AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) (14 page)

There were only
a few ABs still charging the back door, so Blake yelled at his men, “Keep them
out!” He ran to the front. The lieutenant stayed on the ground, cradling the
bloody stump that used to be his left shin. He was doing the best he could to
put a tourniquet above the knee to stop the bleeding, and Blake noticed that
one of the other privates was on the ground and not moving.

Two men were shooting
continuous fire to keep the ABs from overrunning the front door, and Blake hurriedly
poked his head around the large front window. He saw AB bodies everywhere, so
he assumed they launched most of their attack at the front. He could hear Munns
continually firing from the rooftop but knew they’d be out of ammunition soon.

James had taken
position where his fallen lieutenant had been. Blake cursed under his breath
when he noticed James in the line of fire, but he admitted to himself that he
admired his courage.

Small arms fire
constantly flew through the large window and struck the walls around them. Blake
drew his pistol as the ABs entered the large window. Three quick shots and
three more ABs fell to the ground. He glanced at his watch again quickly.
"Two more minutes," he thought.

“Last clip!” someone
yelled.

Blake glanced
over to him. “Make every shot count!”

In the
distance, Blake could hear the welcomed sound of helicopters in the distance. “Thank
God!” Blake thought. He knew he just heard the ‘last clip’ call from just about
everyone. He glanced at his watch again. One minute.

Looking out the
front window, Blake's heart sank. There were another hundred ABs amassing for
one last push to destroy them. On command from a large man in the back, they
started to charge. The three remaining soldiers covering the front window
opened fire. However, it wasn’t long before he started to hear the clicks of empty
guns from his men and gunfire coming from the back of the building. All the men
in the front had spent all of their rifle bullets and began to fire their
handguns.

Just as the
pistols ran out of bullets, the Cobra gunships appeared over the building. One
took a position above the front and the other in the back. The Cobras started
firing, and bullets flew everywhere. The air was filled with pieces of broken
asphalt and flesh. Within seconds, nearly all the ABs on the road were dead or
fleeing. Five of the ABs made their way through the door and window, and they
had their knives out. But even an AB drone was no match for trained Marines and
Navy SEALs; the soldiers took them out quickly.

Blake and the
others covering the front and the back all started shouting with joy at the
same time. It only lasted a few seconds before Blake was planning their next
move.

Blake yelled at
his men covering the back, “What is your status?”

“All clear for now,”
a loud, tired voice replied.

Everything else
looked all clear, so Blake got on the radio to have the Hueys land and evacuate
his men and the wounded.

As the Hueys
cleared the trees for the final approach, the first rocket-propelled grenade was
fired at the Cobras hovering above the police station. The explosion smashed
the tail rotor, and it immediately went into a tailspin. Lieutenant McBride was
immediately on the radio.

“We’re hit, we’re
hit!” His microphone was left on, and Blake could hear warning sirens blasting
in their cabin.

Blake watched
as the Cobra started to spin hard, and the tail rotor bent in a strange angle without
turning. The Cobra started to spin faster and faster without its tail rotor to
counteract the rotation on the top. At first it spun in circles and made its
way down the road then fell from the sky.

“That must be a
damn good pilot to keep than thing from coming down on this building,” Blake
thought to himself.

The Cobra in the
back climbed a hundred feet to provide cover fire and clear the tree line of
any remaining enemies that might want to fire another round. Within seconds,
there were no more trees standing to provide cover to the enemy as they were
mowed down by the fifty-caliber bullets at 120 rounds per second.

Just as the Cobra
made a difficult emergency landing fifty yards up the street, Munns’s voice
came across the radio.

“Um, guys? You
might want to hurry it up. We have more incoming… hundreds. About thirty seconds
out.”

Blake grabbed
the radio. “Tara, Nelson, do you copy?”

A couple of
second later, Tara’s soft voice came over the radio. “I copy.”

“We need the Hueys
to land in front of the building
now
!
We have five wounded and the crew of the Cobra to evacuate. We have less than
twenty seconds before we will be overrun by ABs,” Blake said frantically.

“Copy.”

Within seconds,
the Hueys landed in the front parking lot. At the same time, the cobra was flying
in circles to provide cover over the entire operation. It continued to fire bursts
at some unseen enemy.

Blake got on
the radio. “Cobra One, do you copy?”

“We copy, but
our bird won’t fly anymore.”

“Get your asses
back here, and we will evacuate you with the others.”

“Listen,
Captain Reynolds… We might not be able to fly, but we aren’t out of the fight
yet. We have a clear line of sight down the street. We might be able to buy you
a minute if we hold this position.”

