By Omar Salleh.
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"GREEN LIGHT, YOU HAVE A GREEN LIGHT! MOVE MOVE MOVE!"
The frantic shout coming through our headsets startled all of us. The previous minutes had been tense, going by ever so slowly and silently. Something must have happened; the players must have seen through the deception... they must have realized that it wasn't actually their beloved leader in the van, and had blasted it full of holes. Chances were good that Ellis and the rest of his team in the van were either hurt bad or dead. This was it; we had our plan and had each been going over the details for the last two hours. We'd been preparing for years for just this sort of emergency, and now that it was actually here I was scared out of my mind. Firefights I can deal with. Give me a one-on-one with a knife-wielding madman any day. This was the worst-case scenario. A nuke. How the players ever got hold of it I'll never know, but got hold of it they had. The plan had failed and now it was do or die. If we failed as well, there would be no time to get to minimum safe distance. St. Louis would be one big radioactive crater, and the Gateway Arch that we were looking at would be wiped off the face of the Earth.
"Dean, Chris, MOVE it!"
Ben's harsh voice snapped us all out of the stunned state we'd been in. Dean and Chris leaped up from our hiding position in the bushes and sprinted over to two large trees just inside the park while Ben and I covered them. Then they took up look-out and we broke from the bushes, running past them and stopping further along at a second pair of trees. We repeated the two-by-two cover formation all the way to the fountain, where we stopped for a few seconds to regroup. There was a lot of gunfire closer to the Arch. The players had probably decided to let loose on the cops after all since in a few minutes everyone within a 4 mile radius would be dead anyway. Hopefully they'd get careless towards the end, and that, coupled with the darkness, would maybe, just maybe give us enough of an edge to be able to hit them before they could do the deed. Up ahead of us we could see the ring of trailers and buses they'd set up underneath the Arch. Several players were standing around the perimeter firing off towards the police barricade, but none of them were looking in our direction. Only about 80 yards separated us from them, all of it open ground with little or no cover. Ben put his hand to his ear to block out the noise, and whispered into his mike. He paused, barked a quick 'roger that' into it, and gave us a thumbs up. We all looked at each other, giving final nods, partly to confirm that this was it, and partly as a final farewell just in case. Then we all got up and legged it.
Sometimes it surprises me how difficult it is to make my body do something it doesn't want to do. I was running as fast as I could towards a bunch of terrorists and wasn't shooting at all. I told myself that we had to trust in the plan. If panic were to set in, we were all as good as dead. We got 20 yards, then 30, 40, 50, and I actually thought the players weren't going to notice the four black-clad figures dashing towards them at full speed. Then one of them saw us. My heart was pounding at that point, the adrenaline was pumping and I felt like a charging bull, but at the same time everything seemed to be going in slow motion. I was aware of a hundred things all at once. I saw one of them look right at me, his eyes went wide... he yelled at his comrades and several heads turned in our direction, followed by gun nozzles. About half a dozen rifles were being leveled at us and yet we kept running. I almost closed my eyes, wishing that I didn't have to wait for the outcome to be decided.
"Come on guys, what the fuck are you waiting for?. Nail the bastards!" my mind screamed.
Then, as if someone had pressed a button somewhere, over a dozen cracks rang through the night air, and all six of the terrorists in front of us were instantaneously hurled backwards, some even lifted off their feet. I cheered wildly inside, reminding myself to kiss the feet of every member of Alpha team later. My elation was short-lived, however. The player who had been looking at me spun around, arms flailing, and his AK let off a short burst as he hit the bus. Off to my right, I saw Chris tumble to the ground. I wanted so much to run over to him, but I knew I couldn't afford the time. So much more was at stake. Even as the players slumped to the ground, the remaining three of us bolted past, and into the ring of vehicles.
There were crates everywhere. Piles so high I couldn't see over some of them. My thoughts of just breaching the outer ring and then blasting everyone on the inside scattered. We hadn't expected this. Even so, we moved as one, vaulting over the lower crates and squeezing in-between stacked piles. A gunshot went off somewhere and suddenly a huge hole was blown in the crate that Dean was passing by. He was lifted off his feet and sent crashing into a mess of other crates. Almost immediately, Ben brought up his H&K and blasted away at the guy looking through the hole in the crate, who promptly disappeared from view.
"This is completely going to shit!", cursed Ben, as he glanced down at what was left of Dean.
