The Gabrielle Series Boxed Set

by Zachary Chopchinski

  With the fatal unison of a cheesy war movie, all of the windows flew open, shutters were cast aside, and gunfire erupted from every exposed opening of the domicile. Fortunately, the group was ready for it.

  Gabrielle rolled over her shoulder and took cover behind an old tractor. Dirt was kicked into her face as she rolled a second time to ensure that she was safe from fire. Slamming her back against the large rim of the massive tire, Gabrielle reached out and pulled Lyudmila safely next to her.

  Fausto and Gianni had also managed to stay together. They were several yards behind the women covered by an old plow, several barrels, and bags of grain. The two men were alternating popping up and sending bursts of fire back at the enemy. Bullets buried themselves into the barrels and ricocheted off the steel plow in front of them. A constant reverberation rang in Gabrielle’s ears as the steel that protected them was repeatedly hit by enemy fire.

  “Keep your heads down!” shouted Gianni as he sent another volley of rounds back at the German soldiers. They were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. Fausto shouted curses in Italian as he made his way to the edge of their cover and tried to gain visibility on Gabrielle and Lyudmila.

  Gabrielle tried to look over the tractor, but it was too tall and unsafe to do so without exposing herself. Instead, she raised her rifle into the air and blindly fired over the machine at the house. This isn’t going to work, Gabrielle thought as she shot over the top of the tractor. I can’t even see where I’m shooting. As she was looking up at her rifle, trying to think of a better plan, the sun glinted off her rifle, and an idea pushed its way into her mind.

  “Lyudmila, I have an idea!” she shouted, pulling a knife from her vest. “Have you ever played billiards?” she asked, allowing the light to reflect from the steel blade. Lyudmila smiled and nodded. This plan was going to work.

  Gabrielle then shouted to the men. “I have an idea! At my signal, we need cover!” Fausto waived his hand from his hiding place signaling that they understood as bullets pelted the wooden barrel. Gabrielle raised the knife into the air, just above the side of the tractor to not draw attention. She scanned the side of the building in the reflection on the steel.

  “Top left,” Gabrielle said to Lyudmila. “Now!” she shouted at the men, who followed the signal and both began firing at the house, trying to draw the attention of the soldiers to themselves. As they held the enemy’s attention, Lyudmila rose to her feet, rifle at the ready. She racked a round, and then a sharp pop rang out, and Gabrielle saw the body of a man fall from the top left window.

  “Good shot!” Gabrielle acknowledged, and Lyudmila dropped back down behind the safety of the tractor. It was a silly comment. Of course it was a good shot, Lyudmila was the best shot Gabrielle had ever seen, but she needed to say it none the less. Bullets whizzed over their heads and pinged off the steel tractor. Gabrielle fired more rounds blindly over the side of the tractor again. She wasn’t sure if she was even hitting anything, but she needed to feel like she was doing something to help.

  “Alright, ready?” Gabrielle asked over the barrage of gunfire.

  “Yes, but let’s make this more fun,” Lyudmila responded, a grin on her face. Gabrielle raised an eyebrow as she admired the terrifying woman in front of her. How could killing soldiers and risking your life be fun? Gabrielle would never understand Lyudmila, but she was happy to have the sharpshooter on her side.

  “Pay attention, Fausto!” Lyudmila shouted to the men. “This is how it is done. Call the shot, Gabrielle!” Gabrielle stuck the tip of her knife back out over the edge of the tractor, turning it until the warm rays of the sun glinted off its metallic surface.

  “Bottom right!” she shouted. “Wait… Wait… Now!”

  Gianni and Fausto returned their fire and once more drew the attention back to them. Without a moment to spare, Lyudmila rose from her perch. Another sharp pop rang out as she fired, but this time she didn’t retreat to safety. As soon as the round left the barrel, she snapped the bolt backward, ejected the casing, and fired another round.

  Gabrielle watched in the reflection of the knife as two soldiers from windows on opposite ends of the house fell from sight. Lyudmila ducked just as a stream of bullets flew overhead and embedded themselves into the ground.

