“Yeah, they are a bit different and not the best people to piss off. Tell you all about it after we get those kids out.” Marcus told him. “You have missed a fuck ton of shit going down the last few months. Oh, yeah, Casey, your neighbor from back home, witch.”
“Son of a bitch, you’re shitting me? That explains the smell I could never figure out. I thought she had some human illness growing up but she never seemed to get any older or get sick. You know, I think she has talked about witches before, but my brain just slotted the stories into children tales. Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. Aint that some shit. Wait, did someone piss her off and she came out as a witch? And who is Craig/ Another witch? Wouldn’t a male be a warlock? I mean, that is how it goes in the movies I have seen. I got some catching up to do. Welcome to my humble abode. Find a place anywhere. Gammon? You gonna stand outside all day looking at the decorations? I told you we had a cover and we went all in on it. Now, Jeffery should have, ah there they are, plans.”
Jeffery eyed the men surrounding him. One man stood head and shoulders and part of a chest above the others. He had ducked when he entered the house and he looked as though he could touch the ceiling by standing on his tiptoes. The man had to be somewhere north of seven and a half feet tall and if he weighed less than three hundred fifty pound Jeffery would be surprised. He was without question the largest man he had ever seen. Not many men scared him, but the one standing in his operations room was one he would never go up against.
Samson started handing out papers to the men gathered around him while walking backwards toward the kitchen where the map was laid out on the table. He talked as he walked and soon the men were deep in conversation about the upcoming mission.
Chapter Twenty-two
“This here is the only spot. Everything else is too open. We can single file up this ditch here until we reach this spot, but after that we will be in view of this sentry here.” Jeffery pointed to the map.
“They have twenty-two men inside, they rotate six men on the perimeter every eight hours. We need to hit them around four pm before they rotate out. The men are tired after walking the fence in the hot sun all day. They shift out at exactly five pm every day. They have, from what we have seen, four young girls, at least one baby, and three young boys inside. We don’t have the cameras set up to catch everyone they bring in, rush job and all. Mostly depends on how they part when they unload a van. They had an auction about a month ago, another one is scheduled for tomorrow. I want their computers so don’t blow shit up till we raid the place for any intel. Anybody sand colored can blend with the landscape?” Samson picked up the briefing from his partner.
Two men held up their hands and everyone heard Jeffery mutter, “That’s new.”
The men had tried to give the human space after filing into the house. He still looked stricken and most of the men were impressed at how well he was holding up after meeting two different races, one of which was alien and the other might as well be.
“Alright, I am gonna need you two to work you way over to this side. Shift in the ditch so you can haul the gear in and right about here,” Samson pointed to a point on the south side of the map, “you will shift and ease your way over to here and stay low. Everyone have silencers on their guns right?” Samson looked around, “nod your head if you, shit, you do have guns right?”
“We aren’t big on guns. Guns make noise and noise attracts attention. We thought we would go in quiet and come out with a bang. We have some explosives, when we leave we will level that place to the ground.”
“Yeah, no, Gammon, that won’t work. You see this two shadow looking points on the satellite picture? Now look here at the pictures from the surveillance camera, what do you see?”
“Well hell, they had to be difficult didn’t they. How tall are those guard towers and are they manned around the clock?” Marcus snarled.
“Yep, they are manned. We have to take them down first, we can get the east side from the ditch but we can’t get the west side until we take out the walking south guard. Hence the reason I need two sand colored wolves. We need to strap a rifle to them an they have to belly crawl to this point, from there they will shift and shoot the west tower guard. Well one will shoot while the other covers him. Then they need to shift back and lay low till we get worked around to take out the east and west walkers. Damn, seriously didn’t bring guns?”
“Yeah, we got em, we just try to plan missions without guns.” The reluctance in Marcus’ voice was unmistakable.
