Death Squad Box Set | Books 1-4, page 16
part #1 of Death Squad Box Set Series
Hawk was the least fortunate and jolted to one side, taking a couple of bullets to his person. He crouched behind his own stack of boxes and pressed a hand to his side. It came away red with blood.
He swung his rifle around to the origin of the gunfire and opened up with his own volley. He glanced at irregular intervals around and above the stack of boxes to ensure he was still aiming in the right direction. So long as he protected his head, there was little harm that could come to him.
Tommy glanced at the drones perched in attack formation before him, prepared to commit a bombardment of enemy territory. Their propellers began to whir.
Tommy looked at where the remote control panel had last been and noticed it was now gone. Damn it! These guys were going to launch these things if they didn’t react fast.
He took aim at the drones and opened fire. They had some kind of tough, reinforced plating. No doubt upgrades after their previous attempt had gone awry. The first few bullets tossed up miniature sparks when they kissed the plating and bounced off ineffectively. A couple must have bitten deep as a feather of smoke rose out of the bullet holes. The affected drones fell to the ground, unmoving.
Tommy ducked his head down as a hornets’ nest of bullets whizzed past his ear. He dropped, lying down, immediately resuming his fire at the drones that were already beginning to liftoff.
“Hawk!” he shouted. “The drones! “Shoot the drones!”
A moment later, Hawk’s gunfire joined his own, ricocheting off the metal contraptions.
Emin and Guy maintained their fire on the unseen assailants.
Hawk jolted forward again, taking another bullet. He turned in the direction of the stack of boxes behind him. Where Chiseled Jaw was hiding and opening fire.
Hawk dashed forward and pushed the boxes over. He aimed his rifle at the boxes, but they only struck the ground. There was no figure there.
Footsteps.
Drawn by the noise, Hawk saw a figure running for the side door. He opened fire and struck the man in the back and legs. He stumbled and fell forward under the force. Hawk lay down behind the mound of boxes he’d just knocked over and fired at the drones.
Another drone fell, and another, dropping like flies. Still, it might not be fast enough. The drones shifted their weight and leaned forward. There was nothing for it. Tommy had to resort to more extreme means of stopping these things.
He took a grenade, released the pin, and tossed it. He aimed for a spot one yard from the window ledge. He came within target just as the leading drones took off through the window.
“Fire in the hole!” Tommy said, turning away and pressing his hands to his ears.
Hawk’s eyes widened. He was closest to the explosion. He threw himself back, landing beside Emin crouched on the floor. He was within sight of the enemy’s rifle fire but it soon wouldn’t matter.
BOOM!
The boxes of business merchandise were hurled back, crashing to the floor. The boxes were heavy and made Tommy grunt when they fell on top of him, knocking him aside. He was up on his feet in an instant, turning to the front of the room.
The drones sailed into the walls and ceiling. Some still rocked and moved, the propellors still working. They spun ineffectively, unable to lift the drones off the floor, spinning in awkward circles.
Tommy couldn’t see the condition of those that’d made it outside. The smoke was too thick. He’d have to use the smoke as a screen while he ran to the window and peered out. It would take a little time for the smoke to dissipate. He crossed the open space.
What remained of the windows had been smashed, showering the ground below, beside one broken drone chassis. Another had propellors that still whirred, slowing its descent but failing to keep it airborne. And there, Tommy made out the final two drones. One was leaking brown smoke, the other appeared undamaged. Neither were more than twenty yards out, but within seconds they would be too far to take out.
Tommy raised his rifle and fired. The enemy would immediately know his location and take him out with ease.
So be it.
He aimed first at the undamaged drone. It was pulling away faster than the one that spewed smoke. He opened fire. Most of his bullets missed, but some struck the rapidly shrinking drone. It was slipping away.
Tommy took deep, steady breaths and focused. He knew nothing about drone technology. He didn’t know what part he was specifically meant to aim at, and now that it was drifting farther away, he wouldn’t be able to hit its delicate spots except by chance anyway.
Then, twin gunfire beside him, firing at the same drone. Tommy glanced over and saw it was Hawk. The drone couldn’t withstand ammunition from two rifles. The drone couldn’t make it. It fell from the sky, quickly followed by the second.
Tommy turned back to face the room, rifle perched on his shoulder, aiming at the locations where the enemy had been camped.
“They’re gone,” Hawk said. “Believe me, if they were ssstill here, you’d be pumped full of lead already.”
“How are the others?”
“Watching our backsss. Not that there’sss a lot to watch now.”
The smoke had mostly dissipated. Emin was coming back from one side of the room, shaking her head.
“They’re not there,” she said.
“This side neither,” Guy said, walking from the other side.
“They must be,” Hawk said. “I caught the leader in the back.”
“He must have gotten up and left,” Emin said. “He’s not there now.”
They shared a look.
“You don’t think. . ?” Guy said.
“They’re Walkers too?” Emin said.
Tommy hadn’t noticed at the time, but Chiseled Jaw had looked exceptionally pale.
