by Addison Jane
Noah looks a little wary, but I can see him going through the process in his head, trying to figure out if it could work. “We could go up those dunes over there,” he suggests pointing back toward where we’d just come over a rise. “If Eli can mark an approximate place where the explosive are buried, Axel could use his rifle to hit them and attempt to set them off. It looks like they’re placed so close together that if we could get a couple to go off… that should cause a shock wave big enough to set off the others… like a chain reaction.”
I reach out and tap Noah on the shoulder. “Let’s make it work,” I cheer.
He grins back at me. “Who would have thought such a great plan could come from a man like you?” He walks over to Eli, pulling out some instruments I imagine he was going to use to mark the explosives.
I furrow my brows and scoff. “What do you mean a man like me?” I protest, but he doesn’t turn around.
Kace looks over to Axel. “You think you can hit that from all the way back there?”
Axel raises his eyebrows. “Are you actually asking me that question right now? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure you’ve been witness to just what I’m capable of.”
Kace nods. “Yeah, I know.”
Axel is the best sniper I’ve ever seen in my entire career, and I’ve worked with my fair share. “I can hit a playing card in the center from one point two miles away, and you’re asking me if I can hit that…” he points at where Eli and Noah are carefully examining the ground, “… from there.” Then he turns and points at the large sand hill behind us.
Kace huffs. “Yeah, but that…” he also points to where Noah and Eli have placed an arrow in the sand, “… is fucking invisible. Fucker.”
Axel’s face pulls up into a smirk, and he grips his sniper rifle across his body. “Well, I was finding target practice a little too easy. I never thought to try invisible targets.”
When Eli’s sure they’ve placed the marker as close to the explosives as possible without losing an arm, we all turn and jog back up the large dune. Axel will position himself on top of it, and we’ll lay down on the other side. Hopefully, once the explosions start, he’ll have enough time to get down to us, knowing that once the ground begins to shake, we could lose half the sand off the top of the only thing that’s going to protect us.
“Make sure you cover your faces,” Kace warns as we lay on our stomachs in the sand facing downward. I pull up my balaclava and my goggles down over my eyes. The last thing I want is to go into this fucking underground death chamber with a piece of sand in my eye. That shit is annoying at the beach, you really don’t want that when you’re fighting for your damn life.
“Ready,” Axel calls out to us, warning us that he’s going to start.
“Do it!” Kace calls back.
There are a few seconds of silence followed by three consecutive shots, the sound of the gunfire echoing in the vast space of the desert and vibrating through my body. That sensation only lasts for a moment though, because it’s instantly followed by an explosion so loud and so deep that it feels like there’s something coming up at me through the sand.
Axel leaps to his feet as one after another, the booms become louder and stronger as they all chime in together. “Oh shit! Run,” Axel screams, and I look up just in time to see him flying toward us as the sand dune behind him collapses inch by inch. He jumps over us and keeps running. Blair, Eli, and Kace manage to find their footing and race after him, but Tanner, Noah and I scramble in the sand and end up fucking rolling down the dune’s side.
I feel like I’m going to vomit as my body flies through the air with almost as much speed as the others are running. It’s only a few seconds, but it feels like I’m on a damn roller coaster that won’t stop. Suddenly, I halt with a thud and lay panting at the bottom, my hands reaching up to pull the material away from my mouth so I can inhale much-needed air. A hand reaches out and grabs mine, stopping me. I look over to see Tanner, she’s staring up into the air, her eyes wide behind her goggles.
The explosions are still fucking going off, the explosive sounds wracking through my body as it shudders and vibrates while I watch the sand explode all around me. I can feel the ground shuddering beneath me, but when I follow Tanner’s shocked gaze, I find myself wondering whether my idea had been so great after all.
“Motherfucking shit!” I call out, the sound muffled behind my balaclava, at what looks like something out of a fucking horror movie fall from the sky threatening to smother me and bury me alive.
It rains down around me, and the way it pelts down from the sky is almost painful.
