Survivors of PEACE

by T. A. Hernandez

  They passed her in the hallway as they headed for the stairs. “Be careful,” she said.

  Zira nodded. “Tripp, can you see anything down there?”

  “It’s starting to clear up. Everyone’s comms are still connected, but their hearing was probably damaged in the blast, at least temporarily. Josefina seems to be okay, but…”

  Zira burst through the front door at a dead sprint. “But what?”

  Before he could respond, Josefina finally spoke. “Zira? Are you there?”

  “I’m here. We’re on our way. Are you guys okay?”

  “Salim isn’t moving. He’s still breathing, but we need to get him out of here now if he’s going to survive this.”

  “And Dodge?”

  “I’m okay,” Dodge said. His voice sounded distant and shaky. “Just my legs, but I’ll be okay. It’s Salim we need to worry about.”

  “Just hold on.”

  Her lungs burned, and her pulse beat against her skull as she ran up to a fence, grabbed the edge, and pulled herself over. Salim, Dodge, and Josefina were just ahead with one of SIO’s drones hovering over them.

  “I’ve got an update on the other teams,” Tripp said. “Charlie is down. They managed to take out all incoming hostiles, but the three surviving members of their team are in bad shape. They’re falling back. The last two members of Bravo will rendezvous with you and Jared at Josefina’s location. Delta team is ready to send backup as soon as you give the word.”

  “Hold the reinforcements,” Zira said. She needed at least a minute to assess the situation before making any decisions.

  She didn’t slow down until she was nearly on top of the others. Jared came to rest beside her, and when Zira turned to look at him—for hope, for comfort, for some small reassurance that things were going to be okay—she saw only grim concern in his eyes.

  All three of their teammates were covered in blood. Most of it was probably Salim’s. Dodge and Josefina were frantically trying to stanch his wounds with their hands, jackets, and other pieces of their own clothing, but the blood just kept coming. Josefina knelt, but Dodge sat on the ground. His legs splayed out uselessly in front of him, blood turning the sand to mud underneath him. The left one was so mangled it nauseated Zira just to look at it.

  “Tripp, call in med evac now.”

  “Already done. Helicopter should be there in a few minutes.”

  Zira wasn’t sure Salim had a few minutes. The thought put a knot in her throat that threatened to strangle her, but she didn’t have time for that right now. She didn’t have time to let herself feel anything. She had to figure out what they were going to do next.

  The last two members of Bravo team approached, their arms draped over each other as they hobbled along. One had a deep head laceration and a dazed expression, possibly a concussion. The other walked with a severe limp. Neither of them were in fighting shape. Zira could wait for Delta team to send backup, but in doing so, she might be giving Ryku an opening for escape. Nova was covering the boats at the river, but without Charlie and Bravo teams, the north and west were completely open. And if Ryku escaped, they’d be right back where they started, and all the lives they had sacrificed today would mean nothing.

  They needed to finish this. Fast.

  She made her decision. “Josefina, stay here with the others and wait for med evac. Nova, are you still keeping an eye on the house?”

  “Yes. No signs of movement.”

  “Keep us updated if anything changes. If you have a chance to take a shot, do it. Jared and I are going to head in there and finish this.”

  “By yourselves?” Tripp asked.

  She looked at Jared. He raised his chin and nodded.

  “Yes,” she said. “By ourselves.”

  “You don’t even know how many people are still in there.”

  “Ryku is in there,” Jared said. “That’s all that matters.”

  It was the only reason they needed to go through with this.

  “Tripp,” she said, “if we don’t come out of there, do not let him disappear again. Do you understand me? You and Delta team need to keep track of him, no matter what.”

  “He’s not making it out of that house, kid. Because you are. Both of you.”

  “I mean it, Tripp. Don’t lose him.”

  “Stop it! Just stop. We’re all coming out of this alive, and that’s that.”

  His voice sounded frantic, and she didn’t have the heart to argue with him. She’d made her point. He’d do what he needed to do if it came down to it. For her, for his family, he’d do just about anything.

