“Okay, then,” Prig said, scanning the people before him one last time. “We’ve got our missions. Get them done and return here in one piece, all of you. Let’s save our country.”
29
Leaving the bunker seemed somehow more chaotic than it should have been. Teams were clustered together, all of the civilians sort of mumbling and moving about. The Marines were a world apart. Spence and Mac moved with purpose, leading the way up the curving ramp toward the secret door at the back of the cave. As for Elna, she couldn’t help fidgeting as the reality of what she was about to do set in. Sneaking across an island full of hostiles in an attempt to climb the central hilltop. It was like the world’s most dangerous game of hide-and-seek.
Maybe I volunteered too soon, she thought. Common sense hadn’t set in yet.
As she passed through the door, Malin on her right side, Norman and Selene behind her, Elna heard Sniffy barking like mad and dashing about. Although she normally didn’t mind, under the circumstances it set her nerves on edge. Maybe she finally understood just a little bit of Garret’s attitude toward the dog.
Someone please make it be quiet, she thought, but wouldn’t dare say.
As she made her way up the ramp, Elna found all of the noise and chaos distracting, so she tried to shut everything out and map out the best route in her mind. She would need to avoid any and all paths, so that ruled out the back road to the guesthouse. Since Spence and Mac were going to try to draw the enemy to the west side of the island, it made sense to circle around the other way and try to climb the forested hillside south of the vineyard.
As a child, Elna had scrambled through the woods around the guesthouse a thousand times, but it was all fairly overgrown and difficult to navigate. She tried to recall as much of the area as she could. When she heard the loud clank of the bunker’s upper door, it drew her out of her thoughts.
“Have you got it all figured out?” Malin asked.
“I think so,” she replied. “We have to move as quietly as possible. Can you be stealthy like a cat?”
“If it’ll keep us from getting shot, I won’t even breathe,” he replied.
Sunlight flooded down the ramp, and she saw the cave in front of them. The bare shelves against the walls, the trash, debris, empty MRE packages strewn across the floor. Once they reached the mouth of the cave, Spence and Mac took off without a word. They moved quick, sprinting toward the fence. Norman, Selene, and Raymond huddled together at the mouth of the cave, setting the big bag on the ground between them.
“You guys be careful out there,” Norman said.
Elna glanced back at the door and saw Cat standing just inside, the bandage on her hip still visible. And somewhere, damned Sniffy was still barking up a storm.
“You guys be careful too,” Elna replied. “We’ll be back before you know it. Hopefully, we won’t stumble into any of your traps.”
“We’re mostly going to get them up in the empty buildings,” Norman explained. “The mercenaries will want to search this entire area, so they’ll go in the buildings. Stay out of those places, and you’ll be safe.”
“Smart thinking, Norman,” she replied.
She gave him a brief wave. Norman and Selene returned it. Then she stepped out of the cave with Malin. The island seemed strangely quiet. There was barely any wind. Spence and Mac were already gone. They’d moved through the fence and disappeared in the distance. She couldn’t even hear them now. Indeed, it was so quiet and calm she could scarcely believe that they were in a life-and-death situation.
“We’d better move,” Malin said. “Those two Marines will be engaging the enemy soon.”
“Okay, follow me,” Elna replied. “Keep your voice down. Try to step softly. Let’s see if we can’t cross the island unnoticed.”
He patted her on the back. “Just take it easy on yourself. You’re already injured.”
“I can’t make any promises.”
And with that, she set out across the old military base, headed for the fence. She tried to stick close to the sheer rock wall on the east side behind the crumbling barracks buildings. Her nerves were frazzled. Maybe it was the stress of everything that had happened that day, or maybe it was at least partially the result of being caught in the blast of the explosion. Either way, she felt shaky and addled, and it took a massive effort to focus on what she was doing.
