by Luis Samways
Ten minutes of hard crawling pass and he finally finds himself at the entrance of the supplies bunker. He creaks the door open and braces himself for contact with the enemy. Luckily, no one is to be seen. Granted the supply bunker is near dark, his eyes have accustomed to the dim light of the night sky, so any form of light in now a hundred times brighter and clearer than it would usually be. His fingers touch the hard concrete floor of the supply bunker. He digs his fingernails into the concrete and heaves himself forward. He continues this until his fingers start to bleed. After a few minutes of heaving, he is finally inside the bunker. The door he came through is still ajar; letting some of the night’s light in. he spots the satellite phone rack. All the phones are missing. He sighs in frustration until he spots a phone on the floor in front of him under the phone rack. He quickly grabs the phone and dials in the numbers, smudging blood all over the buttons of the expensive phone. After a few seconds he gets through.
‘Hello, this is lance corporal Smith, stationed at Henderson Hall, Virginia. There has been a..,’ before the man can say anything, some footsteps approach from behind. Then a gunshot is heard. The phone goes dead as Smith’s head hits the floor revealing a smoking gunshot wound to the head.
Twelve
‘Damn are you okay man?’ asks Tyrell as he kneels over Dwayne’s body.
Dwayne’s eyes roll into the back of his head as he tries to remain conscious.
‘I think so…Man I think I broke my leg or something,’ he says in a rattled tone.
He sits up, his face echoing with pain as he does so.
‘Where the hell are we?’ he asks
Tyrell smiles.
‘In the sewers man, don’t you remember? You fell off the ladder and hit the floor pretty hard. Are you sure you’re okay?’
Dwayne nods his head.
‘Yeah I’ll be okay. It’s just a scratch,’ the big man says as he hurls himself up onto his feet.
‘Okay, as long as you think you’re going to be okay. We are a long way from the doctors man,’ says Tyrell
Dwayne looks down at his wrist. The blinking beacon is idle.
‘Look man, the blinking light has stopped; looks as if we are going to be okay after all!’
Tyrell looks down at his wrist and sees the same outcome. His blinking light had stopped as well.
‘Well I’m glad we came down here after all. So what if it smells like shit! At least we won’t be blowing up anytime soon’
Dwayne laughs. Both men look at each other in confusion.
‘What the hell is that on your forehead?’ Tyrell says as he points to a red dot on Dwayne’s forehead.
Before they can do anything both men turn around to see four men in military uniforms pointing ACR rifles with laser red dot sights.
‘So much for us being safe,’ says Dwayne sarcastically.
‘Yep,’ says Tyrell
‘Don’t fucking move,’ says one of the militia soldiers.
Thirteen
‘So it’s done?’ asks Mr Conway
Miss Harriet’s hands feel sweaty across her nylon skin tight dress. She rubs her hands to her sides in perspiration.
‘Henderson Hall has been taken by Tango one. Tango two has just entered the New York sewer system looking for stragglers that got away from the pre-emptive beacon attack. Tango three is on route to New Jersey to handle the multitude of survivors at Met Life stadium,’ she says, still feeling overheated and a tad nervous.
Mr Conway remains behind his desk, looking at her in a manner only a pig headed man could acquire.
‘What’s wrong Miss Harriet? Finding it hard to walk? I’m known to leave men unable to walk in the past, but women, well, I leave them unable to walk because of other factors,’ he laughs.
Miss Harriet doesn’t find it the least bit funny. The things she has to do to stay on top are vast and soul changing.
‘I can walk just fine sir,’ she says coldly
Mr Conway’s eyes lighten up at her suppressed rage.
‘Good!’ he smiles, ‘I wouldn’t want you to overdo it on my part,’ he says
The tension in the room is unbearable. In the space of two hours, she has never felt the need to kill the same man twice, but she just can’t do it, no matter how much of a prick he may be. She quickly changes the subject.
‘What about the immediate mission at hand?’ she asks
‘It’s not changed Miss Harriet. It’s still the same, kill everyone and leave no survivors. You don’t think I installed the Beacons to just maim people did you? I want them all dead, the more people dead, the easier it is to get what we want done!’
The door behind them opens, and two men walk in. Both of them are dressed up in suits. They both approach the desk in which Mr Conway is sitting behind, and Miss Harriet is sitting opposite to. The aquarium walls shine light onto the clean and smooth wooden desk, the lights dazzle the two men at first, but they soon adjust. One of them hands over a file to the boss, the other just looks at the floor.
‘How can this be?’ screams Mr Conway
‘A marine at Henderson Hall survived and managed to contact Washington. Apparently the National Guard is en route and we expect a heavy battle,’ one of the men in suits says as he looks at his partner for back up.
‘There may be a slight chance of Apache helicopters showing up. Our men could be sitting ducks if we don’t let the US government know our intentions,’ the other man says, still looking at the floor.
‘I’m not fucking telling anyone! They can take the base out, I don’t give a shit!’ screams Mr Conway.
‘I’m sorry sir but we can’t lose that many men, theirs over two hundred of them. If we lose them, the remaining militia will think we can’t get the job done’
Mr Conway slams his fist on the table.
