Cupcake and Chun’s Aces team piled out. They were loaded to the gills with weapons and seemed ready to get their mad on. We quickly grabbed some heavy weapons from the Rhino and moved off in a group, I was in the lead position, with Hashkeh. At first, we moved fast into the trees till we got closer to the Faquid. Hashkeh moved in front of me and then stopped, his fist went into the air shoulder height. I stopped in my tracks and repeated his hand motion, slowing down the others behind me. Hashkeh then dropped his hand down palm open. I dropped to my knee and repeated the gesture again. Hashkeh turned his head to me and pointed to his eyes and then put his hand over his eyes like he was blocking the sun, he then pointed in front of us and showed me three fingers. He had just told me he had seen the enemy thirty feet ahead.
I motioned for the team to stay and moved up to Hashkeh’s side. I pulled up my glasses and took a look at the area he pointed out. It took me a couple of moments before I could make out the line of Faquids hiding in the tree line. Just then the ground rumbled, and light lit up the area, as the Apaches opened up on the air and ground targets. The Faquids in front of me seemed agitated as they pulled their weapons to the ready and slowly moved forward. No way was I going to let these soldiers open up on the facility or take down the Apaches.
I motioned with my hand for my team to move up and collect on me. I quickly paired up the teams and sent them out to open up on the Collectivus from numerous positions. I paired myself with Hashkeh since we had been doing so well together. I took off my suppressor and slid it into my pack, I then removed two grenades from my vest and placed them on the log in front of me. Hashkeh did the same with his SAW, or Squad Automatic Weapon. He checked the box of rounds he had connected to the M249 Para light machine gun. He flipped down the bipod and rested the gun on the log in front of us.
I took one of the grenades pulled the pin, gauged the distance to the enemy and threw the round grenade underarm toward the enemy. Before it could land and explode, I had already snatched up the next one and was readying to throw it to the left side of the Faquids. The explosion from the first grenade echoed through the trees just as I threw the second one. Hashkeh started firing then as the second grenade added its hot shrapnel through the ranks of Faquids. His rifle chattered as he fired off three round bursts into the recovering enemy. I could hear the other teams weapons chattering as they joined in on the fight to the left and right of me. Everything was doing well until a bright blue light appeared and more Faquid appeared ahead of us. The newcomers opened up on us with a combination of energy bursts and projectiles. I quickly brought up my HK and selected my targets, firing off three round bursts to each one. Hashkeh stopped firing off three round bursts, and instead held the trigger down sweeping the weapon right to left spraying rounds trying to get the enemy to slow down. I turned on my radio and called out.
“Bilbo you out there?” I screamed into the radio to be heard over the firing and explosions.
“Aye mate I’m out here. What can I do to help? Over.”
“The Collectivus Faquids have been strengthened by a much larger force. My team is holding out for now, but not going to last long without help!”
“Roger that, problem is we can’t see you very well. Don’t want to hit the wrong group of people I see on my scopes. Over.”
“I can fix that problem. I have red smoke, going to throw it out, when you see it, fire your cannon West to East on that axis. Over.”
“Aye, we can do that. The Collectivus aircraft ran like cunt twaffles when we showed up. Over.”
I pulled two smoke canisters and yanked the pin out on one. I threw it like a pitcher for the Dodgers would, overhanded. It flew and landed in the middle of the Faquid line. The smoke became thick and roiled up into the air and past the trees. I pulled the pin on the next one and launched it the same way but further to my left toward the Faquid attacking Johnson’s position. Almost immediately two distinct cannons from above opened up chattering as they delivered HEDP 30-mm, High Explosive Dual-Purpose round after round down into the Collectivus held lines. The damage those shells caused would be stuck in my head for a lifetime. Faquid Bodies didn’t just go down under the barrage, they exploded from the rounds as they found their marks. Yellow blood, bone, and organs flew through the air. My people figured out what was going on and started lobbing their own red smoke grenades out into the enemy line. More Apaches appeared overhead and fired downward destroying the enemy. I was feeling damn good until an immense explosion lit up the sky above the trees.