“Roger. Hold as
long as you can then get the hell out of there!” It was only a few seconds
later when Blake heard the sound of gunfire coming from where the chopper had come
down.

Blake yelled to
his men in the back, “Come up and help load the wounded onto the choppers. Load
the wounded on the east chopper, and Ensign James should be put on the west
one. That way, the wounded can be taken to their base for immediate treatment.”

Soldiers
started to scramble and carry out their orders.

Blake quickly
looked inside the west chopper. Tara was making sure that everyone was secure.
She noticed Blake and gave him a quick smile. In a life-threatening situation
like this, he was easily reminded why he fell in love with her.

James was
strapped in, and Blake knew that was what was most important. The crew of the
downed Cobra up the street had been firing for the last minute or so, but the ABs
there were starting to spill around the chopper.

“Gentlemen, you
might want to hurry. We’re down to our last hundred rounds, and you have about
ten seconds before you are overrun,” the Cobra flying above radioed.

“McBride, get out
of there!” Blake yelled through the radio.

The two pilots
in the downed Cobra started to sprint toward the waiting Hueys, but before they
could get more than a few steps away, they were tackled by AB hoards and disappeared
under the bodies that were crawling over them.

Blake turned
away. He knew there was nothing they could do; he ordered the Hueys to take
off. As soon as they cleared the top of the building, they started to take
small arms fire.

Munns had been keeping
watch on the building across the street. Blake lowered a rope and a harness
down to him so he could be picked up as they flew over. As he hauled Munns up,
he could hear the bullets pinging off the side of the Huey.

The crew of the
Cobra broke the silence on the radio. “We’re out! I’ll try and stay between the
ABs and the Hueys to provide some cover until you are clear.”

Blake held the
radio tightly. He was astonished by the courage of the soldiers and pilots.

Munns secured
the harness on the end of the rope around his waist. “Go!” he yelled.

The Huey
started to rise along with the Cobra, and the other Huey with the wounded started
smoking badly from all the rounds that had hit them.

Nelson, the
pilot of the other Huey, once again broke the silence on the radio. “Guys, bad
news… I’m not going to be able to make it back to base. I’m going to try for
the parking lot at the stadium. Get the hell out of here so this wasn’t for
nothing!”

Blake could only
hope that this private was worth all of their sacrifices. He then clicked the
button on his radio. “Copy that. Good luck.”

Their Huey and
the Cobra headed north while the other smoking Huey headed west. Blake followed
them with his eyes until they dropped below the horizon. He silently prayed that
they made it.

Lieutenant
McBride woke up in a dark, musty room. Only a small amount of light showed
through a crack in the window. His heart was pounding, and the taste of blood
was strong in his mouth. He slowly tried to open his eyes, but only one eyelid
would open; the other was too swollen. At first, everything was blurry. He
couldn’t distinguish any shapes in the room. He made a quick assessment of his
condition while his vision returned. He sat in a chair, his hands tied to the
armrests. He could barely breathe, which he assumed was due to some broken
ribs.

After a couple
of minutes, the vision in his good eye began to clear. He was alone in the room
except for what appeared to be a Navy ensign who was guarding the door. His
eyes glowed red in the dim light.

When the guard noticed
he had woken up, he swiftly left the room. McBride struggled with all his
strength to free himself, but it didn’t help.

The guard
returned and was followed by three other ABs. All of them were dressed in Navy
uniforms and had the eyes of the infected. One of the men carried an old-styled
doctor’s bag, and another carried a rifle and walked behind the third. The
third appeared to be in his late fifties and was dressed in an admiral’s uniform.
He walked up to the small table in front of McBride and pulled out a chair. He
placed it directly in front of McBride and sat down.

McBride’s heart
pounded, and beads of sweat rolled down his face. The admiral leaned in and stared
deeply at McBride for several seconds.

“My name used
to be Admiral Cain; you can address me as ‘Sir.’ Before the marvelous gift was
bestowed on this planet, I was a leader of thousands of men and women. They all
had their own reasons for being in the Navy, but they were not unified by a
common goal. Now things are different. Now I lead tens of thousands of men, women,
and children. They are all united by a common goal. A goal to create a utopian
society where everyone is equal, a world where there is no hate, war, or greed.
The only thing that stands in our way is you unclean. But even with my calling,
there is one greater than I up north that I answer to. He knows the final
plan.”

McBride spit
out some congealed blood on the floor that had built up in his mouth. He looked
back at the slightly gray-haired AB sitting in front of him. “So why haven’t
you killed me yet?”

Sir smiled and glanced
at the ground. “We are not the demons that you believe us to be. If you answer
my entire question honestly, I give you my word that I will let you go and have
my men escort you out of our zone and you can go back to your people.”

