ninety nine untrained, how many are children?” There was a pause as the machine calculated.
I caught Wolf looking at me sadly and shook his head at me, “You don’t want to do that to yourse-”
Lucy’s voice drained out his, “Fifty seven.” Bullets hit the stainless steel table protecting Gabe and Wolf. Who popped up and squeezed the trigger five more times.
“Fuck off you bastards!” The hammer clicked uselessly as he kept pulling the trigger. A bullet tore through his shoulder, then his hip, he dropped behind the table and threw Gabriel at me.
He picked up the table and moved forward with it as a shield, his fresh wounds dripping, “Come on! You want another kill!? Fight for it!”
Gabriel reloaded, “I have six bullets left, there’s…” He peeked around the corner, “Eleven left, let’s finish this.” He slipped around the corner, I was really considering just running, getting shot hurts… A lot.
But then I thought about the dead, these were women and children, not just soldiers who knew the risk. I ran around the corner, Gabe had killed three more and was tailing a still highly mobile Wolf.
I fired past the table and caught one of the hunters in the gut, their gunfire dying down significantly, Wolf roaring as he carried the table down the hall, occasionally it ground along the floor, I got off another shot and another body dropped lifelessly. The remaining were retreating only to realise that they were at the end of the hall, their last turn just passed by Wolf. Who was pushing their dead comrades with his table shield and was mere feet from them.
Their screams echoed through the halls, I had no sympathy for them though, death will always beget death.
When I reached Wolf and Gabe, we nodded at each other, took a step back and slammed into the table, silencing their screams.
All Clear
We’d taken a few minutes to sit and take it in. An alert from Lucy had been sent out, informing us that the hunters were eradicated, other than the five who were currently being tortured for information.
The eyes of the dead flashing through my mind every time I closed mine, the screams ringing through my ears. I couldn’t move, the idea of that many people dying, “What are we going to do Wolf?” He pulled the bullet out of his shoulder and let it roll across the floor, leaving a dark red trail in its wake,
“We move. We’ll do this mission on Friday then we’ll probably transfer to the base in Antarctica until we can find somewhere else.” he said, his voice empty and cold.
Gabriel kicked his gun across the floor, “This truly went balls up didn’t it?”
I nodded as I wiped some of the blood off on my pants, “It really did. I haven’t seen this many people die at one time… ever. I mean, I’ve seen a lot die, but never so fast, not so close.” We sat there for a while, Wolf and I got word about several more deaths. Some who were wounded, others who couldn’t handle what they saw and lost and decided to end it themselves.
Twenty three minutes had passed from the first breach to the interrogation of the last hunter, which had revealed that they’d brought their entire force from a few kilometres up the road. They had found the base months ago and had been mobilising.
After an hour or so someone from the command centre came for Wolf, Gabe and myself. To guide us to a large room in the heart of the base that was filled with buzzing men and women operating computer systems. Occasionally mumbling something or leaving the room in tears.
The guide showed us to a smaller back room similar to the one I woke up in. Jason, Mike, Kate, Anton and Gregorvich were in the room sitting around a large oval table. Anton, who had a large split in his forehead, gestured to the three remaining chairs, “Could you shut the door on your way out Louis?” I heard the door close as I sat, “Now, Gregorvich got in about ten minutes after the attack, he managed to get some information.”
He pointed at Greg who took this as his cue, “There was a garage,” He threw some pictures to the centre of the table, “A large truck-van like vehicle; that one almost looks military, and a two seated black convertible.”
I grabbed the picture of the truck, blood smearing it under my fingers. It looked like an armoured bank truck but slightly longer with a smoother, more stylish front, “I’ll take Gregorvich with me in the convertible. Kate and Wolf, I need you with Minks and the team in the truck. I’ll need a suitcase with enough explosives to open the front door but more importantly to make a lot of smoke, remote detonated would be preferable,”
I felt woozy, I shook my head slightly, “Then you guys bring the truck around, bring the C4 and weapons. I’ll need Mike to lace the base of the building with the explosives. Alpha can cover him, the rest of us will move through the building.”
