Stryker: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale

by Bobby Andrews

  “Can you draw a diagram of the building where you were held?” Sarge asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Do that, and then give us the full brief from the moment you were captured until now.” She left the room and came back a few minutes later with a drawing that looked like a racetrack with bleachers surrounding one end of the long side.

  “We’ll get to that later. Go ahead and brief us from the time you were captured.”

  “I got dressed and we walked down the hallway. I had heard shots earlier and saw the boys were dead in the entryway to the dorm. Gunshot wounds to the head, execution style. When I got outside, I saw the other four girls by a large truck. They loaded us in the back with four guards. Two men rode in the cab. Total number was eleven men, four with shotguns, four with ARs, and three with bolt-action hunting rifles. They all wore cammo and looked like they were comfortable with their weapons. They also had extra magazines on tactical vests and side arms. My guess is they were either ex-military or law enforcement, but I can’t prove that.

  “We drove to a spot about four miles from here, directly west, and they unloaded us into some stables that were converted to cages. It’s an old horseracing facility. The electricity is still on there – I don’t know why. There was tack and feed still there. They forced us to take off our clothes because they didn’t want us to try to escape, but the way they looked at us, I knew that wasn’t it. They separated us and put us into the cages.”

  “Did they…?” For the first time in his life, Stryker saw Sarge at a loss for words.

  “The second day, one of the guards started in on Elle. But Brody, the leader, stopped it. He beat the guy half to death, then called all the men in and said that we were his property and nobody was getting a taste until after he did. He said he would be gone for five days and if anyone touched us, he would kill them. So nobody did.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “Four days ago.”

  “Tell me more about Brody.” Sarge said.

  “He’s a mean SOB. He treats his men like crap, slaps them around, and screams all the time. If I had to guess, I would say he’s probably a sociopath. And, he’s big – about the size of the incredible hulk here,” she added, pointing her thumb at Stryker. “But with a heavier build. He’s got a bad burn scar that covers his face and wears a machete. He has one of the ARs.”

  “You sure they’re ARs?” She just stared at Sarge with a look of condescension as she inclined her chin toward her chest.

  “Okay, just asking.” Sarge held both hands in front of him, palms forward. “Daily routine?”

  “In the morning, first they escort us to the bathroom, one at a time. Breakfast was at 0800 hours. Lunch was served around noon. Same drill. Dinner at 1800, again followed by a trip to the bathroom. There were always at least two guards present and they worked in eight-hour shifts. They don’t live there because we heard vehicles coming and going. I don’t have a clue where they live, or if they live together. Both guards sat in stools with their backs toward the entrance of the building. They usually started out pretty sharp, but seemed to peter out at the end of the night shift. I actually saw one of them fall asleep on the second night.” She paused for a second.

  “There were three other girls there when we arrived. The first morning we were there, they were auctioned off. We could hear the bidding and the catcalls. They passed my cage on the way out and the girls were all naked.” Stryker could hear the anger in her voice building. She shook her head once and continued. “Then we heard them screaming as they were led away. I could tell because the screaming got weaker as the distance increased.”

  Stryker handed her the drawing and asked, “Where are the doors and windows on the building?”

  “The main door is here,” she said, touching the map on the east end of the building. “There’s a garage door here, just to the north of the main door. Four windows go down both sides, all accessible from ground level. There is a small back door here on the opposite side of the building from the main entrance. I never saw anyone come in or go out of the building using any door but the main entrance. The four other girls are in this corner of building.” She tapped the southwest corner of the map. “There is a wide corridor that goes through the middle of the building and the bathrooms are next to the cages we were in.” She stopped and looked at the map, apparently to confirm she had it all right.

  “Questions?” Sarge asked, looking at Stryker.

  “A few.” He looked an Erin and asked, “How can you draw the entire building? Did you see it from the outside?”

  “Yes. It was sunup when we arrived and the truck slowed down so I figured that was the destination.”

  “If you weren’t sold at the auction, how did you end up with the guy you did?”

  “I was a gift. He was Brody’s half-brother and Brody apparently owed him something.”

  “How did you get away?”

  “He was drunk when he picked me up, and we stopped for him to go to the bathroom. There was a tire iron in the back seat. I grabbed it and hid behind a bush. When he passed me on the way back, I hit him on the head with the tire iron, stole his cell phone and pistol, and drove the Jeep here. It’s parked in the barn. I called Grandpa from about a mile away. I had to keep walking until I got a signal.”

  “Is he dead?”

  “I think so.”

  Stryker gave her a moment, and then continued. “Show me on the drawing where you think the women were standing when the auction was taking place.”

  “The men were directly above us. There’s a small, elevated stage about fifty yards from the front of the building, so I’m guessing they’re on the stage.” She had closed her eyes to think about the distance, something Stryker often did when examining his own mental photographs.

  “Are there any terrain features we should know about? Any bushes or trees or other places we can use for cover or concealment?” Stryker stopped himself and asked, “Do you know what I’m talking about?”