McBride glared
at him fiercely. “I’m a United States Marine and I won’t give you shit, Huya!”

“I admire your
courage, but you will talk just like all the others have. Men like you all have
a breaking point. This is your last chance to answer my questions. What were
you doing in our area, and why would you risk so much to rescue your friends?”

McBride knew
that no matter what happened he wouldn’t talk. He spit in Sir’s face defiantly.

Sir pulled a
handkerchief from his pocket and wiped off the spittle that ran down his cheek.

“This used to
be Dr. Leman, before the gift. He treated hundreds of men’s wounds, and now he
uses his knowledge to inflict pain on the unclean.”

The doctor placed
his bag on the table and started to lay out the assortment of knives and saws
on the table.

Sir leaned
closer and breathed next to McBride’s ear. “Do you know that if you peel the
skin of the human body in one-inch strips, it will cover an average queen size
bed?” he whispered.

McBride tried to head-butt Sir but
was a second too late.

Sir stood up
and walked toward the door. As he turned the doorknob, he whispered to the
doctor, “Once you get the information from him, send word for me.”

The doctor
nodded and grabbed the closest scalpel on the table. Sir hadn’t made it to the
end of the hallway before the screams started. He knew it wouldn’t be long
before he had the information he wanted.

Thirty minutes
went by, and the screams down the hall had become whimpers. The guard in the
interrogation room with McBride entered Sir’s office. “I have the information
you requested. There was a soldier in our area that they were ordered to
retrieve. Supposedly he carries something in his blood that might take our gift
away from us. After they retrieved him, they were supposed to fly him to their
base on Camp Pendleton and then transfer him to a ship. It’s located not far
from the San Clemente Pier.”

Sir leaned back
in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a moment. He sat up straight and
pulled out a pen and paper. He scribbled something on it and handed it to the
guard. “Send for a runner. I need to relay a message to Lord Dameon up north.”

Blake stared
blankly out the door as the adrenalin from the fighting subsided. The hum of
the engines on the Huey had a calming effect. He hated this part of a mission. He
could never avoid the events replaying in his mind over and over again, wondering
if there was something he could have done differently. Most of the time, there were
no answers, and he was left with his own empty thoughts.

Occasionally,
Blake looked around the cab of the chopper, feeling slightly satisfied that
they had accomplished most of their mission – to retrieve James – but his
thoughts always drifted back to the men that didn’t make it… the ones they left
behind.

He ignored the
thoughts as Tara brought the Huey in for a safe landing. She had radioed in beforehand,
and two vehicles full of soldiers met them. The men quickly unloaded and
surrounded Ensign James. The base commander stepped out of the Humvee and
approached the chopper. Blake and Munns saluted.

“Good job,
Captain. I hear it was pretty rough out there, but you might have just saved
the human race. Stop by my office in fifteen minutes for a quick debriefing.”

After all the
soldiers left, only Blake, Tara, and Munns remained. For the first time that
day, Blake was able to relax. He walked over to Tara and gave her a tight hug
and meaningful kiss. Munns blushed and averted his eyes before he cleared his
throat. “Hey, you two, get a room!”

Tara grinned at
Munns and stretched her arm out to him. “Come here, it’s time for a group hug!”
Blake chuckled. Only Tara would say something like that.

After their
hug, they walked to the commander’s office. As they approached the front door,
Blake could see that the commander was on the radio. From the frown on his
face, Blake could tell that the commander was not happy. He noticed Blake and
waved him in. When Blake sat down, he couldn’t help but eavesdrop on the radio
conversation.

“I know this is
important, but Captain Reynolds has already been through enough today. Can’t we
send someone else?”

The
conversation seemed to go silent.

“Yes sir, I
understand.”

The commander put
the handset back on its stand and turned to Blake. His expression was
conflicted, and Blake sensed he wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.

“Captain
Reynolds, I first want to congratulate you on what outstanding work you and
your team did today. I wish I could say I was sending you back home, but Western
Command has other plans. Your work over the last week has been noticed, and
that’s why I need to ask – or order – you to do one more thing. We need you and
your team to escort James out to the USNS Mercy. I wish we could just fly him
out, but after losing two choppers today, we are already too short and need
them for a critical mission for an area that is out of supplies and about to be
overrun. Western Command thinks that once James is on the ship, he will be safe
since there have been no reports of attacks on any of our boats out at sea. You
will leave at 0700 tomorrow morning. A SEAL team will meet you at the San
Clemente pier at 1800 and take you out to the Mercy.”

At first, Blake
wanted to object, but he knew his duty. “Of course sir. We‘ll do our best.”