  She turned to Jared. “You ready?”

  “Always. Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Behind the wall of the house nearest Ryku’s, Jared crouched beside Zira as she peered around the corner to the door they were going to enter through. He shifted his weight forward and waited for her signal to move. The soft shuffle of his feet in the dirt sounded loud in the silence, though they were probably the only two people who could have possibly heard it. They hadn’t noticed any signs of movement since leaving the others, and even their comms were dead quiet. Tripp had opened a new channel just for the three of them so they could still communicate without being distracted by everything else.

  Zira pulled back and pressed against the wall. “Do you think we should split up? You could take the front, and I could go around back.”

  “Definitely not.” They only had a vague idea of what they might be walking into, and they had a better chance at staying alive and achieving their objective if they stuck together. This was going to be dangerous enough as it was—reckless, even—but Zira had made the same choice he would have, had it been his decision to make. This was the best chance at eliminating Ryku they were going to get, and neither of them were willing to let him slip away again just to save their own skins.

  “How’s it looking outside, Tripp?” Zira asked.

  He now controlled the last two SIO drones that remained functional after all the fighting, both of which had been flying around the area for the last ten minutes, searching for hostiles. With the shutters of Ryku’s house all closed tight, they couldn’t see inside to determine how many people might be waiting within, but at least this way, they could be reasonably sure they wouldn’t be ambushed from behind once they were inside.

  “No signs of movement,” he responded. “You should be clear to proceed.”

  Zira nodded to Jared. “Let’s go then.”

  He followed her at a quiet run, staying low to the ground with his rifle in both hands, ready to aim and fire in an instant. When they reached the front door, he used the forcible entry tool he’d taken from Dodge to wedge it open in a matter of seconds.

  Zira lobbed a smoke grenade inside to obscure their entrance. As they moved in, she turned right to sweep the dining room, and he went left. No hostiles in sight. He headed for the left side of the open doorway in front of them and flattened himself against the wall. She did the same on the other side. The smoke grenade in the next room continued to emit a long, slow hiss, then everything went silent once again.

  They waited and listened for what seemed like hours. Nothing happened. Zira jerked her head in the direction of the living room in front of them, then crept forward, low and stealthy.

  Jared followed. All his senses were on high alert, waiting for any flash of movement, any sound, anything to tell them where Ryku was. A glint in his peripherals caught his attention, but when he turned to look at it, it was only the light reflecting off a glass figurine on a shelf. He clenched his jaw and kept moving.

  Zira moved to a door adjacent to the living room and turned the knob with care to avoid making noise. She pushed it open and Jared went in first. The master bedroom. He noted every potential hiding place in the room. Inside one of two closets. Under the bed. In the bathroom. Behind the shower curtain. Around the next corner.

  They quickly checked each place. Every time they came up empty-handed, their chances
of finding an enemy at the next turn increased. With every step they took, every inch they moved forward, the pounding in Jared’s chest intensified.

  The room was empty. They left it and started to move on to the next.

  A slow creak over their heads made them stop.

  Someone was on the floor above.

  They both turned back for the stairs and began heading up. Zira reached the landing at the halfway point, then turned and raised her gun to the second level of the house.

  A bullet whizzed past Jared’s arm and struck the wall behind him. An instant later, another hit him in the center of his bulletproof vest. The impact knocked him off balance, and his shoulder slammed into the wall as he fired up at their assailants.

  One of Zira’s bullets struck a man in the head as he leaned over the upper railing to fire down on them. His gun fell past them as he slumped sideways. Jared caught a glimpse of at least two other men with him, but neither of them were Ryku or Cecilia.

  Were they even here at all? Had this just been yet another piece of false intel in a string of bad luck and misinformation?

  Then a familiar voice called out to someone from a room down the hall above them. A woman’s voice, low-pitched and with just a hint of its usual derision. “Just go! Get to the car. We’ll hold them off from here.”