“We are coming under fire, nothing on scopes. Time to go evasive, you are on your own, Bravo.” My earpiece transmitted to me from Bilbo.
“Evade and come back if you can.” I called back.
“We just lost our air cover?” Heaven asked, as he changed out his drum of ammunition for his SAW.
I ignored his obvious question, “We need to start pushing forward,” I turned to my left and sent hand signals to Johnson, which he passed on. I then turned to my right and repeated the hand motion to Butch. I scanned the field in front of us and found another fallen log we could move to, and still firing on the enemy.
“Heaven cover me as I move up to the dead Spruce. Once I get there, I will lay down the same for you as you move up.”
Heaven nodded as he swung the muzzle to the right and fired off his entire magazine. I bounded over the log and took off running, firing from the hip. Couldn’t tell if I hit anything as the barrel seems to wobble a whole hell of a lot when you’re running for your life. I slid behind the fallen Spruce, dropping my used magazine and slamming a new one home. I took a deep breath and popped up, took bead on the first Faquid I saw and fired. I burned the magazine in seconds and reloaded twice more before Heaven slid in next to me.
We both sprayed rounds out into the Faquids in our firing lane and soon had nothing to shoot at. I stood and grabbed two more grenades, the last I had, and charged toward a blinding white light that emitted from a tear in the air. I pulled the pin on one of my grenades and lobbed it into the portal. I quickly pulled the pin on the next one and lobbed it after its friend. I slid to a stop and dove headlong behind another Spruce tree. I rolled and tucked myself into a ball and waited for the explosion. At first all I heard was a muffled boom and then the portal exploded in a shower of sparks shaking the ground and trees for a hundred yards. I rolled out of my ball and popped up with my rifle. Nothing was in front of me except a ring of burned trees and blackened ground. I swung to my left and fired on the Faquid who were still recovering from the explosion of their portal. Heaven followed my example and concentrated his fire to our right.
In a couple of minutes, we ran out of targets, and out of ammo. I dropped my rifle on its sling and moved out from my firing position. I pulled my pistol, which was the only weapon I had left that I still had rounds for. I moved quickly but kept low to stay out of the of line of fire of any remaining enemy. I stopped when I heard a deep clear voice from my left.
“Stand up little man, the area is clear.”
I stopped in mid step and raised my head tilting it toward where I heard the voice. “Johnson, you better have your gun lowered, son.”
“Fuck no, this thing is up and ready to waste more of those freaky white monkeys.”
“Did you just describe the Faquid as monkeys?” a voice said from behind me.
Johnson had just come up to my side and looked over my shoulder at the person who spoke. He found Hootie staring back up at him.
“I did, you have a problem with that, little man?”
“Fuck no, man, I ain’t got no problem with your description. Was just wondering if you were one of them.”
Johnson squeezed his eye closed and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Do I look white? Do I look like one of those things?”
“Not white in my book, brother, but you are fugly like them,” Hootie chuckled.
Johnson took a menacing step forward and I put a hand against his chest quickly stopping him. “Uhm, you may not want to fuck with that
little guy, Johnson.”
Johnson opened his eyes wide and looked down at me. “Why the fuck not?”
“He was a SEAL,” I alerted him.
Johnson took a second to wrap his around the information. “Who fucking cares, I’ll rip his head off and shit down his little brown neck.”
“I’m not brown, I’m milk chocolate, bitch.” Hootie spoke up with a smile on his lips.
“Johnson, he is also an MMA fighter and would turn you into ground meat.” I explained.
A man slightly bigger than Johnson came up behind Hootie and smacked him in the back of the head rocking him forward. “Stop being a pain in the ass, Hootie, or I’ll roll you into a ball and feed you to Butch.” Hashkeh’s face came out of the shadows.
“Shit I was just fucking with the guy. You all never let me have any fun.” Hootie whined.
“I am sorry, Dan, I will make sure that Hootie behaves from here on in. If not, I will bury him in the forest till we leave.”