As she approached the fence, she heard the voices of Norman and others behind her. She even heard Sniffy still barking distantly. She was tempted to turn around and tell them all to shut up. Didn’t they realize how dangerous the noise was? But she was too far away now. Yelling back at them would only compound the problem.
Fortunately, by the time she slipped through a gap on the east end of the fence, they seemed to have quieted down. Beyond the fence, there was about fifty yards of open, rocky ground. On the left, this led down to the shore. Straight ahead, it led to the dirt road that trailed up the backside of the island. However, on the right, a wall of trees filled the land between the rock ridge and the road. It was all overgrown there, full of brush and vines—not easy to navigate. Still, it was their best and only path to the hilltop without being seen.
“Move low,” Elna said to Malin. “Try to avoid making noise. We’ll have to go slow and avoid the worst of the underbrush, but it’ll be a problem.”
He clapped a hand over his mouth and nodded. Elna led him to the trees. She selected a broad opening between two large black walnut trees and slipped through, feeling brush dragging against her. It was noisy, too noisy, but there was no clear path before her. It was like pushing through an endless green wall, but she moved as slowly and carefully as possible. Maybe they would sound like the island foxes scampering about.
Soon, the ground began sloping upward, becoming ever steeper. This, at least, caused the undergrowth to spread out a bit, and the roots bulging out of the slope gave her something to grab on to as she ascended. Unfortunately, it was excruciating on her shoulders, neck, and back, but she pushed through it. She heard Malin scampering along behind her, but she was concentrating too much to check on him. They were absolutely enclosed in the forest, so she didn’t have a sense of how far or how fast they were moving.
Suddenly, as she was dragging herself over a large birch root, she heard the distinct crack of a gunshot echoing somewhere on the island. She froze, pressing herself to the ground, holding her breath. Birds scattered in the trees. A second gunshot followed shortly thereafter, and when the sound faded, the terrible quiet returned to the island. Elna turned her head to the right and saw that Malin had crawled up beside her.
“Not aimed at us,” he whispered. “That came from somewhere far away.”
“Spence and Mac,” she replied.
Malin nodded. “Hopefully. Drawing the enemy away. Good.”
Elna resumed moving, but the next section of the slope was so steep she had to practically crawl on her belly, pulling herself up one handhold at a time. There was a reason no paths had been carved into this side of the island. Unfortunately, they were making far more noise than she wanted to. The ground was littered with loose rocks, dry twigs, and leaves, and there was thick brush all over the place.
They’d gone maybe another twenty yards when she heard gunfire again. This time it came as a burst. Multiple guns all at once. Four shots, five, six. As the echo faded, she thought she heard voices as well, but they were very far away. Her instinct was to freeze in place again, but she made herself continue to move. Eventually, the slope leveled out a bit, the trees grew a bit farther apart, and she picked herself up. Brushing the dirt off her stomach and legs, she moved at a crouch, trying to keep to the shadows as much as possible. It was afternoon, and the shadows were long now.
“Are you hurting?” Malin asked.
She nodded and put a finger to her lips. Indeed, she was learning that she had a tremendous ability to just keep moving in the face of full-body agony. All she had to do was ignore it and keep making her body advance up the hill. A few
minutes later, she heard another burst of gunfire. This time, it seemed to be guns answering each other shot for shot, and it went on for almost a full minute. She couldn’t gauge the direction. It seemed to be coming from all sides. When it finally died out, she heard a single voice, and she was sure it was screaming in pain.
“I hope that’s not one of our guys,” Malin said.
The screaming went on and on. Even though it seemed to be far away, Elna was tempted to cover her ears to block it out. Through an opening between the trees ahead she saw the front corner of the guesthouse, the dull gray of the aqueduct on its mismatched framework. She moved a bit to the right, daring a little more speed despite the extra noise. When she reached the break in the trees, she saw that they were just beyond the front parking lot of the guesthouse. A few dead cars still rotted there like withering husks.
Beyond the parking lot, the winery building stood against the hilltop. She saw the fence which barred the way to the island’s rocky peak. So close, yet they would have to step out into the open to get to it.