  A second voice responded, so low it was barely a murmur beneath the clamor of gunshots. Jared couldn’t even make out what he was saying, but the tone and cadence left him without doubt.

  Ryku.

  He felled another shooter, and Zira bounded up a few more steps to take out the second. She started to head towards the familiar voices as Jared ascended behind her.

  The rapid fire of an automatic rifle sent her diving behind cover on the opposite side of the stairs. An empty hallway and three motionless bodies now lay between her and Jared.

  “I’ve got a visual on the west side of the house,” said Tripp. “Someone’s climbing out one of the upstairs windows. Looks like…yeah, it’s definitely Ryku.”

  Zira cursed and stole a glance down the hall, immediately drawing enemy fire. As she jerked her head back, bullets took chunks out of the corner of the wall she stood behind. She looked at Jared. “You go.”

  “I’m not leaving you here.”

  “Don’t be stupid. We came here for Ryku. Now go!”

  Cecilia’s mocking voice seemed to echo through the house. “That’s right, go on and leave her here with me. We’ll have lots of fun.”

  The sound of her laugh rooted Jared to the floor. Zira was right, but how could he possibly force himself to leave her here?

  She glared at him. “Damn it, Jared! Go! You’re letting him get away!”

  He turned and bolted down the stairs.

  Gunshots flew over his head as Cecilia called out to him in a syrupy voice. “Say bye-bye to your girlfriend, Jared.”

  Just keep going.

  He hit the last step, and then he was out the door, sprinting to the west side of the house where Ryku had slipped out. The window he’d used to escape was still open. Jared scanned the surrounding area for movement but couldn’t see anyone. A wide stretch of open land lay between him and the next cluster of houses. “Tripp, where’s Ryku now?”

  “He just ran past a red-brick house west of your location.”

  Jared spotted the house and sprinted towards it. “Good. Now get one of your drones back here and fly it through the window to distract Cecilia.”

  “If I do that, we won’t have a visual on Ryku anymore. He shot down my other drone already.”

  “I’ll find him. Just go help Zira.”

  “Don’t!” Zira barked.

  Jared could still hear gunfire in the background on her comm line. “Tripp, go.”

  “Already on my way. Sorry, kid. I know you’re the boss, but we both want to see you make it out of this thing alive. Stand by for distraction.”

  Jared kept running as gunshots from inside the house echoed through his earpiece. He tried to shake the image in his mind of all those bullets piercing her body, tearing through skin, muscle, and bone as she fell to the ground. He shouldn’t have left her. But even if he turned back now, it could very well be too late.

  All he could do was keep moving.

  * * *

  Zira clenched her jaw as she ejected a spent magazine from her rifle and loaded a new one. Damn Jared and his refusal to follow simple orders. And damn Tripp for going along with it. They both knew what the stakes were here. Taking out Ryku was the only thing that mattered, but now Jared was blindly pursuing a dangerously cunning enemy without backup. He might as well be walking straight into a trap. If he made it out of this alive, she just might kill him herself.

  She needed to end this fight. Now.

  Cecilia’s voice echoed down the hall in an almost musical taunt. “Just me and you now, runt. Just the way it should be.”

  The floor creaked under her step. Zira swung her body around to fire a quick burst down the hall, not caring whether she actually hit anything. Her wild shots were just enough to force Cecilia’s retreat into a nearby room. She pulled back behind cover herself before the other woman could retaliate.

  She couldn’t stop her advance forever, but she didn’t need to. Just long enough to keep her from going after Jared and Ryku. Long enough to buy time for Tripp’s drone to arrive and cause a distraction. All she had to do was stay alive until then.

  Cecilia started shooting again. Bullets pelted the wall at the end of the hallway. She had Zira pinned down with nowhere to go. All she had to do now was close in as she continued firing, and it would be over.

  Zira couldn’t let that happen. She pulled her handgun from its holster and popped off a few more blind shots. The rapid-fire of Cecilia’s rifle faltered for only an instant, and then she was advancing again. Tripp’s drone still hadn’t arrived, maybe wasn’t even coming at all. Time and options were quickly running out.

