Radioactive and The Decay Dystopian Super Boxset- A Dirty Bomb and Nuclear Blast Prepper Tale of Survival (18 page)

“Jim,” she said. Her voice was shaky.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“San Diego.”

“Are you okay?”

“They have Annie, Jim.”

People passed Jim in the hallway, oblivious to the fact that Jim was listening to the sobs of his sister.  “Is she okay?”

“She’s scared, but she’s okay,” Samantha said, trying to compose herself.

Jim heard some shuffling around and another voice came on the line.

Chase’s voice was casual, confident. “Hello, Jim. You know, I’ve been chatting with your sister here for quite some time and I’ve learned a lot about you. Your spectacular military career is something to be admired, Jim. What you’ve accomplished is impressive.”

“I’m coming for you,” Jim said through gritted teeth.

“It’s a waste of time and energy, Jim, trust me. You can’t stop me any more than you can stop a river flowing into the ocean. There is a way to improve your situation, though. I could use a man of your talents. You don’t seem to go away easily, and I’d like to use that to my advantage. Of course, you’d be compensated properly and your family would be free and safe to live wherever they wanted.”

“I know where you are,” Jim answered, “And I’ve got a bullet in the chamber waiting for you.” Jim ended the call and looked at Coyle. “We leave in an hour.”

***

With the dial tone in his ear, Chase tossed the phone in the trash. He walked over to his guards, whispering orders in their ears.

“They stay alive. We may need them for leverage. I want everyone we have for security here in fifteen minutes. Give me eyes everywhere.”

The guard nodded and left as Chase walked back over to Samantha.

“Your brother seems dead-set on learning things the hard way,” he said.

“I would say the same for you,” Samantha replied.

The chopper headed south along the coast toward San Diego. Jim glanced down at the white caps rolling onto the dirty yellow beaches below. So much had changed for him, but as he saw the tiny dots moving around on the beach and in the water with the sun sinking low into the horizon, he realized that, for most people, things hadn’t really changed at all.

As they approached the vicinity of Chase’s plant, Twink switched the chopper to stealth mode, and they flew in between the mountains below any radar detection. They landed a mile from the perimeter of the plant, using the mountainous terrain as natural cover.

Jim, Brett, Coyle, and Twink collected their gear. Twink and Coyle pre-programmed twelve charges for remote detonation. From the schematics they got from Locke’s files, they learned that the chemical weapons being produced were stored in a warehouse at the south end of the plant. Twink would provide cover on the mountain ridge with his rifle while Coyle planted the charges. The plan was to use explosives hot enough to incinerate and neutralize the gas in the stockpile.

Jim and Brett would handle getting Samantha and Annie out. Jim picked Brett because he was the best hand-to-hand combat expert in the group, and he didn’t have Coyle’s big mouth.

“Okay,” Jim said. “Let’s go over this one more time. Me and Brett will sneak in through the rainwater drains running into the plant. Twink, you’ll be in your spot on the ridge while Coyle places the charges around the building’s perimeter.”

Jim turned to Coyle. “You know where they need to go?”

Coyle nodded. “I got it.”

“Good,” Jim replied. “Once Brett and I have Samantha and Annie, we’ll clear out and Twink will trigger the bombs. Twink, if anything happens to us and Coyle can’t activate the detonators, you order the airstrike and take the whole building down, understand?”

Twink nodded.

Jim paused a moment as the group of men around him waited for the order to move out. He knew that the likelihood of them making it out alive was slim. Jim had asked men under his command to go into shit scenarios before, but it was never personal for him. This was personal. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of brothers.”

“You’re gonna make me cry,” Coyle said, ruining the moment.

“Let’s move out,” Jim ordered.

The sun was almost below the horizon. Jim and Brett tried to use what cover they could find, but it wouldn’t be long before they were spotted. They had to get close enough to where they could sprint for the runoff tunnels.

In the distance, Jim saw workers loading pallets into the backs of semi-trucks from the warehouse were the VX gas was stored. “Looks like it’s not going to take them a week to move this stuff out,” Jim said as he motioned over to the warehouse to get Brett’s attention.

