Krieger Platoon

by Jay Ivanovich

  Shake ripped Reagan’s jacket open to inspect the wound area, just as Reagan started to breath normally again…. Thank God the bullet didn’t penetrate his vest. All the ceramic plates around the area were broken though. Reagan’s leg wasn’t so lucky, the bullet entered and exited the thigh right past the armor plate, but the wound wasn’t too large or bleeding heavily; luckily it didn’t look like it had hit the femoral artery.

  Matt came over to help Shake administer first aid and opened up a field dressing, hit the interior of both sides of the wound with the foamy medical bio-seal, then began to bandage up Reagan’s leg. Reagan tried to sit up, but Shake pushed him back down. “Hold on, not yet.” He countered calmly.

  Reagan winced in pain. “I’m fine…”

  Sarah snickered at Reagan’s constant bravado, then turned to toward Matt. Her tone was clearly appreciative but with a hint of sarcasm. “Glad you managed to find us, finally... Where’s everyone else?”

  Matt finished bandaging the leg, and secured the dressing onto itself, then pulled out his ear piece and waved it at Sarah; countering with sarcasm right back. “The radio doesn’t seem to be working, hmm… These raiders are jamming everything we have with something. We heard sporadic fighting off on the north side of town, and we were on our way there until we spotted the ARV… Now stay still, I’m going to look at your arm.”

  Sarah sighed and reluctantly held her wounded arm out. Reagan sat up and coughed. “…ughh…that hurt.”

  Sarah smirked back. “Yeah bullet wounds tend to do that.”

  “I meant your bad sarcasm…” He grunted a laugh. “But yeah…thanks for patching me up.”

  Shake patted Reagan on the shoulder. “Don’t mention it…but I gotta ask who the bad guy is.”

  “Interrogate the shit out of him, let’s find out.” Matt pointed over to the raider that was now gaged and tied to a seat, guarded by a none-too excited looking Hawkins.

  “Yeah, I REALLY want to know what the hell is going on.” Reagan stood up slowly and hobbled over into a seat next to the raider, along with Matt and Sarah, then stared the raider in the eyes. He lowered his voice to almost a growl. “And you’re going to tell us everything.”

  Matt kicked the raider in the boot, and noticed how young this kid looked when he glared back at him. He couldn’t have been more than 16 or 17. Kid was probably born into this bullshit. Oh well, he’s on the wrong side of the fence. “Hey sweetie! You and I are going to have a little chat…”

  The raider looked around the troop bay at the rest of the platoon, who were all glaring at him, then back toward Matt before spitting out his gag and speaking in a horrible back water accent. It was like the worst street slang in Los Angeles, mixed with back woods country. “…Fuck you!”

  “We’re going to play a game called 20 questions. This is how it works, you answer all of my questions or bad things will happen.” Matt stared intently at him.

  The kid’s obvious lack of life experience, and common sense in general, came through as clear as day. He had the guts to try and taunt them though. The kid sneered back in response. “Yeah…like what? What the fuck you gonna do, bitch?”

  Oh! He’s got a mouth on him! That’ll be fixed. Matt pulled out his hand-gun and pressed it against the raiders head. Then smiled and spoke in an even more condescending tone. “Why don’t you guess?”

  “…uh how about no. You’re lucky I’m tied up or I’d kill all you stupid fucks.” The kid laughed and then winced from the pain it caused in his gut wound. Matt grunted in response and pistol whipped the kid across the face. Suddenly, everything became very serious. “This isn’t a game, dipshit!”

  The raider curled over in pain and began to cough up a small amount of blood. Matt moved to strike again when Sarah grabbed his arm and stopped him. She gave him a disapproving look. “Let’s try a different tactic, yeah?”

  Matt grunted loudly and holstered his pistol reluctantly. Sarah moved over in front of the raider and held out a can of bio-seal. It was the all-encompassing old world medical foam that was a coagulant, antibiotic, antiviral, and cavity filler all in one. It was probably the most simple and most effective life-saving tool anyone had ever thought up, as far as a grunt was concerned. Miracle in a can it was called, and for good reason.

