by Aral Bereux
She first cautiously peered past the door, and then slammed it open. Everyone filed out – taking their positions. Julianna ran close to the open ground in the eerie silence. Everyone waited for their orders.
Hensley gave her a come here wave from his low position against the barrier. His rifle balanced on the edge of the small boundary wall, scoping everything within reach of the powerful lens, in the city below. He greeted her as she set herself down. It was him who signaled the alarm. The radio was still in his hand, with the frequency open, and the alarm was still squealing from inside the building, sending an awful hiss over the open channel.
Squad Leader Hensley nodded, his Irish accent rolled out thick. ‘Nice to see you again, J Rae,’
She set her rifle over the ledge, concealing herself against it. Looking through her scope, she watched the quiet street below.
The general slid down beside them, mirroring her actions, hovering over his scope, searching the streets for threats.
‘You see them, General?’ Hensley asked.
The general nodded sullenly and thin lipped. ‘We’ve no way of warning headquarters about this.’
Julianna scanned through her scope.
‘With all due respect, go on foot. We can’t break these lines without support,’ Hensley said.
Julianna tracked their concern. Hover drones were establishing a strong formation along the west side of the building. She didn’t doubt the east side of the roof was the same. She leveled her rifle to look to the higher grounds. Movement caught her eye in the building across the road.
‘We have snipers, everyone down!’ she yelled.
The building across the road, with boarded up windows, had rifles pointed in their direction from multiple levels.
‘You’re the only one with Sector One access, General. We need support before they squeeze us in,’ Hensley said.
The general dropped his rifle to the ground and pulled his side arm instead. The magazine ejected for more rounds. ‘Where’s Madison, he’s lighter on his feet?’
Both Hensley and the General raised their heads to scan the roof line; searching for him. They thought the mission was successful. That these were the ramifications. It was acceptable thinking.
Acceptable losses, justifiable losses. How am I explaining this one?
Julianna shook her head. He didn’t make it. The tears stung her eyes. Don’t you dare, Julianna! Hold it together!
‘Taris arrested him. Daniel went back for him – I don’t know what’s in Sector One, but right now, it’s not the safest place.’
‘Nor is here. You’re saying Madison’s captured?’ The general stated.
She wasn’t crying again. Not in front of everyone. She answered with a nod of the head and focused through the cross hairs of the scope to avoid their stares. The ground troops were doubling in numbers. The drones were starting their search on the first and second levels. The Jeeps rolled in to establish their perimeters.
‘Julianna, you’re coming with me,’ the general said firmly.
‘Like hell I am, I’m staying. I’m a better shot than most here.’
‘This isn’t the time for arguments. I owe your father a lot of favors.’
She glared at him. He glared back and she felt the anger rise quickly. Caden’s orders to protect the safe house were clear. He saved her ass so she could follow them.
‘Then piss off and let me fight,’ her tone sent the general reeling. His mouth opened with no response.
Hensley crouched further. ‘No time for a quarrel. You go, I’ll cover her back until your return.’
Maybe he’s allegiance was more to Caden, she wondered. She’d felt his pull, he’d read her the moment she mentioned Taris; he was reading her now.
‘Fall back to the tunnels as soon as you can. Hopefully Madison will show.’ he looked at Hensley. ‘Until then Hensley, you’re in charge.’
‘Fear not, General. I have no intentions of sticking around in this blood-bath to be. We’ll do as you ordered,’ Hensley said. ‘Good luck with it all.’
The general crouched. He double-checked his rounds in the gun clip before slamming it home. ‘You Irishmen put way too much weight in lady luck.’
Julianna watched the general run low to the stairwell doorway. The last she saw was his hand closing it.
Hensley stared at her, waiting for an explanation. She returned to her scope while he continued with his inquisitiveness.
‘Aiming high in the food chain aren’t you, love?’
She shrugged. The scope magnified a new row of hover drones completing a strong line below, waiting for their orders to attack. She moved it across, searching for other threats.
