by T K Eldridge
“Good idea,” I said. “Okay, everyone stay close and in the shadows as much as possible.”
We made our way along the side of the lot and down towards the entrance to the residential blocks and the training facility. As we approached, the distant sounds of gunfire and screams became clearer.
“Well, this doesn’t sound good,” Kane quipped and I just gave him a look.
“No kidding. Do we go on or get the hell out of here?” I asked.
“I say we at least see what’s going down before we bail. No man left behind, right? We might be able to help some,” Cutter said.
My gaze went from face to face and I saw each one nod before I smiled. “Good. Let’s go.”
The entrance to the underground buildings yawned about twenty yards ahead of us, the lights flickering and smoke drifting out of the darkness. As we entered, we moved in formation with Cutter at point. He had the best night vision of all of us.
Bodies littered the ground as we moved deeper into the corridors. Some of them were white-coats – staff or lab techs. Some were our fellow soldiers. I saw Meyers lying in a puddle of blood, half of his head gone, and I had a moment of remorse for all the times I hassled him.
A grunt of pain and the shuffle of feet had us stop and move into a side room.
Loki sat on a table while Thor wrapped a bandage around his ribs. “Stop complaining. I’ll get you wrapped up and then we’ll get out,” Thor said.
Dahl spun and pointed a broken broomstick at us before he relaxed. “Well, shit. You guys showed up just in time.”
Loki looked over at us. “Any word?”
“All safe and secure,” I said and I watched the worry slide from his face.
“We all need to get out of here. Don’t bother going deeper, there’s nothing left,” Thor said and gave Loki a look. “I’m going to cradle carry you. Keep your arms crossed and your mouth shut.” Then he scooped the man up as if he were a baby and moved to the door.
We all turned to follow and headed back up, with Thor and Loki in the middle of our formation.
“You sure there’s no reason to go deeper?” I asked Loki.
“Yeah, self-destruct feature. Some got out and headed into the forest. The rest are dead.”
“Jeezus,” I whispered as we made our way back out. Gideon took off with his super speed and in moments, the van pulled up with the doors open. Loki was laid out on the back bench with a blanket and Thor sat on the floor beside him as the rest of us loaded up and headed out. We got into the trees and took the dirt side road that led through the forest to another access road.
“Looking for more survivors?” I asked Gideon.
“Yeah, that and this is under tree cover. I hear incoming overhead and don’t want us seen.”
Just as Gideon said that, the ground shook and the van swerved. Gideon hit the brakes and pulled to a stop as repeated explosions shook the ground and the trees around us. Kit hovered with her arms over her head and I slapped my hands to my ears as I stared back the way we’d come. A mushroom cloud of flame and smoke billowed up as the traces of bombs landed over and over where the Facility once stood. As the last bomb fell and the smoke wafted across the countryside, Gideon started us forward once more. Silence filled the van until we were well on our way to West Virginia. I think we were all shell shocked by what had happened and needed to process it all.
I finally shook off the silence and turned to Thor. “Hey, what happened to Loki? Do we need to get supplies or anything?”
“He’s got a graze from a bullet and some cracked or broken ribs. Freya can check him out when we get wherever we’re going. He said we were going to see her before I gave him a pain pill and he fell asleep,” Thor said.
Dahl turned from where he stared out the window and asked me, “So, where are we going?”
“A mountain compound. There’s a main house, cottages, food, supplies, even an armory. It was set up for us and any of us that need a place,” I said.
“Who’s there?” Thor asked.
“Freya, Z, Affie, Paulo, and my ladies.”
Gideon spoke up from behind the wheel and asked what I hadn’t dared yet. “Did any of you see Rico?”
Dahl flinched and shook his head. “No, but we know he’s dead.”
“You guys feel like telling us what the hell happened back there?” Kane asked.
“Sure, but can we get some food and water first?” Thor asked.
“I’ll hit a drive-thru in a bit. I need to stop and pick up something at a storage unit first,” Gideon said.