  She shook it slightly, causing the gel interior to slosh. “Look what I’ve got! I’ll give this to you AND patch you up, if you tell us what we want to know. If you don’t, then you ARE going to bleed to death.”

  The raider stared at the can, then smiled maliciously at her. “Yeah…and maybe…you can do something else for me, bitch!” Motioning with his eyes down between his legs.

  Matt and the other veteran’s expressions all went to disbelief at the comment. Oh he just fucked up! Sarah stayed perfectly calm, then pulled her combat knife from her belt, and shoved it dangerously close to the raider’s crotch with one swift motion. The raider suddenly stopped laughing and stared at her in horror. Sarah narrowed her eyes in pure wrath and her voice became as cold as ice. “You’re going to tell me exactly what’s blocking the signals for our equipment and how to fix it…” She shoved the knife in deeper, which caused the kid’s eyes to slightly bulge and his face to go pale. She continued with a wicked smile. “Or I’m going to make sure your ‘equipment’ never works again.”

  The platoon sniggered quietly at the comment, as the raider remained petrified. He’s was just wasting time now… Sarah plunged the knife straight through the pant fabric and through the skin on the other side, and making the raider scream out in pain. “YOU FUCKING BITCH! I WILL FUCKING MURDER YOU!”

  Sarah began to twist the knife, causing an even greater outcry of pain, and calmly spoke. “I think I asked you a question, remember? What’s jamming our equipment, and how do we fix it?”

  The raider bit down hard on his teeth in pain and began to cry. Sarah twisted the knife slightly more, causing the raider to scream out pathetically. “OK! OK! STOP! Stop…please!”

  Matt growled through clenched teeth. “GET TO TALKING!”

  The raider looked up at Matt, and then dropped his head down submissively. “It’s some blue box shit the boss got. You turn it on and it blocks the signals you want or something. I aint no fucking nerd, I don’t know how it works!”

  Sarah didn’t bother to hide her obvious frustration and ensured her words carried the weight of a threat with them. “Where is it then?”

  “Uh…I don’t know…” The kid replied cautiously, fearing what she might do next and with good reason. Sarah twisted the knife sharply pushed the blade deeper until blood began to soak all the way through the pant legs. The raider pleaded helplessly. “STOP! FUCK! I DON’T KNOW! The boss was over by the police station, he always kept it with him but that’s all I fucking know! I FUCKING SWEAR!”

  Sarah kept pressure on the knife until she was sure he’d said everything, then withdrew it and wiped the blood off on Matt’s pants before sliding it back in the sheath. Matt passed her a disgusted look. “Really Sarah?”

  Sarah smiled deviously back and spoke words to match. “Don’t get on my bad side…”

  Reagan yelled up to the armor crew, Gaillard and Baranov, through the driver compartment door. A sense of urgency in his voice. “Hey, you guys need to take us to the police station ASAP!”

  Gaillard laughed and glanced back at him from her seat. “We’re already on our way there! Just hold on!”

  Reagan turned back to the raider and violently shoved his shoulder to get his attention. “Who are you, and why are you here?” The raider started to sob, which Matt rolled his eyes at. “It…it’s just a job! They told me it would be a quick in and out, easy money!”

  “Who is they?” Matt sighed and rubbed his eyes from his frustration. This kid is a piece of work. He’d better stop being a pain in the ass or Matt would personally toss him out the back of the tank with a few live grenades.

  The raider shook his head. “Uh…they said they’d kill us if we talked!””

&nbs
p; Sarah crossed her arms and stared him down. “And we’ll kill you if you don’t, so who are they?”

  The raider gazed blankly. “…we’re called Bad Ass Crew... They told me the BAC’s got your back, you know?”

  “Never heard of them…” Shake grunted from across the bay. The group all looked at each other, shrugged, and laughed loudly and intentionally disrespectful toward the kid in agreement.

  The raider winced in pain. “Ugh…can you give me that bio heal shit already?”

  Reagan shook his head and growled. “Not until you explain why you’re here.”