Who wants to stand in a fucking shower of burning sand?
We might have gear on protecting us, but it isn’t going be much help when I’m buried under ten tons of the fucking shit.
I’m finding it hard to breathe, even as I roll over onto my stomach in an attempt and protect my face to find some air that isn’t just dust particles which are going to choke me to death if they get inside my lungs. I can feel my teammates around me doing the same, trying to protect their faces and huddle in on themselves.
The sharp rain sensation slowly begins to lessen, even as the air is still clogged with crap and hazy as hell. I start to cough, my body fighting for air.
“Everyone okay?” Kace yells when I’m finally able to make out his silhouette again. His voice is thick and raspy. This shit was not enjoyable. Fuck no! No way.
“Who’s fucking idea was that,” I yell, my throat tickling and causing me to cough again.
“Yours,” everybody hollers back at me.
I don’t even bother to look over at them and see the expressions in their eyes beneath their balaclavas.
“We need to get over what’s left of this dune and see what the damage is over there, and we need to move in fast. We’ve lost the element of surprise at this point,” Kace explains as he gathers himself and heads for the edge of the dune.
I have no idea what’s on the other side, but we’ve just carried out a huge renovation of this desert, and moved a shit ton of sand, so we’re about to find out whether it was worth it or not.
I clamber to my feet, shaking a layer of sand off my body before offering my hand out to Tanner. She takes it, and I pull her to her feet, the both of us shaking like dogs who’ve just had a bath.
“Well, that was fun,” she groans as we turn and follow Kace. “I’m never going to the fucking beach again,” she murmurs under her breath.
“I see a doorway,” Kace calls out, forcing all of us to get our sore bodies into action and jog up the hill after Kace. My eyes open wide as I look at the destruction left behind. Talk about a fucking hole in the ground. The explosions have left a crater the size of half a city block, unstable sand still pouring into it from all sides. But also, what it has cleared are the tops of what looks like domes, and inside one of the sand hills opposite us—now the sand has cleared away—it seems like it’s almost made of a clay-like substance in the side of a hill, big enough to drive a vehicle through. This is what they were trying to protect and hide. I guess what they didn’t count on was all the explosives going off at once. They obviously set them so one would go off and alert them, not all of them go off and expose them.
“Let’s go!” Just as we leap off the top of the dunes, in a hurry now to make our move while they’re still scrambling, I freeze. “Do you hear that?” I ask, turning to Noah who has paused beside me. It’s muffled, but there’s no mistaking what it is.
“It’s an air raid siren,” Noah confirms my thoughts.
The sound is dull, but it’s distinct, the low to high tones, warning people that danger is imminent.
“Where’s it coming from?” Blair asks, looking around as if he’s expecting the army or some kind of fighter jets to explain why they would have air raid sirens. Then I click, my eyes moving to the weird shaped sand buildings at the bottom of this cavern.
“They’re for us…” I announce, Blair looking at me in confusion. “We’re the air raid.
”
“Damn right we are, and we need to get fucking moving before we miss this chance while they’re scrambling,” Kace demands, and instantly, we’re all jogging and stumbling through the sand, heading for that doorway, while the low drawl of the siren continues to play its tune beneath us.
“It’s like a welcoming song,” I joke, trying to ease the tension as we rush forward as a team. Noah’s the only one who laughs, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a slab of what looks like clay, but I’m not fooled, I know exactly what it is. C4.
“And I’ve got the perfect way to say hello,” he chimes with a bright smile on his face.
Suddenly, the door to the dome bursts open and four men in civvies and lab coats rush out. If that isn’t strange enough, they’re all wearing gas masks and holding heavy artillery. Raising our weapons, we all take evasive actions by ducking to the sides, but it’s Axel who’s quickest of us all, firing off four rounds in quick succession, one after the other, straight into their heads. Blood spurts out of their skulls, coating the sand below as each falls to the ground before we’ve even had a chance to aim our weapons, and they’ve had a chance to see us properly.