Kit pulled bottles of water out of her gear back. “Here, this should help for now.”
The guys thanked her and downed the water, still looking out of it. I desperately wanted to know what had happened, but when you see battle-hardened men staring sightless out the window, in shock, you realize that it might be a good thing to just wait.
Loki woke up when Gideon stopped and Cutter got out to open the storage unit. It was a small, closet-sized one and he started taking black canvas bags out and stacking them in the back cargo area of the van. Kane slid out to help and soon it was empty and they were back in their seats as we pulled away.
Kit handed a bottle of water to Thor for Loki. He used Thor’s help to sit up, then blankets were rolled and wedged around him to keep him from rocking too much.
“Thanks, that’s much better. Any food?” Loki asked.
“Next stop,” Gideon said. “Drive-thru food.”
Cutter spoke up then. “It’s still considered breakfast time. Order as much as you want, I’ve got it covered.”
I leaned forward and whispered to him. “How do you have it covered?”
He smiled and glanced back at me before his eyes were once more on the road. “Remember that trafficking gig?”
“Yeah?”
“They had buyers there. Since they were dead, they didn’t need their money anymore. I gave some of it to the girls to help them get a start in life. I kept the rest for us to start our lives.”
“Well, hell, Cutter. Are all those bags…?”
“No, just about half of them. Trust me, we can afford breakfast. Before we get up the mountain, we’ll find a superstore and get clothes and stuff for everyone too.”
I patted Cutter’s shoulder and leaned back. “Thank you, Cutter.”
We pulled through and ordered enough food for about twenty people. Gideon smiled at the girl as she started to hand him the order and he passed it to Cutter and Kit to set on the floor or hold. He handed her an extra twenty dollars as a tip and drove off before she could say anything. Down the road and behind a hotel, we stopped and passed out the food to everyone.
Silent but for the sounds of eating, we finished most of the food and had settled with our drinks when Loki started to speak.
“I landed the helicopter and went through the post-flight checks, as usual. I grabbed my go bag and jumped out through the back instead of the side door. That’s all that saved me. A truck came around the side of the hangar on two wheels and drove into the side of the bird, shoving it a few feet sideways before they both ground to a stop. I had rolled out of the way and scurried behind those huge tool cabinets. Gunfire erupted and I peered around to see someone from the truck shooting at someone in the hangar before the bullets stopped and the guy from the truck lay on the ground. I left my bag where it was, pulled out my handgun and got out of there. I hit the back stairs that headed down into the residential units and saw a squad of black-clad soldiers with semi-autos and helmets that didn’t match anything we’d ever used. They were going room by room and taking out everyone they saw. Didn’t matter if they were staff or soldiers. I went along the back passage and grabbed these two. They had been in the training facility and were on the way back to our cells when it all went sideways. We had to play hide and seek with the elimination squad. Some of their bullets had started fires, so it got hard to see. I took out a couple of them, but one wasn’t as dead as I’d hoped and he winged me.”
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sp; “That’s when I put a bullet in his throat and got our hero into that side room. Luckily it was one of the staff break rooms and had a good first-aid kit. That’s when you found us,” Thor said.
“I tried to save Sigyn,” Dahl said.
Thor reached over and gripped his shoulder. “You did what any of us would’ve done, Heimdahl. She smiled at you before she left us. Consider that her blessing on you and keep moving forward.”
I started to ask but Loki caught my eye and shook his head. I gave him a faint nod, then took a sip of my coffee.
“Would you like to hear about the compound?” Cutter asked them.
“Yeah, tell us about this place,” Loki said.
The next hour was spent hearing about our glorious new home before Gideon stopped and Cutter passed out cash to each of us, except Loki. Thor knew Loki’s sizes and said he’d get him some things. We also bought some snacks, bottled water, wine, beer, fresh produce, eggs, dairy and so on. By the time we headed on the last bit of the ride, the van was packed full and we had picked up new burner phones. We’d dumped the others along the way at various stops for gas and food with destroyed sim cards.
