Vindicta, p.29
Vindicta, page 29
“A coordinated attack. Why didn’t they catch it at the TOC?!” Storm wondered aloud. “Kate, go back in and get everyone assembled. Tell them we’re pulling out. Now!” he yelled.
She sprinted back inside as Storm and Red ran for the motor pool, their rally point. “We’re evac’ing! Everyone to the rally point!” The barracks were alive with movement and lights. Jen had dressed and everyone was checking rooms when she found their hallway. “Jen, check the bathrooms and everywhere else. We don’t want to leave anyone behind.”
She turned a corner and ran into Joe and Wes. “Where’s Kim? We’re pulling out.”
Joe pulled Wes along. “She’s at the SCIF tonight. She’ll know what’s going on and meet up with us.”
They assembled in the hall and Kate tried to do a quick headcount, but it was chaotic and dark. People were moving. She couldn’t get an accurate count.
“Where are Rob and Allen?” Kate yelled.
“They on duty up at the mountain, remember?” Jen said, wide-eyed.
Shit!
“Okay, let’s go!” Young said, coming forward.
Kate nodded and followed him out the door. They had civilian vehicles parked out in front, but there wasn’t enough for everyone. They couldn’t spare the time to get Rob and Allen. They’d have to come back for them.
“Form up! Platoon wedge!” Young called.
The squads rushed into formation and they took off at a fast jog down the street.
Gunfire rattled the night at the gates, but the only sounds they made were the rushing of their breaths in billowing white clouds and the thuds of their boots on the road. Kate’s nose stung with the cold and her eyes watered, but she ignored it and watched her field of fire.
Tracers lit the sky and the sound of security vehicles rushing toward the breaches gave her hope that they would prevail, but without knowing the enemy's strength she couldn’t begin to guess the odds.
One thing was for sure…they wouldn’t come unprepared.
A pop and whir over her shoulder had her ducking as she ran. “Contact!”
She returned fire at that surprise element that had appeared to their left. A group of men in uniform sprinted—unnaturally fast—toward Kate’s part of the wedge.
The platoon ducked around the next brick building where Young had them secure the corners.
Kate heard the running men getting closer and she fired around the corner of the building, catching one of the men squarely in the chest and shoulder. His uniform darkened in both places.
He didn’t go down.
“They’re not going down! I hit him in the chest!” she yelled.
Young cursed. “Headshots only!” he yelled to their people. “Kate, take the lead squad and head for the rally point. We’ll provide covering fire. Go!”
Kate scanned the area in front of her before leading her squad out into the open. The high clatter of the SAW behind them told her that third squad was covering their asses. She saw no movement and they reached the next building. She looked back at Wes and Joe, who were at the rear of the formation.
“Tangos! Our six!” Joe yelled and began firing.
Kate saw second squad bounding up and Wes began firing his father’s sniper rifle. Rounds buzzed through the air from the enemy fire team at their backs, but second squad made it to the chapel without casualties.
“Concentrate fire to the rear! Third squad moving up!” Joe yelled, motioning for Reed to fire at the initial force while they suppressed the new group of intruders.
The heavy bass of the 240 Bravo tore through the smaller pops of the M4s and Joe motioned for them to cease firing as third squad bounded forward, overtaking second squad at the chapel.
The sounds of countless skirmishes echoed through the base as the enemy breached their defenses and overtook their security forces.
The bangs of grenades and what she could only assume were small missiles roared overhead and all around them in a sudden cacophony. They could only press forward and hope that they hadn’t made it to the motor pool yet.
Kate moved the squad forward in the next alternating bound. They made it to the cover of the fitness center and her second team turned to offer support to the others as they moved. Joe and Wes moved up to her position.
“That’s a danger area,” he said, nodding to the open ground in front of the fitness center. It was open ground that they needed to cross to make it to their vehicles. “There’s no vegetation for concealment. We’ll need to send the lead team across and provide overwatch from the area between the building and those CONEXs.”
She nodded and he signaled for the squads to regroup.
There was a break in the firing as they gathered near the fitness complex. The gunners checked their ammo and they all readied for the last push.
“Go,” Joe said, and Kate lead her team to the nearest CONEX container straight across the street.
“Humvee, right side! Take cover!” she yelled as she reached position and saw the tan vehicle turning onto the street.
“It’s got a Mark 19! Stay down!” Joe called across from the darkness.
They didn’t know if it was enemy or friend, and they couldn’t take a chance to find out.
She took several deep, shaky breaths and cleared her head a bit. She was sweating despite the cold temperatures and she felt on edge. Shots rang out nearby—single shots from a rifle—and she was worried that their escape was compromised.
She felt the crawly sensation of being watched. She didn’t like it.
“Clear! Move up!” she called, making sure the others had the left side covered.
They regrouped in the deep shadows near the cinderblock structure and she could see the pain on Joe’s face. His leg wasn’t meant for running on.
“Let’s move. The battle is dying down and we need to get out before they start securing the gates.”
“They took the base?” she asked.
“Sounds like it,” he said grimly.
She worried for Kim and the others who might have been captured.
“Hear that?” Joe said.
