by Eric Vall
I saw Tara raise her silenced pistol, and her platinum blonde hair lit up for a second as the fire flickered.
I scanned the area for Anna and Paige and saw that they each had taken a position behind one of the two old military trucks that sat in the yard. Paige had her shotgun at the ready from where she crouched by the vehicle's front tire. Anna had the M249 SAW laid across the hood of the other truck.
Rolly and Bailey were crouched behind the guys on the towers with their rifles ready. Bailey’s new rifle really suited her, that MK14 was nice, and it looked good on her. Most would think that a rifle that big would be too much for her small frame, but I knew she could handle it.
Everyone was ready, but they would wait for my signal.
I scanned the area once more and made sure my team was out of each other’s fire zones.
Just then, one of the guys digging collapsed. The guards probably had them out there all day digging, and with very little water. I wouldn’t be surprised if the man had a heat stroke or passed out from exhaustion.
“Jim collapsed!” one of the latrine guys yelled.
“He needs help!” another called to the guards.
“What the fuck are they screaming about?” one of the soldiers asked as he took a drag off a smoke.
“Who knows,” another said.
“Shut the fuck up!” the first one yelled over to the civilians.
These assholes were something else. Not only were they rapists and basically slavers, but they didn’t care whether these people lived or died. I wasn’t surprised, but it still pissed me off. The civilians probably wouldn’t have minded doing chores if they were working for food and water. As it was, it looked like they were barely getting enough to stay alive.
“Come on, we can’t leave him like this,” the third guy of the digging group shouted.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” the soldier who waved the gun at the wood crew earlier groaned as he threw his beer can in the fire. He stood to move toward the latrine area.
I raised my rifle and counted his steps until I had a clear shot. This was our moment.
I let out a slow breath and lined up a headshot.
Chapter 10
The first guy went down as my bullet hit his temple. He fell backwards mid-step and landed with his head in the fire, and the other men leaned away as the dead guy fell between them.
“What the fuck!” one yelled as he reached for his rifle.
He didn’t have time to get to it before Bailey took him out with a bullet to the back of the head. Blood splattered on his buddies around the fire, and they screamed as his corpse fell down between them.
The other men left their half drunk beers and reached for their guns.
“We’re under attack!” one man yelled out commands as he ran for a tree that sat outside the main building. “We have to protect The Colonel! Men, get ready!”
The men who had pistols on them ran towards the woodpile for cover, but Anna let off three rounds into the chest of the first guy while Paige blew a hole in the second guy's chest with her shotgun.
I smiled. That’s what happens when you get lazy and don’t wear your kevlar vest.
I turned to see one guy head for cover on my side of the picnic table. I let him reach the side of it, and he crouched low as he tried to shove a magazine into his assault rifle while I casually lined up my shot.
The guy’s eyes scanned the area wildly and when they finally landed on me it was too late. I smiled at him, pulled the trigger, and his blood splattered against the picnic table bench a second before his body slumped to the ground.
Judging from where they tried to take cover, it seemed that they weren’t sure where we all were yet. That would make it easier to take them out.
“Martinez, Davids, Rachard, you’re with me,” the man barked. “The rest of you get in the main building and protect The Colonel!”
Three men opened fire to cover the rest as they tried to make their way to the main building. Anna was able to take out three of them, but eight more slipped inside.
I looked across the yard to see Paige gesturing to the men who had been chopping wood. They were obviously scared, and they had their visibly shaky hands raised above their heads.
“Get behind the wood!” she yelled.
They looked to her, but did not move.
“Go!” she yelled again.
They didn’t wait any longer and started to run for safety. One man fell on the way, and the other two quickly scooped him up and carried him to the back of the wood pile. It wouldn’t be the best cover, but it should work.
At the same time I could hear Tara yell at the men in the latrine.
“Get the hell down!” she yelled as she came around the other side of the gym where they were digging, and then she sprinted toward the latrine and jumped in with a swift motion.
Smart girl.
I hadn’t instructed Tara to take cover in the hole, but it was a nice spot to shoot from, and she was still out of Anna’s line of fire.
A few seconds after she got into the hole, Tara poked her head out and aimed her silenced pistol at two men who tried to run toward the gym entrance. She was surprisingly accurate with the new weapon, and both of her shots blew through the men’s throats while they were on the run. They went down choking on their blood and trying to scream, and then the platinum blonde shot each one once more to end them.
I peeked around my cover to see another soldier make his way to a tree on the far side of the main building. I tried to get a shot, but the tree was wide enough to conceal his whole body, so I decided to wait until I had a better opportunity
The soldier leaned around the far side of the tree and aimed his rifle at Bailey, who was letting off rounds into one of the men who had crouched on the opposite side of the picnic table from me.
“Cover me!” Paige shouted to Anna as she cocked her shotgun and ran toward the man aiming at Bailey.
“Got you!” Anna shouted back as the other woman wound her way around the wood pile.
Anna laid cover fire on the soldier to force him back behind the tree, but then the redhead stopped suddenly, and the man poked his head around the tree.