“Well, you aren’t planning this mission, I am, and I want those guns. You are in my territory and this is my playground. That is my mate and we are going in and getting her out today. If anyone fucks up and gets her killed I will kill you myself. Jeffery and I know this area, we have studied everything about this compound for months. If Jeffery says you can’t do something, don’t fucking do it. If you can’t take commands from someone who isn’t an Alpha carry your ass right back to the bird you flew in on. Are we clear on— the two of you quit fucking growling at me. I am not stupid, I know both of you can rip my head from my shoulders. I am not challenging you, either of you, I am telling you to get these kids out you have to listen to the ones who have all the intel. We can’t tell you everything we have learned about the place over the last few months, hell we have studied them day in and day out. We have made plan after plan over the last few weeks, hoping for the go ahead and the backup to move on the place. Now, today is Thursday which means we are using the Thursday plans because of the deliveries and the rotation of men. I want the east side sentry in the tower taken out when the men reach this point right here, then they will shift and shoot the west side and immediately shift back. Meanwhile I am going to need two men over here, see this shed right here? I want that to blow as soon as the second shot goes off. I think, I don’t know for a fact, this was the only thing I couldn’t plan, but I think the shifters blowing the shed should be close enough to the compound to hear the silenced shots. But just in case they are not, I need the second shooter pack mate to the two blowing the shed. The explosion will bring everyone’s attention in that direction for a moment, just long enough to move. The explosion is close enough to the compound to cause concern but far enough away they won’t connect it to an attack. They shouldn’t connect it to an attack I should say. Now, the east side walking sentry needs to be taken out when he reaches this spot here because there is a generator between where he walks and the compound so his body will not be seen.”
Samson and Jeffery continued to outline the plans and details they had on the compound until everyone knew where they needed to be, and what order everything needed to happen. The men cheered when Samson hauled out the schematics of the compound. They had tried for hours to find blueprints of the place without luck. The only thing Samson and Jeffery couldn’t plan was where the people would be when they got inside the building. By three that afternoon the men were ready to start moving out. Marcus offered the drones but after seeing how much information the two men had gathered he knew why the drones had been rejected. No one knew if shifter males were in the compound and no one wanted to take the chance on a shifter being inside and hearing the faint whir of the tiny drones.
Even the four aliens had found themselves enlisted into the mission when they produced chakatas to use on the mission. When Dacron dropped his fangs and laughed Jeffery had turned to Samson. “After this shit is over we are gonna revisit me shooting your ass. That fucker is a vampire. You neglected to mention vampires. What the fuck man?”
Samson laughed, “Vampire, alien, same thing.”
“No, no they are, wait a fucking minute, you called that fucker over there Dracula, as in Count Dracula the vampire?”
“See man, you are never living down that story. Ever.” Rimier told Dracula.
“You know what, no I don’t even want to know.” Jeffery took a deep breath, “Obviously I am either in a drug induced coma somewhere, dreaming some fucked up shit, or I have gone bat shit crazy. At
this point I don’t know which one would be better.” He shook his head before staring back at the white board on the wall. “After this mission, or dream, or coma, or whatever is going on, I am putting in for a vacation.” He walked off muttering about drugs in the food and soon the men could hear him rummaging around the kitchen trying to find what food could have been drugged that would account for the hallucinations he was experiencing.
Samson glared at Dacron, “The fangs were too much man. You couldn’t keep them sheathed until after the mission? I think we just lost my partner. Dammit.” Samson headed into the kitchen to try to convince his partner, again, that he was neither drugged nor crazy.
Chapter Twenty-three
“I’m scared NikNik. I want Mommy and Daddy.” Chris looked up at his sister. “I’m hungry and I want to go home. I don’t think Mr. G is coming to save us like he promised.”
“Shhh, I know. I am scared and hungry too. Chris, your NikNik has an idea but I need you to be my brave little soldier. When the girl came and brought us food earlier she said we were going to be sold in two more days. I love you more than any other little boy in the whole world and you will always be my little soldier but I can’t let you end up like that other little boy, the one who brings us our food. She said we get two more meals before we get sold. I think they are feeding us two times a day so that means we really have one more day. Now listen close, lean in a little closer.” Nicole whispered, mouth close to her brother’s ear. “When she goes away we are going to eat as a family one more time then I am going to send you and Sammy to be with Mom and Dad okay?”