The first gunshot snapped Jim back to the moment as bullets ricocheted off the rocks around them. The shouts of guards in the distance echoed around the desert as Jim saw jeeps quickly heading their way. If they were going to get in, they’d have to make their move now.

Jim and Brett sprinted toward the drainage tunnel. Sand flew from under their boots as they hoofed it towards the cover. Guards sprayed another blast of bullets from their jeeps at Jim and Brett as they raced closer to them.

Brett made it to the tunnel first and Jim rushed in a few seconds behind him. They didn’t stop moving once they were inside. Chase’s guards would follow them into the tunnel, and by now the whole plant was aware of their presence. Jim hoped that Coyle was having better luck than he was.

***

“You barely made it two feet,” Twink said over the radio, picking off another guard with his sniper rifle.

Coyle was glued to a wall along the plant’s exterior. So far he’d only placed one charge.

“I can’t help it if a spider crawled across my boot!” Coyle pleaded in defense.

“You screamed, didn’t you?” Twink asked, mowing down another guard.

Coyle made a beeline for the second location, planting and activating the charge.

“It was a pretty big spider,” Coyle muttered.

***

Jim and Brett sloshed through the mucky water, finally making it to the belly of the plant. Jim located the entrance door that the schematic promised would be there. Brett covered Jim while he made the climb and once Jim was at the top he returned the favor for Brett. Facing a locked door, Jim pulled explosive putty from his bag and stuck it in the crack of the door between the frame and the handle. He then laid a small, black detonating strip across it. Jim and Brett stood around the corner as Jim aimed his pistol at the explosive and fired.

The explosion blew the door open, sending it flying into the hallway. The men rushed toward the entrance and filed in. Once inside, they heard the security sirens begin to blare. Jim expected Chase to keep the girls in the executive offices on the north side, and that’s where they’d start their search. Jim checked his watch and figured that Coyle would have at least half the charges in position.

***

“Coyle, I don’t think I have ever seen a man run as fast as you have in the last ten minutes,” Twink said, scanning ahead for guards
around Coyle’s next stop.

Coyle huffed and puffed as he turned the corner of a concrete pillar and stuck another charger to the wall. “Just trying to rise to the occasion.” Coyle gasped for breath. “That, and not die.”

***

Inside the plant, Brett and Jim split up to cover more ground. They’d only signal on the radio if they’d found one of the girls. Anything else was strict radio silence.

Four guards lined the doors down the hall as Jim peeked around the corner. He leaned back behind the wall, taking a deep breath as he prepared his rifle. Jim turned the corner, his rifle raised, and four silenced shots brought the guards down. Jim grabbed a set of keys from a dead guard’s pocket and opened the first door. Empty. Just tables and chairs.

He walked to the second door. As he turned the key in the lock, four more guards turned the corner. Jim shoved the door open as the first guard raised his pistol and fired a shot into the wall next to him. After slipping into the room, Jim locked the door behind him and turned around to see his sister sitting in a chair. Samantha jumped up and rushed over to her brother. She threw her arms around him as the guards outside rattled the door.

“I knew you’d make it,” she whispered in his ear, keeping her arms tight around his neck.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. Did you get Annie?” asked Samantha.

“Not yet. Do you know where she is?” Jim asked.

“She’s on the other end of the hall. Six doors down last time I saw her,” she responded.

The pounding on the door intensified. Jim looked around for any other exits. The room didn’t have one; at least not a normal one. Jim walked over to the windows and examined the drop. A hundred feet at least. He and Samantha backed up to the wall across from the window panels, keeping her behind him. He fired three shots at the glass, shattering it. He used the rifle to knock off any jagged edges around the frame. Jim removed rappelling gear from his pack and anchored the rope to the door handle, instructing Samantha to climb onto his back. Jim gently backed out of the window with the rope in his hands. Samantha held on tight as Jim flew down the rope as fast as he could. Just as they landed, the door of the room they escaped burst open and the rope went slack as the two of them rushed toward the stairwell.

