with his breathing. After a few minutes of silence, the door opened and Dr. Miller walked through, his face revealing his own fatigue following hours of work trying to stave off the pneumonia that was threatening to take Alexander Meyer’s life. When he saw me, like Keith had done, he extended his hand to shake my own.
“Mr. Neeson, thank you for your words today, your program. I found a whole lot to agree with you there, and I know Mr. Meyer did too. It was the most animated I have seen him be in the last few days.”
Mac rose from the bench and pointed to the Old Man.
“How’s he doing, Doc? That br
eathing…he don’t sound too good.”
“He’s actually a bit more stable than he was earlier today, Mac. The fluid is returning to his lungs a bit, but his temperature has dropped to under 100 which means his body is fighting off the infection. I didn’t think that was going to happen. So, it’s a matter of time. He may turn a corner the right way…or fall back. I just don’t know. He’s fighting hard and that’s —”
The doctor’s words were cut off by another series of drone bombs – three explosions. The force of the explosions were enough to make both Mac and the doctor lean against a wall as Mac’s expression indicated there was something different about this latest attack.
“That didn’t sound right – something happened.”
Mac quickly left the room as I hesitated, uncertain whether to follow or stay before Mac turned back into the room and motioned for me to join him. He quickly made his way back to the defense room where Keith was frantically inputting data into the system.
“Hell Mac – they blew the goddamn blast door! The second one! Three direct hits. How can those things be that accurate? And look, they’re sending a bunch of men up this way. Seventy, maybe a hundred – can’t make out all the signatures.”
Mac’s eyes looked over the screen, doing his own count of how many special operations officers were making their way slowly toward the cave’s entrance. Mac’s lips were tightly drawn as he hissed a single word.
“Hess.”
I could sense Mac reviewing in his head the appropriate counter measures as both Keith and I waited for his response.
“Ok Keith, stay here and try to calculate exactly how many and what kind of equipment they are bringing with them…and their likely ETA. Right now they appear to be about two thousand yards away. They’ll likely stage at the other end of the valley before proceeding across. That’ll take them twenty, maybe thirty minutes. No need to panic yet. Hess thinks we don’t have any ammunition for the M2 left. We didn’t fire on that last batch of drones. That’s our big advantage right now. We’re gonna use it. I’m going to go check on the blast door…it may have held up more than you think. Give me…give me five and I’ll be back here and we’ll decide how to proceed. Reese, you stay here with Keith. Five minutes. Back in five.”
Mac left as Keith attempted to adjust the camera settings to better determine exactly how many New United Nations officers were part of the group assembling across the narrow valley in front of the cave’s entrance.
“There’s at least a hundred of them, and I don’t see any kind of heavy equipment, just men. They’re going to keep blasting away with the drones and then walk in here and finish us off.”
A loud buzzing sounded from the left side of the panel. Keith’s eyes widened.
“Ah c’mon…they’re trying to get in through the mine shaft again. And there’s…eight…nine…ten of them.”
Keith now followed the progress of the ten special operations officers working their way up the mine shaft and toward the staging area where Mac and Bear had fought and killed four of them hours earlier.
‘They’re running. They could be blasting into the cave from the back within the hour.”
The door opened behind me, announcing Mac’s return.
“Blast door is holding – barely. They knocked the shit out of it…but it’s still there. You’re right Keith…three direct hits. They got the coordinates locked in for that door so you’re gonna have to fire on the drones again. I don’t want them getting near the entrance.”
Keith was already putting the automatic gun sight for the M2 back online as he also informed Mac of the second group of N.U.N. officers making their way toward them inside the mine shaft.
“They at the staging area yet?”
Keith shook his head.
“No, but will be in about ten, maybe fifteen minutes. They are hauling ass this way.”
“Ok then, keep the visual on the staging area. I want to know when they get there. Gonna have to blast the escape route. Close it up, but I want to bury every one of those ten inside there when we do it.”
I noted that the more intense and dangerous the situation became, the calmer and more deliberate was Mac’s demeanor. He was fully transforming back into the trained killer he once was.
The M2 began firing again.
Keith pointed to the screen.
“Another three drones headed this way Mac. About five thousand yards out - one down already.”
The visual showed the New United Nations officers scrambling to find cover in the trees. Mac smiled at the image.
“They didn’t think we still had the big gun.”
A second drone signature disappeared from the screen, leaving just one left heading directly for the cave entrance.
“Five hundred yards Mac. The drone has fired - two missiles incoming.”
Two more blasts shook the cave as the M2 continued to fire at the last remaining drone.
“Cut off the M2 Keith. Hold our fire and give me an ammo report.
Keith took the automated sight system back offline – the M2 was again silent.
“We have twenty four rounds left Mac.”
“Pull up the mine shaft visual Keith - staging area.”
The three of us silently watched the murky image of the mine shaft indicating no sign yet of the ten N.U.N. officers. Mac had removed a small six inch by six inch metallic box that he then sat atop the panel.
It was no more than a minute longer before the mine passage began to light up. The ten special operations officers were nearing the staging area. Again Mac smiled.
“Here they come.”
As the ten approached the bodies of the four slain officers strewn about the floor of the mine shaft they simply walked past without pausing.
Mac placed his hand on Keith’s right shoulder.
“Keith, as soon as the last of them goes out of camera range I want you to give me a ten count.”
A moment later, Keith began counting.
“Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one…”
Mac pressed the small button on the detonation control unit. I held my breath anticipating the explosion. When none came, I opened my mouth to ask if it wasn’t working, but Mac held up a hand to cut off my words.
“Wait for it…”
The initial explosion both felt and sounded much closer, followed by a second that was more muffled – likely farther down the mine shaft.
The camera image on the screen went dark.
Mac appeared satisfied.
“Those poor bastards…getting sent in there like that. Ok then, off to check on that blast door again. Reese, you come with me. Keith, any sign of trouble, you have the other two-way, right?”
Keith nodded, removing a small handheld transmitter from inside his jacket.
“Got it.”
“Ok – you see any movement from those officers across the valley, you let me know.”
I followed Mac out to the hallway and toward the main room where a large group of people had gathered. Bear was telling everyone to sit down and be quiet – that they would be given more information about what was going on soon. I sensed the growing tension – these people were afraid.
So was I.
Mac motioned for Bear to follow us to the smaller room adjacent to the main room and then to the enclosed hallway leading to the blast door. The path to the blast door was littered with remnants from the ceiling and walls. In some places large cracks had broken through, running from the ceiling to the floor. The blast door loomed in front of us…its frame clearly bent and leaning, with a small gap exposing an opening to the outside. Mac ran his hands along the frame, and then peered through the opening.
“Not much left holding this thing together…but that gap is too small to let a man through, so for now, it’s better than nothing. We just have to keep the drones away with what little ammo we got left.”
Bear stared at Mac, his eyes attempting to gauge how serious the former Navy SEAL reall
y believed the situation to be.
“Mac, I got a wife and kids inside this place. And I know you’re probably feeling the burden of trying to keep all of us safe, but I want to know where we really stand here. How bad is it?”
Military Fiction: THE MAC WALKER COLLECTION: A special ops military fiction collection... Page 91