  “Damn!” Lyudmila shouted, ejecting the second casing and replacing the two spent rounds.

  Gabrielle looked at the woman, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly ajar.

  “That was crazy!” Gabrielle whispered as if she couldn’t bring her vocal cords out of their frozen fear.

  “That was a rush!” Lyudmila replied as she kissed the top of her rifle.

  “Yes, nice shooting…” Fausto shouted from cover, “but you saw it, no?”

  “I saw. Be ready for it!” Lyudmila shouted back. Something was wrong. Gabrielle could feel it in the way the electrified air buzzed around them.

  “What’s going on?” Gabrielle asked.

  “There are at least twenty more soldiers. They are making their way around the right side of the house. It looks like they intend on flanking us from the side!” Lyudmila shouted, going into her pack and pulling out a grenade. Gabrielle crawled to the other end of the tractor and stuck her knife around the side.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Almost two dozen soldiers were making their way from cover to cover and advancing on their group. As soon as she saw this, Gabrielle dropped the knife and whipped the barrel of her rifle around the side of the tractor. She opened fire at anything that moved.

  Her vision was limited around the side of the tractor, but from what she could see, the soldiers dropped in place and took cover. Gabrielle risked it all to peek around the side and barely pulled her head back quickly enough as another round of bullets swooshed passed her. Several bullets flicked her hair up as they just missed her head.

  “We must think of a plan!” Lyudmila shouted, trying to align a shot from underneath the tractor. Gabrielle rubbed her bracelet absentmindedly. She needed to think of a way to buy them time. Time to either think of an attack plan or an escape plan. Hearing Gianni curse their advancing enemy, another idea crept into Gabrielle’s mind.

  She went into her pouch and felt around until her hands clutched the two heavy, metal grenades Gianni had made for her. No sooner had she pulled them from the pack than she yanked the pins from their homes and threw them in the direction of the enemy.

  As soon as the grenades landed, the German soldiers tried to run for cover. One of the metal balls bounced off a fence, and the other nearly hit one of the soldiers as he ran back toward the farm house. The explosions rocked the ground, but when Gabrielle stuck her knife back out around the side of the tractor, she saw that she had only managed to kill three soldiers.

  Gabrielle looked in her pouch at the remaining explosive and thought it was probably better to save it for when they were closer. Suddenly, Lyudmila pulled back from her prone position and yanked Gabrielle back behind the large tire. Her face was pale.

  “Fausto, Gianni! MG42 in the window! Get down!” she shouted. Gabrielle’s heart sank at the mention of the massive machine gun she’d seen nearly shred buildings before. Gianni and Fausto’s cover would not protect them from that.

  She had no sooner shouted her warning when Gabrielle heard the very distinct thunder of the machine gun. The wood and bags exploded around Gianni and Fausto as they were hammered with the suppressive fire.

  “To Hell with it!” Gabrielle shouted. She yanked the last grenade from Lyudmila and threw it as hard as she could towards the house. As it traveled through the air, she again fired at absolutely everything she could see moving. She would rather get herself killed than watch anyone else die in front of her.

  The explosion fell about ten feet too short and did nothing to the building. The machine gunner’s spotter tapped the side of his helmet, sending the array of fire down upon Gabrielle and Lyudmila’s position. At the very least, they bought the men a moment’s reprieve. Unfortunately, she saw that the large group of soldie
rs were still advancing on them.

  “It was nice to fight with you,” Lyudmila said, firing more rounds from under the tractor. “If I am to die, let it be on this day in the company of you all.”

  At that moment, everything stopped. The war, the battle, all of it was numb. Gabrielle thought of what was happening. She thought of what was going to happen and of all that she had done. All of those souls she had vowed to save. Arawn’s smug face when he learned of her death. She then thought of Morrigan, the one person she cared about most and the one who had hurt her most. She couldn’t help thinking about Morrigan. She still cared about him…her…the god. It was at that moment she wished she could tell Morrigan how much she cared and that it didn’t matter if she’d lied to her about being a god.

