meant to know when to come?” He pointed to his closest guard, “You, give me your gun.” He grabbed the machine gun from the air as it was tossed and started fiddling with the side, “How does... Where does..?”
His guard stepped forward and pointed out the bolt, the suit snarled at him, “Clever are we?” Before the guard could open his mouth, the suit had brought the butt across his face. Sending him to the ground where his boss started firing into his back, “Fucking... Smart-arse... Shit!”
The suit kicked his body a few times before straightening up and smoothing his hair, “I do apologise for that outburst. Anyway, where was I...? That's right! I was just thinking how we need some screams! Needs to sound real. Bring me someone to shoot!”
I heard a cage opening, “That isn't necessary.”
I saw his ears prick up, “Necessary?” He began striding toward me, “Necessary?” He was right in front of me now, about an inch shorter than me, his eyes a deep green behind his rounded glasses. His brown hair still slightly messed from his 'moment', his breath smelled heavily of peppermint and smoke, “You know nothing of necessary.” A sparkle entered his eyes accompanying his wry smile, “But you will.”
A woman was brought into the circle and tossed to the ground. She wore a summer dress, though it was torn in several places. Her thighs were bruised, her body shaking with sobs, long black hair covering her face.
“Kill her.” I looked at the suit with disgust, “Kill her and you can take the fuel, no-one else gets hurt.”
I walked over to her and lifted her to her feet, “What's your name?”
I heard the suit yell out from behind me, “S! … Oh, hers? You can call her anything you want!”
I did my best to ignore him, I raised her head with my fore-finger under her chin. She would've been beautiful once but now her cheeks were sallow, her eyes stained with smeared mascara to match the plastered on lipstick, “Come on love, what's your name?”
Her lip trembled while tears slid down her cheeks, “J... Je... Jessica.” I smiled at her, “Alright, Jessica, I can try to kill these people or... I promise it'll be quick.”
She managed a smile, “Make sure you make him pay, after this, please.”
I put my hands on either side of her head, “I promise.” I felt her sob once more before I snapped her neck, laying her down slowly. Tears now welling in my eyes, thinking of what her life was before all this.
A clapping started behind me, “Very good John! Very good. Now, that's a taste, maybe you'll get to do a loved one by the time I'm done with you.”
I was really going to enjoy killing him, I heard the truck coming through the gate, “Ah! Yes, help him hook it up men, we're running on a schedule here.”
I pushed past S and onto Harry who was being escorted from the truck so the bandits could hook it up, “I made a deal, let's get out of here.”
Harry opened his mouth then noticed the dead girl and shut it, I couldn’t do anything but make a quick nod. A hand rested on my shoulder, “Good luck, you're going to need it.”
I turned to face S, ready to tear his throat out, “I'm coming back here, and I'm going to make you go through Hell before I send you there for good.”
He smiled at me, “You’re a firm believer that we've only got here. And I plan on sticking around here.”
The truck was hooked up on the road behind us, “Time to go John.”
I snarled at him, “Let's go Harry.”
I spun on my feet and walked toward the truck, “When we get back here Harry, he's mine.”
Not My Fault
I would like to start this off with not my fault, really, very much not my fault. My plan was... Stupid, but still, this was... We should have seen it coming.
Anyway, we got onto the airstrip with minimal problems, and when we eventually found Steve and Mark with the plane I wasn't disappointed.
I didn't know how they got it but they did, large military cargo plane in one of the hangers, the kind of thing they air-drop tanks in. “Wow, solid job mates. You ready for take-off Steve?”
He let out a massive yawn as he nodded, “I'm good once we've loaded up, this here is the bird we flew in on, sturdy ol’ gal, all she needed was a refuel.”
I signalled for Harry to take the truck behind the plane, “Back it in nice and slow, give him a hand Mark.” They started the loading process while I went to sit on the hood of the blue car, “Ok, once it's all in we can get some C4 on it. You keep us airborne and I'll make sure that tanker gets real friendly with that ship.”
Steven joined me on the car, “Sounds good, after that we just maintain cou-”
An almighty crunching sound cut him short, “What the fu-” A loud bang this time, we were off the car and around the back of the plane where Mark was holding his head.