“How? Mommy and Daddy are dead. The bad guys killed them. Daddy said we always be careful cause dead is dead and never comes back.”
“I know. But if I don’t send you to be with Mom and Dad you will end up hurt every day and then they will kill you and I don’t want that to happen to my brave soldier.”
“But I don’t want you to hurt me. I know it will hurt. Daddy had blood everywhere. When I bleed it always hurts really badly.”
“Oh sweetie, they were trying to hurt Dad. But I am not going to do that.”
“Will it hurt a lot? I don’t want to be dead but I don’t want to be hurt, I want to be with Mommy and Daddy. Can you send me to them without it hurting?”
Nicole shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I will have to hold my hand over your mouth and nose so you can’t breath until you stop breathing. I think you will probably fight me really hard because everyone wants to breath. But when you stop breathing you will be with Mom and Dad and they will be so happy to see you. I bet they miss you and Sammy so much right now.”
“Can you stop breathing and come with us?”
“I will try to come with you.”
“No, you promise. I don’t want to go without you. Promise.”
“Christopher you listen to me right now young man, I said I will try. I am not going to lie to you. I will get Sammy asleep and then I will send you to Mom and Dad so she doesn’t get scared. Then I will send her while she is sleeping. Then I will try to come with you. We can be a happy family together on the other side.”
“What’s on the other side NikNik? Is it nice?”
“I don’t know, but I think so. I saw a show one time where a little boy went to the other side and came back and he described a beautiful place with lots of flowers and animals and beautiful light. It must be nice, he wanted to go back and he wasn’t much older than you.”
“Do you think they have dinosaurs? Can I have a pet dinosaur?”
“I don’t know. The little boy didn’t say anything about dinosaurs, but I bet they have them and he was just not in the right spot. I bet Dad can find you one. Why do you want a pet dinosaur? My goodness, what would you even do with one?”
“On the dinosaur show the man had a dinosaur he named Blue. Do you remember we watched it. I want one like Blue and it can help us hunt for food and protect us from bad people.”
“Oh sweetie, the other side doesn’t have any bad people. It is beautiful and safe.”
“Can we go now? Instead of waiting till tomorrow? I want to see Mommy and Daddy today. I don’t want to wait another day. I miss them and I am so hungry. And Sammy cries so much and she is so hungry. Can we go now? Please NikNik.”
Nicole stared at her brother in dismay. She wasn’t ready to take the next step. She would be alone with her lifeless brother and sister until the food was brought in the next day. Maybe she was being selfish but she didn’t think she could handle it. Although, she would be alone tomorrow after sending them to the other side. She couldn’t bring herself to call it like it was, killing. If she kept it firmly in her mind that she was sending them to their parents maybe she could get up the nerve to do it. She didn’t know how she could get herself to stop breathing but she had to figure something out. She deserved to be alone in this cell after they were gone. She didn’t know if she could figure out a way to end her life before someone found them but she would try. She had to. She hugged her brother tighter to her chest and with a muffled voice she promised him, “Later, when you fall asleep, I will send you and Sammy to Mom and Dad. But you have to remember it will be scary not being able to breath, and you will fight. I will have to hold you down hard and you will struggle but you will wake up on the other side okay?”
“Okay NikNik, I believe you. I will tell Mommy and Daddy you and Sammy are coming too so they can be ready. Maybe we can have a picnic to celebrate.”
Nicole didn’t bother to wipe the tears from her cheeks as she hugged her brother and rocked him and Sammy in her arms. She was weak from lack of food and water and the two were more than she could comfortable hold, but now she knew this time with them would be the last time she ever held them in her arms. The last time she ever kissed their foreheads, the last time she had any family left on the entire world. After she was done she would be more alone than she had ever been and she wanted to scream until her voice gave out. She wanted to rail at the universe. She would never get to punish Drew for destroying her family and that ripped at her. The crushing loneliness she faced tore at her soul. Regret, bitterness, anger, sorrow and pain warred for possession of her heart. Her chest hurt from holding in the pain. But the constant sobs that racked Sammy’s small body tore at her heart more. The little girl had gotten weaker and weaker over the last three days. At least, Nicole thought it had been three days but with no way of checking she was hard pressed to keep up with the time. Lack of food and water was harder on the small frame of her baby sister than on her so the last tray she had tried giving all of the food to the two little ones but Sammy just choked on the food, too many tears, too many sobs to hold down the food so desperately needed to survive.