Paige was ready for that, and she appeared on the other side of the tree, unloaded her shotgun into his chest, and blew a fist size hole through him. Then she kicked the dead body away with her foot and took up cover by the tree.
I surveyed our surroundings. The stench of the man whose head landed in the fire made my nose hair stand on end, but twelve men lay dead around the fires and picnic table, and my girls were making quick work of the men left in the yard.
“Take these fuckers down!” the man shouting orders yelled as he reloaded his rifle. He was still crouched behind the tree in front of the main building.
This asshole might be a problem if he got the rest of the guards organized enough to mount a real defense, but just as I realized that, I saw Rolly aim in his direction.
The commander also noticed my older friend, and he ducked behind the tree while he continued to scream.
In the light of the fire I saw Tara make her way out of the latrine and toward the man behind the tree. I expected her to raise her pistol, but instead she pulled her knife off her hip as she crawled toward him.
The man leaned around the tree once more to open fire in Anna’s direction, and then he pointed toward where Rolly sat behind cover.
Then his shots were cut off abruptly as Tara slid behind the tree, and blood sprayed from his throat as her blade moved swiftly across his neck.
I heard footsteps to my left and looked to see a man rushing toward me with a large knife. The guy was all sorts of stupid for attacking me with a blade, and I tried not to laugh as I raised my rifle and put a bullet into his chest.
Just then a spray of bullets shot out from the side of the wood pile toward the tower that Bailey had commandeered, but she ducked behind the dead man in the tower as the bullets smacked into the panels below her.
Anna too
k a shot at the man, and I heard him yell as he dropped his rifle and reached for his hand.
“You okay?” Anna called up to Bailey.
“Yup, I’m good,” the blonde hippie called down as she swung her rifle again so she could shoot.
I only saw one asshole left in the yard, and he was taking cover behind the wood pile. I pivoted my rifle over to take him out, but before I could squeeze the trigger, Paige came around the side and unloaded her shotgun into the man’s chest.
“Is everyone okay?” I yelled out.
“I’m good!” I heard Tara call out.
“Anna, Paige?” I asked.
“All good here,” Anna hollered.
“Me too!” Paige chimed in.
“Bailey, Rolly?” I shouted.
“Doing alright,” the old man called out from the tower.
“I’m fine,” Bailey yelled back to me.
“Everyone in the yard is down,” I called out. “But eight of them got inside, and I’m sure there are more in there.”
I took a moment to feel proud of the girls. They had helped one another during this and even checked to make sure the others were okay. I knew seasoned soldiers who wouldn’t check on you during battle.
I was just about to tell them how great of a job they did, but then shots came from one of the windows of the main buildings headed for Bailey and Rolly.
“Bastards!” Paige yelled as she whipped her rifle around and took aim. She fired three shots into the building, and I saw one of the rifles fall backwards.
“Anna, keep using the SAW to suppress them,” I yelled to her.
Anna unleashed the SAW and one of the rifles in the building shot a spray of bullets that careened upwards. She must have made her shot. That was one thing the movies didn’t lie about. If you caught someone with their finger on the trigger they would tense and continue to fire until they were down. I double checked on Rolly and Bailey, but both of them appeared to be fine.
“Anna, take that SAW up to Rolly,” I yelled.
“You got it!” she swiftly moved toward the tower as she flung the M249 over her shoulder and climbed up. She traded Rolly guns and then headed back down the tower.
“Bailey, Rolly,” I called out, “Stay in the towers and cover them. Anna, Paige, Tara, you’re with me. Make your way to the gym.”
“On it boss,” Rolly yelled as he positioned himself with the SAW.
“On it!” Anna yelled.
”With you!” Paige said as she ran with the redhead toward me.
“Coming!” I heard Tara shout from across the yard, and I turned toward her in time to see the blonde woman giving the men in the latrine orders to escape through the fence. She made sure they were safely through the wire before she made her way to the front of the gym.
As the four of us ran toward the gym, I watched Bailey take out another two guys in the windows, but they were quickly replaced with two more. I had confidence that Bailey and Rolly could handle themselves.
“You guys got this,” I yelled to Rolly and Bailey. “Give em hell!”
“Will do!” Rolly yelled back.
I waited at the door to the gym and covered Anna and Paige as they made their way along the fenceline to where I crouched. Tara was the last to arrive. She had blood on her forearm and a smear on her forehead from where I assumed she had wiped off sweat.
“You okay?” Paige asked as she took in the blood on Tara.
“Not a scratch,” she said with a grin.
Anna eyed her forearm, and she looked down at it.
“Oh,” Tara chuckled. “That’s not my blood. What about you guys? You good?”
“All good,” Anna said.
“Me too,” Paige nodded.
I could see some blood on Paige, but figured it was from the soldiers they had taken out. I was sure they would tell me if they were injured.
“We go in fast,” I said. “You all remember how to breach and clear right?”
They nodded at me.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be our rifleman, so I’ll go in first. Paige, you’re behind me. Then Tara, then Anna. Understood?”