I had put Loki in the front passenger seat as it was more bucket style and cradled his body better than the back bench seats. We didn’t want him rolling side to side too much with those ribs and a mountain road was nothing if not curvy. Tucked in tight with blankets and the seat belt, Thor gave him another painkiller as the van climbed higher.
I leaned between the seats to ask Loki a question. “Can you tell me about Rico?”
“He came back in a body bag,” Loki said. “I saw him and Simon both laid out in the back of the hanger when I was leaving. Simon had a bullet hole between the eyes and Rico was blood and smoke splattered. He looked burned but I didn’t do more than a quick look and a double check of the zipper tags to verify they were who I thought they were.”
Kit whispered a soft “Rest softly, brother.”
“He must’ve been caught in the explosions at the mansion,” I said and Loki frowned.
“What explosions?” Loki asked.
“The mansion was blown to bits. We think missiles. Vice President Wilson and Senator Hansen were in the house. They think Peyton and Sarah were there too, so even though it’s a cluster fuck, it has a silver lining for us,” I said.
“Who are Peyton and Sarah?” Thor asked.
“Sarah Wilson and her governess, Peyton Adams. Peyton is also my lady. We were sent to kill them tonight, and instead we sent them with the others to the compound.”
“Sarah doesn’t know her father is dead yet. We can’t let her know until Peyton has a chance to explain it all to her, so be careful what you say around her, understood?” Cutter smiled. “She’s a good kid and has a bright future. We need to help her have that future, so watch what you say.”
“Copy that,” Thor and Dahl said, while the rest of us nodded or made some sound of agreement.
It was Kit’s gasp of wonder that had us all looking outside. The stone wall was easily ten feet tall, with the tip of a roof barely visible above it until we drove closer still. The thin glint of light caught my enhanced eyes and I realized there were lasers crosshatched all over the wall.
Cutter pointed to the drive entrance. He slowed even more, then Gideon turned onto pavement and through an arch before he stopped at a gate. He looked at a camera just outside the driver’s window, then lowered the window and pressed a button. A moment’s pause and then the gate started to move and Gideon drove on through.
It was better than the pictures. Glass, stone, and wood rose nearly three stories high above a deck that held seating arrangements and fire pits. As we pulled up, Freya, Peyton, Z, and the others all came out to greet us. As soon as Freya saw that Loki was hurt, she had Thor carrying him into the house. The rest of us were greeted with smiles and hugs before the van was unloaded. Once inside, I stopped and took in the soaring ceiling and the view of the distant mountains before I noticed the stone chimney and fireplace, leather sofas and chairs, the gleam of the kitchen…it was almost too much. I took a deep breath and carried my armload into the kitchen and found a place on the counter for it. That’s where I met Hattie, the cook that lived with her husband Edgar in a cottage on the grounds. Edgar organized the groundskeepers and outdoor staff while he handled most of the security. Hattie did all of the cooking and managed the indoor staff of cleaning crew and maintenance.
“Thank you for bringing the fresh stuff. We were going to try and go down the mountain for things in a day or two, but it would’ve been odd for us to buy so much so soon after our last trip,” Hattie said. “Just leave it all here and I’ll get it put where it belongs.”
I gave her a smile of thanks, and Peyton took my hand. “Come see if you like the rooms I chose for us.”
Normally, I would have wanted to do a perimeter check and see how the security was set up – but Freya had been here and that’s the first thing she would’ve handled, so I went with Peyton.
She led me up the stairs, to the front of the house. This section had three bedrooms off of a short hallway. One huge one that sat on the front side with some of those floor to ceiling windows, a closet bigger than the cell I’d lived in for the past five years, and a bath with a sunken tub and glass-walled shower. A door led out the other side of the bath into another bedroom that was about half the size of the one we’d just been in. A queen-sized four poster bed sat in the middle of the floor with a gas-log fireplace on one side and a balcony with french doors on the other.