I felt blood dripping down my back. I coughed into my hand as blood bubbled in my throat. That prick with the knife must’ve gotten me in the lung, “We’ll all meet on the roof for a helo extract.” I slipped back into the chair and tried to keep my breathing regular.
Anton scooped up the pictures, “Alright, you are all off duty until Friday morning, I suggest you head to the medical centre for evaluation ASAP, they’ll make room for you all. In case I don’t see you before dust off, good luck.”
I nodded expressionlessly at him as he left, my fingertips were tingling and I couldn’t feel my feet. I really don’t like getting stabbed, getting shot sucks but the bullet tears through or it gets pushed out from my body. Not like getting knifed, which just plain stings, it’s kind of like a sound at first entry. Tt’s difficult to explain but it’s a very specific sensation. Normally though I would start to heal by that point, something about this was different.
“I think I’ll go to med station.” I stood, took two steps, had tunnel vision, blinked and was in a stiff bed surrounded by curtains. I was in soft patient robes, a drip in my arm and a soft pillow cradling my head. “Hello?”
Kate came in through the curtains, “Hey, how are you feeling?” How was I feeling? The wooziness was gone, my back felt good and healed.
For me I’d just gone from unbelievable pain and dizziness to completely fine in an instant “Yeah, good, what happened?” I pulled the drip out and hung it up on the heart monitor. ‘Must be linked with the OLHUD’ I thought when I couldn’t find the finger tab.
Kate was now sitting in a chair next to me, “That knife that you got stabbed with was laced with a cyanide-calcium compound, the hunters must’ve engineered it. Luckily all it did was slow your healing temporarily and knock you out. Now, we need to get you something to eat, it’s almost time to ship out, we were almost going to leave you behind, take one of the others on hand.”
I sat up and stretched, I’d slept for the whole day, missed final briefing, the feast, everything. A nurse came in holding a tray with a blood bag on one side and a plate with a large steak and chips. She placed it on my lap and left mutely with a face of pure distaste. I really wasn’t in the mood to reassert her comfort with vampires and their eating habits. I carved the steak up and began eating.
“Are you ok?” Kate looked somewhat shocked at the question, to be fair I’d be shocked if she were in a hospital bed asking if I was the one who was alright,
“Yeah, I’m ok, some of the bullets were laced with something as well, but I’m fine now.”
I sunk my teeth into the blood bag and let its contents flush through my mouth. “How long until we leave?”
Kate stuck her head out of the curtains then came back in, “Two hours.” I wiped my mouth with the napkin under my plate, the steak gone and the blood bag drained. I felt the strength that I didn’t notice had faded returning. I could physically feel it tingling through my body, binding with my being; it felt good.
I shot up, “Then let’s go. I need to grab some stuff from my room; I’ll meet you at plane.”
Her eyes were still red from the crying before she came in but she managed a smile for me, “Do you know where it is?”
I could’ve found my way to them with the way-point system. She kne
w that, but what she wanted was company, “I’d get hopelessly lost before I started, come on.” I grabbed her hand and we ran for my room, dodging others moving around in the attempt to fix the damage from Wednesday night's attack. My patient drapes billowing behind me, we leaped down the stairs after discovering that the elevator was out of order.
My door still wasn’t fixed, but it didn’t stress me, there were more important jobs to do. When I stepped through the door I turned to see Kate looking out into the street her hand on her mouth, tears welling up. I took a light grip of her arm and she immediately shot into my chest. Her arms wrapped around my mid-section, sobbing. I embraced her and rested my head on hers, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save them Kate.” She shook her head as she began to tremble.
I brought her over to the couch, “Take a seat, I’ll be right back, I promise.” I kissed her forehead before running into my room. I grabbed my backpack and started filling it; my backup blood bottle, a canteen and the rest of the stuff that was normally in there. Knife, binoculars, torch, flares, tarp and a length of nylon rope.
I pulled on a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt and my black converse. I was aware that I would be properly kitted when I reached the plane, but I didn’t want to show up in a gown.
I went back to the lounge-room to find Kate looking at the stain on my roof, “How’d
The Mulligan Planet Page 15