They listened for a moment, and she was able to make out the faint, chopping of air in the sky.
“Choppers. They’re coming from the north. They probably aren’t ours.”
They repeated their bounding movements to the next parking lot over where Storm and Red were supposed to be waiting…if they still were.
The lot was open, with the only concealment being the rows of vehicles themselves, and a low cinder block wall. They used it to move toward their rally point, ducking down every time an engine sounded close.
At the end of the first row, they heard the familiar light, gritty sounds of boots on gravel. Whoever was moving there was moving quickly and quietly, and there were far too many for it to be Storm and Red.
Kate signaled the others, raised her rifle, and advanced. She could feel her heartbeat throbbing in her neck and her breathing increased, sharp gasps in the night. They were only feet from the enemy now and she prepared to fire as soon as she made an ID.
She knew the strangers heard them as well. How could they not, with thirty-plus feet shuffling in the dark?
It was a matter of who fired first. She prepared herself to be the one.
She wasn’t wearing plates, none of them were. Armor just slowed them down and did nothing to protect their throats from the freaks. They weren’t expecting an attack tonight, or maybe Storm would have had some ready.
She was at the end. This was it. She breathed in through her nose, psyching herself up for firing or dying…she didn’t know which.
She turned the corner and froze with her finger on the trigger.
The man in front of the line of men had her in his sights and he was already exerting pressure on the trigger. She felt a flash of remorse and a quick one of panic that she stifled.
She did the only thing she could think of to keep him from killing her right off the bat. She lowered her rifle.
“Parker?” she said, raising a free hand.
He cursed and quickly lowered his rifle. “Carson? What are you doing here?” he asked.
“We’re getting out of here. The base is overrun,” she said.
His eyes were wide in the dark. He was wearing a t-shirt and his OCP pants, and somewhat incongruously, a Kevlar helmet. He must have had it close at hand. The men behind him were similarly attired. “Yeah. They took out the MPs and several of the security patrols. We barely made it out of the barracks.”
“Let’s go. We’re short on time,” she said. “Got choppers incoming.”
They were going to need to take another couple of trucks.
They moved on to the last row, and she was acutely aware that if they didn’t make it off the base, they were likely going to be killed.
It was getting harder for Joe to move and she finally had Jen move up to help him support his weight. She called a halt at the end of the row and they knelt. This was it. She stopped at the edge of the designated spot and gave the signal. Her heart pattered in her throat as she waited, but she didn’t have to wait long.
Immediately, someone whistled the all-clear. She relaxed and they moved forward.
Storm’s shoulders dropped with relief when he saw her alive and unharmed. He motioned for them to help Joe to one of the GMV gun trucks Storm had hidden in reserve weeks ago. They loaded up and each driver took their predesignated place. They all knew what to do.
They had planned for every eventuality…even the base falling.
“Joe…we’ve gotta move, man,” Storm said.
Joe sniffed and clamped his lips together with a look at his son.
“What about Mom? We can’t leave without Mom!” Wes said, keeping his voice low even as he was beginning to panic.
“Mom can take care of herself now, remember? She knows where we’ll be. She can find us no problem,” Joe said with a warning look at his son.
Kate wondered what that look was about.
Wes pursed his lips and looked away. Joe gave Storm a weary nod, his lips pinched and white from pain.
“Let’s move out,” Storm said, and she got in the seat behind him.
He reached back and squeezed her knee, the only sign of affection and relief that he would allow until they were somewhere safe and alone. She covered his hand for a second before repositioning her rifle and ruck.
The line of vehicles drove forward through the night, keeping all lights off and noise to a minimum. They had people on the mounted weapons, but the best thing they could do was conserve their ammo. They would need it later.
They sped down the street, passing the barracks and the old fast-food restaurants. At the last intersection, before they turned, Kate caught sight of a team of soldiers engaged in a firefight with one of the enemy Humvees patrolling the street. Kate saw them cut down by the fifty-caliber rounds like they were nothing. She swallowed down her sadness and let her anger take over.
They would pay. She’d add them to the list. At the rate she was going, her ‘kill’ list was going to be longer than she could remember.
She was going to have to start writing that shit down.
Two pickup trucks sped around the corner of a nearby street and bullets began popping the front of their truck. Kate flinched as one round smacked the metal of the modified vehicle near her head, ringing out in the quiet interior.
“Shit! They’re going to cut us off! Red, light ‘em up!” Storm yelled.
Red fired the automatic grenade launcher and the first enemy truck lurched sideways under the impact of the large rounds’ exploding force. Kate winced at the eardrum-bursting noise and fumbled for the earplugs in her pocket.
Red poured it on and when the second truck exploded, he turned his attention back to the first.
Uniformed men were crawling out of the wreckage and sprinting toward their vehicle. One was missing an arm from the shoulder down, yet he was still coming.
“What the fuck are these guys on, Storm?!” she screamed.
“They’re about to be laid out on the fucking street!” Red yelled gleefully down at them.
He popped a few grenades into the cluster and their bodies disintegrated into a raining barrage of limbs and guts. Hopefully, they were down for good.
