Midnight Squad: The Grim (38 page)

           
“Gentlemen, I’m going to need one of you to let my girls
out please.”

           
They stared in shock. Their mouths hung open, and their
eyes had that panicked look that only comes before your first real firefight.
Thank God that these poor bastards were obviously as green as grass. “Ok,
here’s how this goes, whoever has the keys needs to go unlock my friends.” I
waved the gun at them.
“Move!”
I barked. The longer
this lasted the more likely these men would figure out they could overrun me.

           
One of the men started moving toward the back. Another
ten seconds and they’d be free. Penny and Danika could probably handle these
men without breaking a sweat. Katy could probably use a few spells and we’d be
gone before they could figure out what’s happening. “Hold up!” One of the men
yelled. Crap-crappitty-crap-crap-crap! One of them figured it out. The man with
the keys stopped. I watched as the man that gave the order moved to the front.
“How many bullets does that gun carry anyway?
Five?
Six?”

           
“Five.” I said patiently. I sounded as calm and cool as
if I’d just answered whether we still had any ketchup. Inside I was a bundle of
nerves ready to lash out. I was just seconds from possibly the worst ass
stomping ever.

           
The rotten bastard laughed, and then started taunting me.
“Five! Oh no not five bullets, whatever shall we do? Listen dipshit…maybe you
can’t count. There are forty of us.
Forty of us versus five
bullets.
Do you see a problem?” His eyes opened wide in shock as I
pulled the trigger. There was a loud boom, and suddenly everyone standing
behind him was covered in blood and brain matter. I cocked the hammer again,
“Nope no problem at all. See boys…I know that the odds aren’t in my favor. The
four rounds that I have left aren’t nearly enough to stop all of you. As a group
you could kill me and probably not break a sweat. I know all these things. I
also know that the first four of you that come after me will join your friend
over there. Therefore, the real question isn’t whether I brought enough
bullets. The real question is which four of you want to die so that the rest of
your team can take me down?”

           
A few of the men whimpered. Some of the others just
stared angrily at me. I could see a few of the men trying to psyche themselves
up to bum rush me. We were at a standoff. I had to do something to tip the
scales into my favor. “You open that transport and we’ll go our separate ways.
I’m going to count to ten. If you aren’t opening that transport by the time I
reach zero, I will just pick one of you to shoot. I’ll do this every ten
seconds after that until either I run out of bullets, or you open the
transport. To be honest there was a third option. They could still all rush me.
I could only hope that they’d back down out of self-preservation. I started my
countdown. Some of them believed me and started sweating, some weren’t sure and
their eyes danced around as they struggled to decide what to do. Some of them
didn’t believe me at all, but since no one else was going to do anything they
just held their ground like a good mindless follower.

           
When I reached zero I made it a point to take my time. I
already new who I was going to shoot, but I let the gun sweep back and forth. I
wanted each of them to think I was still trying to decide. I wanted them to
believe that it could have been any of them. Finally, I took careful aim at one
man. He began screaming, begging, and even fell to his knees. I pulled the
trigger. It was like a loud thunderclap. A tiny hole appeared in the man’s
forehead. It was just above the right eyebrow. The impact of the bullet pulled
the man forward. He was dead before his face hit the ground. The bullet made a
small hole going in, but it left a cavernous wound going out. It was strange.
The body was on its
knees,
face down on the ground,
almost like he was praying. I watched as blood filled the empty place where the
back of the man’s skull had been.

           
“Well boys I’m gonna count to five this time, and then
one of you is gonna join your friend. So I suggest you pop open that
transport.” I didn’t even have to start the countdown. Two of them made a mad
dash to the vehicles. I heard the doors unlock, and sighed in relief. Of course
that’s when everything went straight to hell.

           
I was expecting the girls to come from around the corner.
Instead, the two men stepped around with a submachine gun in each hand like
they were living out their own action movie. I had three rounds left before I’d
have to reload. They had two Heckler and Koch MP5s. Each of those held thirty
rounds in the clip. My three rounds weren’t going to do much against one
hundred and twenty total rounds. I did the only thing I could. I leapt into the
crowd of enemy soldiers. They could beat me to death, but being in the middle
kept them from shooting me.

           
Hands started grabbing for the Raging Bull almost
immediately. I kicked and punched in every direction. A hard backhand with the
gun struck the man in the mouth. His teeth shattered and crumbled out of his
mouth. The others started trying to pile up on me. The weight of the pile
started to make my legs wobble. I was about to go down. I put the end of the
barrel against flesh. I tried to point it at where I thought it would hit the
most people bodies. The pile of humanity muffled the boom of the gun, and I
heard four distinct screams. The bullet shredded through at least four people.
Everyone backed up off me.

 
Normally escaping the pile of angry enemy
combatants is a good thing, but as they all spread out I became exposed me to
the MP5s. Luckily, one of the gunmen hesitated. He was trying to avoid casualties,
but the other guy wasn’t nearly so protective of his teammates. His finger
started to close around the trigger. I fired once more, aiming for his
shoulder. The bullet struck him and spun him towards his squad mate just as the
bullets belched out. The MP5s rounds peppered the poor bastard. It could have
been his surprise about being the victim of friendly fire, or it may have just
been the result of a man clenching up as he started his death spasms. Whatever
it was, in his last few moments of life he gripped down on both of the
triggers. Two MP5s sprayed angry nine-millimeter rounds everywhere. I had sense
to fall to the ground, cover my head, and tried to make myself as small as
possible.

           
It was probably only two seconds, but it felt like two
hours before the MP5s stopped. I assumed both clips were empty. All around me
was screaming, cursing, and even a little crying. I looked up. The man I shot
had dropped to one knee and was holding the other man. Tears ran down the first
soldier’s face as he stared into blank, dead eyes. The first man had forgotten
his submachine guns, and they were lying on the ground twenty feet from me.