“This is my room. The one we were just in is yours. Everyone agreed you should have that one and I wanted to be close to you. Sarah is across the hall with her own bathroom.”
I looked around the room, then led her back through the bathroom to the main room. A huge bed faced the windows so you could wake up with that view. In the corner, a leather love seat sat before a fireplace with a flat-screen TV over it.
“If you want me to be in this room, you need to be in it with me.” She started to talk and I held up a hand. “You can have your own room and your own space, but I’d rather you stayed with me more often than not.”
Peyton rested a hand on my chest and leaned up to kiss me. “I’d like to spend most of my time with you, but we’re still new at this relationship thing, so having our separate space is important.”
I thought about what she said and had to see the wisdom in that. “You’re still the smartest one in this pairing,” I told her and brushed a kiss against her lips. “I need a shower and sleep. What’s on your plate today?”
“Sarah’s got her assignments for school for the day and I don’t have to check anything until later. Want some help with that shower?”
“That’s not going to lead to sleep,” I warned her as I kicked off my boots and started to peel off clothes as I walked towards the bathroom.
“You go get started, I just heard someone in the hallway,” Peyton said. I got into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I found body wash, shampoo, a shaving kit – everything I would need. Even plush robes hung on the back of each of our doors. The last of my clothes actually landed in the laundry hamper before I stepped into the shower and let the multiple heads massage aching muscles. A few minutes later, Peyton came in and said “Cutter dropped your bags off outside the door. I brought them in and locked the door so we’ve got some privacy.”
“Fantastic. Now, get in here, woman.”
Did you know that when I held Peyton a certain way against the wall of the shower, one of the shower heads hit her in a rather interesting place? Yeah, it made things fun when I could use soap, water, and my body to make her scream in pleasure.
We both slept well after that shower.
Chapter Ten
Luckily, those huge windows in the bedroom had a push-button darkening feature. I slept all that day and night, not waking up until nearly ten in the morning the next day. A solo shower and a good shave, clean clothes that weren’t a uniform, and I felt like a n
ew man. I made my bed and noticed Peyton must’ve picked up my clothes because they were all in the hamper. I took a moment to appreciate the view before I headed downstairs and followed the scent of toast to the kitchen.
I found Hattie and a man I presumed to be her husband Edgar as they laughed together before he kissed her and turned to leave. I cleared my throat and offered a quiet “Good morning” to them.
“Oh, Edgar, this is Jericho. He’s the leader here, according to Doc Alden,” Hattie told him.
“I’m not sure who’s leading whom at the moment, ma’am, but yes, I’m Jericho.” I held out a hand to Edgar. “A pleasure to meet you. Maybe we can get some time today and you can let me know how we can work with you around here?”
I watched as his shoulders relaxed and a smile curled his lips. He shook my hand and said, “I’d like that, Mr. Jericho, thank you. There’s a box of radios charging in the armory. Since cell service doesn’t work up here, we use those and you can just give me a shout out when you’re ready.”
“It’s just Jericho, Edgar, and thanks for charging up the radios. I’ll get a couple of my people together and we’ll have a sit down and figure out how best we can make your job easier.”
Edgar nodded and turned to leave, then leaned back to peer around the corner of the wall at Hattie. “Wife, make sure you feed him well. He’s too skinny.”
Hattie snapped a dish towel at him to shoo him away and his laughter echoed down the hall. “That man,” she grumbled.
“You two look happy together. That can only be a good thing,” I said and took a seat on a stool at the kitchen island.
“Coffee?” Hattie asked and I nodded.
“Please, black and a lot of it,” I replied.
She filled an oversized mug and set it in front of me, then leaned an elbow on the counter. As I took a sip of the coffee, she started to speak. “Edgar and I have been married thirty-eight years. Four kids, all out in the world and doing well. We met Doc Alden when our youngest, Serena, needed a kidney transplant. He met with us, did some tests and re-grew her a new kidney. She’s a doctor herself now, working in Switzerland with child amputees and helping them adjust to regrown limbs.”