We all look to Axel and raise our brows.
“Damn it, Axel, I wanted to blow the door,” Noah whines making me chuckle.
“God, Noah, you sound like a whiny bitch,” Tanner teases.
“I am whining, I love blowing shit up. And Axel just gets all gun happy and shoots these guys as they fuck up my awesome plan… fuckers.” Noah kicks one of the lab coat wearing guys as I look to Kace wondering why the fuck they’re wearing lab coats in the first place.
That rings alarm bells for me.
“All right, enough talking shit, we have work to do. Eli take the lead,” Kace instructs, and we file toward the dome door. “If it moves, shoot it.”
Axel stiffens and opens his eyes wide at Kace shaking his head. “Umm… no. This is a contain and capture mission. We can’t risk injuring Kenzi in this, Kace.”
Kace groans. “Okay, keep your eyes out. Shoot to injure. Watch for Kenzi and make sure to grab her when you can. Do not put her at risk. We need her unharmed, and we do this with as minimal damage as we can… okay?” he asks looking to Axel as if this is a better option.
Axel purses his lips but nods gruffly.
“Okay, Eli, take the lead,” Kace reaffirms with a nod.
Eli lifts his gun heading toward the opening. We file in behind him. Kace then me, then Axel, Tanner, Noah, and Blair. The hallway is dark and has a damp feel to it. It’s a stark contrast to outside in the brightness of the harsh Mexican sun. In here it’s dark, and I have to blink a few times to adjust my eyesight as we amble into the dome with the air raid siren still blaring noisily.
Eli suddenly halts, putting his fist up. My jaw clenches as my spine stiffens almost in excitement. I live for this, the thrill of the hunt, the adrenaline of the chase. It might sound fucked up, but hunting the bad guys is what I was made for. This energizes me, and even though I know trouble might find us at any second, knowing we’re here to rescue Kenzi, and possibly bring down one hell of a dangerous organization in the process, well, that’s one hell of a fucking good day at work if you ask me.
Eli turns his head and nods to Kace lowering his voice. “I’m not sure I’m liking what I’m seeing in the next room, Kace,” Eli advises and Kace nods.
“Do we go in?” Kace asks, and Eli purses his lips tilting his head.
“I suggest gas masks. It looks pretty… advanced,” Eli suggests making my skin crawl.
I don’t know what Eli’s talking about, I’m a little too far back to see what he means, but if we’re using gas masks that can’t be a good thing.
Kace nods and looks to me. “Gas masks,” he whispers, and I nod looking down to Noah and gesture my hand covering my face. He nods pulling off his rucksack and starts to grab out the masks one by one handing them to us quietly.
We all place them on. The air becoming thick as I place it over my head. I have no idea what I’m about to step into or why there’s a lack of men coming at us from all angles right now, but I guess I’m about to find out.
We all straighten back up and look toward the small opening in the hall where it leads into the next room, and Eli nods leading us in. We file in, guns at the ready and as I step inside, and I see right away why we need the masks. The room is like a full-on science laboratory. It’s filled with flasks boiling over Bunsen burners, tanks full of green liquid, and cages containing mice. It’s a freak show in here. My stomach churns, and I grit my teeth wondering what the fuck this place actually is. And why the hell, if this is a Syndicate lab, why no one’s protecting it.
What the hell are we walking into?
The air raid siren is really starting to grate on my every nerve as it continues its incessant blaring, and I glance to Kace as he looks around to Axel obviously gauging his reaction to this. We need to watch him. Seeing this, this place, where Kenzi’s been living and doing God only knows what could be having a detrimental effect on him. He needs to keep his cool. And right now, by the turn up of his lip and the red haze in his eyes, he’s starting to lose himself in his rage.
“Okay, we move on,” Kace instructs quietly, pointing to the opening at the other side of the lab.
We all nod and file out. I look around once more, taking in the sights and noticing that in one of the cages containing a mouse that it has an extra leg. My eyes open wide and I grit my teeth walking a little faster.