***

Brett stepped lightly and swiftly along the hallways on the other side of the plant. He turned a corner and saw a group of three guards escorting Derrick. Brett got off one shot that passed through one of the guard’s skulls before the second one knocked the rifle out of his hand. Brett pulled a knife out of his belt loop and stuck the blade into the armpit of the guard. He went limp, bleeding out on the ground. The third guard tried to remove his pistol, but Brett was too fast. He went right for the guard’s neck, slicing his throat.

Derrick stepped back and began to clap as his last guard’s body hit the ground. “Very good,” he said. “You’re playing for the wrong team my friend.”

Blood dripped from Brett’s blade as the men squared off. Brett made the first move by lunging the blade forward to Derrick’s stomach. Derrick countered by twisting Brett’s arm. The blade dropped to the floor. A quick uppercut from Derrick sent Brett backward, and then a quick kick to Brett’s left knee sent him to the ground.

Derrick reached for the inside of his jacket to pull out his pistol, but Brett jumped from the ground, barreling into Derrick, taking both men to the floor. The two wrestled on the ground, Brett finally gaining the upper hand by placing his hand around Derrick’s neck. Derrick was able to pull his knees up in between himself and Brett to push him off, but it was too late. Brett was too strong and his weight crushed Derrick’s windpipe, ending the struggle. Brett tried to catch his breath but was interrupted by Chase turning the corner with a group of his own guards.

Chase glanced at the lifeless body of his brother and then back at Brett. Before the guards could draw their weapons, Chase was in front of them with his pistol out, emptying its clip into Brett. Most of the bullets flew into his vest, but some caught his arms and legs. Brett dropped to the ground on his back and started coughing up blood. Chase walked over to Brett with tears in his eyes and loaded another clip into the pistol.

Chase aimed the gun at Brett’s head and squeezed the trigger, continuing to do so until the clip had been exhausted, until Brett’s face wasn’t recognizable anymore.

Chase dropped to his knees next to Derrick’s body, the gun falling from his grasp. He stroked his brother’s lifeless face as tears started to roll down his cheeks. His body began shaking. His face was red with rage. He turned to his guards.

“GET THE GIRL!”

***

Jim rushed up the staircase, firing back at the guards. They burst through the door from the stairwell, finding themselves in a hallway with yellow security lights flashing and sirens blaring. Samantha was screaming something at him, but he couldn’t hear it over the sirens. She pointed at the door at the end of the hallway, and he saw her mouth Annie’s name. Jim sprinted toward the door, checking it with his shoulder as he jiggled the handle, but it didn’t budge. He pounded on the door. The sirens muffled his frustrated screams.

Suddenly he was thrown forward into the wall. A bullet drilled right into the Kevlar covering his back. Turning around, he saw five guards heading right for them. He shoved himself and Samantha toward a nearby wall for cover. Jim peeked around the corner and saw they were approaching fast. He tossed Samantha a pistol.

“Stay here.” Jim took cover on the opposite wall. Once he was in place, he signaled with his hands for her to take the two guards on the right and he’d take the two on the left. The guards rushed closer. Jim counted down with his fingers. Three… Two… One.

Jim and Samantha swung around the corners, and their bullets rained down on their assailants. Without any cover for the guards, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Once the guards were down, the sirens shut off but the lights still flashed.

“Are you okay?” Jim asked.

“Yeah, did the bullet go through your vest?”

Jim shook his head. The turning of the locked door handle made the both of them jump to their feet. Samantha reached the door first, and a bullet went right through her gut. She flew backwards and clutched her stomach as blood spread over her shirt. Chase moved the pistol to Jim before he could raise his rifle and shot him in the right shoulder. Jim fell backward, his rifle skidding across the tiled floor and away from him.

“Well, well, well. It’s a family reunion,” Chase said, his eyes still red with mourning tears for Derrick. “You’ve come such a long way, Jim. Farther than I thought you could go, but I’m afraid it’s been in vain.”

Jim looked over at his sister, whose eyes fluttered open and close. He sat up against the corner of the hallway wall with his left hand under his leg. He moved his fingers and felt something sharp. It was his blade.