She caught a glance of an officer who sent shivers through her body. The outline was unmistakable; the markings on his hands confirmed it. Bas was down there, shouting orders to the soldiers surrounding him.
‘You’ve got to be joking,’ she whispered.
He obviously survived the fight with Caden.
Hensley heard her. He looked through his own scope before meeting her with a wide open stare.
‘Is that who I think it is, J Rae? Is that really Bas Madison down there?’
She nodded. She had a clean, direct shot to his head. Judging from the markings on his uniform he was a Commanding officer, but it was the last shot she would take if her life and others depended on it.
‘He’s Militia. He must have told them about the safe house. We have to assume the tunnels are compromised.’ Hensley said.
‘No one’s to fire unless ordered,’ she stated.
Julianna had their undivided attention. Everyone stared at her; disregarding the drones rising along each level.
Down below, an arriving car caught Julianna’s and Hensley’s attention. Taris poked his head out and opened the rear door for Bas.
‘Take the shot, J Rae,’ Hensley said.
Her finger twitched on the trigger. The scope showed a smiling Taris looking knowingly in her direction.
‘Christ, girl! Take the bloody shot or he’ll blow us all to kingdom come, one way or another.’
Her finger twitched again, Taris smiled more.
But he can’t see me.
‘I can’t,’ she whispered.
How can he see me up here?
‘Take the shot!’ Hensley ordered.
Her finger curled away from the trigger. Taris still stared in her direction. The rifle move against her will to the ground. She couldn’t do it. The door closed and the car rolled away. Her chance was gone.
The drones raised another level.
Hensley’s low glare from beneath his unmanageable mop of curls and thick dark eyebrows, cut through her. For Julianna, the relief came in a wave, washing over her quickly. This wasn’t a fight she wanted, least one against a friend who had saved her.
Not worth the risk of hitting Bas.
Face it, Taris stopped me.
Taris isn’t that powerful.
Oh yes he fucking is.
Fuck!
‘Not sure what happened there, love, but we need to fall out, now rather than later.’
She heard him whisper under his breath that he wished he’d stayed in Ireland.
‘I didn’t have a clean shot,’ she wasn’t believed. ‘I didn’t want Bastiaan hurt.’
He saved my fucking life.
‘Seems you didn’t want anything to happen to his Commanding officer, either.’
The hover drones rose in unison, scanning through the third level of windows for potential threats, taking readings and sending them to Central Command, for computing. Everyone inside the building needed to hurry. The drones were about to strike.
‘We should head for the tunnels. We can’t defend this any longer.’
She agreed. ‘The tunnels are our only chance, but what if they’re already taken?’
Hensley yelled the order for half of his crew to fall back. The other half leaned over the ledge and waited for his command to fire on every fourth drone, h
oping to take out their formations.
It’s too risky, Julianna thought, one moment too late.
The first shots fired. Half the drones collapsed and fell into a Jeep below, engulfing it in a fireball. They’d taken the first shot and as Julianna aimed her rifle to the sniper aiming for her, more drones followed and rose in retaliation. They fired again. More fell, angering the ones left. They rose rapidly with their lasers set to kill.
But the snipers across—
A bullet rang past her cheek, she felt the burn of its speed as it implanted itself into a soldier coming through the door. He stumbled forward, first in shock with the bullet in his chest. A second one flew past, missing Hensley when he ducked to lift his sidearm from its holster. He looked in time to see the soldier fall face first into the ground, bloodied with half his jaw missing. The gaping hole of his gnashing teeth as the final breath left him, smiled back at her, and she had to turn away.
‘Fall out! Fall out! Fall out!’ Hensley yelled. ‘Snipers! Fall out!’
Julianna aimed at the offending sniper leering his rifle between the cracks of a boarded window. His shadow cast, and in her mind she envisaged his outline clear enough to take the shot. Her mind silenced itself. She focused on her breathing – her heart slowed and the tunnel vision she had experienced frequently behind the sniper this week reappeared as her finger curled around the trigger. Everything else around her blurred.
