Fallen World: The Complete Trilogy

by Tom Jones

  Arcades reached in one of the seat pockets, and he pulled out his Bible. Arcades sighed in relief and said to himself, “Can’t leave this behind.” Arcades pocketed his Bible in his Multicam Black pants and continued to search the vehicle for anything else he could have left behind. After he was finished, he closed the doors, and he saw that the sniper spotter team had just arrived. The gray car stopped, and the two men stepped out. The sniper asked, “Mission accomplished, boss?” Arcades gave a smile and replied, “We did it. Everybody did a great job tonight.” The sniper opened the trunk of the car, and Arcades then said, “I’ll help you get your stuff into the chopper.” He went over to the trunk and pulled out the Remington 700 before placing it in the polymer weapon case that was already in the trunk.

  Arcades then threw the sniper’s plate carrier on top of the case, and he carried it to the helicopter. Johnny was already sitting in one of the seats and so was the vixen. Arcades sat the case on the ground and remembered that he had other items that were still in his pockets. Arcades opened his pocket, and he pulled out a small collection of handcuffs that Johnny had used on him earlier. Arcades noticed that Johnny was looking at him, and the fox asked, “Can I keep these?” Johnny nodded, “Sure. I don’t mind.” Arcades smiled as he placed the handcuffs into the dump pouch that was still attached to the battle belt under his seat. Arcades then saw the spotter enter the helicopter, and he placed his CZ Scorpion EVO under a seat which a helmet and plate carrier was sitting under. Arcades then asked the spotter, “Is that everything out of your car? Ours is emptied out.” The spotter stood back up, “That’s everything we got, boss.” The fox said, “Good. I don’t want anything to be left behind. A couple CH-53Ks are supposed to come by to airlift the cars back to base. However, they’re not coming until the morning.” The spotter acknowledged the fox, and he then took his seat in the helicopter.

  The fox stepped out one last time, and he confirmed that everybody was aboard the helicopter. He counted the six people that came with him out of downtown, and he made sure that they were all in the helicopter. Arcades said to himself, “Alright. That’s everybody. Excellent.” The fox boarded the helicopter, and he informed the human with the FN SCAR-L, “We’re all set. Ready when you are.” The human then went to the pilots and relayed the fox’s message, “We’re set to go.” The pilot turned a few dials, flipped a few switches and prepared the ignition process for the helicopter’s engines. The man with the SCAR-L took his seat, and Arcades closed the aircraft doors before taking his seat as well. The fox fastened his seatbelt and waited for the helicopter to lift from the ground. Lights inside the cabin illuminated the occupants of the helicopter. The blades began to spin faster, and the pilot pulled the throttle lever forwards. The HH-60 generated lift, and the helicopter then left the ground.

  Now airborne, the helicopter yawed before pitching downwards to cause the rotorcraft to gain forward velocity. Arcades looked out of the window and saw the Downtown Las Vegas skyline. Even after what occurred during the night, business was still progressing as normal. He couldn’t tell if the police were still at the Strip where the exchange of gunfire took place, but he assumed that they were still there. They still had a few vehicles and a few bodies to clean up. However, the flashing lights of the buildings were continuing as if business was usual. Once the Pave Hawk had left the area, Arcades looked back to see everyone in the cabin. Most of the occupants were planning on sleeping during the flight back to base. After all, it was going to be a good few hours before they would arrive back at base. However, Arcades was never one who slept on flights. The fox opened his other pocket, and he removed his Bible. The light in the helicopter was bright enough for Arcades to read the pages. Deciding what to read, he flipped around the Old Testament before stopping at the Book of Exodus. Arcades thought it would be good to read about the Exodus again, but before he started, he decided to pray to God before starting. Arcades bowed his head, closed his eyes and prayed. After he finished praying, he opened back up his Bible and began to read.