  “Of course. I started shooting with Grandpa when I was nine years old.” She closed her eyes again, they blinked open, and she looked at the drawing. “There’s a tool shed here, and a small hilltop here.” She pointed twice at the map. “The tool shed sits at your two o’clock if you’re seated in the bleachers. The hilltop has two trees and a large clump of bushes. Both are not cover, but concealment. It’s around 150 yards from the bleachers.” She looked up at the two men and said, “When are we going?”

  “You’re not coming,” Sarge said in his command voice.

  Erin’s face turned red, her eyes blazed, and then she leapt to her feet and stuck her face in Sarge’s. “You’re not leaving me here like some helpless little air-head. That’s my sister in there!” she screamed, the veins in her neck and head bulging. “I know how to handle a weapon; I’m a better shot than you. I’m going, and that’s final.” She stomped out of the room.

  “That apple didn’t fall far from the tree,” Stryker murmured, remembering Sarge’s tirades during basic training. Sarge just glared at him, giving him the furry eyeball. Stryker sighed and said, “You’re not going to convince her to stay and we’re wasting time. We can set her up as a sniper on the hilltop, and if it goes south, she can back down the hill, get to the truck, and get away.”

  “So, let’s go,” Erin said as she entered the room. She was wearing a drop holster with a Glock 17.

  “We’re making the plan now,” Stryker answered quietly. “Why don’t you see if you can find clothes for the girls?”

  “They have clothes.”

  “I know, but we may not have time to pick them up on our way out and I don’t want to embarrass them any more than they already are. We need a few minutes to plan something, anyway.” She looked at Stryker and thought it amazing that he displayed any sensitivity at all. He looked like a wrecking ball.

  “So, I’m going,” she said. Stryker looked at Sarge.

  “Yes.” He spoke through clenched teeth and Stryker couldn
’t help but laugh. She left the room.

  “Plan?” Stryker asked.

  “Obvious one is to take them out from the hill.”

  “How about the guys in the bleachers?”

  “They might not be a problem.”

  “You’re taking their candy away and they will be a problem.”

  “You want to infiltrate the building and get them from the rear?” Stryker just nodded.

  “So, we’re the snipers on the hill, and you’re the one taking the risk?”

  “It would seem so. You don’t want to risk her, and you’re not mobile enough to do it.”

  “I can’t accept that.”

  “Look, this may be our last rodeo, so let’s do it right. The right man for the job does the job.”

  “It’s not your fight.”

  “It became my fight when it became yours, brother.” Sarge looked away and turned back to Stryker.

  “I don’t seem to be getting my way much today.”

  “Me either, but both of us can stand on our heads in a bucket of shit for two days if we have to, so suck it up and focus on the mission.”

  “You can’t use grenades. It’s too close to the stage.”

  “Forty-five meter blast radius.”

  “That’s how far away they’ll be.”

  “I know.”

  “We can’t deal with wounds.”

  “Well, we could go in tonight, take out the guards, and bring the girls back here,” Stryker said.

  “You can if you want to leave the rest of those assholes alive,” Erin said, walking to the table and placing a garbage bag on one end. “That’s not an option. What we do is go in tonight, get my friends and sister, one of us brings them back here, and the other two wait for the assholes to return. Brody is back tomorrow and the raping is going to start. You want to wait for that?” She grabbed her drawing and added, “This road is the only way in. I saw the goodies and know we have rocket launchers. We set up on the hill and blow the crap out of them when they return.”

  “I still have to infiltrate through the second floor.”

  “Probably not,” she replied. “One of the night guards is a chain-smoker and sits in a chair with the door open while he smokes.”

  “Boy, that apple really did not fall too far from the tree,” Stryker said, looking at Erin with admiration. She was smart as hell and obviously started taking note of everything important from the moment she was captured.

  “It solves a lot of problems,” Sarge allowed.

  “What are we waiting for?” Erin added.

  The three sat side by side in the cab of the pickup. They approached the racetrack at an idle, with Stryker driving. It was a cloudy night. He wore the NVGs and stared at a landscape of green and black. He stopped the vehicle 200 meters out and got out of the truck. He had removed the interior light bulb so the vehicle remained invisible. They each had an M-4 and sidearm.

  Stryker gestured to Sarge to put his ear bud in and they left the truck with the PRCs hooked on their tactical vests. Erin followed and they did squelch tests as they moved toward the building. Faint light seeped out the windows, and one of the guards gave away his presence by smoking outside the main door that was propped open by the chair he sat in. The ember flared up and died several times. He went back inside and the door closed. “How long before he comes out again?” Stryker whispered to Erin.

  “Probably fifteen to twenty minutes.” He motioned to Sarge, who joined their huddle.

  “I’m going to move up there and stay on the left side of the door. When he comes out again, I take him out. Then, I get the guard on the inside, and clear the building. You and Erin move in, get the girls, and bug out of here. I’m going to stay with two LAWs and move to the top of the hill. Sarge, you and Erin come back after you drop the girls at the vehicle. Then we do clean up. You two will engage whatever is left from the LAW strike from the rear, and I’ll take them from the front. We finish here and we all leave together.” Sarge and Erin looked at each other and nodded their agreement.