“Great. And
Blake, I’ll assign a squad to follow your team off the base until you reach
I-5. We are still running into some pockets of AB soldiers who escaped the
bombings. Once you get to I-5, you should be clear until you get back to your
evacuation base in San Clemente.”

Blake stood and
saluted the commander. As he left the office, he noticed Tara and Munns in the
hallway. They both gave him questioning looks, demanding an explanation.

“I will tell
you over dinner. Let’s go get some chow.”

On the way to
the mess hall, they ran into Ensign James. His arm had been bandaged and was in
a sling. Two large Marines dressed in combat gear were closely following him.

“Hey, Reynolds.
It sounds like we won’t be getting away from each other just yet.”

Blake slowed
his pace and put his arm around the young SEAL. “Yeah, they just think that you
need to be babysat a while longer.”

James pushed Blake,
and they both stumbled slightly. The unspoken bond that happens to men who have
fought in battle together made Blake think of James as one of his men now. He
would do anything for him now.

After breakfast,
James packed his few belongings while everyone checked their supplies. Blake
decided to stop by the armory to get resupplied. They had shot all their ammunition
earlier that day. Even though James was in his Navy uniform and had an injured
arm, he also insisted on restocking. “You never know. A SEAL is always prepared!”

The three
vehicles left the base, not expecting too much action. There was an armored
Humvee in the front and the back of Blake’s vehicle, each mounted with a fifty-caliber
machine gun manned by Marines.

The two escort
vehicles did an excellent job taking care of any ABs that dared to engage the
convoy. Every mile or so, one or two of the fifty-calibers cut loose, mowing
down any AB that crossed their paths. Blake couldn’t help but think about how
isolated and random the attacks seemed. But then he remembered the mindless
drones he had encountered.

As they
approached the northern part of the base, an uneasy knot formed in his stomach.
This was where so many soldiers and friends had to be put down. The driver in
the lead Hummer broke the silence over the radio. “We have movement one quarter
of a mile up on the left. Keep your eyes peeled.”

Blake hadn’t
noticed much activity when he had passed this way earlier, but he knew it was
close to dark, and the ABs seemed to hate darkness.

The first
explosion blasted off to the right of the lead Humvee. Flying asphalt and smoke
filled the air, and Blake thought they were lucky for driving in the middle of
the road or else the explosion would have been directly under them. Because of
the vehicle’s heavy armor, the only damage was a blown right tire in the front.

As the vehicle
skidded to a stop on the side of the road, dozens of armed ABs appeared from
behind the brush. Some started to fire rifles, and others threw stones. It was
only seconds after the first vehicle had been hit when the other two came to a
stop. Blake turned to Tara and said, “Stay in here and keep your head down.” Her
expression clearly said something else.

Every soldier
was firing at the approaching ABs. Blake glanced across to the open door where
Tara was taking cover. She was yelling and giving hell to someone barely beyond
a tree on the other side of the road. Blake smiled and continued clearing out the
zone in front of him.

The firefight
only lasted about a minute before there was nothing but silence in the air. Blake
scanned the area and determined there were no more AB fighters on the sides of
the road where they had stopped. One of the soldiers in the trailing Humvee pointed
outside his car. “We have movement behind those burned-out barracks heading our
way!”

The soldier in
the lead Humvee manning the fifty-cal had been wounded in the attack, mostly
from blast damage of the IED. Blake knew that the tire couldn’t be changed
before the reinforcements reached them, so he ordered a grenade to be dropped in
it so the enemy wouldn’t be able to use it. The three soldiers piled into the
trailing Humvee and sped off.

The rest of the
drive was quiet until they reached the on-ramp to I-5. Both vehicles quickly
stopped in the empty road. Blake stepped out of the vehicle and walked to the
trailing Hummer, which held the men from the main base. “Do you want to continue
with us to our base and get your man looked at?”

“Our soldier
doesn’t have life-threatening injuries, and our orders are to return to base
once we got you to this point,” the driver said.

Blake nodded
and shook his hand. “Good luck out there.”

They drove away,
and Blake stepped into his Hummer and continued the drive back to the base.

As they pulled
through the gates, the sun was beginning to set over the base. Blake thought
about his daughter.

Word spread quickly
around the camp that they had returned, and once Kaya heard the news she was
dragging her babysitter to base headquarters.

When they
parked and headed to the building, he heard her sweet voice. “Mommy, Daddy!” Tara
and Blake turned and saw their little angel running towards them.

Kaya jumped
into Blake’s arms and pointed to James. “Daddy, who’s this?”

“Kaya, this is
Ensign Connor James. He is the man that might make things normal again for us.”

Kaya squinted
her eyes and twisted her head slightly. “He doesn’t look that special.”

James burst
into laughter, and everyone joined him.