  Chapter 2

  Black Gold

  “This snowstorm is too intense. I can hardly see where I’m going!” Arcades exclaimed as he and Johnny were walking through a snowstorm in Alaska. Arcades’ Oakley glasses were covered in snow, and he wiped them with his Oakley gloves. However, this only smeared his glasses, which further impacted his vision. “Hold on a minute, I gotta reconfigure something” Arcades alerted Johnny as he stopped, and he looked at his watch. The sun would rise in a few hours. Arcades flipped down his EOTech GPNVG-18s, and he activated them to hopefully get a better view of the dark tundra. Arcades could see a bit better, but it wasn’t great. Arcades then spoke to Johnny, “Hey, using your NVGs can help you see a bit. Use them if you want to.” Johnny flipped down his L3 Technologies PSQ-36s and could now see Arcades a bit more clearly. Arcades continued, and he brushed some leaves off of his Multicam Alpine G4 pants.

  For this operation, both operators wore a Multicam Alpine G4 combat uniform, but they still had their regular Multicam gear over their uniforms. Despite the weather conditions, Arcades was still not wearing any footwear. When Johnny had questioned him about that, Arcades told him that he was not cold. However, Johnny did not believe him. As the anthro and the human continued through the snow, Arcades looked upwards, and he noticed a building that was only a few hundred meters out. “Heh, would you look at that. It looks like some sort of FOB or something.” Johnny moved to the vantage point that the fox was observing from, “Who’s FOB is that?” Arcades took a closer look at the building, but the NVGs and the snow made it hard to determine what flag was being flown above it. “I wanna say that’s one of Castle Defense Industries’ FOBs, but I’m not entirely sure.” Johnny remembered what Arcades had told him about the company. “Those guys are all human, right? They don’t hire anthros?”

  Arcades decided to take a break, and he sat down on his knees. “Yeah. That’s one of the reasons why they got so big over the years. It’s a shame that many humans think they are greater than anthros. Anyways, even though they’re the largest European company, they’re international. If you see any tan colored Soviet vehicles, they’re likely from CDI.” Johnny was halfway paying attention to what his boss was saying since he was mainly trying to stay warm. He was not an anthro, so he did not have any fur on him to keep him warm. Arcades placed the stock of his Salient Arms GRY rifle on the icy ground and began to make prints in the ground with the stock. Arcades looked behind himself and noticed his own footprints were also printed on the ground. When Johnny saw that the fox was looking at his own footprints he said, “I never understood why some of you anthros like to go barefoot.” Arcades directed his attention to Johnny and replied, “You’re gonna have to remind me to tell you my reason later.”

  “Sir, we’ve got no signal here. Not during this snowstorm,” the radio operator spoke with the FOB commander. The commander banged his fist on the table in frustration, “Dammit. We need to have those comms up today! I don’t care if all hell is breaking loose!” Another human was standing near a window, watching the snowstorm, “Well… I think our unit can handle a few anthros by themselves. What company were they with again? Wasn’t it a small one?” The radio operator answered the question, “Yeah, they were a small company. Nothing too dangerous.” The commander was still frustrated, “Then, what is happening to all of the units that we’ve been sending? We send them out, but they never return!” The room was silent, but the commander eventually continued, “Show me the image that our last team sent out before they went dark.” The radio operator rolled his chair over to a computer and opened a grainy image. The commander leaned forwards and examined the image. “Those guys don’t even look like anthros. Out of all of the companies that we know about, nobody can identify where they’re from?” The radio operator then said, “Sir, with all due respect. Those guys have been ambushing our men as they have been trying to secure the rest of the area. They’re very skilled, well armed, and they don’t take prisoners. T
he only intel we have on them is that they’re wearing blue and black.”

  The commander shook his head before moving away from the radio operator, “We’re contracted to protect this part of Alaska in order for the oil company to drill. However, we’ve only been losing men left and right. Now, we have some anthros showing up, and they think they can take that contract away from us. I want all of those freaks-of-nature dead.” The radio operator did not say anything, but the other man gave an optimistic response, “Then, our combat unit should not have any problems with three anthros that breached our perimeter. You said those blue and black guys weren’t anthros. Right?” The commander only said, “Well, I suppose so.”