‘I don’t give a shit what they think, we can’t just fight the National Guard, and we certainly can’t reveal our cards too early. They would squash us before you could say civil war!’ screams Mr Conway, his face turning red with every syllable he sputters.
‘There could be another way,’ says Miss Harriet
All three men, including Mr Conway look at Miss Harriet in annoyance.
‘What?’ says Mr Conway
‘We deploy a few stingers and take out the Apache’s’
Fourteen
Mrs Novik opens her eyes to the sight of dust settling all around her. She can hear a continuous ringing in her ear. With every breath she takes, the ringing becomes louder. She tries to breathe in but the air around her is thick with dust. The particles entering her lungs make her choke as she tries to get up. After a few seconds, she manages to get some air. She gets up onto her feet and dusts herself down. The explosion that had ripped her cell door off its hinges had made her hair frizz out. It’s covered in dust and dirt. Her face looks as if she has been mining in the coal mines of Alaska. She manages to step forward a few steps. She feels uneasy on her feet, much like getting up from a seat in a bar and realising you are wasted beyond recognition.
She approaches the entrance in which her cell door was before the blast. On the floor lay the remains of the two guards’, each one of them now a pile of ashes. She looks down at the ground and notices the sheer amount of debris. She looks up and see’s the pipes above her head eject hot steam. Her hearing gradually comes back and before she knows it; all she can hear is the sound of a fire alarm going off. The constant buzzing sound hurts her head. She shakes her head in agony as the ringing irritates her ears. She moves forward, being careful not to step on the ashes of the two guard’s on the floor. The smoke in the precinct is nothing but dense and dusty. With every step she takes, another hot mouthful of air enters her mouth. She assumes there must be a fire somewhere, or there wouldn’t be that much smoke in such a small building.
She then realises it’s the half a dozen other ash piles that are scattered across the entrance precinct. Everyone from the police officers at front to the receptionist seems to have evaporated into the air
and now find themselves settling onto of the AC fans on the ceiling. She sighs as she notices the pure devastation that has happened in this area. She may not have liked being in county lockup, but she doesn’t want to see men and women with families die for no reason. Even though she stabbed a guard with an improvised shank, she didn’t do so to kill him. That’s why she went for the arm and not the prick’s neck.
She spots a gun on the ground next to a warm dust pile. She quickly grabs it and cocks the nine. She ejects the mag and see’s it has a full clip. She figures that the precinct has a lot of weapons, but she just can’t stand being around this many dead people, even if they resemble kindled wood in a furnace. She looks down at her right wrist and spots the flashing beacon. It’s going off every few seconds. The closer she steps to the exit, the faster it glows. She decides it’s worth the risk. She needs to find her way underground, possibly the metro. Surly that would be the best place to find safety.
The automatic doors open to the precinct’s exit. The scale of destruction she sees is incomprehensible to her. The dust piles in the precinct behind her seem minute compared to the crater that is New York City. Taxi cabs in front of her are turned upside down as if the wind blew them over. The pavement is cracked beyond recognition. The smell of charred flesh is present in the air. She looks around and doesn’t see one living soul. An onslaught of devastation and destruction lies in front of her. She catches another glimpse of her wrist and realises that if she doesn’t get to safety, she too will be nothing but an ash pile of memories.
Fifteen
‘Why the hell did you stab him?’ asks Ray in disbelief
‘I didn’t stab him! I injected him with some damn Ketamine!’
‘The horse tranquiliser?’ Asks Donner
‘Yes, god damn. Chill out guys. The guy’s dangerous, I had to do something!’
Ray looks down at Mitch who’s sprawled out on the floor.
‘I don’t know if knocking him out with drugs was the best thing you could have done David,’ says Ray
‘Well I just did, so sue me!’ says David with a hint of irony in his voice.
Suddenly one of the little girls, Tristan wakes up and spots Mitch on the floor
‘What happened to that man?’ she asks
David looks at Ray in shock
‘Oh your daddy went to sleep, he’s tiered you see. Too much time on his feet, it will do a lot to a man you know. So he needs his rest,’ says Ray calmly
‘Daddy?’ says the girl in confusion.
‘Yeah…Daddy,’ says Ray
David looks at Mitch on the floor as a thousand thoughts run through his mind. He then looks up at Tristan who is sitting up next to her sleeping sister, whipping the night’s sleep away from her eyes.
‘He is your daddy right?’ Asks David
Suddenly a distant popping sound is heard.
‘Is that gunshots?’ asks Donner in fear of her life
The popping sounds draw nearer as the group stand around in shock of what they are hearing. It seems as if time has stood still and all that’s left is the nearing sound of gunfire. Suddenly a man runs into the area in which the group is standing in. He came from around the corner in a hurry. He seems surprised to see the group of survivors standing in front of him. Blood is gushing out of his mouth as he looks up at the staring group.
‘Run….Their coming!’ the man says before he hits the floor face first. His body hits the sewage with a splash. The sight of the man collapsing scares Tristan as she screams in fear. Her sister wakes up immediately and looks around to see what is going on.