  The raider appeared suddenly confused. “I ugh…I don’t know. The boss said that we had to ride around the town and make sure there was no one left, no survivors...he said there wouldn’t be any soldiers or police once we got here. He said make no one was alive. He said anything we found would be fair game. Easy pay off and shit!”

  Matt snorted, slightly amused by the comment. “Oh, sorry, did we ruin your little raid?” The kid’s comment however had instantly sparked Sarah’s interest. She leaned in and glared at him scornfully. “What are you talking about? Why are there no police or soldiers here?”

  The entire troop bay grabbed hold of whatever they could as the tank rocked violently to the right after it fired the 105mm gun. Gaillard hollered in victory from the driver’s compartment. “Yeah! That moron really thought that we wouldn’t see him throw his grenade?”

  Baranov replied dryly in his Russian accent. “You expect raider to be smart?”

  Matt shoved the kids head back against the wall. “Hey, she asked you a question!”

  The kid looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “I don’t know! Look some fucking pretty boy suit and tie came by and told the boss that the whole place would be empty and that he wanted us to come raid it! We thought it was a fucking joke until we got here…”

  Matt growled. “Say ‘I don’t know’ one more time and I’ll break your nose! Who was the suit and tie?”

  The raider shook his head frantically. “I don’t…uh…I couldn’t tell…they had drop ships and some high tech old world shit… Armor and the like. They were fucking creepy I could tell you that much…always staring…”

  Gaillard yelled back into the troop bay. “We’re approaching the police station. Be there in like a minute or two!”

  The raider was beginning to look very pale and his eyes were beginning to blink heavily as if he were about to pass out, which was about right considering how much blood he’d been losing. Matt stood up and stretched, showing as little interest in the kid’s life as he could. “You’re lucky. Normally we would’ve just killed you right off the bat. Shake, can you fix him up please? We need him alive.” Then made his way up to the gunner’s cabin. “Hey Baranov, do you know where the other teams are?”

  Gaillard yelled back from the driver’s seat without looking. “We have no idea, we’re trying to find them now. The fighting’s kind of stopped, so it’s hard to guess where they would be.”

  Baranov grunted in agreement. “Radios still jammed and it is affecting computers. We have no way to contact anyone.”

  Matt nodded with disappointment over the whole ordeal, as Reagan carefully walked up alongside him, wincing slightly in pain from his wounded leg with every step. “Hey Baranov, do you guys have ammo on board?”

  Baranov turned and pointed toward a small section of overhead compartments in the troop bay ceiling. “Da, in the uh overhead lockers.”

  Matt strode back into the troop bay and began opening random compartments on the ceiling; finding four ammo containers of 5.8mm Magazines. Good, ammo was a start at least. “Two Bravo, on your feet! Load up and get ready to move!” Matt dropped the spent magazine from his carbine and slid a fresh one home. Then grabbed three more and fitted them into the holding pouch on his belt. The rest of Two Bravo stood up and likewise reloaded their weapons.

  Matt kept checking the overhead lockers, and found two more ammunition boxes, this time of 9mm pistol magazines. Reagan walked over and began reloading his belt as well. Though Matt knew what he was doing; he had to stop him right on the spot. “No, you need to stay here. You’re injured.”

  Reagan grunted in opposition. “I can walk just fine, Sir.”

  “But you can’t run on that leg. You’d be more of a liability than anything.” Matt shook his head at him. There was a time and a place to be a tough guy, and this wasn’t one of them.

  Reagan sighed and nodded finally, then turned toward his team. “Who wants to go with them?”

  All of One Bravo stood up in response. Well, that worked. Sarah was in charge now of course, but she knew the drill. He didn’t need to remind her. Reagan loaded his pistol and placed it back in his holster. “Stevens, leave that AK with me.”

  Stevens replied sarcastically. “Aw, but I’ve grown kind of fond of its rustic shittyness!”

  “Leave it.” Reagan shook his head firmly at Stevens, and then nudged Matt with his elbow. “You think there’s actually a jammer around there? We could be walking into another ambush.”