Butch came up at that point and looked over Hootie. “What did the rat do now?”
“He was pissing off our friend Johnson.” I answered.
Butch stepped up grabbed Hootie by the front of his blouse and lifted him off the ground in a display of amazing strength. “We need a guard dog while we make entrance into the bunker. Stay here dog, sit, and be good.”
“No problem, Butch,” Hootie spoke through his quickly closing throat.
“Good dog,” Butch opened his hand and dropped Hootie to the ground. Where Hootie coughed as he tried to catch his breath.
As we stalked past Hootie, he reached up and put his hand on Johnson’s chest. Johnson stopped in his tracks and looked down at the offending hand. “Yes, little man?”
“I was just busting your balls, man. I apologize.” Hootie said.
“No worries, all is forgiven. Same team, brother,” Johnson moved off trying to keep up with the team.
“I’ll buy you a cold beer when we get back,” Hootie yelled from behind.
I came up to the heavily damaged Bunker and stopped in my tracks. I turned to where I could be seen by the hidden camera in the trees and waved at it. After a moment, the massive steel doors squealed loudly open, exposing a long smooth rock walled corridor angling downward into the ground. I cautiously stepped in. As I passed the threshold, the corridor lit up with banks of LED lights hanging from the ceiling. I motioned my team to follow me, as I moved off. About fifty yards down the corridor, the steel doors at the entrance closed. I stopped and looked back to the doors.
“Hase, stay at the doors and work out a way to open them if everything goes tits up,” I ordered.
Hase stopped Heaven and took the man’s pack off. “With the C4 I have plus the load Heaven carries, should be enough to peel this fucking can open if needed.” Hase turned and had a quiet quick conversation with Apache before detaching from the group and moving away to the door.
We continued walking down the long corridor, always heading downward. We had to have descended at least a hundred feet already. The walls were smooth, no door or corridors marred their surface. At what felt like a descent of another two hundred feet, we were stopped at a dead end. The corridor just stopped at a rough, rock, hewn wall. I took off my ball cap and scratched the fuzz growing on my head. I was about to suggest we move back up toward the exit when the floor below us vibrated and then shook. Suddenly the floor started to drop downward, it was then I figured out what was happening. The floor was the top of an elevator. We moved downward at a quick pace, dropping almost three hundred feet before coming to a rest in a gargantuan cavern, so colossal that I couldn’t see the side walls. The area around us were clear, the floor swept clean of any detritus. I was unsure of moving, I didn’t want us to become separated and lost.
“Butch, form a defensible position. Chun on me,” I called out. Chun detached from his men and trotted over to me as Butch started calling out orders.
“This is fucking weird, Boss,” Chun called out.
“Yeah,” I turned in a small circle trying to orientate ourselves. “Someone opened the doors and then brought us down here. You’d think they would welcome us, or at least provide us with a big map maybe a giant neon arrow saying you are here.”
“Want me to take a small team and recon the area?” Chun asked.
I took my hat off again and scratched my head. I really needed to find time to shave. “No, not yet. Let’s stay put and see if anyone comes out to collect us.”
Just as I finished saying that an electronic whine came from our left, getting louder as something came in our direction. Butch turned his left line of defense and prepared for an attack. A small white object began to take shape as it moved in our direction. It was a fucking golf cart, and it had a woman driving it while waving a white flag.
“Hold your fire,” I directed to Butch who passed the order down the line.
I moved past the men and Apache making my way out to meet the incoming golf cart. The woman was pretty in a way. She wore a knee length teal dress under a white lab coat. Her hair was up in a messy bun on her head, glasses hung on a gold chain around her neck resting on her chest. She stopped the cart ten feet from me and climbed out. As she walked closer, I took in more detail of her appearance. She wore no make-up, her lips were thin, and her cheeks were smudged with dirt.
“Please tell me, you are on our side,” she squeaked.
“Well, we aren’t one of the Collectivus. Not sure if we are on your side though, yet,” I held out my hand.