  Zira could see the edges of Cecilia’s shadow in the small square of hallway that lay between her and the stairs. Gunshots reverberated all around them so loud the very air seemed to thrum against her skin. She pressed herself back into the corner and raised her pistol, waiting for just the smallest glimpse of her target. Just enough to take a shot.

  Before she could do that, the gunfire stopped. Cecilia cried out, and her shadow jerked around with arms flailing in the air. An electric whine echoed through the hall, then something crashed into the stair railing opposite Zira. A piece of Tripp’s drone broke off as it made impact with the floor before tumbling down the steps.

  She pushed herself out from behind cover. It only took an instant to appraise the situation and take aim, but before she could pull the trigger, Cecilia barreled into her with all the strength of a charging bull. The force of the collision punched the air from Zira’s lungs, leaving her gasping as Cecilia pinned her against the wall with one burly arm pressed against her neck. The woman smiled wickedly as she leaned in close.

  Jared’s voice came through her earpiece. “Zira? Tr—”

  Cecilia ripped out the tiny device and cast it aside, leering at Zira with eyes full of malice. Zira tried in vain to pull oxygen into her lung. She attempted a maneuver that should have freed her from Cecilia’s hold, but she the taller, stronger woman was ready for it and easily countered.

  “You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamed of this moment,” Cecilia hissed.

  The woman’s rifle lay useless on the floor behind her. Zira had somehow managed to keep a grip on her handgun, but now Cecilia wrenched it away from her with the ease of a parent taking a toy from a toddler. Instead of simply shooting her, she dropped the weapon and reached for something at her side.

  The blade of a knife gleamed in the light from a nearby window. Zira thrashed desperately against Cecilia’s hold, but she could feel her strength fading as her vision swam. She needed air.

  Cecilia laughed. “Fight as hard as you want, runt. It’s not going to do you any good. You betrayed Ryku, y
ou turned Jared against us, you helped radicals ruin this country. And you killed Lucas.” She dug her blade’s point into the skin beneath Zira’s jaw. “I’m going to make sure you suffer for all of it.

  * * *

  Jared’s heart pounded inside his chest so hard it seemed to drown out the sound of his feet thundering against the ground beneath him. Endless gunshots sounded from Zira’s side of the comms channel—so many he couldn’t even count them all. He never should have left her. Orders or not, he should have stayed with her. What the hell was taking Tripp so long?

  A woman’s cry came through the earpiece. Cecilia, he hoped, but he wasn’t sure. There was a crash followed by some kind of thumping noise he couldn’t identify. “Zira? Tripp?”

  Harsh static interrupted him before he’d even finished speaking their names. His steps faltered for a moment as dozens of worst-case-scenarios flashed through his mind. But he couldn’t go back now. Going back meant letting Ryku get away, and Zira would never forgive him for that.

  He yanked his earpiece out and stuffed it in his pocket. Zira was fine. She had to be. And even if she wasn’t….

  He pushed the thought aside. Right now, he needed to stay focused on his own task.

  He passed by the red brick house Tripp had mentioned and scanned the area ahead. There were only two more houses, and the area beyond that was clear and open. If Ryku had listened to Cecilia, he’d be heading for a car, but Jared didn’t see a car anywhere. Had he already driven off? But Jared hadn’t heard a car, either, and Ryku couldn’t have been that far ahead of him.

  He slowed for a moment to catch his breath and consider his options. Maybe the car was in the garage of one of these houses. He headed for the nearest one, all senses on high alert as he searched for his quarry.

  Something ripped through his left shoulder blade at the same time he heard the gunshot.

  * * *

  Zira sucked in a choking breath as Cecilia shifted and released some of the pressure against her throat. The relief only lasted a moment, and then she was suffocating again. She dug her nails into the woman’s forearm and attempted to pry it away. The sharp edge of the knife flicked across her knuckles in response, opening stinging red lines across all her fingers.