           
Digging my feet into ground, I put everything I had into
reaching those submachine guns. My arms pumped in time with my legs like
pistons. I was hoping that with everything that had just happened, these men
would be in too much shock to still put up a fight. For the most part, I was
right. Most of these people were greener than hippie shit. I caught a few of
them out of my peripheral vision. They had looks of confusion, and it wasn’t as
if they were trying to figure out what I was doing. It was more as if they were
trying to figure out what they were doing here. I was halfway there when I saw
movement to my right.

           
One guy must have realized what I was doing. He was one
of the smaller soldiers, short and pipe-cleaner thin. His arms and legs were
almost too long for his body. That’s one thing about people. Being a soldier
isn’t about being the biggest, strongest, fastest, or the smartest. Being a
soldier is about being willing to push forward when everyone else wants to pull
back. In this fight, I was staring down a bunch of people, but only one
soldier.

           
He must have seen me taking aim because he tried to run
even faster. The man wasn’t trying to dodge the bullet. This soldier was
willing to surrender his life if it kept me from getting those submachine guns.
Here was a man willing to give everything for his men. I felt a pang of guilt
as I pulled the trigger. The bullet struck him through the neck, and it must
have severed his spine, because the man crumpled, sliding across the ground,
and stopping in a heap just an arms-length from the weapons. The light in his
eyes was already fading away as I picked up both MP5s. I stared down as the man
gasped like a fish begging for water. Each breath was shallower than the last.
Blood bubbled out of his mouth, and it wasn’t long before he gave one last
gasp, ant then there was nothing. His final expression was a combination of
rage, and frustration. He was a damn fine soldier.

           
I took in the whole situation. There were several dead
and wounded, but most of them were just scared. I pointed both MP5s at the men
and barked, “Get on your stomachs. If I see your eyes I’m putting a bullet
between them.” They immediately flopped onto the ground. I wasn’t about to send
them back to unlock the girls again.
“Ally!
Ally
bring
your little caramel ass down here!” It wasn’t long
before the Jinn stepped out of the darkness. “Joseph? I watched it all from my
scope. It is truly amazing how you are able to slip from death’s clutches.”

           
“All the credit belongs to that Hebrew that you keep
saying is dead.” I said with a smirk. It was a playful little jab, but it
seemed to force the Jinn to stop and think about it. Finally, she returned my
smirk, “So should these dead men blame your Hebrew?”

           
“No, they should blame me. Jesus gave them life. They
chose to do this with their life, and today I took those lives.” There was no
more room to be playful. “Ally, if any of these men move. Shoot them all. I
want you boys to know that if any of you move, then you’ll be responsible for
not only your death, but the death of all the good men next to you.” I heard a
few sniffles, and a sob or two. There wasn’t any time to waste. I handed one of
the submachine guns to the Jinn and then moved off to the transports.

           
When the doors opened, Penny was the first out the door.
She grabbed me and searched me for any injuries. With her ears, she must have
heard it all. I glanced at the transport door. It was battered. With all the
damage, it must have had some type of soundproofing. It wasn’t good enough that
she couldn’t hear it, but it was good enough that we never heard her beating
the door. I looked at her hands. The skin was broken, and a few of the tiny
bones in her hands bent at strange angles, but they were healing quickly. I
pulled her in close and hugged her. “I was so worried about you.” Then I looked
as the others stepped out. “I was worried about all of you. It’s all a trap. The
General tried to blow me up, and he was going to experiment on ya’ll.”

           
Penny cleared her throat, and I realized I was still
holding her tight against me. She felt so good that I didn’t want to let go,
but we were still in danger so I moved away and led the women back towards
Ally. When I got there, I took the gun away from Alhambra and checked it. I
pulled out the clip. The submachine gun had two bullets in the clip, and one in
the chamber. I knew that the soldier had fired one of the guns, but I didn’t know
which one. Now I knew, and realized just how lucky we were. If any of these
people had made a run at her she’d have been empty almost immediately, and then
they’d have overrun her.

           
“Ally, three rounds.
How you are
still living is beyond me.” We both shared what had become our own painful
inside joke much to the confusion of the other girls. The soldiers that heard
me gave a groan of frustration.
“Who here has medical
training?”
I barked out at the men. Nobody moved. I stomped over and
grabbed one man. I jerked him up and growled, “When I shoot you in the stomach,
which of these guys do you want patching you back up?” His eyes darted around
in panic as I pointed the gun at his bellybutton, and was just about to pull
the trigger when a man stood up.

           
“You know how to do field medicine?” I asked, and the man
nodded nervously. “Good. Patch these poor bastards up, and don’t try anything
stupid. I’m letting you save your men’s lives. Screw with me once and I’ll kill
you all. Are we clear?” The man gave a nervous nod. “Good…now who here is a
mechanic?” A hand slowly rose up. I gestured for him to come closer. When he
was standing in front of me I grumbled, “Find me the G.P.S. on that transport
and remove it. Remember…no funny shit.” His head moved up and down like a
bobble head.

           
“Penny, Katy, keep an eye on these people. Don’t let them
group up, and don’t let them talk to each other. Watch this guy while he treats
the wounded. Ally, I need you to keep an eye on this mechanic. If he touches
anything that doesn’t directly involve the G.P.S., kill him. I was hoping that
the mechanic wouldn’t realize that how mechanically inept Alhambra was. Danika,
Janine, I need you to come with me.” We all broke and made our way to our
assignments. I led Danika and Janine to the second transport. We opened it up,
and searched it for any useful equipment. I kept digging through their packs.
Finally, I found what I was looking for, a map showing the route they were
supposed to travel.