She looked it over with a puzzled look on her face as she processed my words. “I am Doctor Katherine Creighton,” she reached out and took my hand tentatively as though afraid it would shock her.
“I am Dan Welko, team lead for Malleus.” I shook her hand firmly. “And now this is the time you tell me more about yourself. like what kind of Doctor are you?”
“I am a Theoretical Physicist; I received my degree from Cornell. I work for the government, DOD or the Department of Defense, to be exact,” Katherine explained.
“Now that we are friends why don’t you tell me more about this place?
“Not sure I can do that. I had only been employed here for a day before everything went to hell. If your team will come with me, I will introduce you to the facility’s manager Doctor Sporm.”
I put my hand on Katherine’s arm stopping her, “Did you seriously call the man Doctor Sporm? Sounds like he is some kind of eighties comedian or something.”
“He does fancy himself a funny man, but all his jokes seem lame and instead of laughing, his staff groans.”
I tuned to Chun, “Leave two of your men to guard the elevator. The rest are on me.” I called out.
Chun picked out Rooster and Pico and pointed to the floor. “You two hold the area.”
The two men dropped their packs and took knees. They would secure our escape if we were walking into a trap. I boarded the cart with the Doctor, as she turned the cart around. The leftover team would follow behind in a fast jog. I took the cart because my knee was screaming in pain from all the abuse it had been put through. Apache also appeared and boarded the cart, directly behind me. If we kept pushing our luck, we would end up missing this entire war with our injuries. We rode the cart for about ten minutes when we could begin to make out the side of a wall in the distance. As we got closer, I could make both out boxy and aerodynamic shapes. My team kept up with our slow cart, jogging effortlessly behind.
Soon I could make out forms of the Blackhawk and civilian helicopters lined up to the right of a tunnel cut into the wall. To the left of the tunnel entrance sat numerous rows of civilian and military vehicles. They ranged from up-armored Humvees to semi-trucks with the word FEMA printed on the side of the white trailers connected to them and some off-road trucks. I studied them as we went past and as we entered the tunnel a thought hit me. I decided not to speak my thoughts just yet.
We traveled down the tunnel for fifty yards and stopped next to other golf carts. I climbed out a
s my team gathered around us. A massive pair of large steel doors were set into a concrete wall in the tunnel. Katherine climbed out of the cart and made her way over to the steel doors. She used a small keyboard and typed in an alphanumeric code; she then took her badge off from her lanyard and slid it into a slot. A red light blinked twice and then turned green. The doors popped open an inch. Katherine took the door’s lip in her hands and pulled it open easily.
“The doors are balanced perfectly so anyone could open them, but without the proper codes you could drill or use explosives all day long and not make a dent in these doors.”
As we went through the doors, I noticed Heaven examining them and the way they were inserted into the rock and concrete walls. I knew he was working out how to open the doors if we needed to. I followed Katherine through another set of doors, but these were the kind of doors you would find in any federal office building. Plain, white, and without any features. We entered an open room about two hundred feet wide by six hundred long. The room was a grid of cream-colored cubicles, a couple of private offices along the walls, a drop-down tile ceiling, and another set of double doors at the end of the room. The room was eerily quiet, all the cubicles were empty. Katherine led us to the double doors and stopped, she turned to me.
“Behind this door is something not many people know exist. Everything you are about to see is marked as Top Secret Critical.” Katherine explained.
I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. “I don’t think that shit means anything anymore, but each of us hold high clearances.”
Katherine placed her hands on the doors and pushed them open. “That is good enough for me.”
The open doors exposed a stadium like room, with workstations at each level down to a wall full of monitors. The monitors at the end of the room displayed feeds from cameras scattered around the outside of the bunker. One showed Hootie near the bunker entrances guarding the area.
Another monitor showed Hase at the inside of the bunker’s doors, and another one showed the men I left at the elevators. Looked to me like the inside and outside of the facility was completely covered. I then surveyed the room and found three people huddled around stations, they were all staring up at us.
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