‘Shit what are we going to do?’ Asks Ray
‘I don’t know,’ says Donner
David rushes towards his bag and pulls out a shotgun. He loads two shells into it. The sound of the gun cocking alerts the group.
‘What the hell?’ Says Donner
‘You’ve had a gun all this time?’ Asks Ray
‘Of course I have. I didn’t come unarmed, first thing I did was grab a gun from the gun store. It was being ransacked when I ran out of the restaurant I was in when all this shit went down. You surly didn’t think I would come here empty handed?’
‘First you’re stabbing people in the neck with syringes and now you have a shotgun! What next? You secretly have a fuck load of food in the bag as well?’ asks Ray
Before anyone can continue to argue, a figure of a person approaching the entrance is seen. Before the figure can be seen properly, David runs closer to the entrance through the sewage and lets out two shotgun blasts. The group hit the floor as the sound of defensive gunfire is heard from the figure at the entrance.
‘Keep down!’ screams Donner as the two little girls start to cry in terror.
Sixteen
‘Just tell me what the hell is going on! I have people in New York blowing up and you’re telling me this isn’t a terrorist attack?’ Asks the President.
The men in the oval office look at each other while trying to collect their thoughts.
‘Well, I don’t know if it is a terrorist attack or not. We just can’t be too sure Sir,’ says one of the official looking men in the room. The other three men just look at the president with apologetic eyes.
‘How can this not be a terrorist attack? What about the phone call from Henderson Hall?’
‘We have the National Guard forming a perimeter around the Marine Core training base, we should have a clearer idea of what we are dealing with when we get satellite images back of the base,’ says one of the men.
The President starts to pace the width of his desk. His anger is evident on his face; the bulge in his neck alerts the room to his state of being. Everyone in the Whitehouse knows when the president is in a bad mood, he is notoriously known for being hot headed but the president’s next words surprise everyone.
‘Well done. I’m pleased at how fast everyone has reacted to this situation but the National Guard will not be necessary. We shouldn’t waste our time with Henderson Hall,’ says the president
The room hushes into a deafening silence.
‘What?’ asks one of the men abruptly
‘You heard me, call off the Apache’s,’ says the President.
‘I’m sorry sir, but that’s not your call. This is a matter for the department of defence to deal with,’ says the outspoken man.
‘I don’t care, I’m the president, and you will do as I say’
The four men opposite to the President look at each other in dismay.
‘I’m sorry sir, it’s done. The Apaches are on their way’
The president’s eyes burn a hole into the men in front of him.
‘I said fucking call the mission off!’ screams the President
Suddenly a heavy set man walks into the room. It’s the Secretary of Defence Howard.
‘We can’t call the Apache’s off. It’s confirmed from the satellite images that they have two Stinger missile launch pads that are fully functional and it seems as if they are going to fire,’ says Howard
The President doesn’t seem to want to listen to any of his men.
‘So why bother risking two Apache helicopters? If the Stingers get launched then we are screwed. Those two birds will go down and we will be two gunner helicopters short!’ says the President
The Secretary of Defence just smiles a candid grin, one that throws off everyone in the room.
‘Fuck the helicopters, I’m talking about nuking the base!’ says Howard.
Seventeen
‘Get behind cover!’ Shouts David as he finishes loading some more shells into the shotgun.
He fires two more bursts into the tight opening of the sewage outflow entrance. The shadowy figure can be seen to reload a heavy looking SMG of some sorts. The click of the magazine going into place sends a shiver down David’s spine. He looks back at the group on the floor, all with a terrorized look on their faces, except Mitch, who is still knocked out from the tranquilizer shot to his neck. Ray watches on as David fires another two shot
s in the vicinity of the figure with the machine gun, then like a well-rehearsed play, the shadowy figure returns fire. The bullets from the small machine gun pepper the walls around them. Bits of dust fall from the onslaught of gun fire and hit the floor. The crackling sound of bullets whizzing by the group’s head’s puts much of the struggle into perspective.
Ray still has his head buried into the floor. Every gunshot sends a resounding feeling of doom down to the depths of his heart. He made it to safety down to the sewers just to be shot by a mad man. He starts to laugh. Donner, who is next to him looks at him in a surprised manner. She can’t quite believe that Ray is laughing his ass off at a time like this.
‘What the hell is wrong with you, stop laughing!’ she says impatiently.
‘It’s just, too damn funny,’ he says, still laughing.
‘What’s so funny?’ she asks
‘That we are going to die by gunshot wounds, and all this time we were worried about the lights in our wrists blowing us to hell!’
Donner smiles at the analogy.
‘Well at least we won’t leave too much of a mess,’ she says, laughing a little herself.
David continues to shoot back at the figure. He’s certain there is only one man with a gun. He can’t be one hundred per cent sure, but judging from the shadowing on the walls from the light reflecting off the blazed oil drum, he’s quite certain that there is only one shooter. He sees the man’s face for the first time. Its balaclava’d. The way the shooter is leaning in and out of cover suggests he is well trained.
‘Are we going to die?’ asks Tristan whose lying on her front behind Donner.
Donner turns her head around and smiles at the little girl. She looks at the girl’s sister, Abigail who is on the verge of tears.