“This is where we run as fast as we can,” she said to Malin. “Are you ready?”
He nodded. “Do you want me to carry you, Elna? I can tell you’re hurting bad.”
His suggestion touched her, and she briefly squeezed his arm. “No, I’ll manage. I’m hurting, but it turns out the pain doesn’t really control me. Come on.”
She leaned out into the gap and looked left and right. The vineyard was on the left, the tank standing there like a bulwark in the midst of the chaos. She saw a hint of smoke rising above the guesthouse around the corner. Was it still burning to the ground, or had the mercenaries put out the flames? She couldn’t tell. On the right, she saw the parking lot and the road heading down the hill to the east. No sign of men in either direction. Perhaps the mercenaries had indeed been drawn down to the western shore.
She took a deep breath and dashed out of the forest, heading toward the parking lot. She kept close to the front of the guesthouse, moving low so she might not be visible from the windows. She heard the device clanking in Malin’s backpack behind her. As she ran, she rested a hand on the Beretta holstered at her side, in case she suddenly had to draw and fire.
She felt terribly exposed, as if a thousand snipers had trained their rifles on her from dark places. It made her skin crawl, but it also helped her push through the pain. When she reached the veranda, she stayed close to the handrail. The windows on either side of the front door were tall, and she saw a hint of the dim lobby on the other side. Nobody seemed to be moving inside.
Good job, Spence and Mac, she thought. You did it, boys.
Her world had always seemed so small, but right now the damned guesthouse seemed to go on for a thousand miles. She hugged the wall as she reached the far corner, moving below the sill of the guestroom windows. Then she passed the winery, casting a furtive glance over her shoulder as she went. Malin had pulled the pack off his shoulder, and he was fumbling around inside. Finally, he retrieved the repeater, holding it in his right hand while slinging the backpack over his left shoulder again.
As they reached the fence beyond the winery building, Elna heard another burst of gunfire. It sounded like it might be coming from somewhere down by the lighthouse. She hoped not, but she couldn’t be sure. Still in terrible pain, she slipped through an old gap cut into the chain-link fence and moved up the open, rocky slope at the center of the island. The hilltop was little more than an enormous hump of gray rock rising above the trees. Unfortunately, they couldn’t reach the actual peak. The slope got too steep at a certain point.
“How high do we need to go?” Malin asked.
“Just out into the open, I suppose,” she said. “Above the trees. That’ll have to do.”
She walked another ten yards or so, picking her way up the slope, before finally dropping down onto the warm rocks. There was a crevice in the ground nearby with a small overhanging ledge to provide some cover from bad weather. Elna pointed it out, and Malin dropped down beside her and set the device there, sliding it back under the ledge. As he did that, Elna reached down and flipped the power switch. It was still such a strange thrill to see the little power light come on.
How did we ever take such small miracles for granted? she wondered.
She half expected the repeater to say something or do something, but it just sat there. She reached into the backpack and pulled out the two-way radio, turning it on.
“Let’s see if that worked,” she said, raising the radio to her mouth. She hit the talk button and said, “Hey there, Staff Sergeant. Can you hear me? The repeater is in place and activated. Do you have a signal?”
She released the button and waited for a response. There was a brief moment of static, then silence. She tried again.
“Hey, Prig, we’re here. The repeater is on. Come back.”
Still no response. She felt a moment of panic and glanced at Malin.
“Maybe the shielding on the bunker is blocking the radio,” he suggested with a shrug.
She tried the radio a third time, still to no avail. No one responded. Other than brief flashes of static, she got nothing in return. She even tried turning the radio on and off again.
“Well, let me double-check the device to make sure it’s working,” Malin said. “I guess we just leave it here and hope for the best.”
He bent over the small black box, examining it closely, as Elna slid the radio into the front pocket of her denim shirt. She was watching him check that the antenna was firmly socketed when she heard the sound of a single footstep on the rocks behind her. She froze, holding her breath, hoping she’d imagined it. Then the voice spoke, low and angry.