Uttering a silent prayer for him, I ran after Ben as he ran off. Without warning, the seemingly endless piles of crates ended, and we found ourselves in an open space in the middle of everything. They were all over the place, running about and shouting orders, and no-one noticed us until Ben opened fire. I frantically brought up my H&K and let loose, firing off quick bursts into every torso I could find. Bullets were flying everywhere, chips of wood zipped past my face as what seemed like every crate in the world blew up around me. One down.. two down... and another. I began to lose count of how many players I was tagging. Click. The Dead-Man's Click. I tried desperately to remain calm as I pulled out the double-clip, flipped it over in my hand, slapped it back in, and kept on firing.
Then I heard Ben grunt beside me. I looked over and saw him grasping at his side, although still firing. I couldn't tell for certain, but I'm sure he was grimacing with pain behind his balaclava. That was when I saw two guys dash for a huge metal container in the center of the ring. I took aim and let off a concentrated burst into the back of the first one, then turned on the second. Click. Click-Click-Click. I had no time. I threw aside the H&K, and leaped into motion, pulling my knife free from its sheath on my chest as I ran.
People were yelling and screaming all over the place, I could still hear Ben's H&K chattering away behind me, but it all seemed very distant. This guy, he couldn't have been more than a few seconds ahead of me... he reached the container, yanked it open, and thrust in a red key. This was it. Closing the final few feet, I lunged at him and hit him square in the back. As we both went tumbling I turned and kicked out with my boot, connecting solidly with his jaw. He shook it off, looked up at the container, then at me. I didn't stop to wonder why he had been smiling at me until after I'd run him through, but as I looked up at the key it dawned on me. He had managed to turn it just before I'd tackled him.
I ran over to Ben, who was now leaning heavily against a crate, and hoisted him up. He was weak and delirious, and so I started to drag him away as fast as I could. I only got a few feet before I stopped. What was the point? I was going to die. So was Ben. So was everyone within 4 miles. That had to be at least a few hundred thousand lives. All because I had gotten to the bastard a moment too late. I just sat there, face buried in my hands, waiting. I could hardly believe this was all real. Tears welled up in my eyes.
There was a sudden explosion, but it only lasted for a split-second, then came a crackling, electrical noise, and then, through the gaps between my fingers, I saw a blinding, bluish light. I raised my head and looked up, and saw nothing but blue and white light, all around me. Energy crackled around me, through me, everywhere. It got brighter and brighter until I could no longer bear to look, and I shielded my eyes. A few moments later the crackling stopped, and I opened my eyes.
A few bodies of the players lay strewn about the place. Ben lay in my arms, unconscious or dead, I didn't know. Towering up above me was the Arch; not melted, or destroyed as it should have been, as -we- should have been, but standing there in all its glory as if it hadn't been touched. The ground was different. The concrete was old... worn away. Everything looked... aged. We were in St. Louis.... but we weren't. Farther away there were the carcasses of animals, no, beasts, monsters like I'd never seen before... like from out of a Conan movie or something. Four armored figures ran over to us and shoved guns in our faces, demanding to know who we were. They looked like skeletons, but black and hideous. I kept my eyes shut, cradled Ben's limp body in my arms, and said nothing.
"And I guess that's when your men went to get you."
Lieutenant Strathairn looked down at the pitiful man sitting on the interrogation chair. He didn't disbelieve the man's story, but human or not, he had come through a rift, and was therefore a D-Bee. He thought back to his days in boot camp, hearing the distant words of his drill instructors: "The only GOOD D-Bee is a DEAD one!" The prisoner's future did not look good. Strathairn nodded one final time, and turned off the powerful lamp that had been shining in the prisoner's face. He then turned to him and said "You can go back to your cell now. I'll pass on my report to my superiors."
The prisoner looked up, the bruises on his face causing him to wince. "Where is Ben? What have you done with him?"
"Your companion did not survive the night. You are alone, I'm afraid." And with that, the Lieutenant waved a hand at two nearby soldiers who proceeded to drag the man away to his cell. After a brief moment's thought, he walked over to the corner to fix himself some coffee. Strathairn hadn't even gotten around to taking his first sip when a Deadboy rushed into the room, removed his helmet and said "Sir, The Devil's Gate is acting up again. So far only a few Fire Worms and Tri-Fangs have emerged, but as you know they're usually followed by one of the big ones. We'd best be prepared. The last one took out an entire Mark V and its crew before we-"
"Yes, yes, you don't need to remind me of that disaster. Tell the men I'm on my way. Dismissed." Two dozen men and three vehicles lost in only the last week! HQ wasn't going to be happy about this.
After the Lieutenant had collected his helmet and sidearm, he sighed and walked out the door, muttering under his breath: "How did I ever get dumped with this assignment?"
THE END
By Omar Salleh.
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