  “Don’t worry bro, we’ll be out of the storm soon” a brown and gray wolf reassured his brother, a light gray wolf. “I sure hope so. I’ve been freezing out here, Jack.” Jack responded, “Ah, come on, Jason. You did alright yesterday and the night before.” Jason took a pause before saying, “Well, we didn’t have a snowstorm yesterday, either.” An anthro snow leopard then spoke up, “Alright Barter brothers, time to quit talking for now. We’re about to enter a building. I don’t know who’s all in there, but I’d rather not come home in a body bag.” Jack replied, “Look Rodney, we haven’t seen anyone for days. Ever since we left the city, it’s been nothing but a blank tundra. Mate, we ain’t gonna see anything special in that building.” Rodney shook his head and lifted his goggles off of his eyes before placing them on his helmet. “I guess we’ll just sleep in that building for the rest of the night before proceeding. It really sucks when nobody has a vehicle to take us directly to where we need to go.” Jack chuckled, “Yeah? Well, it really sucks when nobody could get to us anyways. There’s a huge snowstorm, mate.”

  Rodney was getting irritated, “They had to put me with the Australians. Didn’t they?” Jack decided to banter back, “At least I’m not a Canadian. Be glad you ain’t too far from home, mate. We came all the way from the land down under!” The snow leopard gave the brown wolf a slight shove with the stock of his rifle, “That’s enough, Jack. Let’s just set up shop in there. I think that’s an abandoned building. They don’t even have outside lights on. We’ll sleep in there tonight, and then we’ll make it to camp tomorrow.” The small fireteam moved to a metal door. Jason attempted to open the door, but it did not budge. “I think it’s locked.” Rodney was still frustrated, “Fantastic. We get to freeze out here.” Jack was tired of hearing Rodney complain, “How about I just get us in here. One locked door can’t be too much of a big deal. Ain’t that right, mate?”

  The snow leopard stood back while the wolf used his black combat boot to deliver a kick to the door. The door still did not open, and Jack shrugged, “Heh. Worth a shot, right?” Rodney shook his head in disapproval, and he was steadily losing his patience. “Time to use the masterkey.” The snow leopard removed a short Mossberg 500 that was hanging from his green backpack and placed the muzzle of it against the door handle. Before pulling the trigger, he placed his black goggles back over his eyes, and he motioned for the wolf brothers to stand clear. Jason covered his ears, but Jack just stood and watched as Rodney pulled the trigger. The door deformed from the blast and the handle was now able to be removed. Rodney racked the shotgun, and a spent shell casing from the shotgun fell on the snow. The snow leopard opened the door and allowed the wolf brothers to enter the building. He then followed inside after they entered. Once the trio entered the building, Jack closed the door behind them in order to prevent more cold air from entering. Jack stopped for a moment, and he brushed the snow off of his Kryptek Mandrake uniform. The fireteam was wearing Kryptek Mandrake uniforms with olive drab and black equipment. Rodney put away his shotgun and held up his MK18 Mod 1. Jack looked at his Australian made Steyr AUG and pulled the charging handle back halfway in order to make sure a round was chambered. Jason did not examine his M4A1 SOPMOD Block 2, rather he only followed the rest of the fireteam. As the fireteam ascended a small flight of stairs, they noticed that the interior had lights that were on. Jack commented, “Huh. Looks like they at least got power on. I know some abandoned places never disable their lights.”

  “What was that noise? Did somebody just try to break in?” The radio operator said as he heard a somewhat distant noise through the semi-thick walls. The commander looked at the operator and ordered, “Quickly, look at the cameras. Let’s go!” While the radio operator was loading the camera feed, the commander went to a nearby locker, and he began to remove some equipment from it. He placed a FAST helmet on his head and threw a tan plate carrier over his ranger green uniform. He then removed an FDE colored Remington ACR from the locker and placed a magazine in the lower receiver. Once a magazine was seated in the rifle, he pulled the charging handle backwards to load a round into the chamber. The commander then said to the man by the window, “Don’t just stand there! Get going!” The human quickly went to another locker and began to arm himself as well. He grabbed a tan plate carrier and donned it. He then fitted Peltor Comtacs on the FAST helmet before placing the helmet on his head complete with the headset. He plugged in a Motorola radio and enabled it. After he was armored up, he removed an FDE CZ 805 BREN from the locker and placed a STANAG magazine into the magwell. The trooper chambered a round and was now ready to engage hostiles alongside his commander.