We arrive at the opening and my heart’s racing more rapidly than usual. It takes a lot to get me flustered in these situations, I’m normally pretty unfazed by this stuff. I live for the action, but this… this has me unsettled. It’s all a little too easy. Something’s not right.
Where are the men to stop us?
Why is no one defending the dome?
As we get closer to the next room, the light on the side of the dome wall flickers slightly as the siren continues to blare in my ears annoyingly. I can hear another subtle noise, but I’m not sure what it is as we move through the hall. The flurry of sound is getting louder, and I raise my gun higher as we approach another room. A flickering of light is shadowing down the hall. It looks like something’s happening and we all prepare for a little action—finally.
We storm in, guns drawn and aim them at the people who are in the room, but they do nothing to defend themselves as they continue to carry on with what they’re doing.
Then I realize what they are doing.
It takes me a second, but when I take in the scene around me through my gas mask, it shocks me. There are trash cans all over the room on fire. People in the same lab coats tirelessly at shredding machines thrusting papers through large industrial shredders while others throw things into the burning trash cans.
I glance to Kace, and he nods his head and we all race in. These people are destroying evidence. They may be innocent in all of this, who knows, but this information is obviously stuff we might need. We have to stop them at any cost.
Axel’s first to start. His gun echoes through the room, shooting bullets into the men at the back. I open fire on a man at a trash can throwing a box into a fire. His body ricochets back and forth with the hits of my bullets. Blood spurting through the air as the box falls to the ground and papers fly across the floor.
A man pulls out a gun from a drawer and aims it at Tanner as she’s shooting the man next to him, he fires off a round narrowly missing Tanner’s arm as Blair swiftly turns and plants and bullet straight in between the shooter’s eyes. He falls to the floor, the gun sliding across the concrete.
Another woman picks it up, but instead of turning the gun on one of us, she shoves it up under her chin and looks me dead in the eyes. I swallow hard as she mouths something to me, I can’t hear her over the bloody siren, but it looks like she said ‘make them suffer.’ I’m stunned to the spot for a moment looking her in the eyes as she pulls the trigger, her life fading before my eyes as the bullet pa
sses through her chin and up out the top of her head. She falls lifelessly to the floor, and my body slumps as a lump forms in my throat.
Finally, the other sound through the siren begins to make sense. My eyes widen, and I look to Kace who’s busy punching a guy in the face as he tries to wrestle with him. Eli steps up shooting the guy in the temple while blood splatters all over Kace’s gas mask, and Kace nods to Eli as they turn to me and I shake my head.
“Kace, do you hear that?” I call out while Tanner and Axel shoot the last two men in the room.
He rolls his eyes. “Yeah it’s a fucking air raid siren, were you knocked on the head? It’s been going off for ages.”
I scoff and shake my head. “No fucker, listen closer.” I see it, the moment his eyes bug out, and he hears it too, as the others look between us.
“Hear what?” Eli asks.
Exhaling, I grit my teeth as the dome walls begin to shudder slightly. “There’s a countdown happening. It’s only slight and in the distance, but I can hear it.”
Tanner looks to Axel and swallows hard gripping on his arm. “Okay, we have to either do this now, or we have to go,” she insists.
Axel looks to Kace, eyes wide and hopeful. “Kace,” his voice is almost inaudible, almost pleading.
Kace looks to the exit, then to me, and then up to the ceiling as if he’s thinking it through in his mind, but his judgment comes through soon after. “Let’s move out. Get the girl and get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible. No fucking about, the minute this gets too hairy, we’re gone, Axel.”
“Noted,” Axel says taking off first.
We run, no time for walking now. We race down another hall, this place is huge for an underground complex. The walls begin to shake again. Almost as if bombs are going off in other sections of the dome, bringing the walls down around us. There’s no mistaking what the countdown is. It’s a self-destruction timer. This whole place is going down in a matter of minutes, and we have to be out before it falls.