She pulled the trigger. The shadow behind the boards fell, leaving the rifle awkwardly caught where the barrel had pushed through. She aimed again, oblivious to the clear instructions from Hensley – and everyone running for the door. Oblivious to her name being shouted—
‘Watch out!’
Brick work shattered where she crouched, throwing her across the ground towards the exit. She aimed again, and fired. The drone taking a second aim in her direction swirled down into those below. Another drone rose, and another, all focused on the sniper taking out their support, hell bent on achieving their objectives.
‘J Rae!’ She looked over her shoulder. Hensley shouted her name over the loud ring of gunfire. ‘Come on, love! You need to save yourself now.’ He held the door open for everyone’s escape.
No one hesitated with his orders as the drones flew at their combaters for a face off. The snipers across the road took free shots at everyone running.
Julianna screamed at Hensley to duck. The first laser beam from a drone at the flank, hit between his shoulders. A second shot fired, into the wall. The bricks airborne became as deadly as the weapons aimed. Julianna ran through the debris, to his side, pulling him into the building.
His burning flesh seared through her nose. She heard a man scream behind her, howling like a wolf to the moon. She watched him fall from the doorway. His charred remains hung with loose skin, burning from one side, black and melted. It exposed another grinning skull to return her gape. The day of the skulls, the living dead, and the thought made her press her own teeth together for her tongue to count they were all still in place.
Hensley’s hand was a relief as it pulled her in and dragged her down the stairs in a maddening sprint. The door barricaded with an iron bar and everyone took their steps, two, three, and four at a time, rushing for their safety. Someone yelled he’s dead; another swore. They ran down the levels of stairs, heading for the tunnels.
Julianna stopped behind Hensley on the fourth level to check the halls, slamming each door open, checking for people, checking specific rooms for maps. She waited at the stairs for the other Rebels to report the level as clear. They ran past her. She counted them as they went, and noted only a few had lost their lives on the roof. Not all appeared so bad under her command.
But smoke. I can smell it. Fire! The building’s on freaking fire!
The smoke rose with a thickness that choked everyone in its path. It poured out as she opened the door to the stairs. The building was easing itself into a dark, billowing cloud of fumes and smoke that seeped through the stairwell from under the doors of the lower levels.
The lower they ran down the stairs, the more difficult the navigation. She checked on Hensley behind her, using his sleeve to cover his mouth and nose. The intense heat and smoke reached into her lungs and stung at her eyes.
‘It’s a trap,’ she tried to yell. No one heard her. It came out in a hoarse groan, following a deep and painful cough. She tried again. ‘It’s a trap! Everyone move to the tunnels. I’ll check the last floor.’
Hensley confirmed her order for the less convinced. ‘You heard the girl,’ he gasped. ‘Let’s take this bloody fight to the tunnels.’
The men following them ran past, skipping steps to reach their destination in an effort to beat the smoke issuing from the flames. Julianna rested her hand on the final door handle. It was warm under her fingertips, and smoke billowed from beneath the door. She looked back for Hensley’s opinion. He gently moved her hand to hover his over the handle, displaying his first act in front of her, as a watcher.
The door opened cautiously. The long corridors stretching on either side were full of black smoke. The intense heat suffocated them.
Hensley closed the door. The last echoes of feet running down the concrete steps disappeared. They were left standing in the stairwell, with smoke curling around them.
‘The fire will take what evidence is left, J Rae. We stay here much longer, we’ll be ash too,’ he said. ‘We need to go.’
Hensley started his descent and she followed, making sure she stayed close. The grey barrier of smoke between them thickened. She reached out in blindness for the back of his shirt, grabbing it in the darkness. He reached back and squeezed her hand in return.