“No sudden movements,” he said. He had some kind of accent that she couldn’t identify. “Turn around very slowly. Reach for those guns and I’ll kill you both.”
Elna raised her hands above her head and slowly turned around. Somehow, the mercenary had snuck up on them while they were fiddling with the repeater. He stood just a few feet away, an AK-47 trained on them. The mercenary was dressed all in black, with a tactical vest, heavy boots, and a black-brimmed hat cocked at an angle on his head. He had a long, lean face with a prominent nose and big blue eyes. He looked young, his face still speckled with acne, but Elna recognized the bottomless gaze of a killer when she saw it.
“Hey, man, we’re not your enemies here,” Malin said, holding his hands up. “We’re just civilians caught in the middle of something that has nothing to do with us.”
Elna rose, trying not to startle the young merc. She didn’t want to be on the ground if things went south. Not that she could do much with a rifle trained on her.
“You guys can do whatever you want,” she said. “We just run the winery down there. We don’t want any trouble.”
“Oh yeah?” the mercenary replied, thrusting his prominent jaw out. “Are you the people who set off the bomb in the cellar? They said there might be civilians working with the Marines.”
“That wasn’t us,” Elna said. “We heard an explosion, but we were just trying to get out of the way of whatever’s going on.”
“Well, you two are coming with me,” he said, jabbing the rifle in her direction. “Our commander’s gonna want to speak with you. You think I can’t tell when someone’s lying to me, but I’ve been around, man. I’ve seen things you’ve never imagined, been in battles, in scrapes, in third-world prisons, and all sort of places. I can read people. Now, you want me to kill you right now, that’s fine with me. Otherwise, you come willingly and tell the commander what you know. Got it?” As if to emphasize the point, he shook the rifle.
Malin rose up beside her, his hands over his head. As he did, Elna noted that he deliberately stepped in front of the device and put his feet together, blocking it from the mercenary’s sight. “We don’t want any trouble. We’ll come quietly. No need to shoot. We’ll tell you everything we know—though that’s not much.”
“Well, I’m just going to take those handguns of
f you,” he said. “Don’t you dare move. Got it?”
As he took a step toward them, the two-way radio in Elna’s shirt pocket suddenly barked. Static came through, and then a familiar folksy voice!
“Hey there, Malin and Elna,” he said, speaking loudly—so damned loudly. “I don’t know if you guys tried to radio us or not, but we’ve got a signal now. It’s working! You did it, guys. Good job. After this, we’ll have to make you honorary Marines.”
Elna’s heart sank, and a slow smile crept over the mercenary’s young face. “Malin and Elna,” he said. “What nice names. And they’re going to make you honorary Marines. How cute. Well, I guess I know what I have to do now.”
But even as he was speaking, Malin rushed at him. There were only a few feet separating them, and he closed the gap in two long strides. The mercenary started to turn the rifle toward him, but Malin stretched his right arm out and batted the rifle aside. As he did, the mercenary pulled the trigger. Elna heard the bullet whip by her and then ricochet off the rocks behind her. She flinched and reached for her handgun.
The mercenary tried to reposition his rifle, but the slope added to Malin’s momentum. He slammed into the mercenary, shouldering the rifle aside, and they both fell. The mercenary landed hard on his back, his breath leaving him in one violent expulsion. He lost his grip on the rifle, which went clattering off across the rocks. Then Malin and the merc, grasping at each other, tumbled down the slope toward the fence.
Elna got her gun free, but it did little good. Malin and the mercenary had merged into a single multi-limbed monster, flopping about wildly as they picked up speed. They hit the fence so hard it ripped some of the fence ties away from the posts and sent a large section of the chain links crashing to the ground on the other side. Malin and the merc finally slammed into a tree and broke apart, falling in two different directions.
Island Refuge EMP Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 71