  As these thoughts rushed her senses, a rage began to erupt from within her. She wasn’t going to die today. Not after everything she’d been through. All the tragedy, all the love, and all the friendship. She had things to do and people to save. She had a god to find and send back to wherever the hell he’d crawled out of. This would not be the end of it!

  Gabrielle yanked the empty magazine from her weapon and slapped in another. She rose to her feet and looked down at Lyudmila, shaking her head.

  “Not today…” With those words, Gabrielle took a deep breath and brought her rifle up and over the edge of the tractor. The fire from the edge of the barrel almost made it look as though it were a steel, mechanical dragon. Rounds slammed into the tractor before her and ripped through the air around her.

  She took a deep breath through her nose, calmed her nerves and aimed. The torso of the gunner danced in her crosshairs, and she knew she only had a moment left to live. As she squeezed the trigger to fire her last shot, something happened.

  A thunderous boom erupted, and the entire side of the house exploded. Gabrielle stood in shock trying to clear her vision and figure out what had just happened. She looked at the barrel of her rifle and was questioning the possibility that she had just done that when a sudden and violent yank pulled her backward.

  Lyudmila was pulling Gabrielle back to cover. Frustrated, Gabrielle slapped her hands away as she was dragged to the ground once more behind the tractor. When she settled, and her stare fell on the scene behind them, it all made sense. Advancing on the house was something she did not expect to see—a tank.

  Actually, there were three different tanks and a few dozen foot soldiers. The soldiers wore a different uniform than what she’d seen so far in this life. These were American soldiers. The cavalry had just arrived. She looked in awe at the advancing forces as another round fired from the second tank, engulfing the opposite side of the house in flames and destruction.

  “Keep down!” Lyudmila shouted, rolling to the side of the tractor and shooting at the now disoriented Germans. Fausto and Gianni took the opening to run to the tractor.

  “Damn Americans. Come in thinking we needed their help. We were doing just fine!” Fausto shouted at the advancing forces. The arrival of reinforcements had clearly lifted his spirits, though his ego would never let him admit such a thing.

  “More are coming! There must be fifty now!” shouted Gianni, looking around the edge. Gabrielle peered around him and saw that the German’s poured from the sides of the house in full charge.

  Gabrielle slid back and examined their group along with the other soldiers now joining the fray. The tanks had ceased their advancement and were battering the German’s with a mixture of cannon and machine-gun fire. Several of the American foot soldiers took cover behind the objects that surrounded the tractor.

  They could actually make it out of this alive. With a newly found resolve, Gabrielle and her three friends fought with even more ferocity. It was almost as though they refused to be outshined by the Americans.

  A loud “ping” reverberated in Gabrielle’s ears moments before a massive explosion nearly knocked her back. One of the American tanks erupted into a plume of flame and smoke. The soldiers using it as a shelter from the enemy fire were thrown several feet and lay motionless. It was hard to tell, with all the smoke and chaos, if they were still alive. Lyudmila rose to fire her rifle but quickly dropped back to the ground without even getting off a single shot.

  “Panzerschreck! These tanks will be done for if they don't do something about the Panzer!” Lyudmila shouted. The Germans always had a way with machinery. Their rocket launchers were the bane of Allied tanks. Crap! Now what? Gabrielle knew she had to figure a way out of this.

  Fausto and Gianni continued to fire from their position as the Americans ran past them, trying to advance on the enemy. Lyudmila also engaged the advancing soldiers as she attempted to eliminate the Panzer from the equation while Gabrielle rummaged through Gianni’s satchel that sat on the ground beside her, looking for one of his “solutions.”

  She found charges, grenades, fuses, but nothing she could use to get to the target. Another swoop and explosion threw Gabrielle back against the tractor as another tank was hit. Luckily the aim was off on this one, and as the ground in front of the tank exploded in a rain of dirt and rocks, the American tank held firm.

  “Why don't those damn tanks fire?” Fausto yelled as he reloaded his weapon.

  “We are too close to the barrel. The explosion from the shot could harm their soldiers and us as well,” Gianni shouted back, also breaking from combat to reload. “As long as we are sitting in front of these things, they can’t use their primary weapon, and with their soldiers using them for cover, they can’t reposition! We need to find some cover.”