“Got it,” Tara said.
“Yup,” Paige responded.
“There are no windows in this building, and we have a middle entry point,” I said.
“So we go along the immediate wall,” Anna added.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll go far left, Paige, you’re far right.”
“Then I’m left,” Tara said.
“And I’m right.” Anna nodded.
“There are civilians in there, so we need to be careful,” I reminded them.
“Right,” Tara said. “These people have been through enough without getting shot at too.”
“What do we do once all the soldiers are down in there?” Paige asked.
“We leave the civilians alone while we take out the main building,” I said. “We can’t risk them getting hurt out here. They don’t have the training that you all do.”
The girls grinned at me.
“Now,” I started. “You ready?”
“Ready,” the girls said in unison.
I raised my rifle, pulled the doors open, and flanked left, and the girls took their positions behind me quickly. As soon as we entered, I realized this place must be the sleeping quarters for the civilians. Some small blankets littered the floors and the far wall was lined with people, and I saw three men with a lantern in the middle of the room.
Each soldier had a civilian in front of them, and they had their knives on the civilians’ throats.
“Don’t fucking move,” one of them said. He was cowered behind a tall, thin woman with long sandy blonde hair.
The woman was crying, and she had her hands raised at chest level.
“Please,” she sobbed. “Don’t kill me.”
“Shut the fuck up,” the soldier said, and he pressed his knife harder to her throat.
She let out a hard cry and tried to fall to her knees but the soldier steadied her with his arm.
“Easy fellas,” I said. “Let’s work this out here. Nobody has to die.”
“Yeah right,” another soldier spat from his position behind a thin man with a short red beard. “You took out half our fucking men out there.”
The men crouched in front of the women and covered them with their bodies. I could hear some of the women crying and watched as the men pressed themselves closer to them in an attempt to quiet them.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” I said calmly as I walked toward the men. “We just want these civilians freed.”
“Fuck you,” the third guy hissed. He held a small red haired woman in front of him, but she only came up to his chin, which made a headshot far too easy.
“Let me take him out Tav,” Tara said through clenched teeth as she lined up her silenced pistol with his face. Her platinum blonde hair framed her face perfectly, and I saw her chest rise and fall heavily. I could tell she was worked up. I didn’t blame her, not after everything we went through with Jenny just a couple days ago.
The guardsmen’s eyes opened wide when Tara said she wanted to shoot the guy in the head, so I decided it was better not to answer her, and just pointed at the one who I assumed was the leader.
“You know that what’s going on here is wrong,” I told the men as my team and I got closer. “You’re soldiers and you know this isn’t what you were trained to do.”
“Yeah, well we’ve got a pretty sweet deal here,” the second guy said as he glanced sideways at Tara’s silenced pistol.
“Raping women is a sweet deal?” Tara hissed as she pushed closer to the man.
“Better than that National Guard camp,” the first one added. “We were working our asses off there and got nothing to show for it.”
“You had safe civilians to show for it,” I said. “Is this really who you want to be?”
“Fuck yeah,” the third guy stated. “We actually get to do shit around here other than keep fucking civilians in line.”
“Now stay the fuck back!” the first guy yelled as he pushed his knife harder to the woman’s throat, and she let out another sob.
“I think it’s time to give it up,” Anna said. “We have you outnumbered and outgunned.”
“Fuck you, bitch,” one of the men spat.
I saw Paige’s arms tense around her shotgun as the man insulted Anna, so I put my hand out to calm her even though what I wanted to do was skin these fucks alive.
Trying to play to their decency obviously wasn’t going to work. It seemed these douchebags had no decency left. I was saddened to see soldiers turn into such power hungry assholes, but my best course of action was to let them go and save the civilians.
“Listen,” I said to the men. “If you let these people go you can go free.”
“Tav,” Paige protested. “They’re monsters.”
“How do we know you won’t shoot us the second we let go of them?” the first guy asked as he eyed me with skepticism.
“You can hold onto the civilians as you make your way to the door,” I told him.
“Are we really just going to let them go?” Tara scoffed.
“Yes,” I said. “These civilian’s lives are more important than taking down these wannabe soldiers.”
“But they called Anna a bitch,” Paige interjected.
“Yeah, let’s end these fucks,” Tara growled.
I looked to the men who still held their knives pressed against the civilians’ throats. My girls knew their way around a firearm and a knife, but they’d never dealt with this sort of situation before. Even if they could land the shot, there’s a chance that the civilians could get caught in the crossfire or that those knives could cut them as the men went down. It was too dangerous, and I wasn’t willing to risk these people’s lives.
“Keep your weapons trained on them and shoot if they hurt any of the civilians,” I told my team, and then I looked at the men. “You better get out of here before I change my mind.”
The men kept the civilians with them until they were right up on us, and then they shoved the civilians toward us and bolted out the door.
I caught the red bearded man as he fell into me and noticed his weight felt closer to that of one of my girls in my arms. As soon as I caught him, he pushed himself away from me and fell backward onto his ass.