“What the bloody Hell have you guys done!”
Mark looked at me in disgust “‘Us guys!’ It was him!”
I heard the trucks cabin door open and slam shut, “Me!? ‘A little to the left, I mean right, no, I mean’.”
It was like mediating children, “Both of you shut up and tell me what happened!”
There was silence for a moment before Harry opened his mouth, “I backed over the seats, the seats broke and the tire exploded.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, the trailer was already in, “Ok, alright. Detach the rig and let's get airborne before you idiots cause any more difficulties. Marcus, get ready, once that ship is down I want a locale on our team ASAFP.” He wove me off while he helped Harry decouple the rig.
I took this opportunity to get ready, moulding the C4 pack on top of the tanker, “Hey John!”
I shot up and smashed my head on the roof of the carrier, “Ow, yeah?”
It was Harry, “Could I get my sword back?”
I untied the scabbard and tossed it down to him. “Thanks.... And John, don't die up there.”
I inserted the blasting caps, “Wasn't counting on it Har. Don't worry, I've done stuff way worse than this and come out the other end without a scratch. I need you to focus on keeping Marcus safe, he'll need a lot of protection when that ship comes down. After we do this life is going to be a whole lot easier.”
Steven pushed past Harry to enter the main cabin, “Let's get ready John, it's getting to the afternoon and I really don't want a night-op with this.”
I climbed off of the tanker, “Get her started. Harry, help Marcus get back to that shopping centre, collect his equipment, you've got this.”
He nodded and left the plane. I hit the button to shut the door before walking toward the cabin, the sound of the door closing behind me locked in my head. 'Up we go again.' I let out a deep breath remembering the last time we were airborne.
I missed Kate, I missed Wolfgang, I missed Gregorvich, I missed all of them. I took the seat next to Steve who was flicking switches, “Take us up.” The straps sat over my shoulders tightly as I pulled them on and locked myself in while the massive plane started rolling onto the runway.
Rain was beating down on the tarmac, “In regular conditions I would make you wait in the lobby until the storm cleared up.”
I chuckled, “Yeah, all of us getting pissed because a little rain had stopped us from getting to wherever we were going.”
We started to pick up speed, “You get why we like to stay on the ground?”
Lightning flashed across the horizon, bringing a smile to my face, “Not a clue.”
I could feel the plane sliding slightly, “The extra weight is probably going to be a problem.”
The tarmac lowered out of view while the tanker could be heard grinding behind us, “Up, up, up!” A resounding crunch coincided with the plane getting over balanced to the rear, “Woooo!”
Steve gestured for the control stick in front of me, “Pull up!” I grabbed a hold, pulling as far back as the stick would let me.
Before long we were safely up in the air while Steve did everything possible to level us out, “
We just did a wheelie in a plane.”
Steve put his hand up to silence me, “We didn't, we grinded the majority of the rear of the plane and nearly died. Now, you shut up, and check the cargo.” I was hurt in a way before coming to the re-realisation that most don't think life-threatening situations should be fun.
The first thing I noticed upon entering the cargo bay was the tanker pushed up against the left wall, its wheels having crushed most of the seats.
I found a spot of leverage and started to push the tanker, it slid slightly before dropping into the seats, trapping the tires. “Well... That's not good.” I checked the door. There was a dent and a few scratches, but it looked like it would open, “Steve! I'm just testing the cargo door!”
A thumb appeared in the cockpit doorway before Steve’s hand slammed the door shut. I held onto a piece of netting that was dangling from the roof and pushed the button. A few seconds passed then there was a crunching sound and the door began to lower. The tanker shifted but was clearly stuck, I pushed the button to close the door but it continued to lower, “Better and better... Steve!”
I was making my way back to the cabin when a scream sounded as the cargo door tried to lower itself further. The cabin door flew open, nearly smashing me in the face. “We have a... No, we have problems.” I looked out the front of the plane, we were minutes away from the ship, “Steven... Parachutes, we need parachutes now, and get us some altitude.”
Something raised from the top of the ship, despite being based millions of kilometres apart, guns seemed
The Mulligan Planet Page 29