  As though their prayers were being answered, canisters landed nearby, and smoke started to billow from them. Gabrielle let out a loud sigh, relieved that the group could escape through the smoke. Relief turned to fear and fear turned to panic when Gabrielle realized something wasn’t right.

  As the smoke coursed through the air and began to envelop her, Gabrielle’s eyes blurred with tears, and she started to cough. This was not smoke from the Allies to help them get out of the way of the tanks, these were tear gas grenades.

  “Run!” Gabrielle shouted as she ferociously rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. Snot mixed with her tears and ran down her face as she coughed and spat.

  “If these grenades don't kill us, the Germans will be at our line any moment! We have to get out of here so the tanks can do their job!” Lyudmila shouted to the group as she rubbed her eyes and put her hand over her mouth. Gianni and Fausto nodded in agreement, though they didn’t dare open their eyes or try to speak.

  The group lined behind Lyudmila and prepared to run as the smoke thickened. As Lyudmila checked for the clear, the side of the tractor exploded with enemy fire, causing her to fall backward, knocking into Gabrielle who fell back into Fausto and Gianni like a set of living dominos. Gabrielle pulled Lyudmila away from the edge and back to cover before bursting into another round of coughing fits.

  Gabrielle coughed and wheezed as snot leaked into the corners of her mouth. They were stuck behind the tractor, and as she tried to get oxygen into her seizing lungs, Gabrielle thought she was going to die. Gabrielle buried her face into the dirt while the rest of the group endured the gas so they could shout, curse, and damn the Germans. Even though they were fighting an enemy, chemical weapons were something that all sides shook their heads at. It was a sort of an unspoken rule that they weren't to be used. Apparently, the Germans didn’t care.

  Smoke thickened around Gabrielle and her team. Gabrielle started to cry as the gas stung her eyes and burned her lungs. Lyudmila and Fausto coughed and buried their faces into each other and Gianni had taken off his shirt and was covering his face.

  Gianni picked up his rifle and was firing blindly around the tractor with one hand while the other hand secured the shirt in place over his face. Lyudmila had taken out a pistol and was firing around the other side of the tractor with one hand covering her mouth and her eyes shut. Gabrielle had taken her jacket off and was following Gianni’s lead by covering her face. She threw
one more grenade as hard as she could over the top of the machine and seconds later an explosion sounded in the distance.

  She prayed that she’d hit someone. As she pulled the jacket away from her face, three blurred figures appeared in front of her and started toward the group. Gabrielle rubbed her eyes and tried to focus through the pain. They weren’t German soldiers, if they were, Gabrielle would be dead already. Could they be American soldiers?

  Two of the men were significantly larger than the third. When they got close enough, she could make out that they carried Browning Automatic Rifles. Through tears, Gabrielle watched as the B.A.R.s unleashed hell upon the Germans. Americans. The third soldier wasn’t using a rifle. He fired at the German soldiers with a smaller pistol.

  As the three American soldiers got to Gabrielle’s team, the two soldiers carrying the B.A.R.s took position at either end of the tractor, and the smaller soldier went to the center. Gabrielle couldn’t see their faces through the river of tears in her eyes. Putting the jacket back over her face she wiped her eyes. She then pulled the jacket away and tried to focus through the pain. All three of the soldiers wore a gas mask to protect them from the fumes, and they were perched behind the tractor shooting at the Nazis like they had always been there.

  The two larger soldiers reloaded their weapons and kept heavy fire on the enemy. Gabrielle was amazed that these three men moved through the hail of enemy fire and did not flinch. They reminded her of Lyudmila in their bravery and accuracy with a weapon.

  Gabrielle opened her mouth to thank the soldiers, but as she sucked in a lungful of noxious gas, she began to cough and choke all over again. Replacing the jacket over her face, Gabrielle rubbed at her sore eyes and cleaned the snot and spit from her mouth. She slowly focused on taking small shallow breaths until the burning in her lungs lessened, and she was able to take a peek at the new soldiers again. One of the men with a B.A.R. had his sleeves rolled up, and the black ink of several tattoos covered his dark skin.