“Stay alert. There are probably more outside the gate.”
Kate’s entire body was tight with anticipation as they rolled through the gate and onto the highway south. They scanned the ridges to the right, looking for lights on the ground or in the sky.
Everything was dark.
The cold wind rushed in as Storm sped up as fast as he dared in the dark. The drivers all had NODs, which made her feel better. They passed the turnoff for an Army housing community and the hospital. She hoped the ones left there had gotten somewhere safe.
“Five hours until dawn. We need to be in our backup location before daybreak,” Storm said, checking his watch.
They should have plenty of time, as long as the Old Government didn’t ambush them along the way. Kate thought that they had plenty to occupy them back at the base. They wouldn’t concern themselves with a few stragglers.
Yet.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
News from the East
Kate- Past
“Major, we’ve got eyes on,” Goheen said, rushing into the main cavern where they had set up their headquarters and living space.
The timbers supporting the weight of the rock were new, though they had been made to look old. The guys had taken to gold-hunting in their free time…which wasn’t often.
Storm rushed out with a pair of NODs and Kate followed, pulling off her thick gloves in preparation to shoot, if necessary. The air was frigid outside, and inside the mine, it stayed that way. Two weeks of living underground in the cold darkness had given them all bone-deep aches that no amount of blankets or clothing could erase.
They ended up with all their own people—minus Kim, Rob, Allen, a few other of their civilians—and most of Staff Sergeant Warren’s squad. Staley had been left in the stockade.
Their food rations had been planned for only their own people, and the additional eight men had strained their resources. Last week, they had taken to scavenging from homes under the cover of darkness.
It wouldn’t hide them from satellite imagery, but it was better than tramping around in daylight. Storm had said the mine would hide them from everything except foot patrols, and so far, he’d been right. Their vehicles had been hidden in a large shop nearby.
Kate scanned the darkness and finally saw the movement that the others had alerted them to. It was moving fast and she readied her weapons, along with the others.
“Hold your fire,” Storm whispered.
Kate gritted her teeth. There was only one of them, but it could be a trick. The closer it got, the more nervous she got.
“It’s Kim!” Joe said. “I’m positive.” He sounded happier than he had since they’d gotten here and Kate relaxed a little. Kim was alive and apparently unhurt. Hopefully, she would have some valuable intel.
Kim slowed as she reached the entrance and she grinned and threw herself at Joe with a thud. He caught her with a grunt and ran his hand down the back of her hair. Kate wasn’t sure if she would have been able to get past the whole mutant freak thing, but she kept her mouth shut. Their private business was their private business.
Kim tucked herself under Joe’s arm and gave him her considerable strength to lean on as they went back inside, leaving only the sentries to guard the entrances.
Inside the main room, Wes was hugging Kim’s waist and the rest of their people were crowded around asking questions.
“Quiet!” Storm called, and everyone stopped talking. Kim looked at him and he nodded. “Go ahead.”
“Well, our new base commander is a bit peeved by your random nighttime raids,” she said, with a grin. “Keep up the good work. As long as you keep it random they’ll have trouble tracking you, I’ll make sure of it.”
Storm had been sending out fireteams to harass the base on random nights. They did what damage they could, then they got the hell out of Dodge before they had a chance to pursue. He’d been counting on them not wanting to stretch their troops too thin, and he’d been right.
“I was in the SCIF when the hybrid OGFs attacked the base. We didn’t have satellite coverage of the area at the moment of their attack, and our assets were in…well, they were at the other location,” she said with a meaningful look at Storm.
He nodded and she continued.
“They sent ground forces first, which allowed them to show up undetected by the air defense system. Someone knew what they were doing. Not surprising, to be honest. Anyway, when they showed up at the mountain I took everyone in the SCIF prisoner…including Colonel Clausen—”
The mine exploded into arguments and condemnation and Kate stood, ready to step in if someone went for Kim. She needn’t have bothered, because Joe stood up and glared them all to silence. Even with one leg, nobody would cross Joe.
She held a hand up. “—it was Clausen’s plan.” She looked around. “It gave me a chance to stay in the SCIF and to get intel on their strength, movements, and plans.”
“What did you learn?” Storm asked.
“First, there is a huge convoy headed straight for Colorado Springs. I’m talking hundreds of people. There is a line of Humvees and buses,” she said.
“Army?” Storm asked.
She shook her head. “We couldn’t tell. We had choppers in the area, but they stayed away—on the General’s orders.”
“The General?” Joe asked with a frown. “What General?”
Kim sat on a chair nearby. “It’s a long story. I’ll give you a short version of what I know. The General is General Brown. He’s a hybrid leader. He’s in charge of the hybrid forces and the freaks in this region. He influences them—”
“What about you?” Kate worried aloud.
Kim smiled. “He can’t influence me, but he doesn’t know that. Anyway, the OGF—Old Government Forces—have allied themselves with the hybrids in exchange for immunity. The General and his people have taken on the uniform and the role of the Cheyenne Mountain Guard. They’re drawing in outsiders under the pretext of offering them safety and sending them out west. The refugees that went missing? That’s where most of them went. Our people too,” she said sadly.