“Why would they want to ssspread the virusss?” Hawk said.
Tommy made out a thin trickle of blood running down Hawk’s side.
“You’re hit?” he said.
“A big guy like me alwaysss getsss hit,” Hawk said.
“So, we took out the danger,” Emin said, nodding to the open window. She was referring to the drones.
“The immediate danger, yes,” Tommy said. “But the real danger is still out there. So long as these guys are out there, there’s a chance they could do this again. Eventually, they’ll succeed too.”
“Where do you think they went?” Emin said.
“No idea,” Tommy said. “And without further intel, there’s no way we can know.”
“We should get out of here,” Guy said.
It was only then that Tommy noticed someone was missing.
“Where’s Jimmy?” he said.
“He’s right here—” Emin said, stepping back and moving behind her previous hiding place. “He’s not here.”
She turned to the boxes at the back of the room. They were too distant to have been affected by the explosion.
“Jimmy?” she said. “Jimmy? Are you there? If you are, you can come out now.”
It was no good. They’d destroyed the drones and achieved their mission. Now, Jimmy was gone.
61.
HOW COULD everything have gone so bad so fast? One minute, they were prepping the drones, checking the systems were online, and the next, the drones lay in smoking ruin. This wasn’t meant to happen. They were supposed to be signing the military’s death warrant and instead, here they were, failures yet again.
Chiseled Jaw—real name, Michael—and his team had made their hasty escape down the stairs and emerged on the ground floor. They’d arrived just in time to witness the drones crashland on the tarmac outside.
They had passed through the offices and left through the door that emptied into the alleyway sewn between this warehouse and the one beside it. Still, Michael wasn’t taking any chances. They’d been surprised once, there was no reason they couldn’t be again. He edged toward the exit with his rifle pointed upward, at the windows high above them. He didn’t relax until he emerged out the end and turned right.
With the second warehouse between them and the team that’d got the drop on them, they were out of harm’s way. For now.
“Where the hell did they come from?” Peter said.
He was the male half of a pair of twins. The fact they were both androgenous made it more difficult to distinguish between them.
“I don’t know,” Doyle said. “I saw them right before they turned up like I told the boss—”
Michael shoved Doyle to the wall. He wrapped a hand around his throat and slapped him across the face.
“It’s because of you they survived!” he said. “If you’d done your job, none of this would have happened!”
Doyle raised his arms to protect himself against the onslaught. A trickle of blood ran from his nose and over his lips.
“And you,” Michael said, approaching Boris, the fifth member of his team. “You were meant to watch our backs! Even if Doyle failed in his duty, you were supposed to be the backup measure!”
“I swear, I never saw them,” Boris said. “Maybe they came in a different way—”
“There is no other way in, Boris,” Michael said. “You know that. Maybe you’re in cahoots with them. Are you, Boris? Are you in league with the enemy?”
“No, boss, I swear—”
His eyes widened as Michael put the barrel of his gun in his mouth.
“Boss, please—”
“How did you not see them coming?” Michael said, glaring.
Boris muffled around the barrel, speaking without vowels.
“What was that?” Michael said.
The man attempted to speak again but made the same noises.
“I can’t hear what you’re saying,” Michael said.
More muffles.
“I’m sorry?” Michael said, removing the barrel.
“I don’t know—”
Michael slapped Boris across the face.
“You didn’t see those coming either, did you, Boris?” he said, slapping him with his other hand. “Or that.”
“Boss, I—”
“Don’t lie to me, Boris,” Michael said. “Don’t you lie to me again. You left your spot, didn’t you?”
“No, boss, I—”
Slap.
“Please, boss, stop slapping me—”
“All right,” Michael said. “I’ll stop slapping you.”
“Thank you—”
Michael punched him in the gut, then elbowed him in the face. His eye was swollen and purple.
“Tell me the truth and I’ll stop,” Michael said. “When did you leave your post?”
Boris’s mouth moved but no words came out. He looked to his friends for help. They couldn’t meet his eye.
“Don’t look at them,” Michael said. “They can’t help you. Well?”
“I. . . I. . . I took a slash,” Boris said. “I wasn’t gone for more than a minute. That must have been when they came.”
Michael’s look hardened. He turned his head to the side before moving toward Boris, who flinched back. Michael put his hands on Boris’s cheeks.
“That wasn’t so hard now, was it?” he said. “All I wanted was for you to tell the truth. I only ever want the best for you. You know that, don’t you, Boris?”
Boris sniffed pathetically and nodded, wiping the tears from his swollen cheeks.
It was remarkable how easy the human mind was to break. At the beginning, when they’d come together after the zombie apocalypse threatened to destroy them all, they’d formed a team. Boris had been one of the toughest members. He used to be a building site foreman, and brutality was how he ran things. Now, look at him. A few harsh words, a few slaps around the face, and folded up faster than a used tent. They all had.
“What are we going to do now, boss?” Pippa, the female half of the twins, said.