The basement was clear, though the air was stale. Buckets of water poured over copies of The Bulletin, shoved under the cracks of the doors. It blocked the smoke’s path, forcing it to rise toward the higher levels in the building, offering them time to empty the new weapons from the storage lockers, and to climb through the hole in the wall.
She climbed in after Hensley, crawling along the narrow shaft, with the rifle clumsily getting in the way of her knees. The underground network was quiet in front of them. The Rebels, looking panicked and disheveled, paced; some with maps bulked under their arms, others with their weapons drawn, on high alert. Julianna left the tunnel and studied them all.
‘What now?’ It was the obvious question. She wanted to ask it, before anyone prompted her with the million dollar one. She had no answers.
Julianna studied everyone massing in front of her. Hensley shrugged. He was at a loss, too.
‘I don’t know my way around these tunnels. Not well enough to fight.’
‘We stay here,’ Hensley said. ‘We pick up the fight, here,’ He looked around to the men. ‘We have an advantage in these tunnels.’
Men nodded. Their worried whispers travelled amongst their group. Hensley barked out orders to take positions and ready weapons for a fight, while Julianna listened in the background, to the explosions echoing through the hole they had just crawled through. A cloud of dust billowed through it. The ground quaked. Everyone’s whispers died away to silence as the building they had left, collapsed.
She walked towards the tunnel leading out to the countryside. The chip in the wall which Caden had focused his hand on, pointed her in its direction.
‘We can’t stay here,’ Julianna said. ‘They know our location. These tunnels could be crawling with Militia, we just don’t know. Safest thing is to move and not sit around waiting for them to corner us in.’
‘How many battles have you fought in, Miss Rae? I’ve been in the Militia over seven years, the Rebellion for three – what makes you so confident?’
‘I’m not forcing you, Hensley. Stay if you want. Those who want, come with me,’ she started walking past the broken brick. ‘Your choice.’
Hensley slung his rifle over his shoulder. ‘Not my choice. I made a promise to keep you within my sights. You’re the Seer after all,’ he shook his head, his eye
s were annoyed. ‘You really are something, you know.’
‘I’ve been told that a lot lately. I’m just trying to stay alive in a tough situation.’
Hensley nodded, he reached for a loose cigarette tucked behind his ear and asked a crew member for a light. A lit match was offered from a soldier standing nearby. Hensley puffed out a curl of smoke that wisped between them.
‘Okay, you win,’ he looked around. ‘Fall in. You heard the Commander.’
‘I’m not a Commander,’ she said in distaste. ‘I don’t hold a rank.’
‘With all due respect, if you’re shagging a Commanding Officer, then you’re probably in for a promotion if you survive this.’
‘He’s my brother.’
Hensley stopped in his tracks. The Rebels behind him almost knocked him over; digressing around to follow the tunnel.
‘I’ve seen the way he looks at you, J Rae. The way he spoke in the mess hall. No brother looks at his sister like that. You may fool the General, no fooling ol’ Irish.’
‘Are we even talking about the same person?’ she started walking, checking her rifle over once and releasing the safety. Hensley followed, doing the same; keeping his weapon ready for an ambush. ‘Still getting used to the idea of Daniel without any interference from others.’
Hensley leaned into her. His voice stayed low. ‘Everyone knows Daniel’s your brother. Not who I’m talking about.’
They were in the middle of the group. She pushed her way past two soldiers.
Was he in the mess hall when they were having coffee? Must have been, getting something to eat perhaps. She glanced at him, hoping the pout she gave conveyed angry, rather than cute.
Hensley halted. He raised a hand. Everyone stopped with their weapons ready; silent under his command. Water dripped into the drains, a slight breeze whistled through the tunnels. They waited in stillness.
A water rat ran past.
Julianna jumped back, holding the gun close to her chest with her finger on the trigger. Hensley looked at the others and walked forward, beside her.
‘I might say it’s been a long time since he looked at anyone the way he does you, and then there’s the old-fashioned rumor mill.’