  “Well, it would only make sense if it were right in the center of the city; but if it is a setup…I’ll be back for that jackass.” Matt glowered at the raider, who was still whining despite the first aid he’d received.

  The teams finished loading their fresh ammo and did a quick safety check of all their weapons, which just consisted of racking the slide several times with the weapon empty, and ensuring the round from the magazine chambered properly. Matt motioned over to Sarah, who was leaning quietly against the back wall. “My team’s going to hit the front door, can you sneak around the back?”

  She grinned in response, and couldn’t help but be a smartass about it. “Yeah, I’ll just use my incredible ninja skills…”

  “Yeah, you do that.” Matt sighed but still smirked from the joke, before turning back to his own team. “Two Bravo listen up! When we hit the street we’re going head first into the police station. Expect anything at this point. Lock and load.”

  Reagan began to mull over the day’s events in his head, and remembered the two raiders that entered another building on the other side of town. Suddenly, it seemed important. “Hey…Matt, there’s a blue dilapidated building close to the hostage alley…saw a few raiders go into it. Don’t know if it will help but figured I’d tell you about it.”

  Matt shrugged but spoke with appreciation. “Alright, we’ll check it out later.”

  Sarah cut in. “Should we split up and take separate buildings?”

  “No, we don’t know what to expect. I think we should stay together for this one.”

  Gaillard called back over the internal communication. “Hey, the police station will be on our left hand side in about 10 seconds.” Matt walked back up to the driver compartment. “Hey Gaillard, can you stick around here just in case?”

  “No can do, I need to keep moving with rockets being shot about. I’ll stay within a block or two though. Throw smoke if you get into trouble and we’ll come running… Here’s the police station, get ready!”

  The ARV slowed to a halt and dropped its back ramp; the two teams rushed out into the vacant street and immediately into opposite alleys on either side of the police station. As soon as they were in position, the ARV raised the gate and sped off down a dirt side road.

  The formerly beautiful Police station once had a massive glass face and ceiling over the lobby, while the rest of the building was made of ultra-modern lattice weave synthetics. Now however the entire second floor had been burned and charred, the walls blasted out at various points, and glass all broken to nothing. Though as Sarah’s team made their way down the alleyway, every window on the first floor had been sealed and locked down with metal plating probably due to the fighting. They’d still have to be careful around them.

  They came upon the back corner of the building, which opened up into a very large underground garage…quite high tech for a simple trade city. The garage doors appeared to have b
een forcibly shoved into the ceiling and secured; along with all the interior lights, which were disabled or busted out by the looks of it, making the area pitch black. Sarah activated her thermal goggles and scanned through the full color spectrum setting. Most of the garage was a cold dark blue, but there were several orange hot spots further down behind two military trucks on the left side. There was also a large, central pillar in the middle of the garage with what looked like an elevator and also a stair case attached. Otherwise the garage was completely vacant.

  There was something peculiar about it… Sarah just couldn’t pin the feeling down on anything specific. She turned and whispered to her team. “Follow me…quietly.” Then raised her weapon and walked slowly into the dark unknown. All sounds below were muffled by the low concrete ceilings, except their own racing heart beats which just added to the eeriness of it all. The team hooked around the center elevator, ensuring no one was lying in wait for another ambush, and noticed the staircase door had its knob blown off. It was a sure sign of a breaching charge…but it looked like that charge had exploded on the opposite side. Someone wanted into the garage from inside the police station? It seemed easier just to blow the garage doors themselves.

  They began to slowly work their way around the columns and off to the side of the two troop carrier trucks. The team walked slowly in; the strange small hot spots starting to look just like…

  “…an MRE chemical food heater…that gives me horrible boot camp flashbacks.” Harrison said bleakly as he picked up the plastic container and examined it with a red lensed flashlight. “US Army issued…and there’s a ton on the floor….and in the back of this truck.”

  Sarah turned her goggles back to normal vision and grabbed one of the bags off the floor. “These are all new. Like very new…” The trade towns had better food supplies than the Army, plus it was illegal for civilians to have military provisions of any kind, so why were there so many?