  “Bossman, can you remind me why we’re here again?” Johnny asked Arcades as they continued to move forwards. “Yeah. Some people have apparently gone missing around these parts. If we find out what happened to them and do something about that, then we get paid.” Johnny then asked, “Ain’t there some sort of oil drilling operation that’s happening?” Arcades continued, “Yeah, there is one that they have going on. But, that’s not our mission. We’re not going to interfere with that.” Johnny asked another question, “We’re looking for missing humans, right?” Arcades nodded, “Uh-huh. If we can’t find them, then they’re presumed to be KIA.” Johnny became curious, “What organization is supposed to pay us if we find them?” Arcades gave a response that confused Johnny, “CDI is supposed to.” Johnny was silent for a moment. “Why CDI? You know how they feel about us anthros.” The fox was expecting such a response, “It’s an open contract. Whoever completes it gets paid. They’ve had quite a few people go missing over the past month. That’s why I think that FOB up there belongs to them. However, I don’t really think any of them are left in there. I don’t see any vehicles nearby that they would own. Here, we’ll check in there just in case.” Johnny continued to walk with the fox. They were getting closer and closer to the building.

  “We can see three anthros on the screen. Looks like one feline type and two canine types. I think those two are wolves,” the radio operator said as he switched through the cameras. The commander wanted to have more manpower sweep out the FOB, but he remembered that he and his two colleagues were the only CDI personnel left alive in the FOB. When the commander was preparing to exit the command room he said, “Alright. Let’s make this easy. I’m Alpha. You’re Bravo, and our radio operator is Charlie. Clear?” Bravo nodded and Charlie acknowledged his new callsign as well. Alpha asked Charlie, “Where are they right now?” Charlie was still watching the security camera feed, “Well. They’re one floor below us right now. Looks like they’re moving towards the locker room.” Alpha nodded, “Got it. Bravo, you keep in contact with Charlie via your radio. Charlie, you alert Bravo if the anthros enter a different room. Come on, let’s get a move on.” The two exited the command room, and Charlie went back to watching the monitors.

  As they were moving towards the staircase, Alpha whispered, “Keep quiet. I want to get the jump on them.” Both Alpha and Bravo were moving slowly down the stairs in order to stay as quiet as possible as they descended. They were taking each step lightly and were trying to minimize the noise that was produced by the gear that they wore. Once they made it down the floor below them, they trained their red dot sights on the doorways. Charlie could see Bravo and Alpha on the cameras. Charlie spoke over the ra
dio to Bravo, “I can see you guys. Three armed anthros are in the locker room still.” Bravo heard the transmission and tapped Alpha’s shoulder. Once he had Alpha’s attention, he pointed to the locker room doorway. Alpha nodded and trained his rifle on the doorway. However, he could not see the anthros inside. Alpha stood in front of the wall and motioned for Bravo to stop in front of the door.

  Alpha listened carefully, and he could hear faint voices coming from the other side of the wall. After waiting for a moment, he flipped the safety off of his ACR. Alpha squinted as he concentrated on guessing where the anthros were. After he was convinced of their location, he began firing through the wall. Screams were audibly heard from the locker room. Alpha’s ears rang as he fired the rifle without hearing protection. After his magazine was empty, he dropped the STANAG to the floor. The magazine landed near the spent shell casings of the 5.56x45mm rounds that were fired from the ACR. Bravo heard an update from Charlie, “The feline is down. One of the canines is wounded.” Bravo rushed through the door, and he immediately whacked Jack with the stock of his CZ 805. Jason was disoriented from the sudden chaos, and he began to plead, “No! Please don’t!” However, Bravo did not listen, and he grabbed Jason by the head and slammed his head into a nearby wall. Jason let out a brief scream, and he was soon silenced when Bravo knocked him on the side of the head with his CZ 805 as the first blow to his head had not been enough to knock him unconscious.