What felt like hours later she struggled to get her sister and brother laid out on the bed side by side. Sammy never woke but Chris did. When he tried to turn over to hug Sammy, Nicole had leaned down to whisper in his ear, “My little soldier, I need you on your back so I can send you to Mom and Dad. Kiss her goodbye and wait for her on the other side. Be a good boy and close your eyes. Tell Mom and Dad I love them so much and I am sorry we didn’t go to Alaska together.” Nicole kissed his forehead, tears streaming down her cheek she reached out with one hand and covered his mouth. Before she could pinch his nose closed with the other hand and bear down so he couldn’t break free she felt a small explosion followed by noises she couldn’t identify. She looked toward the cell door when she heard running and the jingle of keys. Letting go of Chris she rushed forward.
“Come on you stupid bitch, we gotta go. Master said you are worth too much, the little girl too, grab her. We are under attack. Don’t stand there, grab the kid and let’s go.” The slave girl opened the cell door and glanced back down the hall watching. Nicole could smell her fear. Instead of grabbing Sammy she reached down and grabbed the empty tray from the floor. Before the slave girl could react she struck out, hitting her in the throat. She watched emotionless as the girl struggled for breath, gagging and choking.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You are not my friend, whoever is attacking may not be my friend, but they are not yet my enemy.” Nicole watched as the girl’s struggle got weaker and weaker, her hands clawed desperately at her throat, her complexion turned more and more red till it finally bordered on bluish purple from lack of air. As the girl collapsed to the floor she pushed her away from the door with her foot and turned to get Sammy. She didn’t know where they would go but they weren’t staying in the cell. She shook her sister who started crying.
“No, shhh, hush, I need you to wake up. Look at me! Did you hear me? I said look at me. There, that’s better. We are escaping and NikNik needs you to look for the black men. Okay? Can you help Chris and NikNik look for the bad black men? We are going to find a place to hide and if you see the floating black around anyone you tell us okay?”
Sammy looked at Nicole in confusion as she nodded. “We hide from the bad men?”
“Yes baby girl, I will find us a hiding place if you will tell us when you see a bad man, Can you do that?”
Sammy nodded before she stuck her thumb in her mouth and leaned her head against Nicole’s shoulder.
The three had only gone a few steps when a white wolf came rushing down the hall. He stopped when he saw them and Sammy squealed. “Pretty doggie pretty doggie. Pet doggie NikNik? Please?”
“He’s pretty Sammy? Not black?” Nicole placed her body between the wolf and her brother turning her body to shield Sammy while she waited for the answer.
“Pretty white doggie.”
Nicole eyed the wolf as he sniffed the air and wagged his tail. That had to be a good sign. She watched him with confusion as he turned away from them and watched the way he had come. A few minutes later a stranger came rushing down the hall. She watched the hackles on the wolf rise as he growled and snarled at the man. The man tried to dodge around him to get to the kids and the wolf snapped at him, keeping his body between the stranger and the kids. The man turned to run and the wolf snapped his neck killing him. Nicole watched a body hit the floor for the second time. She exhaled loudly. The wolf was protecting them. Mr. G had come for them like he promised he would. This time the tears that fell were tears of relief. She knew no matter who came down the hall the white wolf would protect them. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she didn’t doubt it for one second. She could hear screams and small explosions occurring around them. She leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. For the first time in days she knew she was safe, she knew her brother and sister were safe. She reached out and pulled Chris to her hiding her face between her siblings she rocked them and cried. “He saved us Chris, Mr. G said he would come and he did. I don’t know how, but he came. We are safe. Oh, I hope they don’t hurt the little boy who brought us our food.”
Nicole Page 10