  Stryker walked 200 meters in a perpendicular course to the entrance, turned, and approached the building on cat’s feet. He lowered to the ground and crawled under the window, then stood on the left side of the door. He screwed his sound suppressor into the XD and waited.

  Stryker was used to waiting and used the time to review his plan. When the door opened, he would shoot the first guard through the head, take a long step inside, and shoot the second guard who faced into the room through the back of his head. He ran the scenario through his head repeatedly. When the door opened, that is exactly what happened. The first guard hit the ground and the second sat dead in his chair, slumped over with a bolt-action .308 on the floor next to him. Stryker opened the door fully so he was backlit and motioned the other two to the building. When they arrived, he whispered, “I’m clearing the upper floors. Get them ready to move.” He handed Sarge the keys to the cells that he had taken from the second guard and moved away.

  He pounded by the cells and heard the girls gasp in surprise, then charged up the stairs at the back of the building. He tried the door, but it was locked, so he reared back and kicked it down. He entered the room with the XD up but saw no movement. He turned on the light switch. Still no movement.

  Stryker glanced around the room and saw a large desk at the far end with a reading lamp perched on top. He looked around the room and noted no other doors. It was the upstairs office of the facility and pictures of horses dotted the walls. He walked over to the desk and started looking through the drawers. He found a spiral binder and opened it to a photo of a young woman tied to a bed, face down and naked. He flipped to the next photo. It was the same woman, still face down but with her face twisted toward the camera. A large man loomed over her, screwing her from behind. Her face was etched in pain.

  He flipped through the pages and saw the same sort of scenario in each photo. He got to the last page and it was a picture of a girl who looked to be 10 years old. Tears streamed down her face as the man above her grinned at the camera. He fought back the bile that formed in his throat and took a deep breath as the nausea passed. He ripped the page out of the binder, stuffed it into his pocket, and walked downstairs. He found the girls in different states of nakedness and turned away.

  “You can turn around,” Erin said, after a minute. “They’re dressed.”

  “Sarge has the front door?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, we have a change in plan. I need to talk to Sarge, so get them moving to the truck.” He walked by her without even looking at them and stalked to the front door. As he passed, Erin saw the muscles in his jaws clenching, and turned to her sister and said, “Haley, can you get them moving to the truck? It’s 200 yards straight out the main door.” Her sister, still stunned at the turn of events, nodded and started the group toward the door. She stopped and embraced her grandpa, who hugged her back, then said, “Get moving. We’ll talk later.”

  Erin walked to where her grandfather stood peering down at what looked to be a photo. His jaw muscles were also dancing on the side of his face. “What’s going on?” she asked as she approached.

  “Stay away,” Stryker ordered. He looked at Sarge and said, “We have to kill this guy eventually. But we have to take him alive and find out where the other girls are.” Sarge nodded his agreement. She took two steps toward them.

  “Stay the hell away!” Sarge roared, eyes blazing. She took two steps back. “Get the women to the truck and keep them safe until we get there.”

  “But…”

  “I said get the hell away,” he yelled again. Her face blanched, she looked away for a moment, and moved back to where the women were leaving the building. She took the M-4 off her shoulder and took the last position behind them, scouting the area as she walked.

  “What’s the plan?” Sarge asked.

  “I stay here on the second floor with the LAWs, not the hilltop, take them out as they approach, and you engage them from the rear whe
n the women are safe back at the house. Erin is not in the picture anymore. After seeing the photos up there, no way we can put any women at risk. We take Brody alive and I get the information I need about the other women. Then I take him out.”

  “There’s no way to retreat from the building. There’s no cover.”

  “Then we stand and kill them, or they kill us. Either way, I am not leaving one of these assholes alive.”

  Sarge thought it over for a moment and said. “It’ll take me twenty minutes to get back here.”

  “That’s fine.”

  The men walked back to the pickup. Stryker grabbed two LAWs from the truck bed and some additional magazines for his M-4. He started to walk back toward the building and felt a pull at his shoulder. He turned and faced Erin, who said, “I want to stay here with you.”

  “Not this time.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I said so.”

  “That’s not an explanation.”

  “I don’t need to offer one. I’m really good at what I do, which is killing people. Are you really good at what you do?”

  “Well, I just applied for medical school. I got my degree in nursing.”

  “You want me in a surgical theatre?”

  “Well, no.”

  “I don’t want you assisting me either. So, let’s all just stick to what we do well. Right now, you need to protect those women, and I need to kill the men who did this to them. Your grandpa is going to help me do that because he is really good at it, too. Then we are all going back to my ranch in Texas and figure out what to do next.” She thought it over for a moment.

  “I would never agree to this if Grandpa hadn’t yelled at me. He’s never done that.”

  “I don’t care why you agreed to it, but I’m glad you did. Keep those women safe.”

  “You called them ‘girls’ before.”

  “Not anymore.” He started to turn away and then turned back, “If we don’t make it out of here, there’s a map in the pickup glove compartment that shows my house in Texas, marked by a blue dot. The ranch has power and water. There are instruction manuals for every system in the house in my desk. If you go there, you can live in comfort and probably peace.” She stood on her tiptoes and pecked his cheek.