Michael turned his rage on the twins before restraining himself. They’d been loyal. They provided cover when they most required it. They had performed their duty. Sooner or later, Michael would come up with some reason to punish them, but for the moment, the excuse escaped him.
“Now, we’re going to prepare our ambush,” Michael said. “We know the industrial estate grounds. They’ll be returning to the wall after their successful mission. We’ll create a trap and hit them when they least expect it—”
CRASH!
Something like a sheet of metal had fallen to the alley floor. But who’d done the knocking?
Michael locked eyes on the twins and nodded in the direction of the alleyway. It was the same one they’d recently emerged from. The twins raised their rifles and approached the alley. Peter nodded to Pippa, who would take point and round the corner. Michael held his rifle close. Prepared to open fire if anything untoward happened.
The twins entered the alley. The others listened carefully.
Buzz. Buzz.
Michael reached for his pocket. His mouth was dry and his legs felt weak. The last thing he wanted to do right then was answer that call. Not when he had to report failure.
He took the phone out with shaking hands. The others eyed it like it was the key to the throne which, in a way, it was. Michael had been entrusted with the phone above all others. It granted him a personal audience with their leader. None of the others had been given that honor. Now that he had failed, perhaps one of them would receive it.
It depended on this call.
Michael licked his lips as he answered the phone. He turned his backs on the others and walked away. The leader’s words for his ears only and he wasn’t about to let the others enjoy the tongue lashing he would likely receive.
“Yes, sir?” Michael said.
“What’s the update on the drones?”
“The drones. . . Yes. The drones. Well, um, they’re not really operational, sir.”
“Not operational?”
Michael could imagine the leader’s eyes narrowing. He shuddered like a little boy in the principal’s office.
“I oversaw their production myself.”
“Yes, sir. And what fine work you did. I’ve never in my life seen such wonderful workmanship—”
“Why are they not operational? Is it the electronics?”
The temperature was unbearable. Michael tugged at the collar of his shirt with a finger.
“No, sir,” he said. “We were ambushed, sir.”
There was a long pause.
“I see.”
“A military unit somehow found us and destroyed the drones. We didn’t even know they were there. Boris was the one who let us down. He left his post and—”
“This is most. . . unfortunate.”
It was the worst possible word the leader could have uttered. Unfortunate. It meant the outcome would be equally unfortunate for Michael.
“All the drones were destroyed?”
“Yes, sir.”
Another long pause.
“I’ll see you when you return.”
“Sir—”
He hung up. Not forceful, not aggressive. But dead.
Michael and his team had been fortunate not to have faced his wrath the first time they’d launched their drones and failed. Luckily, they’d come close enough to success to be granted a second chance. As they’d learned a great deal from their first attempt, the second time should have worked out much better.
Instead, it had failed. Now, he would have to face the consequences.
Or did he?
There was no reason he couldn’t run, couldn’t get to the wall and try his chances with the military. But after these soldiers had seen his face and could identify him, was it likely he could sneak past them? Still, at least it would be a quick death. Better than what he would get on this side of the wall.
“What did he say?” Boris said.
His team seemed to leer over him now. They knew the kind of wrath their leader could rain upon someone, and the kind of spoils he could endow.
Was it only Michael’s imagination or were they holding their rifles differently? As if they could turn them in his direction and blow him away at any moment. Then drag him back to the house.
The only antidote was if Michael could get his weapon off faster than they could. He smiled. The others smiled back. It was a showdown. Any second now, one of them would make a move. And Michael would have to react.
An empty crisp packet blew between them. A breath of wind whistled and curled the dust.
And then his phone buzzed. Michael considered not answering it. With nothing to lose, he reached into his pocket. This time when he turned and walked away with the phone to his ear, the others trailed him.
“Yes, sir?”
“Tell me about this military unit that thwarted you.”
“Well. . . There are at least four of them. Maybe more.”
“And how did they look?”
“Look, sir?”
“Their appearance. Tell me how they came across.”
“Well, they were soldiers, sir. They carried rifles, pistols, and grenades. We were lucky to get out of there with our lives.”
“Go on.”
What else was there? It was a lifeline, so Michael clung to it.
“I would say two of them were ex-military,” he said.
“Why do you say that?”
The leader’s voice was hard to read at the best of times, but Michael thought he heard a slight rise in it. Of interest?
“The other two covered their backs and didn’t have the same accuracy. Their movements weren’t smooth. I don’t think they had much experience. The soldiers acted fast. They shot the drones. I don’t think someone untrained could have taken out all twelve drones like that—all twelve excellently made drones, that is, sir.”
Michael pressed his ear into the phone, listening for anything that might issue from it.
“Are you still there?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I want you to return to base. Do not engage this military team. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir. Of course, sir. Are there any other instructions—?”
He hung up again. Michael was more than a little relieved. He didn’t know the significance of what had just taken place, and he didn’t need to. It felt like the noose had been loosened from about his neck.
